[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.