Hasbro Says Transformers Sales Were Relatively Flat In The 2013 1st Quarter

[Commandoclone87]

Maybe if instead of flooding the shelves with Wave 1 PRID and FoC towards the end of last year, there would have been space to put new stuff up. What I've noticed is that here in Freddy (not sure if it's like this elsewhere), the TRU and Walmart have been stocking up on 4 or 5 boxes of wave 1 stuff and have only been stocking new stuff one box at a time (Usually with several weeks in between). It's been getting better, but there are only a small handful of collectors in Fredericton and we have to pretty much compete with each other to see who can get to the stores first.

There were quite a few times where I never made it to the store and lost out on a figure only to find out the store would not be restocking that wave because they were still clogged with the old stuff and would be getting the upcoming waves instead.

A good example would have to be Spec Ops Jazz from Reveal the Shield. Ended up having to buy him online and it resulted in me having to pay above retail because of the added shipping. Was it worth it? Yes it was because he's a great figure.

[The 12th Prime]

Originally Posted by joshimus

I'm still trying to figure out why 2 different yet EXACTLY the same Foc SW's were released at the same damn time. Why did your sales blow? First off, if regular Voyager SW isn't selling, Soundblaster won't either.
Next step. Nothing new on shelves. This is pretty much the end all be all of the problem. When Winners and Marshalls is carrying your end of the line Prid toys, sales are bound to be low when only THEY have it. I still want Vehicon and Rumble!
Thirdly, you waited too long. Stores waited too long. There was a MASSIVELY LONG wait for anything new, and not just Transformers. Hell, we are wave 2 of GI Joe Retalliation and I have a sneaking suspicion that I wont get a Jinx figure. Lady Jaye, I can do without, but Jinx I still want and NOT at insane SDCC prices. Joes, Marvel, TF's, Star Wars...all forgotten toy lines. I was lucky enough to find ONE Republic Commando but it is like we won't ever see it again. What the hell Hasbro?

Anyway, flat sales are due to poor distribution and no rotation of stock.
I may be wrong, but I still think FOC toys would have done better IF released with the actual game.

I agree with you. I'd like to add I'm interested in the FOC SW and Soundblaster mold but no matter how cheap they are I really dislike the dumb colour choices they made by adding splashes of red or yellow the red is more tolerable than the yellow. I see the Takara ones and I'm willing to pay $60 because they don't have that putrid yellow! Plus wave 1 of anything is always too big now since the movies. I understand having to have a Bee or Prime in the wave but maybe split them up in the case of PRID one in wave 1, one in wave 2. I really don't want Bee to kill the line and it seems like he is lately. I'd like to see Hasbro step up on the colour choices and see how they do. It worked for me on the early Prid line. Plus as a kid it bothered me that TF's were not show accurate colours, to me that is how I really identify with a character.

[Sun Swipe Prime]

I too wish that the distribution was better, but here's some food for thought to soak up some of the raga-a-hol.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Hasbro doesn't determine distribution. It's the individual chains (like TRU and Walmart) that order and distribute product. It's the stores that determine what they want to order and which parts of the continent get the product. Hasbro just makes the toys. If the regular stores like TRU don't want to buy the later of waves from Hasbro because TRU over ordered the first wave crap the later waves get sold to places like Winners. Hasbro has been making the toys we want but the chains haven't been bringing them in for us to buy.

So if there's anyone to get mad at it's the chain stores because they don't know jack about parts of their customer base. They probably let the auto order systems determine what they buy. It's probably why TRU has that POS YOTS Optimus Prime and no Omega Supreme. The computer probably says buy lots of Optimus because everyone likes Optimus.

[Undrave]

I really don't understand why the FOC Voyager Wave 1 wasn't 2 Soundwave and 2 Blaster, I really don't get the idea of having four times the same tooling just with different color! Then wave 2 could have been 1 Soundwave, 1 Blast and 2 Soundblaster.

It's not rocket surgery!

[Goaliebot]

Distribution has been poor, yes. But some folks (not here) are just going frothing ape-doody over this news, ranting about "Hazblow" and (confusingly) Bay.

[Knockout]

If you don't have crap people will buy, then of course. Creating larger, longer waves does not help. Nor is double packing unpopular characters.

[Tekkamanraiden]

Not surprised as the shelves were pretty empty after christmas.

[skrilla 88]

They were empty before Christmas. They were bare most of last year.

[jourdo]

This news does not surprise me at all.