Hasbro Distribution Concerns

[Endlessdark]

The prices are silly, at this point.
We are paying significantly more than the figures cost in the US. Deluxes still only come in at 28 CAD (roughly) and we are paying 34/35 now. That’s a pretty big increase in percentage.

Hasbro Pulse doesn’t even have proper Canadian shipping to compensate, especially when distribution to brick and mortar is terrible. Hell, even online distribution to Amazon, TRU, EB, has been rough.

[The 12th Prime]

Originally Posted by inhale

I feel you on this one, cyberverse seems to be flooded vs main lines... but im not sure if its because main lines just sell better than cyberverse which i think is the case.

I have to agree with you, I saw 8 Headmaster figures on a shelf at my local Wally on Tuesday and by Thursday there were 2 left.

Originally Posted by ToyCrusader

I'm not sure how receptive to prices Hasbro is going to be.

The price of everything has gone up. From gas to food and yes, toys.

Funko, I believe, just put out a price increase statement this month as well. The stress on the supply chain and the rising price of materials and fuel will never allow the prices to come down. It sucks, even a meal at Mcdonald's is about to be over $13.

I'd like to to see exclusives be limited to first run only, then subsequent restocks be given to all retailers.
Give places like GS, WM, Target, and HP their exclusives but afterwards allow the other places to carry them.

This would reduce the scalping. I don't think it would affect the sales of the exclusives as people love having things first.

Also agree here as well, we do pay a “market/region tax” for being in Canada and shipping from the other side of the world has gotten expensive as it use to be about $5000 to ship a Sea Container from Europe/Asia pre pandemic to almost $20000 and sometimes a little more now which is about the same value as what’s in the container for my company. With 13 to 15 containers a month coming in that’s a big increase.lo

The shipping companies know they got us because we import more than we export so we can’t balance the container shortage out from our end. So somehow it is cheaper (because of selling off older containers at rail yards) to make a new container and send an empty boat back to pick up new filled containers than to send a boat full of empty containers back across the world to pick up fresh goods. Noticeably absent in the container resale market are the refrigerated containers for various reasons like environmental, cost and value.

[MilanX3]

Beyond the Conehead debacle...the other exclusive Amazon set of Ironhide and Prowl looked to all be rejects from American customers who returned their sets. Treating Canada as a second class market for unsellable goods from the original retailers for an exclusive didnt leave a great feeling for their Canadian customers. As well, that set is now almost impossible to find and teaches Canadians that collecting their product will take time, be very expensive and lead to alot of disappointment....that isnt the characteristic of a fun hobby. Its just added stress and at times feels like added work. Thanks for your inputs with them.

[steamwhistle]

Lack of availability of figures, due to distribution and/or exclusivity, detracts me from wanting to collect.

I probably would have bought one of every G1 character from the offerings in the WFC line, but seeing the difficulty with trying to do so really turned me off.

Which is fine -- I saved a lot of money.

[Napseeker]

I'm going to echo the complaints about the Amazon.ca exclusives which have been an unmitigated disaster. I don't have the Dirge and Ramjet two-pack either and I refuse to pay scalper prices when the regular retail price already feels so damn high.


Tell them that if they are going to go with retailer exclusives, then at some point they need to re-release the TFs that are in huge demand (i.e. any main or major characters such as Dirge and Ramjet) again as a general retail item. They can space it out if they are worried that these might pegwarm. For example, slip Dirge as part of one of the waves of Legacy in 2022. Then slip Ramjet into the basic line waves in 2023. I can wait if I have to.


They are already re-issuing certain ones anyway (Arcee, Wheeljack) in Legacy but those were already regular-release figures. It's the retailer exclusives that need to get slipped back into the regular waves. It costs Hasbro no extra money since it's old tooling, and it will lessen some of the anger that their customers are feeling about Hasbro relying WAY too much on everything being an exclusive nowadays.

[Endlessdark]

Oh, and the product order limits.

Limit of 5+ per customer? Why?

So even when these harder to find products do finally see some distribution, they end up getting scooped by scalpers who buy the whole lot and throw them up on eBay or Craigslist or whatever.

The limit should be 1-2, max.

[inhale]

Originally Posted by Endlessdark

Oh, and the product order limits.

Limit of 5+ per customer? Why?

So even when these harder to find products do finally see some distribution, they end up getting scooped by scalpers who buy the whole lot and throw them up on eBay or Craigslist or whatever.

The limit should be 1-2, max.

This is a good one!

*all sorry, i will try and go through and reply to everyone as well. i appreciate everyone's comments and feedback here, keep em coming!*

[savagephil]

Originally Posted by inhale

Hello,

I potentially might have an opportunity to discuss with Hasbro specifically Transformers distrubion concerns in Canada, its an overall chat about distribution with them and i was luckily appointed to cover Transformers specifically.

I would like this forums help to sound off on this thread and bring up concerns you have encountered past few years and discuss about challenges we are facing at obtaining Transformers and Big box retailers, Online retailers, anything really.

*Meeting is now tentatively set to be held on Thursday October 28th with them*

**I will not be dicussing about price increases, strictly distribution only**

Thanks!

Don't wanna sound like a broken record about the coneheads but wtf is hasbro thinking! It was such a collosal screw up, they need to release them again and give it to GameStop or toysrus

But another question is why is hasbro putting popular characters that were on the g1 tv series or beast wars show as exclusives it really turns collectors off, due to the limited availability and issues with distribution. They should leave exclusives to less popular characters

[Soundwaves]

There are huge delays in overseas freight across all industries.

A container that used to cost 4500USD to ship from China to Vancouver is not 14,500USD.

Hasbro is responsible for exactly none of this.

[SleeplessKnight]

Ask them to reissue the "Amazon Exclusive" Coneheads please. That debacle was a real $#!+show.

And tell them No More Exclusives! Especially when retailers aren't interested in actually selling said exclusives.