Great Britain & Northern Ireland Finds (Part 1)

[niftynigel]

Nigel, Do you think ichigo will be included in the current toymaster case? Ichigo has been showing up in Netherlands and Germany in this case! Xx

Mattel may misspack cases occasionally, but I don't believe that Ichigo is in case 994B.

It's likely that Europe has got the next case 994C or even maybe 994A, if there was such a case.

Where has this been reported and what else is in the European Ichigo cases?

Post a link, please ...

[Lozzi31]

http://carsthetoys.yuku.com/topic/16...N#.Uh-UimSgkkk

Here you go Nigel.... International case B - the contents show Ichigo as a new entry.....
The reports of Ichigo have spotted her on the same shelves as Boost with Flames, luigi/guido with shakers etc but no real case contents reported by the people who have spotted her (Netherlands, Germany)

IF you have Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

[niftynigel]

http://carsthetoys.yuku.com/topic/16...N#.Uh-UimSgkkk

Here you go Nigel.... International case B - the contents show Ichigo as a new entry.....
The reports of Ichigo have spotted her on the same shelves as Boost with Flames, luigi/guido with shakers etc but no real case contents reported by the people who have spotted her (Netherlands, Germany)

I had a senior moment! I supplied the info to Arbara on CTT regards cases that had come out the UK. It maybe crossed wires as the equivalent 'International' case of the US case 999L or European case 994B did include Ichigo. There are usually three versions of cardbacks, US, European/UK and other International. Holland and Germany? Any photos?

Ichigo was actually found in Malaysia on an international (not European) cardback. The European cardbacks have up to ten languages on them, but the other international cardbacks have only four.

http://www.takefiveaday.com/2013/08/...review-l-case/

In the UK, Ichigo was replaced by an extra Shu Todoroki. Quite why that was is anyone's guess.

Mattel UK originally said that there would be 12 cases to complete the 2013 singles range. That included the first case 997N, which only came out in Europe (and contained J. Curby Gremlin). Including 997N to 994B, we've had nine cases so far. There are only two more planned for the UK and Europe, so there could be a 12th?

There are three Chase cars to be released including Ichigo, so there may well be three more cases. It's unlikely that Mattel UK or Europe will treat us to two Chases in one case!

[niftynigel]

Case 994B is continuing to be delivered to stores in the UK without Ichigo. There have been a number of different date stamps on the 994B case.

There are three possible explanations (maybe more?) why Ichigo isn't in the UK case:

1). Initial supplies of the 994B case were miss-packed and an extra Shu Todoroki was packed instead of Ichigo?

2). There weren't enough Ichigo's available at the time of packing and Shuey's were available for packing, either with a view to change later in the process to revert to Ichigo or not?

3). Europe has effectively got a 'twin' or similar case, say 994A instead of 994B or maybe even a totally different case to 994B with similar contents?

Until someone actually posts a photo or photos with the an Ichigo case and it's contents, all this is pure speculation.

Mattel have done a few odd things in their time, but the whole concept of case numbers is for some form of organised releases in waves.

It's unlikely that exactly the same case would be packed with different contents for neighbouring markets. How would they tell which cases had Ichigo and which ones had an extra Shuey? When there's 1,000s of cases on the container ship being dropped off at Southampton and then Hook of Holland, it's not really that efficient for Mattel to segregate this and that!

[Bombom77]

It's Mattel. I seriously would not be surprised if they were Nigel!

[madbob]

In Mattel's eyes 'distribution' these are probably just cases and units, whats in the case is probably controlled by the planning dept alone. No one else cares what the contents are, so when planning hand over the quantities to the cases that's probably where knowledge of the contents stop. And planning probably dont release these case quantities to the buyer because majority of buyers probably dont need to know or dont ask for them.

[niftynigel]

In Mattel's eyes 'distribution' these are probably just cases and units, whats in the case is probably controlled by the planning dept alone. No one else cares what the contents are, so when planning hand over the quantities to the cases that's probably where knowledge of the contents stop. And planning probably dont release these case quantities to the buyer because majority of buyers probably dont need to know or dont ask for them.

The retailers are a lot more clued up than they are given credit for or what Mattel are willing to let on. At the beginning of the the series, Mattel sales reps lay out their 'side' of the plan from beginning to end. The retailers, especially the larger ones like Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons all sign up to the programme. This programme is subject to change due to the economic conditions mainly.

If you take the current year, from Mattel UKs perspective, it's pretty well gone to plan. OK, the UK started late and missed the first case, 997N, but we've had all eight issued since then and are on track to get the final two (or three) cases next month or into October.

Cars 2 (into 2012) was an unmitigated disaster. This was largely down to retailers ordering far too much stock pre-Christmas 2011 and getting stuck with it for months. Mattel ramped up the production to meet the demand, but low and behold, retailers were stuck with overstocks. This doesn't let Mattel off the hook though, due to poor case assortments, they contributed to this disaster. It all ended with the UK not getting the last four cars! When a major retailer orders a massive amount of cases, Mattel could've handled it better, but the 997J case was their answer to this. They should have made part of the order up with the 997K and 997L cases and we'd all have been happy! Cases 997K and 997L were cancelled as there were too many 997J in circulation.

This year has been much better. Cases have been released at regular intervals, albeit not in all parts of the UK. Mattel have tried to get the cases to as many retailers as possible, whilst trying not to duplicate. There have been some horror stories that retailers have not put cases out, hidden them or whatever. They could do better too!

We're still in August and we've seen 72 of the 79 standard singles so far. That's pretty impressive by any measure. Apart from any mystery/conspiracy surrounding the non-appearance of Ichigo in the UK, I'm confident that we'll get all 79 released over here.

[Lozzi31]

image.jpg

Nigel - can you translate this photo? Photo provided by Wesbrina (thanks so much!) in the Netherlands.

This is the back of her recent ichigo!

[niftynigel]

The date stamp 1473EAA (25 May 2013) is actually slightly earlier than the UK's current 994B case, of which the earliest (of the 50-60) I've seen was 1593EAA (8 Jun 2013).

That's 12 days before the 994B case, enough to suggest that it could be an earlier case? Maybe 994A?

For the benefit of anyone who doesn't know how the date stamp system works ...

1473EAA = 147th day of year 201(3) = 25 May 2013. EAA is the factory code.

The date ranges I have for the cases so far released in the UK are as follows (in order of being released, not compiled) ...

997R - 3272EAA - 3402EAA
997Q - 3312EAA - 3402EAA
997U - 0173EAA - 0243EAA
997P - 3132EAA - 3142EAA
997V - 0243EAA - 0303EAA
997W - 0983EAA - 1103EAA
997Y - 1133EAA - 1143EAA
994B - 1593EAA - 1633EAA

Could be ...

994A - 1473EAA

As can be seen, the date range is usually no more than one week, so 12 days suggests a different case. Quite often, Mattel assemble two cases almost simultaneously. Remember these are UK dates. The European dates maybe similar for the same case. In between, there will be US and 'other' international markets to cater for!

[Lozzi31]

Wow Nigel you are so good! Interesting reading! I'll try and get More photos for you!

[boogity]

got me a guido and luigi in ds, they also had snot rod with flames but I left that
had some nice planes stuff, must say the 2 packs are pretty good, saw ned and zed in them, must say mattel planes in comparison are quite frankly...rubbish
spoke to 3 staff, one I believe is the/a manager, she tried to make me buy planes stuff, didnt work mind, asked them if they had seen the film yet....not one of them had, I find that unbelievable, youd think walt woulda sent them along to the cinema so theyd at least know what they were selling

yet again, walt isnt as good on the old customer service as he thinks he is!

[Lozzi31]

You saw Ned and Zed in the Disney Store Two packs?!!!

GRRRR! I've been calling my local store every delivery day to see if I could get this one! What others were there? Great find Boogity!

[boogity]

think there were 10 different types of 2 packs, noticed 2 different dustys, one with crop dusting gear and one without, skipper looked really big, ned and zed looked bigger than I though too, so thats 125 quid for the lot

[boogity]

footnote to previous post, her indoors would kill me if I bought any of this stuff - period

[Lozzi31]

Wow! 10 different 2 packs? That's amazing.... I've been waiting but not very patiently for these new 2 packs at the Disney store. They only had 4 different packs before. Including El chu, Rochelle, ishani, bulldog, dusty, racing dusty, ripslinger, skipper. Ned and zed have been coming soon for months now!
Was there a chug at all? Think I'll be popping along tomorrow to my local Disney store! Thanks for the heads up Boogity!