darkSpyro

I hate when this happens. One country has a store, that gets a special variant. Here in Canada, we dont have Target ( or atleast on Vancover Island we dont) or Big W (or whatever its called), so were out with Jade Flashwing, Granite Crusher, GITD Fright Rider, and possibly Polar Whirlwind. Same with a single pack of Dark Spyro, we never got that. Or Scarlet Ninjini, we may NEVER get that! But its not just Canada. I think the US never got Legendary LC Chill.
Somebody needs to do something about this.
I would make a petition, but I don't think those go over very well.
I also would like to point out that I spent $40 on GITD fright rider.
Geez Activision, Do something about this!

The thing is, Activision doesn't have any reason to make exclusives more readily available; that's part of what drives their hype and business.

I know that nobody wants to hear this, but if it's not worth the price, don't buy it. And if you're a collector, you just might have to be ready to spend a pretty penny.

Quote: granitecrusher

I think the US never got Legendary LC Chill.

The US got LLC Chill. She was released at TRU last weekend.

it's not just the variants not being sold in places, the waves overdue aswell.

I'm in NZ and we don't get ANY variants, not even legendaries, and waves come out like a month after they have been released to the US!

We didn't even get WHAM-SHELL! I had to get him off eBay.

I would be majorly annoyed if I lived in a non-us country about skylanders. On the plus side though, NZ is beautiful, Canada is awesome, and I am jealous.

Also, Moondrake's avatar is fantastic. Duckaos for the win.

I honestly don't foresee a petition to Activision changing much.

Releasing certain characters only in certain regions is part of what drives the hysteria and demand and hype, and the manufacturer knows it.
The manufacturer knows that some people are "completionists" ... meaning that once their collection is "complete" (in their eyes), those people tend to move on to some other new hobby/addiction.

In other words, it's in the manufacturer's best interest to keep you wanting ... at least on a handful of characters. Hate to sound crass, but ... deal with it. If you truly can not sleep at night because you don't have immediate or easy access to every single Skylander character, then either pony-up and pay top dollar for those few items you're "missing", or just be satisfied with what you do have.

I hate that other countries get screwed on releases, it feel like being a gamer in the SNES/Genesis days when we would wait forever for fantastic games that came out in Japan. I'm actually glad that some have gotten a few releases first other than us, it is only fair.

In the end, I'm pretty certain the US will get Polar Whirlwind and Scarlet Ninjini. There are many reason why, covered over and over elsewhere - but right now we are considering lack of information to be real information despite TFB having a history of not being predictable. Yes, I ordered a Scarlet Ninjini and would order a Polar if I could get it at retail with reasonable shipping like I did with Scarlet. It isn't because I don't think it will come here, it's just because can check it off the list and not have to hunt it later. We open all of our Skylanders (I had a pinch of guilt seeing Ninjini's discarded box in the trash can with spaghetti sauce all over it), so I don't really care about hook style.

I don't think you can count Dark Spyro or GiTD Fright Rider as the US missing out - we got a Dark Spyro and FR isn't an in game variant. As a matter of fact, I think it would be awesome if they released non-in-game variants in specific regions. I don't mean chase variants, but things like GiTD Fright Rider just as a thank you to fans in that region. Sure it would drive the mega collectors crazy, but as long as kids can get the in-game ones anywhere it would be fine. After all, what's a good wall of Skylanders without some that you can't just go down to TRU and pick up? And what's wrong with people in other regions getting something special?

Royal Double Trouble, well he is an oddity. He is squarely aimed at mobile games (one of the few variants that appear in all of them), has a Series 1 model but Series 2 innards. Given the mobile pack isn't that popular it would be hard to court an exclusive at this point. They can always send out a single later, but who knows if there is enough profit to justify another run of the old model figure for a non-primary market. And you can't really do an exclusive deal in the US for him because they already did that with Gamestop.

If memory serves me right:
Granite Crusher exclusive to Target US, Tesco UK and Smyths IRL
Dark Spyro* single Smyths IRL, Tesco UK, Media Markt EUR
GITD Fright Rider exclusive to JB Hifi AUS (had to buy a starter pack to get it) and Argos UK
Jade Flashwing exclusive to Target US
Polar Whirwind exclusive to Media Markt EUR
Scarlet Ninjini exclusive to Amazon.de and Toys R Us Netherlands
Molten Hotdog exclusive to Wal Mart US
Royal Double Trouble exclusive to GameStop US
The Sidekicks exclusive to Frito Lays promo US and GameStop US

*Do remember that Dark Spyro is available everywhere in the SA Starter Pack, just buy it (in a sale) and sell/trade in what you don't want.

Yes the whole figure distribution sucks bum, but Activision don't care. All they care about is making more crummy FPS games for people to learn to kill each other on - sigh.


The Skylanders Store in Copenhaugen is shut, it shut a week earlier than originally planned at the request of the host shopping Center. How do I know this? Because I was there the Monday of the "final" week. So in reality the store couldn't have been that good, you don't force close a shop that doing well...

Granite Crusher - Media Markt Germany (That's where I got mine)
Molten Hotdog - Gamestop.de

As of now, the Sidekicks and Royal Double Trouble were the only figures not available in Germany. Along with the Volcanic Vault.

Activision cares plenty about Skylanders, as evidenced by their sales numbers. However, the variants are very lucrative, because they mean exclusive contracts. Stores pay big money for those, then they help Activision by advertising them for them. Walmart wants you to come in to buy a Molten Hot Dog, then pick up a couple DVDs, a blender and some towels while you are there- that's why they do them. The big downfall here is Activision/TFB now know this and they went crazy with them this go around - and they want us to buy them, but they hold them until they get a store to pony up for the exclusive. Skylanders is big overseas, but not as big as it is here in the US - and therefore you have stores less likely to do the exclusives, especially since many of the stores are not Europe wide.

The average kid isn't going to get all of the figures, and definitely not all the variants. They would like to, but their parents won't go for it. As collectors, we want them all, and the mega collectors want them all both in box and out (or multiple of each). We are not and never will be the lion's share of the buyers of the figures. As long as all of the main figures are available everywhere, the majority of the fans are perfectly happy. If ALL of the variants do not come out in ALL of the regions, sure it might upset the Gamemasters in those regions - but the kids are perfectly fine. And if Activision can't get the contract to pay the money for an exclusive run of a figure, it is no big hit on the bottom line.

I shudder to think of their variant plans with game 3. They already have 56 unique figures planned for Swap Force. You know many of those will have in game variants.

Gamestop has Nordic* exclusives on
Granite Crusher
Molton Hot Dog
Jade Flashwing

Toys R Us and BR Toys are sharing their exclusives in Sweden and currently have
Scarlet Ninjini

*Nordic being Sweden, Norway & Finland AFAIK. It could also include Denmark but I'm not certain

What I don't get is that in Australia we seem to get plenty of the merchandise like puzzles and plush toys etc, but for some unknown reason we are not getting the figures?

When I go to Sydney, I hope to buy as many variants as possible!

Quote: mantez

What I don't get is that in Australia we seem to get plenty of the merchandise like puzzles and plush toys etc, but for some unknown reason we are not getting the figures?

THIS. It's frustrating.
I shudder when I see the Mega Bloks sets and plushies at my stores.

Well right now the US is in a pickle. ()

Quote: ZapNorris

Well right now the US is in a pickle. ()

This is funny due to Polar being the only other varient I want with Molten.

I keep trying to tell people, but I guess we will see what happens. I've never had a thought before, about any figure staying exclusive overseas. However, if it isn't Polar and Scarlet, it will be Polar or Scarlet.

Something is just giving me a feeling I haven't felt before when it comes to the release of figures.

Time will tell...

It just kills me that the US gets variants that cannot be gotten elsewhere, but here in Canada the best we get is ONE variant that we only got BEFORE the States. Weeee, we got LLC Chill first. So what? She's available in America now, we lost our big advantage. Doesn't seem fair.

(YES, I know Skylanders is made in the States, so it's logical the States gets priority. Doesn't change the fact that I wish Canada got access to everything).

At least we're getting Target here, but I live in one of the biggest cities in North America, and our earliest Target will only be opening in Fall 2013. By then Swap Force will be out or almost, Giants will be old news by then! And all this messing around with releases makes me feel like giving Swap Force a big miss.

Hey now, Canada got Legendary Stealth Elf first too ...

Quote: Hot Dog 542

it's not just the variants not being sold in places, the waves overdue aswell.

I'm in NZ and we don't get ANY variants, not even legendaries, and waves come out like a month after they have been released to the US!

We didn't even get WHAM-SHELL! I had to get him off eBay.

Yeah the only skylanders variant I have seen in NZ are

GITD Fright Rider - JB Hi Fi, have to buy starter pack to get it

USA never got dark spyro single or GLITD Fright Rider and Polar Whirlwind the only ones i want

Right now it's other countries turn to get first picks. We got SSA and most Giants before them. Have patience with them. (Really wish stone skylanders were not rare)

Quote: Sleepy0429

USA never got dark spyro single or GLITD Fright Rider and Polar Whirlwind the only ones i want

None of those are exactly readily available, genius...

• Dark Spyro Single was released in so few areas it isn't even worth discussion (Plus, you DID get it at a gametour, AND you have him in 3DSSA Pack so it isn't like you can't get him at all [*cough**cough*])
  
• GITD Fright Rider hasn't been restocked for a long while
  
• Polar is in VERY FEW AREAS and will probably be in the US by the 15th next month

Think about the people who get NO benefits like Australians and NZers. Not just the ones lucky enough to live in Norway who stumbled across Polar first.

Also, please explain how this might compensate for us completely missing out on WERDS, FlockSmash, Sidekicks, the GITD 3DS Starter, GlowBoom and Royal.

Polar and Scarlett won't stay exclusive to other countries outside the US. They may hold them off until Swap Force comes out, but leading up to that release, there's no point in not releasing them as they'll have the new game with new variants.

They are probably holding them off so they can see what they could raise the price to. No way would they hold them off till sap force

You people aren't missing out. Variants are SUPER hard to find.

Quote: Zook

Polar and Scarlett won't stay exclusive to other countries outside the US. They may hold them off until Swap Force comes out, but leading up to that release, there's no point in not releasing them as they'll have the new game with new variants.

Why in the world would they do something like that?

I'm from Canada as well, but we have a target opening at West Edmonton Mall very very soon and so I'll be purchasing Jade Flashwing as soon as it opens.

Often, we do get the shorter end of the stick (none of my local Walmarts have received MHD yet), but I'm a patient collector who doesn't mind making purchases online.

Quote: Loloichi

I'm from Canada as well, but we have a target opening at West Edmonton Mall very very soon and so I'll be purchasing Jade Flashwing as soon as it opens.

Often, we do get the shorter end of the stick (none of my local Walmarts have received MHD yet), but I'm a patient collector who doesn't mind making purchases online.

Im on the east coast of Canada and our targets wont open for a while, as our zellers stores are still open for the most part. But I did get molten hotdog on Friday! so im glad I waited for him. But my jade flashwing that I ordered off ebay came in a crushed package so I was forced to open it...the box they packed it in was too small and even though they swear it wasn't on purpose it totally was.

Europe, italy.
At gamestop they have tons of molten hot dog.
On another general store i got jade flashwing.
I hope they follow the trend and let me get a polar whirlwind.

Be thankful your country even sells Skylanders through official sources!

I will kidnap Bobby Kotkic if Scarlet Ninjini doesn't come to the american Amazon.