The Little Toy Company Website

[DELTAprime]

but unfortunately, it seems like virtually all of our resellers suck at this. On top of that, a fair chunk of the community is unreasonable in their expectations and demands, and that can sometimes clog up the communication pipe even further (although that's not an excuse).

If TLTC would have just responded to my enquiries of "when item X and Y was going to ship?" then I'd probably still be preordering from them. Personally, when they were responding to me I'd email them about an order I'd get a date and then only bug them again when it went past that date. Also, I'd ask here as much as possible to avoid emailing TLTC.

So yeah, if I was still a reseller right now, I'd be pretty up front that the March date for big Powered is Takara's Asian release date, along with the fact that it's always at the end of the month, and I'd probably also buffer it with another 60 days. I'd also have a blog, or Twitter feed where I regularly posted updates like:

That would be completely acceptable to me. The lack of communication is why I'm upset at TLTC and other Australian retailers.

So yeah, TLTC should know better than posting a date of March for Big Powered without a bit more qualification. They're mismanaging expectations. But anyone here with a slight understanding of these realities could probably give them a bit more breathing room, regardless of that lack of clarity.

If I just could get a realistic date I'd be a bit happier.

As for these distribution issues. I really think the toy industry could take a few lessons the video game industry of a decade ago. Millions of massive boxes of plastic instruments, night vision goggles, heavy art books and other stupid collectors editions would turn up in stores week after week for the day one release of each game. No waiting 6 months for your most anticipated game to turn up at your local store. If the videogame industry can figure it out there's no reason HasTak can't.