[Steevy Maximus]

At 16bit.com, Mr. Pawlus directed me to an interesting post at MLP Merch, discovering that many of the recent My Little Pony releases being found in Australia are being produced in India, and NOT China. Why does a My Little Pony toy mean anything to us? Adam Pawlus explains:

Quote:

In the 1980s and 1990s, stuff was manufactured and assembled in all sorts of places - maybe Macau, maybe Mexico, maybe Indonesia, and of course maybe "China" proper. Some things were even still made in the USA - but in the late 1990s and 2000s, most of your small plastic men came from China. Hot Wheels moved to Malaysia, because China won't allow any foreign entity to completely own a factory - Mattel runs the show in Malaysia, and as such can more tightly control whatever labor or manufacturing techniques keep the small cars at a dollar after several decades. It's really quite amazing.

China is a de-facto one-stop shop for manufacturing - you can get screws, packaging, product, and raw materials pretty closely together. This has resulted in the rise of the middle class (as your high school teachers predicted as one of two default answers to almost any question), meaning higher wages and an appetite for more interesting goods. Companies therefore need to keep moving to keep costs down with lower wages or different regulations, or different quality control, or diversity in case one country's ports get clogged and you want to make sure you've got something. Transformers mostly moved to Vietnam a few years ago for new stuff, some of the older tools are still in China so be sure to check your various Platinum items with older molds and reissues to see where those came from. New stuff is coming from Vietnam with few to no exceptions, as far as I can tell. The toys are simpler and, in many ways, cheaper.

India has worked with Hasbro before (Funskool's G.I. Joe line comes to mind) so seeing things like this mean we're hopefully going to see them ratcheting up their options and hopefully continuing to deliver us all consistent wares at hopefully not-increasing prices. They make some changes based on freight, but thanks to trade agreements and other loopholes we could even see returns to some of the odder manufacturing techniques of the 1990s, such as an item being manufactured in Asia, assembled and/or packaged and Mexico, and shipped to the United States for sale. It's a strange, newish world.

Long and short? China isn't getting any cheaper, and now with significant portions of Transformers and, seemingly, My Little Pony (Hasbro's two largest house brands) having moved production out of China, it creates an interesting situation of what might happen to GI Joe if/when Hasbro attempts another major push. Pretty much all of the current ME/25th to current tooling are sitting in China, but if Hasbro moves production, it could mean significant changes to the design of the figures going forward.

Credit: MLP Merch by way of 16bit.com

[SmokeBellew]

Yeah, par for the course in the quest for lower production costs and greater ROI. Right now, production in a lot of sectors is moving in greater numbers to SE Asia and Mexico/Central/South America. As the quality of life improves in those places and labor costs increase, Africa (if they can ever stabilize enough) will most likely become the new center for global cheap consumer goods production. After that, well, we'll either be SOL for our cheap goods or the world will end...whichever comes first.

[JediJones]

That's when we move to domestic production with nano-tech used to reassemble the molecules in landfills into new figures.

[needagungho]

Does that mean I will be able to pick Joes for cheap when they "fall" of trucks; when I go to visit my folks back home?

[Zap Rowsdower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by needagungho

Does that mean I will be able to pick Joes for cheap when they "fall" of trucks; when I go to visit my folks back home?

If it does, keep us in mind!

[46 Zone]

I thought they bought the rights for a 3d printer. I see them eventually selling plastic, paint, and printing plans for people to make their own figures.

[youdoitimbusy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 46 Zone

I thought they bought the rights for a 3d printer. I see them eventually selling plastic, paint, and printing plans for people to make their own figures.

I don't quite know how 3d printers work, but if they sold 3d plans for parts I would be in the troop building business!

[SilverOptimus]

It's true. I did some digging as well...

Hasbro Transformers Toys To Be Manufactured In India - Transformer World 2005 - TFW2005.COM

[Jinx723]

blah, blah, blah...
They can produce toys on Mars by White Martians for all I care. What are they doing to improve quality control for all toys not just G.I. Joe and Transformers(&MLP)?

[SmokeBellew]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jinx723

blah, blah, blah...
They can produce toys on Mars by White Martians for all I care. What are they doing to improve quality control for all toys not just G.I. Joe and Transformers(&MLP)?

Not much. They're toys, not collectables. It's the adult toy collectors raising hell about the quality. Kids give no shits about paint aps.