Unicron at Zing/EB Games

[djanscak]

Hmmm, mine is still 31/12/2021. I wonder why some are being updated and others aren?t.


EDIT: just realised I was looking in the wrong place and didn?t follow DELTAPrime?s preorder filter instructions. D?oh! Mine shows 7/4 too.

[DELTAprime]

Date now is 7/04

Can confirm. 07/04/2021

This is why ordering Transformers from EB Games sucks.

[Krayt]

There is ZERO way this is eb’s fault

[JJJ]

There is ZERO way this is eb’s fault

The actual release date? Well no, of course not. And if it actually is the 7th of April, well, I can live with that; what's a couple of weeks more at this point?

But how can we know for sure?

Because the way the date shows differently for different people... That's absolutely EB's fault. My order still shows the end-of-the-year date, just like it always has done.

[mikebrucewayne]

Mine also says 7/4. Not too long to go!

[griffin]

A 40 minute interview with Ben Montana at Hasbro about Unicron's creation process, and some details that haven't been revealed before.

[griffin]

This is frustrating...

The main person I deal with at Hasbro is currently away for a while, so I'm pretty sure this will be released here before I can regain contact, as I was trying to prepare people here for this figure before it is released.
Because there are some things people need to know, or be aware of if they didn't already know.

But before we start... I can't say the exact number, but the number of Unicron toys coming to Australia that were pre-ordered way back in 2019, is somewhere between 500 and 700.
Considering there are just over 10,000 being produced for the entire planet, a country as "small" as ours in the global toy market, is getting a lot more than was expected by anyone involved in the project. Australia's population is 0.33% of the world's population, and yet we are getting somewhere around 4-6% of the Unicron toys here.
Also, you people have seen how big these toys are in their boxes... it took 3 shipping containers to get them all to Australia, and they didn't all arrive at once, which did delay their release to stores and customers.
I don't have confirmation about this, but I expect that the massive bulk of all 500-700 Unicrons has caused some additional delays, as I doubt EBGames wouldn't have known what they were going to have delivered to them, to then deliver to hundreds of customers and stores. (even us fans had no accurate idea of the size of the Unicron box... and then multiply that by 500-700)
Unicron isn't the largest item for EBGames to have to deal with and ship around the country, but the quantity would have been a rarity for them, and it doesn't just take a day to process and ship out several hundred boxes that would be too big for most transport companies willing to ship to homes or post-office boxes.
Unfortunately I don't currently have access to the Hasbro source responsible for Unicron, to get regular updates since they've been in the country for a little while now, as I would love to keep you informed, to limit the panic or frustrations of seeing the estimated release date on the EBGames site keep getting pushed back.


Onto the important info of this post...
As people in Australia should know, if you purchase an item and it is defective, you are legally entitled to a refund or replacement... which can be the retailer's choice, depending on availability of replacement stock or parts. (if there are no replacement items or parts available, the retailer will have no choice but to give a refund, and may require the defective item returned, if convenient or cheap enough to do)

The main thing to realise is that this Unicron toy is a one-off production item. It is not expected to see a second batch, and it is very unlikely that Hasbro manufactured too many extras (to cover any that are found to be defective before boxed up at the factory).

What that means is, if your figure is defective, you may need to seriously assess if it is bad enough to return for a refund, because there aren't any spares... and any pre-orders that were cancelled before its release are expected to be listed on the EBGames website like they do with any other item that has cancellations. (the small number of cancellations that are expected to be put up on their site will sell out really fast, probably before people get their Unicron toy home to check out)

As scalpers and new fans jump on the cancelled pre-orders as soon as they are are listed (because these will be 2-4 times the price on the secondary market), but even if they have some of the cancellations still unsold on their website when you find something wrong with your Unicron, EBGames are not required to give you one of those if they prefer to give a refund (and return of the defective toy)... so if they will only give a refund, be quick at buying another one with the refund money before those last few are snapped up.

This Unicron toy is going to command thousands of dollars on the secondary market within a short amount of time, so this is why it is being recommended that refunding it should be your last resort.
If it is something minor, like paint missing or smudged, or on the wrong part... you would be crazy to return it for the $848 refund, because you'd be lucky to find another one on the secondary market for less than $2000.
If you have a small part that is bent, cracked or doesn't move, determine how obvious it will be to see in both modes, or if it can be fixed or repaired (by you or someone else here that may have experience with repairing toys).

It will be a sliding scale... the worse the defect is, the more likely you may choose to return it for the $848 refund, and pay out over $2000 for another one.
But when you consider how much it will cost to find a new one, that difference in price needs to be weighed up before you decide to return yours for a refund.

Yes, it will suck... it will feel like having the worst luck in the world.... but remember - as seen on that recent production video on the Hasbro Pulse site, these are plastic toys with hundreds of parts being put together and painted by people crammed into a lifeless looking factory room, spending many hours a day with very little pay (or else they would be manufactured in America at better pay). As much as Hasbro may have wanted these special figures to have an extra level of quality to their production, it is still a little over 10,000 units being produced at the cheapest possible price (labour and materials), by Chinese workers who have no interest or passion for endless hours of working on kids toys... so mistakes happen. They always do, as we see quite often on the various retail Transformers toys.
If Hasbro (or any western corporation) wanted virtually 100% of their products to be perfect, they would have them produced somewhere that spends more on the quality and standards... like Lego. (as they say, you get what you pay for)


What does all this mean?
I don't expect there to be a lot of them with problems, but just in case there are a few here in Australia that need touching up or fixing, it is best to have something set up before it is released, than to have people making sudden rash decisions that could see them returning their toy and never being able to afford another one.
I want to make it possible for fans here to have options to prevent as many people returning their Unicron... so if people are interested in helping out fans in their area, I can start up a topic in the Ratchet Repairs section of this board, for people to post up anything wrong with their Unicron, to get suggestions to fix it themselves (if something minor) or get offers of help to fix it (with or without a fee, depending on how significant the problem is).
Hopefully most people needing help, have someone skilled in repairing/customising toys be local enough to be able to fix the defect in person for you, otherwise if it is something that can be posted, we might have people here (or on our facebook page) keen to help out. (if you don't already know the other person, prefer to have the work done with your supervision, somewhere you are comfortable with if you don't want a stranger at your place)
I think there was already someone advertising their services on facebook to paint the teeth in the mouth to match pre-production samples (posting in the parts to be painted, and posted back). That's the sort of thing I hope we can help organise among the fans here and on facebook, to make sure no Unicron gets returned for a refund, because you'd never be able to find another one online for that price.


Who knows... maybe the quality control on Unicron actually was significantly more thorough than other Transformers toys, and we don't see a single toy with any defective parts or paint, and all of this can be ignored, and not needed.
But just in case we have a handful of Unicrons that have something wrong with them, I want to minimise or prevent people feeling devastated about their biggest Transformers purchase needing to be returned for a refund that won't even cover a third of the cost of a replacement elsewhere.


Thoughts... suggestions?

[JJJ]

None of what you say is a surprise to me, and all of it was pretty obvious to me when I placed my order. I did think long and hard before pressing that button. I can live with it. If, like the guy over on TFW, I am horribly unfortunate enough to get a box with no head, then I'll live with a refund and no Unicron. Less than that sort of error? Well, it makes it unique, right?

[DELTAprime]

The last time EB Games dealt with a huge item that was ordered in massive quantities was probably a Guitar Hero game. I remember going into EB Games the day Guitar Hero World Tour came out to get something else and I saw two full pallets of Guitar Hero World Tour games plus several empty pallets. The 2013 console launches similarly had pallets of consoles come in, but they were much smaller items.

[Krayt]

I saw a few posts saying some bags of accessories were empty when unboxed, as in the head missing. Others had missing instructions. Really hope issues are few and far between