McFarlane Toys has announced that Spawn action figures, starting with Spawn Series 24: The Classic Comic Covers, will once again be available at Wal-Mart stores.  As Steven Bates of Bookery Fantasy pointed out in a retailer Talk-Back (see 'Steven Bates of Bookery Fantasy on Chain Competition'), Wal-Mart's self-imposed boycott of most  Spawn merchandise provided a window of opportunity for independent pop culture retailers.  With Spawn Series 24 shipping now, that window appears to be closing.

McFarlane Toys is 'celebrating' Spawn's return to the biggest of all the 'big box' retailers with two separate exclusive Spawn Two-Packs, which will appear only in Wal-Mart stores in 2004.  The first is the Manga Spawn Robots Box, which features repainted versions of Manga Spawn from Spawn Series 9 and Manga Samurai Spawn from Spawn Series 10, and which will be available in Wal-Mart stores in January 2004.  The other exclusive, the Samurai Wars Spawn Two-Pack, features a repainted version of Samurai Spawn from Spawn Series 19 and the never-before-released Takeda the Archer action figure. It will hit Wal-Mart shelves in April 2004.

Wal-Mart and the other big chain retailers appear to be increasingly interested in 'exclusive' products.  Wal-Mart, of course, has the clout necessary not only to drive down the cost of the merchandise it sells, but also to convince suppliers to provide exclusive merchandise, which can drive customers into the chain's outlets (and which don't need to be discounted as heavily as items on which there is competition).  Wal-Mart has convinced corporations as powerful as Disney (see 'Disney Gives Wal-Mart 'Kim Possible' Exclusive') to provide exclusive merchandise.  Other major chain retailers such as Toys R Us have also received major exclusives, and the big book chains, Barnes & Noble and Borders, have also become more concerned with developing exclusive items for their stores (see 'Viz Gives Borders Di Gi Charat Exclusive' and 'Barnes & Noble To Publish Masterworks Trades').  This trend, which clearly hurts smaller retail operations, shows no signs of abating.