As has been expected, Hasbro UK are set to show off the Transformers 4 figures at the UK toy show here in London England on the 21st Jan.  The bad news though is that no images and very little information, will be able to come out of this event due to the level of restrictions Hasbro UK have in place during the event.

The toys will only be shown off in Hasbro's "back room" which can be is only open to those with pre-arranged timeslots. These needs to be arranged through sales managers and are only granted to stores who hold large enough accounts with Hasbro.  All photography is restricted within this area and, in the past, where leaks have happened, Hasbro UK have closed their booths and have tracked the leaks and threaterned to take legal action against those people.  At one show, the G.I-Joe Movie products leaked thanks to photographs of some cards that were on display. This lead to Hasbro closing their booths to restrict further leaks of all of their items. We spoke to a representative of Hasbro's during that show who told us that they obviously have a list of everyone who has seen the products and the times that they saw the products, so tracking down the leaked source is not a difficult task.  Sadly whilst these leaks are great for us fans, it does have the effect that retailers then can not see the products and this can lead to them being put off from even stocking them in the future.

That being said, other Age of Extinction licensed products will be shown at the event including Board Games and Bicycles.  For those lucky enough to be allowed access to the Hasbro displayed, they will get to see 30 new characters 15 from the fourth movie and another 15 from the 30th Anniversary line.

All of the figures and, no doubt others, will then be shown off a month later at the US Toy Fair where the photography will be allowed.

Hasbro UK have listed the "UK Optimus Prime Truck Tour Dates" for 2013

TRANSFORMERS FANS

Optimus Prime is back on the road this Summer! Meet him and experience the Transformers station, where you can come face-to-face with the brand new Beast Hunters range, play digital games and even have your picture taken Optimus Prime and the Beast Hunters.

Royal Highland Show, Edinburgh: 20th-23rd June
Fairford Airshow, Swindon: 20th-21st July
Sunderland Airshow: 27th-28th July
Bristol Airshow: 8th-11th August
Lollibop, London: 16th-18th August
Bournemouth Show: 29th August-1st September

Zap2it have updated their Transformers Prime Beast Hunters episode guide with the title and description for the fourth episode 4 within the series.  The episode, titled "Rebellion", is due to air within the US on the 12th April 2013 and has the brief synopsis of "Team Prime wages war against the Decepticon citadel."

To help promote the UK DVD only release of Transformers Prime: Dangerous Ground within the UK, Hasbro UK have launched as new Transformers themed website www.transformersprimesoundboard.co.uk which contains free downloadable audio snippets from the show

Hasbro have launched a free TF: Prime soundboard with downloadable clips to coincide with the home-release of Transformers Prime: Dangerous Ground in the UK

Hasbro UK have confirmed, via Facebook, that following on from the release of Transformers Prime Volume 2 (Episodes 6-10 of season 1) the rest of the season will be released in June (Decepticons Unleashed) and October (Unlikely Alliancea) with a complete season 1 boxset also being released then.  Sadly they have also confirmed that there will be no UK release of Transformers Prime on Blu-Ray meaning that if you wish to enjoy an HD viewing of the series that you will need to import either the US version (with a region free Blu-Ray player) of the Australian Madman release which is the same region as the UK.

Amazon UK have now cancelled ALL orders for the Masterpiece Optimus Prime figure stating that mispricing as the reason.  A new listing has not yet been added and is not expected, so it turns out that the UK will once again have to continue to play the wait-and-see game as to whether Toys R Us UK actually put the figure out on the shelves.

In a follow-up to the story we published regarding Masterpiece Optimus Prime being released at Amazon UK a string of posts aimed at Hasbro UKs wall including this one by Chris Barrett, Hasbro UK replied stating that "Hi Chris, we can confirm that the Masterpiece Optimus Prime IS exclsuive to Toys R Us in the UK. If you have found it on Amazon, it must be via an international reseller using their marketplace. We have just done a quick search, and can only find the Tomy Takara line at £215, so maybe you got a lucky break!". 

Chris then responded with "No i was told that basicly, TRU dont know how to sell it has gone on a firesale. i spoke to someone from amazon via phone and long story short its from them not an external seller", which lead to Hasbro UKs come back of "Hello Chris, contrary to the info you have received elsewhere, we have NOT shipped any stock to Amazon UK. The MP Optimus Prime will appear in Toys R Us stores at some point soon.".

The original listing, which can be found here, is now listed as being out-of-stock with an unknown restock date but the figure is the number 1 selling toy on Amazon.co.uk.

We will update you on this story as more develops.

Update 10:33am: Hasbro Inc have replied to another post over on Facebook by Hector Hanslon after we replied pointing then in the direction of the actual listing on Amazon UK and posted the following response:

"Hello Hector, we are investigating this issue and will confirm the situation to fans as soon as we are able to. We can confirm that we have NOT shipped any stock to Amazon at this point in time. Please bear with us while we investigate the situation and find the right solution."

FullMetalHero have posted a reply from Hasbro U.K regarding upcoming Transformers releases. The answer is as pretty generic as you would normal expect, basically saying stock will depend on demand and to try Toys R Us as they have the most listed, but you can view the reply below.

Thank you for your email and we apologise for the delay in our response.

Regarding Fall of Cybertron, we do not currently have confirmed dates as this can change depending on availability and retailer demand but we are bringing in new waves of Deluxe and Voyager throughout next year and Toys r Us will be a good place to find these lines as they have them listed. We are not aware of any double packs scheduled for UK release.

The Kreon Microchangers are currently available from retailers such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys.

Kind regards

Sasha
Consumer Affairs Advisor
( 00800 22427276 (Consumer Freephone)
* Hasbro UK Ltd, PO Box 43, Newport, NP19 4YD
HASBRO
www.mymonopoly.com
www.facebook.com/hasbrouk
http://twitter.com/hasbrouk

Full Metal Hero member Drift recently wrote to Hasbro UK to get an update on the release on some upcoming Transformers figures

Prime First Edition deluxe Vehicon,Arcee, Cliffjumper and Starscream and Voyager Optimus Prime and Bulkhead – Not releasing in the UK as all characters feature in the mainline of Prime Voyager and Deluxe.

Transformers Prime robots in disguise VOYAGER/powerizers wave 2 – already out

Transformers Prime Robots in disguise DELUXE/revealers wave 4 – we are not releasing this wave but the characters in this wave are also in wave 5 which we will be releasing in Sept

Transformers Generations Wave 2 – expected around Sept

Transformers masterpiece Optimus Prime – expected around Sept

Transformers Prime cyberverse commanders wave 3 - available from the end of July

Transformers Generations "China Import" deluxe Wheelie, Springer, Swerve and Cliffjumper – Not releasing in the UK

Transformers Masterpiece Thundercracker – Not releasing in the UK

Transformers G2 Bruticus, Year of the dragon ultimate Optimus Prime and (Jetwings) Optimus Prime – Not releasing in the UK

The Transformers Dark Energon line. – Not releasing in the UK

Kapow Toys have put up pre-orders for the both Transformers: Prime wave deluxe, as well as the Transformers Generations: Fall of Cybertron wave 1 figures.  Wave 4 of Transformers Prime has a UK street date of September 2012 with the case bfreakdown being 2x Ironhide, 1x Rumble, 1x Arachnid, 1x Dead End, 1x Bumblebee, 1x Hot Shot and 1x Knock Out.  The Fall Of Cybertron release date is the 22nd August 2012 with their case breakdown being 3x Optimus, 3x Jazz and 2x Shockwave.

Credit to Kapow's sister site FullMetalHero.com for the news.

Our thanks go out to Michael Cicharski for forwarding us an email he recently received from Toys R Us UK regarding the Transformers Generationsand Marvel Universe figures.  Michael email themlast week to find out why his local store had not had any new stock and this was their reply.

"Thank you for your email regarding Marvel Universe and Transformers Generations figures, I have contacted our buying department and they have advised that we have no further orders in place for both of those ranges and that they are being discontinued.

I am afraid we have sold through the remaining stock of the transformers Generations figures throughout our stores nationwide. With regards to the availability if the Marvel Universe figures we do have a lot of stock available in other stores, if there are any specific figures you are looking for we can attempt to locate them and have them transferred to Merry Hill.

Once again thank you for taking the time to contact us,

Yours Sincerely

Toys "R" Us Customer Service

Michael contact Hasbro UK's customer service team regarding whether this was a general discontinuation or whether it was just Toys R Us stopping stocking the figure, but they have thus far declined to comment.

Rumour - Has Toys R Us UK Dropped the Kre-Os?

This is just a rumour at the moment, as we are trying to get an official comment from Toys R Us or Hasbro, but it appears that Toys R Us may have dropped the Kre-O line ... either that or it's just the Toys R us near us.

When I visited our local TRU a few weeks back there was a large range of Transformers products, the newly launched Kre-O range was positioned right at the entrance.  Roll on a few weeks and they are no-where to be seen, their spot replaced by CARS.

A visit to the "boys toys" isle was one area of the previous Transformers stock replaced with Power Rangers, and the second area halved in space, with a Buy One get One Half Price offer on.  There was also more Grimlock's then even Simon Furman would want.

I wondered around the store checking for signs of Kre-O's.  Would they be in the Lego section .. no.  Would they be in the discount section .. no.  They were no-where.

So, have you spotted any Kre-O's in stores near you recently?  Do you work for Toys R us can official comment on the situation.  Let us know.

ToyNews has had a chance to sit down with Foye Pascoe, Country Manager UK & Ireland for Hasbro.

You can read the interview in the latest edition of ToyNews Magazine

Hasbro UK are recruiting for a telesales staff at Stockley Park.  If you think you may be interested get in touch with them, and let them know who referred you :-)

Here is the job description

Hasbro is looking to recruit a Telesales Executive at the Stockley Park offices.

The position is a 12-month fixed term contract and the main purpose of role is to take ownership (under direction GSM) of the full Hasbro toy and game product portfolio in designated Orders Direct account base to achieve company set sales and profit targets.

Specific responsibilities/tasks:

• Work with GSM to create, implement and monitor full year account business plans
• Manage 100 accounts with T/O of £5k - £15k.
• Create a call plan and complete daily / weekly sales reports to highlight productivity.
• Maintain the Orders Direct base and keep track of all call backs and telephone appointments and agreed actions.
• Execute and monitor agreed promotions within the business plan
• Attend trade shows in the UK and Ireland where appropriate
• Conduct data analysis to support business planning
• Monitors, record and reports back on key competitive activity with recommendations as necessary
• Build an effective business partner relationship with key Orders Direct accounts
• Fully network across internal customers, e.g. Operations, Marketing and Finance to maximise account serviceability and growth opportunities.·    Monitor stock availability and take initiative to address any issues
• Handle day to day routine account requests and follow up

Knowledge and Skills required

1. Evidence of influencing and negotiating skills to achieve results (both internally and externally)·
2. Good communicator (written and verbal) including active listening ability and presentation skills·
3. Numerate, ability to analyse data and sales information
4. Results oriented
5. Good prioritisation skills
6. Adaptable and demonstrates flexibility
7. Shows enthusiasm and passion for sales Experience
8. Graduate calibre
9. Up to two years exposure in sales environment
10. Minimum of Intermediate level working knowledge of MS Office including Outlook
11. Excellent excel skills
12. Ability to drive and travel in the UK/Ireland

Behaviours/Competencies required

Desirable:

• Degree (preferably business related)
• Commercial background with sales exposure·
• Working knowledge of SAP

If you would like to apply for this position please send your CV to careers@hasbro.co.uk