Thanks to payres and Omegastooprime of the 2005 Boards, we have confirmation that the once skipped Combiner Wars Wave 2 has showed up at UK retail. The wave is a revision consisting of the comic version of Dragstrip in place of Air Raid, Off Road and Breakdown. The store they were found at is called “Guess How Much?” and seem to be not originally intended for the UK based on packaging. You can read on for further details on the Boards!
Correction – the case ratios were actually:
2x Offroad
2x Dead End
2x Breakdown
1x Dragstrip
1x Air Raid
Thanks to Nevermore for the heads up on that.
Nevermore
The grass is always greener on the other side, I guess.
motorthing
Yeah, that wasn't really the point. Apart from a select few very rare examples the US gets everything, even if they have to wait relatively short periods of time.
Our experience with many of these grey-imports is that availability can end up so sporadic that trying to find them can be like our US Cousins trying to find Hasbro MPs at their TRUs…..they know they are supposed to be there but more often than not aren't available to walk in and buy. Quantities are laughably small, scalpers or just the lottery of geography.
I'm not expecting to see any of these Stunticons, and that's just based on my location and past experience.
Nevermore
On the other hand, I recall a lot of instances where we got toys in Europe before they materialized at US retail.
Combiner Wars Legends wave 4 (Rodimus and Skywarp) – found in the UK five days before the first US sighting.
Combiner Wars Legends wave 5 ( Pipes, Shockwave, Chop Shop and Buzzsaw) – found in Slovakia (!) over a month before the first US sighting, and in Poland also two weeks before the first US sighting.
Combiner Wars Legends wave 6 (Wreck-Gar) – found in Hungary over a month before the first US sighting.
Combiner Wars Deluxe wave 1 (Firefly, Skydive, Alpha Bravo and Dragstrip) – found in the UK two weeks before the first US sighting.
Combiner Wars Voyager wave 1 (Optimus Prime and Silverbolt) – found in the UK almost a month before the first US sighting, and in Germany also three days before the first US sighting.
Titans Return Titan Masters wave 1 (Nightbeat, Loudmouth, Crashbash and Terri-Bull) – found in Germany over a month before the first US sighting, and in the UK also two weeks before the first US sighting.
Titans Return Legends Class wave 1 (Stripes, Rewind and Wheelie) was found in Italy, Hungary and Germany almost a month before the first US sighting, and in France and the UK a few days before the first US sighting.
Titans Return Deluxe Class wave 1 (Hardhead, Blurr, Scourge and Skullsmasher) – found in the UK five days before the first US sighting.
Titans Return Voyager Class wave 1 (Sentinel Prime and Galvatron) – found in the UK six days before the first US sighting.
Yes, sometimes a new wave takes ages to materialize at retail in your country. But the same applies to the US!
motorthing
Ummmmm……..that 90% may include stuff that turns up like this Wave month's/years after initial Stateside and Asian releases when most Collectors have had to import it (at greater cost) because there is NO info and no faith that they ever will show up at regular retail. And this is in no way "regular" retail.
Or an item like Sky Linx that technically is now on these shores in one Discount retailer but there were about 8 of them. For the entire country. Good luck finding one.
And if we want TR Legnds Wave 2? Well perhaps I should hope it arrives at Burger King in the Shetland Islands in about 18 months time.
Some of the "whining" is more than justified.
payres
No it didn't. Specialist stores in Europe that sourced it through Asian wholesalers did.
To the best of my knowledge Brainstorm hasn't been released in Europe.
Stormtrooper53
Europe also got Walgreens Brainstorm before the US, causing a mass wave of panic. So shut up.
Nevermore
How doe Europe not get any love? We do get about 90% of all the products that are released in the US, which is a lot more than we'd have gotten ten years ago!
grindcore138
Oooh, I hope these show up in one of the B&Ms near me, been wanting to replace my exceedingly floppy and won't-clip-togethery Off Road for a while, if I can do that for £7 that'd be just spiffy.
payres
Yes it looks like the case is 2 x Dead End, 2 x Breakdown, 2 x Off Road, 1 x Air Raid and 1 x Drag Strip
SgtLemon
So would dead end be among them? I have on but I just want to buy another too see if the legs would actually tab together, I've owned 2 already and had the same problem, hoping for a 3rd time lucky
RobS
And my nearest store is 85 miles away
Hopefully they'll show up somewhere closer, my lad has been after a Menasor for ages (I wouldn't mind one too, if I'm being honest)
MnemonicSyntax
Thanks gents, that's really interesting. Did not know about this.
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Nevermore
"Gray import" is an alternate term for "parallel import". Basically, a non-counterfeit product (i.e. not a knockoff) that's imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner, often sold for lower prices than the officially distributed release.
Parallel import – Wikipedia
A lot of Transformers toys available from online retailers are actually gray imports, as they're obtained via Asian vendors rather than Hasbro's official distribution channels. The only US-based online retailers I can say for sure only sell product obtained through Hasbro's official distribution channels are Entertainment Earth, BBCW Distributors, Amazon (as long as it's actually "sold by Amazon" and not from a third-party seller), Hasbro Toy Shop and the online storefronts of big box retailers such as Walmart.com, Toysrus.com, Target.com and Kmart.com.
By contrast, ToyWiz, TFSource and Big Bad Toy Store obtain at least part of their stock through Asian vendors.
The only difference is that the packaging used for US releases is the same packaging used for Asian releases so it's virtually impossible to tell whether it's a gray import or an official domestic release. Here in Europe, we have different packaging so the difference becomes more apparent.
Here's the difference:
It's "lunchtime special", not "lunchbox".
payres
A "grey import" is a toy that's been imported into the UK by a firm other than Hasbro themselves.
This usually means there's a sticker somewhere on the packaging saying "imported by" and naming the firm.
This particular firm has a record for this sort of thing going back to the mid 90s, maybe earlier
Grey Imports are frequently left over stock from another region so the boxes/cards for the toys are usually not the standard ones for the UK. Sometimes it's hard to tell but there's a dead giveaway here as these CW toys have the comics which the UK versions didn't. Last year lots of chains got cases of T30 Voyagers in stock, which we never got here.
Generally grey imports are sold to discount chains such as TK Maxx, Home Bargains and B&M. The discount chain mentioned here is a new one on most people. However at this time of year, when shelf turnover is high, they can end up in normal retail stores.
How widespread it is outside the UK I haven't a clue!
MastaBlasta
Send me the dragstrip.
MastaBlasta
Send me the dragstrip.
MnemonicSyntax
You aren't missing much, I assure you.
Also, what's a "grey import?"
I love the neat terms I learn on TFW, like "Lunchbox Special."
johnbonhamatron
I had one! Grimlock, bought from a cheapo shop in Bridlington.
Chris McFeely
Need me that Air Raid!