text: Hasbro Net Income Drops 25% Led by Games and Boys Segment, Transformers Sales Down - Page 4 - News - TFormers Community
  Hasbro Net Income Drops 25% Led by Games and Boys Segment, Transformers Sales Down
  July 23, 2012 in News
  While I agree that "Smash-Blade" Bumblebee is peg cancer, I think it's just a manifestation of Hasbro's failure to get toys to market in conjunction with demand. I think the Fall of Cybertron toys being on shelves when the game comes out is the first time since '07 that (non-movie) toys will be available in the same relative time frame as their supportive media.
  Also, previous movie product cycles carried on much longer, as I recall. If a kid has a fair amount of '07 and RotF toys, threre were very few new characters to pick up, and none, in my opinion, as compelling for a child to own as Optimus, Megs, and Bumblebee, and of those three only Megatron had a significant change to his aesthetic (arguably a downgrade). Normally, new product cycles would involve a fully redesigned cast, the movies with the same, not at his best, IMO, Optimus alone probably created a cumulative dent in sales. Now, obviously DotM represents a sizable sales boost over the norm, my point is that it was not the 12 month waterfall of cash expected.
  I got the impression that Hasbro had planned on churning through that glut of DotM stuff by the end of the fall, and having more of it, plus Prime toys on the shelves 4th quarter last year. Target, Wal-Mart, and the like, pegs packed to the brim told them "No, thanks we've got pegs full of your summer crap to burn through.". These troop builder Bumblebee's may have been intended for the Christmas season.
  Sparkless 3 posts
  This was a surprise????
  I just walked into Walmart and transformers prime deluxe toys JUMPED to $15.89!
  Toy selection is sparce...not enough of the new figures....too many damn bees. No classics in sight, oh but wait when we do get those, they are too small too simple and wait for it....................$15!!!!
  Star Wars are about the only line that's got it's act together...and the show has been on summer hiatus!!!
  Movie lines do help out but high prices are totally blowing the deal. For me once I get all of the DOTM stuff I passed over at normal retail in favor of waiting for ROSS, I'm pretty much done with toy collecting for a while, at least till Hasbro comes back to planet earth where they need to lower the prices back to a realist cost like $10 a deluxe figure...seriously.
  The Amazon specials look pretty reasonable. I want a bruticus so I'll get the $60 set.
  And with the Retaliation line showing up a year before the film, all that tells me is that Hasbro does not really care about Transformers because they know they will sell regardless, where as GI Joe honestly has been on life support just trying to beat on its own.
  Hopefully GI Joe does not end up like Thundercats and back in the grave
  If the movie wasn't pushed back by a year the toys would have been on time, in fact the toys started showing up here before the announcement of the delay!
  What about Thundercats now? I thought the new show was doing well?
  GI Joe Retaliation was suppose to be released in August. The show Thundercats may be doing well, but the toyline is not. Everywhere I go I see Thundercats toys on clearance and its been this way for the last 3 months. and nothing new in months either.
  The same with seeing Thundercats on clearance. Also they're in-between seasons right now so that could also be an explanation for why there is nothing new.
  Yeah I saw the $15 price tag and all the Bumblebees at my Wal Mart yesterday. I laughed.
  NOT A SINGLE GI JOE ANYTHING!!!
  Could it be, is it he?
  Sometimes. On a good day. With the wind at my back.
  Hasbro's lack of competence.
  If they just included a jar of peanut butter with every Bumblebee that would solve a lot of problems for them and I'd have a lot of Bumblebees and empty jars of peanut butter.
  What I don't get is that some of the TRU are restocking the last wave of the previous generations figures like Junkheap, Wheeljack, Warpath....
  With Prime I don't understand why they don't include 3 or 4 vehicons in a box....even with that many I bet they would not last on the shelves. I got lucky and found one "out in the wild". The only figures I still see on shelves is the Yellow BB...as Shawdow Strike BB doesn't warm the shelf at all. Knockout seems to be the second leader now...but the prime figures are selling very well.
  GI Joe seems to be hit or miss though...there are some stores in some areas where there is nothing left....and then there are some that have everything except a handful of single figures. There were some Walmarts that I went to back in Phoenix that didn't even carry GI Joe especially after the ROC movie figures...so it isn't surprising that the Walmart around here got one wave in and the pegs are all bare....
  I'd grab the legion/Legends figures if Hasbro would make some sort of boardgame using those figures as the game pieces....
  Actually that gives me a pretty good idea. What if we made our own? Maybe instead of boardgame it could be a card game. Transforming would of course be the main goal so that you could use primary weapons against your opponent.
  I've actually started designing a table top game for legends/legions. Still to test it out, but could be fun