TFW2005 Coverage Of Hasbro 2018 1st Quarter Financial Results

Discussion in 'Transformers News and Rumors' started by SilverOptimus, Apr 23, 2018.

  1. bellpeppers

    bellpeppers A Meat Popsicle

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    I think LEGO Star Wars stuff did pretty good sales wise.
    And your right- they should have done those ships.

    Even the Resistance Bombers could have benefited from being LEGO- then you can drop them and the parts would scatter- just like in the movie.

    339C9901-505B-4C07-9E02-398C21DF063F.jpeg
     
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  2. Dirge121

    Dirge121 I'll be your end of days

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    See guys, this finally proves it! Those no good gross bayformers are killing the brand! I told you I told you I told you!

    Now maybe hasblow will wise up and let me be director for the new movie series. I can finally show them what a good movie really looks like!

    Seriously though we hear this kind of dumb bullshit all the time. Between TRU and license acquisitions this is nothing out of the ordinary.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2018
  3. Deadend

    Deadend Spark of Creation

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    Relooking over those numbers, factoring in the TRU losses, and also the power rangers toy rights acquisition, and those numbers seem very promising. Especially during a transitional period between media.

    Between large expenditures and losses, without material out yet to compensate for those expenses, these losses are much smaller than anticipated, which shows a lot of gains and steady sales overall. Since half those losses are estimated from TRU, and the rest factors into expenditures, that's actually really promising for what should be a really profitable Q3, Q4, and even more so for Q1 and Q2 of next year and farther going forward.
     
  4. bellpeppers

    bellpeppers A Meat Popsicle

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    No, it ain’t doom and gloom.
    Has can course correct easily enough.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2018
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  5. AOEGalvatronRox

    AOEGalvatronRox Collector

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    Apparently you’ve missed the fact that, with the exception of AOE, TLK, and RID15, every single toyline since Fall of Cybertron has been G1 themed. But yeah, BAYFERMERS R RUINING EVRYTHING!!1!1!
     
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  6. Autobot Burnout

    Autobot Burnout ...and I'll whisper "No."

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    I mean, that kind of is true, given TLK was such a complete failure that it really screwed over Paramount. The Chinese funding contract was ripped up after TLK failed to even make as much money as the first film.

    If you ask me, Hasbro needs to get its shit together and go back to basics - which involves a much needed mainline reboot. The Movies have gone on for over ten years, over a third of the franchise's entire lifespan and beyond how long G1 itself lasted in its original era. It doesn't necessarily need to be G1 straight up, but the movies have got to go.
     
  7. TCJJ

    TCJJ 125% Tank Engine

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    Baseless Assumptions: The Thread.

    Alternate title suggestions include:
    • The Sky Is Falling (Again) (Not Really) (But Definitely)
    • I'm Smarter Than You, Hear Me Roar (Like A Dinobot)
    • We Numbers Now
    • Stop Liking What I Don't Like
    • REEEEEEEEEEEEE HASBLOW (TOTALLY IRONIC USAGE THOUGH, I SWEAR)
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2018
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  8. jestermon

    jestermon Well-Known Member

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    It's not Hasbro that controls what shows up at retail, the indivdual stores all take control of the product they buy and ship it where ever they want.
     
  9. Dachande

    Dachande MULTI-QUOTE- USE IT. Super Mod

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    Heheh. Love this.

    I think I'll wait for the over-sized KO of this thread. It'll be bigger and have diecast.
     
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  10. bellpeppers

    bellpeppers A Meat Popsicle

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    You forgot improvements & better paint.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2018
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  11. TCJJ

    TCJJ 125% Tank Engine

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    Gah, you made me realise I made a spelling mistake! Now the world really is falling.
     
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  12. ZapRowsdower

    ZapRowsdower Selling oddities in a shack. In the woods.

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    Unless...

    Hasbro bottlenecks the distribution process by NOT SHIPPING Generations toys. ;) 

    Why would Hasbro delay product?
    Many reasons:
    A) Limited space on shipping containers, so Generations product did not fit
    B) Emphasis on other lines like RID, RB, or movie toys gives those products higher priority in the shipping container
    C) Hasbro mentions BBTS (online retailers) by name now, with an emphasis on these retailers being a choice outlet for collectors (*I don't have a specific quote for this, but Hasbro has literally named BBTS in investor reports, and they know collectors shop there!). Hasbro, I submit, leaves much of the collector inventory to BBTS (and similar e-tailers). This could be due to the regularity and size of orders or other factors (such as the demographics BBTS serves versus those of traditional retailers).

    Further, when fans complain about "empty pegs" they are referring to designated areas of stores (meant for Generations products) that typically remain sparse (or empty) for weeks or MONTHS at a time. I submit that it is unusual for a store to willfully allocate desirable shelf space to a product they THEMSELVES refuse to ship to stores.

    If Target, for example, planned to order less (or none) of the latest Generations toys, they would remove the designated peg for this product (evidence: they've done this in the past when removing a size class!). BUT, if Target keeps the figure peg, but does not receive regular shipments to stock the shelves, one can argue that the problem MAY be on the distributor/manufacturer level.

    I just wish to point out a fallacy in blaming stores for poor inventory, as though they are all incompetent (regardless of specific region, store, or chain of stores). Everyone can agree that there are some stores that do a bad job with toy inventory, right? What happens when MOST stores are doing a bad job with Generations toy inventory? :)  Why did Power of the Primes deluxe wave 3 (SinnerTwin, Blot, etc.) release in Asia already, but never show up in the USA (and PotP shelves are looking sparse, thanks to the sellout of deluxe wave 2!)? Why did TF Studio series toys show up in mass suddenly (despite the poor sales of the previous TLK Generations toys)?
     
  13. WishfulThinking

    WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

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    Doesn't happen. but let's go through your list anyway.

    No. There's actually a glut of shipping containers on the market. If there's a shipping container available (and there are so many, people are buying them to build houses and shopping malls), the product will find a place to be shipped.
    That doesn't even make sense. Dock loaders don't care what kind of toys are being loaded.
    BBTS (and others of that ilk) is a choice retailer for collectors because they don't operate like a B&M store where space is limited. They can carry Trypticon without worrying how it's going to fit in a plan-o-gram. They can carry Masterpiece without worrying if Mom and Dad are going to bypass a $100 figure (much less, a $100 that can easily be shoplifted).

    There are many factors at work that can cause shelves to go empty for weeks at a time and none of them have squat to do with actual distribution. Stores can be going through resets (one of the biggest culprits because stores allow stock to dwindle to nothing so they can do both inventory and move product around with the least amount of work), product can be hiding in the back and the store inventory management system doesn't realize the pegs are empty, an incompetent manager decides he has too much of one kind of Transformer and disperses One Steps all over the pegs to make it look full while bumping up the numbers in the system to ensure parents are buying only the thing he/she has too much of...the list goes on and on. But I guarantee you that, unless there's a dock strike, product is being distributed just fine. 90% of all the empty peg problems are individual store problems.

    The way it works is that a tag usually gets a grey dot. That means either the item is being discontinued or there's actually, as you say, a distribution problem for Target in that region. But those are rare birds. You're only going to see a few grey dots per year and very, VERY rarely on mainline product.

    Wave 3 showed up in Asia first (everything shows up in Asia first) because of logistics. Toys are being made in Vietnam...don't you think Asia would get them first considering they're right there?

    As for the Studio Series, they were street dated.
     
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  14. WishfulThinking

    WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

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    The rumors about Hasbro buying Mattel are whipping up again, per CNN. It's buried at the bottom of the news article regarding the TRU effect on Q1 results for Hasbro.

    Toys 'R' Us liquidation kills Hasbro sales
     
  15. ZapRowsdower

    ZapRowsdower Selling oddities in a shack. In the woods.

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    I'm sorry - I guess it's all opinion without a source? :) 
    The company also made the strategic decision to hold back some of its "high-quality inventory" so it didn't have to compete with merchandise that was being discounted at Toys R Us stores as the result of its liquidation. Hasbro said it would draw down this inventory as the impact from discounted toys wore off.
    (Hasbro Accelerates Transformation on Earnings Miss)



    The containers STILL cost money. Believe it or not, Hasbro looks at expenses when deciding on things. And in addition, there's the problem of OVERSTOCKING toy stores (i.e. they get stuck with additional inventory no one wants to buy). So Hasbro is very much deciding what gets shipped, and it isn't as simple as, "but 'ey! Dem shipping containers are CHEAP AS ROCKS! They jus' order more!" :lol 

    Again, apologies for being unclear: the dock workers don't decide; HASBRO decides. Obviously, the only thing the workers see are brown boxes or pallets. I'm not sure why you assumed I meant that the dock workers are somehow cherry picking the toys to pack into shipping containers? :D 

    Yes, you elaborated on why Hasbro likes them. But again, here's a quote, since you think I'm making things up?
    Hasbro has working to adapt to the continuing trend toward e-commerce, and while the company already had plans for changes to its sales organization later in the year, recent events have convinced Hasbro to accelerate those plans.
    Hasbro Accelerates Transformation on Earnings Miss


    Absolutely top-notch analysis and reasoning! :thumb  But the failure in logic is clear: how can so MANY stores SIMULTANEOUSLY experience these problems? Again, if you REALLY don't believe it's a national issue, you need to check the sightings boards across all 50 States of our great union! :)  It's not like Iowa is all, "HOLY SH*T! THERE ARE MOONRACERS AND DINOBOTS EVERYWHERE!" while Nebraska is all, "nothing on the shelves again. But that's expected: Nebraska has 100% incompetent stores that don't know how to manage toy inventory! DUH! Doesn't matter if it's Target, Walmart, or Uncle Dan's Fishing Supply - we're a dumbass State! :D " :lol 

    I absolutely agree that stores screw up, but your explanations range from lazy Walmart tactics to devious trickery by unscrupulous Target managers. It's not that way at all. These stores have issues, true, but it's not so widespread as to explain the difficulty in finding certain toys (i.e. Generations TR or PotP). And in any event, even if Hasbro were not causing a delay in shipping (while we see the toys show up in mass in Asia, closer to their manufacturing origins?), I still submit to you the following: if the stores are doing a sh*t job loading shelves with good product, HASBRO LOSES MONEY.

    Hasbro has employees they send to check store shelves. I literally saw one at a Walmart. A woman, with a clip board, with a HASBRO LOGO SHIRT, taking notes and looking at the toy shelves.

    Enough nonsense about Hasbro having no pull or knowledge about the bad inventory problems. It's pure denial on the part of Hasbro loyalists, I'm afraid. :( 


    But that's just my point! In the past, a toy showing up in China or the Philippines meant that it was 3-4 weeks away from coming to the USA (or elsewhere), at most! Nowadays? F*ck, wave 3 PotP deluxes could be in Malaysia for 2-3 months before they come here. And there ARE extraneous factors at work, and all having to do with HASBRO, not Target or Walmart. Well, more accurately, you could blame TRU's bankruptcy, but read the quote above.

    The problem with the Hasbro earnings report is that it's incredibly vague. If Motely Fool did some proper investigation (either asking follow up questions or taking better notes during the actual presentation), then things look more like how I posted them to be (above). There IS a bottleneck, and it's definitely on Hasbro's side of things.

    I just mean to tell fans to lay off the stores a bit. Aside from a few shenanigans you posted above, they do a good job. And the stores MOST guilty of manipulating inventory (or forgetting about it in the back) are usually pretty known by fans. The problem is when you walk into a GOOD Target and even they don't have the inventory. When you live in an area with an amazing Super Wal-mart (because the city ones tend to suck, and if you ever go to a rural area Wal-mart, it's like night and day!)... why don't they have inventory either?

    So these get shipped, no problem, while we wait and wait and wait to purchase a combo product like Abominus because... ??? I mean, it's like Hasbro sold us the hot dog, but no bun. Now you're waiting on that bun to eat your meal... and after a couple of weeks, they have full hamburgers for sale. WTF? So... throw away the dog and just eat a burger then? Cause that seems to be the fan attitude lately... :lol 

    But thank you for your thoughtful reply! I appreciate it (and your time!). Not trying to argue or fight or anything like that! :)  I just seriously can't believe how often I hear excuses for the inventory problems, and never anyone making a compelling point that Hasbro needs to do better. (The angry "Hasblow" comments are hardly credibly or constructive enough to intelligently criticize and understand the problems that are ultimately destroying the toy-buying experience and hurting overall toy sales).
     
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  16. ZapRowsdower

    ZapRowsdower Selling oddities in a shack. In the woods.

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    Oye, that's too long! :lol 

    Before we forget: toy stores do order the "hot" products, which tend to be media-attached items like RID and movie toys. This is absolutely true, and it's a pattern, and it can be argued Hasbro is shipping what the retailers want.

    I do understand that.

    But it seems to me.... it seems that Generations (TR, PotP, etc.) toys are selling well. So well that Hasbro wants to do a SECOND trilogy. So either the bulk of the sales are coming from BBTS (and online), and that's why the stores continue to poorly stock them.... or the stores DO sell a good portion of these items, and the crap inventory is hurting Hasbro financially (while also frustrating fans).

    I think Hasbro is slowly abandoning traditional retail (when it comes to "Collector" items). The TRU bankruptcy did not help matters (TRU being a large retailer that also sold a lot of Collector items). MP toys are going to be sold via comic shops, which is amazing to me (considering their small sizes and uneven distribution), and a good portion of exclusives are now going to BBTS and Entertainment Earth (whatever happened to CostCo, Target, and Walmart exclusives?). Walgreens is also getting exclusive items (a further push into the non-traditional avenues - small shops shall inherit the Earth? :) ).
     
  17. WishfulThinking

    WishfulThinking The world has moved on...we've always said.

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    That's one single instance where TRU is forcing Hasbro to do things it normally would not do.

    Hasbro doesn't overstock stores. They ship product to warehouses. It's the stores' fault if they are overstocked. However, most stores do their best to NOT overstock...which is one of the reasons many stores don't always have the product you desire. They are more prone to intentionally understock to ensure turnover and fewer clearance items.


    How can Hasbro decide how dock workers pack the shipping containers?


    Perhaps. But that still doesn't detail exactly what those plans are. For all we know, it means they'll be supplying more e-commerce vendors with exclusives and inventory deals (like shippers at B&M but something more like a package deal since there's no way to "drop a pallet" virtually like you can at WalMart).


    You obviously don't or have never worked at retail nor observe retail practices. Both WalMart and Target have similar reset dates for their toy aisles, meaning product isn't being ordered right around the same time for all stores as they nearly uniformly draw down their inventory. And like I said before, the idea is to under stock at the store level unless you know the product is going to be a hot seller. "Shippers" can also throw a huge wrench into the inventory control as well, as a pallet drop on the floor can contain 5-6 cases of old discounted product that can hold up future inventory (see Titans Return W2 revision cases packed in not just one but two shippers at WalMart last year...thus the myriad of Blurrs, Scourges and Chromedomes shelf warming at nearly every WalMart).

    Hasbro already accounts for this in their quarterly sales report. The practices are known and just part of the industry.

    You're right on that. They are supposed to have regional representatives that work with stores to ensure maximum sales. But how many times have you ran into one? If there's a problem with Hasbro, it's the lack of regional reps doing their jobs.

    It's actually a lack of retail knowledge. But whatever.
     
  18. RKillian

    RKillian http://www.rktoyandhobby.com

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    Well, gee, I would, if the The Embargo Strikes Back hadn't followed The Phantom Solid Case.

    Actually, solid cases of T30 Arcee were a real boon to me. They showed up right in time for Christmas too. Everything else that I could've sold was cancelled out from under me, delayed for months on end, or not offered at all.