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02-20-2017, 11:41 PM | #1 |
Cobra Lab Rat
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: California
Posts: 3,046
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A while ago Toyark posted a link to a flashy New York post article that says the 3.75 movie toy line were killed off by awful case ratios that Hasbro released reissued figures too close together which clogged up distribution and potential sales. I even posted about it a while back.
--------------------- NY Post Claims Movie Toys Not Selling - The Toyark - News --------------------------- Well apparently, Hasbro still hasn't learned a damn thing. They're still issuing reissues too soon and poorly for the Star Wars Legends line (aka Black Series) Jedi Temple Archives News: 40th Anniversary Case Assortment Makes This Etailer Voice Opinions https://www.staractionfigures.co.uk/SW640w1.html (original source of jedi temple archives article) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. This isn't even a new problem. When I was working the sales analysis portion for the hobby store I work for, I pointed out specifically these reasons as to why Hasbro cases under perform and why their whole strategy is awful as a whole and actual fixes they could have implemented but NEVER tried. ---------------- 1. Repeated reissuing the same figures in follow up waves of toy cases per individual year. Why aren't the figures released only ONCE per year to prevent figures from piling up and forcing clearances? 2. Lack of double or triple packing popular figures while double or triple packing well known named characters and various variations too much. 3. Price increases everywhere with significant decline in quality. 4. Lack of market research and overuse of Toy Case sales which tells the company NOTHING about actual demand per individual figure. 5. A lack of a pre-order or back-order structure, especially given that it could have been done in a year to year wait basis. 6. If cherry picking Popular figures is such a problem at retail and you SERIOUSLY can't distribute popular figures because no market research you know, why not as a last resort sidestep the issue and blind pack the Cases of Figures. Now Retailers don't have to worry about cherry picking and Online retailers can just open them up and sell them individually. This boosts sales and preserves pricing while giving retailers an advantage. 7. Why in 2012-2013 did Hasbro move to a generic bland toy packaging scheme? Market research has proven time and again that Eye catching and delightful packaging increases sales, by moving to a bland and unpleasant cost cutting method to save pennies, they made their toys look generic and thus reduced their own sales which creates losses in dollars!!! 8. Why are the accessories on 5 POA figures so ugly and non movie accurate? If they're a throwback to old toys, well old Star Wars toys had movie accurate accessories and they attracted adult buyers. This is guaranteed to decreases sales. 9. Why are 5 poa figures as expensive as a full fledged figure released in 2007-2008? Any argument falls flat if you can buy a Marvel or StarWars supermasher for 7-10 bucks. ------------------------------------------- Yeah, just wanted to post my thoughts on this. I'm still a sales analysis at the company I work at and a coworker brought this to my attention. It blows my mind they're STILL doing this. Sorry, just a rant, this is why I kinda of ignore 3.75 figures from hasbro these days. Last edited by Snakeeyesisposh; 02-20-2017 at 11:43 PM.. |
02-20-2017, 11:51 PM | #2 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Secret underground complex
Posts: 7,025
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SW is pretty much a license to print money. Hasbro produces garbage and people wait in line to buy it.
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02-27-2017, 11:11 PM | #3 |
Cobra Lab Rat
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: California
Posts: 3,046
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Retailers are starting to parcel out the previously released figures at bargain prices immediately right now. Anyone in the know is immediately trying to get rid of them as fast as possible.
Jedi Temple Archives News: Cumulative Effect Of Bad Case Assortments + TBS [SW40] Wave 2 Case Ratio Just wow. |
02-28-2017, 12:55 PM | #4 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Athens Al
Posts: 2,741
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Anyone remember the batman toys from the 90s? A case would be like two classic outfit batmans, one Joker then 10 orange purple or green versions of the classic mold. Even when I was young I thought... wouldn't each person with a Batman want a Joker? who the hell wants batman after they have batman, especially in stupid colors that do not even actually LOOK like batman? what about ANY other characters.
That has killed toysWhy the hell does EVERY Marvel line and EVERY case from EVERY movie Always Have Cap, Iron man, Thor and Spidey if they get deep into subsequent waves. We all already have them. And Vader. and Obi Wan and luke. and Duke and Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander. marketing gaffots have dictated to the rest of the industry that the entire sales strategy should be based on impulse buys from the lowest denominator, not the lowest COMMON denominator mind you but the lowest POSSIBLE dominator OF ALL meaning the least informed consumers throwing the rest of us under the bus. Talk about not dancing with the one who brung ya! We made this industry and we get shit on the most. Who the hell dictated that a well engineered toy is strictly a collector want? My 5 year old doesn't like " Figures without knees" because they "cant sit in Vehicles" yety Star Wars has declared that adding KNEES AND FUCKING ELBOWS is a collector only issue. unreal
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Looking to trade for Vintage Iceberg and Frostbite 25th Mutt Just loose figs, no need for accessories. |
03-01-2017, 10:59 AM | #5 |
Iron Grenadier
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: USA
Posts: 950
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That's because the competionist collector who buys every figure immediately is the smallest potential consumer segment. The millions of kids who only buy a few figures, and who still need some main characters after their initial release (when adult completionists have likely beaten the kids to the store to purchase those main characters at first release) are a much larger and valuable consumer segment. It's nonsensical to ignore those consumers and not ensure the main characters that they are likely to want are available to them.
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03-01-2017, 12:02 PM | #6 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Secret underground complex
Posts: 7,025
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Quote:
That's because the competionist collector who buys every figure immediately is the smallest potential consumer segment. The millions of kids who only buy a few figures, and who still need some main characters after their initial release (when adult completionists have likely beaten the kids to the store to purchase those main characters at first release) are a much larger and valuable consumer segment. It's nonsensical to ignore those consumers and not ensure the main characters that they are likely to want are available to them.
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03-01-2017, 01:01 PM | #7 |
Crimson Nerd
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Virginia
Posts: 12,579
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Collectors have always had, continue to have, and probably forever will have a fundamental misunderstanding of the "core character" strategy, much less understanding that Hasbro responds to the needs and wants of the big box retailers...NOT hobby stores and e-tailers. Their bread is still buttered by Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R' Us, etc...
The Core character mentality is based on a fairly simple principle: That every day there is a kid out there that might become a fan of a given property, and when they do, The retailers want that kid to be able to walk into their store and pluck the "main characters" right off the shelf to start or continue their collections. That's it. A Duke or Snake-Eyes or Darth Vader or Iron Man sitting on shelves is, to an extent, exactly what the retailers want. Yes, sometimes it'll get to the point where they have to clearance some things, but if they sold enough at full price, they still make a net gain (especially since things are rarely clearanced below cost). They want it to sell "eventually" but having bare shelves from everything selling out is NOT ideal for a retailer, because it means that potential customers have to go look elsewhere for toys. Moreover, there have been multiple times where Hasbro or other toymakers have produced "collector demanded" figures in high numbers, and guess what normally happens? They often end up being some of the worst pegwarmers of a given line (Jabba's Fat Dancer, anyone?). |
03-01-2017, 04:32 PM | #8 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Athens Al
Posts: 2,741
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Great Figure
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Looking to trade for Vintage Iceberg and Frostbite 25th Mutt Just loose figs, no need for accessories. |
03-01-2017, 11:16 PM | #9 |
Cobra Lab Rat
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: California
Posts: 3,046
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Quote:
The Core character mentality is based on a fairly simple principle: That every day there is a kid out there that might become a fan of a given property, and when they do, The retailers want that kid to be able to walk into their store and pluck the "main characters" right off the shelf to start or continue their collections. That's it.
A Duke or Snake-Eyes or Darth Vader or Iron Man sitting on shelves is, to an extent, exactly what the retailers want. The whole problem with this concept is that if they always want those core characters in stock at a big box retailer, then a Toy Case system is completely outdated and counter to their interests Why would you sell figures you want to ALWAYS be in stock together with figures you know either have limited appeal or are army builders and guaranteed sales? If you always want those characters in stock, you mass produce lots of those figures right? But this means in the current case system you produce more Toy Cases. But the other parts of the case Hasbro tacked on either have either limited appeal or are army builders who have TOO much mass appeal thus their demand is either WAY higher than the case they're attached to, or WAY LOWER than the case they're attached to. This then devalues the Toy Case as a whole which ends up REDUCING future sales, which then increases the risk of producing more cases hence Future Toy Cases cost EVEN MORE due to decreased sales and keep in mind these effects are CUMULATIVE and permanent for the company selling these cases (In this case HASBRO)!!! ------------------------------------- What I am trying to say as a whole is that this is NOT a good system for estimating Supply and Demand, nor is it a good system for rewarding the toy company as a whole when the figures they pick are right or wrong. Sales of Toy Cases obscure the law of supply and Demand, aka which figures earned Hasbro a tidy profit, thus they keep repeating the same mistakes or we get disasters like "THE PHANTOM MENACE Vintage collection Waves" or in this case "Too soon Bro" aka "WHY are we getting THE EXACT SAME LUKE and BEN and a LEI a few months after the last release??" I'm just really Sad. And don't get me started about short packing which is intentional and a completely hilarious move where the company itself (Hasbro) tries to intentionally limit the supply of popular figures to take advantage of the situation. They're taking peanuts in profits for mistakes that cost them bushels of peanuts. Just no. Quote:
Who the hell dictated that a well engineered toy is strictly a collector want? My 5 year old doesn't like " Figures without knees" because they "cant sit in Vehicles" yety Star Wars has declared that adding KNEES AND FUCKING ELBOWS is a collector only issue.
unreal -------------------- Basically a while back, Funko/ Super 7 in 2013 released the first ALIENS Reaction figures that release Nostalgia based 5 poa figures. Well, Hasbro and Mattel saw how well those sold and basically announced they wanted in on the market, you know because it makes sense that 5 POA nostalgia figures based on unproduced 70-80s action figures are the same as 5 POA modern figures, and they decided to just go HAM on that strategy, with .... mixed results. It should be pretty obvious which company who did a better job implementing this strategy (Saga Legends came out 2013. . . . .) and it's debatable who actually profited (Mattel Princess toyline, may you rest in peace) Last edited by Snakeeyesisposh; 03-01-2017 at 11:34 PM.. |
03-02-2017, 11:17 AM | #10 |
A Cimmerian
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Mountain of Power
Posts: 11,075
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Hasbro's ultimate problem is that the company line is "we sell toys, not collector's items", even though they clearly market to collectors. Some of these case assortments are understandable under the "core character" concept.
However, for example, Hasbro has unofficially said Marvel 3.75 is a collector's line, and that shows in the high price and poor quality. But they still shoehorn in repacks that no one wants, basically because they're trying to double dip- even though I think more retailers are becoming OK with the collector's lines. Toys R Us has, anyway. But that leads to the other problem of Collector's lines becoming exclusives, such as 3.75 SW TBS. The problem is, Hasbro and/or the retailers still can't fully commit to that, so we still get repacks, and not even good ones, while still paying more money and having awful availability. All that to say, its 2017. Why can't we just pre-order everything, by the each? |
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