Toys R Us Australia News: Discount Increase, MPM Barricade, Studio Thundercracker

There are even bigger sales incoming for the closure of the Australian branches of now closed down storechain Toys'R'Us, as the 20-40% reductions we previously reported on has gone up to 30-50% store wide (note: only available in physical stores, cannot be redeemed online)!

This also means that those recent sightings of wave 3 and wave 2 resurfacing for Power of the Primes may come in handy after all, if you can make it to a store this month. If you do so, make sure to share with other local fans your finds, and happy hunting!

The date is July 26th, 2018; barely twenty-four hours ago. A final, heaving death-rattle escapes Toys R Us Australia. And that death-rattle is another increase to their closing down sales, boosting the minimum discount on toys up to a startling 50% off!

This means whatever Transformers are left on the shelves should be currently at half-price - MPM-5 Barricades should now sit at around $90, while Studio Series Thundercracker is priced at $25... if they're in stock at any given store, that is. It seems unlikely, given the urgent tone of the flier, that the discount will be increased any further at this point; but, then again, that chas seemed to be the case for the last few price-drops as well.

If you find yourself in the mood to do so, why not share your celebrations at this incredible (especially for Australia!) discount, and your eulogies for the once-titanic company, in the Energon Pub Forums? And of course, stay tuned to Seibertron.com for a wide variety of Transformers news, from sales to ciphers and everything in between!

Kinda bummed that I went and picked up an MPM Barricade and Studio Thundercracker on Saturday, just barely before the sale prices increased by a full 20%. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Perhaps tomorrow I shall make another trip after all - to buy another Barricade that I can re-sell and hopefully offset some of the cost; and to pick up another three Studio Thundercrackers. I'm going to have a squadron of Sweep-headed jets headed by a Cybertron Thundercracker homage, if it's the last thing I do!

Qwan, we New Zealand fans are highly envious - I don't think we ever had a single TRU branch anywhere!

Good luck grabbing some bargains!

RotorstormNZ wrote:Qwan, we New Zealand fans are highly envious - I don't think we ever had a single TRU branch anywhere!

Good luck grabbing some bargains!

Thanks very much - seriously, if you want a Thundercracker or an MPM Barricade (and if there's still some there) I'm sure we can work something out!

If anyone's curious, Toys 'R Us Australia is now officially closed with the last few stores closing over the weekend.

its over



shes gone

forever...

*sigh*


i wanna be a toys r us kid

Z3ROhour wrote:its over



shes gone

forever...

*sigh*


i wanna be a toys r us kid

Move to Canada and you can still be one

still spark-broken.

Z3ROhour wrote::-(

still spark-broken.

At the time I had stuff going on that was far more important but now it's really starting to sink in that they're gone and just how big a void there is.

Be so long since I been at TRU with my family.

Well, those fancy big ticket items you used to only be able to find at TRU are now at Target and Walmart, and for cheaper.


Other than that, the closing has had zero effect on me.

i used to love just being there.
seeing all the toys and kids.
and helping someone out who seemed lost or overwhelmed.
helping a grandma find exactly what her grandson meant.
showing kids and parents where to find Rescue Bots,
when other figures were far too complex for their 4 year old.

just getting away from this idiot world
whether i got something
or not.

Toys 'R' Us may make a return. According to IGN Toys 'R' Us has canceled it's bankruptcy auction. What this means is Toys 'R' Us is planning a revival of the brand. Toys 'R' Us closed their doors earlier this year in the US. The Wall Street Journal has the details of their plan which includes opening and operating in person stores. Things seem to be early in speculation for now so we can't draw too many conclusions just yet. We here at Seiberton will be crossing our fingers that things turn out. We will give you all of the details as they happen.

HA! they just wanted fame. perfect way to grab the public's attention

TRU wasn't doing well

Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

Honestly, I just miss it because it was part of my childhood. Every single time I went there it felt like Christmas. What I'm hoping for is that maybe they'll just transfer fully to an online business. Trying to go back to brick-and-mortar would most likely bankrupt them again. I just want ToysRUs back in some form.

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

I kinda do, next to KB Toys, as a pure dedicated toy store like you'd see back in Europe, only a lot bigger.

That said, it's not uncommon to reuse a personally owned trademark for a new start-up, but given the current state of affairs I wouldn't be surprised if they started small in a single area, and not go nation-wide from the get-go, or be the same as it once was.

Hope floats. My childhood may not have died completely after all.

I remember calling TRU when I was a kid pleading with them to open a store near me. The next year they did and I have been loyal to them since then. Being CDN we are fine as TRU still exists here, but for you down south I hope its Phoenix will rise again.

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

Before my son and daughter I didn't go into Toys R Us as often (unless I knew about exclusives). With my kids it was sharing the experience I had as a child with my dad. My son is now 4, but during before they went away they brought out play areas to "test drive" toys and he enjoyed every min of it. Many times we would go in, but never buy a toy, he enjoyed just going through the isles pressing buttons and playing. It's not the fact it's gone that had made me sad, it was the experience of bringing in my kids like my dad and sharing that.

And while people complained (people I speak with as well) about the prices. My wife and I never had an issue. We would show them what Wal-mart priced them at and they would lower the price as well. That's just my take.

Whether it comes back or not, if it does that would be awesome, but I'm passed that point where if it didn't that would be fine as well since my son was young enough not to really remember.

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

oh gods
please...

william-james88 wrote: Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

I don't have a Predaking on Layaway, so yes.

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

Homestly, It would've been a great distributor for the Transformers TCG, because I don't know about you, but here in central Florida, finding card packs is a pain.

TheTfboy wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

Homestly, It would've been a great distributor for the Transformers TCG, because I don't know about you, but here in central Florida, finding card packs is a pain.

I really would not know, that is a hobby i dont participate in.

Since it is a potential hedge fund take over ...take this as a much ado about nothing.Also, it's IGN. Garbage tier site(a far cry from its glory days)

Hedge funds are like locusts (I'm pro capitalist) but I can use a sad example of how one hedge fund (under Mittens) killed Valiant Comics( the one under Jim Shooter) after their "cash infusion" into the company.

Valiant after the cash infusion was doing great already. Great stories and sales(those where the mid 90s) but once the "profit target" were achieved by the hedge fund, they just pulled out and left Valiant in to dry.

In TRU, there were various factors that killed it but one sore sticking point is that hedge fund involvement they gotten into.

I think if major toy companies backed TRU and they listened to customers/ran their business properly then they would have a grand success.

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

Don't miss it at all. TRU died in the late '90s, early '00s. That I miss, but what we've had the last 15 or so years sucked.

More or less, just like what happened to Kenny Rogers "chicken", that gig was at its apex in the late 80s. When it folded (I believe only one is left in California), a Chinese Malaysian company bought the name and is now doing well in South East Asia.

Maybe the owners are holding out for a bigger offer from fat wallet Mainland China Investors to buy out the name?

WreckerJack wrote:Toys 'R' Us may make a return. According to IGN Toys 'R' Us has canceled it's bankruptcy auction. What this means is Toys 'R' Us is planning a revival of the brand. Toys 'R' Us closed their doors earlier this year in the US. The Wall Street Journal has the details of their plan which includes opening and operating in person stores. Things seem to be early in speculation for now so we can't draw too many conclusions just yet. We here at Seiberton will be crossing our fingers that things turn out. We will give you all of the details as they happen.

I hoped for their return as a long-time customer, let us pray for a miracle.

Toys R Us Rebrands as Geoffrey’s Toy Box?
Published 1 day ago on October 4, 2018 By Ashley Wilbanks

News broke a few days ago that Toys R Us was cancelling their pending bankruptcy plans, with plans to reemerge in the marketplace. Just how and when that comeback would take place was still a mystery, until now.

Geoffrey the Giraffe was spotted at the Fall Toy Preview in Dallas sporting a “Back from Vacation” cape, which made a few headlines on Twitter and Linkedin. This led to a little Internet snooping, which turned up the following information…

Geoffrey’s Toy Box will launch consumer locations across the country this coming November as a “shop-within-a-shop” concept, initially partnering with “a prominent Midwest retailer.”

The new venture, for now, is being operated out of the Toys R Us headquarters building in Wayne, New Jersey, where a small number of former Toys R Us executives and employees continue to report to work.

How will Toys R Us succeed in a marketplace that has changed dramatically in a few short months? Amazon and Walmart are starting a huge push to replace the failed toy company. Walmart plans to add dedicated space for pop culture collectibles in the coming weeks, and Amazon has been signing exclusive rights for various toy lines (like Funko’s Primal Age line).

As always, leave your thoughts in the appropriate places…

ABOUT GEOFFREY’S TOY BOX:
Wholesale toy distributor and intellectual property company whose focus is on popular play patterns across trusted brands that kids and parents love. Geoffrey’s Toy Box is a fully outfitted organization with design, development and global sourcing expertise. Portfolio includes popular brands like Journey Girls, Fastlane, True Heroes, You & Me, Imaginarium, Just like Home and more!

Source :USA Today

https://dccollectors.com/2018/10/04/toys-r-us-rebrands-as-geoffreys-toy-box/

We had covered the other day a story about the ongoing troubles of international toy retail chain Toys R Us, in which a return of the store to the US had been advanced by the company on a number of outlets. You can read that again here, but also integrated with some further details below.

According to USA Today, TRU is planning on a series of strategies to remain as a presence, including keeping Geoffrey the giraffe as its mascot, using pop up locations, and changing the name to Geoffrey's Toy Box. The full article here details further what is happening, including the short term business plan, and the presence of Solus Alternative Asset Management and Angelo Gordon funds behind the new company, plus some worker discontent at the latter, and how the new Geoffrey LLC owns the name for TRU and Babies R Us in all countries except Canada. Read more below!

They are also saying they hope to have pop-ups in place inside the stores of a regional mass merchant in time for the holidays, and to relaunch Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores down the road.

Geoffrey's Toy Box introduced itself to toy manufacturers and sellers Tuesday at the opening of the Dallas toy show, with an exhibit booth and a costumed Geoffrey mascot, who was spotted wearing a cape with the words "Back from Vacation." Toy manufacturers at the show were tweeting and posting on LinkedIn that they had spotted Geoffrey and Richard Barry, the former chief merchandising officer at Toys R Us who appears to be heading the new venture for the investors.

The new venture, for now, is being operated out of the Toys R Us headquarters building in Wayne, New Jersey, where a small number of former Toys R Us executives and employees continue to report to work.

That actually sounds a lot like what Amazon is doing, having "brick and mortar" locations inside other stores. I'd think that the larger chains would welcome that as a potential boon: they'd make money off the space and not have to actually purchase the product to put there. And GTB won't have to have the outlay of funding their own building. With the Internet, the days of stand-alone toy stores is likely done but this seems like a very viable alternative.

THe downside is that the space would be smaller as would the selection, potentially. I suspect they would have a robust online presence and selection, but minimal real-world footprint.

Could not be happier to hear this! Amazing news. We are all Toy R Us kids in the end.

I think it's important to remember that your local stores aren't re-opening, at least not in the same locations and that all those people who lost jobs probably won't be rehired.

TheTfboy wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

I cannot stress how close to meaningless all this is. All they have is just a name they do not want to sell yet.

Also, seriously, do you anericans miss toysrus? Not the toysrus of your childhoods, i mean the store you could have walked into last year. Have your purchasing habits been affected in anyway since it closed?

All are welcomed to respond.

Homestly, It would've been a great distributor for the Transformers TCG, because I don't know about you, but here in central Florida, finding card packs is a pain.

They are readily available in Walmart(of all places) so you might try there. I was really surprised by that but given how big the MTG and Yughio sections are, I guess I'm not that surprised.

As for the question posed by william-james88, yes. Yes my habits have changed. None of the Target's or Walmarts carry bigger items and they are very hit or miss on what they carry in general. I will say however, the big thing I miss is the non-tf toys. No other local stores carry the Necca lines unless it's the comic shops or the Think Geek store in the mall and some things are a little harder to find. Comic shops mark them up a good $5 or $10 too.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/lam ... -this-time

Related. Another legend/contemporary bites(will bite) the dust for real this time

"Sears hasn’t earned a profit since 2010.

The company faces a cash crunch as it needs to stock its remaining Sears and Kmart stores for the holidays, and many vendors, from appliance makers to toy companies, now require the company to pay upfront in cash.

Sears has canceled orders from some appliances manufacturers, according to two appliance industry consultants."

lakebot wrote:As for the question posed by william-james88, yes. Yes my habits have changed. None of the Target's or Walmarts carry bigger items and they are very hit or miss on what they carry in general.

So does that mean you now order your bigger items online?

william-james88 wrote:

lakebot wrote:As for the question posed by william-james88, yes. Yes my habits have changed. None of the Target's or Walmarts carry bigger items and they are very hit or miss on what they carry in general.

So does that mean you now order your bigger items online?

Do we even have a choice anymore? I hate it because majority of the time you have to pay shipping and it always ends up costing more in the end...especially now that states have caught on and are hitting is with sales tax.

First-Aid wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

lakebot wrote:As for the question posed by william-james88, yes. Yes my habits have changed. None of the Target's or Walmarts carry bigger items and they are very hit or miss on what they carry in general.

So does that mean you now order your bigger items online?

Do we even have a choice anymore? I hate it because majority of the time you have to pay shipping and it always ends up costing more in the end...especially now that states have caught on and are hitting is with sales tax.

I dont really get either point because for the shipping:
1- Amazon has free shipping for those items
2- BBTS only charges 4$ flat rate

As for taxes, you would pay those if you bought it in stores so I dont see how that would play into this discussion. Unless you meant tax on the shipping but thats still just very marginal based on the figures I wrote above.

Just trying to understand the issues. I am personally waiting for black friday to pick up predaking on amazon and i would have done that whether I found him at brick and mortar retail or not (which turns out I did see at Brick and Motar but didnt pick up).

I think there is also that ever present doubt in some people's minds when it comes to whether or not they are going to buy a figure. I know in some cases, I'd rather have seen the product in person before purchase. The internet is a great thing, but nothing beats an optic inspection.

I also am a cheap sonuvabitch. So four bucks...damnit, that's two bottles of Boone's Farm! I hate shelling that out when it can go for much grander purposes!

william-james88 wrote:

First-Aid wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

lakebot wrote:As for the question posed by william-james88, yes. Yes my habits have changed. None of the Target's or Walmarts carry bigger items and they are very hit or miss on what they carry in general.

So does that mean you now order your bigger items online?

Do we even have a choice anymore? I hate it because majority of the time you have to pay shipping and it always ends up costing more in the end...especially now that states have caught on and are hitting is with sales tax.

I dont really get either point because for the shipping:
1- Amazon has free shipping for those items
2- BBTS only charges 4$ flat rate

As for taxes, you would pay those if you bought it in stores so I dont see how that would play into this discussion. Unless you meant tax on the shipping but thats still just very marginal based on the figures I wrote above.

Just trying to understand the issues. I am personally waiting for black friday to pick up predaking on amazon and i would have done that whether I found him at brick and mortar retail or not (which turns out I did see at Brick and Motar but didnt pick up).

To answer your question, sometimes. Perhaps I am paranoid but I do not like having anything large delivered to my home. My work hours vary every single day. And depending on the method of delivery service, I or my wife may not be home. So it will sit outside on the front porch. I'm really not even so worried about an item being stolen as I am that someone may open it and then either keep coming back or just burglarize my home thinking I have some very massive/expensive collection(I don't and have made it a point not to but that doesn't help me if they break in before they realize that).

This doesn't account for the damage that can occur during the shipping process.

Sadly I do not feel we have much of a choice anymore at this point. But that does not mean I have to like/agree with it. Some of the people here may be used to doing the online route only. I do as well for certain things. But not for anything big if I can help it. That is why I was frustrated about trying to get Trypticon in store. They couldn't even do that right and I had to go BBTS. As for Predaking, I will wait to see if Think Geek has it. Online will always be my last option.

First-Aid wrote:I think there is also that ever present doubt in some people's minds when it comes to whether or not they are going to buy a figure. I know in some cases, I'd rather have seen the product in person before purchase. The internet is a great thing, but nothing beats an optic inspection.

I also am a cheap sonuvabitch. So four bucks...damnit, that's two bottles of Boone's Farm! I hate shelling that out when it can go for much grander purposes!

The shipping with BBTS is really great when you think about it. I could not ship items that cheap to anyone and they aren't bad when compared to other outlets(with several having free shipping) so I certainly don't grimace at the price. I don't haveto see the item first either.

Another point someone mentioned was Walmart clearing space to, I guess, expand their toys sections? Not from what I have seen although I understand we are still early on in this post "TRU whatever we are calling it".

Despite the feeling I get from conversation that a lot of people feel online is the way to go, and the way everyone prefers to buy, I don't believe it. The mall and anywhere near the mall will be a total mess come Black Friday-Christmas eve. I feel people do whatever they find most convenient and for whatever reason(s) online may not always be the best option for them.

Meanwhile in Canada...

Video Unavailable.

Burn wrote:Video Unavailable.

How ironic. TRU Canada is available, but the video the Canadian shares is not

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

Burn wrote:Video Unavailable.

How ironic. TRU Canada is available, but the video the Canadian shares is not

nah, that's just Billy-Jim's Canadian bias showing through again.

william-james88 wrote:Meanwhile in Canada...

How to Share With Just Friends

What is it supposed to be?

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Meanwhile in Canada...

How to Share With Just Friends

What is it supposed to be?

A Canadian Beast Wars figure...turns from a robot to a beaver. Name is Hoser. The tail in animal mode turns into a hockey stick weapon in robot mode, and one of the teeth in beaver mode is missing...