Knowledge gap: Upcoming Transformers toys sold overseas vs local

[Megatran]

Being a newbie, one of my biggest gripes is not knowing if a TF toy that is sold online overseas will be available here in Australia and for what price. So I take a punt at buying it overseas and later find out that it is available in Australia for a lower price. A classic example is Generations Metroplex. My current dilemma is YOTH Optimus Prime. It's the old adage: 'Knowledge is Power'. And would lessen the hurt to my wallet too.

As a community, is there a way we can better close out this knowledge gap. Or are we doomed to making a choice to buy it now overseas OR hope it's sold locally and potentially miss out.

I am aware there are threads listing TF items sold locally, but the info is not usually available when needing to make the purchase decision. The key is TIMING.

What are people's thoughts / suggestions?

[DELTAprime]

Consult this thread. It list everything we know is getting released here in Australia. http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=15196

I just did the math on a wave of 4 Deluxes from BBTS. You are spending about as much as you would to get them locally at current exchange rates. The thing is most Hasbro releases are not coming out here anymore. Aussie retailers have had enough of getting stuck with TF stock they can't shift.

[UltraMarginal]

This is a question that plagues us continually.

We did have pretty early warning with Metroplex, if you look at the threads for that, the posts in the first few pages did mention that he was coming out here at TRU for $200 and Target for $180, from that a lot of us took an educated guess that it would be available at other stores for less. As it turned out Targets introductory Sale price was excellent at $120.

As DELTAprime pointed out there is a thread every year that lists what is and isn't expected here and entries into that thread are compiled from several sources, including members directly asking Hasbro and Australian Retailers. This information is updated as the year progresses and more information comes to hand from all those sources.

The thing is most Hasbro releases are not coming out here anymore. Aussie retailers have had enough of getting stuck with TF stock they can't shift.

This really is a dramatic generalisation, Australia (and most of the rest of the world) has a history of not recieving ever wave of a line of tranformers and there are many reasons for this ranging from overstock of early wave figures to lines being cancelled or lack of supply.

There are occasions when we don't see a wave or two and it later turns up at a reduced price, a perfect example being the movie figures that turned up at the reject shop for $12 each last year, I had unfortunately purchased all of those from overseas prior to that happening. More recently we've seen a simlar situation at Toymate, Big W and Uncle Petes stores with various waves of TF Prime RID deluxes.

There are other occasions where the exact opposite happened, we recieved the generations/Hunt for Decepticons wave containing Windcharger months in advance of them turning up in the States and when they did they were in discount stores.
We do generally recieve waves of figures behind the US, and our prices are generally higher. With Christmas and mid-year sales we can often get deluxes and smaller figures at prices cheaper than it would be to import, but waiting for those sales can see popular figures become unavailable.

There are often items that do not come here, for example there were many Arms Microns figures that were not released outside of Takara's distribution including the Jet Vehicon and variant, variations on Starscream, Voyager Breakdown and his variants while Dreadwing and his variant had very limited release (even in the US). These items were more obvious as there were comments from Hasbro about not having plans for them.

Another example would be Masterpiece Sideswipe, it has been widely assumed that this would not be relesed here, with Hasbro US again saying they had no specific plans, but now a year after it's initial release there are whispers that it might be coming to the Hasbro market, but they are only conjecture and it might not appear for another 6 months to a year. Most people I know who were interested in this mold/character have imported it to avoid missing out entirely.

In the case of the above couple paragraphs, I find if I want something in particular and it hasn't been confirmed as being released in australia in Griffins list as linked above, especially if it's in a final couple waves of a line I tend to chase it down internationally. careful bulk ordering at sites like BBTS, Robot Kingdom, Hobby Link Japan, AMi Ami, ChimungMung, Amazon and even eBay at times can be well worth your while. There are threads containing reviews of most of these sites. Some will suit you more than others for their layout, setup and systems.

Larger figures like metroplex are tricky due to their size, you might be able to get a good international deal on it, but then pay half as much again for shipping and of course there are the different variants and whether it's worth your extra dollars for the chrome or extra weapons or paint... or coin.

With regard to the Upcoming Exclusive MP10 Prime, we know it's being released in Canada, this is generally a good sign that it is being offered to Hasbro markets around the world. So if you are keen on it, it's probably worth your while emailing/Facetwittering Hasbro Australia to see if they have any plans for it. They may, but they might also be struggling to get a retailer to pick it up. Given the recent success of Masterpieces at TRU I'd suggest for the right price you might see it there eventually. It might turn up on Amazon at a good price, but that could be a while away.
Of course, if you do contact Hasbro and they give you something useful, please share it here for all. Keep in mind that what Hasbro do tell, may only be their best information at the time, which could change a couple months down the track.

given it's exclusive nature, I personally expect it's shelf price to be above that of MP10 which was $150 here. If you can import it for less, that might be worth your consideration.


I hope I've made some sense, this is possibly the longes post i've ever made, if you're cross eyed now I apologise.

[DELTAprime]

This really is a dramatic generalisation, Australia (and most of the rest of the world) has a history of not recieving ever wave of a line of tranformers and there are many reasons for this ranging from overstock of early wave figures to lines being cancelled or lack of supply.

Look at 2013's releases compared to say 2007. At best in 2013 you get about 50% of a main line released in Australia. Back in 2007 I remember we only missed the "Premium Series" waves, I was able to get everything else I wanted from Hasbro locally. We are missing most of Hasbro's releases as of late.

[GoktimusPrime]

One problem is that distribution in Australia can at times be haphazard and unpredictable. e.g. toys like Transmetal 2 Megatron, Tigerhawk, MP Skywarp & MP Thundercracker all came out in Australia, but I personally never saw them in stores. I saw MP Starscream at TRU for maybe a week or so, then gone and never saw it again (luckily I grabbed one as soon as I saw it). I've also never seen MP Soundwave or Acid Storm in local stores either, but admittedly I'm not really looking and it's been yonks since I've been to TRU.

I knew that Generations Metroplex was going to come out here, but I wasn't sure if my own local stores would receive stock or how much they would get. Also the RRP was going to be AU$200 here - I paid about $175 for mine incl. shipping - at the time not knowing that Target and Big W would sell for much cheaper.

At the end of the day, it's a bit of a gamble. I guess you gotta weigh up "how much do I really want this toy?" vs "what are the odds that I'll find it locally?". If you really want the toy and you don't want to risk missing out on it then you might wanna consider importing. Another thing to consider is cost. If the cost of importing is about the same (or even cheaper) than purchasing locally, then why not? We can't always predict sales or just low prices that some retailers may offer, but if you can already see that importing a toy is going to exceed the upper RRP scale in Australia, then you may consider just waiting for a local release.

I've been scouring online for Generations Rhinox, Waspinator and Skids where the cost of toy + shipping wouldn't exceed AU RRP, but I haven't been able to do so. So I'll just wait for the local release and hopefully I can find them.