Quote Originally Posted by bowspearer View Post
Except that the problem there is Griffin, that the Shelves will be clogged up with Wave 1 and by the time they clear out enough for retailers to order a new shipment, you'll be upto Wave 3 or 4.

This has happened in since the 2nd year of BW being out and has been a problem practically every single year since with one wave or another simply not arriving here.

I already mentioned the different circumstances causing the current movie series to shelf-warm, but that is the only main-line that has done that on its initial release.
You're hating Hasbro for something that isn't true. You can't claim something has always occurred, when it has only occurred with the current mainline. You either need to show proof on such a wild claim, or first do some research to see if your opinion is even true.
Look through the sightings section, the various checklist/sightings archives and the news emails...

The only lines that had a big initial release that prevented/imited future waves here are - TF3
The lines that didn't shelfwarm enough to prevent future waves here:
TF2 - most waves released within a month of global release, with very little missed
Animated - most waves released within a month of global release, with very little missed
TF1 - first waves sold out so fast, there was a shortage by Christmas and scalpers were making a fortune
Classics - most waves released within a month of global release
Cybertron - all Waves released within a month of global release, and only missed one regular figure
Energon - most Waves released within a month of global release, and didn't miss many figures
Armada - No delays after the first wave, with most figures released here
RiD - Voyager/Mega class was skipped, but no delays after the first wave of the other sizes.
Beast Machines - Limited numbers of items were released, but no delays of waves after the first.
Beast Wars - only missed items during the transition from UK to US stock

Whenever we missed toys, it was late-wave items as Hasbro AU were winding up an old line in time for the next one. Not early or mid wave items due to shelfwarming. That only occured once with TF3.

Sources:
2011 movie checklist - http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=10945
2011 non-movie checklist - http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=10314
2010 checklist - http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=9241
2008-2009 checklist - http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=561
1996-2007 checklist - http://www.otca.com.au/checklist.html

In cases of parents who are buying for their own children- dead wrong! Parents who are that knowledgeable and are non-fans, are going to be so for one reason- taking an interest in their children's hobbies. So they're not going to be buying lead characters automatically; they're going to buy their child's favorite character.

If a child likes Bulkhead more than Prime, then what is that parent going to do- buy their child's favorite character in this instance, or Prime because he's the lead character?

The moment you deviate away from that to the parent/adult buying for a child of a friend or family member, then they're generally not going to be buying more than a deluxe or a basic sized figure anyway, so really marketing from that dangerous assumption about your core demographic (especially when you start talking about Megas or larger) has the potential to be highly counter-productive.
Parents knowing all the specifics of their child's toy interests? - maybe if they were toy collectors themselves.
Most parents are too busy working a full-time job, doing the household chores, making sure the kids do their schooling, and running them around... and that's in the 2-parent homes with one or two kids. Make that a single parent, or a larger family, or even the extended family relative buying the gift, they have a lot of more important things to worry about or prioritise than memorising 50-odd Transformers characters, in just one of the many Transformers series, in just one of the many toy brands that their kid is currently interested in just this year.
First thought of a parent doing the christmas shopping for a dozen relatives and friends - my boy's into Transformers.... okay, who was in that movie... um this yellow car guy, and this truck... no wait, he already has a yellow car guy, because he got it for christmas last year from his uncle. The truck it is then. I don't think he has that one in his room full of toys.

It'd be nice to have parents be more pro-actively involved in their kids interests, but in todays busy (and often single-parent) world, there's not as much attention given to the specific details. Us fans might know the difference between the 20 different bumblebee toys released just before the TF3 movie, but to a non-fan parent, they are all Bumblebee... and if their kid already has one from the last movie because it was only 2 years ago, they aren't going to buy another one.

Then you have the other things about Transformers- not every kid is going to automatically want Prime. Look at the way most of us as fans are about our favorite characters and the number of us who decided on that favorite as kids.

Yes Prime is the father figure, but Bulkhead is the "big brother" character of that show. How many kids are going to gravitate towards him.

Heck if it were just about the toys and leader characters, noone would give 2 hoots about Bludgeon, or even Fangry for that matter. It wasn't 20 year olds and 30 year olds who were making either popular at the time either.

This is the problem with Hasbro and retailers though- they simply can't seem to get their heads around the fact that they're not just selling children's playthings, but also pieces of modern mythology due to the nature of toy cartoons.
Again, you're looking at it from the perspective of a collector/fan and not as a parent/gift-giver who make up the majority of sales. If it were down to fan-favourites driving sales we wouldn't have so many Bumblebe and Optimus toys with each series. Hasbro have repeatedly said that these are iconic characters for the common folk, who know of Transformers, but don't collect anything themselves. They just buy a toy or two for someone they know... and since they make up the bulk of purchases, Hasbro will keep pushing those iconic images as the foundation of their product lines... forever.

Just listen to parents in the stores when they are trying to decide on a particular toy (not just TFs), or work colleagues who watched the TF movies - they have certain familiarities, but you as a fan have to help them fill in the blanks... even character names. Most people at my work have seen one or more of the three TF movies, and even the people who enjoyed them, enjoyed them as a movie, but have no interest in buying any toys. As such, they don't memorise the details, to the point that most can only name the 4 main characters - Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream. The rest they usually describe by colour, by their alt-mode, or by what they did in the movie.
That's what Hasbro knows from market research, and that's why those characters make up the bulk of the assortments. Not for us fans who have favourites, or want one of each... but for the "dumb" masses who just grab what they recognise or remember.
This has worked well enough for Hasbro until TF3, because those main characters have been around on shelves continuously since 2007, and most haven't changed forms enough for a parent or kid who already has a Bumblebee/Optimus/Starscream to say, "I want the new Bumblebee/Optimus/Starscream toy".

Other sub-lines have failed or been flawed, but this was the first main-line that failed spectacularly, due to flawed Hasbro marketting & consumer research not being flexible enough to adapt to changed circumstances (assuming each new line will be seen by consumers as new, no matter how recent and similar it is to the previous line).