My Five City
AEW Fig Hunt
Earlier this week, I'd heard online rumblings that the first AEW action figures had just hit the west end suburbs of Toronto -- the first retail appearance I was aware of in all of Canada, in fact. So I did what any sane person would do -- I spent an entire day off criss-crossing the region to find the figures myself and vowed not to return home until I had some AEW figs in my possession.
Was I successful in my fig hunt? Let's find out.
Stop # 1 was a Walmart in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. This was where the rare figures had been spotted the other week... and while it was unlikely any were still on the shelves, I had to at least find out.
The Walmart was fairly well-stocked from a wrestling standpoint - about a dozen different WWE Mattel figures, including at least three different versions of Finn Balor, Seth Rollins and AJ Styles. But unfortunately, no AEW figs to be found.
However... sitting side-by-side with the WWE figures was a tag for the AEW Unrivaled collection, which was "temporarily out of stock." I figured that if this store's AEW supply had been depleted, perhaps there were some nearby Walmarts that had received a similar shipment and weren't quite sold out yet?
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Stop # 2 was also in Mississauga and, unfortunately there was more of the same. An AEW tag that was "temporariy out of stock" and a bunch of WWE figures - mostly of the AJ Styles, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor variety (what the hell, guys?). Interestingly, I came across a Viscera figure (most of my Mattel collection are legends, so I was interested in picking this up), but on closer inspection... some assclown snuck an old Big Daddy V figure from the Jakks Pacific era into a current-era Viscera package. Points for consistency, but still... not cool!
Stops # 3 through 9 were also a bust (some of them had shelf space for AEW guys; some didn't) as I drove through the nearby cities of Brampton, Georgetown and Etobicoke. I took pictures at each store but quite honestly, the inventory for each was almost identical. The only time I parted with money during those visits were to pick up a Mr. T "Masters of the WWE Universe" figure that caught my eye. I may have also picked up a Pepsi at the checkout counter.
I also checked a couple of Toys R Us locations (not thinking they necessarily had the AEW figs, but didn't hurt to check). While I found about two dozen retirement-era Kurt Angles warming the pegs, I didn't see a single figure I really wanted for my collection there. But don't worry - I did spot tons of Seth Rollins, AJ Styles and Finn Balor figs along the way.
My final stop for the day was on my way home at a Walmart in Vaughan (Toronto suburb just north of the city). This is a store that I check out probably every other week at least, so I didn't expect to see much out of the ordinary here. Finn Balor? Check. AJ Styles? Check. Seth Rollins? Check.
But I before I left the store, cursing under my breath at a wasted day, something caught my eye. I found the proper version of Viscera! Mission accomplished?