so these may end up looking like those cyber battle (?) figures that were at Walgreens, fully boxed? A lot of foreign releases of toys used to be packed in boxes rather than blistercards or windowboxes, so its sort of going full circle now...

of course the big elephant in the room is the toys themselves are made of plastic...

 

I'm very happy with this decision. Our hobby doesn't need to produce any more potential plastic waste than it already does by its nature. I'm particularly thrilled that Hasbro is going really radical with this and are chucking out even the plastic clamshells. Way to go, Hasbro.
I realize people who like to buy in physical stores are a bit bummed out about this. But as an online shopper, no plastic window doesn't affect me at all.

 

Not necessarily, Wal-Mart employees are supposed to check any boxed item that gets returned. so instances of "clearly not the right toy" will see a decline.

Also Siege Jetfire and all of the CW and TR box sets.

Maybe something like the Alt Modes boxes but with character specific art.

 

Or they can just go back to cards with a thin plastic blister and pass some savings on to the consumer.

Let's not pretend this is for environmental reasons. This is to save cost and keep that extra small profit. Plus help bail out the massive garbage conglomerates. China has almost stopped buying plastic from US trash exporters. A huge revenue stream for Waste Management was selling tons of plastic waste to China and that has dried up. Most of the plastic recycling business in the USA had stopped over the past 15 years because it was much easier and profitable to ship it off than recycle it here.

The cost difference between a box with a window and one without coming from Vietnam is around $.04. But no window will also allow Hasbro to eliminate background graphics and other fillers that add up to about $.25. Overall the savings will amount to thirty cents or so, which has a retail value of about $1. Eliminating the window doesn't save on shipping, which costs more per unit than the package savings. What we'll end up with is the cheap package the Walgreens toys come in.

The box will also hide even more cost cutting measures by Hasbro in the future. By Christmas next year, a Cyberverse quality deluxe toy will be $20 and something like Siege is going to $25 and then $30. You can already see Hasbro testing out the new price points with the Spark Armor garbage. Right now you get an old scout class size figure made from cheap plastic with an armor gimmick for $15. Next it will just be the figure for $15. Remember when Legends went to $9 but came with a minicon, and then were $10 by themselves.

It isn't because of costs going up, but Hasbro wanting to increase revenue in a declining sales environment. I'm just glad that when a $20 deluxe figure will be the same quality as a $5 toy from Dollar General in a few years, my son will be too old to be playing with toys. He got to have his childhood during a really good period of merchandise, but the past few years have really seen a huge drop in quality and he has really noticed. Instead of asking for new toys, he's been wanting older stuff off Ebay because of the far better quality and play value. No kid wants a piece of garbage that falls apart when you take it out of the box.

 

foam would be equally detrimental though to the environment though...they might use cardboard particle trays like in the Super Sentai toyline (last I saw them anyways, its been a decade since I've gotten any)...

 

Returning to the 80`s in terms of increasing the metal parts of molds on the principle of die cast?

 

I'm all for it. I don't buy many toys at retail but when I do I have agonised over which one to get... eyed up all the 'imperfections', taking every last one of the peg and inspecting it like some sort of lunatic.. it's time consuming and makes me crazy! Sometimes it's better not to know! Plus there will be ways around it, different options, innovative new packaging design etc.. Whatever happens I'll happily forgo a window for less plastic out there in the world.

Anyway, it's not like Hasbro and Takara haven't done windowless boxes plenty of times in the past (G.I. Joe vehicles, Actionmaster vehicles, Larger Superlink figure etc) and we all survived!

 

I think some of the best corporate moves are those that appeal to the public while also saving corporate money. I don’t feel it’s a negative to say this is an obvious cash grab while the decision also has positive PR spin. That’s forward thinking IMO.

I’m only responding to part of your post, but I think it captures the main point. Not critiquing either, simply adding my own thoughts.

 

The brick-and-mortar stores will simply have to improve how they handle returns if “swapping” becomes a big problem.

I get the anxiety some folks are feeling but ultimately I think this changes very little. If you buy online, you can’t inspect the item and there’s no fear of swapping. If you buy in-store, just return the item if it’s been swapped. Just check for tampering on the box.

I get folks want to see inside the window to check for any imperfections but how often do you actually catch any imperfections when you do this? Most of the time there’s only one or maybe two units of a particular item, so it’s not like you can rifle through half a dozen boxes to find the “best” Shockwave. Furthermore, you’re more likely to only notice flaws in your copy when you’re holding the figure in hand anyway (versus at the store, through a window).

I think this move away from windows is indicative of more things though. I think Hasbro realizes that they don’t need to “show” the toy to sell it anymore. The brand and the customer loyalty is that strong.

Furthermore, I think the windowless packaging differentiates the toys. There’s an extra layer of specialness to being a simply boxed item without a window. It’s hard to describe but I think it elevates the brand. We’ll get, hopefully, much better artwork and box design without the window.

Hell, it would be awesome if Hasbro went the extra step and made the front of box perforated so you could easily remove it and keep it as a mini-poster/giant collector card.

I can’t wait to see how this develops!

 

I'm all for saving the environment, but not being able to see the figure before I buy is a huge detriment. That's why I prefer buying at brick-and-mortar over online. Though I guess this shift will result in me not caring where I buy from...

Then again, I don't buy a lot of retail TFs nowadays, so no harm done?

 

I don’t really know how to feel about this. It will be great for the environment but how are we supposed to see the figure inside? We need to see it to make sure there isn’t any factory errors which can happen when you least expect it.

 

Good news Hasbro.Sooner the better!  

 

Plastic in bags have been replaced by potato byproducts in countries like Italy. I guess it can be made stronger and transparent.

 

Lego had announced they were making bricks out of some sort of plant-based materiel recently...not sure if Hasbro could do the same, but if the legos are durable I could see that as a possiblity

 

Exactly. If they are really only doing this to save money it's a double and even a triple win. Because this way they'll save money without negatively affecting costumers or employees. Hopefully.

 

Yeah, it's looking like the era of being able to visually inspect the toy before purchase is about to go bye-bye.

 

For me, there are pros and cons:
Pros: good for the enviroment, easier to take toy out of package without damaging art
Cons: unseen defects/tpy swaps

 

You see them the same way you see exclusives and selects and stuff you buy online.

You don’t.

 

you would think cardboard was cheaper to produce but it's actually more expensive to produce than bioplastics google it   normal plastic is even cheaper than both to produce

 

I don\'t know about retail. I rarely ever buy in store.
But for online sales, they should get rid of the packaging altogther. Ship them in a brown kraft box. It\'s getting thrown out anyway. I just wonder how they will protect the toys in transit without a plastic or styrene clamshell. Wired to cardboard tabs?