German/EU collectors : Did Mattel speed up the releases?

[Fräulein_Kim]

Hey fellow peeps from the old world!

Today I casually ventured into TRU's MH section only to have like 50 Werecat-Fearleading-3-Packs stare back at me.. 
Also RM Clawdeens everywhere.. not only TRU but also general toy and grocery-stores had them in today.

I was honestly shocked, being just released in the US I didn't expect them to show up before April or May!
We used to be like 2-4 months behind the US with releases, sometimes even more..
But lately I noticed that dolls showed up pretty soon after they hit the US. Like a couple of weeks ago I was able to buy the Mummy/Gorgon CAMs while they weren't even out in all of the US yet!
It was the case with PD and Scaris as well. And if I am not mistaken Catrine is available in the UK for a couple of weeks already?

What do you think? Is this coincidence? Or is Mattel finally starting to get a grib on their release shedule and trying to release stuff at around the same time worldwide? (kind of like Nintendo is now starting to do with PKMN)
I wouldn't mind! Definitely wouldn't mind! xD

[Nana-Rena]

Hi!

I'm not sure if this qualifies, but here in Helsinki Finland, we got Scaris and Dance Class maybe... hmm... two weeks ago? I have also seen wave 1 Frankie, Clawdeen and Draculaura around the same time. No Rollermazes or Fearleaders yet. They aren't listed on our TRU either. I don't know about the swedes, maybe they have them already. Stuff tends to come first to Sweden before it comes to us here.

Most of the dolls ran out before Christmas, except for SS Ghoulia. After that the shelves were barren in mist places, with a few dolls here and there in stores, where people didn't realize there is a toy section. Now Suddenly abundance of Scaris. I haven't checked this week as I have been ill, but I'm heading over to one of my regular haunts tomorrow to check what they have, so I'll get back to you on my findings

[Fräulein_Kim]

We got DanceClass, Scaris Deluxe (minus Jinafire) and PictureDay in BEFORE Christmas even. It's pretty much old stock or sold out by now.. oO
Usually I'd have expected them all like two weeks ago - So at around the same time you guys got them now!
Probably Finland still has the old release shedule we germans used to have? ..I remember that I had to wait for Sig. Venus and Robecca for quite a while after they hit the US. So the changes must have been made pretty recently.

Anyways, yeah, I'm still pretty shocked. LOL. I'm so used to importing dolls or wating for a long long time that my jaw pretty much hit the floor when I saw the overflow of werecats today. xD

Post Merge: February 19, 2013, 01:52:01 PM

BTW: I'm still pretty envious, since I have NOT seen a single wave 1 re-release here yet! And I checked like ALL the stores. Makes me fear that germany won't get them, since we never got any re-release ever. (had to import Lala. :<)

[Bow Tie]

I'm in the US, but I haven't even seen the Werecat Fearleading Pack yet! I'm glad you are getting them shortly after the US though! I'm sure it was so frustrating waiting months for the new stuff that by the time you got it, it was old in the US and new stuff was already out.

[Fräulein_Kim]

Yeah I know! o_o
I know a lot of people in the US even were told by their local TRU that they won't be out before March. So I totally wasn't expecting THIS. ..I just went to grab a RM or DC Lagoona but of course they were sold out already. (WHAT? ..oh yeah, that's the downside of getting new releases out faster I gues.. x_x)
..kind of had the same jaw-dropping feeling when I saw Skelita staring back at me in person in the middle of December.

Like I said, I wouldn't mind. xD Especially now that USPS upped their shipping fees it would be great if I wouldn't have to import as much anymore.

I hope you can find the werecats soon! ..and in person. Since one of the bad things I noticed is that, in all of the 50 packs I looked at, only one had a decent Tora and Purrsephone. Meowlody is still wonk eyed, but I was looking at Tora, mostly, so I settled with two out of three being great. I know that all the TRU releases are of slightly lesser quality, but this one was especially bad. :,<

[Nana-Rena]

We haven't gotten Jinafire either! Maybe she isn't going to be released in Europe at all? Or is she in the UK or somewhere else? Sightings? I bought mine on eBay.

Fräulein-Kim: the rereleases are available at least in lekmer. It's a Danish webtoystore, but they have a Finnish site as well, maybe even a German one? Which ones are you interested in? Lekmer at least had them all last I checked.

Post Merge: February 19, 2013, 02:08:58 PM

As long as they aren't crosseyed or cyclocps, although that could be interesting too!

[Bow Tie]

We haven't gotten Jinafire either! Maybe she isn't going to be released in Europe at all? Or is she in the UK or somewhere else? Sightings? I bought mine on eBay.

Fräulein-Kim: the rereleases are available at least in lekmer. It's a Danish webtoystore, but they have a Finnish site as well, maybe even a German one? Which ones are you interested in? Lekmer at least had them all last I checked.

Post Merge: February 19, 2013, 02:08:58 PM

As long as they aren't crosseyed or cyclocps, although that could be interesting too!

There are two different cases for Scaris. There's one that doesn't include Jinafire and one that does so it looks like Jinafire is going to be harder to find. I wish you the best of luck!

@Fräulein-Kim: I don't care for the Werecats so I'm not interested in getting them. I just find it funny that I haven't seen 'em yet and they're already showing up in other countries.

[Fräulein_Kim]

Nana-Rena: I've got Jina from a friend in the US, never seen her here and like I said they've been out for two months. ;<
I'll have to check lekmer then! :>
Well, my Frankie is slightly wonk eyed and has glue seepage (since been cured with tea tree oil, tho), since back when I didn't pay enough attention to detail. And Clawdeen is TOTALLY wonk-eyed, since I bought second hand. LOL. So I am looking for replacements + another Clawdeen to repaint. Sig Clawdeen is my favourite, I've been longing to repaint one but at her current value that was impossible. LOL. ;D

That's the thing! They ARE cross-eyed. Badly. ..or have one eye much higher/lower then the other or part of the eye on the back of their noses, paint smudges, hair stuck in the paint, eye bleed, fuzzy eyes, eyes where the black in the center is basically non-existent... x_x
OK, I am picky. Very picky. But some of those dolls' paintjobs were not only 'slightly wonk eyed' but basically bait. D:


Bow Tie: Ah, that makes sense with Jinafire!
Luckily I got mine with the help from a friend, I am just surprised I never saw her around. :O
I also already have all the cats, even Tora.. I.. I just bought them for the ungloved hands and cute fearleading outfits. I'm such a fail. LOL. x_x

[Bow Tie]

I ended up finding the Werecat 3 Pack today at TRU.

[Fräulein_Kim]

I ended up finding the Werecat 3 Pack today at TRU.

Haha, yaaay! xD

I noticed that we don't have the swim dolls yet. :7 Those have been out in the US for quite a while, right?
Hm.. well, aside from TRU all the stores are pretty empty and did not get new stock for a while, so I hope that they'll show up soon. xD

[Icicle]

I didn't even see a TAG for the 3-pack at my TRU a little while back! It's good to see other places getting a speed up in distribution! Though I wish the speed up would happen around here... though that is probably mostly the fault of the stores. Which suck. A lot.

[Nana-Rena]

No swim dolls here up north either. Only Scaris, Dance Class and Dot Dead Gorgeous, which I donät really care for. No Fear Leaders either.

[LuvlyMelody]

Say what?? those sets just started showing up here, and now they're popping up over there?? Looks like Mattel is finally getting their stuff together and working on distribution other than US.

I think the Swimline started showing up in January. Should be, since I think that'ts when I found Venus there...

[Nana-Rena]

I checked my usual haunts today. Mostly Scaris and Dance Class everywhere, a couple of Ghouls Rue, but no Cleo, which I want, I did see one (!) sig Draculaura, the rerelease. Last week, or two weeks ago, the shelves were filled with them. We have the slim box Scaris dolls too and I have a Deuce now! He was the only one and in the front of one shelf, so I grabbed him immediately.

[justkitter]

I ended up finding the Werecat 3 Pack today at TRU.

Haha, yaaay! xD

I noticed that we don't have the swim dolls yet. :7 Those have been out in the US for quite a while, right?
Hm.. well, aside from TRU all the stores are pretty empty and did not get new stock for a while, so I hope that they'll show up soon. xD

The Swim dolls are being released similarlly to the DT2 dolls.  Have you ever seen those near you?  Swim aren't going to be found at TRU/Walmart/Target here   They'll be found at smaller chain stores such as Kmart/Mejier/Justice (among others.)