For us Europeans, "waves" used to not work quite like they do in the US. US waves usually consist of "new figures plus some extras of the old ones from the previous wave(s)". Conversely, for the longest time, European "waves" tended to consist solely of "new" figures, without any "repeats".

This could have both good and bad results. If the wave 1 figures are still clogging pegs, stores sure don't want even more of them. But if there's too little variety in a wave, it could also result in royal pegwarmers... I'm looking at you, 2007 Movie Deluxe Swindle and Bonecrusher.

But the most baffling phenomenon is the "solid case wave". I'm not talking about the pipe dream of many a fan, i.e. solid cases of individual figures that could be ordered by stores on an individual basis. No siree, I'm talking about cases containing nothing but multiples of the same figure shipping as a wave in what's supposed to be a multi-wave assortment. So if the store is out of, say, Armada Max-Cons, they order more... and get Scavengers. Nothing but Scavengers. We all remember those days.

Recently, things have changed. European waves are much more likely to have the same case assortments as their US counterparts, which means "repeats" of older figures that debuted in previous waves are a thing over here as well now. I'd say it started with... Beast Hunters? That was at least when I started to notice the change.

Meanwhile, the US now also gets "only new figures, no repeats" waves on occasion. Combiner Wars does it a lot.

However, even though it's now very likely for us Europeans to get the same case assortments as the rest of the world, we do still get the odd "Euro Special" wave.

Wave 2 of the 2014 "Classic" Legions consisted of Grimlock (Beast Hunters Rippersnapper redeco), Strafe (Beast Hunters Windrazor redeco), Megatron (2008 Universe Megatron re-release), plus more of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Starscream from wave 1. This case was released at "Dollar" stores in the US and at general retail in Australia. Both in the UK and Germany, this wave entirely omitted Megatron for unknown reasons.

This year, we had the glorious wave "1.5" or "wave 2.0" or whatever case of the RID Warriors... a solid case consisting of eight Drifts. From what I've been told, this case was available at The Entertainer stores in the UK for a while before Optimus Prime showed up, and I've personally photographed the following little parade at multiple Karstadt department stores here in Germany (plus one Galeria Kaufhof department store):


I've also been told that Hungary initially only got Warrior Optimus Prime but no Drift...? Wuh...?!?

Now, we did eventually get a "proper" wave 2 case containing 3x Optimus Prime, 2x Drift, 2x Strongarm and 1x Steeljaw, followed by a regular wave 3 case (Sideswipe and Jazz, with more of Optimus Prime and Drift) and a regular wave 4 case (Night Ops Bumblebee and Gold Armor Grimlock, with more of Sideswipe, Jazz, Optimus Prime and Drift). This week, I found wave 5 (Megatronus, Fracture, Alpine Strike Optimus Prime and Night Strike Bumblebee) at multiple Galeria Kaufhof department stores and Toys"R"Us stores. Since most stores only had a few figures (and none even had a complete set), I cannot say for sure what the case assortment is.


Meanwhile, there's Combiner Wars. As the UK folks among us will most likely know, wave 2 of every CW size class was infamously skipped at European retail. This means no Blackjack, no Huffer, no Air Raid, no Breakdown, no Dead End, no Offroad, no Motormaster and no Thundercracker. Instead, after six months of nothing but wave 1 figures, we skipped straight to wave 3 with the Protectobots plus Viper, Warpath and Cyclonus. Wave 4 of the Legends followed soon afterwards. On top of that, the UK skipped wave 3 of the Legends as well and only got Groove and Warpath as part of wave 4 (2x Rodimus, 2x Skywarp, 2x Groove and 2x Warpath). While that case was also released in Germany, we did at least get a "proper" wave 3 case (3x Groove, 3x Warpath and 2x Viper). Recently, wave 4 of the Deluxes (Prowl, Ironhide, Sunstreaker and Mirage) has popped up in the UK and Germany. All is as it should be...

... but then there are two more apparent "Euro Special" waves. All of these are not officially confirmed by distributor case breakdowns, but are only based on my personal observations at multiple stores; but then, the patterns are too similar across the board for it to be nothing more than one giant coincidence.

First, the Voyagers. In the US, wave 4 debuts Battle Core Optimus Prime and also includes another shipment of Motormaster, specifically the "improved" version with fixed hip joints.

I found multiple Battle Core Optimus Primes at two different chains (Karstadt department stores and Toys"R"Us stores) as well as at an "independent" store (Spielzeug-Paradies Wagner, which is part of the "Idee + Spiel" trade association). Some stores had a lone Battle Core Optimus Prime, and those that had additional figures always had Hot Spot. But never Motormaster.


So my conclusion is that the "Euro Special" wave 4 case contains Battle Core Optimus Prime and Hot Spot instead of Motormaster.

The other "Euro Special" wave is a Legends Class case that contains... Blackjack. Yes, a wave 2 figure that had previously been skipped. But not Huffer. While there is a wave 4 "revision" case in the US that contains Blackjack, Groove, Rodimus and Skywarp (two of each), this is not quite what I've observed: Seen at multiple Spiele Max stores and Karstadt department stores, all those stores also had the wave 1 figures Powerglide, Windcharger and Bombshell, which had gone from the Spiele Max stores' shelves months ago, and had never been available at those Karstadt stores before at all. Also present were Rodimus and Skywarp. In some instances, those might have been leftovers from a regular wave 4 case... but at least one of the Karstadt stores previously only had wave 3 rather than wave 4!


So my conclusion is that the "Euro Special" wave 4 revision case most likely contains Blackjack, Powerglide, Windcharger, Bombshell, Rodimus and Skywarp.

 

Combiner wars is the first line to have all new figures in each "wave" (in the modern era*) presumably because they want even numbers of every figure out there. The only exception is that one case that had 3 airialbots and drag strip (and we later figured out its sister case with 3 stunticons and the other airialbot was never released). After Combiner wars, all the lines will go back to the "a few new figures with carry forwards of old figures" type of cases.

The solid cases are new from last year. Initially they solicited solid cases for every figure but then they didn't end up actually making all of them, presumably when some figure's cases didn't get enough orders (as we saw when the comic stunticons never came out). Now, however, they only list items they expect to actually get orders for (like Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma, and Stormtroopers in the 6" black series line). They did switch this up for Combiner Wars leader figures, and apparently now all of those will have solid cases, but that makes sense as they are higher priced, and move slower. They are apparently doing something similar with Voyagers, since you and I both noticed the 2x cases of them instead of 4.

These case assortments/waves are the standard for all Hasbro lines (and most other lines) where each new wave has some new figures and some old figures. Hasbro does it with literally EVERYTHING, but I know I've seen the same type of assortments with Mattel product as well, and smaller manufacturers (Jakks Pacific and the people who do the new Disney figures).

Diamond Select figures are typically only sold in solid cases, but even they are starting waves now (this month's Nightmare before Christmas figures are coming in waves, but all the Marvel Select figures were always in solid cases.)

Also, Europe gets the same case assortments offered to them that the US gets. While not every case makes it over (and occasionally they get a case that we didn't) Hasbro Europe doesn't get to make up their own assortments. You just notice different levels of stock and times that figures come in because there are less big chains in Europe and each country has its own customs rules (so things are delayed or transported differently). Smaller chains and individual stores are more likely to order directly from China like we do. If you were to look around the USA at small toy shops and comic shops you'll see the same crazy distro patterns.

*by "modern era" I mean 2000ish onward. Previous to that I have no experience with what case assortments were, but the guys who run TFWiki could probly tell you more. Its also worth noting that they (TFWiki) only list the "new" figures in a wave on their site. They don't actually break out the case assortments.

 

And to your specific examples: the Target nearest my work just got in 4x Hot Spot and 4x White Optimus, clearly they got 4 of the case you're describing. It wouldn't surprise me if there was another "legends" case we haven't seen out there as well. But that doesn't mean they're "euro special" cases, it just means there were cases offered to stores that for one reason or another BBTS and EE did not list for sale. The simplest reason for that is just that BBTS/EE already got stock of those figures and sold them, and their customer bases (collectors) aren't going to buy older figures at Christmas like parents will. So they just don't bother listing them.

There have been examples of "new/never seen" case assortments showing up at discounters in the USA (ross/TJX/etc) and even at TRU (the very late last wave of GI Joe PoC figures that showed up almost 2 years late that was all army builders).

 

I think you're mixing up something there?

The cases that did get released in the US were:

2x Skydive, 2x Alpha Bravo, 2x Firefly, 2x Dragstrip (English/French/Spanish/Portuguese packaging, collector cards instead of comics)
2x Dead End, 2x Breakdown, 2x Offroad, 2x Air Raid (English-only packaging with comics)
2x Dead End, 2x Breakdown, 2x Offroad, 1x Air Raid, 1x Dragstrip (English-only packaging with comics)

Hmm. Europe did definitely get different cases up until recently. Seriously, the "new figures plus some old ones" thing did not exist here as of a few years ago, you'd rarely ever find a figure from a previous wave at the same store that has the newest figures unless it was a shelfwarmer.

I don't doubt that the "odd" cases I keep seeing locally as of late are cases the US also gets (but aren't listed at online retailers), but that synchronicity is more of a recent affair. The infamous "4x Swindle, 4x Bonecrusher" wave of 2007 Movie Deluxes is only the most well-known example (and I know it was real because the owner of one of the major German fan sites at the time was also operating an online toy store and confirmed that this case was what Hasbro sent him), but Voyager Optimus Prime and Megatron also shipped in a wave of their own, as did Ironhide and Starscream, Leader Brawl shipped independently from the rest, Real Gear Robots had clearly divided waves with no repeats, and the same thing happened all over again with 2008 Universe and Revenge the Fallen. I'm inclined to say Animated and DOTM continued that trend, but at that time I mostly paid attention to Cyberverse. I think the first time I specifically noticed waves at local retail including older figures as well was during TF: Prime.

Meanwhile, I found no less than four RID Warrior Optimus Primes (and no other Warriors) at a MyToys store. Even the price tag on the shelf specifically points out Optimus by name! I assume this is the counterpart of the "Drift only" wave? Is this what was available in Hungary?

 

That's the case I meant, yes.

I was not aware of all those examples you're citing, so I guess it does show that they do different runs at different times. I'd be curious to see how the actual wave #s are listed on the cases (though there's no way to go back in time to tell now)

 

Because someone over at another board had the crackpot idea that the "wave 1" figures I keep seeing together with Blackjack are actually "returned to Hasbro overstock", I checked the toys I saw at several stores today:

The genuine wave 1 Legends that are still warming shelves at local Intertoys stores all have manufacturing date stamps beginning with a "4", indicating they were manufactured in 2014. Example: Bombshell has "42801".

The Blackjacks I saw today had manufacturing date stamps beginning with a "5", indicating they were manufactured in 2015; specifically, they're stamped "52511". The same applies to the Powerglide ("52411") and Windcharger ("52581") sharing a shelf with Blackjack.

Now, I have three MOSC wave 3 Decepticon Vipers and an MOSC wave 3 Groove here at my place that are all stamped "50971".

To me, this confirms that these Blackjacks, as well as the Powerglide and Windcharger that shipped with him, are brand new production runs that postdate wave 3 Viper and Groove, manufactured with the specific intention to be released in Europe, rather than some old overstock figures that Hasbro decided to dump in Europe for whatever reason.

 

Yeah, there are always people who insist X figure is "unsold overstock" but Hasbro doesn't accept returns of overstock like that (generally). 99% or retail (toy stores or otherwise) just clearance out old stock in their stores. The products are too big and bulky, the packaging is subject to damage if shipped in random boxes (and not original factory cases, etc). That's just not how its done.

I know CDs/DVDs can be shipped back for credit, and book covers can be shipped back (as unsold, but obviously since the books are disposed of and only the covers are sent to "prove" they were destroyed), but I've never seen any other type of product sent back.

 

See also: The undying urban legend that rebranded figures (unchanged figures sold in new packaging branded as part of a different line) and unchanged figures sold in multi-packs are "overstock".

A variation of the legends claims that yes, of course they're not store overstock sent back to Hasbro, but... factory overstock... wuh?

I cannot say anything about wave numbers, but there are general differences in the product code/assortment number details on the packaging labeling for figures intended for the European market. Example: Combiner Wars Voyager Class Battle Core Optimus Prime is "B2727/B0975 Asst." for America/Australia/Asia but "0315B2727EU4B0975ASST" for Europe.

You might find this thread enlightening. Or boring, I dunno.

 

Factories don't make overstock, not in any significant numbers. When you have something made in a factory there's an allowance of usually +/- 10% on the contract. So if you want to make 5,000 widgets to sell in your late night infomercial the factory can make anywhere from 4,500 to 5,500 of them and the contract is fulfilled. (they then charge you for the exact amount delivered).

So any "overstock" at the factory level is going to be a handful of figures, maybe 10-20 for smaller runs or 100 for large ones. That's how Lena3822 (or whatever her name is) and other Chinese eBay sellers get their stock. For action figures it would typically be something like this: a "case" is 2x of figures A & B, then 1x of C, D, E, & F. So lets say they're supposed to make 5,000 cases. That's 10,000 of A & B and 5,000 of the others. So if they make 10,567 of A and 10,342 of B they're going to end up with 567 & 342 left over. The might hold those for the next case if they know it'll have 1x of each of those, but after that they're going to toss them (translation: Lena takes them home).

Beyond that, I think you and I are the only people who actually enjoy digging into this stuff. I'd love to go to Hasbro and talk to their logistics/back end guys some day, but I doubt they'd tell us anything! ha.