Author Topic: US/Canada Exclusive Sets- how Exclusive?  (Read 987 times)

Offline GrahamB

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US/Canada Exclusive Sets- how Exclusive?
« on: January 29, 2017, 19:18:45 »
I am interested in which sets described as ‘exclusive’ to the North American markets were/are actually on sale in the UK (and perhaps other markets).  Starting with the ‘US/Canada Exclusive’ set lists for 2010 to 2016 here , I looked at UK Playmobil catalogues, UK toy seller (including PM) websites, ebay.co.uk availability and used my memory to find out which sets seem to have been on sale in the UK too. The information on sets available in the UK back in 2010, 2011, 2012 is incomplete compared with that for the last few years. Here is what I discovered:

The links for each year show lists of all USA/Canada exclusive sets
2010
Some of these were/are available in the UK; 5886 was in the 2013 UK catalogue and these four sets were in the 2016 UK catalogue.
2011
4879 was also in the 2011 UK catalogue.
2012
These sets can be found on ebay.co.uk, suggesting they may have been bought in the UK. 5971 and 5972 are in the 2016 UK catalogue.
2013
All these sets (apart from 5982) are currently for sale on ebay.co.uk and 5602 has even been for sale in Home Bargains (a budget chainstore) in the UK.
2014
6041 is currently available from playmobil.co.uk, 5976 was in the 2015 UK catalogue and 5299 is currently available from UK toy sellers Smyths and Toys R Us.
2015
ALL these sets (apart from 5627) are currently available through amazon.co.uk. 5627 was formerly on sale at tesco.co.uk.
2016
These sets are all available from playmobil.co.uk, with 5663 and 5665 available in the uk from several  ebay sellers and Smyths  respectively.

So, in conclusion; many sets regarded as US or Canada exclusives were or are available in the UK, sometimes at the same time as in North America. Sometimes it’s a couple of years later that they become available in the UK, sometimes seemingly never.
At that moment the ship suddenly stopped rocking and swaying, the engine pitch settled down to a gentle hum. 'Hey Ford.' said Zaphod, 'that sounds good. Have you worked out the controls on this boat?' 'No,' said Ford, 'I just stopped fiddling with them.' (With thanks to Douglas Adams)

Offline StJohn

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Re: US/Canada Exclusive Sets- how Exclusive?
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2017, 19:56:45 »
Thanks for this, GrahamB!

In my UK days I got quite a few "US exclusives" from Asda. I thought that made sense (it being part of the Walmart empire). In general the UK is awash with them, much more than mainland Europe. Fits a broader pattern, doesn't it?

Best wishes
StJohn