The Mega Construx Mega-Thread

Discussion in 'The Toyark' started by jestermon, Jul 23, 2010.

  1. nacho

    nacho Well-Known Member

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    Mattel acts like it's operated by a group of drunk monkeys. The ineptitude is palpable. They need to be bought out (by Hasbro or anyone else) and run properly for a change.
     
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  2. IgnikaMarcus

    IgnikaMarcus Need new Legacy G2 Leadfoot.

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    There you go again.
    Unless they're on the verge of bankruptcy, Mattel won't be selling to anyone.
    Probably not even then.
     
  3. NemiMonkey

    NemiMonkey Whippin Dem Fungals

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  4. nacho

    nacho Well-Known Member

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    That's why the hasbro buyout rumors crop up in financial markets every time Mattel reports bad news, because it's so extremely unlikely.:rolleyes: 

    You act like I'm in a bubble just wishing really hard. No, I simply read the reports. Being snarky at me every time it comes up in industry news won't make it go away.
     
  5. Hicks_Royel

    Hicks_Royel Hurts feelings being honest.

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  6. autobot prowl

    autobot prowl Well-Known Member

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  7. IgnikaMarcus

    IgnikaMarcus Need new Legacy G2 Leadfoot.

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    Maybe if they weren't so reliant on TRU and actually allowed people to buy from the mega construx website, sales wouldn't stink.
     
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  8. autobot prowl

    autobot prowl Well-Known Member

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    Oh I agree, other than Amazon and Entertainment Earth, who else carries Mega online in decent selection? If there is no product for customers to buy, than they can't and won't buy.
     
  9. autobot prowl

    autobot prowl Well-Known Member

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    BTW, is it bad that I am up to 50 of these guys now? I mean 10 for $5 even if they are the old style is still a steal! Screenshot_20180726-162245.png
     
  10. Scrapper6

    Scrapper6 Lord of Constructicons

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    Hasbro will never be legally allowed to buy out Mattel, no matter what industry nitwits are saying, there's this little thing called Monopoly and how it's against Competition Laws or something to that affect. Hasbro could no more buyout Mattel than Disney could buy out the rest of Hollywood.

    That being said, Mega didn't used to have these problems, when it was solely owned and operated in Canada it was not that hard to find on store shelves. Mattel's complete ineptitude after acquiring them royally fucked up LEGO's ONLY real competition in the brick building market. And I loathe what happens when Mattel just destroys Mega as a brand and it goes the way of any number of other companies.
     
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  11. lars573

    lars573 Well-Known Member

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    Your talking like the Lego group doesn't exist.
     
  12. Scrapper6

    Scrapper6 Lord of Constructicons

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    Of course I am, because The LEGO Group doesn't factor into MOST of what Mattel and Hasbro sell. Hasbro and Mattel are in direct competition with one another across the board, Boy's Action Figure lines, Girl's Doll Lines, even replica vehicle lines. Mattel's only direct competition is Mega when it comes to LEGO. LEGO is a completely different toy company, they don't make action figures, they don't make dolls they make brick built toy models which are technically not gender specific, but these things are always up in the air.

    So yes, even if LEGO exists as a Toy Company they wouldn't factor into the legal side of whether or not Hasbro could purchase Mattel because they are a manufacturing company that operates differently... Hell it's because Hasbro exists and makes action figures we can't get single-release Minifigures of Marvel or Star Wars figures.
     
  13. nacho

    nacho Well-Known Member

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    Financial experts tend to disagree. But I guess you know more than the "industry nitwits". Le sigh.

    Excerpt from The Motley Fool:

    Hasbro and Mattel are undoubtedly major players globally. It was recently determined that Hasbro and Mattel control about 22% of global toy sales, a not-insignificant number, but also not one approaching monopolistic proportions.

    Regulators don't necessarily need to follow such justifications to their logical endpoint to make a determination that a merger would be bad for competition and would lead to higher prices for consumers. The vertical integration between the two could also raise objections because Hasbro is not only a toymaker, it's also making TV shows for kids and movies.

    Still, while some might see risks associated with such a set-up, a tie-up between Hasbro and Mattel makes a lot of sense, as they are very complementary businesses.

    Although both sell toys, Mattel is highly geared to the girls' market with brands like Barbie, American Girls, and Monster High, while Hasbro, with Transformers, Star Wars, and Nerf, is something more of a boys' toy company. Together they would balance each other out and could save significant amounts of money by eliminating manufacturing redundancies in China and elsewhere.

    It's not the first time the two toy companies have talked about a tie-up, with discussions stretching back decades, and what the right price is for Mattel is hard to say at the moment as it scrambles to retain relevance in the marketplace. But assuming Hasbro could come up with a fair offer, the antitrust issues might not pose so high of a hurdle that they wouldn't be able to surmount them.

    Does a Hasbro-Mattel Merger Really Raise Antitrust Concerns?

    And one from Bloomberg:

    An antitrust review of a Mattel-Hasbro tieup, which would probably fall to the Federal Trade Commission, will hinge on how broadly officials define the market, according to Jonathan Kanter, a lawyer at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP in Washington, D.C.. If the review focuses narrowly on the companies’ overlaps in specific toy categories, the makers could likely sell off a few product lines to win approval, he said.

    If enforcers take a broader view and see the combination as uniting the two biggest toymakers in the U.S., leaving just Denmark’s Lego A/S as their next biggest competitor, the deal could be in for a rough ride, he said.

    “Are they going to look at it through the traditional approach of the last 20 years, which has been focused mostly on defining narrow markets and evaluating the merger segment by segment?” said Kanter. “Or are they going to continue the trend of looking at deals more holistically and examine them based on the broader impact? That’ll ultimately determine the fate of the deal.”

    It's certainly not a given that a deal would pass, but it doesn't seem like an impossible thought either. According to Morningstar, the combined company would account for about $5B of the $24B US toy market. That doesn't scream "monopoly" to me.
     
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2018
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  14. Hicks_Royel

    Hicks_Royel Hurts feelings being honest.

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    Nope, I buy Atlas troop packs whenever they are on sale at Amazon. Too bad those Chinese sources can't do the same for the new body types.

    ... Except the zombies. Those things are all over.
     
  15. jestermon

    jestermon Well-Known Member

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    I wish Mattel would have left them alone they had shrunk their Mega shelf space before them though.
     
  16. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    "Industry nitwits."

    You mean the people whose job it is to understand and evaluate this stuff? I'm sure gonna trust the people who went to college for this and base their livelihood and career on it over the dude on a toy forum with a pony avatar. :lol 

    You mean an Antitrust Lawsuit?
     
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  17. Falconhood

    Falconhood Harbinger of Apokalypse

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    I have NEVER found the TMNT Blind Bags for Series 5 and 6...where are they?
     
  18. Baltan

    Baltan Space Ninja

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    They’re in the aether? TMNT is virtually donezo from Mega.
     
  19. Falconhood

    Falconhood Harbinger of Apokalypse

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    Thanks. I'll try to decipher your language to get the message later.
     
  20. Baltan

    Baltan Space Ninja

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    TMNT as a major line is dead. Whatever Series 5 and 6 that exists is out on store shelves (maybe not ones by you), but Mega isn't going to make more for a dead version of the franchise. If you're lucky maybe in six months to a year some of them will filter out to discount stores like Five Below, Ross, etc. but otherwise it's a lost cause, same as the TMNT Classics line when you asked a couple weeks ago. Sorry, but them's the breaks. At least Mega has shown that they have the license in some capacity since they're doing the colored Eastman and Laird figures in Mega Construx Heroes.