Quote Originally Posted by FFN View Post
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.
No, they hope end consumer _buys_ their wares. Whether or not they enjoy isn't as important to Hasbro, who have stated in the past that they see retailers as the customer. Remember, Hasbro are assuming that this year's customers will largely outgrow Transformers in a year or two, anyway. If the end consumer buys a few toys, has a bad experience and moves on, it only matters to the manufacturer if that end consumer would have otherwise returned. Hasbro are driven by profit and keeping shareholders happy. They only need to care about the end consumer as far (s)he affects profits.

Obviously collectors are more dedicated, but I think Hasbro take for granted that dedication (that's not meant in a cynical way - they know collectors will be around for longer, without them necessarily having to strive to keep the collectors interested).

Quote Originally Posted by FFN View Post
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.
Remember that I was referring to fans returning "not as described" toys. Which is essentially a change-of-mind thing, rather than a fault. It's not easy for a retailer to claim that back from Hasbro - particularly when the return is likely within the store's refund policy.

I doubt that too many retailers would go to the trouble of exercising their right to return unsold stock when it comes to a clutch of opened, returned stock. That sort of thing is normally for excess volume.

Refunding a Transformer because of discontent with the finished product vs advertised pictures hurts the store only - in the short term. They have to pay the wages covering both sale & refund, and end up with imperfect stock. Hasbro wouldn't care about that unless the sheer number of refunds impacts on the store's likelihood to order again. I suspect this was the case with 1970s Bumblebee (with that faulty trigger), because reports of problems were widespread - and a running change was made.