We are less than a week away from the official Force Friday launch of products for The Last Jedi, there is worry among collectors that the distribution problems that plagued the launch for The Force Awakens will present themselves once again. With all of the store reports coming in and product flooding eBay, you’d think we were past this point of concern. Don’t be. Click on through for a report that I’ve received from a major retailer.

It might not be time to commit ritual suicide in the toy aisles quite yet, as there is still time for shipments to be received by brick and mortar retailers, but we have heard that some stores may have under ordered (again), and product is already being split up at distribution centers in order to spread it out to other locations or  only a single case of a particular product is enroute to one store.

Some examples:

• A store may have ordered a case of an exclusive figure and instead of getting a sealed case of 12, they are getting 8.
• A single case of Black Series wave 1, a single case of each basic figure assortment, a single case of figure 2 packs is in stock or enroute to the store
• A vehicle that is packed 3 to a case and a store is only getting 2 of that vehicle – total

Obviously with low numbers like that, the first few midnight launch shoppers could wipe out the inventory very quickly.

The point of this article is not to incite more piling on to an already troubled launch, but to encourage you to temper expectations, once again, and hope for the best and plan for the worst.

Stay tuned as we put the finishing touches on our Force Friday 2 Product Checklist which will be released on August 31 in an effort to be complete as possible.