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The sales of minimates in Europe


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well i hate to bring bad news to all UK'ers at this time of year but.....

On friday i was in my lcs checking out previews and putting in my comic order for the new year & my minimate order, only to be told that they were'nt avalible in the UK anymore, now my lcs i've dubbed the "main man" for minimates as they are really good at getting everything were stumped, well they e-mailed diamond UK pretty much saying WTF!!!

this was diamond UK's response......

"The sales of MINIMATES in Europe are no longer at a level which would justify paying for safety testing. DST has therefore taken the decision to no longer offer MINIMATES in Europe. This also applies to the MINIMATES offered in December Previews."

A WTF!! indead!

So i've written an e-mail to DST as has my lcs give them a good blasting on the subject and would urge all fellow UK'ers to follow suit

But i wonder if the fact that we have to wait so long for product to arrive over here that it may have hurt sales with people buying from the US getting them faster and cheaper then UK shops.

Anyway not really a good way to start the new year :(

any developments and i will let you all know asap

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"The sales of MINIMATES in Europe are no longer at a level which would justify paying for safety testing. DST has therefore taken the decision to no longer offer MINIMATES in Europe. This also applies to the MINIMATES offered in December Previews."

Anyway not really a good way to start the new year :(

any developments and i will let you all know asap

Great! Thanks DST that's absolutely fantastic news!

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It's certainly not good news but personally it will not affect me at all. I know how that sounds(& I'm sorry) but I gave up trying to find a reliable UK supplier ages ago. If I,as a collector,can arrange to buy from the US then I'm sure your current UK retailer can & will sell them on to you. Customs charges are the only real problem with US purchases but this is only charged irregularly & its still cheaper than buying them from UK e-tailers IN GENERAL. I got cheesed off with UK sellers consistently selling FULL SETS & SETS of any contemporary wave which denied the existence of variants! The 'rule of thumb' that I base my 'mates purchases on is that they cost twice as much to buy in the UK as they do to buy & ship them from the US. When the front door slams shut ...go through the back door.

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OK so i just got an e-mail back from Mike @ DST.....

"Unfortunately this is true. Due to lower than expected sales in the UK and Europe and rising testing costs Minimates will no longer be offered to the UK or Europe.

This was not an easy decision to come to mainly, because we know that there are a number of Minimate fans like yourself in the UK."

:(

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I think you hit the nail on the head earlier Winkerbean. We're not prepared to wait 3+ months extra for 'mates to hit our shores, so we get online, or buy from mates oversea. I don't know why that ever happened anyway? Minimates always used to come out in the same week as the US release and then it all changed with waves 12 and 13. I didn't see 14 at any normal UK comic shop (or toyshop) and 16 and 17 only hit a couple of weeks back.

Anyway, I'm lucky enough to be able to buy from US retailers and indeed buy and trade from my US based chums. I can see the flea market getting a lot more attention from now on. It sucks. It's poor on DST's part because they've created the situation by allowing such large delays between US and European releases but it's not an insurmountable challenge. There are ways around everything.

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OK so mike just got back to me agian as i asked him "so will things that have already been solicitated in previews still come out"

he said

"Correct - this is something that will effect all future waves. Nothing that already has been solicited."

so

Marvel 17,18,19,20

taskmaster/ us agent

black panther/iron man

bttf 2 & the 2 pack

24 season 2 & 3 plus the 2pack

bsg 4 & the 2 pack

star trek 3

for a few dollars more

should all be safe

and so should DC as there nothing to do with DST

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What. The. Hell.

Okay, so now I hate Hasbro AND DST.

Vig

Arseholes.

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This has p****d me off no end. I actually spoke to my mates about this recently after noticing my comicbook store has sold barely any of the X3 wave and still have some of Waves 12 and 13. I thought they might stop getting them in, but I never expected a whole UK and European stop.

Will the BTTF 3 boxed set be coming out. Horrid thing is there is nothing we can do about it. If we boycott them, then we're proving them right, and if we buy a load then we are fueling DST and chances are they won't change their minds. Shipping costs are gonna be hell for all us English.

I think that DST should offer something like reduced shipping from their website as a sort of sorry to Europeans. Otherwise they may loose my custom completely. How soon will this take effect?

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This both sucks the big one and doesn't affect me at all - I'm already too broke and impatient to buy them in this country.

I offered my services as a proxy buyer for people a little while ago and will do again - anyone who doesn't have a credit card or Paypal and would like me to buy for them, I'm happy to help out (though I do ask for your money before I post your minimates - I'm not stupid).

I am in agreement with vigilante - you can't expect people to wait an extra 3-6 months, then charge them double for the privilege and expect them to keep buying your product at that price. Both Hasbro and DST are guilty of this, among others.

Good luck out there guys,

Jo

(and happy new year, though we've still got 3 hours to go)

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well i posted a coment on DST's myspace saying..

"thanks for the best new years present The sales of MINIMATES in Europe are no longer at a level which would justify paying for safety testing. DST has therefore taken the decision to no longer offer MINIMATES in Europe"

and they've taken my comment off, well thats freedom of speech for you, or, it seems like they don't want people to know what they've done

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well i posted a coment on DST's myspace saying..

"thanks for the best new years present The sales of MINIMATES in Europe are no longer at a level which would justify paying for safety testing. DST has therefore taken the decision to no longer offer MINIMATES in Europe"

and they've taken my comment off, well thats freedom of speech for you, or, it seems like they don't want people to know what they've done

Yeah I saw it and backed you up. Mine was also deleted. But to be fair I did win an Elf Spock off their Myspace tonight, so I can't hate them too much right now.

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So Europe is gone from the minimate shipping lines. you know what this means?

More for Us! :P

Seriously though, this is horrible. I thought I had it bad here in North Georgia where you can find almost no Minimates. the Minimate well is drier than Allatoona and Lanier! (For those who don't know, Georgia has been going through a severe drought recently) Now that the UK no longer has minimates I can sympathize, but at least I have previews. Ya'll don't even get that. Ow. Well happy hunting and happy (in about 2 hrs 20mins) New Year.

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Can't say that the news really affects me, living stateside and all, but that is bad news. I'm not familiar with the process of making and releasing toys, but it does seem odd that it takes months longer to get things to the European market than the American one. I've noticed in the past that the trend is not limited to Minimates, but to other things, such as video games as well. Do you guys have an extra layer of quality control on all products coming into the region to avoid the massive recalls that plague the American market? And what are testing costs?

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Can't say that the news really affects me, living stateside and all, but that is bad news. I'm not familiar with the process of making and releasing toys, but it does seem odd that it takes months longer to get things to the European market than the American one. I've noticed in the past that the trend is not limited to Minimates, but to other things, such as video games as well. Do you guys have an extra layer of quality control on all products coming into the region to avoid the massive recalls that plague the American market? And what are testing costs?

You may have noticed the CE mark on a lot of the figures you buy? That's the European safety standard mark. All toys intended for the European market have to satisfy those standards and it's incumbent on the toy company to pay for the tests. Essentially the toy has to meet two separate safety standards. The US one, and the European one. I'm not sure which is the most stringent? But you'd think it'd be sensible to adopt one all-encompassing standard to avoid problems like this. I'm not happy with DST's decision. The delay in 'mates getting to the UK and Europe is all to do with cost. The safety tests would have been done months before the product shipped. Minimates used to get flown over to Europe with the comic delivery, that's how they'd turn up in the same week as the US. Some bright spark at DST has obviously decided that surface shipping from China to Europe is more cost effective than air freight from the US. The delays mean that UK and European fans fret that the product is never going to arrive (and it always costs more here anyway) so they go the direct route instead. DST still get paid so they're in gravy. The only people who'll really miss out are the fans with little disposable income that pick up their 'mates as and when they can afford them from their LCS. That'll be the fan of the future that's just been pissed on then!

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So they just won't be in any Euro stores? Is there any way UK shops can get them?

Vig

Arseholes.

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So they just won't be in any Euro stores? Is there any way UK shops can get them?

Vig

Vigilante, the UK is part of the European Union. We're subject to it's market rules. I make the distinction of UK and Europe to illustrate that we in the UK are separate to the continent of Europe. It is illegal to sell non CE marked toys in the UK.

Arseholes.

You've made your point there fella.

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