UK Shortages
Posted by ICv2 on December 16, 2002 @ 11:00 pm CT
Reuters is reporting that the Beyblade fighting tops phenomenon has taken off in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with major shortages reported at retail in the UK. That makes this phenomenon a truly global one, since it has been a huge fad in Japan in years past, and this year in the U.S. and Canada (see 'Let Em Rip -- Beyblade Is Taking Off'). Hasbro told Reuters that it had 2 million of the tops in the UK and was air-freighting in additional supplies to meet demand. In the States, one distributor told us in our pre-holiday report that he could sell as many as he could get (see 'Six Distributors on Holiday Sales'). Sales are being driven by the daily show on ABC Family (see 'Beyblade's Daily Run a Success') and promotions. The first DVD collection will be out early next year (see 'Beyblade DVD Release Set').