The official street date for TF: Animated was June 22nd. Not that you could really notice, of course. Stocking at the major box stores was sporatic at best. There are probably stores that STILL are not on board with stocking Animated figures. Only recently have I seen any kind of uniform stocking arrangements. Target, for instance, dedicated an end cap display yet only 20% of stores I visited used the promotion. At that, it was shared with the shelfwarmer known as Deep Space Starscream.

 

So imagine my disgust today when I visited my local Target and found not one end cap... but THREE end caps advertising the new Star Wars Legacy line!! Then I walked down the action figure line and damn near HALF of one rack was filled with Star Wars. Animated was shoved way to the back of the aisle in a congested corner, sharing space with random pegs of Universe figures. Now, the good news is that there were plenty of wave 3 deluxes, including several Soundwaves.

 

I continued my bike ride a mile down the road to the Walmart. Lo and behold, 2 main aisle cubes with nothing but Star Wars Legacy crap. A walk down their action figure aisle proved to be a deja vu of Target. Nearly half the rack filled with fresh SW merchandise. As for anything TF? Half the pegs were empty. Maybe 20 pegs at best were dedicated to TF in total.

 

I peronally have never been enveloped into the SW franchise. So maybe I don't understand the fandom or the love given to the franchise. However, after seeing today's events, I'm left frustrated and puzzled. So here are my questions:

 

1) Who loves Star Wars more? Hasbro, retailers or fans? My answer is going to retailers. They seem way more proactive on making sure Star Wars merchandise is given front page. I haven't ventured into a Toys R Us lately, so I don't know if their headline aisle is changed from Dark Knight yet. If it's changed to Star Wars, I shall puke

 

2) Has TF made a name for itself to retailers as shelfwarming clearance mongers? It's true that there has been some instances where TF product has sat around collecting space before it's marked down to move. I attribute most of that fault to Hasbro for not properly reading the market. They seem to be real knee-jerk about the TF lines.

 

This is only my opinion, but I'm interested in hearing others thoughts.

I think star wars is just seen as a safe bet its popularity has never really hit a low point but transformers seems to go up and down every 4 or 5 years.

 

also army building is a licence to print money and I've noticed most SW toys seem to be some sort of tropper. and the concept of transformers each being as unique as a snow flake really does not lend it self to the concept of buying multiples in huge numbers

 

also I don't think star wars is free of shelf warmers most discount stores near me still have the toys of General Grevus when he is on fire (the most wtf idea ever I might add)

 

and another point I think its easier for star wars toys to be both collector and child friendly since they don't really have to deal with the whole transformation complexity thing

i officially now hate star wars toys and want them to farging die. for the past 2 weeks i've not been able to find ANYTHING new because all the stores where clearing shelf space and waiting on the farging street date for the new star wars crap to restock farging anything. the only store that didn't dissapoint me is TRU, and even then they've only put out the universe wave 1 deluxes and no new joe stuff minus 3 cases of wave 1 vehicles.

:shrug Star Wars has made everyone involved with it way more money than Transformers has made anyone involved with it.

There's a theatrical release coming for the Clone Wars cartoon... that kind of display is standard procedure.

 

And yeah it is Star Wars, it's been around longer, sorry

Hasbro can hear the cha ching!!!

There's a theatrical release coming for the Clone Wars cartoon... that kind of display is standard procedure.

 

And yeah it is Star Wars, it's been around longer, sorry

Also, and I hate to say such a thing on a TF forum, but Star Wars is WAY more well known than TF will ever be.

There's a theatrical release coming for the Clone Wars cartoon... that kind of display is standard procedure.

 

And yeah it is Star Wars, it's been around longer, sorry

Also, and I hate to say such a thing on a TF forum, but Star Wars is WAY more well known than TF will ever be.

 

true, but does it really need a full half of a goddamned aisle?

if you strike star wars down now it will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine...

 

yeah star wars >>> transformers (unfortunately)

Also keep in mind that the whole SW toyline is hevily collector-driven. Hasbro is frequently asking the fans which figures they would like made and other cool toy things like that; something they would never do for TF's for one simple reason: $$$.

 

Star Wars makes such HUGE amounts of money for Hasbro on a regular basis, that they have no choice but to saturate the market.

 

I went with a buddy to the midnight release of that SW junk last night, and it was crazy. Dudes walking out 2 and 3 of the new Millenium Falcons and AT-TE thing. That would just never happen with TF's.

 

The good thing is that quite often when they stock the new SW stuff, other new Hasbro stuff gets shipped/put out with it.