Why Doesn't the Pokemon Company Export DVDs or Merchandise to the UK

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breloom

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Why does the Pokemon company hate the UK? The DVD publishers seem to hate us especially because in the UK there are no DVDs of the main series. Also there is a serious lack of pokemon merchandice in the UK, and no Pokemon Center store.
 
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Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

I live in Canada, and you were saying?
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Don't you have Region 1 DVD players in Canada? If you do, you can easily import DVDs. In the UK we have region 2 dvd players, and there are hardly any region 2 DVDs.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

You could always import a DVD player, could you not?
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Or move to Japan one day. D: Or import that stuff from Japan, and/or scour eBay.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

I do agree that the UK does seem to get the short end of the stick compared to America (and obviously, Japan). When Pokémon USA and Pokémon UK merged to become "The Pokémon Company International", the initial reaction between me and my friends was "Wait, there was a Pokémon UK?!". Aside from the video and trading card games, all we get is the anime on TV and the movies on DVD (Saying that though, movies 8-9 have yet to be released yet). In regards to the TV series, it seems to be The Pokémon Company International that's refusing to budge. Anime distributor Manga Entertainment UK have outright said that they have tried to get the rights for the Pokémon anime, but the licensors have "other plans" (however, they didn't specify if that was TPCi, TVTokyo or whoever).

In terms of other merchandise, all I've seen is the occasional plush toy (like the Ty plushes for Pikachu, Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, Axew and Pansage - of which I've only ever seen a Pansage in-store...and that was at the merchandise stand at the official VGC).

Homika said:
You could always import a DVD player, could you not?
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Ah, but importing isn't always a very cheap option. If any item costs more than £15 and comes from outside the European Union, it will be subject to additional customs charges (which will always include a minimum of a £7 Royal Mail handling fee, on top of the charges). Sure, multi-regional players aren't hard to come by (I myself own a multi-region blu-ray/dvd player), but importing the DVDs themselves can become quite costly.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Let's not forget that the UK (and the entire PAL region) almost always (like, 99% of the time, with the 1% being games that don't get a US release or do, but only after having the PAL region be its market guinea-pig to see if it's viable first) place bottom in the pecking order when it comes to games being released. It always seems to run thusly: Japan first, then the US/North America and Australasia, then Europe last. I...almost feel offended by that.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

I remember hearing that at one point network, the company that licensed the Darkrai movie, had acquired the TV series and were going to release series boxsets starting with s1 and s10, but eventually didn't because there was some odd confusion over who owns the rights.

As far as I could ever tell, Pokemon UK only seemed to exist as a European base to be closer to other European (non-English) dubbing companies and so on, as I've heard them mentioned more in relation to other dubs than ever actually doing anything in the UK.

As for DVDs, I decided to give up on them being released here a long time ago, and now have OS from Australia, AG from Japan and DP from Taiwan, as well as various special discs from all over the place. Though I do have most of the UK discs that actually got released, including a Mystery Dungeon 2 one that hardly anyone seems to know about. :)

I'd hope that something is slowly changing, with us getting BW first (by 2 days, but better than nothing) and even a UK launch party, as well as Blu-rays slowly coming out (though, what happened to Deoxys.), as well as games like Super Pokemon Rumble recieving separate UK versions, however we still get subject to moms and colors, so there's still a way to go yet.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

That Guy said:
Let's not forget that the UK (and the entire PAL region) almost always (like, 99% of the time, with the 1% being games that don't get a US release or do, but only after having the PAL region be its market guinea-pig to see if it's viable first) place bottom in the pecking order when it comes to games being released. It always seems to run thusly: Japan first, then the US/North America and Australasia, then Europe last. I...almost feel offended by that.
Click to expand...
Aside from Pokémon Conquest, which still doesn't have an EU release date, we've been doing pretty well on the release date front lately. We often get Nintendo distributed titles 2 days before America (Aside from the odd exception. So hopefully those days are over.

bluesun said:
I remember hearing that at one point network, the company that licensed the Darkrai movie, had acquired the TV series and were going to release series boxsets starting with s1 and s10, but eventually didn't because there was some odd confusion over who owns the rights.

As far as I could ever tell, Pokemon UK only seemed to exist as a European base to be closer to other European (non-English) dubbing companies and so on, as I've heard them mentioned more in relation to other dubs than ever actually doing anything in the UK.

As for DVDs, I decided to give up on them being released here a long time ago, and now have OS from Australia, AG from Japan and DP from Taiwan, as well as various special discs from all over the place. Though I do have most of the UK discs that actually got released, including a Mystery Dungeon 2 one that hardly anyone seems to know about. :)

I'd hope that something is slowly changing, with us getting BW first (by 2 days, but better than nothing) and even a UK launch party, as well as Blu-rays slowly coming out (though, what happened to Deoxys.), as well as games like Super Pokemon Rumble recieving separate UK versions, however we still get subject to moms and colors, so there's still a way to go yet.
Click to expand...
Destiny Deoxys was released on DVD here, but the blu-ray release was apparently listed in error.

I'm tempted to import the Australian sets myself (heck, they have the BW series, while America currently doesn't). It's just unfortunate that the American ones are hard to track down and the GBP-AU$ exchange rate is pretty bad.

I agree so much with the US English thing though. I even emailed TPCi to ask if the Kanji feature in the Japanese BW could be turned into a "US English or UK English?" option...but no, they didn't do that.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

It's pretty upsetting. I live in the UK and I remember when I was a kid, when Pokémon was just coming out, there was plushies and figures and books and all that absolutely everywhere- but I was too young to buy such things for myself, and my Mum didn't like spending money on those kinds of things. I ended up getting a fair few plushies for birthdays, Easter and Christmas though. But yeah, in recent years it's been pretty annoying. Almost no plushies come out over here, and when they do they're in very limited supply or have a very short run. We get A LOT of Pokémon cards but that's about it. We also get no figures at all any-more, pretty much.

I'd love just... a store, in th South, where they sell Pokémon plushies, and maybe the accessories they sometimes sell in the JP Pokémon centres. ]:
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Or at least, have the stalls at official events sell imported goods. It was great to see a shop at this year's VGC, but they only sold stuff that's already available here normally (also the Ty plushies sold out FAST - by the time Masters had reached round 3, only a few Pansage plushes were remaining).
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Homika said:
I've never seen or heard of a Pokemon Center being anywhere near me, I don't see any DVDs or other merchandise, it's not just the UK.
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You can go to any Wal-Mart to get figures, cards, and DVDs. No country besides the USA and Japan will ever get a Pokemon Center. There is not enough demand. The ones in Washington will close down within a few years too, I'd imagine.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Gym Leader Janine said:
When Pokémon USA and Pokémon UK merged to become "The Pokémon Company International", the initial reaction between me and my friends was "Wait, there was a Pokémon UK?!".
Click to expand...
Wait, there was a Pokémon UK? When did that come around?
 
I changed the title to more accurately reflect the contents of the topic.

On a side note, what's the market size for Pokemon merchandise in the UK?
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Virtual-Z said:
Homika said:
I've never seen or heard of a Pokemon Center being anywhere near me, I don't see any DVDs or other merchandise, it's not just the UK.
Click to expand...

You can go to any Wal-Mart to get figures, cards, and DVDs. No country besides the USA and Japan will ever get a Pokemon Center. There is not enough demand. The ones in Washington will close down within a few years too, I'd imagine.
Click to expand...

I was just clarifying that it's not only the UK who doesn't have everything, and the Walmarts around here tend to have next to nothing, I live in the middle of nowhere.
 
Re: The Pokemon Company Hates The UK

Ya same here, I live in canada and I go to the US to get most merchandise and DVDs.
 
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