Foreign first-release TOY sightings

[Sinnertwin]

Predacons Rising Legion Bumblebee & Blight two pack have beem spotted in Target, Illinois. Apparently they've been out for a month according to some members.

[Zippo]

I saw them around the Targets in San Francisco back in mid October, didn't think it was news back then

[griffin]

The release of the second wave has been so sporadic.... probably because stores might have been having trouble selling the first wave of their exclusive line PLUS the regular figures (that aren't moving).
At the time Target signed up for them at the start of the year, they would have been told by Hasbro that a special movie was going to feature the Predacons and their exclusive line of toys.... while the regular figures would be selling off of the new 2013 cartoon episodes.

But how many large-size "Beast Hunters" toys (regular and Target exclusive) have even been in the cartoon and movie this year to sell them?
Optimus x2, Shockwave, Predaking X2, Dark Steel, Sky Lynx, Ultra Magnus, Smokescreen, black Bumblebee (but only the Weaponizer version was the right mould to match the cartoon).
That's 10 out of the 30 large-size (DLX, VOY, ULT, Weaponizer) Beast Hunters toys released this year, being directly promoted in the 3rd year of the cartoon.
In the Cyberverse sizes (Legion & CMDR) we only have 9 of the 36 figures that are in the cartoon, and look the same.

An expensive cartoon may not be able to introduce too many new "toys" each year... but they need a better balance than 19 out of 66 toys being either characters not in the cartoon, or significantly mutated versions that look nothing like the ones in the cartoon (which is a primary motivating factor of kids and fans - to get "souvenirs" of the show and characters they are fans of).
That means the stores have to rely on established fans to want to buy the other 47 toys this year, based on their own interest in the line, loyalty to those specific characters, or even interest in the Predacon theme itself (which was sooo over-rated, because we got a whole year of the theme plastered all over everything, but only 3 Predacons featured in the cartoon, and yet Hasbro spat out 25 Predacon toys for us to buy).

Green Optimus is a good example - what is the motivation for buying either of the two green Optimus toys? It was not featured in the cartoon... and is not a colour scheme one would think of for that iconic character. The smaller one has some appeal to those who want the new mould but not another red Optimus toy, but what is the point of the big expensive weaponizer one? The Retailers are stuck with trying to move it themselves if there is no TV or advertising support.
(that's why Australian Retailers didn't pick up the Generations line this year, because at ToyFair it didn't have any TV or Movie support signage on it - so they go for the uglier toys that aren't fan-favourites, because the Retailers don't have to do any work selling them... Hasbro has to do the work to get the cartoons or commercials on TV and Paramount does the work promoting the Movies)

[griffin]

The YOTH Starscream toy has been found at ToysRUs store in California, for US$110. That is quite expensive for America, even for TRU over there, because the original Starscream was only US$50.
Sure, it was 8.5 years ago (July 2005), but none of the size classes have doubled in price during that time, and this isn't even a new mould.

BBTS is slated for a February 1st release, which is only a few days away.

[Sinnertwin]

And all YoTH preorders are currently sold out at BbTS

[griffin]

Just a few weeks after they arrived at BBTS, the Scoop/Minicon wave of Deluxe Generations have been found at a US Target store.

Which would mean they would be here soon... if we were getting the Generations line in Australia.

[griffin]

The new series of "Rescan" Rescue Bots toys have just been found at a TRU in Singapore.

And it sounds like the Generations Wave with Rhinox and Doubledealer haven't been seen at US Retail before now, despite BBTS having them in a month ago.
They have now been sighted at a retail store in America.

[griffin]

The wave of Deluxe Generations with Waspinator and Skids in it have been released in Canada.
Looks like the Deluxe Generations toys in Canada don't come packed with a comic, most likely due to a requirement of having English and French... which would be too costly to produce (to re-letter and reprint in a smaller run).

[griffin]

The YOTH Optimus and Generations Whirl have been found in American retail in the last week.

[Other]

Hobby Search has the Takara Tomy Metroplex discounted to 11,400 yen atm.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10224880
Shipping will probably be about 40-50 bucks on top but if you wanted this version for the two guns and the colour differences and such then this is probably the cheapest you may ever get it barring absurd luck