Watch it decline further this year with titan returns. Kids and their parents don't care for these money grabbing combiners or titans. This market is being sustained by collectors only. Release the same toy in 5 different colors and label it differently each time. That is sure to get kids excited. .?lol

 

In the UK, visited about lots of different Toys R Us, Smyths, ASDAS, and Tescos. CW and RiD are left on the shelves, but CW will be one or 2 figures left and RiD will be literally all of them left. I like the RiD figures, but its hard to not see that they don't sell well

 

I can't repeat it enough :

This simply proves, the multiplier effect of these live action movies has already been prone to dimishing returns in the bigger context scale of things.

TF5 will generate another just decent peak, but with yet another faster, steeper falloff rate.
What I'm trying to say is : you don't create a sustained multiplier from casual audience while cutting short on what was once
your core main line.

 

Gawd, every year the same type of alarming headline(not blaming OP). Comparing apples to oranges, how do sales compare to other non movie years. I would be very surprised, this had to be a good year for transformers, cw was extremely well recieaved and RID products did move off the shelves even better than Prime i reckon.

 

That's odd. Because when I go to stores the RiD stuff is pretty much sold through and it's the CW figures lining shelves.

It's almost as if Hasbro's access to global sales figures trumps the anecdotal evidence of some schmo at Target.

Weird. Because those "diminishing returns" didn't diminish nearly as bad as Hasbro expected.

I am. Typically it's wise to read ALL of the info available before running for the hills.

 

Ok thanks for the info

One thing im curious about, is how much transformers product was put out. It felt like the biggest range of stuff i have seen(never all in one place of course) with all the different RID ranges, then CW. It felt like Hasbro went off piste, so i wonder if that hurt them. Still no pain no gain, aiiight.

 

Anecdotally, ain't nothin' staying on shelves here other than the big gimmicky TFs. Shit's barren, yo.

 

Then perhaps it would be in your best interest to head your own advice. Not once have I called this the end of Transformers (yet youve alluded that I on several occasions). Im simply questioning whether a different marketing approach would have yeilded more profitable results.

But please, continue to enjoy the view from up on that cross of yours. Im sure its delightful.

 

And I'm simply questioning what information you have that would make you able to assess that considering Hasbro has 30 years marketing the franchise and has come right out and said the curve is exactly as they've expected (if not a little better) since the movies first started in 2007.

(As well as openly mocking the Chicken Little's who think their stores are indicative of the performance for a global product)

Allow me to demonstrate how somebody can take one person's anecdotal report and twist it to their narrative. (Note: This is in no way a dig at the writer of the post below)

"Barren shelves? Just an obvious sign that Hasbro has failed to maintain sufficient product stock to feed sales to a hungry audience. Clearly that is why their numbers are down this year!"

OR

"Barren shelves? Clearly this means Hasbro is doing just fine as they are unable to keep up with the demand for product!"

 

The chart BigRed posted shows that Non Movie years are still twice as or more successful as Transformers lines were before the first movie. And the dropoff isn't getting worse, it's staying the same if not getting better, with the exception of 2011 in which there was no cartoon at all.

 

Honestly, six of one, half a dozen of the other. They're probably doing fine, but they could be doing better if they had more product on the shelves here. Retailers here could definitely stand to order more, but I'm sure they're worried about another DOTM glut. I'm hoping they'll take heart in this and increase stocks, because seriously, all the stores in the DMV area really do have shit for stock.

 

But that's the point I was making. If shelves are empty, does it mean they're understocked or selling out? If they shipped more stock, then items would be sitting on shelves and people would argue it means things aren't selling through fast enough.

If you live in the US, it's like doing taxes. A big refund means you lost out on that incoming throughout the year (including any potential investment) but by that token you don't want to overdo it so you spend/invest that extra money and then find out you owe the IRS big in April.

When it comes to distribution, I lay that at the feet of the stores. I've seen reports around the US of Walmarts getting the new 2016 CW stuff...however I haven't seen a single CW figure at my local Walmart since the Stunticons.

That's not on Hasbro, as clearly they're distributing product. It's the stores doing a shit job of ordering and stocking shelves. Combine that with the forums being a place where most people will order online at the first opportunity...and it feels to us like figures are lagging when looking at sightings...they're hitting stores right on schedule (Combaticons were widespread late 2015 early Jan and now we're in Feb/March and wave 2 is showing up.

 

Not sure what kids you're watching to make that determination, but my kid loves all the repaints. Ironhide and Offroad. Nemesises. Friends. Undercover Autobots. Its whatever his imagination wants it to be.

Alpha Bravo (x2), Vortex, Blades, Silverbolt. Helicopter Combiner. He calls AB 2 Charlie Delta. Converts the combiner into an airship sorta by putting limbs back into vehicle mode and keeping the attached.

 

Your kid is giving combiners alt-modes? That's friggin' awesome. He's the kind who you hope keeps interested long enough for the torch to pass to his generation.

 

I meant to say, the dropoff rates of casual buyers - the ones who started buying a movie Transformer - those sales just seem to become fewer, and less of these casual buyers turn into Transformer brand loyal consumer base.

But yeah, despite that, at least Transformers mainlines pan out very nicely imo.

 

Im not ignoring your last post directed at me, Hybrid. I'll be happy to address the points you raised when i have enough time to do so and dont have to do so via mobile

 

I must not be, since I didn't see any of what you said right up to your post.

Oh, so we're back to Classics being for adult collectors?
I thought these were all just for kids.
I really can't keep up with the pendulum swing... for kids, for adults, back again...

How much time does it take to notice product hanging right next to the one you are looking for?

 

I've seen full pegs and I've seen completely empty pegs. I think the reason why pegs aren't empty compared to CW, is that when an adult collector looks at the CW figures, they pick up all 4 limbs, where as a kid may pick up 1 figure at a time. So the CW pegs are going to empty with 1 or 2 people where as the RiD pegs will slowly go down, but may get restocked even if the pegs aren't empty.

 

Is hard to tell if that happened or not though isn't it?

As you can see from the chart, sales are still much higher than they were before the first movie on non-movie years, so it seems we did have an increase in "brand loyal" fans. But it's also possible and PROBABLE that the solid number also comes from kids which are a self-renewable audience every year.

Anyone up to wasting months and money on a research to find out how many new geek-fans we have?

 

Ironically, in terms of collectors, we have so much information about the upcoming toys that by the time they're officially being put on store shelves, we pretty much have already made up our minds about which ones we want and don't need to have the toys pitched to us.

Kids, though? Speaking from experience, but I recall the first time I saw a commercial for RID Ruination and I thought the fact it combined was just the coolest shit ever. It's amusing since now I'm more than aware RID Ruination was neither actually "new" nor even a great toy by being a G1 brick essentially, but I wouldn't have known of the toy's existence without commercials (even though I didn't start getting TF's until Armada).

With the Generations lines currently in a period of line-wide gimmick revival, the stage is perfectly set for more kid appeal - Combiner Wars? Collect all six parts of a combiner, or mix-and-match limbs, bodies, and sixth-member accessories, with the options exponentially increasing with each new compatible figure! Titans Return? Swap their heads to give everybody new faces and weapons, or even add more playability to the base modes of the new Leader figures (who basically sell themselves because they're the modernized not-MP Soundwave and Blaster everybody's wanted for over a decade).

Selling the toys to kids isn't that hard, really, the trick is using the medium of television to increase brand awareness. The more kids aware of the toys existing, the more kids will want the toys.

Alternators proved that this is never true.

Name one CW-debut figure who has been only repainted five or more times and gotten main retailer release.

There isn't one.

I think you may have just answered the eternal question of what the hell to do to make Broadside work as a triple changer - make him into a helicarrier with the four auxiliary propulsion engines attaching to him ala CW combiner pegs, while his "aircraft" form becomes an Antonov An-225 "Mriya" a.k.a. the largest jumbo jet plane ever built (still a massive stretch that it goes from a Nimitz class sized flying aircraft carrier and back, but if we let Octane pass with C-130 and generic tanker truck modes, Broadside having a plane mode they launched the freakin' Space Shuttle off of is more than enough girth at Voyager class size)