How do we really know the size of the markets for TF?

[79transam]

I have seen it said that certain demographics are the majority of a market for MP or MP scale, but how do we really know? I have looked but never been able to find production run counts or sales counts for any demographic at all.

I would like to learn the truth about how much of the market share is held by North America, and by Europe, Japan, China ect...

I feel like knowing this would perhaps give me a better understanding about pricing and why some companies are so differently priced from one another.

[Nocturn]

We don't.

As is discussed every time this topic comes up, toy companies aren't exactly hardcore on the collection and presentation of such data.

No actual conclusions can be drawn, only conjecture.

I'm sure the companies would find it ridiculous that their customers even care

[Tekkamanraiden]

We don't and they're not going to tell us.

I suppose if one had enough shares in a respective companies stock you might be privy to some market info.

[Scowly Prowl]

I think you'd only really know if you were in marketing in the respective toy departments. Think about this - the only people who know for sure who are buying the goods are the retailers. When you buy a good, do you ever divulge your age? Gender? Employment? Unless you divulge it to the retailer, or to the means by which you pay for the good, who will know?

[79transam]

I just find it odd because I can look up every Corvette ever produced, find out how many were sold in Canada, the US ect. You can correlate these numbers with wages and respective economies at the time, and even see the list prices.
I guess it makes sense to keep trade secrets though in competitive markets without much in the way of product originality.
Still, it's always coming up that people assert one market is bigger than another and it makes me want to know the truth

[chaingunsofdoom]

Hasbro is a public company. But they don't overshare data and usually deal in hard financial numbers while using percentages for their quarterly or annual reports:

http://investor.hasbro.com/financials.cfm

So while TFs are one of their Big 7 brands, they are either grouped with other big brands using percents or into categories like Boys and then added together in there with things like Star Wars and Marvel Legends (a title which seems to be going away for FY2017).

A Hasbro investor wouldn't care if they sold 1 MP or 100K as long as the numbers make the company money.

[MilanX3]

Yes, as one of the main industries for employment those larger industries that really keep whole regions employed like autos have more data as they base national policy decisions on those numbers, and it effects the employees and communities as well as the company producing them.

For the toy industry, there are likely general numbers out there for market research..but for specifics there are people who make their career out of producing those numbers and consulting companies like Hasbro...or they work internally in conjunction with their logistics and other departments...often they would not want their competitors knowing their sales strategy nor will they release specific product marketing info as its premium information that keeps many people's careers afloat.

If you want to access market information that is released for general research, local business associations often have access to libraries or where to find such information. You can also contact Hasbro in the countries yr interested in and see if they will give u some info or direct u where to find it...its what many marketing students do for their projects. There are also industry magazines that might direct u to the best info available...they might even have numbers in Japan and HK on such products as toy production is more of a mainstream industry in certain parts of the world. I am almost certain there is good research out there on toy production in Hong Kong and Macau over time as they produced much of the toys during the 80s boom.