I thought maybe I misunderstood and they were planned for next Christmas...
These were definitely planned for this Christmas, but the shipping fiasco screwed them getting these into the USA before Christmas.
Jayson says some of these have started to hit Hasbro warehouses stateside now (and some have turned up at some of those scalper shops that "find" things early from contacts at the ports), so it'll be interesting to see what they do. Are Target/Amazon/Walmart going to want a new Christmas item now? Will they try a "Christmas in July" type thing for con season on Pulse this summer? Are they willing to just sit on the product so it's ready for next November?
No one really knows, especially since Hasbro never even officially announced/revealed them in the first place.