Expected and understandable. Still sucks, and will probably end up with me cutting down on my collecting, but meh..

 

You will be disappointed.

This price increase is strictly to maintain profit margins while the price of oil rises solely on the basis of speculative trading of oil futures.

As long as manufacturing of Transformers stays in China the quality level will not change. Hasbro will pay the same production rates as before. Since Chinese factory workers have demanded higher pay and been rightfully obliged, the manufacturing companies have taken production shortcuts to maintain their profit margins, resulting in the problems which we have all seen.

If importing the Japanese versions will make you happy, go for it. I seriously doubt that you'll see too many other fans making the same decision as you, at least if availability of Animated toys are any indication. Although, TakTomy's eventual price hikes will be a lower percentage of the price than Hasbro's, so I'm sure you'll be happier with the price-vs-quality alteration ratio there.

 

It is already happening here. Local Hasbros has been jacking up the prices. Dont even ask about this TakTom toys. There cost much higher now.

 

No surprise here given that plastic is a petroleum based product.

But their PR guy should be fired. The price raise is almost definitely something they had in the offing for months. This announcement should've come in the middle of Q2, and then keep the actual date of change in price where it was.

To say 'hey! we had a huge increase in sales!' and 'hey! we're going to be jacking up your prices!' at the same time is pure idiocy. Idiots.

 

Wouldn't high oil prices hurt TakaraTomy's prices even more? After all, they do smaller production runs than Hasbro and likely don't get stuff made as cheaply as a result (I'm sure Hasbro gets better bulk discounts).

 

I'm not sure if anyone has cited this already, but Universe Deluxes have been listed on HTS UK for £12.99, a markup compared to the normal £9.99 for Deluxes. It may be that this is all to do with the increase, I'd been sceptical when I first saw the prices since I thought maybe HTS UK was doing a straight direct sales - import thing through their site to make them available in the UK

(that's why I never reported on it - sorry Oddssey!)

 

Universe deluxes get their official release on Saturday in the UK, so we will know if the £3 / $6 rise is for all stores. But that equals a 30% price rise.

If it is right I see the decline of Tf's the the uk once more....

 

I am not in a huge uproar about this or anything but how stupid can you be? Brag about record profits and then announce a price increase? Come on Hasbro! I am kind of mad that I will have to pay more or decrease my collecting but honestly can't complain too much because it has been the same price for quite some time. Still the idiocy of the coinciding news is beyond belief.

 

Well interesting to say the least. Tell us you have had a record season. Then raise prices. Not to mention more people are into TF then ever before thxs to the movies. Seems a little fishy to me.

 

To us, yeah. These press releases are intended to be mainly of interest to stockholders and investors, not necessarily consumers and collectors/fans though. That group might be more likely to go "High profits? - excellent! Mild price increases? - That's good, gotta protect those profits so my shares will appreciate in value."

 

I understand why they are raising prices (really it should have been done a year or two ago), but I think the timing is really bad. And not because of the "We're making lots-o-money!!!" press releases. Our economy is at a point where most people are cutting back on the non-essentials to cover the rising cost of food & fuel. So to me raising the price of products that are last on most people's priority list is moronic given the current economic climate. Especially when your company is one of the few bucking current trends. Let's protect the margin in an unstable market where that move could wind up costing us the bottom line. Way to go Hasbro! ******s.

 

Aww come on!!! I just starter saving up for an Ultra Magnus after i just got my Megs!!
 

 

Did you guys not read the first article???

Ok so a bunch of you are complaining that Hasbro announces great sales in one release and then anounces a price hike in the next. Did any of you read the first release

Taken from the first paragraph of the article linked on the front page of tfw:

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toymaker Hasbro Inc (HAS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, helped by sales of toys tied to movies like the latest "Indiana Jones" and brands such as G.I. Joe, and unveiled plans to hike prices to combat rising costs."

This second memo is just a follow up with a little more detail.

For those of you that dont understand the difference between sales and profit it goes like this.

Sales - cost of goods = profit

if hasbro sells a 100 deluxes at $10 and they cost 5 to make then
$1000 - $500= $500 profit
If there cost of goods goes up to $7.50 a toy then
$1000 - $750= $250 profit
So now hasbro decides to raise the price. Lets anticpate a 20% drop in sales from angry fanboys
if hasbro sells 80 deluxes at $13 and they cost $7.50 to make them then
$1040 - $600 = $440 profit

Hasbro makes more Profit buy selling less toys at a larger price. Its just smart business

 

Ah, inflation... It's amazing what one commodity can do to the world economy.

Whatever increases there are in the States will likely be quadrupled by the time they get to the UK - I think we might well be living in the most expensive country on the planet now. Go us :/

 

Naw actually, as a potential stock investor (I do mostly entertainment/toys/electronics when I actually buy stocks instead of mutual funds), this came across to me as one of two things:

1) Killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They have increased 13% in a quarter a year after the quarter running up to TF Movie, although I'm sure batman toy sales have something to do with this. This is not Q4, when I'd expect a bigger increase in sales. They are increasing sales, and stand to increase sales much more significantly over the next year during the runup to TF2 and as Dark Knight/Batman builds momentum as a franchise.

As others have said, disposable income is lower than ever, and debt is higher than ever. Most of their profits come from parents. Given that one could safely forecast a significant increase in demand, announcing a price increase now is kinda iffy. Could very well negate or at least significantly diminish growth in revenue from batman, TFs, christmas sales, etc.

2) So you've increased sales, but find yourself needing to increase prices? It's usually the reverse... Maybe you aren't quite in the strong position you seem to be. This is what I'm wondering now.

That's my second thought.

The price increase is understandable, and given that we're likely to see price increases from other toy manufacturers as well, should not hurt their market share, but it could hurt their overall revenues.

They could've either gone earlier, and let the price increase news be swallowed up by the stellar growth this quarter. Or they could've gone a few weeks later, after investors had already responded to their Q2 investment.

 

This thread is a lot calmer than I would have thought.  

 

Not unexpected. That's the current state of The Ecomony.  

 

Um.....Hasbro doesnt do Batman toys, all dc stuff is by mattel so i hope you didnt make any decisions based on that info.

Increased sales are awesome but the cost of goods increases have been slowly eating away at the profit per individual unit since before Transformers hit theaters. This is the perfect time to raise the price. It gives people time to get used to it before the holiday season. Mom and dad will still have to buy transformers if that is what little billy wants. Even if they do take a long term hit in sales it will spike again with TF2 around the corner

 

Argos price apparently confirmed to be £12.99 ($25.98 ish), so that is UK retail price.


So if USA matches Hasbro UK it will be $12.99 a deluxe (standard 30% increase)

as for larger toys I dont know....

 

shame, it means fiddly change in account numbers, I'mm just glad that I applied for a bigger student loan this year.