My Blind Bag Prediction (Wave and Stock)

[MaronaPossessed]

I think this is what is gonna happen. There will still be Wave 3 made since Wave 1 is still being stocked. There will still be Wave 4 as well being made. So basically, all USA versions are still in the making.

Wave 5 is already in some European areas. Wave 2 isn't out in the usa...my prediction?

About a year or two, Hasbro will release two new waves. The Wave 2 that never made it in America, and the new Wave 5. Same time just like Wave 3 and Wave 4.

Going by the pattern here...is my pattern wrong?

[ShortyBoo]

It's hard to say at this point. It does seem like they're trying to move things along since they released wave 3 & 4 at the same time because they're finally aware that these will sell in the US. I really do hope that wave 2 makes it here eventually because I still need four of them.

[emery]

My Walmarts have had Wave 1 and now have Wave 4. I never saw Wave 2 but I found empty packets of Wave 3 that people had stolen the ponies out of.

[hathorcat]

Unfortunately if Hasbro have moved on to wave 5, they will not still be manufacturing earlier waves - these are clearly a profitable product for them but manufacturing over 125 unique blind bag characters simultaneously is unlikely.

Blind bags were not intended for the US market - they were a Hasbro UK/Euro/Aus product and they were initially getting only international releases with the US getting more "ponyville" style products. As such they are not a Hasbro US product, they are a Hasbro UK/Euro product. Hasbro US will be stocking and supplying retailers what they can source. Initially this was Wave 1 and now the product has moved on to Wave 4 and Wave 5 - because the US was so far behind Wave 2 may simply no longer have been available to stock therefore they jumped to the wave which was readily available. The same happened already in the UK when retailers started carrying blind bags so late that Hasbro were already past Wave 1 and Wave 2 and we started on Wave 3. Remember no matter the wave Hasbro consider Blind Bags all the same item - just that Wave 3 is more "recent" version of the same product as Wave 2.

So far in the US waves have been getting a split - Wave 3 is US 2012 Wave 1 and Wave 4 is US 2012 Wave 2. Wave 5 in theory should therefore become US 2013 Wave 1 and then no doubt another wave will have come along to join them all - we have certainly seen enough potentially new blind bags floating around.

[Bag of Magic Food]

What about those Wave 2 ponies that are set to come in that upcoming Pony Friends Forever Friendship Celebration Collection box?

[hathorcat]

Thats a sealed "ponyville" style pack with a selection of characters in it. They will have been produced and boxed for that set.

[Eternia]

I still haven't seen wave 3 or 4

[Bag of Magic Food]

Thats a sealed "ponyville" style pack with a selection of characters in it. They will have been produced and boxed for that set.

But if they were able to go and bring back those few Wave 2 characters for it...

[NoPonySpecial]

I wish they would send us Wave 2. It might even make sense for them. I mean, think about all the people shelling out money for them on eBay. Now, would Hasbro rather that people overseas get that money, or they do? Or is my whole argument invalid because in order to sell them on eBay, people would have to buy them from Hasbro first? Well, my point is people in the US would buy them!

[hathorcat]

Thats a sealed "ponyville" style pack with a selection of characters in it. They will have been produced and boxed for that set.

But if they were able to go and bring back those few Wave 2 characters for it...

They werent "going back" though - that set was first seen on Taobao about 6 months ago which means it was well past the production stage - at this point Wave 2 blind bags were still available. There is a difference in creating the set at the end of a line and going back a year after the line is finished to start again. Plus as mentioned - different products. TRU are having a set which they can charge $25 for - one nice easy product which no doubt will turn a better profit margin than selling 12 individual blind bags. And of course non of the factories in China actually belong to Hasbro they are all third party suppliers - they use over 30 different companies [each with 1 to 3 factories] to supply their product and this means these TRU products are probably getting made at a different location than the actual blind bags themselves.