Shelfwarmers? Who's fault is it? Discussion

Shelfwarmers - toys that aren't high in demand but for some reason supplied in such large quantities that they stay on the shelves longer than most toy lines and are eventually (if lucky enough) in clearance.

In my couple of years of TF hunting I've seen quite a bit of shelf-warming, like HFTD Sea Attack Ravage, Universe Bruticus (not the combiner, the ugly dragon thing), Universe Darkwing and etc. but I've wondered why is it that such toys are bought in large quantities when not many people (completists lol), including the kids don't want them, or even produced for that manner? And is it just wasting plastic at the end in the day?

Shelf-warming may not be seen as a bad thing to some of us but I think it is, as it's perhaps one of the factors why we skipped Wave 3 of HFTD Voyagers and that there's uncertainty with Wave 6 of Generations.

Who's fault do you think is responsible for shelfwarming? The retailers that import the shelfwarmers? The consumers that maybe don't know what they want? Or the manufacturers/designers that overestimate their consumer's willingness to buy their products? Is it a combination of faults? And can consumers play a role in influencing what is produced and not?

Very interesting topic.

I think the real questions to ask are: what causes shelf-warming? Is it possible to not have shelf-warming? I think there are multiple issues.

One issue is - I think in any wave or line there will always be some figures that are more in demand than others which will create the issue of shelf-warmers. Retailers cant/ don't selectively order the "popular" ones- they order by wave. Even online retailers whom are tailored to after market prices order by wave, then sell the figures usually by adjusted individual prices- i.e. BBTS selling warpath for $25, where the rest of the wave is significantly less as they are in less demand.
This obviously leads to the figs that are less in demand shelf-warm as retailers cannot order/stock more until those sell out.

This problem is then exasperated by any fig that is overpriced, in an unwelcome pricepoint/size/ or just not popular/fugly.

One example is the Bruticus you mentioned, the other, ROTF Supreme Devastator. I.e. last week I walked into TRU and there were literally over 30 of them. $150 each. Considering other stores found it extremely difficult to get rid of this monstrosity at a significantly lower price- I seriously wonder how long these will shelfwarm at TRU for.

If it's an entire case assortment that's shelfwarming then it's a combination of ignorance on behalf of the buyers/suppliers for individual chains and bad luck. That is: the retail chains don't know enough to realise which waves or Transformer franchises are 'good' and 'bad', so they stock far too many of waves with toys that will inevitably shelfwarm. And, because of this ignorance, it means it's mainly bad luck that results in shelf and pegwarmers.

If it's just one toy from a case assortment shelfwarming then it's Hasbro's fault for making a crap toy or shortpacking the wrong items. If they shortpack awesome toys and longpack a crap shelfwarmer then they should have known better. Also, sometimes a whole case assortment is just multiples of one crap toy, like Transmetal Scavenger or Recon Ravage and again Hasbro is to blame for shelf/pegwarming.

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

If it's an entire case assortment that's shelfwarming then it's a combination of ignorance on behalf of the buyers/suppliers for individual chains and bad luck. That is: the retail chains don't know enough to realise which waves or Transformer franchises are 'good' and 'bad', so they stock far too many of waves with toys that will inevitably shelfwarm. And, because of this ignorance, it means it's mainly bad luck that results in shelf and pegwarmers.

If it's just one toy from a case assortment shelfwarming then it's Hasbro's fault for making a crap toy or shortpacking the wrong items. If they shortpack awesome toys and longpack a crap shelfwarmer then they should have known better. Also, sometimes a whole case assortment is just multiples of one crap toy, like Transmetal Scavenger or Recon Ravage and again Hasbro is to blame for them being shelf/pegwarming.

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But isn't the goal to sell as much as possible? Is it then right to blame either retailers or especially Hasbro for not knowing? How can they know that a certain figure will be popular or not? (Even their market research cannot be 100% accurate, otherwise Hasbro would be scoring home runs majority of the time- which one cannot say with their recent track record).

As gdmetro stated, some items have no choice but to shelfwarm owing to how they are packaged in their cases.

For that I think you can blame the marketing guys who think that just because it's Optimus Prime or Bumblebee, it will sell, so they pack higher quantities of them into a case.

On other occasions, a crap mold may be redecoed too many times (once again, blame the marketing guys) and it's destined to shelfwarm (eg Sea Attack Ravage) - like the expression, you can't polish a turd, so no matter how you dress it up or paint it, it's just crap and you can't fool people into buying it.

I think sometimes you can also blame the buyers for the stores (who listen to the marketing dept) and order tonnes of a (wrong) product that will clutter the shelf which then has a follow on effect in that they won't order any new stock from the later waves.

Verdict: Blame the marketing department at Hasbro :p

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Originally Posted by gdmetro

But isn't the goal to sell as much as possible? Is it then right to blame either retailers or especially Hasbro for not knowing? How can they know that a certain figure will be popular or not? (Even their market research cannot be 100% accurate, otherwise Hasbro would be scoring home runs majority of the time- which one cannot say with their recent track record).

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The second that a new Transformer toy is announced or leaked, Hasbro have countless pages of Transfans writing on Seibertron, TFW2005, here, etc. saying whether they will buy a toy or whether it looks like crap. Merely reading those should be a good start for Hasbro to work out a sensible balance for case assortments.

I think there are multiple reasons for shelfwarmers.

From what I've observed certain waves of toys (depending on store) are larger or smaller then others. For example HFTD Payload is in far greater supply then RTS Jazz where only 2 made it to the shelves (Target)

Currently Ejector and Scalpel are shelfwarming in stores alongside Wave 1 PCC 5 packs, HFTD and ROTF Voyagers though it appears the the biggest type of toys are repaints.

I can't say whether the stores, supplier or customer are to blame for shelf warmers. I can't help but wonder if the money spent on repaints that don't sell to save money couldn't be better spent on new moulds that could sell.

Can't Hasbro see that the money saved on repaints is going down the drain in unsold product?

Usually I'd say it's HasTak's fault. Sometimes it's the retailer's fault. Sometimes it's both! Other times it's bad luck.

Some examples:

+ G1 1986 Kup (plastic wheels): Hasbro's? They must have overproduced this toy, because by the end of that year stores were trying to flog them off at $5 a pop. My mother went and bought a whole load of them - I got a Kup, my brother got a Kup and every kid who received a birthday and/or Xmas gift from us got a Kup!! :D

+ Machine Wars: bad luck. As Beast Wars emerged to become highly successful, Hasbro decided to test the market to see what if there was sufficient interest in vehicular Transformers. There wasn't. The US Kay-Bee and KB Toys exclusive line was shipped to Australia and sold everywhere where they shelf warmed, leaving people (like me) who imported them from the US when they thought they were American store exclusives feeling a tad silly for having gone through that expense. :p

+ Beast Machines Supreme Cheetor: Hasbro's and TRU's fault. Hasbro shouldn't have made such a huge expensive version of Cheetor, especially when there was a cheaper Mega version to buy. They should've just went with Night Slash Cheetor in the beginning.

+ Transformers Animorphs: Hasbro's fault. You make crap toys, of course they're going to shelf warm.

+ Reissue God Ginrai: Takara's fault. They massively overproduced this toy.

+ Reissue Metroplex, Omega Supreme, Sky Lynx: bad luck? TOMY's fault? Clearly not enough people were interested in getting these reissues... was it TakaraTOMY's fault for overestimating the market or just bad luck?

+ Combiner Class Devastator: Hasbro's fault. Make a crappy and overpriced toy... guess what? Shelfwarmer!

+ Legends Class Devastator (Hasbro): Hasbro's fault. It's a great set of toys, but Hasbro should've released this toy a lot sooner - ya know, around the time the movie was out! Not like a year later when ROTF is no longer flavour of the month for most kids.

+ Recon Ravage & Sea Attack Ravage: Hasbro's fault. 'Sif we need such pointless repaints. Arguably Wal-Mart's fault too...

Sometimes it is the retailers fault like kmart who ordered a massive amount of movie voyagers with alot still having payloads and ratchets and seasprays sitting on the shelf.... which inturn prevented fresh newer figures (higbrow) from ever arriving to our stores. not to mention the challenge of finding RTS voyagers.....

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

The second that a new Transformer toy is announced or leaked, Hasbro have countless pages of Transfans writing on Seibertron, TFW2005, here, etc. saying whether they will buy a toy or whether it looks like crap. Merely reading those should be a good start for Hasbro to work out a sensible balance for case assortments.

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THIS!!!!!!! It really wouldn't take much for someone from Hasbro to go through the main boards and see what figures excite the fans. Then they would go "Oh the fans aren't that excited about the 7th ROTF Bumblebee repaint... Maybe we shouldn't flood the shelves with these... Maybe we should replace those figures in the cases with more of the Jazz and Tracks figures so the fans aren't forced to buy them elsewhere."