We've updated our Hasbro Photo Archive with new photos of repackaged Alternators Decepticharge and Alternators Swindle. These figures are being repackaged for the European market in the new bubble package. Check it out Decepticharge Here and Swindle Here. UPDATE: We've also recieved an image of the Cybertron Street Speed Team in European packaging. See that Here.
Decepticharge is also out in Europe in the older packaging, for what it's worth. I picked one up in Kiel, Germany, 2 weeks ago.
We had recieved reports on that before. Just looks like they're going to be pushing the new packaging out for a uniform look on the shelves.
Well, it's nice to hear there's another Alt out over this way, but the releases have been so sporadic and the selection so hit or miss that I've taken to importing all the ones I want, D.Charge here included.
How many languages are there on the packaging? If it's only three languages, it's US packaging (although Alternators were also released in US packaing before). Also, which store did you find him at? Was it a specialty store, or a major store chain? Reason I'm asking is, Alternators (and Transformers in general, for that matter) are currently not officially released in Germany.
sadly Belgium wont see this alternator or any other this year: http://www.tfarchive.com/community/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34908
Hasbro UK start trying a little harder and Hasbro Belgium give up on Alts. What is this Bizarro World??? A restickered USA version has shown up in a few European TRUs....
This situation is getting more and more confusing. Here's a (more or less complete) list of Alternators released in Europe: European packaging (six languages) - Smokescreen (blue packaging, with box artwork): United Kingdom (Argos exclusive), Ireland (Argos exclusive), Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Portugal - Silverstreak (blue packaging, with box artwork): United Kingdom (Argos exclusive), Portugal, Ireland (Argos exclusive), Spain, Italy, Finland, South Africa - Autobot Hound (blue packaging, with box artwork): Belgium, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland (Smyths exclusive?) - Meister (red packaging, with box artwork): Italy (UK release announced by Hasbro UK, but never released) - Windcharger (red packaging, with photo replacing box artwork): United Kingdom (Argos exclusive), Ireland (Argos exclusive), Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark - Swindle (red packaging, with photo replacing box artwork): United Kingdom (Forbidden Planet exclusive), Belgium, Ireland (exclusive?), Netherlands, Swden, Norway, Croatia, Italy - Battle Ravage (red packaging, with photo replacing box artwork): Italy, Belgium (UK release announced by Hasbro UK, but never released) - Wheeljack (red packaging, with photo replacing box artwork): Italy, Belgium, Netherlands (UK release announced by Hasbro UK, but never released) European "bubble" packaging (twelve languages) - Decepticharge Italy (UK release announced by Hasbro UK) - Swindle South Africa - Shockblast (seen in packaging, but not released anywhere yet) "Official imports" in US packaging (one or three languages, released in regular European stores) - Shockblast United Kingdom (Argos exclusive), Ireland (Argos exclusive) - Dead End Denmark (spotted at TRU), Sweden (spotted at TRU) - Autobot Hound Denmark (spotted at TRU) - Grimlock Sweden (spotted at TRU) - Swerve Sweden (spotted at TRU) Aside from that, there's also "unofficial" imports available from import stores, comic shops etc.
I can't remember: did Hasbro Uk actually announce Decepticharge?? Or did it appear on Hasbros 'International products' page (with a UK Price??) I think they did mention Prime and Dead End at the UK Toy Fair. (As well as Rumble of course) IIRC (Autobot) Hound has only shown up at the Smyths toystore chain here. It was at half price as soon as it did. (About six weeks back ) Since Ireland is under the contol of Hasbro UK, and there was no (again IIRC) standard retail Hound sighting reported for the U.K., I'm guessing that Hasbro UK liquidated the stock at a reduced price before they ever distributed any of it. I'm not sure if Hound has appeared in any of the branches of Smyths on the other side of the border. It seems Hound was scheduled then 'cancelled'. Why they would do this, i don't know. Perhaps Hound was no longer available to them, and Swindle was being made instead. Perhaps they made a deliberate choice to switch to Swindle. As for Swindle, it was spottted here both in World of wonder and Toymaster, as well of course as Argos.
Forgot to mention this, but The Cybertron figures are out in the UK. Saw them in the Edinburgh Toys R Us over the Easter weekend. They had (much to my surprise) Brushguard, Wreckloose, Backstop, Auto Micron Team, Dirt Boss, Landmine, Mudflap, Evac, Leo Breaker all in Euro packaging. They also had Supreme Starscream, Dark Scorponok and Megatron. The last three were imports I think, due to character art on the boxes and not toy images. I have some grainy pics taken via my cell phone, but have yet to get them off.
Supreme Starscream and Dark Scorponok are definately being offered to toy shops (other than TRU) by Hasbro UK ...I've seen some Dark Scorponoks in 'No artwork' boxes and Hasbro UK have been using American Starscreams
Yeah, all retailers in the UK are currently getting solid cases of Dark Scorponocks as their ultra assortment. Because a slight retool of a toy that sat fairly badly over here shipping in a case all by himself will obviously be this line's big success, rather than any of the new show characters. That's all Argos are getting at the moment, and Hamleys have plenty. Sigh. I'm actually now convinced Hasbro UK don't use a dartboard to pick their case assortments - after all, a dartboard is pretty unlikely to make the same screwups over, and over, and over again. Phazer
What I'm unsure about is the origin of the basics that have recently shown up in TRU UK. Since they have six languages instead of 12*, I'm wondering if they were imported from Europe. *12 Language versions of CD Hotshot and Downshift have started to appear in Sainsburys.
Hasbro started shifting from six to twelve languages with current waves. This affects all of Europe. If a toy has six languages on the packaging, the packaging was created before the shift; if it has twelve languages, it was created afterwards.
