EB Games Canada Reneges on Exclusive Elrond Figure

 

  • EB Games Canada Reneges on Exclusive Elrond Figure

    Posted by fuelbreak, 27 Nov 2012 23:09. Filed under Shopping (Canada).

    5000202: Elrond
    Lord of the Rings/The Fellowship of the Ring, 2012
    More details...
    ©2012 LEGO Group

    After the limited recall of LEGO Lord of the Rings Xbox game at my EB games store, and my inability to get my Elrond polybag on time, I thought things couldn't get any worse, but I was wrong.

    It now appears after waiting for the game to be in stock, my local EB games is claiming they never got any Elrond figures and pre-order or not, they cannot provide me with an Elrond polybag. They even had the nerve to state that it was never part of the pre-order, and I had mistaken the offer for un-lockable content instead.

    Have you struck this at your EB? if so, I would highly recommend Canadian users to no longer pre-order at EB if hoping to get any exclusive LEGO deal.

    A different but similar story was published at the Buried in Bricks site.

    UPDATE: Many apologies to those that feel this post is an attack against EB Games, it was never intended as such. From my perspective this is shopping news that affects all Canadian Lego shoppers. I have since confirmed with EB USA that the poly bags were supplied at limited quantities, pre-order does not guarantee you a poly, first come first served. They however were ready and willing to ship me an Elrond from the USA for my trouble ( did not accept). EB Canada has informed me that Elrond was never part of their offer, even though local staff had assured this, they also offered me a figure (did not accept). In summary perhaps i fell pray to a marketing web glitch, uninformed staff, or just a bad experience, I will be avoiding pre-orders from now on.

    I am very sorry to all those that feel this was inappropriately posted.


    25 comments, latest one posted 6 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Dan The Man 17 in Canada, 27 Nov 2012 23:47

Hey Fuelbreak. I was never under the impression that EB had the Elrond minifigure to be honest. I actually went to the West Edmonton Toys R Us today and purchased the game and got Elrond with it (I asked beforehand to make sure they still had it).

Hope this helps.

Posted by rnsrobot in Canada, 28 Nov 2012 00:03

I know TRU was doing the Elrond figure. I can't vouch for EB, didn't bother checking. I was fortunate enough not to have problems with the Lex Luthor figure attached to LEGO Batman 2 awhile back... EB sucks though so it wouldn't surprise me one way or the other.

Posted by fuelbreak in Canada, 28 Nov 2012 00:25

This is a direct quote from EB games.com au

"Preorder bonus EXCLUSIVE to EB Games

Preorder LEGO Lord of the Rings - PlayStation 3 to receive an EXCLUSIVE Bonus Elrond '2nd Age' minifig and character unlock!

*Conditions apply. Limited time only. While stocks last. Not to be combined with any other offer."

It was once stated as well in Canada but has since been removed.

Posted by LordBlackCat in United States, 28 Nov 2012 00:42

EB Games usually gets a small number of these promotional gifts and they usually are a fraction of the number of preorders. Even worse, if the employees want the promotional items they will swipe the items. It's best to double check that they have the items to guarantee that you get one.

Posted by QuagsireQing in Canada, 28 Nov 2012 01:52

I work for EB Games Canada, and we, at least at the store level, never heard about any pre-order bonuses. It was never listed in our monthly marketing kit, there was never any signage stating that we'd get any, and there were never even SKUs created for a promo for LEGO Lord of the Rings. When your local store said that an Elrond fig was never part of the pre-order deal, they were correct; there was never, at any point, any pre-order bonus advertised for this game. (While I never saw any online ad for it, it's possible that a limited number were included as pre-order bonuses from the online store and that the web description touted this.)

Company man or not, this article reads as very unprofessional, fuelbreak, and not what I'd like to see on Brickset. The takeaway message is "I thought the minifig was at EB, but it wasn't, so I'm mad and everyone boycott EB." I'm not saying that articles here must be devoid of personality, but this article belongs on a personal blog, not a news site. EB Games has received pre-order bonuses for several LEGO games in the past, and store managers are usually happy to give out any remaining extras to walk-in customers. I do hope we get the minifigures for LEGO City Undercover, but for LOTR, there was no bait-and-switch; we never indicated that there would be any bonus.

Posted by Bagman in Australia, 28 Nov 2012 02:17

In Australia, EB games have the figure advertised
Upon Questioning staff I found out
"To be claimed by redemption from Lego"
A copy of the game receipt and a unique code “provided be EB”
have to be sent to Lego
Im waiting to find out what happens here ???

Posted by kylejohnson11 in United States, 28 Nov 2012 02:42

To my understanding it was Game Stop in the US who had them, TRU in Canada, and Amazon in Europe. I could be mistaken, but that is what I remember reading on the forums.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 28 Nov 2012 03:50

@QuagsireQing, thank you for clarifying tbe situation, it does sound like a misunderstanding.

Posted by icey in Sweden, 28 Nov 2012 04:20

http://www.game.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HubArticleView?hubId=183494&articleId=183495&catalogId=10201&langId=44&storeId=10151&cm_sp=lego-_-topnav-_-lotr

Posted by Mickitat in Germany, 28 Nov 2012 05:38

Let's face it - the problem is not EB Games or whoever, but the whole "exclusive polybag" situation. It is getting out of hand - so many of us are buying video games, newspapers, pre-ordering this or that just to get the minifigs. The problem is how TLG handles this - releasing more and more of these "sets". I am sorry, but this kind of behaviour has failed for others before already. I, for one, will not fall for this worm-on-a-hook situation anymore. Especially the Lego-video games can be had for almost nothing just weeks after release, if you want to play the games at all, while pre-ordering is expensive and I am done with spending 20$+ for a minifig.

Posted by The Brick Show in United States, 28 Nov 2012 10:19

I have a good one for you. I pre-ordered the game from their website for sole purpose of getting the minifig. They shipped me an empty package with only the minifig packing slip inside! I contacted customer service and they said it will be 3-4 weeks for replacement, which I'm expecting them to then say they no longer have them!

Posted by blars82 in United States, 28 Nov 2012 10:21

I pre-ordered from Game Stop in the US and got my minifig and game last week...just to share.

Posted by Odeinoichus in Canada, 28 Nov 2012 10:43

Fuelbreak I fail to understand why you would think it was available at EB Games, I mean sure the Australian site seems to have indicated they were getting the Mini-Fig and perhaps the Canadian site said the exact same thing, but TRU had been advertizing it weeks in advance of the game's initial arrival.

So much so that I went out the first day of Pre-Order availability at the end of October thinking that by Pre-Ordering the game I would get the Elrond figure that day and the game when it was released.

EB Games in Canada had the Lex Luthor (By the way any still have that little guy perhaps?), but for whatever reason distribution came to TRU this time around with the LotR game. Next year when LEGO City shows up it might even go to Wal-Mart instead. Who knows. EB Games is not the be-all end-all for pre-order incentives.

Game companies like to diversify their special pre-order offers so that stores like Wal-Mart and TRU don't complain because a retail chain like EB get's all the incentives and all the hard core gamers shopping there taking money away from the game centers at TRU and Wal-Mart. (At least I suspect this is the reason why.)

I remember when Diamond and Pearl came out, Wal-Mart had a giveaway of a free DS Holding case with Dialga and Palkia on it. (They got me in the door day of release just to get that thing. So it does work.)

So I guess all I have to offer is, never assume because one store chain in Australia has a deal that it must be for everywhere else in the world, as we all know what happens when you assume.

Posted by ghostmind in Canada, 28 Nov 2012 11:48

I think that the confusion stems from the fact that historically EBGames in Canada has almost always had the same preorder promotions as GameStop in the USA. For LotR however, for whatever reason, the preorder bonus went to TRU, and was heavily advertised as such by them.

I do agree that this article has no place on Brickset.

Posted by rosney in United States, 28 Nov 2012 12:00

I think it has a place on Brickset forums, so as to educate and hopefully clear up misunderstandings.

I do not, however, think it belongs on the front page.

Posted by TH3_L3G0_G3N1U5 in Canada, 28 Nov 2012 12:49

Why would this not be at EB in canada? I havent checked myself, but they have had previous Lego giveaways, like the ones for Harry Potter, PotC, and Batman: DC Superheroes.

I used to work at our EB, and know the guys there, so they tend to give me a polybag if they have them. :P

But, I can stop in before work and see what they say.

Posted by legoalex22 in United States, 28 Nov 2012 14:31

well i live in the usa and i waited 2 weeks to get mine and they still had extras its with me right now

Posted by legoalex22 in United States, 28 Nov 2012 14:33

i know that the California game stops have lots of these promotions and to many poly bags

Posted by obiron17 in United Kingdom, 28 Nov 2012 14:48

I've had my confirmation email from Game UK today to say my game's been dispatched today.......fingers crossed Elrond's going to in the package.

Posted by Gandalf the brick in United Kingdom, 28 Nov 2012 15:25

It seems that only game in the uk were giving these figures away. Had to change where I preordered from to get one in the end. Looked on amazon and it was only exclusive game content. We're amazon doing the fig promotion? (England)

Posted by dfenz in Ireland, 28 Nov 2012 19:01

Smyths toys in Ireland have Elrond minifigs in their LOTR LEGO sets. Not sure about the UK outlets. No need to pre-order and it seems to be available on most if not all versions including the Nintendo DS

Posted by plantman in United States, 28 Nov 2012 19:20

As far as I remember, if you preordered from EB you received 5 in game character unlocks, but not the actual figure. I see this as a simple misunderstanding from third party websites reporting erroneous information. I pre-ordered from Game Stop and received the figure, but not the in game characters - which were reported to be included by various websites but NOT by Game Stop itself.

Posted by Reluctant Hero in United States, 28 Nov 2012 23:05

Just an FYi, I secured my Elrond on 10/30/12 when the PS Vita version was released and the blue cape that is included is rather short on Elrond. It appears to be a length suitable for the hobbit or dwarf mini figures.

Posted by davedude in Canada, 29 Nov 2012 01:03

i seen some posts on a site where u can ask lego to trade the cape...sorry i dont know which forum but im sure you could google it....

Posted by ultraman_bc in Asia/Pacific Region, 29 Nov 2012 03:53

The short cape is the right cape. If you play the game, the cape on Elrond is the short version, so this is exactly what the designers wanted.

Commenting has ended on this article.