It was almost a year ago when word started leaking out about the Cartoon Network production that would put a new spin on Transformers. As BotCon 2007 progressed and the teasers were shown, excitement grew. And almost 6 months ago, the 3 part pilot episode aired to much fanfare. Fans seem frustrated that it would take 6 months for the figures to hit the streets. Although there have been some leaks here and there, as of this typing it is June 22nd, the official date set by Hasbro to start sales of TF:A figures. I decided to alter my errands slightly and sample the 3 biggest US toy retailers to see how they approached the street date. What I found was underwhelming.

I think it has to do with the street date being so much later then the debut of the cartoon. I could see retailers in December (07) or March getting excited about launching a new TF line after the movie line was such a money maker, but the delay meant the movie line was going to stay on the shelves.

This resulted in an influx of new peg/shelf warmers that added to the already-present movie peg/shelf warmers.
Suddenly Swindle, Payload, Bonecrusher, Dreadwing, and the TransTech subline were joined by Jungle Bonecrusher, Camshift, Overcast, and re-releases of the first wave, which kids already had and thus didn't buy.

So by now, the official street date, retailers look at their stock of unsold movie shelfwarmers and thus aren't as enthusiastic about releasing an all-knew TF line.
Even in Canada where Animated's been out since the end of April, they're still not as numerous as the countless numbers of unsold Camshifts, Overcasts, and TransTech stuff that still clog the shelf space and pegs.

I can understand Hasbro wanting to stretch the movie line until March, but they should have set the Animated street date for sometime in early March. They kind of shot themselves in the foot by waiting half a year.

Walmart here doesn't seem to care all that much. Wave 1 deluxes X2 a week ago and now all they have is Cybertron Prime sitting alone.

No shortage of movie real gears, basics, Incinerators, and Night Watch Primes, and Brawls.

Is waiting for inevitable clearances.

The Wal-marts in SC (the one i went to anyway) had a ok stock. they had then on the side racks, no special display, and had three shelves of deluxe class, and a few voyagers on top, and they had a huge amount of battle begins Prime vs Megs. no ldr class yet (not sure if there even out yet) and only ratchet and BA from wave 2.
I agree with Agent zero, Hasbro made a retarded animal baby move by waiting so long between the show premiere and the toy release. the toy line was fun, but damn, it wasn't that fun. Imagine what they'll do with the movie 2 toy line. Actually, don't. You'll give yourself freakin nightmares.

I just wish they'd have released them earlier, so we'd have wave 3/4 by now.

Spain and the majority of Europe hasn't seen a single figure yet. We've only just started getting premium deluxe figures over here in Spain.
Hasbro are really NOT interested in what fans think or want. This was most evident when they released the 3 remaining seekers as exclusives, and Skywarp wasn't available outside of the USA.

That's why I laugh that their slogan is "making the world smile". If you live outside of the USA they don't give a flying f**k pretty much. And I'm sorry but with the HUGE delay on TFA beind released, they're making everyone else do anything but smile

Get over it!

Based on the success of the movie line, the retailers were calling for more movie toys - that's why animated got pushed back, the retailers were concerned they wouldn't sell because it was such a stylistic change from the line that had been bringing in the big bucks. That's also why Universe is being released, to keep "realistic" styled transformers on the shelf next to the Animated figures.

Which is why there's a glut of non-moving movie figures on the shelf lately.

Every Target in my surrounding area has only three deluxe figs on a single peg each. every single one.... I don't understand this.

Walmart is constantly going through them.

Toys R Us has a full front end cap and they're selling well.

Yup, more movie figs than I can count EVERYWHERE.....

I went when Target opened and no luck. Have to head out that way in a few minutes, might check again, maybe they've updated the stock. I know I'm probably dreaming, but hey, you never know. Just wait a week or two. On Friday I saw four deluxes (all of which I had), and this morning just one deluxe, so clearly they sold.

I managed to find a Lugnut today. But yeah...everything is still 90% Movie, 10% Animated.

Its probably because the movie line has a larger age range of prospective buyers, and also because they are making a movie sequal. From a suit's perspective, the movie line will have better sales potential and longer appeal. The sequal will take another year to be released, and add another couple years of movie line toy sales on top of that. This equals $$ to suits.

Absolutely.

But my point is just that it's not Hasbro's fault. A lot of it has to do with the retailers.

And of course, since the movie stuff isn't moving as well as it once did at this point, the retailers are probably hesitant to put out a ton more (and different) Animated stuff until their over-ordered movie stock sells out and/or Hasbro takes some of it back.

But it isn't Hasbro's fault if the movie merchandise was over-ordered. Hasbro takes a lot of crap from fans for things beyond their control, IMO.

And of course, the over ordered movie stock won't move because everyone is either saving their money for or finding it somewhere else.

CATCH 22'D

While I agree with this, I do think it was a boneheaded decision to delay the launch of Animated's toy line six months after the premier.
Hasbro does take a lot of undeserved crap, but I think this one was one of their screw-ups.

This


It wasn't. Hasbro doesn't control when retailers want toys in stores...only to the extent with which they have them manufactured, and it's obvious that Hasbro had these ready for a long time now. Retailers control the flow of toys into stores/

It was Hasbro's decision to continue the movie line. They could have said "ok, enough of that, we're not making any more movie toys," essentially forcing the retailers to switch over to Animated.
The retailers' desire for more movie toys would have been a non-issue if Hasbro had some foresight and pulled the plug on the line. Instead they got greedy and allowed the movie line to continue to flood the market.
A little foresight could have saved them the mistake.

ah, no wonder TRU and Target weren't giving a rip about getting Animated out since Walmart had already started.

When does wave 2 hit?

I'm afraid you've missed the point of this capitalism venture- the retailers wanted more movie toys, so Hasbro supplied (with plenty of repaints). That's how it works...sorry.

Knowing that my local TRU has a mildly decent supply of Animated figures in stock, I may head over there today and pick up Starscream.

But in the meantime, I think blame has to be shared by both Hasbro and retailers.

I think you've missed the point where I implied that by cutting off the movie line around say, March, they could have forced the retailers to sell Animated stock. Given the success of the cartoon ratings-wise, it's clear the toys would have sold given an appropriate launch within a sensible period of the cartoon's premier (the premier movie-length episode may have been in December, but the series didn't premier in full until March).
By doing this Hasbro would have guaranteed they were switching from one money-making line to the next. Rather they got caught up in the success of the movie line, and drove it to the point where it's now not selling and clogging shelf space.
This means that not only is the line Hasbro bet on finally tapped out, but it also means there's no space or desire for Animated toys.

Had they cut the movie line in March they could have smoothed the transition into Animated, and guaranteed a lot more money coming in. A little foresight on Hasbro's part would have allowed them to excel even further in this capitalist venture.

Where I live (Nova Scotia, Canada) I go to two stores (Zellers and Toys R Us *Yes there's one near where I live, I so lucky*) and they both have movie toys still out. Zellers doesn't even have any Animated figures out at all!

But I only look there. I shop at TRU, that have movie toys, but at least the have Animated figures out. And what I saw was this: A Crapload of Voyager Megatrons, Starscreams and Bulkheads along with quite a bit of deluxes. And get this, they were sharing space with he movie toys. I'm pretty sure that the selection was at least five pegs long for both. Plus there was no Star Wars toys and the movie basics were in a bin! What do you think of that?

But then again, they came out first where I live, so I shouldn't really brag about it.

I went yesterday morning to my nearest Wal-Mart thinking maybe I could finally find a Voyager Prime.


They had bupkis.

Well, I take that back, they had a Battle Begins 2-pack.

And a WHOLE LOTTA Stockades and Overcasts.

Not if the retailers felt unsure of how Animated would perform and were pissed that Hasbro discontinued the line that was definitely selling. Hasbro's not a bartender and the retailers aren't drunk, so Hasbro would do themselves more harm than good to tell them "Okay, buddy. I think you've had enough."

What sucks is that those movie figures that have been over ordered will continue to take up space and retailers will not order additional Animated and Classics figs based on the fact "TF figures aren't selling".


In 5 months all those Movie toys'll be in a discount bin, but who knows how much better stock we'll have missed out on by then.

Ive got all the movie toys i wanted. i finished my movie wants when i got a premium bb yesterday. so hasbro needs to recall all movie toys and put out animted and the new universe toys.

LOL, I gave up on Zellers months ago. They were suppose to have the exclusive rights to the Premium movie figures in Canada, and for the past two months they've had nothing but Payloads, Overcasts, and wave 1 Real Gears. Oh and one Scout Hardtop. That bugger mocked me for weeks.
Zellers=


Yeah, the local TRU in London ON has a decent selection of Animated figures, and has since late April. It's still just about 10% of their TF stock though. Movie Deluxe shelf warmers, Scouts, Real Gears, TransTech (I hate that stuff so much), and a few Leader Brawls still dominate the other 90%.
The good news is that they've finally cleared out the movie Voyagers. Only Animated Voyagers to be found.

The two local Wal-Marts, however, have about five Animated Deluxes and four Voyagers in total, hidden amongst the pre-mentioned movie clog.

So for my fellow Canucks, check out TRU if you want Animated figures. It seems they're your best bet.

thx

I understand that, but I also think Hasbro has an upper hand in that advantage, that being that they make Transformer toys. If they said "ok, no more movie stuff, start selling Animated" what can the retailers do? No sell Animated? Refuse to order Animated? If that's the case then they're losing out on a brand that's guaranteed to bring in cash, and if Hasbro really wants to play hardball they can always say "sell it or else."
Again what can the retailers do? Transformers, especially since the movie has basically been a licence to print money. Are they going to risk losing that brand just because they don't like the design aesthetic of the latest line?

I think if Hasbro wanted to push the issue they could have gotten Animated out at a reasonable date. Maybe the retailers could have used some extra insurances from Hasbro (like Animated ratings), or maybe Hasbro could have just said "come on guys, we're not stretching a line out for an entire year when we have an other one ready to go and supported by a top rated cartoon."
Essentially I think Hasbro had the option and and ability to push the issue, and they didn't. Which I think has cost them and the retailers potentially amazing sales numbers on Animated.
Further more it could have this effect....


I don't want to see Animated and Universe/Classics 2.0 get the shaft because the market's flooded with movie stock that just won't move.

I goes down like this.

RETAILER: Wow! Hey, Hasbro, these movie toys are selling like hotcakes! We want more!!! If you build it we will come!

At this point, Hasbro can say

1) Well...we had this new line of toys in mind. They're in conjunction with the cartoon that is airing on Cartoon Network on Saturday mornings and is aimed at 7-10 year olds, its doing pretty good in the ratings! Would you maybe, possibly consider buying those instead?

or

2) You mean, you want more of these toys that we have sold a ba-zillion of and already have the molds for and all we'd have to do is slap a new paint job on them?

Which one would be the more prudent business decision?

You have to factor in the possibility of flooding the market, however. Which is what happened when Hasbro went with #2.

But consider, at the time Hasbro made said decision, Movie figures were not flooding the market. (Remember the Great TF shortage of December '07?)

Granted, in retrospect it looks like they made the wrong call, but if I were Hasbro's VP in charge of selling stuff, they made the same call I would have made.

*Is not Hasbro's VP in Charge of Selling Stuff*

True, but combine the fact that flooding the market is a possibility with the fact that if you extend the movie line you'll delay the toys to your tie-in highly rated cartoon to the end of season 2, and I think the prospect of extending the line past March looks less promising.
From where I am, it seems like March was really the beginning of the end of the movie line's popularity. Cliffjumper, Big Daddy, Divebomb, Gridcore, and Jolt were the last movie figures to fly off the shelves. Everything since then has just clogged the market.

Really, had they just extended the line to March rather then June it would have been the best of both worlds. You extend the (then) hot selling movie toys for three months longer then initially planned and then you debut Animated when the series really kicks off in March.


True, this is all in hindsight, which is always 20/20. Still, I'm not sure I would have been cool with delaying a line for six months while the tie-in show ran for two seasons with nothing on the shelves. Granted, I'm a history major not a business major but still, six months?

its been the same in my area. walmart got them first but only gave them an endcap, and not facing where most of the traffic goes by, but on the opposite end facing a wall of board games while they still have a huge section of movie figures that havent been touched by the masses in months. they just sit there taking up the space that my precious animated figures deserve so much more then year old repaints. toys r us was the same way except that you see the animated figures as soon as you walk into the door, so i guess they are giving them a little more respect, being they also have them back in the transformers section as well, but that area is still more movie then anything. target here hasnt had anything, nothing at all. just movie premiums, and even they are in short supply.

The fact that it was a bad decision is obvious.

But it was made nonetheless; that can't be argued.

Went by Wal-Mart today. They had three Animated figures in total, two Blackarachnia's (bought one!) and a Starscream. The rest are Premium Leader figs and Fast Action Battlers.

But on the clearance aisle was 5 or 6 Real Gear figs. Marked down to 6 bucks. Then 5. Now 4.

Couple of things.

From Hasbro's point of view, all of those movie toys are sold (remember, they don't sell to the end user, but to the retailer).

Now, does that mean they've hurt Animated sales by releasing "late"? Probably not much, people tend to forget that for the most part toys sell very poorly from January to mid-summer, so in effect they've not shot thier wad too early and will have a relatively fresh product on the shelves for the upcoming holiday season. Ultimately, what they've probably done is shortened the amount of time Animated would have warmed shelves at the back end of the run, which is OK, because there's a new movie coming out which would have supplanted them anyway...

all the targets I've called in GA have put up endcaps with animated figs and deep space starscream.(which looks great). all the wal marts I've been to have whatever is left. I don't bother with TRU and won't until the new titaniums.

Of course note. Hasbro made their decision, which was not without it's points. And given the decision I think they handled the movie line as best they could.
I'm just thinking Hasbro may have to bite the bullet and take back some of the unsold stock to give retailers space to sell Animated.
From what I'm seeing Animated has, at best, 5 rows out of 3/4 of an aisles, the rest clogged by unsold movie stock. Something needs to be done to get that movie junk out of the way, because it's obvious it isn't selling.

50% off might make me buy a few movie figures.

Well at least my target doesnt care about animated because like 3 days ago they put out 2 prowls, 2 bb, 2 cybertron optimus's and 2 lockdowns and just moved the movie figs from there to the other pegs where movie figs are. they havent put any others out and all they have left now is 1 prowl 1 lockdown and 1 optimus. my walmart which is across the street always has plenty of animated . my walmart is where i got lugnut and grimlock 1 month ago and where i got ratchet and blackarachnea about 2 months ago. My walmart has animted a plenty in deluxes but cant keep any voyagers except bulkhead (which have been sitting there for 2 and a half months). they aucually have barely any movie toys!! The deluxe pegs are all being filled by animated and a whole end cap is filled by them. the most movie they have are the voyagers which have been pushed to an endcap are just getting dust. So im aucually not complaning i guess im bragging . oops

But from Hasbro's point of view, it isn't unsold...


The retailers are the ones that would have to "bite the bullet" and clearance the movie-formers if they wanted to make room for a different toyline. In the past Target was pretty good about doing this when a new toyline was on the horizon, that they haven't may be a good indicator that while TFans are unhappy with the state of things because they can't immediately satisfy their TFA lust, the retailers are OK with how the movie toys are selling.


Back on topic: was there really a specific Animated street date (with said date printed on the shipping cartons)? That most retailers put out items early or not at all seems to me somewhat indicative that there wasn't a set date. (I'm actually reminded of the "July 15" street date for the later waves of movie toys which was ultimately just a fan rumor that gained serious traction.)

Also, I think most retailers will start changing their minds about Animated over the next couple weeks, when they finally realize "oh hey, those Animated figures keep flying off the shelves while this movie stuff just sits here."

Hopefully we will soon see the Movie stuff regulated to one peg of deluxes and one peg of scouts. Most of the Targets I've been to have the Movie leaders and voyagers marked as NCF (not carried forward) items.

Well... I think most retailers just put new waves out (depending on want store it is) when ever they want or happen to see if the old waves like the movies figures are gone off the shelfs and they have new waves in stock at the time. Example: my Target never has many TF customers so they haven't gotten many TFA figs. While my Wal-Mart has a lot. I shouldn't have to say much bout that. And I'm not saying Wal-Mart is better.

I picked up Lockdown at a Target near my house, in Los Angeles yesterday.

A KayBee had Starscream out last week, and I picked him up too.

THANK YOU!
thank you Hobbes and Bewbie boy - you three are like the only voices of reason in this thread.


TFA has only been "on the streets" for two days, and all of a sudden everyone is claiming that the line has failed and that hasbro made such a mistake etc. Feck people - wake up!

Lets take a look at the market 2 months from now - or better yet, in December. Lets also not forget that NEW lines have always debuted in JUNE. Movie did, Cybertron did etc.

Also keep in mind that the DVD is about to be released - BAM! thats probably the real incentive for the retailers because its something tangible that they can link sales to. (I doubt the average Walmart Manager scours the cable channels on saturday mornings searching for inspiration).

Also FWIW - although the roll out was a little less fantastic than we all had hoped - TFA figs are selling steadily in my area.
I think retailers will see that, and eventually shift stock. But I also don't think there is any real thrust since May and June are not their big Toy Sales months anyway.

The truth- in essence- is that if there's anyone to blame for "upsetting the balance" (or what the f*ck ever), it's Cartoon Network. They released their cartoon 6 months too soon.

I'm not sure I'll ever stop being amazed at the way the fandom will second guess hugely successful companies like Hasbro - as if their continued success since 1923 was just one giant lucky break after another, because they're clearly screw-ups who are uneducated about their own industry. Thank god some thirty-year-olds addicted to their products can finally come online to share the secret to a successful business plan.

What would Hasbro do without you guys?

What? No way. The date had been set months in advance, well before Hasbro's decision to continue the movie line. They couldn't cancel it.

As for availability of the figures... I've been seeing them a shotload here in texas. Hell, my local wal-mart had to set up a section dedicated solely to Animated. They've been selling well too.

FWIW, the 3 Wal-Marts I've been to in the last couple of days have 7 or less movie figures on the shelf. The big shelfwarmer in these parts are those damn Fast Action Battlers. I'm talking 3x3 rows of pegs full of the things.

I think most are just waiting to get their shelves reset because they still don't have Animated labels out.