The new molds happened because they somehow got lucky and were able to produce new molds using the tooling budgets for a Voyager and Deluxe respectively. At least that's how I remember it, I know they got lucky somehow.

 

Repaints are what people should want out of an exclusive line.

 

And this is mostly easy skips for many of us save possibly the Leaders (but Mirage is the one I really want to see)

 

That's my recollection as well. Though Blurr ALSO had a tooling budget.

It's really hard to say what goes into a budget that can be shifted elsewhere. These figures feel like they more deco apps than a typical figure. But I'm also guessing stuff we don't know like anticipated order quantity can affect a wave budget.

 

New molds are always welcome, but let's not give any more of those to Walmart.

 

I vote no more store exclusives. Everything general purchase.

 

IIRC the rule of thumb was that for each line Hasbro typically allotted a budget allowing for 12-15-ish new molds a year

I imagine straight repaints cost significantly less since the molds are already there

No idea what extensive retools cost or how they figure into a budget, but even Road Rocket got a new head/bewbs

 

Maybe now Sideswipe and dead end won't be short packed, and will be two per case

 

You would just not get any of those exclusive characters... You see the stores pay for those in advance, it's a win win for Hasbro

 

You could just not buy them. It's the same end result from your vantage point as them stopping store exclusives.

 

I don't think so. They would get made eventually. We got SS86 Ironhide after all.

 

Perhaps more to the point, we wouldn't get any of these characters, if there were no exclusives. The toys would never get made. Surely it's worse not to have the opportunity at all than to have a toy exist that might simply be harder to get?

Anyone who doesn't like them, won't buy them. But I'm glad to have the option.

 

That's faulty reasoning. For it to be true, we'd have to assume something like the infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters eventually writing Shakespeare, plus those infinite monkeys pushing other works into the future because of the works that are "eventually" getting published. It's a time-based pyramid scheme. Either toys don't get made, or they push toys that are getting made further into the future. Either way, exclusives help us get more toys, sooner.

 

This ^

 

That's not what I am talking about though. I quoted the person that said we would just not get them. Now that SS86 Ironhide showed up 2 years later I would have been fine with Earthrise Ironhide not existing.

 

The faulty line of reasoning is thinking that exclusivity effects only those characters.

Truth of the matter is, kowtowing to the retailers has repercussions across the entire line, if not company.

Hasbro not playing ball could result in things like drastically reduced shelf space, up to outright line cancellation. Toy sales are barely a blip on big-box retailers' bottom line, while they're everything to companies like Hasbro.The bargaining chips are not in Hasbro's favour.

We're a long way from 2007, when Transformers was such a hot property that retailers were begging for more product. Now we're at the point of apathy where they barely seem concerned to keep the shelves stocked at all. The toy industry's been steadily collapsing for a long while now. General inflation and other concerns have only made it worse.

 

Then I’m not sure how that relates to exclusives, generally speaking. Better versions of key characters will always be coming.

There will even be a better Cosmos in the future. Doesn’t stop me from wanting this very good one now.

 

So the reason why they exist... Amazon/ Target / Walmart pays for the entire production up front and assumes the risk of them not selling, allowing Hasbro to make esoteric characters that are high risk without worrying about loss.

 

I don't see the distinction you're trying to make. I agree with the original post. Without exclusives, we wouldn't "just get them" eventually.

 

The point is G1 toon/earth Ironhide got made without being an Amazon exclusive like the previous one. We wouldn't just not get the characters like the poster I quoted said.