Quote Originally Posted by Robsy
I think Hasbro will eventually have some sort of online store for low-production, fan specific figures (probably more likely to be Star Wars first though), but not for a while... Not until they see how viable it's been for Matty. They're so slow to react because they fear taking risks... kinda like Hollywood.
That is exactly what I put forth to FFN when having that chat. Everything you said is pretty much spot on to what I said on my side of the discussion.

The only reason Hasbro doesn't have a Collector exclusive line outside of retail, is because they don't want to take the risk - That's it.

Hasbro may be a larger toy company than Mattel but the latter is still within the same league and it's not as if they are struggling. Mattycollector.com was probably as risky to Mattel as it would have been for Hasbro it's just that the former is not afraid to take that risk. Despite people whining about the handling of the matty website (that includes me) we still come back for more and the toys sell out within the hour because there is indeed a market for collector toys which Hasbro largely neglects.

Mattel is now barely tapping into that Market and it has turned out be be very profitable given the announced longevity of the MOTUC line. The 3rd party Transformer companies are seriously exploiting it because they have discovered it to be a largely profitable market largely neglected by the large toy giants.