Thomas Storai 
Thomas reports on Hasbro’s European distribution for all Triple Force Friday products.
Triple Force Friday took place on October 4th launching new products for the last chapter of the Skywalker saga The Rise Of Skywalker, the first live-action TV series The Mandalorian and the new video game Jedi Fallen Order.
This was mostly a US event as many stores across the country had all of the new products (Lego, Galaxy Of Adventures, Black Series, lightsabers) and some even opened at midnight just for this. Stores that had the Black Series figures had the whole wave that was comprised of Rey & D-0, Kylo Ren, Cal Kestis & BD-1, Inquisitor Second Sister, First Order Stormtrooper, Sith Trooper, The Mandalorian, Jawa Offworld. And some stores had their own Carbonized exclusive figures – First Order Jet Trooper (Walmart), The Mandalorian (Target), Inquisitor Second Sister (GameStop). The First Order Elite Snowtrooper, Clone Commander Fox and Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) were three additional Target exclusive figures.
Things were drastically different in Europe. Unlike for The Last Jedi, Rogue One and The Force Awakens, there were no midnight openings in stores and the sad truth is, there was actually no products in most places except some of the new Lego sets. Only online stores had some of the new products. The first wave of Galaxy Of Adventures was available on online stores and a part of the Black Series wave – Rey & D-0, Kylo Ren, Sith Trooper and a small amount of Cal Kestis & BD-1 along with the Inquisitor Second Sister. In terms of shared exclusives, Star Action Figures had the Carbonized Mandalorian as their exclusive in the UK at launch and other online stores had the First Order Elite Snowtrooper. One week after the event, online stores received another part of the wave – The Mandalorian and the Offworld Jawa along with an additional stock of Cal Kestis & BD-1 and the Inquisitor Second Sister. They also received the exclusive Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight). On the third week of October, online stores received the rest of the Black Series figures that included – First Order Stormtrooper, the exclusives Clone Commander Fox and Carbonized Inquisitor Second Sister plus a pleasant surprise – the Purge Trooper, an exclusive that will be released on November 15th in the US. The reason behind this three-week release was because the shipments Hasbro had sent were stuck in customs. That’s the situation with online stores but what about physical stores? Well, it’s another situation.
Germany was the first country to get the Black Series figures. As reported by my twitter friend Dominik, he found the wave on October 8th so less than one week after Triple Force Friday, there were some other products with them like the new lightsabers and the remote control D-0.
Now for France, PicWicToys stores (formerly Toys R’Us) had first announced Black Series release for October 4th but these were delayed due to shipments stuck in customs, the same problem that happened for online stores. But they were able to acquire the Galaxy Of Adventures new line pretty quickly. On October 22nd, they finally received the Black Series wave. Yesterday I did a tour of all the stores in my town to see what was available now. Joué Club, King Jouet, Auchan, Leclerc stores all had the Galaxy of Adventures line, which makes sense it is a kid’s oriented line, if one thing is going to sell, it’s this! You have to keep in mind that the Black Series is a collector’s line. Speaking of this line, only Joué Club had the new wave, one of each figure. It was quite a miracle as it’s been a while since I had last seen Black Series in stores. King Jouet and Leclerc also had some Black Series but old ones, I’m not sure when they received them but it was probably not long ago. Leclerc stores also had the Kylo Ren mask. The 12-inch figures were available at Joué Club and Leclerc. Lego sets were available at King Jouet. And finally, POPs were available at La Fnac.
As of now, I have yet to see people from the UK reporting finding the new Black Series figures in stores but considering, other European countries have them, it’s likely that some UK stores have some of them.
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Thomas Storai is the Senior Collectables Correspondent for Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and a wide range of movies. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasStorai where he uses the force frequently!
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Collectables Editor at Future Of The Force.
Star Wars and Marvel specialist, anime expert
