Could Hasbro make Hercules at an affordable price?

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by Alucard77, Feb 13, 2012.

  1. Fishdirt

    Fishdirt Tin Toy Transformer

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    TFC can make these affordable. Why do that though when they can sell them for roughly 100 a figure?
     
  2. Alucard77

    Alucard77 Kaon Gladiator Champion

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    Here are a couple of things I would love to see research on:

    1- The Classics (CHUGURTS or whatever you want to call it) sales figures. I mean those don't have any rooted show to them at THIS point. So they are geared more towards people who know about the 1986 cartoons and before.
    a- This will at least show how much interest there would be. Instead of saying this will only be for collectors. I mean, in all reality, isn't the Classics line "for collectors"

    2- Would a modern day child not look at Hercules and think, that is one bad ass mofo of a toy. I mean, you literally can look at it and say, holy fuck, that is one awesome toy. Regardless of the show, game, etc. it is associated to. By itself as a stand alone toy, it is awesome looking. Or am I just biased?

    I am still under the old idea that if something looks amazing, it will sell. It's a simple fact of life.
     
  3. Philip164

    Philip164 Board Member

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    Yeah it has nothing to do with the fact, as soon as a DOTM wave didn't have a BB the retailers cancelled there orders. :rolleyes:  The retailers want toys to sell to kids, the retailers don't give a dame about collectors for the most part and when they do, be sure to notice the up-charge.
     
  4. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    The only way they can make them affordable is if they can produce and sell at a volume about 100x more than they currently are.

    The visual appeal certainly drives the sale, but in the end, the child is not the consumer. The parent is. Outside of Christmas, not many parents are willing to fork over $60-80 at once for 5-6 figures simultaneously.
     
  5. kibble

    kibble Seeker style, yo!

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    I used to think Hasbro was capable till I saw FoC Bruticus...now I'm not so sure. As for these having to have lights and sounds and it being too expensive, why could they not just release these separately as individual voyagers? Then if they wanted to do a Costco exclusive box set or something, even better. Do they think they're too similar looking to release them all individually? Bumblebee what? But yeah, technically I see no reason these couldn't be done at voyager prices and sold individually...the only question is how well they'd sell to the kiddies. But collectors would surely eat them up...
     
  6. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    5-6 Deluxes at once is problematic at once. Expecting the parents to shell out $20-25 per figure in a 5-6 Voyager set is absolutely ludicrous.

    That is actually a major hurdle against a possible Devastator (and Predaking, and maybe Computron. And timely releases for Dinobot or Insecticons) release. The retailers have some pretty strict guidelines for controlling their shelf layouts. They want items to be readily distinguishable from each other at first glance, which typically means that the toys in any given wave can't all share the same colours.

    So yeah, have fun hunting those Constructicons down from wave to wave, only to get the last assortment under-ordered as always.

    This is why Hasbro has been Combiner-shy, is because the retailers have too many ways to utterly and completely destroy their gameplans, without even meaning to.
     
  7. alternator77

    alternator77 Well-Known Member

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    what retailer was this and where did you hear this bit of info?(im referring to the bb case asst.)
     
  8. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    It's not true. He's being facetious.
     
  9. Philip164

    Philip164 Board Member

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    DOTM wave 5 and 6 had no BB's, and i was being sarcastic.

    Oh, from what I'm hearing the case assortment of Deluxe BB for TFPrime will be 1x3, 2x2, and 3x1; Hotshot will be wave 3x2.
     
  10. Valkysas

    Valkysas Attack Buffalo

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    Retailers would never go for 6 voyager construction vehicles that were all the same color. That's all it comes down to.
     
  11. solarstorm

    solarstorm Well-Known Member

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    We're 10% of the market. Even if everyone bought 3 figures, which I assure you is a minority of TF fans, it would only constitute less than 1/3 of total sales.

    By the way, the latest report from Hasbro cited DoTM as a success and noted that business grew this year for the Transformers line.

    If kids aren't buying all of those transformers, who is buying them? Fans have been bitching about the line. The line is full of Bumblebees and the big ticket item had piss poor articulation in combined mode.

    I don't really see a lot of collectors buying that stuff. But I did see a kid flip his shit over the "awesome" Ultimate Movie Prime or whatever it was called.
     
  12. process

    process Hanlon's razor Veteran TFW2005 Supporter

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    Hasbro most certainly has the skill to do it; one only need to look at the great improvements in toy engineering over the last several years. However, it's the economics of mass market toys that determines the prices.
     
  13. Orodruin

    Orodruin @deathformer TFW2005 Supporter

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    They certainly have the capability to do it. But it's not a financially sound idea. It's a collector's item we're talking about here, and they just can't pull off a 6 piece, color matched combiner and have it sell well.

    The best we could hope for is something like - is it Bandai? - is doing with the collector's club Voltron. But then Hasbro has almost never shown a willingness to make exclusives like that.
     
  14. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    It's Mattel.

    And it looks like ass. And the engineering is nowhere as complex as a Transformer.

    And the only reason that it's an online exclusive is because Mattel seems to absolutely suck at marketing their boys' toy lines, to the point where the retailers seem to have dropped everything short of the "kiddie" DC lines. And even then, Mattel doesn't have anything coming up there until The Dark Knight Rises, as far as I can tell.
     
  15. Alucard77

    Alucard77 Kaon Gladiator Champion

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    OK, here is the thing I don't understand. I could go to my TRU and find probably 4 or 5 Bumble Bee molds that look almost identical.

    So having construction vehicles packaged in alt mode, which all look different but are the same color is not ok, but having a figure which is the same color and has the same name is ok? Sorry, not buying this argument here.
     
  16. Astronut

    Astronut Well-Known Member

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    There's no doubt in my mind they could.
    The real question is, would retailers stock it even if there was no connection to a (new) movie/tv show/game, and there were no gimmicks? (other than the obvious transforming and combining)


    Edit: I really should be reading other people's replies before writing my own. :lol 
     
  17. Alucard77

    Alucard77 Kaon Gladiator Champion

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    OK, so this arguement about retailers again.

    Question on that, what was PCC tied into?
     
  18. Astronut

    Astronut Well-Known Member

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    PCC were cheaper than Hasbrocules (tm) would be, and it had an appealing gimmick. Although the execution of said gimmick left a lot to be desired.
     
  19. Alucard77

    Alucard77 Kaon Gladiator Champion

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    Well you can compare the stand alone PCC guys with the lets say Deluxes of individual figures. I doubt Hasbro would release a Voyager sized Hercules off the bat.

    That would be about the same cost. BTW, love the fact you (tm)ed Hasbrocules. I would like to see Beercules!
     
  20. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    There's the headline "mascot" characters, and then there's everybody else.

    The retailers aren't always 100% consistent with their mandates, and rules can be bent, but only so far.

    Even then, for the DotM line proper, there were three Bumblebee releases. One was the standard version, one was the teched-out Nitro mold, and then the Cyberfire one, in black. All fairly distinct from one another.

    Anything else (Scan series, Target Cyberglyphy, Wal-Mart Rally deco) were all exclusives and should be treated as outside cases.

    And if all things had gone according to plan, all of those Bumblebees shouldn't have been on the shelves simultaneously, anyways. There would have been some overlap between Nitro and either of the two others, but not all three at once. But hooray for the retailers overzealously front-loading the line again and causing the waves to sit far beyond their planned exit dates.


    It may superficially look the same to you, but the scenarios are in fact completely different.