Masterpiece Grimlock confirmed for UK!

Pretender Skywarp wrote:Now, the real question is why do TRU know that they are stocking this, but Hasbro-UK don't know that they are selling it to them

Maybe TRU decided to bypass Hasbro UK and try working with people that know their arse from their elbow?

Ok, now they are positively taking the pi$$ and I will give serious consideration to never buying another UK sourced TF product again;

Following my exchange with TRU, I sent;

Pretender Skywarp wrote:
Dear Hasbro,

As a long time fan of the Transformers Franchise, I often look to try to purchase new products whenever they are available.

I am very interested in the Masterpiece Grimlock figure, but you were unable to answer my query. I have since contacted a leading UK toy retailer who have confirmed they will be carrying the item want. How do they know they are carrying it, but you don’t know that you are supplying it to them?

The state of Transformers distribution in the UK is very poor, we get incomplete lines, and missing waves. It is often easier for UK fans to import the equivalent Takara product or US sourced items form Ebay sellers. Often at a similar price to the RRP.

Why is the UK market treated so poorly?

Regards,

Steve.

They responded with (and I kid you not);

Hasbro UK wrote:
Dear Steve,

Thank you for your recent email to Hasbro UK Ltd regarding our products.

With reference to the comments you made with regards to the item, these have been noted and will be forwarded to our Marketing Department. We would like to thank you once again for taking the time to write to us as we welcome our customers' comments and suggestions, as they are invaluable for future improvements.

May we thank you for contacting Hasbro and if we can be of any further assistance, either now or in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind Regards,
Katharine
ASK HASBRO
Hasbro UK Ltd
00800 22427276

Pretty much a word-for-word cut and paste of what they sent to Mykltron a few emails ago. To say that I am fuming about being treated with such contempt by a company that I am TRYING TO GIVE MY MONEY TO IN A RECESSION, is a fudging understatement

They have not attemtpted to enagage the consumer in any reasonable dialogue and have blatantly put this issue in the "too difficult" box.

You don't want anything to do with me Hasbro UK, well guess what? The feelings mutual. Takara, Ebay sellers and UK-based importers will be seeing most of my businees from now on. I will avoid you wherever possible[-(

*sigh*
I guess it's back to good old importing.

A while back I sent the following email to Hasbro:

Mykltron wrote:Thank you for your reply, but it doesn't even attempt to answer my question. Can you please explain WHY Europe gets Transformers *so much later* than the US? It's not as if shipping them takes a long time like it did 500 hundred years ago. We got the first wave of Revenge Of The Fallen toys at the same time as everywhere else but then later releases in that line have *still* not shown up here. Why is this? It's ridiculous and we, the British Transformers collectors, are *very* frustrated by it. Please explain why we have to wait so long.

The update: no f-ing reply.

Pretender Skywarp wrote:Ok, now they are positively taking the pi$$ and I will give serious consideration to never buying another UK sourced TF product again;

Following my exchange with TRU, I sent;

Pretender Skywarp wrote:
Dear Hasbro,

As a long time fan of the Transformers Franchise, I often look to try to purchase new products whenever they are available.

I am very interested in the Masterpiece Grimlock figure, but you were unable to answer my query. I have since contacted a leading UK toy retailer who have confirmed they will be carrying the item want. How do they know they are carrying it, but you don’t know that you are supplying it to them?

The state of Transformers distribution in the UK is very poor, we get incomplete lines, and missing waves. It is often easier for UK fans to import the equivalent Takara product or US sourced items form Ebay sellers. Often at a similar price to the RRP.

Why is the UK market treated so poorly?

Regards,

Steve.

They responded with (and I kid you not);

Hasbro UK wrote:
Dear Steve,

Thank you for your recent email to Hasbro UK Ltd regarding our products.

With reference to the comments you made with regards to the item, these have been noted and will be forwarded to our Marketing Department. We would like to thank you once again for taking the time to write to us as we welcome our customers' comments and suggestions, as they are invaluable for future improvements.

May we thank you for contacting Hasbro and if we can be of any further assistance, either now or in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind Regards,
Katharine
ASK HASBRO
Hasbro UK Ltd
00800 22427276

Pretty much a word-for-word cut and paste of what they sent to Mykltron a few emails ago. To say that I am fuming about being treated with such contempt by a company that I am TRYING TO GIVE MY MONEY TO IN A RECESSION, is a fudging understatement

They have not attemtpted to enagage the consumer in any reasonable dialogue and have blatantly put this issue in the "too difficult" box.

You don't want anything to do with me Hasbro UK, well guess what? The feelings mutual. Takara, Ebay sellers and UK-based importers will be seeing most of my businees from now on. I will avoid you wherever possible[-(

They often 'pass the comment to the marketing department'. I think they mean 'dustbin'.

Here's an idea: LET'S ALL TRY PHONING THEM!

According to the reply sent to Pretender Skywarp their phone number is 00800 22427276 although I'm suspicious about the number of zeros at the beginning. Let's give it a shot!

Hasbro uk/europe has always advertised products which they have not solf, during the ehad master and pretender days they always just threw in the us posters and advertisements thus teasing you with swoop shockwave, fort max etc.


its cheaper to have the same posters put in the packaging in china/vietnam than to create whole new ones for a subline ina different market.

Some tiems its easier just to use people like 3darths and kapow toys to fill the gaps.

I appreciate the problem, I still have gaps in some of my lines and i got a rather large collection for a UK collector.

The deluxe listing at Argos is very vague. I think you'll be lucky to find anything aside from ROTF stuff unfortunately.

Saw (and bought) Drift and Thrust in Smyths in Cardiff today - looks like Generations are slowly making their way to shops.

My plan is to try and get the first few waves in UK shops before resorting to BBTS/Ebay for the later stuff - yes Hasbro UK are crap, but there's nothing quite as exciting as finding the figures in store.

Yeah the TRU near me is just as bad - it's still got the early Universe Ultras - Powerglide and Silverbolt, they've must have been out for almost 2 years now.

Maybe no-one's ever explained to the managers of UK toyshops (and in particular TRU), how you get different figures in different waves, it seems to me that the early waves sell well so they order more, not realising that if they just waited a bit for the later waves they'd get repeat customers.

Slightly off topic, Drift is awesome!!!

Pretender Skywarp wrote:Where did you pick him up? Bricks and Mortar or on the Web?

Got him in person at Smyths in Cardiff - I just had a look at their website, they only have a few stores across the country. Most seem to be in Northern Ireland and Greater London, with quite a few opening soon.

Pretender Skywarp wrote:Out of interest how much were they charging?

£9.99

I was particularly happy cos I was thinking I would probably cave in and get one at my local Forbidden Planet (and so pay more), but no sign of them there yet.