Percentage of your 2013 toys bought locally?

[GoktimusPrime]

Metroplex and MP Acid Storm were the only Hasbro US toys released here that I bought online and overseas respectively. All others were bought from local Australian stores. So I'm approx. 99% local store bought. The rest of my non-local purchases were toys that weren't released here... which has been increasing this year as Hasbro Australia seems to be becoming less reliable in releasing stuff here.

It really sucks when even stubborn-as die-hard local retail store shoppers like me are being driven to shop online... which I still intensely dislike. To me, shopping online is like calling a call centre where I get to talk to a machine. I'd rather deal with people, even if it means paying a bit more and waiting a while longer. I find getting refunds/exchanges is so much easier with store bought toys; I'm more willing to "grin and bear" minor defects from online bought toys, whereas if it were bought locally I would've brought it back for an exchange in a heartbeat.

[Paulbot]

I might be missing some stuff, but I'd say I got 40% local last year. The percentage is higher than it might be this year since all but one of my Beast Hunters toys are Legions (and it's not cheaper to import a Legion toy than to buy it here) and I included a buy of several cheap TF:Prime Commanders from Big W. The other 60% are all Generations figures.

From what was revealed at the Toy Fair, in 2014 it will be close to 100% Generations that I'll be buying this year so we'll see what gets on the shelf (if any! AOE Generations should be here though).

[Hursticon]

I'm fairly certain that the only figure I bought from a local retailer last year was Masterpiece Acidstorm, and I bought him via Toys R Us' online store.

The combination of a sheer lack of variety, availability and a reasonable price made the decision incredibly easy to simply seek out what I wanted from foreign online stores; they had what I wanted, when I wanted it (Predominantly preorders) and 9 times out of 10 - cheaper (Even after postage/shipping) than what I would've been able to get locally IF the particular figure was even available locally.

...

I hate sounding like a broken record on the issue but aside from a handful of instances, Hasbro AU & AU Major Retailers (With the exception of TRU AU) continue to let the Transformers Brand down here in Australia and to the detriment of its standing in the eyes of many parents & children - For without their involvement with the brand it'll die here & that will have dire ramifications for collectors.

I just think of little Jimmy and/or Sally, looking forward to the weekly shopping trip, nagging Mum or Dad to let the go to the Toy aisle so as to checkout the Transformers, because the Bumblebee & Optimus figure they got for Xmas needs some back up or someone to fight...

...they tear off down the lanes to the relevant toy aisle in Big W/Kmart/Target/Myer/Toys R Us/Toyworld/Uncle Petes, it's March now so said store MUST have new toys after everyone bought them at Xmas! - Jimmy and/or Sally pull up in front of what used to be the "Transformers" section, only to find it's half the size of what it was at Xmas and it only has a handful of the same Bumblebee/Prime i.e. Wave 1 (Maybe 2) toys that were there even BEFORE Xmas...

...Jimmy and/or Sally broken-heartedly shuffle back to where Mum and/or Dad are, being asked what they found and which toy they'd like? - Mum and/or Dad are met with an answer they not expecting to hear: "Nothing"...

...it's June now and Jimmy and/or Sally figure that maybe their luck has changed and their local store might have something new! - once again they're disappointed and again in September but at this point Jimmy and/or Sally's friends are all about that cool new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon! and what should they find when they arrive at the toy aisle?...

...an absolute s***-tone of every "Turtles" character in the cartoon! - All the brothers are there, Shredder is there, Krang and Dogpound and Fishface and Master Splinter... - You get the picture.

...

Playmates is doing amazing things with the current NickTurtles toyline; there's always stock, always variety and all at incredibly good "Value for Money" prices - It's true that Australia was lagged behind the rest of the world by a year with the new line, but it's been going gangbusters ever since, with plenty of support for the brand by its local distributor beyond simply:

"Hey Mr. Retailer; buy these 20,000 units of Wave 1/2 stock, you've gotta do all the advertising though, oh and you have to buy it all at double the current US RTP, Oh! and you can only discount the items twice a year - See you in 24 months".

• I just want to continue going down the Toy aisle and be greeted by 2-5 screaming kids arguing about which Transformers character is the "bestest" and which one they want and why so-and-so can't have it.
• I don't want to continue hearing Mums and/or Dads saying: "You've already got that Optimus/Bumblebee" or "I'm sorry honey, maybe they'll have that transformer who's on the back of the box next month?".
• I don't want to hear: "Oh, Jimmy and/or Sally were totally into Transformers last year, they don't even play with them anymore and they cost a mint! - Now all they want is (Insert a Toyline here)...".

I realise that kids change their minds like the underwear they're meant to change regularly; I also realise that kids today aren't like when we were kids, holding interests longer than 5 minutes - I just want there to be a TF fandom 20 years from now etc. you know?

/end.rant

[High_Q]

0, as I didn't buy any Hasbro TFs in 2013. The dozen or so TFs purchased were merchandise (e.g. Myclone, Disney Label) or MP.

[griffin]

Metroplex and MP Acid Storm were the only Hasbro US toys released here that I bought online and overseas respectively. All others were bought from local Australian stores. So I'm approx. 99% local store bought.

So you didn't import any of the US Generations toys that weren't released here, since you said you only imported two US Hasbro toys, leaving you with 99% bought locally? (since the purpose of the poll was, what US Hasbro toys you had to import because it didn't end up here, or was too expensive here)

That'd probably make you the most "loyal" domestic shopper, not importing anything that US Hasbro didn't release here.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I got a Construct Bots Starscream locally last year.

Oh yeah, forgot about the ConstructBots , I bought a few of those locally too.


I guess I go by the mantra: "If I really want it, I buy it online as it may not come out here. If I'm not too fussed then I just hope to find it on the shelves one day".

But even remembering the ConstructBots, I still would have bought less than 20% locally.

[GoktimusPrime]

So you didn't import any of the US Generations toys that weren't released here, since you said you only imported two US Hasbro toys, leaving you with 99% bought locally? (since the purpose of the poll was, what US Hasbro toys you had to import because it didn't end up here, or was too expensive here)

That'd probably make you the most "loyal" domestic shopper, not importing anything that US Hasbro didn't release here.

I did, but I thought this thread/poll was only counting Hasbro USA stuff that was released by Hasbro AU. At least, that's how I interpreted:
"What percentage of US Hasbro toys that were available to Hasbro AUS"

If I was meant to include stuff that Hasbro USA released that Hasbro AUS didn't release, then I would definitely include all my TFG Thrilling 30 stuff.

[llamatron]

I didn't buy a single Transformer off the shelf last year. So 100% were bought online.

Same here.

[liegeprime]

I think I bought around 11-15 locally... mostly doubles though - cyberverse. so I picked 0-20%

[griffin]

I did, but I thought this thread/poll was only counting Hasbro USA stuff that was released by Hasbro AU. At least, that's how I interpreted:
"What percentage of US Hasbro toys that were available to Hasbro AUS"

If I was meant to include stuff that Hasbro USA released that Hasbro AUS didn't release, then I would definitely include all my TFG Thrilling 30 stuff.

The post got very lengthy to explain what I was asking, which probably got a bit confusing, so I tried to make the Poll question as simple as possible, because that was more important than what people posted in the topic. And it isn't the end of the world if one or two people vote wrong, as most are likely to be guessing anyway.

I'll try to explain the poll question a bit in case it is too confusing for people - Percentage of locally bought US Hasbro TFs Toys in 2013.
"US Hasbro TFs toys", as described in the post, are any Transformers toys that are available to Hasbro Australia for regular retail... which included Beast Hunters, Generations, Kreo, Construct-Bots, Rescue Bots, plus the Australian Store exclusives noted on our 2013 Checklist.
Transformers Toys that aren't available for general release by Hasbro Australia are the ones from TakaraTomy, Hasbro HK, and American store exclusives that don't show up here.

The point was to show how many Transformers toys people here HAD to import because they weren't willing or able to buy them here (either due to price, or the toys didn't end up in Australia but should have).

I would have preferred that the poll was even simpler and just asked for the percentage out of ALL Transformers toys you bought, but it isn't fair to include all those ones that can't be a general release here, like Japanese and HK ones, or exclusives like SDCC and FunPub ones.
That would distort the results, and not make it possible to say to Retailers or Hasbro Australia, that a certain average percentage was imported last year by collectors because they didn't have a certain line (like Generations) and/or the prices were too high.