Hasbro US sales slump forces job cuts

[griffin]

Looks like there's even less chance of Hasbro passing on savings to us with the stronger AUS dollar, as their own weakening sales in America will mean more price-gouging in their non-US markets to compensate.

A financial report on American Hasbro's performance (http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/hasbro-annouces-job-cuts-in-us-and-canada/24208/) over the Christmas period, showed sluggish sales... prompting job cuts of 170 (about 3% of their 5,900 global workforce).

The report notes that Mattel also had a bad Christmas season, so it wasn't just Hasbro, or even just Transformers.

[kup]

Well they shouldn't of tried to sell so many Bumblebees :p

[dirge]

Well they shouldn't of tried to sell so many Bumblebees :p

Heh - it's all the Bumblebees shelfwarming that are the "lost" sales compared to last year, no doubt. Well, him and the 415 different Primes... :rolleyes:

[5FDP]

Agreed that we've had a saturation of Bumblebee toys since the first movie was released in 2007, but as a parent I can sort of understand why they did that.

If my son was 3 yrs old in 2007 I doubt that I would buy him something like a deluxe Bumblebee or even a legend (due to it having small parts), however 2 years on when ROTF was released he would be suited for such toys.

From a collectors point of view it's not ideal, but these toys aren't aimed exclusively towards adults.

[griffin]

Here's an interesting tidbit about why so many Bumblebees...

Today at Target Springwood, they had 7 Deluxe TFPrime toys - 4 Cliffjumpers, 2 Wheeljacks, and ONE Bumblebee.
That's right, out of at least 2 Cases of Deluxe figures (based on there being (http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=HAS21411&mode=retail) 2 Cliffjumpers, 2 Wheeljacks, 1 Soundwave and 3 Bumblebees to a Wave 1 Case), that store had already sold - 5 Bumblebees, but only 2 Soundwaves and 2 Wheeljacks.

It might just be one store, but for a cartoon that most here haven't seen yet (being on PayTV), the only character of those four that parents are going to recognise, or even most kids, is Bumblebee... followed by Soundwave (both from the recent TF3 movie).
Stores that have had the rarer figures disappear first would be more from the initial rush of Collectors, leaving the more familiar figures to be picked up by the parents and newbie kids.

[STL]

Yeah, I figure Hasbro only sells transformers. Nothing else. So let's forget about the tough financial year that 2011 was with all that world market volatility. Also forget that Hasbro sells boardgames and whatnot too. Must just be all those Bumblebees.

Lots of things are challenging Hasbro's business model and hence why it has made its move to position itself as a media/entertainment company - marketing the strongest brands within its portfolio. Toy spending is on the decline and being displaced. Comments, intended to be sarcastic or otherwise, reflect badly on the community and make us fans out to be a bunch of overgrown kids whinging about every little thing we don't get.

[Hursticon]

Still too many BBs and Primes. :cool: