No more Generations toys for 2015 in Australia?

[DarkHyren]

Retailers getting stuck with shelf warmer Age of extinction toys but wont order up on the awesome combiner wars line. The reason I had to go online to get motormaster and air raid.

Well I think that's part of the problem, from a retail perspective if the previous line didn't sell well then why order more of the next line?
In general most brick and morter retailers don't seem to know/care about the differences with the products they carry, they see them as all the same thing: those Bumblebee toys all the kiddies love

[5FDP]

My local Kmart has not stocked anything of significance since last Xmas. The place literally has tumbleweeds blowing through the toy aisles. I'm not surprised by this news at all. Thankfully we are getting Devastator cause that sucker would have been expensive to import.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Wow - my tiny town has always been pretty crap at getting TF's in - now it sounds like the whole country is going to follow suit - welcome to hell fellas

Guess I'll be looking for my second Blackjack online after all

My local Kmart has not stocked anything of significance since last Xmas. The place literally has tumbleweeds blowing through the toy aisles. I'm not surprised by this news at all. Thankfully we are getting Devastator cause that sucker would have been expensive to import.

Really? Literally? I'd like to see that
(sorry man - couldn't help myself )

[Zommael]

Over my years of collecting, I've come to realise that statements from Hasbro regional offices can mean anything from what they seem to say, the exact opposite, something else entirely, or nothing at all. Hasbro Australia seem a lot better than Hasbro UK, but still, until we've heard from somebody other than a customer service representative, and more likely via Griffin or GoktimusPrime who have contact with Hasbro pretty regularly, I'd take anything at all with a grain of salt. No offence intended to BidoofDude of course!

Really? Literally? I'd like to see that
(sorry man - couldn't help myself )

Literally now means figuratively.

[griffin]

Sounds like UK Hasbro have had something similar occur, but in their case they missed wave 2... which often happens when stores over-order on the first wave of a series.
After all, we've seen it here every year since 2011 (TF3), we didn't see much after wave one of TF3 toys (2011), we didn't see anything beyond wave one of TFPrime (2012), or Beast Hunters (2013), or much past wave one of TF4 toys (2014)... and this year we've had 5 months of wave 1 RID toys sitting in storeswhile other countries are up to wave 3 and 4... so it would be more surprising to have a consistent, regular release of all the waves here.

Wouldn't it be great to have the marketing model of Japan or Asia, where they have actual release dates that are almost always reliable, and stores aren't clogging their shelves with first wave stock, just to maintain a stupid corporate policy of not being the first store-chain to run out of stock.... as if losing lots of money on discounting stock somehow makes more capitalistic sense than ongoing sales/profit by rotating stock and keeping the shelves "fresh" with new stock.
This corporate model needs to change if they don't want to keep losing more customers to online purchases, just to find something that isn't dead stock in the Retailer's store.

[kup]

Why are we all surprised? is the lack of new product actually something different to what we've experienced from Australian retailers in the past?

Yeah this is an all too common song from the past and present.

I am pretty sure that things are this bad because retailers are simply not interested in Transformers. They had too many abysmal and shelf warming toys recently and are probably fed up. TF sections are nearly non-existent these days with just lingering movie toys that still fail to move.

[Deano85]

Yeah this is an all too common song from the past and present.

I am pretty sure that things are this bad because retailers are simply not interested in Transformers. They had too many abysmal and shelf warming toys recently and are probably fed up. TF sections are nearly non-existent these days with just lingering movie toys that still fail to move.

It's been fun trying to hunt down wave 2 to only be constantly met with hero mashers, left over dino bots and kreo. Can't believe myer is still trying to sell the over priced platinum sets at full price.

You can pretty much count how many cases a store ordered by what's on their pegs. Figures aren't even given their own pegs. With the transformers lately being crammed in with avengers and ninja turtles toys.

[kup]

You can pretty much count how many cases a store ordered by what's on their pegs. Figures aren't even given their own pegs. With the transformers lately being crammed in with avengers and ninja turtles toys.

Yep, that's the scenario that I encounter now all too frequently. Technically there is no TF section any more, they just threw the shelf warming toys with other action figure type lines.

If only Hasbro learned that kids want transforming toys that look decent. Not garbage lines. Too bad Generations was given the short end of the stick as that is probably more in line with what kids (and collectors) want.

[Golden Phoenix]

Yep, that's the scenario that I encounter now all too frequently. Technically there is no TF section any more, they just threw the shelf warming toys with other action figure type lines.

At Big W in the city here, there is no TF section at all. There are 2, maybe 3 pegs with hero mashers mixed in with all the other random toys

[Zommael]

This thread is very doom and gloom but it is not at all clear, after some reflection, what Hasbro are even saying. They haven't said there will be no more Voyagers or Deluxes, only that they will bring Voyagers and Deluxes through next year. It's also odd to be seeing this sort of message so close to the mid-year toy sales. We all know that Big W has nerfed the size of the TF section lately, but I would be very surprised if that wasn't in preparation for getting more stock in for toy sale. The same applies to K-Mart really, although their toy stocking has been worse and worse over the past two years. Target are a bit more nuanced. Myer and TRU I can't comment on. But still, it would be very odd not to expect at least stock of Wave 1 and Wave 2 to start appearing again as the toy sales get closer and take place. To be quite honest, I wouldn't be wailing and gnashing my teeth as much as waiting to see what happens.