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Old 04-24-2011, 09:41 AM   #1
Gaetznes
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How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

Just showing my age on this one. But does anyone here remember back in the 80's and to some extent the 90's that toys spend more time on the shelves. By that I don't mean they were shelf warmers. Just that the actual toys were produced longer. Resulting in not a 3 month window for you to buy a figure, but any where from say 8 months to well over a year. In some case, certian transformers or Gijoes were produced for 2 or more years.

I'm just finding it intresting that current waves if your lucky you may find them 3 months after the launch. Meaning you have to be on the ball at launch to get some figures. If not, online retailers are the only other option. I have a very hard time personally to buy a figure for $18 plus shipping if I know I could get it for 10 plus tax locally.

On the Hastak side of things I totally understand there movitives and agenda. There are preciviably (I think I spelt that wrong) so many of each toy they produce that can be sold. Its all about the almight dollar at the end of the day. Implying that if it is like movies, 50 percent of the figures sold happens in the first week vs the rest of the year. So why flood the market with potentially unsellable toys when you need to send out that second and third wave etc etc.

With that said, I do believe it partly has to do with our culture as a whole. Short attention spans, the need for the newest thing on the market, and esspecially our ablity to be a society very dependent of disposiblity.

As a collector it is some what of a conundrum. On one hand I want the ablity to hunt down these toys locally. So if it takes months I'm good with that. Its the hunt that adds to the fun and joy once I do find it. I'd like to have that time to beable to find it, however in todays market I do not.

If I did have that time, Ie: longer then 3 months. There is a price to be paid, that being the longer I can collect say wave 1, I must now wait longer for wave 2 and onward. Which is sad in a way that they limit each wave. Limit it as in how many figures are released weither it be 4 or 6.

What would be nice, but not pratical would be to release all the waves at once. Implying that Hastak could release 30 plus figures at once and still make some good profit at the same time.

As a collector you wouldn't have to worry about the short window of being able to buy them. But it would be very expensive to get them if your a completist. Additionally if they were released all at once, we would have to wait a year for any new figures. I think distrubition may become a problem at that kind of voloume. Ie: you may only recieve 1 of each figure per box, or each box maybe randomized. Meaning each box may not have all the figures in that line Which then may result in a widly produced figure hard to get even if its being made/sold for a whole year.

I think I've just answered my own curiosity. I mean why do they only do them in waves of like 3 months. Its to maintain intrest. I guess I just need to write it out.

Well all i can say, does anyone agree with my rant? or is there something i've missed? Share your thoughts what ever they maybe.
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Last edited by Gaetznes; 04-24-2011 at 09:49 AM.
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Old 04-24-2011, 10:12 AM   #2
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

Interesting topic. Don't forget the role of major retailers. Hasbro does what their customers (Wal-Mart, Target, etc) tell them to do. Wal-Mart, in particular, is one of the main reasons that action figures come in ''waves'' now. They want the customer to see something new everytime they walk into the store. That means that stock needs to move to make room for newer stuff.

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Old 04-24-2011, 10:14 AM   #3
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

I think you have a very valid point, but also could be looking at it through the eyes of an adult collector, which ofter looses the glorious "rose tint" that we all had as children.
I will also say that Toys are not much different then say, the latest fashion available at OLD NAVY; Things come and go pretty quick and it is pretty easy to miss out on something, but on the bright side, we always get re-paints.
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Old 04-24-2011, 10:48 AM   #4
Gaetznes
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

To reinforce a comment I made earlier. In regards to hasbro being able to produce say 30 differnt figures and still make it profitable. I certerianly do believe that they can produce that many Deluxe size figures and turn a profit.

If retailers toke the same approach to Transformers as they do say Lego, the shelves would always be stocked and displayed well. Its just an observation that everytime I ever went looking for a Lego sets, it has been there(TRU, not wal or Zel). They were Nice and Neatly displayed on the shelf. There is something to be said about an item that is in a box and can be stacked one way or antoher. Vs peged items.

The simple attractiveness of a box is appealing to me. Where pegged items have a level of lacklustor. It just seems messy to me. It would be appealing if they could ship out the figures not as a assorted lot with the same upc, but as its individual box. Like a box of 4 just containing say only one figure like Kup. Yes I know it would take more shelf space. However thats the price to pay for apperances. It would be more indicative of the G1 or certian parts of the BW era. Legend size figures can stay on peg. But anything Deluxe or larger should be in a box.

I personally would be willing to fork out the extra Dollar or two to have my item in a box vs a clamshell bluster packaging on card. I know its not enviromental, as there would be more packaging. But thats a mot point for me.

As a retailer I would just assume astetics are as important and turn over.
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Old 04-24-2011, 11:10 AM   #5
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

I remember buying the Generation 2 Contructicons & Gen. 2 Jazz @ TRU in Mid-1995...a good 3 years after they debuted as some of the first offering's in the Gen.2 line up, upon being introduced in 1992/93.
I still have them mint on card.
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Old 04-24-2011, 11:40 AM   #6
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

Well there is certainly a valid point here, but lets not forget that Hasbro doesn't sell these toys directly to us. They sell the toys to retailers (Wal Mart, TRU) who then sell the toys to us. So in many ways Hasbro has to juggle producing a product consumers want to buy, and product that retailers want to sell. So if this means they have to have 4 waves of toys out in a year (for example) with wave 1 having all new toys, and with each following wave having 2 new toys and 2 repaints they have to keep up a pretty steady pace to have new product ready to go. So this means that they have to have toys constantly going onto the shelves that are different in some way from the toys in the wave before.

I bet Hasbro would love to be able to produce a high demand toy that will sell at profitable rates for years and years, but the issue there is that the retailers may not like that idea. To the retailers they want new stuff constantly so customers will see the new thing and want to buy it. So there are certainly pros meaning that we as fans and collectors are lucky in that we have new stuff constantly coming down the pipe, and given the quality of stuff from lines like Generations and RtS that is certainty not a bad thing even in the slightest. The downside is that the new stuff comes and goes pretty quick, not really a big deal for collectors who are in the game now and have been for some time. The issue is for new collectors and collectors on a budget who have to pick Jazz over Tracks, and then not being able to find Tracks when they have the money for him a few months or a year down the line.

I think it mostly sucks for new collectors. I'll use myself as an example. When I first started collecting again just before the 07 movie, I came on right at the tail end of the original Classics line, and was fairly lucky in that I was able to get every mold save for Bumblebee and Megatron in stores. Given that those two were not being produced when I started getting Classics again I had to resort to ebay. So yeah, it kinda sucks in that regard.

I think it is really hard to say what the ideal situation is, given there are so many differing factors competeing for how toys are released. Though in my opinion I think the fact that Transformers are still being made and are still big sellers that have retailers constantly demanding new toys from Hasbro is a good thing.
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Old 04-24-2011, 12:03 PM   #7
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

From what I've gathered since I got back into it. Things just aren't done the same now as it was back then. The retail landscape has changed.

From what I can remember what the info I had found, toys stayed on the shelves for a year or more back then.

It was like there wasn't the rush to continually overhaul the displays with new stock constantly. It's like everything has been sped up considerably.

I remember the talk when HFTD came out and Generations I think it was. It was about changing the packaging to give the retailers something 'New' to put out. Not about the end of the Classics line.

I thought it was funny that retailers could be fooled by a change in packaging. But, I guess no one really cares at that level. New boxes, SKU = new product to them.

It's like a cyclical cog of continually rotating people through the store and making sure they always see new stuff every time.
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Old 04-24-2011, 02:17 PM   #8
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

There was a time, when a WAVE of toys lasted the whole year.

Look at the TF catalogs. Look at 1984. In one year that's all you got. Now in one year there is over 150 toys. Times have changed.
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Old 04-24-2011, 02:54 PM   #9
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

There's also the whole aspect of trying to have a fresh new line each year or so. Remember the Unicron Trillogy? Armada then Energon, then Cybertron. I don't know if this is a matter of stores not want to dedicate shelf space to the same line for years or Hasbro's sneaky way to convince the stores that these are newer, hipper toys than the last batch.

What's that? kids just aren't buying Generations toys and you don't wanna carry more? Well lucky for you we just happen to have this fresh new line called Reveal the Shield! That's how I interpret it anyway.
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Old 04-24-2011, 04:42 PM   #10
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Re: How Toys are released now-a-days Pro-Cons

I see one problem to the "see something new every visit' reasoning... I have seen the very same peg warmers at my local walmarts (two within ten minutes drive) and toys r us now for going on four months, there has been nothing new since before Christmas. If I never see another Jolt and Skids wall again it will be too soon...
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