Quote Originally Posted by MV75 View Post
It's not all just immediate profit that keeps a company afloat. Good thing you don't run a business.

You can only ream people for so long before they discover that they can just sit on the broom handle themselves.
They're not reaming anybody. Besides, the majority of people who would care about this issue to such an extent that they would display real anger would be internet collectors. Most of their other customers aren't so discerning.

Obviously, Hasbro's profitability and success with Transformers is the reason why the brand is so strong in the west. Good brand strength means long-term viability. You don't want Hasbro or Transformers to be in the same position as it is in Japan where it's not doing nearly as well, is obscure and the company that originated the toys that led to the creation of the brand is now owned by Tomy.

If anybody remembers, when Hasbro 'merged' with Milton Bradley, the company was briefly known as Hasbro Bradley, before going back to Hasbro. Internationally, TakaraTomy is known as Tomy. All TF copyrights now say Tomy, no more Takara.

Quote Originally Posted by dirge View Post
This ties in to Hasbro's perception of the _stores_ as their customer, not the actual end customer. They care not if the end customer enjoys the product, as long as the retailer buys the assortment in the first place.
Hasbro balances the need to run a profitable, successful company (hey, their shares are worth nearly twice as much as Mattel's), with the needs of providing X products at X cost per unit, which ends up affecting the price you get charged as a consumer. I think it's extremely, exceptionally cynical to say they don't care if the end consumer enjoys the product or not. Sure, they mostly don't sell directly to the consumer, but they hope you enjoy their work and their wares.

Even if you do return the products to the store, the store loses out - not Hasbro - since it's the store which loses out. They have to try and resell an opened toy. It's not cost effective for them to return it to Hasbro, and that would require a lot of negotiation anyway.
Don't stores have insurance for such things? If things are returned or stock is unsold, usually retailers have some kind of insurance where the manufacturer or distributor has to pay them back for the faulty or unsold stock.