Hasbro's masterpiece strategy is so frustrating

[General Tekno]

Not to mention the exchange rate's the best it's been in years.

[Protoman]

Originally Posted by CobraCommander

Dude... just get the Takara releases. The price difference is more but at least your chances of getting them is better.

This.

[Darth Cylon]

Question: If TRU Canada can not sell Hasbro MP in QC due to all English packaging, would you have trouble ordering Takara MP from a Japanese online sellers like HLJ and Amimi since the packaging is mostly Japanese except for key words like TRANSFORMERS MASTERPIECE and the characters' name?

[herooftheday316]

Yes, I guess I will. Sideswipe and Red Alert were a lesson learned.
I guess I just don't get the TRU exclusivity. If they would make it exclusive to say, BBTS, they would be able to charge 50$ easily as the site is made for "collectors". I get that pricing in brick and mortar stores is more complicated but that is why an online or shared exclusive makes more sense than terrible distribution like with TRU.

I also thought that in the day Tak and Hasbro shared the price of the engineering because it was intended to be released in both markets. I assume that is no longer the case?

-Mike

[brr-icy]

meh, i don't bother with hasbro mps, if i find them, great, i've had a couple people help me out in getting them in the past which was great, but in the end, saving a few bucks on a couple is nothing compared with the extra i'll have to spend on the others once they're sold out and i waited

[herooftheday316]

Originally Posted by Darth Cylon

Question: If TRU Canada can not sell Hasbro MP in QC due to all English packaging, would you have trouble ordering Takara MP from a Japanese online sellers like HLJ and Amimi since the packaging is mostly Japanese except for key words like TRANSFORMERS MASTERPIECE and the characters' name?

No not at all. The law is only applied to stores that have actual retail stores. On line is not accounted for in the law. Also, if a store had physical stores in the rest of Canada and not Quebec they could ship here also. As soon as you plant a store in QC even your online sales become subject to the law.

Fun times! I can order from TRU.com but not TRU.ca. Awesome sauce

[CobraCommander]

I also had that sour experience with MP Sideswipe, I had to dish out and pay con prices for him

There's always hoping they do a re-release, cause I would love to have a 2nd one for display.

Originally Posted by brr-icy

blah blah...

OT: Dude, that picture of all the cassettes in your signature is so sexy!

[herooftheday316]

Originally Posted by CobraCommander

OT: Dude, that picture of all the cassettes in your signature is so sexy!

Very true. Going to need some Double Ds to hold all them tapes :P

[Msol]

Originally Posted by Protoman

Keep in mind Masterpiece toys are made for the Japanese exclusively, it's totally up to Hasbro at that point if they want to import anything.

When we get a MP WHATEVER it does not mean it was created with the intent of a Stateside release.

This is absolutely false. Hasbro doesn't "import" Masterpiece figures any more than they imported Car Robots.

If that was true then Hasbro's MP OP would have been the same colour as Takara's.

What's more likely is that Hasbro has an agreement with Takara to not release their own version of MPs until Takara has sold through their product runs. That way Takara gets guaranteed MP sales from North Americans who don't know if the MP will be released later for a much lower price by Hasbro.

I can tell you right now that if I knew Hasbro was going to release MP Prime back in 2011 I would have cancelled my Takara pre-order. Same thing today: Takara doesn't want me cancelling by Prowl pre-order tomorrow if Hasbro announces they're releasing him for $40 today.

[thebobkat]

Originally Posted by herooftheday316

I also thought that in the day Tak and Hasbro shared the price of the engineering because it was intended to be released in both markets. I assume that is no longer the case?

-Mike

I think that's still the case for any standard/mass market retail figures they explicitly plan on releasing to both markets, but as someone else pointed out in the thread, it looks like the Masterpiece line is mostly a Tak-Tomy thing and Hasbro cherry picks from the line based on what they think would sell and can get licensing approval to release.