Hasbro Raising Toy Prices Starting September 1

[count-zackula]

Believe it or not, up to a few years ago...I never really knew that plastic was made with oil. I kinda found out by accident. When I did, I couldn't believe it! I always ignorantly assumed it was some concoction of bizarre synthetic materials and what not. Ever since then, I worried about the future of action figures as opposed to gas prices at the pump. I've been kind of surprised it hasn't happened yet...so I guess it's time to hunker down and take it up the tail pipe. Man, sometimes I wonder why I love toys so darn much! Hopefully the "new" prices will stay for a few years before increasing again...knock on wood.

[Satan's Camaro]

Movie Leaders were $39.99.

 

Animated Leaders...$42.99.

 

WTF???

 

Why raise the price on something that you are obviously about to phase out?

 

That would just be silly.

 

*hopes to find Animated Wave 3 deluxes and Universe Onslaught before the price hike*

[Robimus Prime]

Everyone better grab as many of those $5 Happy Meal coupons that you can!

 

Or just save the $5 that the meal costs and spend it on the figure(sorry, won't eat McDonalds)

You can get the bag for free, silly. Just ask for it.

 

:pfx Or check the garbage. Ain't proud, but I've done it!

[deceptikhan]

Ok i have a few things to say,

 

#1.- I think wal-mart raised the prices of their Transformers as soon as they heard there WILL BE a price increase. So they could profit off the extra while the price is still down, Knowing they will be that price eventually anyway.

 

#2.- I think this is all really fishy & i bet Bush is all responsible for this shiit! It almost seems we may be running out of oil & Hasbro may know this or suspects(before us since thier a multi-million dollar business would be part of the BIG oil co.'s) & maybe they are thinking ahead like they wont be able to do this forever (maybe they have a time frame) and are going to get as much as they can, while they can. I mean think about it, before Bush there was not much of an issue with oil and all of sudden its assumed that there is a bunch missing/stolen/gone. No body is fully telling the public if this is true (which i would bet on it) cuz ever since i have been collecting in bulk as adult, dlxs have been 9.99. No more, no less. Thats 12+ yrs since BWs always stayed the same price.

 

#3.- There have been some increases in prices, example: Leaders used to be 25.99, or 30.99 in 2003/'04. (a/e/) They went up to $40 in the Cybertron era. They also grew taller & more detailed and complex.

 

#4.- The dlx's have always been 9.99, but were they always the same size/complex/nice paint aps? Well lets see, in RiD they had complex Tformations AND rubber tires AND chrome! Beast Transmetals had Chrome & metal in some cases. So just cuz they were LABELED dlxs, dont make em the same

[deceptikhan]

Armada/Energon was bigger then RiD if memory serves me correct, but basically the same. They have taken little by little away from us slowly over the years. Now all they can do to give us quality products and keep their future goals in check, is raise the price.

 

#5- This one may be most important. It could get us all rich! lol Since oil is going to be extinct, so is these types of toys. These may be VERY valuable one day for the oil reason alone! Just a thought

[Taaron]

Ok i have a few things to say,

 

#1.- I think wal-mart raised the prices of their Transformers as soon as they heard there WILL BE a price increase. So they could profit off the extra while the price is still down, Knowing they will be that price eventually anyway.

 

#2.- I think this is all really fishy & i bet Bush is all responsible for this shiit! It almost seems we may be running out of oil & Hasbro may know this or suspects(before us since thier a multi-million dollar business would be part of the BIG oil co.'s) & maybe they are thinking ahead like they wont be able to do this forever (maybe they have a time frame) and are going to get as much as they can, while they can. I mean think about it, before Bush there was not much of an issue with oil and all of sudden its assumed that there is a bunch missing/stolen/gone. No body is fully telling the public if this is true (which i would bet on it) cuz ever since i have been collecting in bulk as adult, dlxs have been 9.99. No more, no less. Thats 12+ yrs since BWs always stayed the same price.

 

#3.- There have been some increases in prices, example: Leaders used to be 25.99, or 30.99 in 2003/'04. (a/e/) They went up to $40 in the Cybertron era. They also grew taller & more detailed and complex.

 

#4.- The dlx's have always been 9.99, but were they always the same size/complex/nice paint aps? Well lets see, in RiD they had complex Tformations AND rubber tires AND chrome! Beast Transmetals had Chrome & metal in some cases. So just cuz they were LABELED dlxs, dont make em the same

 

The only thing I really find wrong with is #4. RiD was a solo effort by Takara. The figures were R&D'd by them. All Hasbro had to do was bring the toyline over. Not to mention, most of RiD was near-re-releases and repaints of figures released in earlier lines. This allowed Hasbro to do the pricier stuff as all they had to do was pay for licensing and materials.

 

As for the Transmetals, the closest thing to metal in those figures would of been the pins and screws that held them together, which is actually rather common.

 

The rest is maybe more or less correct.

[Seraphim Prime]

Ok i have a few things to say,

 

#1.- I think wal-mart raised the prices of their Transformers as soon as they heard there WILL BE a price increase. So they could profit off the extra while the price is still down, Knowing they will be that price eventually anyway.

 

#2.- I think this is all really fishy & i bet Bush is all responsible for this shiit! It almost seems we may be running out of oil & Hasbro may know this or suspects(before us since thier a multi-million dollar business would be part of the BIG oil co.'s) & maybe they are thinking ahead like they wont be able to do this forever (maybe they have a time frame) and are going to get as much as they can, while they can. I mean think about it, before Bush there was not much of an issue with oil and all of sudden its assumed that there is a bunch missing/stolen/gone. No body is fully telling the public if this is true (which i would bet on it) cuz ever since i have been collecting in bulk as adult, dlxs have been 9.99. No more, no less. Thats 12+ yrs since BWs always stayed the same price.

 

#3.- There have been some increases in prices, example: Leaders used to be 25.99, or 30.99 in 2003/'04. (a/e/) They went up to $40 in the Cybertron era. They also grew taller & more detailed and complex.

 

#4.- The dlx's have always been 9.99, but were they always the same size/complex/nice paint aps? Well lets see, in RiD they had complex Tformations AND rubber tires AND chrome! Beast Transmetals had Chrome & metal in some cases. So just cuz they were LABELED dlxs, dont make em the same

 

Wow - just a little bit conspiracy-theorist. :P

 

The big issue with oil is that it's a limited resource - it's taken thousands (even millions) of years to form under high pressure. It's taken only a couple of hundred years to use up those resources. You can thank your Industrial Revolution for that. :)

 

People were not mentioning anything about this before George Bush (II) because people didn't think it to be an issue before he came to the Presidency. 8 years is a long time. At the beginning of those eight years, many experts were saying that oil would run out, but in about 200 years.

 

However, in the 7 or so years since President Bush can to office, we've seen a growing number of "developing nations" enter the world sphere - places like India, the United Arab Emirates, Korea, and the big one - China. As these nations grow, their demand for commodities and base materials such as oil increases dramatically. As such, the rate of consumption of oil has sky-rocketed. This has drastically cut the length of time that the remaining oil supplies will last (some even say that the current oil reserves won't even last another 50 years). All this pushes up the price of oil.

 

For many years now, we've been enjoying oil prices lower that what they should be (both for its actual scarcity and for the impact it has on the environment) the current drastic increase is a reflection of the market adjusting to where prices should actually be.

 

The same applies with toys - we have enjoyed toys at the one price for many years. Even when the actual value of that price has changed. This current adjustment brings things into a better balance.

 

There's a more in depth economics argument here, but it's getting late (in Australia at least) and I'm getting lazy. :)

[Buddykiller]

Ok i have a few things to say,

 

#1.- I think wal-mart raised the prices of their Transformers as soon as they heard there WILL BE a price increase. So they could profit off the extra while the price is still down, Knowing they will be that price eventually anyway.

 

read what i said previously in the thread. you're lucky they didn't increase the prices sooner. shipping, esp freight, is now astronomical. those of us that collect joes have already gotten a very good taste of this, and i was expecting it to happen to transformers alot sooner. why should walmart eat the cost just because you don't want to pay fair price?

 

the economy's in a HUGE slump which means that the retail industry is going to take a hit. people are buying less things which means profits are down. it now costs them more to not only ship the stuff, but to buy it from hasbro. due to the economy people aren't buying as much so they can't order as much which increases these prices even more. therefore prices on stuff go up. like i said earlier, i expect them to reach $15 by the end of the year judging by what's going on in other circles. it's elementary economics really.

 

#2.- I think this is all really fishy & i bet Bush is all responsible for this shiit! It almost seems we may be running out of oil & Hasbro may know this or suspects(before us since thier a multi-million dollar business would be part of the BIG oil co.'s) & maybe they are thinking ahead like they wont be able to do this forever (maybe they have a time frame) and are going to get as much as they can, while they can. I mean think about it, before Bush there was not much of an issue with oil and all of sudden its assumed that there is a bunch missing/stolen/gone. No body is fully telling the public if this is true (which i would bet on it) cuz ever since i have been collecting in bulk as adult, dlxs have been 9.99. No more, no less. Thats 12+ yrs since BWs always stayed the same price.

 

i hate bush as much as the next guy, but he's only played a very minor part in the increase of oil prices. sure, he started a war in iraq which ended up costing us TRILLIONS, however, legally the president can only occupy a nation for so long (i think it's 3 months, i'm not positive) and after that time must have CONGRESSIONAL approval. also, congress declares war, not the president. another factor in the cost of oil is the value of the dollar. why is the value of the dollar so low? well, the aforementioned national deficit does factor into that, but our biggest problem is inflation. this has NOTHING to do with the government. The Federal Reserve Bank is a private institution, our government borrows all of our money from the fed, and like all other banks they charge interest. roughly, for every dollar we borrow, we owe the fed two. it also costs money to produce the money, so every dollar produced, i'd venture, costs us anywhere from $2.50 - $4. this is all cost that the govt eats. another problem is we import more goods than we export. all of these things culminate in the dollar losing it's value, which in turn effects oil prices.

 

am i done? nope, theres more! the world is growing and evolving. there are societies catching up to the modern age. this drives up the demand for oil. rising demand = rising cost. we do drill for some oil, but it's not that much at all, and what we do drill we end up exporting roughly 12% of that oil to other nations. this is NOT a bad thing. we have to make money some how. keeping that 12% isn't going to help us much at all. another thing people do is blame big oil. "oh look, they're posting record profits and gas prices keep rising, wtf?!". of course they're posting record profits, but the profits they're making are worth less. why? yet again, because the value of the all mighty greenback is dropping. on top of all this the liberal left and environmental movement is not only trying to increase taxes on the oil companies (which, i promise you, will be passed on to the consumer), but also not letting it drill in all the places that it can. which means, you guessed it, less oil.

 

lastly, we the people of the united states of america are to blame for our oil consumption. we've been here once before in history, yet we failed to learn our lesson and continue driving our gigantic trucks, suv's, and gas guzzling sports cars. the big three has drug their feet, if not ignoring their responsibility in developing more efficient motors and means of transportation using alternative fuel sources. T. Boone Pickens warned america and the oil industry a long time ago that we where going to run out of oil, and we laughed at him. guess he was right.

 

#3.- There have been some increases in prices, example: Leaders used to be 25.99, or 30.99 in 2003/'04. (a/e/) They went up to $40 in the Cybertron era. They also grew taller & more detailed and complex.

 

#4.- The dlx's have always been 9.99, but were they always the same size/complex/nice paint aps? Well lets see, in RiD they had complex Tformations AND rubber tires AND chrome! Beast Transmetals had Chrome & metal in some cases. So just cuz they were LABELED dlxs, dont make em the same

 

firstly, chrome is over-rated. secondly, sure the cost of leaders increased. if you want to know why, see my previous paragraph. the same can be applied to #4. to keep consumers happy and the price at $9.99 they had to cut corners somewhere.

 

honestly, i'm shocked that americans know so little about the way their country works.

 

EDIT

 

also, you can thank the government for eating a little bit of cost too. when you factor in the price of a barrel of oil vs. the limited amount of gasoline produced by a barrel of oil and the cost of refining said oil our gas should be about $6-$7 a gallon.

[deathknell]

Everyone is arguing about the oil price aspect of this price hike. Nobody is talking about what I think could offset the rise in toy prices...redesign the packaging to be more eco friendly AND economically friendly. I found Ultra Onslaught at Target today and let me tell ya...it was pretty silly to see how much space and packaging is wasted on this character. He only takes up MAYBE a 4th of the space inside the box...the rest is empty!! If they would do a package redesign that makes better use of space and materials they could solve this problem. Heck I bet they could put Deluxe figures on a card that is HALF the size of the ones they do now.

[Taaron]

Everyone is arguing about the oil price aspect of this price hike. Nobody is talking about what I think could offset the rise in toy prices...redesign the packaging to be more eco friendly AND economically friendly. I found Ultra Onslaught at Target today and let me tell ya...it was pretty silly to see how much space and packaging is wasted on this character. He only takes up MAYBE a 4th of the space inside the box...the rest is empty!! If they would do a package redesign that makes better use of space and materials they could solve this problem. Heck I bet they could put Deluxe figures on a card that is HALF the size of the ones they do now.

 

They most likely could do boxes of varying sizes, but it'd also probably impact the purchasing of the toys. "big fig in a little box" loses to " big fig in bigger box"...but I agree. Toy line packaging could use a total overhaul. My other main collection is Lego Bionicle. They've raised the prices to $12.99 fairly recently. I think they wouldn't of had to rise packages if they'd switch to cardboard packaging for the "canister" sets. (not to mention, the new packages feel and sound like they're made from a milk carton.)