Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnstewling
Collectors make up a far larger part of the market than either the retailers or Hasbro are either aware of or willing to admit to.
We buy more frequently and often spend more money than any parent buying for a child, which many of us are doing as well.
The fact their main line (movie toys) for the last 7 years have pretty much been shelfwarmers proves that.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Goaliebot
Each movie line has outsold non-movie lines by a significant margin.
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Does that chart include licenced non-toy products like popsicles, shampoo, school stationary, bedding, etc etc etc? Or are those numbers just fast action battlers, RPMs, Gravity Bots, Battle Chargers, role play products, legends, deluxes, voyagers, leaders, and supreme figures?
I work with numbers everyday, and they can easily be made to make a point, or hide facts. Looking at that chart above, I'm sure it's gross revenue of ALL products not just toys. I'd like to see the breakdown of cases per size class in each year, in each line. THAT would convince me a little more.
I partially agree with the collectors buying more, have you seen our BST section, a lot of collectors buy the movie toys even though many "suck".
For some of us collectors, when you have a troopbuilder figure in a cartoon, you would tend to get more than just 1 of that figure. What's the standard "Army Build" numbers? 3, 5, 10, and 15? Of course the crazy ones who are rich probably would have more than 15 PRiD Vehicons.
How many non-collector parents would buy more than 2 PRiD Vehicons for each of their kid(s)?
Using me as an example, I have 5 PRiD Vehicons, 10 of each Cyberverse black Vehicon and purple Air Vehicons. How many sets of parents/grandparents would you say is required to make the same quantity of sales?
Side Note on the same vein:
As a Star Wars fan/collector, I did some troop building with the clones from Revenge of the Sith. I had ZERO problems buying them from Wal-Mart or TRU. I didn't have to hide them for collectors; didn't have to travel to multiple stores to get a couple; and I wasn't able to clear out the shelves preventing other people from buying. Even after Revenge of the Sith packaging was over, the figures were re-released with new packaging. So I bought a few more. Oh, did I mention Revenge of Sith clones had several color variations? I bought them as well...5 to 10 of each color variation/mold. Yes, I bought a few other non-Clone figures as well, but just the one and not multiples.
A little too far back because of the different economic era, but how many collectors bought more than 1 Divebomb, or Ravage, or Cruellock/Doomlock, or Insecticon back in the Energon era, just because they were generic troops and multiples of them were seen on the show?
Yes, us collectors aren't in the majority of the target market, but we make up in terms of numbers of what is bought when presented with justification. I'm not going to buy 5 FOC Sideswipes, nor 5 FOC Shockwaves, nor 5 Prime deluxe Arcees, nor 5 Prime legends Fallback, etc etc etc.
Let's not get into seekers, I know there are many of us in the fandom. Plus customizers buy random awesome to crap figures for parts.
But there are lot of parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles who buy random figures for the kids.
With middle class shrinking, how many parents are going to buy figures that are leader-sized and bigger at regular price?
