I'd attribute the wane in star wars not just to the fact that star wars is over now, but also with poor distribution and a lack of planning for which figures would be popular. I never even saw a clone from the 501st, but primus knows I saw a whole slew of ugly jedi.

 

Were they expecting Star Wars to actually have decent sales with all the repacks that have been coming out? It's bad enough they repack some of the RotS figures, but one of the Han Solo's that came out recently has already been realsed 4 or 5 times already!

 

If they want to sell SW figures, they should stop making those nobody figures that kids don't want. The Vaders and Lukes sell out fast, yet Rebel Soldier in winter outfit #46 doesn't sell at all, it just sits on the shelf. Their distribution of their products don't help either. I think the last time I bought a Transformer was in December ? Months later they still keep shipping the same old stock, there's no point in me spending my money on something I've had for months.

 

Yeah, I do too. The problem with WM is that they over order stuff, thinking it'll fly off the shelves. Problem is, any collectors get what they're looking for, the kiddies get what they're looking for, and yet WM still has more of it in the back/coming, and keeps stocking it. Nobody buys them, they clog shelves and can't get rid of them, and can't order and stock the new stuff because of that.

Hasbro's case assortment choices don't help things either, Mudflap for example, being in several waves, and back to back in some as well. Target, at least in my area, has it's collective head screwed on right. They dont seem to over order, and I'm always seeing the newest stuff there pretty quickly.

 

I believe they are under estimating Star Wars. At the momment (jan-april) it's been nearly impossible to keep SW figures on the pegs. Yes, even repacked figures are be rabidly bought up. It's the fantastic retro style packaging that selling them -just like when they did the 'original trillogy collection'. With all the cool figures announced, and rumors of figures to come... 2006 IMO is one of the best years ever for SW collectors.

 

I blame the schools.

 

I blame their shoddy distribution....I have had plenty of money to spend for months and I can not find anything to buy that I dont already have....I have not bought a new TF since wing saber like 3 weeks ago! Since then thought I got THS 02 and now Twin Cast in that time frame....Hasbro's distribution sucks.

 

I'm no toy industry expert, but i'd expect the first three months of the year to be the weakest quarter for any toy company.

That said, this year may not be their best.

Cybertron is nearly a year old now, with new molds becomming less and less frequent.

Transformers Classics is due in the Fall, but i suspect the (apparent) lack of a basic price point will detract from potential sales.

IIRC, their only movie toys for this summer will be from X3.

I'm not sure how Sigma 6 is doing...but i suspect it's so so at best. Even if they were to try to revive 3.75 inch G.I.Joe, regardless of format, millitary toys may not be so popular in these times.



As for next year, (again IIRC) there's Ghost Rider toys, Spiderman 3 toys and of course toys from the TF Movie.

Ghost Rider toys will have a fairly short shelflife. Spiderman toys will do better, but will still trail off by the start of 2008,

They may not be the same focus on Star Wars merchandise, but there's a still some dependance on movie toys there.

So, Hasbro willl probably be leaning heavily on TFs......

The U.K.is the third or fourth biggest toy market in the world, and TFs are amongst the most enduring and well known boys toys ever made.

However Hasbro UK have repeatedly made a dogs dinner of marketing a toy which shouldn't be hard for them to market.

If Hasbro INC are to realise the full potential profit from the one reliable , non licensed, core, brand they have they need to intervene and resolve the situation with Hasbro UK.


Although they're smaller markets It may also be in their interest to deal with Hasbro France, Germany and Spain and their polcies torwards TFs.

In short: Hasbro INC has been playing absentee landlord too long with the international branches of Hasbro,.

 

Sigma Six and to a lesser extent, TF Universe, have shown that a sub $10 offering is NOT as essential as it used to be. Aside from a handful of gems (Ransack, Armorhide and Energon Divebomb among a few others) the basic class really doesn't offer that much for the price anymore. In the Beast Wars days, they were $5 which made them half the deluxe figures and it showed. Now, they average retail $7, and with deluxes a mere $3 more, they really don't carry the weight they used to, at least in my opinion.
Dollar per dollar, I feel the deluxes offer the most bang for the least amount of buck.

Hasbro is not making X3 products, Toy Biz is.

And as far as GI JOe, I feel the military angle is moot. Sigma Six has just as much visual tie in with a superhero line than just military. And it should be noted that when 3.75 was pulled from retail, Walmart and Kmart both expanded the support they gave the Corps and Target signed BBI to, essentially, make GI Joe KOs.
Political reasons or not, military actions toys ARE a staple of the boy toy aisle, be it GI Joe or not.

 

Mattel is ONLY number one due to the sheer volume of product they sell and the cost cutting measures they take.
Think of how many places you can go to find Hot Wheels? Or Matchbox? Or how about all the "Batman vehicles" that were out and about last year.

And you think Hasbro is bad about repainting? Mattel only made 3 basic body molds, 5 head molds plus various accessories for the Batman Begins toyline. Hasbro made well over 60 all new action figures for Star Wars Episode 3.

In all reality, Hasbro does not have that many licenses, the ONLY real licenses Hasbro has are Star Wars and Marvel (which doesn't take effect till next year), minus character likeness license for board games and such.
Mattel, however, has the DC animated rights (minus Teen Titans), Batman and Superman comic license, Harry Potter, various Nick toon licenses, Mary Kate and Ashley, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Yu-Gi Oh, numerious Disney licenses (notably Princess).

Mattel makes their money by cheaply flooding licensed material on the market.

 

Retails cannot tell the difference between on toy from another

 

Even if they did suffer a 4.9 million loss, their stock seems to be doing relatively...well, I wouldn't say the stock is doing well, but it's staying afloat.

You can see the effect that first quarter loss had on Hasbro stocks REALLY well if you load up morningstar.com and type "HAS" in. Click on the YTD tab over the stock graphic. Check out February. Ouch.

On the other hand, Hasbro usually has to suffer some sort of rebound in both August and in January. When I heard this, I sort of expected it. This seems like it's just a larger profit loss hiccup than usual during post-Christmas, first-quarter recovery.

 

Oh so true! Being a casual SW collector myself, I'm a bit annoyed that Greedo gets the super-poseable treatment when I just got the Original Trilogy carded one!  
Not only that but they shortpack troop builder type figures.   Then the one Clone trooper people really want gets made using the dumbest version. (501st)
Besides umm you only really need 1 Darth Vader. They all look the same!

Transformers must be their number one product keeping them afloat.
Can't be G.I. Joe since they stupidly made them 6 inches which retail for $15!

So Hasbro losing profits is the reason why SW figure prices have increased from $4.99 during Xmas to $6.63 at Wal-Mart.  

Hasbro gets the Marvel Legends line next year. Hope they don't mess it up or more losses will be incurred.

 

What's with all the "OMG SW is teh suxxorz"? RotS was a massive success on the toy front. 16% of Hasbro's revenue for '05. If anything, they underestimated demand, having to crank out the repaint wave toward the end, and not having enough product on the pegs for the Christmas shopping season.
The idea that it's somehow SW's 'fault' is asinine. Yeah, there's dropoff now, but that happened in '00 and '03, too, like a hangover after a wild night. If there hadn't been any SW toys (yeah, right) or sales hadn't been good, they'd be in a lot worse shape.

 

By that logic, we really shouldn't need the Neo G1 line as all we need are one Bumblebee, one Hot Rod, and one Starscream. After all, they all pretty much look the same  
They are by NO means shortpacking army builder figures, hell, if anything they OVERPACK them! I've seen well over a dozen of the standard orange clone troopers this year (not to mention Snowtroopers and AT AT Drivers), yet have never seen Scorch at retail and the one time I saw Commander Cody was when I purchased him.

As far as GI Joe, for one thing they are NOT 6 inches, they are 8 inches. Not only that, but they are available in a $10 and $15 assortments. Sigma Six has done better than any recent incarnation of Joe that I know of, it is NOT by any means a failure and has probably done more for the brand than anything else.

And, you DO realize why Star WArs was so cheap last year right? It is because EVERY store was competing for the same dollars. The true MSRP of the Episode III figures was 5.99, but the stores marked them down to the $4 range in order to pull in customers.
The price was increased because it is NOT a movie year, and until the tv series get off the ground there is effectively NOTHING to push the brand aside from itself.

 

I stand corrected, Hasbro will start making Marvel toys from 2007 onwards.

 

Um... you seem to be under the impression Hasbro only makes a couple lines of action figures. No single line is what 'keeps them afloat'. They're the second biggest toy company in the country, even with losses they're doing just fine.

They own Wizards of the Coast, which has Magic (which at worst is probably the second-best selling CCG right now) and all the other games they own, Milton Bradley and its slough of board games, Nerf, Play-doh, Pokemon...

No company of that size could risk having one line be a backbone like that. If that line were to flop, it'd kill the company. Hasbro can afford to have a few dismal products out there because they have so many others to pick up the slack.

 

hrmm, when RotS was in the cinemas, it's what got me to start collecting a few SW toys, mainly just Jedi/Sith figures. And it was quite a mission to find any....they were selling insanely fast, only could find unpopular people like Mon Motha, Wookie Warriors and so fourth, and those fully-articulated Clone Troopers were the most popular.


Now, there's been restock after restock of the same case, which seems to ahve about 5 Vaders in the case, so one store has about 20 Vaders sitting in the store....as well as plenty of medical droids, senators and more. SW sold VERY well while the movie was there to support it...but now it's over, the demand has lowered signficantly. So now it will be hurting sales.


Cybertrons been selling VERY well here, no loss here i'd say....

 

When your local toy aisle is populated by pegwarmers such as Mudflaps and Ironhides instead of Soundwaves and Scrapmetal you know you have a distribution problem. Hasbro needs to understand what consumers want and do accordingly. I'd spent more money on TFs if I can find what I want every time I go toy hunting.