[Jmacq1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliViper

Hasbro should just do cases per figure instead of mixing them up with different figures. That'll be a clear way to know how much is selling

From my understanding they do actually offer solid cases of particular figures. Now if you mean shipping ONLY single-character cases well...retailers are never going to go for that.

[Snakeeyesisposh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steevy Maximus

Hasbro HAS started to mitigate some issues my offering single case assortments of Star Wars Black 6" figures, and has done so (to varying degrees) since 2015. But it still doesn't mitigate the short attention span of collectors. The 40th Anniversary Han Solo rerun is slated from online vendors in October. Will many of those collectors even care, especially as stores continue to restock product and new product sees release?
Nobody knows, and won't know until after the fact.

The "before manufacturing" doesn't work for many lines either as "break out characters" can and will disrupt the entire process. Nobody really cared about Rey in September of 2015, her figures were no harder to find than anyone else. But when people saw the movie, THEN did she become a hot commodity.

And as said before, data from collectors is pretty much meaningless. What WE want doesn't often jive with what KIDS want. If collectors ran Transformers, you wouldn't see half the Bumblebee figures (and in fact, has been a rarity in the Generations line proper), yet, aside from the Beepocalypse in 2011/12, I've rarely seen a basic Bumblebee figure from the movies "shelf warm" to the extent it disrupted new product from arriving.

And the core retailers Hasbro sells most of its product to, generally, DO NOT GIVE A FLYING EFF about case assortments. If products sells, they order more. If it doesn't, they clearance and maybe stop carrying that kind of item. Solid case packs do NOTHING in that environment except create a whole new level of peg/shelf warmers as a retailer could stuck with a solid case of a character (much as has happened in the UK).

And, once again, ignores the realities of the "current system". With the speed Disney is cranking out Star Wars and Marvel films, Hasbro doesn't have the luxury of a post mortem run to mitigate short availability, and the secrecy surrounding these films make it impossible to even offer a reliable preorder as most code names mean NOTHING.
Again, manufacturing is a MONTHS long process from order to available in the USA. By the time they've identified a popular character, its already time to move on to the NEXT movie or project.

Hasbro DOES spend enormous resources in mitigating this issue (again, we've never again seen a Transformers Beepocalypse, and the removal of Build a Weapon in Star Wars vastly loosened Hasbro ability to carryover figures).

There is simply NO WAY for Hasbro to make the above concessions and still maintain its (profitable) business with mainstream retailers who DO NOT CARE about most of those issues.

Steevy, it's BECAUSE there are no individual SKUs at Big box retail that I proposed that individual figure pre-orders are so important. Additionally, these proposals might cost money, but they will very likely SAVE more money in the longterm as long as Hasbro can pay the costs and execute them efficiently.

Hasbro doesn't have any data on the individual sales figures of each specific figure specifically because YES, Big box retailers will never assign individual SKUs to individual different figures in the Case and low retail worker training makes cooperation difficult.


E-tailers however are already buying whole cases and selling the figures in individual units meaning essentially, they're the ones selling figures with individual SKUs to customers directly already.
In fact, Hasbro probably already digs into the aftermarket and various online e-tailers to figure out this data, but later.

If you set the pre-orders to sell out at a limiting ratio pegged to the lowest selling figure in a similar fashion so customers can't pre-order more than 12 times the amount of the lowest selling figure, Hasbro could obtain the Sales data they can't get from Big Box Retailers and mainstream retailers ahead of time with no risk of unlimited losses and a degree of control. This allow Hasbro to react in whatever fashion it wanted months ahead of time.

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It will cost some money, but knowledge is power, all this data covers a blind spot in Hasbro's data gathering abilities faster and allows quicker response time and better preparation and planning, which saves time. Time is money, which means Hasbro then also SAVES a lot of money by saving time on wages lost sales etc. In addition being able to use the Data will prevent future loses and show potential opportunities to sell and earn money.

[afsupplies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

From my understanding they do actually offer solid cases of particular figures. Now if you mean shipping ONLY single-character cases well...retailers are never going to go for that.

Why not? Mattel and Funko don't do mixed cases and retailers go for them, why not Hasbro?

[Jmacq1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by afsupplies

Why not? Mattel and Funko don't do mixed cases and retailers go for them, why not Hasbro?

Mattel does mixed cases all the time.

And given the massive glut on the market the Funko bubble is due to burst any day now.

[afsupplies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

Mattel does mixed cases all the time.

And given the massive glut on the market the Funko bubble is due to burst any day now.

I'm not saying Mattel doesn't do solid cases, just that they offer solid cases regularly and Hasbro doesn't. So the solid case system does work but Hasbro chooses not to use it except when they get caught short stocked of a desirable figure.

Yeah, people have been saying that about Funko for about 3 years now and they keep releasing more every month. I hate those things.

[Steevy Maximus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by afsupplies

I'm not saying Mattel doesn't do solid cases, just that they offer solid cases regularly and Hasbro doesn't. So the solid case system does work but Hasbro chooses not to use it except when they get caught short stocked of a desirable figure.

Yeah, people have been saying that about Funko for about 3 years now and they keep releasing more every month. I hate those things.

The UK gets solid cases from Hasbro too (guess you guys REALLY like Drift...), but in the US market, solid cases aren't normally seen at retail aside from the Titan series of figures. And given complaints I've heard from UK Transformers fans...solid cases aren't doing the UK many favors for Hasbro's lines.

[Snakeeyesisposh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by afsupplies

I'm not saying Mattel doesn't do solid cases, just that they offer solid cases regularly and Hasbro doesn't. So the solid case system does work but Hasbro chooses not to use it except when they get caught short stocked of a desirable figure.

Solid cases are usually quite mono in selection, so it's easy to exceed demand and oversupply a region, causing local peg warming in a new direction.

Too much product all at once in and of itself is dangerous too. I've seen a lot of instances where companies release too many Solid cases all at once in a time frame and cause new problems.

Data collection, very important.

[axonrey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steevy Maximus

I have NEVER missed an item I've really wanted. And in the case of GI Joe, most of that was from preordering from online retailers like Big Bad Toy Store. Hell, I got the first two waves of 2011 (the infamous waves 3 and 4 of PoC) for LESS than retail because of stores over pricing of the figures themselves.

Anyone that has been following this industry for the past couple years SHOULD be able to see trends and plan accordingly. And with the increased value of online ordering, preorders for many figures are NOT drastically more than retail (and shipping can be mitigated in other ways).

Retailers will never move to a system of individual figure SKUs. They don't allocate the space, the employee training, or even the desire to change the current setup. Which largely WORKS for Hasbro's largest clientele.

I don't know if that's to my point. Not being able to walk into a store and buy a product offered by that store is a problem. Yes, there are other options, but there are also people who never saw this years 50th in stores wherein it was an exclusive. That's silly, even if it can be ordered online elsewhere.