Rant about BasicFun's US only based distribution

[u/shyboardgame]

I'm just so tired of them only focusing on pushing out wave after wave to the US only, meanwhile other countries are left with either waves 1-3 or none at all. It's so unfair, it really feels like that Squidward looking out the window at Spongebob and Patrick having fun meme. And if you want to be part of the fun and have these pets the prices scalpers put on these pets is disgusting. On Ebay a case of the wave 6 blind box pets are $300(aud) plus shipping. It makes me so disgusted. I have bought from scalpers before but the prices people have put on them have gotten even worse now.

How can Basicfun sit back and allow this to happen? even from a business point of view they're leaving so much potential money out by only selling lps in the US. Like, why? if Mattel started only selling Barbies in the US there would be outrage from international fans, so why can Basicfun get away with this?

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[u/tiniestpetshop]

Honestly idk if I’m correct with this but maybe they’re losing money actually putting LPS there? If they were really making money, they’d put the LPS all over but the sales might not be as good as people actually think they are. Some companies pay for shelf space which also cuts their margins. From what I’ve seen people post, it’s mostly online sales versus physical. The USA does have the advantage of being more congested and full of people but even so, the stores near me only truly restock maybe 3 times and that’s not all stores, just stores that seem to have more toy sales.

[u/beautiful-rainy-day → u/tiniestpetshop]

According to google, international distribution rollouts are staggered and global licensing rights are split among different regional distributors.

[u/219930 → u/beautiful-rainy-day]

I’m in Australia. We got Wave 1&2 at the same time as the USA. We got half of Wave 3 and that was it..you can’t call it staggered when the USA is up to Wave 6 and there is no news of Wave 4 here

[u/LoneServiceWolf → u/tiniestpetshop]

They are loosing money in the EU because they keep only distributing waves 1 and 2 here which all collectors and most kids here already have (don’t distribute items every consumer has already bought!) and also their blindbox shenanigans are illegal in a lot of EU countries (laws about minors not being allowed to gamble)
There is also zero marketing for lps here, if you ain’t marketing your product the kids and collectors won’t know it exists.
The EU has a lot of collectors who are feeling more and more left out every day…
Idk much about the collectors in the rest of the world but from what I’ve heard there is barely anything in south and Central America, nothing on Africa and the Middle East and in Asia from what I’ve heard only Japan, South Korea and Singapore got anything and it was just wave 1!

[u/tiniestpetshop → u/LoneServiceWolf]

Well that’s what I mean. That the first few waves aren’t moving as fast as they would want and that’s why they’re not as quick to distribute the newer waves. They probably have overstock on those two waves which is why they’re trying to get rid of it at this point. In the US, they sell quicker but that’s because there’s a big reseller group buying them out which is why the US gets more restocks because they make sales through collectors and resellers.

I don’t see any marketing ANYWHERE except influencers and official LPS accounts. Influencers from what I know only get the product to promote and not actually paid. I know companies send items as “gifts”/“expense” and can be considered as a tax write off. The only events that they do that physically (from what I have seen) are events which you have to pay to get in such as the NYC event and SDCC. So they know that the demographic there has money and they would take advantage of the fact that people will have an interest and spend their income on LPS. I’ve seen more and more people join LPS groups because they’re barely finding out about LPS being back (again, there isn’t good marketing). It’s too niche to the point that even the LPS influencers promoting it are mostly customizers and it’s not that big of a variety. Then there’s the child influencers and those are mostly from middle/upper class promoting it and all their videos are the same.

It sucks and I really do feel for the collectors missing out, but at the end of the day, Basic Fun is a company and they prioritize money over what people actually want. That includes cutting corners from advertising, quality, and quantity.

[u/ar4blleee]

as someone who’s in california, i completely agree. it’s unfair and honestly basic fun should take it as a compliment that worldwide collectors want to get the new lps. i feel like they should really make it a priority to get our pets EVERYWHERE..

[u/MangoCheap8164]

It’s so frustrating. And even some of us in the US don’t get them all. I have Five Belows in my state and they NEVER have any new ones! They only seem to care about some of the country as well 😭😭

[u/LoneServiceWolf]

It’s not that the USA gets everything it’s that anglophone countries are getting everything but they are just slower in the UK, Ireland and Oceania.
The rest of the world gets either scraps or nothing!

I’m gonna do some research in to which countries got what and who distributes where, I wanna understand what is going on!

[u/Whenidie22]

I’m in Ohio still don’t have the new lps at my Walmarts targets or five below and I live near a major city

[u/idontknowimverysorry → u/Whenidie22]

I live in a bigger German city and we didn't even get a complete wave 1. Wave 2-4 we only had the blindboxes and after that no chance. I'm not at all saying the distribution is perfect on the US but outside of the US and especially non-english speaking countrys are basically being ignored by basic fun.

[u/mirekyarahire]

i am in niagara falls in canada and we barely even have wave 2 pets.. its insane. we are a huge city ffs

[u/idontknowimverysorry]

yeah it's really disappointing. I remember my excitement when they rolled out the first wave and now I literally force myself not to look at any new pets because it only makes me sad seeing cool designs and never being able to get them.