It's ridiculous. Having been on many sides of this, what I see is that everybody wants to take it all and nobody is willing to give an inch. The manufacturer won't take any risks, pay any wages, or deal with any people. The distributor won't tell you anything, take responsibility for anything, or leave any profit for their "partners." The retailer won't take preorders, break up cases, or even stock their shelves half the time. The customer won't pay for anything, including shipping, and their sense of urgency is inversely proportional to availability (if I have it, you take months or years, if I don't, you stamp your feet NOW NOW NOW YOU SUCK I GOTO WALLSMART). It's a gigantic shit show is what it is. I wanted to make more GoBots several years ago and there turned out to be no way for me to ever make the $50M required for anybody to return my calls short of winning the fucking lottery and (not or) taking hostages on live TV.

 

It's the culmination of greedy egotism at work. Everyone eating everyone. In the end, there will only be one, who then goes to cannibalize himself.

 

And that's terrible because it's so much easier to destroy than to create. Having had such a hard time at the ground level made the collapse of Toys R Us here in the US even worse for me. When KB collapsed, absolutely nothing replaced it, and I knew it would be the same with TRU. All of these operations scorch the earth and then burn out.

 

Hexus the Living Corporation is here.

 

Since this is the 11th (and at least that all over the world, right?), I take it that this has now already happened?

 

Wow.

 

Retail landscape gets uglier every day. The next recession could turn into a depression fast.

 

Pictured:


Obligatory addition about how unfortunate this is for European collectors, to avoid being off-topic. Society is shifting in ways that make it unfavorable to toy companies, and I'm not sure what we can do about it, if anything. Who knows, the next generation here may be the last to grow up with "traditional" toys at all.

 

PLOT TWIST