Official word on Orbit Balls

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by peter

To all First competitors,

I would like to take this opportunity to clarify many of the rumors regarding the Blip Toys Orbit Ball. At this time Blip Toys does not have any stock of the Orbit Ball to sell to competitors directly. First has purchased extra units for the competition and has informed us additional balls we will be sold via their website in the next 24 hours. To date Walmart has been the only retailer to carry the Orbit Ball and has elected to not purchase the ball for the upcoming spring season. All remaining orbit balls through Walmart are available in their stores and are being sold on clearance. They were not offered by Walmart via their website or in any other countries. Our analysis shows around 14,000 pieces throughout their stores across the U.S.

Customer Service
Blip Toys

Also see http://www.logoloc.com/first/ - "Orbit Balls Coming Soon"

Also see: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=73298 - "Lunacy Game Ball Kits"

[IKE]

So somewhere in the US there must be a Walmart store with about 1,000 of these things, because everywhere else seems to only have a couple.

[Jim Wilks]

Originally Posted by IKE

So somewhere in the US there must be a Walmart store with about 1,000 of these things, because everywhere else seems to only have a couple.

Most of the teams that have found them have found some of them in the "ball bin" with no label, etc. Those are sold as clearance items and are not recorded against the inventory. There's likely a big error in this inventory by now. I think that there are a lot less around than Wal-Mart thinks. This is well supported by the many teams including mine which have found none yet.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by jgw

This is well supported by the many teams including mine which have found none yet.

I think it was clear in the statement that the balls were only ever carried in the USA. I have had no better luck finding them in canada

Perhaps some Halton teams should pool some resources and make a few?

[Greg Needel]

I called every walmart within a 100 miles of my team and got the same answer at all of them. They remember having them instock but in the last week or so they were moved to the clearance section of the store and now are none. The problem is that once something is put on clearance it is removed from the inventory tracking system, so all the computer come up having zero in stock and zero at surrounding stores. The only walmarts that we found them in are ones who have not yet taken down there "ball bin" for the winter. Within a few weeks I doubt there will be any of these in any Walmart, regardless of teams in the surrounding area.

[KateLasPumas09]

If you go to the Blip toys website www.bliptoys.com you can find other stores that may carry the orbit balls. I think the only other stores more common then Walmart were Target, Radioshack, and some Kmarts.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by KateLasPumas09

If you go to the Blip toys website www.bliptoys.com you can find other stores that may carry the orbit balls. I think the only other stores more common then Walmart were Target, Radioshack, and some Kmarts.

That was a good idea, until we just got word from Blip themselves that the only official retailer of the Orbit Balls were Walmart.
The company sells lots of other things, & in turn those other items are sold at the stores you have stated.
Sorry. Don't go on a wild goose chase for these there, or you will be wasting your time.

Their cool foam ring gun is the most popular of their items that I have seen so far at stores.
And, did anyone see the Stilts that Blip sells? Those are pretty cool!

[Bob Koch]

please see my post under Source for Orbit ball page 6. I explain how to go to Walmarts and use their Telxon system for finding Orbit balls in nearby stores.

[Deep Dark]

while I purchased 3 from one walmart, and 1 from way across town (20 miles from the other), I did see one at a Big K-Mart. However, It was so badly destroyed and mangled, being at the bottom of the ball rack, that it hardly represented anything close to what I would be willing to spend money on. The store I went to and got the 3 balls at actually had an employee there looking at the orbit balls and asked me if I was on a FIRST team. Apparently he was at our local kickoff event and was glad to see a FIRST team take them instead of a "random" customer. Just found that to be interesting.

[suj]

We canadians have no hope of getting orbit balls for no where else but first hey wait what about ebay?

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by suj

We canadians have no hope of getting orbit balls for no where else but first hey wait what about ebay?

Don't forget about GUS Balls (home made orbit balls). If you just want to make ones without fabric for throwing practice, seems like you could manufacture them pretty quick: cut, pop rivet, and weave.

[charrisTTI]

About 14,000 orbit balls available.

1,685 registered teams.

14,000/1,685 = 8.?????

If you bought more than 8 balls, find another team to share them with.

We need to remember our gracious professionalism.

[GaryVoshol]

And they're up - http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=71587

[overclocked-mom]

So, before I head out to buy Spandex - what are the appropriate colors? And a note to Boston area teams - Fabric Place, which was a great fabric store, is closing/closed so don't try them for Spandex. JoAnnes is a good store, and there are a fair number of them. One of the larger (I think) is on Rt. 9.

[vannade]

We were able to find 12 Orbit balls in Tennessee, Walmart shipped them to our local store in Michigan, we got them in two days. If you can find them ask for them to ship to your local store.