The State of the Toy Business.

[i_amtrunks]

They've blown all the hype they could've gotten from the movie. Its past the holidays and the movie has been out for almost a month, its time is over.

Hasbro should've had 3-4 waves of toys out on shelves pre movie, with a large focus on the Dinobots (from the advertising), Lockdown (as the star) and their 2 leading bots, with later lines releasing the other "main" cast.

As is now, since they forced so much early wave crap onto retailers here, they will never clear it all for new waves.

They need to rethink their media strategy and go back to having a tv series on, even at the same time as the movie. You only have to look at TMNT or Ben 10, the weekly series is constantly on, and those toy sections are forever moving stock. Transformers is closer to Monsters University, where stock remains on shelves forever and never goes anywhere until clearanced.

[Sinnertwin]

Speaking of crap, i was filling in the toy section today and i overheard a parent in the next aisle ask his son if he wanted a Mashing figure. There was a pause followed by "they look like s***, mum, can i have the big dinosaur?"
Needless to say, i don't think i've sold one.

[Zommael]

My two cents on this: Hasbro generally (and the other toy companies) need to dial back what they're doing. There is a massive over-saturation of the market for product and it is not helping. Transformers is a prime example. In addition to Generations and the mainline/gimmick line, we also have Kre-O, mashers, Constructbots, walkie talkies, RC cars, "Titan" over-sized figures, and up until recently Botshots (no doubt I am missing some). These items might all make for good toys, but none of them is helping either the mainline or Generations to sell. All they are doing is diverting cash away from what ought to be the main series.

Marvel is another good example: ten years ago, when the licence was with Toybiz, we had Marvel Legends, Spider-Man classics, and intermittent movie lines which remained compatible with those lines as far as possible. Now look at the mess of different, almost mutually exclusive, toylines they're producing! If ever anything illustrated the value in keeping things simple it's this.

In Transformers' case, it seems pretty clear the over-simplified idea hasn't worked. It was a good idea in many ways, but it could have been introduced in a way which didn't divide the movie line in two and set collectors, kids, and older kids against each other. No kid is going to want a toy which they perceive as being for "babies". Hasbro could have avoided this perception if they had worked on the one-step and flip and change concepts a bit more and created toys with the level of articulation and detail of Generations but using these new transformation styles. Collectors still would have complained, but to be honest if Hasbro announced they were giving every collector a solid gold lifesize statue of Optimus Prime for free collectors would complain, either because it was Prime and we have too many Primes, or because it would be released in America on Tuesday and over here on Wednesday, or something.

The main point is they need to rein it in. Stop flooding the market with products that, basically, aren't Transformers. Bring things back into status quo and go from there. It's the one strategy they haven't tried yet to address the situation with the toy market, and it's the one that might work.

[ChlorHex]

Interestingly, I'm reading "Good to Great" by Jim Collins and there is mention of Hasbro's rise (then) as it gained profound insight into its economics.
This was when it was under the leadership of Stephen Hassenfeld.
Then with Stephen's demise, it lost its discipline to remain focused and its direction became a dog's breakfast.
Poor leadership and losing focus... We see that now in the toys.