Are Hasbro's Sales Expectations of Kre-O Being Met?

[rego00123]

Originally Posted by Supernova

I think the simple way of knowing whether expectations are being met or not is if Hasbro announces more sets in 2012. If we get past Botcon and not hear about anymore, I bet it's safe to say that it underperformed.

they already have in a round about way
the ironhide kreon that was mistakenly shown in target displays is now labeled correctly and says "ironhide coming in 2012"

the displays are sent by hasbro, so i would assume its a go for this year with new sets

[Scrapper6]

Originally Posted by Quanza

I don't know if there doing well or not, all I know is the plastic is god awfully cheap, and no matter how cool they are, I refuse to buy anything that's damaged in the package. I was going to buy them all for the Kroens mostly, but all of the sets I opened had stress damage around the wrists (bir Prime, Megatron, Sideswipe, Sentinal). And the small Prime I kept (Iexchanged the damaged sets once, then when I found out the new sets had the same problem I returned them all) has cracks around the ball joints where his legs plug into the waist just from standing on a shelf. Such a cool idea ruined by awful, awful quality control.

I was under the impression that these issues were a direct result of the mixing and materials used for same during the plastic creation process.

After all, it's not like we have an infinite amount of oil and such in the world to just keep making Plastic the same way we have even five years ago. Hence why more and more modern toys are showing the stress marks and such. As long as they don't break due to it, or can be super glued into durability I won't complain.

This is after all Hasbro's first foray into the world of Mini-Figure styled plastic figures. It'll take a few batches of them before they truly master the art, and even LEGO Mini-Figures suffer from stress issues in some instances. My Cairo Swordsman from the Ambush in Cairo Indy set has a large crack forming on the head piece where the neck hole is.

[gagagalvatron]

A better question is "Are retailers' expectations of Kre-O being met?"

Kre-O has been on sale a lot (and clearanced sometimes at Target in the US), but if I think about it, no more than Lego. It's featured well in TRU and Zellers (which I assume Hasbro pays for) and seems to be selling.

I was able to get some Kre-O off Amazon for less than half price, which is not a good sign for long-term viability. (I had them shipped to the states while I was there for Xmas.)

I originally wasn't going to get any Kre-O since I dislike the rebuild-to-transform idea (since it takes so much friggen' time). But $20 for Megatron got me to try it, and the further discounts sealed the deal.

This is going to be an awful year for Hasbro to try to compete with Lego, as Lego will be bringing out DC Superheroes and Lord of the Rings.

I think Hasbro should be a little more aggressive. The Kreons are a big selling point, so dumping the boring human ones in favor of more bots or known humans (Spike, maybe even Sam -- even The Beef can't ruin Lego) along with either more sales or a lowered MSRP would go miles to generating sustained interest.

[Perceptor]

Hmmm... I wonder what are the chances Kre-O goes the way of Power Core Combiners eventually? I have bought a few Kre-O toys and also noticed that the stickers that I applied are peeling off on their own. The assembled toys are not that appealing to play with since they don't transform and it takes time to disassemble and rebuild. (But they do look pretty good.) I kind of wish that the Kreon figures are at least 2X larger than Lego figures (and come with knee joints and elbow joints etc) so they are in better scale with one another.

[Quanza]

Originally Posted by Scrapper6

I was under the impression that these issues were a direct result of the mixing and materials used for same during the plastic creation process.

After all, it's not like we have an infinite amount of oil and such in the world to just keep making Plastic the same way we have even five years ago. Hence why more and more modern toys are showing the stress marks and such. As long as they don't break due to it, or can be super glued into durability I won't complain.

This is after all Hasbro's first foray into the world of Mini-Figure styled plastic figures. It'll take a few batches of them before they truly master the art, and even LEGO Mini-Figures suffer from stress issues in some instances. My Cairo Swordsman from the Ambush in Cairo Indy set has a large crack forming on the head piece where the neck hole is.

The issue tho, is do you want to spend money on toys (these are for children to play with first, collector's second) that are already broken or showing damage in the package? If the plastic is degrading that quickly, either by design or bad batches, then something is horribly wrong. I've owned the small prime since the entire line was on sale at TRU fro 33%(I think it was 33% anyways first major sale for em), and the joints near his waist have already cracked, just by being put together and left in a standing position. Imagine if the blocks have been moved around. That's the kind of low quality that kills toy lines. Collector's may be more forgiving, but parents won't be, and no one SHOULD be. All I can do is see it from the collector POV, and visible damage/stress marks on figures before I even opened them up is to much. I'm not talking discolarations in the platic (I can live with those), I'm talking about poor assembly and manufacturing.

[Scrapper6]

Originally Posted by Quanza

The issue tho, is do you want to spend money on toys (these are for children to play with first, collector's second) that are already broken or showing damage in the package? If the plastic is degrading that quickly, either by design or bad batches, then something is horribly wrong. I've owned the small prime since the entire line was on sale at TRU fro 33%(I think it was 33% anyways first major sale for em), and the joints near his waist have already cracked, just by being put together and left in a standing position. Imagine if the blocks have been moved around. That's the kind of low quality that kills toy lines. Collector's may be more forgiving, but parents won't be, and no one SHOULD be. All I can do is see it from the collector POV, and visible damage/stress marks on figures before I even opened them up is to much. I'm not talking discolarations in the platic (I can live with those), I'm talking about poor assembly and manufacturing.

Sadly this trend will continue more and more I'm afraid, there really isn't much more I can do about it beside recycle my plastics and stuff.

I mean, the problems inherent in any figure made out of plastic are going to be there when the materials aren't 100% up to regulation and you can bet your bottom dollar those Chinese factories and such that offer up such great, cheap labor are not holding up the standards commonly asociated with plastics productions. They can't, I don't think, though I could be wrong on that subject.

Ahem, now then on to my thoughts as a new owner of my very first Kre-O.

Stress Marks are a bit of a detractor on the Kreons, but the easiest solution is to just not rotate their wrist joints, so as not to make them worse. The hip joints fortunately only show the stress from behind, so just never look at their butts and you're A-Ok as far as display.

It's kind of a shame though, these Kreons are far more articulate than LEGO Mini-Figures, and I think that's a great selling point, but it's also a catch twenty-two. LEGO doesn't make their figures that much articulated for a reason, they no doubt are all ready well aware through years and years of testing that figures that small break and develop stress marks much more commonly. Or at least I suspect they might.

Detail wise these suckers are pretty damn impressive, and I especially like what the designers were aiming at when creating the Kreons in general.

On to the kit itself. I chose Mirage as my first Kre-O set, I could have gone with Jazz, but there's just something about Mirage I really like.

But all of you guys complaining about these things NOT Transforming are really missing the entire point of a buildable figure, the reason why Hasbro didn't make these things transformable wasn't because they wanted to cut costs on the engineering and such. They want these sets to compete with similar brand items, like LEGO and Mega Blocks.

And the thing that those toylines have that Kre-O hits out of the park running is creativity, imagination, you don't JUST have to build a car that transforms into a robot, you can take your parts and frankenstein them into something truly imaginative, like a car/jet hybrid with a robot head for an engine. Or something like that.

If Hasbro had made it so you just build the one model that goes from Car/Truck/Jet to Robot, well... It's really just another Bland, Boring, Same old Same old Transformer toy, only with some assembly required. This way the kids are challenged to use the imagination.

Now I only just built the figure, so there isn't any sticker peeling issues yet, but I have to wonder if this might me something caused by failure to place the stickers just so and then ripping them off the thing. I noticed when I tried to re-allign the stickers I noticed that some of them ripped a bit, as they really adhered to the plastic and didn't want to come up completely. So they left behind some of the white sticky backparts.

Could that be why the stickers peel off? Because we as perfectionists try to get them just right and wind up damanging them? I guess I won't know until/unless the ones I tried to re-allign and damanged slightly start peeling or not.

I think Hasbro has something impressive here, and if they play their cards right it could surpass all of our, their and the retailers expectations. Quality Issues aside, KRE-O sets look to be highly fun and really addictive, and those Kreons are going to look great next to my LEGO Star Wars mini-figures.

I'm going to stay optimistic about this line, after all it isn't too difficult to complete the whole thing budget allowing.

[TFtoys]

Originally Posted by Ozrein

My Nephews love Kreo but they also love Lego so it makes sense. I think the best thing Hasbro did with the product was make it so you build either the robot or the vehicle, then disassemble and build the other. If you built a TF'ing bot, why not just buy a normal TF? Since if it did transform, you'd build it once and then (probably) never take it apart and rebuild it again. Why would you? You already have a transforming toy, there's no need to disassemble just to rebuild it. Having to build it in either mode you get the fun of building a robot then a car then a robot then...

also, you can could possible build another possible robot or monster by using lego style which would be never shown on the instruction. Normal hasbro product can not do those. To be able to switch body parts or make any "upgrade" kits seem very handy for the Kre-o aswell.

[Team Jetfire]

I'm not much of a fan, but I see the appeal. And Mega Blocks are way underated. My POTC Black Pearl and Flying dutchman are some of my favorite toys period.

[gagagalvatron]

Originally Posted by Scrapper6

But all of you guys complaining about these things NOT Transforming are really missing the entire point of a buildable figure, the reason why Hasbro didn't make these things transformable wasn't because they wanted to cut costs on the engineering and such. They want these sets to compete with similar brand items, like LEGO and Mega Blocks.

[...]

If Hasbro had made it so you just build the one model that goes from Car/Truck/Jet to Robot, well... It's really just another Bland, Boring, Same old Same old Transformer toy, only with some assembly required. This way the kids are challenged to use the imagination.

And the point I want to make is that I don't have time to disassemble/reassemble the figure every time I want to transform it. I also don't have the inclination to buy two of every set. (And, after building some of the vehicles, I wouldn't want to.) This is a very fundamental problem for a product bearing the Transformers name.

I'm not missing the point. It would be possible to design them so that they are building sets that transform. People have been doing this on their own, and people here and elsewhere have come up with some better builds and transformations just using existing Kre-O parts. Here's a local one, and here's another.

Realistically, this would necessitate different kinds of engineering and probably bigger overall products. I suspect that the necessary increase in cost would offset any sales gained by people who only buy Transformers toys that really do transform. So it's probable that Kre-O style toys that actually do transform are just not feasible for the mass market.

Nevertheless, fair or not, realistic or not, it's a failure/disappointment of the product for at least a share of the very market this product needs. Any Transformers product that doesn't transform is going to alienate part of the Transformers-buying market.

As for me, I bought them because they were cheap. I had talked myself out of them several times, and it's only because my discipline was weak and the price was low. That's not what companies want to hear about their product.

Had Kre-O actually been buildable sets that transform, I would have bought every last one on Day One at MSRP. It would be interesting if Hasbro did release a transforming Kre-O set and compared how it performed with the others.

[Scrapper6]

Originally Posted by gagagalvatron

And the point I want to make is that I don't have time to disassemble/reassemble the figure every time I want to transform it. I also don't have the inclination to buy two of every set. (And, after building some of the vehicles, I wouldn't want to.) This is a very fundamental problem for a product bearing the Transformers name.

I'm not missing the point. It would be possible to design them so that they are building sets that transform. People have been doing this on their own, and people here and elsewhere have come up with some better builds and transformations just using existing Kre-O parts. Here's a local one, and here's another.

Realistically, this would necessitate different kinds of engineering and probably bigger overall products. I suspect that the necessary increase in cost would offset any sales gained by people who only buy Transformers toys that really do transform. So it's probable that Kre-O style toys that actually do transform are just not feasible for the mass market.

Nevertheless, fair or not, realistic or not, it's a failure/disappointment of the product for at least a share of the very market this product needs. Any Transformers product that doesn't transform is going to alienate part of the Transformers-buying market.

As for me, I bought them because they were cheap. I had talked myself out of them several times, and it's only because my discipline was weak and the price was low. That's not what companies want to hear about their product.

Had Kre-O actually been buildable sets that transform, I would have bought every last one on Day One at MSRP. It would be interesting if Hasbro did release a transforming Kre-O set and compared how it performed with the others.

I just don't get your opinion/viewpoint at all. If you want to take a figure and transform it all the time you've got hundreds of Transformers engineered and designed as Transforming Action Figures from any number of sub-lines/main lines.

KRE-O are building kits, they were designed to be building kits, you want to see a building kit that transformed? I believe I had one or two of those before, or at least one of them. A giant Mega Blocks Egyptian themed mech that converted into either a Scorpion or a Helicopter or something.

It was impressive, but if I recall at the time it cost at least close to 35$ possibly more. (I could be mistaken, it's been awhile since I've seen it.) Mega Blocks made transformable mechs out of building kits and you know what. I wasn't impressed, after the novelty wore off I just didn't give a damn about the thing any more.

Hasbro could make a building kit that transformed from bot to vehicle, did a little jig and spouted off six phrases from the G1 cartoon, I still wouldn't give a damn. (Probably wouldn't be able to afford it either due to the electronics and such.)

To me, when I see a building kit I don't want to be stuck conforming to the way the thing only has one way to build it and that's it. That's just plain unappealing to me.

Hasbro must have had some reason for making them and designing them the way they are. Perhaps we could ask them at the next TFCon or Botcon, see if they'll even give us an actual answer that isn't filtered through the Non-Answer Generator.

Transformers fans are dissapointed because they don't transform, if it doesn't transform it's crap, worthless. YEAH RIGHT! We said that once before, but look at how damn expensive it is to get Action Masters these days, everyone wants what they ignored in the past because it's cool in our eyes now. Robot Heroes, Robot Heroes did ok business, maybe not great, but the fans didn't say OH they don't Transform, screw that. At least I sure as hell didn't and a lot of members here who like them didn't do that either.

Who even said you HAVE to buy two of each kit just to have them both on display? That's not only ridiculous it's hardly cost effective, besides these things don't have to be 'Transformed' AKA 'Rebuilt' every five seconds. That's what actual Transformers are for.

Personally I see no true faults with the products for being what they are. I understand what Hasbro was aiming at, or at least I think I do, and I know I'm going to enjoy them. Building/Rebuilding issues aside.

For a Brand that is all about Change, we certainly have odd standards for consistency between different sub-lines with the brand name.