“will hit theaters this December and mark an important evolution in Hasbro’s role as storytellers.”

Translation: we let the people who actually care about the franchise make the creative decisions this time so maybe it’ll be legitimately good.

 

I wasn’t even talking about retail, just Amazon. They have Titans Return figures (do they have them all or specifically what he’s looking for? I’m not sure. I haven’t really looked for any TR figures on Amazon, I just know they have them) for the standard retail price (ie deluxes are are 15-17) and some are even on sale. It is immensely frustrating when it’s your favorite guy and you can’t find him. I agree wholeheartedly. It was like that for me for the entire TLK toyline except for wave 1. However, all due respect, instead of going home, sitting on my hands and saying “Fuck Hasbro. Fuck retailers”, I went online to look for the TLK toys that I wanted. Distribution of Transformers is pretty shitty right now, so collectors are going to have shop online for now. That doesn’t mean paying a crap ton of money for one toy. Look for the toy you want on various online retailers to see who has it for the least amount of money.

 

Good thing that one toy twenty years ago isn't anecdotal!

I also like how we're fixating on the loss of $80M and ignoring the additional drop from an $80M positive profit in the previous year's first quarter. That makes the supposed $60M hit from TRU barely 1/3 of their problem. Smiles all around though.

 

Hmmm....well, someone said don't blame distribution....but that is a massive problem.
How can anyone make money on empty shelves?
How?
I have seen POTP wave 2 in one WM store one time.
Our Target has been totally empty for months...as have the other 7 WM stores around me.
All I will say about pricing......Hasbro released Jurassic World stuff a few years ago....poor quality and high prices and small assortments....
Well....Mattel swiped the license away and their JW2 line is large, varied and reasonably priced. They have a massive T-Rex for 50 bucks....Hasbro would have charged 100 for it....
I obviously don't get it. I am no business wiz...all I can do is look at the evidence in front of me....

I remember when Energon came out and took up a third of an aisle...now TF gets two rows of empty pegs.....a big change......

 

Ebay!

 

I've given two cases where vendors got screwed. Do you have a positive story to provide? I'm listening.

61.4m for TRU
15.7m for severance
47.8m because of changing tax codes
total 124.9m

158m difference in operating, so 125m is accounted for. That's 28m not accounted for in the briefing in what we can assume might be losses that are not described. 20% that's not accounted for, although we can't point at any singular reason. The only clues given are around 20% drops in gaming and franchise brands. That includes Marvel, Star Wars and Transformers.

So, what was the difference to last year? My best guess is that TRU was ratcheting down their orders even earlier this year coupled with fewer pallet drops at Walmart. But that's just inference...no better speculation than claims that Titans Return is a better seller than PotP (other than Hasbro tracks warehouse sales, not cash receipts).

 

Huh? When accounting for the TRU debt and the severance payout from their restructuring they are just about even with their Q1 2017 filings.

edit: Whoops, I was misreading. They are positive, but down about 40M from 2017 Q1.

 

Why are you blaming Hasbro for a retailer not stocking it's shelves?

 

That's not a distribution problem. That's a ground-level retailer problem who is not ordering stock for whatever reason (the problems can be myriad...stock not being zero'ed out in inventory...stock being added to inventory because the wrong product was faced onto the peg to make the aisle look full for managers...etc.). Don't blame Hasbro...blame Walmart or Target. Hasbro has warehouse stock...Target and Walmart order it...it's up to the ground-level employees to handle it correctly.

 

Common Hasbro,

I just need Flywheels, Sureshot and Slapdash... sure I'd love more, however those guys are a must for me  

 

This is a hasbro problem. You make shitty movies that don’t sell toys and the retailers order said toys. Then the retailers can’t move said toys so they order less the next time around. Retailers don’t care if it’s movie chug or the baby line. Then you have shelf space paid for but can’t get toys on the shelves. Then you produce another movie hoping it’s going to right the ship and hope it can move another wave of shitty toys. Good luck with that. If the bayverse is transformers now for hasbro, it’s time for transformers to go on hiatus.

 

This is a hasbro problem. You make shitty movies that don’t sell toys and the retailers order said toys. Then the retailers can’t move said toys so they order less the next time around. Retailers don’t care if it’s movie chug or the baby line. Then you have shelf space paid for but can’t get toys on the shelves. Then you produce another movie hoping it’s going to right the ship and hope it can move another wave of shitty toys. Good luck with that. If the bayverse is transformers now for hasbro, it’s time for transformers to go on hiatus.

This is a hasbro problem. You make shitty movies that don’t sell toys and the retailers order said toys. Then the retailers can’t move said toys so they order less the next time around. Retailers don’t care if it’s movie chug or the baby line. Then you have shelf space paid for but can’t get toys on the shelves. Then you produce another movie hoping it’s going to right the ship and hope it can move another wave of shitty toys. Good luck with that. If the bayverse is transformers now for hasbro, it’s time for transformers to go on hiatus.

 

Okay, so a lot to unpack with that post.

I'll just say that I completely disagree that Hasbro should go on a hiatus.

 

Yeah, no one wants a fucking Rose Tico figure and etc.
No matter how well designed these Star Wars characters are, the aesthetic just isn’t as toyetic as they use to be.
This includes the ships/ vehicles too.

I’m mostly referring to the original trilogy aesthetic the sequel trilogy (and spin offs) is stuck with.
They look cool on screen and use to sell tons of toys, but they don’t really make people wanna drop money on them nowadays.
They have to change.

I’d pick up the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe/ Justice League cast over the cast of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
They just aren’t as cool.

Also, the new Star Wars toys are hella expensive and very lackluster.
I wanna see someone like Mattel give it a try.

 

Man I have to agree.

Edit- not at the hiatus part...

This Bumblee Movie set in the 80's would have been a perfect time to give the movies a different sheen, but as we know they went with the horrendously ugly bay designs again.

I think of it this way, go back and look at some of the weirder 80's stuff, like Rocklords and garbage pail kids, the sooner Paramount and Hasbro stop pushing Bay's vision the sooner we'll all look back and go, "somebody wanted that ugly nonsense".

 

That strategy's worked really well for G.I. Joe, Jem, Thundercats, Monster Rancher,...

 

Not that surprising. Q1's are usually hit or miss. Add in the TRU issues, and it was going to end up losses any way you look at it.
Also the fact Hasbro is between media right now with a transition in shows. RID having ended. Rescue bots prepping for the sequel series. Cyberverse toys having yet to reach market or the toon air. Other development costs going on in the media arms of the company. Add in the fact the heavier investment in engineering for later material as well as they had last years revenue profit gains to work with. Also add in the losses from buying the power rangers toy rights but having yet to release toys to profit off of that acquisition but investing into engineering of that material to get it made. And all around a Q1 loss was rather expected with higher gains to happen later. Normal highs and lows of business growth.

Those saying this means 'fewer risks' for the company haven't really been paying attention. Unlike other companies, Hasbro has been succeeding and making gains on risks. Rescue bots itself was a risk. Even MLP:FiM was considered risky. Black Panther having a dedicated Toyline would be considered risky in previous years or by other companies. Mashers were a risk. Combiner wars/TR/POTP was a risk. Generations itself as it has grown was initially considered a risk. All the original marketing aspects they kept throwing onto it to conform it to their data(compare Perceptors of Hasbro of yesterday to Hasbro of today). Nostalgia and accuracy ingenuity to generations is a moderately recent thing. And the reason it works is because Transformers didn't have lines like that as opposed to others. Marvel had always been Marvel characters and mainstays, Star Wars had always been all of star wars, batman is batman, superman is superman etc. Transformers was one of those rare areas up until this past decade, was very overly cautious with classic material leaning towards fully new, and the growth to slavishly G1 has been slow built to, which is what makes it succeed so well as it hasn't over flooded the market as yet because of that. Same as how the movies are still profitable ventures.

This Q1 report doesn't mean much to be honest, other than we should have some fun things to see that are coming later. And Q2 may still be feeling the losses from Q1 and the market instability too, but should show some upswing. With Q3 and Q4 leveling out, and next years Q1 starting to go back up as the new media will be around as well as other lines they've yet to get to market yet.

So this really isn't much to worry about as yet. It's transitional stages and dealing with a hard blow in the market eco-system with the loss of TRU as well as other acquisitions of new licenses that have yet to hit market.

 

The Last Jedi was not a very good toy commercial.

Who would want an A-Wing that barely had any screen time... Kylo’s Ship that barely had screen time... that weird whatever those things were Police things at Canto Blight... the B-Wing rejects on Crate that literally fell apart as they were flown...

Oh yeah- every kid was clambering for a reptarg rolling squid toy... not! To be fair tho, I did nab a Probe Droid on clearance.

Tell me again why a kid would want an Akbar figure? He appeared for all of 2 seconds and went out the window. WANT!

Where was the Carrie Poppins action play set?

I can picture it now- some boy with his his Poe X-Wing with 5th booster going “this is Poe Dameron flying in to disobey orders! Pew! Pew!”
In the other hand I’d the Leia figure “Poe your demoted!”
And another kid with their Rose Figure going “No Poe- don’t blow up the bad guys! We win by saving the horses!”

And then wonder why toy sales are down...

 

Don’t forget the Resistence Bombers lol

Anyway, I wish LEGO made sets for the First Order Dreadnaught, the Supremacy, and the Raddus, I’d totally get those.