Both Smokescreen and Optimus are sold out on both sites now.
That's weird. They wouldn't have both sold out at all stores at the same time... it must mean that they had a very short pre-order period before they had to place their order with Hasbro Australia. They did the same with the Movie Masterpiece Jazz and Megatron, but these two weren't up for very long at all. I think it was only 7 days ago that the listings were first being reported here, which is why it doesn't make sense that they would only have a week pre-order period. And if it is that short, they should say so, like TakaraTomyMall does on their listings when they have a pre-order cut-off.
The thing that has me worried is if they had a really short pre-order period and didn't get their minimum amount, they will cancel the orders they did get and people like me will have to source it from somewhere else now.
Considering their 20th anniversary Digivice pre-order page only lasted a day, it seems they're allocated a set number of stock to begin with rather than waiting until a certain date and then ordering stock. Could be wrong though.
Speaking of Megatron, I was super lucky to get him. Went in-store to pre-order, staff wasn't able to find him on their system so they rang head office and was told I had 15 minutes to order from the website before the page was going to be taken down.
At least I didn't wait any longer to pre-order the Optimus set then, as I only just pre-ordered it the night before. I will have to keep that in mind in future, to jump on their listings as soon as they go up.
(I'm still a bit bummed that I missed Movie Jazz and Megatron, as they would have been cheaper to get through Zing/EB than importing them.)
The other frustrating thing for me is that I asked them if I could submit a better product description for the Optimus set, as they only had the google translated version of the TakaraTomyMall description on there... which was embarrassing. They said to send something in, and I did... a day before the listing came down.
It’s still orderable in store
Sorry for the thread necromancy, but has anybody got their Smokescreen? Mine's showing as being pushed out to 11/5.
Most of the items due from the last three months were pushed back to mid-late March. If they have told you May for Smokescreen, then that one is also 2 months late.
Zing still has no eta for the Optimus 2set, despite sending an email in December they were about to process the remaining balance on the set (still haven't by March)
On the lookout for MISB Headmaster Highbrow, Takara or Hasbro. I'm sure I could make you a sweet deal!