Because then they wouldn't be transformers?   but in all seriousness, these latest movie designs are some of the most humanoid we've gotten so far.

 

Awesome 4 movies in and you can identify a character, sort of.

 

Maybe the retailers lack confidence in TF4 toys bec. the last waves of the TF3 toys fizzled out.

 

You sound both reasonable and sane, like a human being.

This thread is probably not good territory for you. Run. Only madness lies here.

The madness of fanboys who openly fantasize about humiliating themselves in front of two hundred people and twenty cameras.

Bull.

Prices were not $40, $20, and $10 in 2011. Even when I started collecting in 2009, you had to be lucky to spot a Deluxe for $10 and $50 was pretty much what you paid for a Leader.

 

It's a retractable targeting visor with a green display. It is not always covering his face.

 

With marketing picking up for the film and after the movie, toy sales will go up I'm sure.

 

When you have marvel Titan heroes shelf warming, marvel mashers shelf warming, the same spiderman marvel legends peg warming, the same iron man marvel universe figure sitting their for months, captain America pegs packed, spiderman 5 points of articulation crap, packed, Star Wars 5 points of articulation crap, packed, black series 6" Star Wars sitting on the Han Solo wave and everyone wanted boba fett in which they made one per case, yea.. I'd imaging retailers are very hesitant buying into more hasbro. Hasbro claims that oil is high so in turn so is plastic but they sure crank out Titan figures which no one buys and takes up real estate. At least this is what it's like in the greater Chicagoland

 

Stupid article. Spider-Man 2 sucked so bad even kids knew it. And while it was a superhero movie, The Winter Soldier wasn't necessarily a kids movie. Did the author even take into account most stores didn't even put AOE toys on shelves until a week after the street date? I don't know because I couldn't read the whole thing. It was just bait trying to make something out of nothing. Like that nonsense article I came across a couple days ago saying the X-Men weren't racially diverse enough.

With kids today less interested in toys than they used to, and the fact that this movie isn't even out, it's a no brainer that they aren't flying off of the shelves. But they're not exactly warming them either.

 

I'll wait till the movie comes out before I make an opinion on this...

 

I think the real issue is the state of the economy for most Americans, and the retailers consciousness of this fact. Parents are simply not able to afford toys today, as they did years ago. A lot of people haven't seen any raises in their salary in years, if they were lucky enough to not lose their job, and have seen an increase in inflation and the cost of goods. When that issue changes, sales of toys will go up again for the average American.

With that being said, also the current Transformer product has been shrunk, over simplified (granted those are geared toward kids), and the cost has gone up.

I don't see any AOE toys I'm really interested in. I even passed up an Evasion Optimus. The one figure I have some interest in. I'd rather save my money for Masterpiece or Third Party figures. If I see an AOE figure I'm interested in I may buy it, but I doubt it so far.

I think even with 50% shelf space, most of the AOE toys will end up on clearance.

 

I hope this is a stiff lesson to Hasbro that putting the ship on cruise control and throwing out crap to save your own bacon that no one would possibly want is going to whip back and hit you in the face. If it's that big of a money issue for them cut back on the Titans and utter happy meal shit, at least make decent generations figures, raise the price, we'll still buy it, and then you'll get some shelf turnover.

 

50% less is 50% less, and retailers would give it more space if they thought it would sell. Movie 3 and the obvious declining overall quality of the figures told them it wouldn't and thus it gets the normal amount of space despite Hasbro offering a lot of product (though most of it extremely character redundant).

Been saying for awhile the TF is on the downswing, no doubt thanks to subpar installments in movie 2 and 3 (and likely 4). There is little enthusiasm for the brand and what it has become. Prime overall was a nice try but not quite good enough to pull things out of the slump.

 

Went into Kmart on Saturday, and there was a peg / label for DOTM figures.

I am not lying.

 

And people keep glossing over this simple and important point

 

Bad products selling less than good products. Who knew? Even more simplification announced at Botcon? Get ready for statues and 0 step TF5 figures.

 

Not bull. I said about $5, not exactly $5. There is a difference. I remember paying $19.99 plus tax for Voyagers, and around $39.99 to $42.00 plus tax for Leaders depending on where I got them. Deluxes ranged from $10.99 to 12.99. that's still considerably less than present day prices. And many of the DOTM toys were clearanced at prices ranging from $7.99 to $9.99 for deluxes, so I am accrate in my statement. I never paid more than $44 WITH tax for leaders. The fact remains that movie TF's have gone up in price and have gotten smaller. The Leader size for AOE is more like Ultra size. The Voyagers and Deluxes seem to suffer the least from shrinkage.

I am hopeful that the movie will be a big hit and kids will find new love for the TF line. I am betting that the Dinobots will be the main attraction, and sales will climb straight up during the movies weekend release.

 

This whole "Hasbro can do no wrong" attitude is absolutely infuriating. What more do you need to realize that they just plain screwed up? Not only with TF's but seemingly with the majority of their brands. They're going down the path of quantity over quality, and, guess what? It's ok to call them out on it! Major newspapers are reporting on this for god's sake. If you want to put on blinders and join the Hasbro disciples then go to the Allspark. They have fun, games and lots of bronies.

 

The problem we have here is a bit more complex and both the retailers and Hasbro have created the clusterfuck we see now. The first 2 movies were done right. Now the last 2 have been totally blown by the retailers.

For the DOTM line and now for AoE most of the retailers were a complete bust on day 1. No ad, no promotional anything! Why? Did the contoversy from ROTF make retailers back away from fully promoting the movie stuff?

Another problem is that retailers are just getting bad. New product is typically not sent until the old sells out. True outs are the only thing ever manually ordered. That's why 2 BB's can stop all flow of say deluxe figures to a store for weeks...even months! How can the sales be good if piles are clogging warehouses when there is plenty of shelf and peg space in stores they won't send them to. DUMB!!! Corporate constipation, budget cuts, and massive labor cuts have essentially fucked everyone.


Now with Hasbro...the first 3 movie lines had main line deluxe and voyagers with 2 waves each, more leaders, legions, and other mostly fun sub-line and exclusive figures that were worth it. Now, the main line has been reduced to the sub-line and we only got 1 wave of deluxe and voyager and most of the other stuff is just lame crap even kids don't seem to want. That's what is going to keep the good figures down. That and the above retail woes.

I believe it is the current state of retail that is forcing Hasbro to do much of what they've done. Big retailers have gone in a strange direction and have gotten all twisted. They want to make more money but don't want to work to get in more of what people want to buy. Product doesn't sell stuck in warehouses. They just don't get it!

 

MSRP for deluxe figures in 2007 were $9.99, Voyagers were $19.99, and leaders were $39.99. Our resource section documents this so... Yeah you are right.