[wehrmanm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFender

I am not certain, but I believe the delays are due to a factory relocation. So expecting a huge dump of product in the back half of this year. Trying to stay patient and not start diverting my toy funds to other lines I dont need.

That's reasonable. Just a bummer that Classified was most delayed of Hasbro's lines post-COVID, and here we are again. I don't recall hearing about massive delays for Hasbro's other lines. Contractual obligations as a licensor, perhaps? At least Hasbro did communicate to expect this. But, if I'm a broken record about one thing, it's prices - okay, two things - Hasbro can always communicate with more transparency and I'd think fans would be more patient with things like this (and e.g., The Dragonfly delay).

[DFender]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wehrmanm

That's reasonable. Just a bummer that Classified was most delayed of Hasbro's lines post-COVID, and here we are again. I don't recall hearing about massive delays for Hasbro's other lines. Contractual obligations as a licensor, perhaps? At least Hasbro did communicate to expect this. But, if I'm a broken record about one thing, it's prices - okay, two things - Hasbro can always communicate with more transparency and I'd think fans would be more patient with things like this (and e.g., The Dragonfly delay).

I'm not a tariff expert (thankfully), and I want to be careful not to derail this convo too much. But if Classified production was moved to a country not named China, would those products still be subject to an increase? Or would Hasbro peanut butter spread the cost implications of all production across all their products?

Point being, for all the alarm about rising prices, Classified prices have remained steady. (you can cite BBTS cost increases if you like, but they are the outlier right now and from what I understand they have their product shipped directly to them, thus incurring all the additional costs themselves.)

I've seen a few posts and comments on socials to the tune of "people don't realize when costs go up, they won't come down!" or "when Classified figures are $30, they won't come back to $25!".

Like, ok. But they're not $30 yet. They haven't even budged from $25. Should we be preemptively outraged? Like when people say stuff like this, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with it.

Anyways, it would be nice if Hasbro realized they have a good thing going with Classified and prioritized keeping prices of that line more accessible given it's status as an in-house brand. But, they're a big corporation beholden to shareholders, so expecting anything other than maximizing profit would be silly of me.

[cobraviper72]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFender

I'm not a tariff expert (thankfully), and I want to be careful not to derail this convo too much. But if Classified production was moved to a country not named China, would those products still be subject to an increase? Or would Hasbro peanut butter spread the cost implications of all production across all their products?

Point being, for all the alarm about rising prices, Classified prices have remained steady. (you can cite BBTS cost increases if you like, but they are the outlier right now and from what I understand they have their product shipped directly to them, thus incurring all the additional costs themselves.)

I've seen a few posts and comments on socials to the tune of "people don't realize when costs go up, they won't come down!" or "when Classified figures are $30, they won't come back to $25!".

Like, ok. But they're not $30 yet. They haven't even budged from $25. Should we be preemptively outraged? Like when people say stuff like this, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with it.

Anyways, it would be nice if Hasbro realized they have a good thing going with Classified and prioritized keeping prices of that line more accessible given it's status as an in-house brand. But, they're a big corporation beholden to shareholders, so expecting anything other than maximizing profit would be silly of me.

I would suggest finding big nerdy on youtube, he is the owner of Nerdzoic and puts out videos all the time and he one about tariffs a week or so ago and its very informative.

[SquishyOH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFender

I'm not a tariff expert (thankfully), and I want to be careful not to derail this convo too much. But if Classified production was moved to a country not named China, would those products still be subject to an increase? Or would Hasbro peanut butter spread the cost implications of all production across all their products?

Point being, for all the alarm about rising prices, Classified prices have remained steady. (you can cite BBTS cost increases if you like, but they are the outlier right now and from what I understand they have their product shipped directly to them, thus incurring all the additional costs themselves.)

I've seen a few posts and comments on socials to the tune of "people don't realize when costs go up, they won't come down!" or "when Classified figures are $30, they won't come back to $25!".

Like, ok. But they're not $30 yet. They haven't even budged from $25. Should we be preemptively outraged? Like when people say stuff like this, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with it.

Anyways, it would be nice if Hasbro realized they have a good thing going with Classified and prioritized keeping prices of that line more accessible given it's status as an in-house brand. But, they're a big corporation beholden to shareholders, so expecting anything other than maximizing profit would be silly of me.

Vietnam is currently set for reciprocal tariffs beginning April 2. So moving from China to Vietnam does not eliminate the chance of tariffs.

Your thought that toy companies like Hasbro may spread the cost out across multiple lines is probably correct. If Mattel has MOTU in one country, wrestlers in another, and 6-in DC in a third and one country gets larger tarrifs than the other two, I can see Mattel deciding to nudge prices up on all three lines a little rather than having one range of figures cost 20% more than the other two.

Just like we know one figure in a BAF wave gets all the paint apps and new tooling and the other 4 or 5 are 90% re-use, yet all the figures cost the same. I can see Hasbro applying the same logic and spreading their costs around so that ML, Black Series, and Classified all stay near the same MSRP for individual figures.

[Snake Pants]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DFender

I'm not a tariff expert (thankfully), and I want to be careful not to derail this convo too much. But if Classified production was moved to a country not named China, would those products still be subject to an increase? Or would Hasbro peanut butter spread the cost implications of all production across all their products?

So, that's the thing: Nobody outside Hasbro knows for sure. My wife isn't a tariff expert, either, but she works for a chamber of commerce and believes that even if Classified is now being made in Vietnam, it will see a price increase, as Hasbro tries to spread the Tariff costs across all products, so the Chinese-made products don't have even higher price increases. Her colleague disagreed. Hearing that Chris Cocks was a dick, who also said that grown-up collectors are willing to spend more money, my wife's colleague shifted his view toward "spread the cost," but more like being 50-50 on it, as opposed to being mostly certain that Hasbro would not. Neither of them is an economist, so neither considers themselves experts exactly, just people who have dealt a lot with one foreign country (Germany) and it's businesses for years, as those businesses try to do more business in the US.

Something to note (because it was mentioned above me) is that while Vietnam has currently been threatened with reciprocal tariffs, no one seems to be able to say for certain what products those tariffs would actually be on be on. Also, instead of threatening more of their own import fees on US goods like some countries, Vietnam is making a concerted effort to close the trading gap with the US and import more of our goods and try to make the aforementioned reciprocal tariffs less likely. Whether their efforts will succeed in swaying the administration to leave things alone is another matter.

[Jll5105]

I am also waiting on Dialtone from Pulse. This go around I ordered from Pulse and Amazon to see if I get Amazon earlier and can cancel Pulse orders.

[RedAlert Rescue]

One day I hope to see another spear gun on a future diver.. maybe if I hope really really hard they might make another gun so all the different divers have the choice of 2 spear guns instead of one.

[Apocalyptick]

If Hasbro raises the line to $30 a figure due to tariffs, who will stop collecting? Personally, I might just stop or be very, very, very selective.

[usernamedustin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apocalyptick

If Hasbro raises the line to $30 a figure due to tariffs, who will stop collecting? Personally, I might just stop or be very, very, very selective.

That would also imply that literally almost everything else will also increase in price. I won't want to stop collecting, but I may not be able to afford to continue. I'd rather eat than buy more action dollies.

It's not even about what the figures cost exactly. It's about what (if any) money I would have left over after just paying normal living expenses.

[wmichben]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apocalyptick

If Hasbro raises the line to $30 a figure due to tariffs, who will stop collecting? Personally, I might just stop or be very, very, very selective.

I would probably only get a few figures here and there if they jump up to $30. I love these toys a lot but they are already at a price where I feel fortunate to be able to afford them but it isn't easy and things haven't been getting any easier for me.