International Sightings

[Bladestorm]

Spotted this guy at Toys'R'Us TST (Hong Kong) today.


Warrior 3-step Blizzard Drift
Can't say I liked it but a small kid was desperately begging his dad to buy him one while clinging lovingly on to a legion sized RID2015 Optimus Prime.

Also purely for amusement:

How many of these did Hasbro make??? We have more of the SDCC sets here than the original (and the original is more expensive!)

[griffin]

That is an amazing photo of the SDCC Devastators.
I also wonder just how many of them did Hasbro produce, as they didn't sell out at SDCC, and the Brisbane Toysworlds appeared to have acquired at least a hundred units... and they were showing up in Asian ToysRUs stores in bulk.
I see that it is on sale in your photo, from HK$1800 (about AU$300) to HK$1300 (about AU$220). The Brisbane Toyworlds here were selling theirs for $250 in the stores (of the stock they didn't sell at the Comic Con), but I don't know what the original price was at the Comic Con in September (the original release of them).


As for the RID 3-step Drift, did you see Thunderhoof as well, as BBTS has them both listed in the same wave. Maybe they were already purchased before you got there.

[Bladestorm]

As for the RID 3-step Drift, did you see Thunderhoof as well, as BBTS has them both listed in the same wave. Maybe they were already purchased before you got there.

No Thunderhoof figures were out. If I had seen Thunderhoof I would have brought him to put away as he's one of my son's favourite RID 2015 characters,

[griffin]

The pair were just sighted in an American store in the last day, so they were probably already snapped up at the store you were at.
I guess check out some of the other HK TRU stores to see if they got them in as well.

[canofwhoopass_87]

Visited the local version of toy kingdom at a large shopping mall today in Saigon, Vietnam. Spotted a heap of Transformers on the shelving. For those who are interested, Hasbro CW deluxes are retailing at 749,000VND, which is about $45AU

I thought these were manufactured here in Vietnam? Doesnt explain why pricing is so dear

[Bladestorm]

Visited the local version of toy kingdom at a large shopping mall today in Saigon, Vietnam. Spotted a heap of Transformers on the shelving. For those who are interested, Hasbro CW deluxes are retailing at 749,000VND, which is about $45AU

I thought these were manufactured here in Vietnam? Doesnt explain why pricing is so dear

I talked to a local there after having a hard time finding any on shelves last time I was in Vietnam.
Apparently Vietnam is contracted to manufacture Transformers solely for export. Despite being made there this means they are either a) extremely hard to come by (unless you know someone willing to sell from the back door of the factory) or b) incredibly expensive as they are a luxury product which really sucks and makes life expensive for the local Vietnamese collectors. I suspect Vietnamese distributors have to source the product from overseas (Hong Kong Hasbro?) to re-import in for retail sale which kind of sucks.
Transformers shows and movies are REALLY popular there so it is kind of sad that access is all but limited to collectors and not many kids have the chance to play with the toys. In fact when my son was playing with one of his figures at a restaurant he even had adults and waiters asking what kind of cool toy it was as they hadn't seen a "real" Transformer figure before.

[Bladestorm]

This isn't a toy per say but I thought some of you might be interested in the latest marketing campaign for RID Season 2 in Hong Kong.

This is my daughter's current school bus:




Interesting that Drift seems to be the prominent character with Bumblebee shunted to the side and the other characters only in vehicle mode with Optimus leading up the rear.

And for those curious, here is what my daughter has on the back of the seat in front of her when she sits on the bus:


She also tells me there is another bus at her school that has Fixit instead of Drift on the side too.

Guess they are once again going to run a heavy RID campaign here despite it being the last season.

[griffin]

Drift is likely to be a prominent character because of the focus on the Minicons this season.

[griffin]

Some random things sighted in Hong Kong by JustOwen last month while he was over there that he sent me...

An Optimus Prime candy cane.


The Kinder Joy eggs with the RID figurines (which Bladestorm had noted were out in HK a month or so ago).


And a store display, that I wish I could have at my house.

[Bladestorm]

That store display is somewhere in the airport right?

The kinders are still available. We are still hunting for a Sideswipe but I have loads of Optimus Primes if anyone wants one.