UK Vinylmation fans have been left disappointed after Disney Store UK announced they will not be getting any more stock of the Mickey’s Wild West Vinylmation series, after being available for less than a day.
Yesterday we posted an article about two new Vinylmation releases, Mickey’s Wild West and Goofy Jr. We pointed out that Mickey’s Wild West was already sold out at the time of writing (despite it only going on sale earlier in the day), we had hoped though that they would get more stock. Sadly though, this is not going to be the case. After being asked about the situation on their Facebook page Disney Store UK stated they will not be getting any more stock, saying “Due to the limited amount of this collection that we had in stock and the popularity of these Vinylmation… we will not be getting any more in stock”. This is extremely disappointing for Vinylmation collectors who were interested in purchasing this series. Many collectors did not have chance to order any before they sold out, and they were not available in stores. For those who did manage to buy some they are left with a difficult journey if they want the whole series in their collection. They will have to try to buy them from other collectors who received duplicates (this is a blind box series so you don’t know which ones you are getting) but this could prove difficult given that there is going to be high demand.
So, why did they sell out so quick, was it because lots of people bought them or because Disney didn’t have much stock? The truth is, it’s probably a mixture of both. Disney has obviously massively underestimated the demand for this series, and hopefully will take this into account with future Vinylmation series. However, it’s not the first time Vinylmation series have sold out quickly in the UK (though it’s usually not in less than a day!). This is perhaps one of the most frustrating things for Vinylmation collectors, many can’t afford to buy a lot of figures at once, and even if they do they may find themselves with a lot of duplicates. This means they are going to want to order more from the same series at a later date, but they go to order more only to find out they are sold out. Ultimately, Disney loses out in lost sales. People often turn to ebay to complete the series but prices can be very high and some figures are hard to find. Many UK collectors find themselves turning to sellers in the USA, who have better availability of Vinylmations, but postage and customs rates can make this a very expensive affair.
So, Disney Store UK desperately need to rethink their Vinylmation strategy in the UK to stop these issues happening in the future. It must be difficult to predict how many they will sell of a particular series, given that they can vary greatly in popularity from one series to the next. Perhaps the answer is to have a better relationship with their cousins across the pond, so that if they are low on stock they could have some more sent over, just a thought. Could they not give them a call and ask for some more Mickey’s Wild West Vinylmations? Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work like that.