I guess you really can buy anything at Walmart

I admit to liking the giant logo across the picture

So, the scuttlebutt of today in the Transformers news is listings of a reissue Hot Rod on Robot Kingdom. Allegedly this will be a Walmart exclusive in June for 35$. Walmart has certainly had it's share of exclusives before, but a G1 reissue is more of a boutique item that's normally at some form of specialty store. So it's kinda random for Walmart to have it, but I'm not complaining. There's a billion Walmart stores where I'm at and the bulk are open 24 hours. So unlike a Toys R Us, I can swing by on my lunch break or on the way home in the morning pretty easily. Not to mention, being at Walmart, it's going to have a more fair price. Sure, I got the last reissue at Toys R Us in 2002 for $19, but at the time I was also getting deluxes for 9.99. Now they range from $15-20$. Hot Rod is not much smaller than a modern voyager and has die cast parts. He's a big chunky brick of plastic and metal that's honestly almost as dense as a modern leader class figure. So 35$ in 2018 isn't too bad, that's what a Megazord runs. Not to mention, once again, this is a more specialty boutique item, it's going to cost a little more.

I do wonder if the path is being cleared for more items like this at stores like Walmart and Target as Toys R Us is going out of business. If you're going for a physical retail location, might as well go for the biggest players in the game. Both chains in my areas have dedicated areas for collector driven items already, so it's not big of a stretch to see them add to that idea.

So outside of wondering if these stores are going to carry more stuff like going forward, I wonder, are we looking at more G1 reissues at places like Walmart or Target? I'm actually really hoping so. Sure, I have most of them already, but what about an odd one I don't or maybe there's some random differences in these new reissues I dig? All we have is a picture of that Hot Rod to go by, but what if say he has extra stuff in the box? A booklet, new accessories, a back drop, or who knows? This could be really neat and really neat things are the basis for having a hobby.

Either way, I'm buying another Hot Rod at Walmart.

And probably some cat food.