Foreign first-release TOY sightings

[griffin]

Not a toy sighting, but this is pretty cool... found at a Canadian ToysRUs store, official human sized standees of Bumblebee (and He-Man).

I want one!

[griffin]

Wave 4 of the R.E.D. toys are now out in America - BW Optimus Primal and 1986 movie Reformatting Megatron (with grid pattern deco).

[griffin]

Kingdom Voyager Tigatron found at US retail (and as noted in the sightings section, New Zealand in the last day as well).

[griffin]

And a day later, the next wave Kingdom Voyager Blaster has been found at US retail (Walmart).
According to Entertainment Earth, wave 5 has 2 Blasters with 1 Tigatron... so this is actually the 5th wave already shipping to US, and the above sighting of Tigatron may have been wave 5 as well.
With Tigatron just being found in New Zealand with no mention of Blaster being found, we might still have to wait some time for wave 5 to come here... if at all... because Voyagers are not a fast selling size class in Australia, and Hasbro Australia may not need to order in more Voyagers before Legacy is shipping to stores.

[griffin]

Pipes and Slammer have already been found at a US retail store (at a Walmart), so could show up anywhere now (like Amazon or even a store here).

[griffin]

Most years Hasbro seems to try to sneak out some January toys just before christmas to cash in on the biggest sales time of the year, and this year it looks like America have been getting a few collector items already, including the new Studio Series Voyager Soundwave from the Bumblebee Movie.

Fingers crossed we get some last minute surprises in the next week in stores here, like we had last year (with the first SS86 toys popping up).

[Seraphim Prime]

Most years Hasbro seems to try to sneak out some January toys just before christmas to cash in on the biggest sales time of the year, and this year it looks like America have been getting a few collector items already, including the new Studio Series Voyager Soundwave from the Bumblebee Movie.

Fingers crossed we get some last minute surprises in the next week in stores here, like we had last year (with the first SS86 toys popping up).

Something that came up in a recent podcast was that the release date is the date that Hasbro expects wide distribution to be complete by - ie you should expect to see toys in your local store by then - and can often expect early releases if retailers get their stock well ahead of that date.
Given the volumes of Christmas stocks this makes sense why Jan/Feb release date assortments are often seen in Christmas.