Hello everyone,
I'm a long-time lurker but I thought I should share what I got out of an employee from Shop at Home when I called yesterday.
I had attempted to order a complete box from my local Waldenbooks (an offshoot of Borders), but they called to tell me that they would be unable to do so, as their warehouse was out of stock. Having noticed that the 5-minifig limit had been lifted from Shop at Home, I immediately called and spoke with a representative. I explained that I wanted to purchase a complete, sealed box. He checked with the warehouse, and said they were unable to do this as they apparently dump all the bags into a common receptacle. However, he informed me that these were supposed to be going out to "all of their retail outlets in the USA," and he actually mentioned Wal-Mart and Target by name. I know from reading previous posts in this topic that they have been found at Canadian Wal-Marts, but has anyone actually been able to find them at US Wal-Marts and Targets? I'm trying not to get my hopes up, as the rep may have been misinformed, but I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.
If anyone in the US sees these at a Wal-Mart or Target, please let the rest of us know!
I received 6 as a gift and later checked barcodes at a Borders in Tulsa, OK to acquire 15 more. My first 6 consisted of a skater, zombie, forestman, crash test dummy, and two spacemen. The 15 from Borders consisted of a cheerleader, caveman, two clowns, two ninjas, two wrestlers, two nurses, two robots, cowboy, zombie, and another spaceman (by mistake - guess I didn't look at the barcode closely enough).
I would have purchased all the cheerleaders, cavemen, and zombies they had, but they had only one of each. They were spread out between two display boxes on the front counter. Although there were probably 50 or so packs between the two boxes, it seems that they had already been picked over as there were no skaters left, and only one of each of the cheerleader, caveman, and zombie. I could have completed my collection, as I did come across several tribal hunters, magicians, and divers, but at that time I thought I still had the box on order from Waldenbooks. I do regret not purchasing those three now, but at least they weren't very high on my want list. The ones I purchased from Borders were intended to be extras to supplement my full box, but who knows if I'll ever come across one now...