Okay, Hasbro is bringing the One Direction guys to the United States. Applause and feet stamping. But what about the JLS guys? What about The Wanted? Will Hasbro bring them over, too? I have not seen anything to indicate that they will. But hey 2012 is our pro-active year -- so I decided to ask Hasbro directly.
First, I submitted an email query, but the toll-free telephone number seemed to beckon me. Come on, place a call. No cost. You get an immediate answer. So, I called their Consumer Affairs division - very pleasant conversation - and learned that that division had no knowledge of JLS or The Wanted dolls being brought over to the U.S.
What next then? A phone campaign? No. Customer requests would NOT get the JLS dolls here in the U.S.A. Even if we sent in millions of requests, Hasbro would not be able to sell those dolls here. Why not? Because Hasbro does not have the license to do so. They were granted the license to sell the One Direction dolls only.
The next step for JLS fans or would-be American JLS doll collectors is to contact the JLS and The Wanted marketing departments. Do they have a plan to sell the boy band dolls in the U.S.A.? (Possibly they do. Possibly that plan rests on seeing how well the One Direction dolls do here. Or maybe their fan base in the Americas is not as fierce as is the one for the One Direction dolls?) Note: the Hasbro Consumer Affairs representative mentioned it can take about 18 months for a new doll line to get distributed.
So, that is how the JLS/The Wanted query was answered. We collectors could contact fans of the JLS and/or The Wanted to find out if they would help us push for the Vivid Imaginations dolls to be brought here. Depends on the amount of effort we want to put into getting the dolls here. Or we can see about getting these dolls through Amazon.co.uk or private collectors.
Anyone interested in following this up?
