I've been wondering lately, why do we never get the black repaints released in America? It seems like they get released over-seas all the time, but never here. One would think that with the popularity of these toys, they'd start releasing then over here, and producing them in larger numbers, so people wouldn't have to pay $100 for a $20 figure. Any thoughts?
we got Scourge and 3 or 4 Nemesis Prime's....Maybe they don't wanna overdo it here in the US? I dunno....
hey! i hear you...i live in germany...so all the good stuff never comes over here. but lets not forget universe nemesis prime (just needed an excuse to show mine off ;-)
^IMHO, I think he's talking about uber-promotion campaingn stuffs from Japan aka DVD Amazon Black ROTF Prime, Tokyo Toy Museum Black Animated Prime and the recently announced TFA Hyper hobby Black Rodimus....
But they had gotten those Black Primes which we ain't even seeing on our end. (I dunno about Malaysia but those 3 were definitely not released in Singapore so that makes 'em "exclusive" in their own rights)
Three words: shadow_blade_sideswipe. Now i can sit here and wait for chris to turn into the hulk. he will wake up tomorrow morning and look on tfw and starts the day with the seven dirty words. :
The boring answer is most likely to be, collectors' market - or, to put it another way, the difference between the market in the US & the market in Japan. Despite the impression you'd get from TF forums, Hasbro's main market is, y'know, kids - and not a minority of adult collectors. A lot of limited edition repaints really won't make much financial sense there. They'll do some along the way to please the US & European collectors (a thankless task, usually, but that's a different discussion... ), but they won't want to go overboard on it. Takara, however, has been selling to a significant, older demographic for some time now - and one more pre-disposed to "collecting", however you choose to define it. Limited editions, whether black repaints, new series (e.g. Alternity) or whatever, fit better with that approach - at least, provided they're based on established characters. They also know there is an proven export market (if small) for these limited editions. Might not be the complete answer to everything, but that plays a big part in why you get what you get in whichever country you are in.
