Canada Transformers sightings Roundup with Studio Series, Cyberverse, and Siege

Toysrus Canada has been very odd in 2019. After receiving the initial waves of 2019, going there became rather uneventful. Until now. The Refractor 3 pack with toy accurate Reflector toys is appearing nation wide, even in Quebec even though the box has no french. The latest Cyberverse toys have just arrived as well such as Cyberverse Spark Armour Ratchet and Shockwave. And best of all, MPM Jazz was found in Ontario.

Those were all Toysrus sightings. Cyberverse scout class Scraplet was found at a Real Canadian Superstore in Winnipeg. While Omega Supreme was shipped out to Canadians who preordered him on Toysrus, there has not been any extra stuck to order since.

The sightings are from me as well as Cybertron.ca members C-Spray and Matt McNally.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Great news on the Refraktors 3 pack. However, 100$ plus taxes is a bit much.

Not really. Its 3 30$ deluxes with an exclusive deco/accessories/packaging. Sounds about par. Would have been 120$USD plus club membership and shipping and customs if it was like exclusives of the past.

Toysrus is on a roll. The Refractor three pack was recently found, along with both MPM Megatron and Jazz and now we have reports of War for Cybertron Siege Cromar being found as well. This is the third powerdasher, and one we do not even have official images of yet. The only image we have is from a toy show in Asia, which you can see below. It is packaged in the similar generations Selects packaging and labelled as Power Dasher Cromas WFC-GS04. it was found by Yonoid who found it in Ontario and posted it on the Cybertron.ca baords. This means that Toysrus is the exclusive retailer for this item, in Canada. We do not know about this item's availability in the US yet. So let us know if ever you have info or see him in a store.

Also, speaking of Canadian Sightings, Siege Omega Supreme has also hit the shelves of Toysrus stores in Ontario.

william-james88 wrote:woohoo and there is french on the box!

This mean nothing because I saw pictures of toys with actual french on the box that was still Quebec banned for reasons.
Still, that is a random find. Years ago I came across a single MP Grimlock. I took him home, of course. And recently, the Refraktors 3 pack that was in store, but not online.

TrU is getting pretty random by the minute. And I like it.

On a side note, I never saw Soundwave and his cassettes at all the Walmarts I went. Not even the price labels.

Canada is making up for a dry spell with Transformers sightings that lasted half the year. They are now the first country in the west to have Transformers War for Cybertron Siege deluxe Mirage, Impactor and Barricade. Those were found in a Walmart in Scarborough. The sighting comes from Primetyme who posted it in the Cybertron.ca forums.

This is not the only new Siege sighting in Canada. At Walmarts across the nation we can now find the wave of Battle Masters that includes Smashdown and the latest Micromasters with Powertrain and Highjump. Even Thundercracker was spotted in an Ontario Walmart as KIDCHUCKLE pointed out in the same forums.

When it comes to Studio Series, the voyagers Long Haul and KSI Boss were found at Walmart and leader DOTM Optimus Prime is now shipping from amazon.ca. This makes Canada up to date on all Siege toys before the final wave and all the Studio Series toys of 2019.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Isn't the final wave of battlemasters Singe and Rung and not Smashdown?

Yes, will correct.

I don't know the business, so I don't know why this is, but Hasbro needs to do a better job of getting these in the hands of U.S. collectors sooner. Why are these and Ratchet out at Canadian retail but not even a peep from U.S. sellers? As far as I know, Barricade has not even gone up for pre-order anywhere yet, including Hasbro Pulse. I'm also getting pretty tired of the exclusives; Target is the worst by far what with the RED Card exclusive Redwing, followed by Walgreens and their lack of any information regarding Ratchet, then Walmart (a store I just hate walking into because every one of them has the same rancid hot dog smell).

Completely disagree; Hasbro has a lot more control over this.

If Walmart isn't playing by the rules, then stop giving them exclusives.

If you think Hasbro had zero say in Redwing being a RED Card exclusive when it was so prominently advertised on their site, you're delusional. Of course they had a say in that. Target had to get the OK for that from Hasbro.

EB Games in Canada has Ratchet available. Walgreens could do the same. Again, if EB Games is somehow not playing by the rules, then Hasbro should stop giving them exclusives.

And I believe, but hey I could be wrong here, that Hasbro has complete say on what Hasbro Pulse does. They could be at least putting Barricade up for pre-order. They could offer us a special paid membership tier that gave us direct access to exclusives so that we don't have to step foot in Walgreens, Target, EB, Walmart, or any other brick and mortar location. Less cost, fewer middlemen that way. It is 2019 after all, it's idiotic not to provide this as a service to die hard collectors.

mattysan wrote:Completely disagree; Hasbro has a lot more control over this.

If Walmart isn't playing by the rules, then stop giving them exclusives.

Hmm, so lets see, toy sales and sections of stores in general have been shrinking for years, and there are limited brick and mortar stores that will even carry those toys nowadays. In the US it is basically Walmart or Target with Walgreens sort of in a distant third place nationally. Sure there are some regional chains like Meijer, or dissappearing chains like K-mart in there as well.

And your solution for Hasbro to start getting toys to be released on their desired schedule is to cut off the largest chain that will carry their products from exclusives? Sure, lets cut ourselves off at the knees with Walmart, the largest retailer, makes sense.

mattysan wrote:If you think Hasbro had zero say in Redwing being a RED Card exclusive when it was so prominently advertised on their site, you're delusional. Of course they had a say in that. Target had to get the OK for that from Hasbro.

Do you actually have any facts to back this up, or just speculation? It has been a number of years since Target had any exclusives, and with TRU now out of the way, Hasbro needs other retailers like Target to pick some of these up. If I was in Hasbro's place, I'd want the second largest retailer in the US to want to carry my exclusives much more that I would worry about butthurt fans complaining about the method Target want to sell them.

mattysan wrote:EB Games in Canada has Ratchet available. Walgreens could do the same. Again, if EB Games is somehow not playing by the rules, then Hasbro should stop giving them exclusives.

You are completely lost here. EB is doing nothing wrong, they are providing the products when they are ready for release. It is Walgreens that is delaying putting Ratchet out until they reset their toy section for the holidays. It has been this way every year from TR Brainstorm, the TR clones though PotP Wreck Gar last year and will be the same this year. Your butthurt on Canada getting Ratchet first shouldn't be aimed at EB or Hasbro, but rather Walgreens. Next you will probably say they shoudl pull the exclusives from Walgreens. While I would prefer that personally, it would be a terrible business move for Hasbro to cut of any retailer outlet in today's market.

mattysan wrote:And I believe, but hey I could be wrong here, that Hasbro has complete say on what Hasbro Pulse does. They could be at least putting Barricade up for pre-order. They could offer us a special paid membership tier that gave us direct access to exclusives so that we don't have to step foot in Walgreens, Target, EB, Walmart, or any other brick and mortar location. Less cost, fewer middlemen that way. It is 2019 after all, it's idiotic not to provide this as a service to die hard collectors.

Do you understand the draw for having an exclusive product in your store as a retailer? If someone can only get this product in my store or on my website, then it increases the chance of me selling them something else from my store that they could get from my competition.

Hasbro wants to be able to sell products in as many ways and locations as possible and that requires working with your retail outlet partners, not working against them just to please die hard collectors. There are a hell of a lot more opportunities and potential customers at regular retail than there are die hard collectors. Plus, they also know the die hard collectors will be much more likely to jump through a few hoops to get the exclusives we want than the general public would be to get the basic product at regular retail. So navigating this from Hasbro's point of view requires throwing your retailers a few bones to their retail partners on exclusives.

Did it suck signing up for a RedCard? For sure
Will it suck waiting for November for Ratchet? It will
Is a bunch of pissing and moaning from die hard fans (who apparently don't understand the retail environment) going to change anything? Big fat nope

bvzxa wrote:TBH Hasbro is notorious for bad distribution for a long, long time. During the Unicron Trilogy it was rampant especially during the lasts waves of Energon. TF Prime toys had terrible distro during the release of the First Editions that showed up all over Canada and trickled down to TRU in the States later on. Does Hasbro have control over distro? Yes!! It sucks but the way it is it will always be that way because it's Hasbro.

Of course the last thing a toy company wants to do is sell their toys to consumers, hence why they go out of their way with this distribution to make sure you guys dont get your toys.