MPM-8 Masterpiece Movie Megatron at Zing

[griffin]

Would love to support this being a local release but it’s 7 months away.

Yeah... the last time we had an Australian pre-order at a major retailer that was several months away was the JP MP Shadowpanther last year at ToysRUs... which required full payment at time of pre-order in March (before there was any sign of them being in trouble financially, or ending up shutting down later in the year).
I was one of those who lost all of that pre-order money when TRU collapsed, so am a bit gun-shy to giving another retailer money months out of its release, even if it is only a 25% deposit this time.

[DELTAprime]

Yeah... the last time we had an Australian pre-order at a major retailer that was several months away was the JP MP Shadowpanther last year at ToysRUs... which required full payment at time of pre-order in March (before there was any sign of them being in trouble financially, or ending up shutting down later in the year).
I was one of those who lost all of that pre-order money when TRU collapsed, so am a bit gun-shy to giving another retailer money months out of its release, even if it is only a 25% deposit this time.

Good point. Gamestop (the parent company of EB Games and Zing) has been desperately seeking a buyer as they are low on money. They have stopped look for now, but things don't look good.

Hopefully, if they do find a buyer it won't be a predatory buyer like what happened to Toys R Us.

[neomoz]

Good point. Gamestop (the parent company of EB Games and Zing) has been desperately seeking a buyer as they are low on money. They have stopped look for now, but things don't look good.

Hopefully, if they do find a buyer it won't be a predatory buyer like what happened to Toys R Us.

Looking at the latest sales data for video games, there is a large shift now to people buying their games digital. It unfortunately spells the end for EBGames who thrived on the trade ins/physical games sales.

[griffin]

Just something that Hasbro Australia mentioned to me a couple of times in the last month that people should be aware of - similar to how ToysRUs had a short pre-order period for Shadowpanther, apparently Zing also has a short pre-order period for Megatron, because they have to place their order before a certain date.
They may order extra to have some stock on hand or on display in stores (for impulse purchases), or for those who missed the pre-order cutoff and are more interested in the toy closer to its September release date... but be aware that it isn't guaranteed, and if Zing have an acceptable price for your budget, pre-order soon.
They were supposed to note the cut-off date on the product page, but didn't, so it could end up being closed off without notice (or worse, they will keep taking pre-orders, and not be able to fulfil them all if they outnumber the stock they ended up ordering).

[griffin]

I've removed the "Exclusive" from the topic title. Even though Zing are officially the exclusive source for Megatron in Australia, Mighty Ape are also selling it here, because they are the exclusive source for it in New Zealand... but are making that stock available to their Australian website. (their release date might be wrong though, as it is a full month before Zing's date)

Mighty Ape have even dropped their price down to match Zing (it was $210, now it is $200), so if you miss out on one from Zing (see below), Mighty Ape could be a back up source... they just don't have a pick-up option like Zing do.

A bit of extra info to the previous posting about a pre-order cutoff at Zing - even though they were expected to list a cut-off date by their supplier, they didn't, so I contacted Zing and asked what it was, and was told...

This should be available to preorder up until the release date, provided there is remaining stock available.

Since Zing have to place their order months ahead of its release, I asked what will happen if their pre-orders go above the number they have ordered from Hasbro - will the site stop taking pre-orders, or will people be told later that they didn't get a toy and are given their money back (and have to scramble to find another source, possibly paying a significant amount more), the answer kinda sounds like the first option...

However, generally a certain amount of stock is purchased well before the release date which is the amount we would have available for preorder on our website.

So it sounds like the Zing website will stop taking pre-orders when they reach the amount that they have ordered from Hasbro. If that is true, keep that in mind if you are still on the fence, as we will have no idea how much above the current pre-orders they will order as extras, so they could run out at any time and the product page could start showing something like HLJ, by noting that their pre-orders are sold out.

[griffin]

As noted in another topic, the listing for Megatron at Zing has been removed, but people's pre-orders are still active, so they must have reached their limit and pre-sold all of their units. (they might have some set aside for the stores, but probably just one per store)

[Magnus]

I got a call from Zing and picked up my pre-order today, so Megatron is in the country and is being shipped out to retailers. Expect calls or emails in the coming week or so.

[VERT]

Got my call yesterday to go get him.

[Krayt]

Checked my local, he hasn't hit the VIC warehouse yet....

[nalops]

Just got a text that Megatron is waiting for pickup. I managed to pre-order him only 15 minutes before the site was pulled down so wasn't sure I was actually getting him until now.