UPDATE: Zavvi has raised the Wii version back up to £29.95. DS version remains at £17.95, but is still temporarily out of stock right now. /UPDATE END
UK online retailer Zavvi.com has heavily discounted both versions of Sonic Colours after only just over a week of being on sale. Both editions are now being sold for just £17.95, though the DS version is currently out of stock (no doubt due to this offer), but the Wii version is still available as of the time of this article, so grab it while its there.
In other news, another UK retailer Argos, who you may recall has been causing fans some bother since Sonic Colours‘ release day regarding an action figure pre-order gift, has answered some complaints about the gift missing from their orders. Some of our readers and members of our forum called Argos every day to try to get the issue resolved and now Argos is finally coming through by offering customers affected by this problem their long-awaited figure or a £15 gift voucher (the price Argos charges for the figure when sold separately).
SSMB member jennytablina said an Argos representative she spoke to on the 16th November told her the whole situation was because of a system error:
I called Argos today and asked about this. The attendant said the call center got an internal email about this today and checked, it said Argos had a system error and EVERYONE who preordered Colours did not get a figure (computers eh?). They apparently were trying to reach customers yesterday via email and phone. Though I had no call or email in my inbox.
The official word seems to be that everyone WILL get their figure delivered separate in the post in the next few days, currently waiting on the assistant to call back with details about my own delivery (she was having trouble getting the entertainment side to respond)
jennytablina got a call back the next day and was offered the figure or the £15 gift voucher and opted for the voucher:
Argos called me, and they offered the figure but all the local stores are out of stock. I took the £15 gift voucher instead, because I simply don’t believe the figure is worth the price Argos is trying to shell it for (and mentally it makes Colours £16 in my head, automatically making it an absolute steal instead of a total rip off)
It’s a bit of a shame because I would kind of liked to have had the figure but eh, maybe it’ll be on ebay sometime.
Tomnomnom0607 at the SSMB said:
Well I just got a call from Argos. The person said that they can either send me the figure itself, or £15 worth of Argos vouchers. I took the figure of course! They said I should get it in 5-7 working days.
Looks like they have indeed sorted it out. Hopefully they’ll get in contact with the rest of you shortly!
TSS reader BlastedPinata said:
Okay this has been resolved for me, the woman on the phone placed a reservation for the £15 Sonic figure for me and has paid it for me via Argos. I just need to go down to my local store and pick it up using my reservation number. What a hassle!
SSMB member Gnasher (who provided the photos of the figure) said in a post at the forum:
Well it took 3 nights, 3 argos customer service advisors and 3 phone calls… but finally I have my figure.
I got a redemption code to my email and phone. Took it into my store and got the figure.
I don’t think it’s worth 15p let alone £15 (if you buy it separately), it should be free and nothing more! It’s such a poor figure that even the Argos staff in the shop wanted to check they’d gotten the right one.. to quote one of their staff “It looks like it should come free in Corn Flakes…”
My advice… try to get a redemption code from their call centre and go pick one up in the store. I suppose it’s good if you wish to keep it in the packaging, but certainly DO NOT BUY it separately, it’s not worth it at all!
Yes this is the £15 price, it doesn’t come in a classic Jazzwares style box, it is just a ‘bagged’ figure, regardless as to if you buy colours or not.
In that last sentence, Gnasher is referring to SSMB member Mahzes’ £15 purchase of the figure separately on Sonic Colours‘ launch day, which he said came in a plastic bag and not the usual packaging that retail Sonic figures are sealed in.
I bought the figure in-store at Argos for £15.
It doesn’t even come in a proper package, just in a clear plastic bag with a folded card strip stapled through the top. As such, the figure was (quite understandably) all mashed up, twisted and bent in the bag.
When I opened it, noticed a tiny crack on the right knee-joint (from being mangled in the bag). Took it back, got a replacement, which looked fine. A bit later, on closer inspection, there are two cracks on his right arm joints. *facepalm*
Still, they’re not ‘arm going to fall off’, so I’m just sticking with it. Dunno about anyone else (or if anyone else here has even got it yet), but the joints don’t seem to allow for much movement on the figure. The arms are jointed horribly, too.
And he has no mouth. His nose also bends upward at a pretty steep angle. D:
Overall, the figure is just ‘okay’, but definitely not worth £15. The ‘packaging’ (if it can even be called that) is just ridiculous.
If you take a look at the above picture of the figure, you’ll spot the words “Not to be sold separately” on the cardboard packaging, something we know Argos is definitely doing at £15 per figure. Clearly the figures were intended to be a pre-order gift, which Argos initially advertised them as, but come release the retailer hadn’t given them away and continued not to until nearly a week later after many pre-order customers complained, and even now they’re still selling them.
Is SEGA even seeing any profits back from the sales of this merchandise we assume the publisher gave to Argos for free? We’ll probably never know, but we do know that this has been quite the mess for Argos and their customers. At least now the problem has been solved and Sonic fans should be getting their figure or voucher shortly.
If you pre-ordered with Argos and haven’t received a call/e-mail from them, we suggest you contact the retailer and they should hopefully offer you the figure or gift voucher they’ve offered everyone in this article, but if you go for the figure, be sure to take print-outs of your order/receipt, e-mails to and from Argos about the issue and anything else of relevance, in case you experience the below situation that SSMB member Gnasher has reported in the forum.
On friday I was told by the person who picked up the figure (as I couldn’t get to the store on time) what the staff tried to do. Despite having a redemption code in the form of a mobile phone text, and as an email print out. Argos staff still wanted the person to pay for the figure!
Yeah, the code wasn’t a ‘free code’ it was a ‘on hold’ code. Meaning had I not made copies or my order in the form of print screens, or copied that screen shot you took of the listing, chances are I wouldn’t have gotten this figure as Argos did NOT want to give it out for free regardless of what my code said.
So if you get a redemption code, take all prints and evidence that the figure it should be free with you.
Good luck!
Another thing with the argos fiasco, remember how you also could get a figure with the DS version? And we assumed it was the one which came with alternative Wisps? Does anyone know what happened with that one?
But again, I would love to hear some responce from Sega on this one.
Oh and something else Shadz… I didn’t go pick up my figure myself, someone did it on my behalf, today they told me that the code wasn’t a free redemption code, it was just an ‘on hold’ code. Would you believe that the code the person who picked it up for the figure? Thank goodness I gave them copies of the print screens I made.
Aww.. thats the end of that fiasco..
So, some people paid for them while others got it for free?
The figure is different from the standard Jazwares one, so I have to get one some how, no matter how shabby looking it is 😛
That’s a lot lamer than they made it out to be, with the faulty joints and the crappy packaging. I hope mine isn’t like this… (I won one in SEGA’s Free Stuff Friday, which they showed in the video in a packaged box, so we’ll see how it compares…)
I missed my call…. FFFUUUU
This is a little off-topic but I’ve had pre-order problems elsewhere before, only this year in fact from play.com. I’m a big fan of the band We Are Scientists. Their new album was out in June but Play had pre-orders available from May. If you pre-ordered you would get a signed copy so naturally all the big fans pre-order in May. On the actual day of release other people go in and buy it. It turns out Play made a mess and sent signed copies out to people who bought the album once it was offically out so all the big pre-order fans who get ‘signed’ copies in the mail have just normal versions. All fans are angry. People who just bought it get a nice surprise of receiving a signed one. What did Play say in response to emails.
‘Sorry, there is nothing we can do.’ No refund, no vouchers etc. Nothing.
Damn you life!
Will I’m glad I sent the both the Wii and DS games back to Argos for a refund after I didn’t get the figures. Thats the worst packaging and figure I’ve ever seen. Got the Wii version for £25 the other day (though I’m kicking myself for not checking Zavvi now). I’ll ask somebody to get me the DS version for christmas.
Wow, looking at the figure it sounds like taking the £15 voucher is definitely the way to go!
See, this is why I never pay full price for Sonic or most Sega games, because they go down in price too quickly. My nephew got Unleashed for £10 on PS2 like 3 weeks after release.
If Zavvi is selling Colours for under £20, then sure enough all stores will start to about Xmas, especially if it’s done badly in the game charts. I vowled never to pay more then £5 for a rubbish Sonic game, but considering the reviews, I’ll go around £20 for Colours. :3
I haven’t even got the game nor the figure! I’m hoping to either get Sonic Colours on Wii or DS or (FORGIVE ME TSS XD) Super Mario All-Stars 25th anniversary edition…
@Hook131
…for christmas…
Well that Sonic looks extra retarded…I would not pay £15 for that in-stores, and I feel bad for those who did.
The Wii version’s back up to £30 again. Oh well 🙁