Bandai UK's reply to people wanting the card game in the UK

https://www.facebook.com/BandaiUK/posts/553306264727982

Bandai released this statement earlier today, defending their decision to not release the booster packs to the card game in the UK. UK fans, including me, a long time collector (19 years), are not happy with this decision. Every year we miss out on something. Normally it's extra figures, or a special line, this year, it's the cards. This wouldn't have been too much of a big deal if it was just a card collection like the Ranger Strike series, but this affects the very expensive Gosei Morpher. The Gosei Morpher comes with in built sounds which can be activated using the cards that come with the toys and the booster packs.

Back of UK Gosei Morpher (image by me)

Fig. 1 - close up of the UK Gosei Morpher box (Image by me)

The back of the box also claims that there are "over 180 phrases" and that you have to "collect cards to unlock more phrases" (Fig. 1), but with the cards only being released with other very expensive toys (apart from the minifigures) and occasionally as promotions, there is no way we can get them all. With the price of the toys, there is no way I can justify getting any more than what I already have. Basic figures have increased in price by £1.00 to £2.00 just this year alone. The Morpher is double the price of last years. Yes, its an awesome toy, but I am not happy about not being able to use the features. They could have easily have taken out most of the features and have sold the Morpher cheaper in the UK. It would have sucked, but at least we wouldn't have wasted our money buying an expensive morpher with loads of different phrases that we can't activate.

Fig. 2 - Top. US instructions. Bottom UK instructions (Image by Morgan Lamia)

Inside the UK Action Card Game Starter Deck, the instructions have been modded so that there is no mention of the booster sets (Fig. 2). So it seems that Bandai has never intended to release the cards properly in the UK, but they still mention the release of booster packs as a side note about the Villain and Support cards (Fig. 3). This is probably an error on their part regarding this little section.

Fig. 3 - UK instructions about Villain and Support Cards (Image by Morgan Lamia)

 

 

I also checked the scanner app on my iPhone, but there is no mention of booster packs at all. Not surprising at all. I was hoping that they would release the updates for it, but I'm doubting they will be. 

Some people have also argued that we have missed out on toys in the past and no one made a huge fuss. One example was the Gold Samurai Morpher last year. The first issue I have with this is that no one cared about the morphers last year. I myself passed on them because the quality was so awful. We have also missed out on other toys in the UK, but the cards are very different. The fact that they are necessary to use the features of a £30 Morpher has really annoyed UK fans. This is the most expensive Morpher ever released in the UK, but what is the point in releasing it if you can't play with it? Why advertise there are 180 different sounds when there is no way we can access them, even if we bought all the toys from this line, we won't even come close to finding them all.

I just feel that we have been let down here in a big way. We aren't just losing out on a collection of cards, but the main function of the most expensive none exclusive/20th Anniversary Morpher out in stores. People are angry and rightly so, but at least now we have the option to import cards from America. We don't have to miss out on this.