Raise your Hand - Who's pissed off at the current situation with Animated toys?

[Blurrz]

After Botcon I couldn't wait for days to pass. September, I was optimistic, December experienced my impatience.. March felt my frustration and now it's May. Hasbro, what the heck is going on here?

A main retail store in Canada can't even get Arcee and Ratchet, heck even Toys'R'Us stores in the heart of American can't even get these figures. Whether it's scarcity or scalpers, normal Transformers fans like you and I can't get a figure meant for retail and the general public. That's not right.

What about the rest of 'unreleased' Animated figures. Rodimus Minor and Ironhide are set to be Toys'R'Us exclusives in the Fall. That's lovely because the same crap is going to go down the toilet. What about the rest of them? Vortex Blurr? Wingblade Optimus Prime? Thundercracker? Blackout? If they're Target/Zeller exclusives that's nice because those are usually overstocked. Wal*Mart, heck, I've got a better chance if Hasbro dumps Wal*Mart Exclusives into the Pacific, I'm sure it will wash up on Canadian and American shores.

It possibly can't be money preventing Hasbro from going through with this. More than half of the unreleased Animated toys are repaints and retools, heck the only original figures are Rodimus and Blackout - two characters the Transformers fanbase would roshambull for. Repaints are cheaper than making new toys, that's proven. If Hasbro finished off the Animated line instead of churning out Generations, PCC and the continuation of the movie line ALL at the same time, I'm sure Hasbro would be making great profit. Instead we're overloaded with figures all at once, undesirable movie repaints, a 'Classics' toyline that's featuring a sample collection of War For Cybertron toys, instead of doing them all. Not only that, but three classics toylines in, main characters such as Jazz and Shockwave seem to unlikely be getting anything toy wise. And Power Core Combiners, that's only something a maniac like me could possibly like.

Look, I don't want to spend money over shipping and inflated cost over Takara Animated figures - especially not when Hasbro's cartoon-accurate versions of the toys are meant to be released in the North American continent. I don't usually complain about store exclusives, but this is a pretty silly situation. Why do this slowly? The market's out there for it, I'm sure more than a forum full of Animated collectors want nothing more than to complete their incomplete Animated collections!

It's ridiculous, It's as if Transformers Cybertron toys were being released in pairs every half year to this day. I know my complaints will likely go unheard, but hey, who's with me here?

[Matrix_Holder]

For the most part...Hasbro doesn't listen to us or doesn't care what we think. They throw us a treat every once in a while and fans applaud like trained seals. I wish Takara handled the license over here instead of Hasbro.

[KBlurr]

If anyone at Hasbro (or anyone related to Hasbro or work at Hasbro) is reading this thread (and I really hope they are), please release Arcee and Cybertron Ratchet here in Canada so we can get on with our lives.

[Matrix_Holder]

Don't forget Rodimus, that's the one I am really waiting for.

[justprime]

Haven't had my coffee so here's the Rant.......Both my hands are up,"lol".. we are being held hostage by false promisis I am with you on this,.. you have all seen how bent I am about this subject..... here it is May, big H said Arcee/Ratchet would show April (guess they didn't say what year) again someone will point out that well we don't spend enough in canada we are not big enough to warrent a thought or the collectors make up such a small market (judging by some of the collections here and that the fact of children growing up starting to collect and spend massive dollars then) this is a cop-out, why doesn't big H answer the question ?..enough have asked it here....doesn't there marketing and sales department determin just where and when the product goes? the toys after all are produced a year in advance,.. if the limited supplies are all destined for U.S. then tell us so we can shop there instead of here,.. you can't tell me that they are this dis-organised for such a large company. By the way anyone notice that the current posting of Canadian release for 2010 toys here didn't include any animated.... I already have Arcee/Ratchet and Blackout they are absolutly great , missing a limb for these but given the current release status I will Buy Takara's,..,.... seems the only way to get animated these days with all the intrest in Arcee/Rodimus etc you have to wonder why big H isn't interested in the dollar here,... to be fair maybe they are unaware of the fact that so manny are frustrated....How about it Hasbro you unaware?

[Akroyer]

I know I'm getting a little annoyed myself. In the last week I've traveled to 3 cities in the province, 2 toys r us and must have been a dozen zellers and wal-marts and still haven't seen much of anything at all. I've been chalking it up to being a dry spell in between lines. But I don't know what to think I guess when Toys R Us doesn't even have their own exclusives.

I was quite surprised at how little the Toys stores actually had. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to find the Masterpiece Grimlock next month. Going to all these stores and finding nothing really, is sad. Not even the more recent Revenge of the Fallen stuff.
Online is nice, but the shipping and other charges start to add up after awhile.

[Uberman]

Add to that a local [small] Toys R Us literally has at least 4 full rows on nothing but Recon Ravage, and it shows the "exclusive" system doesn't outright NOT work. Exclusives do get where they're going... sometimes. Under... some condition.

I don't know why Ravage is massively overstocked and Arcee/Ratchet are virtually non-existent.

[justprime]

Originally Posted by Akroyer

I know I'm getting a little annoyed myself. In the last week I've traveled to 3 cities in the province, 2 toys r us and must have been a dozen zellers and wal-marts and still haven't seen much of anything at all. I've been chalking it up to being a dry spell in between lines. But I don't know what to think I guess when Toys R Us doesn't even have their own exclusives.

I was quite surprised at how little the Toys stores actually had. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to find the Masterpiece Grimlock next month. Going to all these stores and finding nothing really, is sad. Not even the more recent Revenge of the Fallen stuff.
Online is nice, but the shipping and other charges start to add up after awhile.

You mean babys r us I remember when toy r us was an actual toy store that actully sold complete toy lines (80's) I was collecting TF's then and though it was the greatest toy store I had ever seen,....got a good majority of my G1 at TRU... then they down sized the store ( Brampton outlet is one that comes to mind as its still there) to sell baby products and the toys side suffered and has never recovered its former glory.

[Scrapper6]

When were we told that the product was even coming to Canada?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to shop locally, but quite frankly it would appear that, much like certain Wal-Mart exclusives (I'm looking at you Fury of Fearswoop.) we will not be recieving these products.

Even if we were, considering that China seems to have a problem with not enough shipping containers for all the stuff they need to ship is it any wonder we haven't seen much of anything? Call me crazy, but I suspect that toys are not high priority for those shipping containers.

More like electronics, cars (or whatever), other things that are higher priority are being shipped (clothes) while toys are left in Chinese warehouses to be scalped by the desperate Chinese workers before they ever get put on the boats.

I could be wrong in my understanding of things. But I for one don't think being frustrated is the way to go. These are after all simply toys, if you can't get them at a reasonable price then you can't get them. You can rant and rave and want them like a virgin wants sex, but it won't make the world work the way you want it to.

I too am disapointed. Fortunately there are other avenues, and hopefully my parents will discover the miraculous Arcee and Cybertron Mode Ratchet while in Las Vegas this weekend. (And will actually buy them for me instead of say he's going to be 28 and we don't buy him toys anymore, which is BS because they were buying me a lot of the Legends guys I got two months ago... Er... Sorry, going off topic there.)

It isn't Hasbro's fault though if the Chinese have squeezed their fists tightly onto the shipping containers and seem to have either destroyed some thinking they weren't needed or lost them or mispalced them or whatever it was that happened. Hasbro can not control the shipping lanes or decisions. And higher priority merchandise is always going to get the container in the end.

This would probably explain also why Marvel Universe 2010 waves aren't hitting Canada yet. Or any other toylines aside from Movie Tie-Ins. (I'm lookin' at you IM2.)

[brr-icy]

yup, pissed, it would be nice if they were at least released in the US so i could get a set that way, but japanese shiny repaints aren't what i want, blackout, tc, hydrodrive bb, rodimus, and ironhide would be nice to finish the collection