Once a year at Mattel HQ as part of their regular company store they have their annual tent sale.  This sale typically runs from just after Halloween until just before Christmas.   The sale is primarily made up of bulk overstock.

Whatever item  they put out there they always have a LOT of said item, like pallets full any given item.   There are always some oddities like Spanish language talking Elmos, unsold Star Trek Barbie and Kens, and various other kid’s toys.  There are new shipments each day and it’s a revolving door of product.

But occasionally there will be some collector gold in the mix.   The first year I went to the tent sale was 2006.   I got an amazing deal on the first waves of Disney/Pixar Cars.  They had a huge bin of them for $1.00 apiece.   I was able to get about 20 of them as I pawed through the 3 foot tall bin with 6 mothers..  in 2010 I picked up the 1:24th scale 66 Batcycle for $12.00.   It was marked $25, but there are always 50% off coupons for the Mattel store floating around.

Previous years there were bins of JLU singles and DSIH singles, pallets of JLU Eclipso and Hawkpeople 6-packs, pallets of deluxe Dark Knight figures, pallets Infinite Heroes 3-packs and as you might imagine… almost the entire Avatar line.  There’s almost always something from the MattyCollector.com Ghostbusters line on a pallet. (There still was this year, but it was in the regular company store and not the tent)

This year when I went it felt a little lighter on product… which ultimately is good news for Mattel because that means they had less overstock on products.  That also may change as they get shipments several times a week so stock will continue to be added.

The tent itself is in the back parking lot of Mattel’s headquarters in El Segundo.   Just like their year-round HQ company store, the sales tent is open to the public.  While it is a “tent” and a temporary structure it’s huge, solidly constructed and has things like electricity and a heater system in it.

From the inside you can see the vast structure, and it’s open, warehouse-like appearance.   It’s always been busy every year when I go.

I took some shots of the collector products that I thought AFi readers might be interested in seeing.   This year there were a couple of Imaginext Batcaves for a great price.

There were several pallets with WWE product.

There were several pallets of Monster High products:

There was some Man of Steel product, like those finger flicker things, and one full pallet of Movie Masters General Zod.  This was the 2nd release that came with the shackles (which was much harder to find since he was one of the “tail end” figures along with Superman with the kryptonian key).   I picked one of these up for myself.

And the Masters of the Universe Classics offering this year was a WHOLE LOTTA Hurricane Hordak for a mere $5!!

Then back at the main Mattel HQ company store around the corner there was a wealth of other overstock toys and collector product.   There was also plenty of Monster High products here:

Lots of Man of Steel and Batman Unlimited and Batman product:

There’s still some DCUC and DC Infinite Heroes product hanging around:

There’s some 4″ and 6″ Young Justice to be had as well as She-Ra and the Star Sisters.

And then finally, not to disappoint – There WAS some Ghostbusters product, a whole endcap’s worth!

That’s the annual report of the 2013 Mattel tent sale.   Some good stuff this year!   Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Happy Holidays from all of us at Action Figure Insider!