Brought to my attention by fellow TFW2005 member Rob_Charb, Groove is now available at retail. DaMing (HeChuan toys) is one of the four major distributors here in Taiwan. Their price of only NT$560 seems quite reasonable as the more sought after a figure is here, the higher the mark-up usually is, and not everyone was able to aquire one through the recent Toys R Us promo. Still not sure why Taiwan only has gotten all this Groove action -- but it works for me!
In case you haven't heard the news, Groove will be a "May Mayhem" online exclusive in the US like last year's Quickslinger and Brake-Neck, to be sold by pretty much every online retailer in existence. The rumored "street date" is May 24.
Hopefully this will come out much more smoothly than the previous May Mayhem figures. Shame that it's just Groove and no one else but I guess it's better than nothing.
What do you mean? I had zero trouble obtaining Quickslinger and Brake-Neck for a decent price, and I live in a country they weren't even officially available in.
Go to: In ZhongHe: 新北市中和區連城路7號 Phone: 02-2240-3343 open Mon-Sat 9:30~21:30, Sun 9:30~21:00 In JiLong: 基隆市仁二路171號 Phone: 02-2429-4368 open Mon-Sat 11:00~21:00, Sun 11:00~20:00 First sighting at retail I believe. It's available in their physical shop as well. This website is all stock that is from in-shop inventory. In the attached pic (1st post) red tags indicate regular items, green tags are limited stock (usually on sale), and brown is currently sold out.
My argument was that the seller had to have bought it at retail to sell it on amazon which would me mean that its been seen at retail about a week ago.(the retailer was based on Taiwan)
Apologies for sounding a little frustrated, but we're talking about two different things here. 1) Deluxe Groove was originally released as a Toys"R"Us exclusive promotional figure in Taiwan. This was at the time thought to be the only purchase option. 2) It was then discovered (and subsequently confirmed by Hasbro) that Groove would be made available as an "online exclusive" as part of this year's "May Mayhem" event in the US and other markets, similar to last year's Quickslinger and Brake-Neck. The rumored "street date" is May 24. On that day, a lot of online retailes (such as Big Bad Toy Store, Entertainment Earth, TFSource, ToyWiz and Hasbro Toy Shop, but also Target.com, Toysrus.com, Kmart.com and Walmart.com) are expected to put up instant "in stock" listings for the figure. Groove is not supposed to be available at actual physical stores in the US (such as Target, Toys"R"Us, Walmart or Kmart), although history has shown that not all store managers adhere to the "online only" restriction. In addition, Groove will also be available through comic book stores that order via Diamond Comic Distributors. All of that has been reported before. Again, this mostly affects the United States. 3) Right now, several online retailers have already broken the street date and sold out of their stock. This includes Robot Kingdom (an online retailer based not in the US but in Hong Kong), several import retailers based in Japan, and UK-based onine retailers Kapow Toys, In Demand Toys and Masterforce.co.uk, all of whom supposedly get their stock from Asia as well. 4) The current "news" only affects Taiwan, where Groove was previously exclusive to Toys"R"Us, and only available as part of a limited promotion that has since expired. Now, one of Toys"R"Us's competitors in Taiwan, namely Da Ming Toy Monopoly Store,is offering Groove, thereby ending the TRU exclusivity for Taiwan. This has zero to do with how marketplace sellers at Amazon may or may not have obtained their stock.
Your up to date knowledge of releases and knowledge of how releases are handled has served to expertly inform and clarify once again, Nevermore! I was at DaMing this evening. Eight Grooves to a box, three boxes in sight. And actually only $550 when buying in-store.
