Quote:
Originally Posted by Sun Swipe Prime
This has been happening for like a decade. Maybe more. Back in the day there were Youtubers whining about how other YouTubers would pay exorbitant prices for stolen toys out of factories, so they could be the first to review a toy and get all the views. EG. to my recollection, $300 for an animated Blitzwing.
And as far as I know, it didn't hurt the sales back then. Animated was received well.
IMHO, if anything is hurting Hasbro, it's their shitty business practices, like hard to find/get exclusives. Hard to make a sale when there's none of your product on the shelf. They literally have customers with cash in hand wanting to buy, but it appears to be not enough cash, not enough profit, so that customer gets ignored for the quick buck exclusivity brings.
It's short sighted thinking.
Also, if you think Transformers is bad right now, you should check out the GI-Joe classified line. The product is in demand, but stores only get like one box. For example, I saw these numbers on a live stream with a former product and design manager. There was a claim that said Hasbro sold 30 000 Target exclusive Cobra Troopers. Sounds like a big number, right? But if you take into account there are almost 2k Target stores, it works out to like each store receiving 16 figures.
To me it's Hasbro shooting themselves in the nuts and wondering why they're in such pain.
I'm hardly a expert in business, but making your product hard to get and giving the customer less but charging more is not a winning formula in my books.
So I hardly think that having an early peak at an upcoming product is going to hurt sales. Well... unless what you have to offer is complete shit. If the product is good, it'll create buzz and demand. If it's shit, people will stay away and say no thanks. Think movie trailers/teasers.
/rant
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So true with everything you said. Hasbro has massive distribution problem, we are all still waiting for bloody coneheads. They should really leave exclusives here in Canada to ebgames toys r us and Walmart. Amazon is trash, that being said.
I don't think the leaks hurt hasbro, my understanding is the WFC trilogy and studio series line making them tons of money. I personally don't mind watching a review of a leaked toy, sometimes it builds the hype and want for them even more, like kingdom. Galvatron studio series 86 line, and the upcoming tigatron and pipes. I think hasbro knows this as well. Any publicity is good publicity. They see the buzz online for a figure even before the release and they know it's gonna sell well from people clamoring about it.
In a way it's free advertising for them. I tend to find the fan first hasbro events boring. They really need to up their game and release it ahead of leakers. Kingdom wave 4 should have been revealed already. Most of us already have wave 3.
But hasbro kinda tolerates the leaks in a way
