Originally posted by Bombom77
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I have seen two dates on the 996Y case, 2922EAA and 3282EAA. The first one is a slightly later date than the ones originally circulating in Europe. Both 996W and 996Y were supposed to go to Disney Stores UK, but they ordered too many Kmart 8 silver racers. What a fiasco that was! TRU were supposed to have the Kmart 9 racers and decided against it so we only got five!
Mattel have previous on this. Look at all the year old (US style) Deluxe and Double packs that are at Smyths, TRU and elsewhere. All this old stock does sell, so Mattel Europe/UK will believe that dumping old stock in the UK is totally justified.
They have to order a certain amount of stuff to keep the prices down. Quiet clearly there is too much stuff produced for the European market, so the UK is quite a handy dumping ground for Mattel Europe. The prices are cheaper in the UK.
That said, I think they should mix the newer 997W and 997Y cases up with the old ones in the UK. Maybe Mattel thinks that as soon as these hit the shelves they'll sell out? No point introducing the new cases and sell out immediately, then there will be a long wait until the next new cases, 998J/K/L/M (or whatever they might be)?
I think they could do worse than have special cases with Prince Wheeliam, Cartney Brakin, Alexander Hugo, Mary Esgocar, Fabrizio and Sir Harley Gassup in them, so we can complete the international card series.
How about getting all those Final Lap style Lenticular series cases to market? There are 1,000s of them gathering dust in Mattel's warehouse! Are they saving them for a rainy day? We have plenty of rainy days in the UK?
There may well be more Final Lap Deluxe and Doubles in there too?
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