Stock is up over 5% at opening! Nice job Hasbro. Glad to be a shareholder.

 

Omfg!!! New M.A.S.K. activity!!!! My life is complete again! Although I'd read about the rumours, knowing it's official is seriously exciting news for me: I'm a HUGE M.A.S.K. fan, probably even more-so than a TF fan (I know, sacrilege!!!)

Of course, I don't really know any other M.A.S.K. fans besides myself, so pardon my enthousiasm  

 

"anticipated decline in TRANSFORMERS, which faced difficult comparisons versus the 2014 shipments in support of the theatrical release of TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION.”

No sh*t there's a decline in Transformers sales... BECAUSE THEY AREN"T BEING RESTOCKED! YOU HAVE TO HAVE NEW PRODUCTS ON THE SHELVES TO SELL THEM!!! I can STILL find AOE toys in stores, and they are taking up valuable space that could be devoted to Combiner Wars, which i've had to buy 90% of online cuz it ain't anywhere to be found... PLUS the Jurassic World toys have encroached into space normally designated for TFs. Less shelf space= less product to sell= less profits! I swear they are doing this in non-movie years as a way to show MORE toy sales during movie years.... (End rant)

Also, would love to see some M.A.S.K. stuff again!!!!

 

I'm a M.A.S.K. fan as well! You're not alone.  

 

Sweet! Maybe a new M.A.S.K tv show or toyline. Fingers crossed. That show was awesome

 

It may not even lead to anything but just seeing the Mask logo and knowing that they haven't forgotten it makes me happy.

 

A decline in Transformers figures sales? Naw, really? I can't really find jack at any of my local stores. I went to Denver, for a different reason that's non toy related, several weeks ago and discovered they have the same problem. AOE figures clutter up the shelves. RID One-Step figures clutter up the shoves. Not only that, but the shelves reserved for the Transformers figures have shrunk in the last year to make room for the Jurassic World figures. There are literally no Combiner Wars figures making there way out except one or two deluxe Stunticons and a couple of Leader Class Megatrons.

 

No mention of the CW line at all???  

When does Hasbro stop treating the TF brand as a movie-product? How bad was the "expected decline"? And how is R.I.D. doing in comparison to CW????

This is all BS that tells us nothing. And, generally speaking, when you EXPECT A DECLINE, you take steps to prevent/stop it. Such as making the CW line, which probably helped reduce the decline, but bares no mention (apparently).

This attitude of, "it's not a movie year, so TF toys won't sell, yawn" is pretty sh*tty. I guess, on the one hand, it tells us Hasbro wants to sell more movies.... but it also shows how weak the TF franchise is, too. If it's a decline in boy toy interest (most likely), then it's a little odd that Hasbro didn't mention what other products are selling well with this demographic - i.e. a successful video game? Nerf perhaps?

A 1% increase is negligible. I wonder how bad their Xmas season will be for TFs? Bottom-line, for non-movie years, this may be the first time in history where we see Hasbro really focus on fans' expectations and demands for the TF franchise (desperation makes for strange bedfellows?). For movie years... I can only imagine the low-plastic, gimmicky product they'll spit out for children - when will we see micro-TFs, for example, a la Avengers and Guardians route?  

Of course, with the existence and higher quality of 3P, it may be moot to court the fans. At least with the same restrictions as "chidlren's toys". The MP line, by comparison, does a better job with higher quality. As the plastic quality/density decreases in the mainline (along with stupid cost-saving tricks like "clip-on wheels"), I am more and more appreciative of the "I only buy MP" collector attitude. All this cost-cutting is hurting the toyline. And as the poster ABOVE mentions, when your distribution model is pure SH*T, you have hemorrhages in other important organs (that really needs to be addressed!).

How many times does a customer have to mention that bad stocking at local stores before Hasbro investigates and does something about it?  

 

Heck the walmart near me doesn't even have RID Warrior class figures at all. Only 1 steps.

 

Eh I already knew about the decline in sales cause it's not a movie year. Only the devoted fan base cares much anymore in my opinion. I could continue my ranting/view of Transformers slow death but I wont. Of course comes into it but my Walmart finally got CW a month ago but now the shelves are full of Wave 2,3,& 4 of One Step RID figures, Hot Spot, & Windcharger.

 

I love M.A.S.K. as much as I do Transformers, so this is great news, I don't care if it's a re-release of older toys or a subline of either TF or GI Joe, I'm all over this. I'd also really like it if IDW starts producing comics for it too, could you imagine a TF/GI Joe/M.A.S.K. crossover?

 

Hasbro, of course you anticipated the decline. Stores aren't restocking figures. I still have yet to find HotSpot and Cyclonus.

 

The only mainwave aoe figures I ever saw were Slug Strafe Drift and HO Bee. I couldn't even find a second deluxe Bee to mod into Stinger, most of my aoe buys were online

 

Did you even read the full report or are you going off-line on purpose?

They did say what product thrived this year, it was product tied to Marvel and Jurassic Park movies, because movie toylines always get a lot more attention than what does not have a movie out. They're not saying "YAWN OH WELL NOT A MOVIE YEAR", they saying that yes sales for Transformers were down COMPARED to last year which was a movie yet and thus had a probably and expected loss of retail space when in comparison to all the other lines that had movies out and thus excited retailers more.

Market trends exist that no one can fight, they know that because that is their job to know, this is not a matter of treating TF like a movie brand as much as they simply informing their investor that just like the 4 other times they had a movie line the line itself dropped in sales one year later in comparison, so the decline is not something that should be particulary worrisome. That is all that is. You're insane if you think a line like Combiner Wars that appeals only to hardcore nerds that saw a cartoon 30 years ago would ever sell as well as a movie line.

 

I find it hard to believe there was any kind of growth related to RiD. That show and most of the toys are completely terrible. The only reason I even watch it is because it's the only TF show on. This is one of those cases where I suspect corporate padding in the numbers in order to support a bad cause.

 

I have spent more money on transformers 7 months in this year than the last three put together. Combiner wars was the difference. Hasbro has got to see what they have a gold mine

 

+1 about the new RID cartoon. I watch it hoping the writing improves, but it doesn't. Nearly every episode something happens where I think, "..but they just did <random detail> earlier. Why are they doing this now?"...or "why don't they just do this?"...or "Why would they need to do that if they're robots?" And WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET? Whole primary bridges and cities (so it would seem) are completely empty.

I haven't bought a single toy from this line. The only one that remotely interests me is Drift. I was interested in Sideswipe until I watched a toy review and saw all the toy kibble.

Transformers Prime spoiled me. Both in storytelling and in toy engineering. The Vehicon toy was pinnacle. Complex but not hard to transform. The way the car panels disappear is pure magic. I would buy Sideswipe with that kind of engineering.

 

Like others have said, it's no surprise that there's an expected decline. There's still plenty of AOE product on the shelves over here in the UK too. All because they got carried away with the relaunching of the brand. I personally have no problem with the two level way they've chosen to market the figures, but they didn't do it smartly. Too many different types of kid-oriented figures, multiple similar looking versions of the characters, and a line that's supposed to be aimed at collectors but without the care or quality that goes into collectors' figures. Until they re-release them in box sets months later when the momentum has worn off.

At least with RID vs Combiner Wars they're packaged distinctly but there's still so much RID product and it's all competing with remaining AOE stock.

 

I love the combiner wars line. But, the repaints of the stunticons, and protectobots in to the 84 and 85 season bots is a tad bit excessive. They, should mix in some new molds with a Computron or Abominus to get the excitement going again.

As for the M.A.S.K news! Awesome! I would love to see some new molds and vehicles, but even reissues would be cool.