I recall hearing that the "Shelf time" on Market 6 toys is often a lot more than it is on Big 4 toys as the Big 4 toys are required to be constantly refreshed where as Market 6 stuff isn't they order once or twice - and might even re-order. but the sell art a higher price over a longer period typically. Where as Target's attitude would be if it's not shifting then box it up and sell it to a clearance retailer to shift (Like TJ Maxx).

 

They've re-released Backstop in two different packaging styles and released a redeco in a third new packaging style.

Unless Hasbro has been outright lying in that Q&A session I quoted and is wasting a shitload of money by constantly taking back unsold toys, shipping them back to China, having them taken out of the old packaging, then put into new packaging and then shipped back to stores in the US, those are three distinct production runs on top of the original Cybertron release. The redeco definitely is a new production run.

 

The QA session is right, there's no way it makes sense to send unsold toys back to china to be repackaged.

I think the "cheap-o" toys have always been sort of "whatever molds are laying around that are the right price point and we can sell for cheap" but lately they've had "good" molds (ie: prime, BB, & Screamer, or the 5 PoA marvel figs that were originally vehicle drivers in their respective movie lines) of major characters it makes sense to use them, as a kid is more likely to want an Optimus Prime than he is some random dude like backstop (or whatever cybertron molds there were).

What will be interesting is to see what happens in 3-4 years when these legends molds are worn out. Will they do the "new" legends? go back to old scouts? Who knows.

I wish I could get a job in the marketing dept at Hasbro, I'd love to know the answer to these questions.

 

To be fair, I never said or assumed they shipped back unsold toys from retailers. I was referring to first run toys that never left China because they were overproduced. That could be put in different packaging and then sold to retailers. Take a look at the Club Seacons or OTFCC Sentinal Maximus for example. These were toys that were made, but either lacked packaging ( Sent Max ) or were packaged for a store exclusive ( Walmart Seacons ). Hasbro had them packaged and then shipped from China.

The theory that I was purporting was that they had a ton of unsold stock still in the warehouse in China that they repackaged. Your earlier quote from Hasbro did not even address this possibility.

 

I severely doubt that Hasbro has a massive glut of produced-but-never-put-into-package stock just sitting around in a Chinese warehouse, especially not one kept for so many years that they can be put into several different packaging styles. Unless I'm mistaken, once a full-scale production run is initiated, it's done all the way up until the packaging stage. I find it rather unlikely that Hasbro has a bunch of toys produced and fully assembled but then says "stop, let's put these into storage" before they can be put into packaging.

Why would Hasbro only have factory overstock from certain toys but not from others that would have originally shipped in the same wave?

In addition, the fact that some of these re-releases sport minor deco differences compared to earlier releases, or are even flat out redeocs, pokes another hole in that theory.

 

My understanding is that the toys were packaged. They ordered too many during the Cybertron line and the excess were sitting in cases ready to ship. But retail orders were lower than expected, so they were just sitting there. Rather than paying to rent the warehouse, they can pay to have them repackaged and sold under these other lines. It's a way to get something out of the toys instead of them just wasting space in a warehouse.

I have no proof other than the fact the toys that showed up were the exact same assortments as the tail end of the Cybertron line and that Hasbro never denied that particular theory.

 

We've also seen "leftovers" and remnants of final waves at my local dollar stores and discount chains for a long time now. Maybe theyve been successful enough to warrant more attention?


But more importantly, another possibility as to why we might be seeing more focus from Hasbro on dollar stores (especially as many of them start selling at the 2-4 dollar mark) is as a way to push knockoffs and bootlegs out of those chains where they've previously held a lot of strength, diluting the Transformers brand and potentially leading to IP problems for Hasbro down the road.

 

It's not like supplier like Hasbro dictates what goes to shelf, or can dump whatever shit they feel like to Dollar stores. The relationship doesn't exactly work that way. Dollar stores have super buying power and suppliers usually need to pay upfront, we're talking six-figure or more, just to be in the door have shelf space. Dollar stores have more negotiating power than you think. Try deal with Dollar General, Family Dollar, or any chain with over 10,000 locations, you'll know.

It's usually about maximizing profit, Backstop or Optimus, whichever makes more business sense at the time.

 

Yeah I don't get why they continue to re-release the same Cybertron scouts (which alot are good)....mix it up once in awhile.

 

Let's look this up, shall we? Fortunately, Entertainment Earth's listings are archived.

Cybertron Scout Class wave 8:
2x Giant Planet Mini-Con Team (NEW), 1x Ransack GTS (NEW), 1x Shortround (debuted in wave 7), 1x Repugnus (debuted in wave 7), 1x Scrapmetal (red; debuted in wave 6), 1x Lugnutz (debuted in wave 6), 1x Brushguard (debuted in wave 4), 1x Swindle (debuted in wave 5), 1x Wreckloose (debuted in wave 4), 1x Backstop (debuted in wave 4), 1x Street Speed Minicon Team (debuted in wave 4)

Cybertron Scout Class wave 9:
2x Swerve (debuted in wave 5), 1x Swindle, 1x Street Speed Mini-Con Team, 1x Lugnutz, 1x Shortround, 1x Repugnus, 1x Giant Planet Mini-Con Team, 1x Ransack GTS, 1x Scrapmetal (yellow; NEW), 2x Brakedown GTS (NEW).

Cybertron Scout Class wave 10:
1x Swerve, 1x Scrapmetal (red), 1x Brakedown GTS, 1x Repugnus, 3x Giant Planet Mini-Con Team, 1x Ransack GTS, 1x Scrapmetal (yellow), 1x Hightail (NEW), 2x Shadow Recon Mini-Con Team (NEW).

According to your logic, wave 3 of Universe 1.0 Scouts (the first wave of rebranded Cybertron Scout Class figures) should have consisted of red and/or yellow Scrapmetal, Brakedown GTS, Ransack GTS, the Giant Planet Mini-Con Team, Repugnus, Hightail and the Shadow Recon Mini-Con Team, or maybe Shortround, Swerve and Swindle?

Instead, the first wave of rebranded Cybertron Scout Class figures in Universe 1.0 consisted of:

Lugnutz (last seen in wave 9), Brakedown (last seen in wave 7; his redeco Brakedown GTS shipped all the way up until the final wave), Brushguard (last seen in wave 8), Backstop (last seen in wave 8), Scattorshot (last seen waaaay back in wave 4) and Undermine (last seen in wave 6; his redeco Repugnus shipped all the way up until the final wave). In fact, there wasn't a single case assortment during the Cybertron run that contained all these toys at once! By the time Lugnutz debuted, Scattorshot had already been phased out.

I dunno, but as far as I'm concerned, that's not even close to "the exact same assortments as the tail end of the Cybertron line".

The Universe 2.0 wave of rebranded Scout Class figures consisted of Backstop, Brakedown and Brushguard, all of whom had previously been released in Universe 1.0 packaging. Meanwhile, the "Warriors From Three Worlds" three-pack included Scattorshot (last seen in Universe 1.0 packaging), Ransack GTS and Repugnus (both last seen in the final Cybertron Scout Class wave).

The 2010 "Transformers" wave of Scouts consisted of a Backstop redeco (i.e. a new production run), a minor Wreckloose repaint (i.e. a new production run, unless Hasbro took all the produced Wrecklooses and slapped some new paint on them; either way, Wreckloose was last seen in Cybertron Scout Class wave 8) and Undermine (last seen among the Universe 1.0 Scouts).

I can take this game one step further and argue with the rebranded Energon Basics. The final three waves of the Energon run consisted of A) two Superion Maximus limbs and two Constructicon Maximus limbs, B) two redecoed Superion Maximus limbs and two Bruticus Maximus limbs and C) two redecoed Constructicon Maximus limbs and two redecoed Bruticus Maximus limbs, always in equal numbers. The first two waves of Universe 1.0 Basics contained three Superion Maximus limbs and one Constructicon Maximus limb, among other non-combiner figures. If they were indeed factory excess, what happened to the rest of the combiner limbs?

There's nothing even remotely resembling a correlation as you imply.