This now makes more sense after SDCC yesterday announcing a second attempt at releasing First Edition to stores later this year.
These FE samples would have been for the upcoming November release, not the first released (Dec 2011 - Feb 2012)... which was when Hasbro were saying that they didn't even try to import them.
So at least on this occasion, it wasn't them changing their story - it was actually two different instances they were referring to. First time no, second time, tried but failed to impress the retailers.
(I doubt they would have had more than a dozen samples though... which would probably occur with any new line - and probably end up going to the homes of someone at Hasbro or the retailer Reps they were given to.)