They delayed the Animated figures....why?

[pesatyel]

The claim was that movie figures were selling well.

 

I don't see it.

 

And, today, I found "premium edition" figures (Blackout, Ironhide and Jazz, though I know there are others).

 

And I just have to ask why?

 

We've seen these same figures over and over, for the most part with only a handful of new molds trickling in (Incinerator, Stockade, Landmine) with all the rest being repaints.

 

Sure, we got NEW characters via repaints (Salvage, for example), but I don't see the need for these "premium edition" figures. I think Hasbro screwed up pushing the Animated figures too far back.

 

I'm not normally negative about the production schedule for when product comes out. I get it when I can. But this just seems ridiculous, like they realized the Movie line was DONE but couldn't push up the Animated line.

[madman1366]

Well I think the premiums came about because the original Best Buy exclusives sold so well and Hasbro saw a demand for a more collectors oriented version of the figs and decided to expand on them.

 

The movie figures ARE still selling very well. If you need proof of that, look at Hasbro's quarterly report, profits are WAY up. Well above expectations in fact. Many of the stores I frequent are still selling them at a pretty consistent pace, and the store I work at has steadily gotten in new cases since the beginning of the year. Sure they're not flying out the way they were before, but they're still going pretty good.

 

Hasbro is just milking it for all they can and they didn't want to have 2 major lines competing against each other. Plus, you have to figure retailers had something to do with it too. They're still asking for more movie stuff because they're still selling so well.

 

I would think at some point soon Hasbro will have to end the production of any new figs to let the stuff that's out there start to sell down before animated hits. So we're nearing the end. I would think that if Hasbro runs out of deluxes to ship out then we may see at least the animated deluxe figs out a little early the same way they released the movie deluxes a bit early. We'll see.

[Nguyen_Dragon]

I dont mind... gives me some time to save up money... since I dont really care about movie figs...

[synch]

Really I agree with madman they figured or knew the tfa would be a hit so they decided to just milk the movie line as long as they could before having to put out the animated ... & really... its not like putting out the animated figures or not putting them out hurts anything because by now kids & (us) want them even more now that we are a good almost 20 + episodes into it!

[Agent Adam]

It's entirely possible the movie and animated lines will run side-by-side for a bit, with TFU replacing the movie line in July.

[Stevy Maximus]

but I don't see the need for these "premium edition" figures. I think Hasbro screwed up pushing the Animated figures too far back.

The Premium Series was done so that kids that might have missed these core characters last year (entirely possible given the near constant sell out) would get a second chance at them before Hasbro completely dropped the line. Plus, with retailers demanding more product, 3 big product launches in the spring (Indiana Jones, Iron Man, Hulk), and general retailer reluctance to change up product lines outside the "reset seasons" without a major motion picture, it probably just made more sense to stretch the movie line an extra 6 months and give Animated a more fully fleshed out launch in the summer (As I understood it, originally Hasbro had planned to have animated on shelves in march with deluxe, voyager and 2 packs, with Activators, CyberSlammers, and leaders and other products hitting late in the summer).

 

And the delay will probably have no effect on the end toy sales. Spring and summer are the lowest selling points of the year for toys, and most of the sales will come in the fall anyway. Hasbro is one of the few companies to consistantly have product on shelves when new cartoon series hit. Mattel and Bandai take at least 6 months or more before getting their cartoon tie ins to market, and that's only if they are successful enough.

Mattel still hasn't made any effort in making Legion of Superhero toys for that show, despite being the master DC figure licensee.

 

On the plus side, the delay has given Cartoon Network time to run through the entire first season and just about all the second before the toyline has lauched. By the time the toys hit the shelves, kids will have likely seen the entire run through reruns and will know who all the different characters are, thus potentially getting more characters than they might have otherwise, or buying characters that might have otherwise ended up shelfwarmers.

 

I recall with Energon and Cybertron, due to the pace and numbers of releases Hasbro needed to do to fill retailer orders, MANY characters would appear on toy shelves MONTHS before appearing on the cartoon, and I firmly believe that event has a negative effect on sales of certain characters.

[madman1366]

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember someone from Hasbro once upon a time ago saying something along the lines of the decision to push the animated back was as much the retailers idea because they still had so much demand for the movie stuff.

 

Sure the collectors will buy up everything no matter what, but they have to think of the parents buying them for kids first, and if the animated were released earlier in the year then chances are good that would have ground the sales of the movie figs to a very slow crawl.

 

It does burn me though that Hasbro littered the Cincy area with them for the convention leaving so many people to squirm even more. Like the people at the con didn't have enough goodies to get already. It seems like most of them (a great deal of them anyway) just ended up feeding the scalpers.

 

The funny thing is, I'm not even looking as forward to the animated line as most people are. It's just a crappy thing to do. What would have been an otherwise quiet convention (as opposed to last years mess over the exclusives) we now get treated to more people getting pissed off once again because of the animated figures.

 

Now if they litter the San Diego area with the new Classics at SDCC, then I'm gonna be REALLY angry!!!

[madman1366]

It's entirely possible the movie and animated lines will run side-by-side for a bit, with TFU replacing the movie line in July.

 

 

I don't know how they'll do that. They still have some of the exclusives pegged for the movie line, so it could be that the movie figs may retain a bit of peg space for awhile, just not a big feature sized section like they have now. Perhaps 3 or 4 pegs worth for new incoming deluxes until those run dry, but that'll probably be it.

 

Or they'll just do the occasional endcap displays for them. Either way, they'll surely have to work through some excess stock, so that should be around for a bit.

 

It seems like they don't want the idea of the movie to get too far from anyones consciousness with the next one coming right around the corner.

[Emperor Serpentor]

They can take as long as they want with Animated. I won't be buying them that is for sure. It is kind of good I get to save money on TFs this year but also kind of sad we don't get anything cool looking until Universe comes out.

[synch]

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember someone from Hasbro once upon a time ago saying something along the lines of the decision to push the animated back was as much the retailers idea because they still had so much demand for the movie stuff.

 

Sure the collectors will buy up everything no matter what, but they have to think of the parents buying them for kids first, and if the animated were released earlier in the year then chances are good that would have ground the sales of the movie figs to a very slow crawl.

 

It does burn me though that Hasbro littered the Cincy area with them for the convention leaving so many people to squirm even more. Like the people at the con didn't have enough goodies to get already. It seems like most of them (a great deal of them anyway) just ended up feeding the scalpers.

 

The funny thing is, I'm not even looking as forward to the animated line as most people are. It's just a crappy thing to do. What would have been an otherwise quiet convention (as opposed to last years mess over the exclusives) we now get treated to more people getting pissed off once again because of the animated figures.

 

Now if they litter the San Diego area with the new Classics at SDCC, then I'm gonna be REALLY angry!!!

 

 

SInce I am going I would kind of like that ...

[AlleyViper2]

Huh. I don't really see the movie figures move at all, until they're marked down. Walmart and Target have both had the same movie figures warming shelves for ages.

[madman1366]

I could be wrong, but I thought I remember someone from Hasbro once upon a time ago saying something along the lines of the decision to push the animated back was as much the retailers idea because they still had so much demand for the movie stuff.

 

Sure the collectors will buy up everything no matter what, but they have to think of the parents buying them for kids first, and if the animated were released earlier in the year then chances are good that would have ground the sales of the movie figs to a very slow crawl.

 

It does burn me though that Hasbro littered the Cincy area with them for the convention leaving so many people to squirm even more. Like the people at the con didn't have enough goodies to get already. It seems like most of them (a great deal of them anyway) just ended up feeding the scalpers.

 

The funny thing is, I'm not even looking as forward to the animated line as most people are. It's just a crappy thing to do. What would have been an otherwise quiet convention (as opposed to last years mess over the exclusives) we now get treated to more people getting pissed off once again because of the animated figures.

 

Now if they litter the San Diego area with the new Classics at SDCC, then I'm gonna be REALLY angry!!!

 

 

SInce I am going I would kind of like that ...

 

 

Well then if they should happen to do that, then of course I'm sure you won't forget about me!

[bumblebee85]

how much of a delay can there be, i just picked up animated cybertron mode optimus, earth mode bumblebee, lockdown and prowl at my local walmart!!

[madman1366]

how much of a delay can there be, i just picked up animated cybertron mode optimus, earth mode bumblebee, lockdown and prowl at my local walmart!!

 

 

Well then care to help some fellow board members out who don't want to wait another 2 months?

[madman1366]

Huh. I don't really see the movie figures move at all, until they're marked down. Walmart and Target have both had the same movie figures warming shelves for ages.

 

 

There are exceptions. Just because they are selling well, doesn't mean there won't be some odd places where they aren't moving as well as they are in other places.

 

I live in a pretty huge area. In fact, I quit counting how many different Target stores I've been to after the 20th. All I can say is that things seem rather equally consistent all over this area.

 

The Target I work at for awhile had been going though about a case or two (if not more) deluxes a week and they were steadily being restocked.

 

I know there have been times where if I didn't work there and know any better, I would have sworn that nobody was buying them. But everytime we sell a few, we put a few more out so the pegs are always full and it gives the illusion that nobody is buying them, but they are.

 

The thing is, when you go awhile with the same case assortments coming in, it's almost impossible to tell if they've been selling or not until they're all gone.

 

Another thing I notice is that pegs can be full of the same old stuff for awhile but then all of a sudden I go back after a weekend and the place is cleaned out.

 

All I can say is, I've never seen a line with so many older figures still available that are selling as well as these movie figs still are.

[Mike]

I'll be glad to see the movies toys off the shelves. it's inevitable XD The only reason they are still selling well is because of the name Transformers attatched to them. They can make the dumbest looking thing, slap the name Transformers on it (and they have) and it will sell.

 

If there was never a movie, and these toys just had a cartoon, and not had millions of dollars spent on marketing, they would have failed miserably.

 

While I don't agree with their business venture with the Transformers products right now, I have to hand it to them, spending next to nothing on repaints to rake in all the bucks they can. They KNOW animated toys are gonna fly off the shelves so they're saving them to bridge the gap between TF-1 movie toys, and TF-2 movie toys, and keep those repaints going.

[pesatyel]

but I don't see the need for these "premium edition" figures. I think Hasbro screwed up pushing the Animated figures too far back.

The Premium Series was done so that kids that might have missed these core characters last year (entirely possible given the near constant sell out) would get a second chance at them before Hasbro completely dropped the line. Plus, with retailers demanding more product, 3 big product launches in the spring (Indiana Jones, Iron Man, Hulk), and general retailer reluctance to change up product lines outside the "reset seasons" without a major motion picture, it probably just made more sense to stretch the movie line an extra 6 months and give Animated a more fully fleshed out launch in the summer (As I understood it, originally Hasbro had planned to have animated on shelves in march with deluxe, voyager and 2 packs, with Activators, CyberSlammers, and leaders and other products hitting late in the summer).

 

And the delay will probably have no effect on the end toy sales. Spring and summer are the lowest selling points of the year for toys, and most of the sales will come in the fall anyway. Hasbro is one of the few companies to consistantly have product on shelves when new cartoon series hit. Mattel and Bandai take at least 6 months or more before getting their cartoon tie ins to market, and that's only if they are successful enough.

Mattel still hasn't made any effort in making Legion of Superhero toys for that show, despite being the master DC figure licensee.

 

On the plus side, the delay has given Cartoon Network time to run through the entire first season and just about all the second before the toyline has lauched. By the time the toys hit the shelves, kids will have likely seen the entire run through reruns and will know who all the different characters are, thus potentially getting more characters than they might have otherwise, or buying characters that might have otherwise ended up shelfwarmers.

 

I recall with Energon and Cybertron, due to the pace and numbers of releases Hasbro needed to do to fill retailer orders, MANY characters would appear on toy shelves MONTHS before appearing on the cartoon, and I firmly believe that event has a negative effect on sales of certain characters.

 

 

That does make sense, but not entirely. With 6 Walmarts, 3 Targets, 4 K-Marts, 2 TRU and 2 K-Bee (not to mention several other outlets that seel stuff like Kohl's), I think parents had PLENTY of time to pick up the various TFs for their kids, especially if you consider repaints (parents don't, generally, buy repaints, unless a new character, but collectors do ). Which is why I think these are targeted more at COLLECTORS. They are fundamentally the same as the original releases, with a few extra paint apps.

 

I think they woulda sold more had they just repainted them as a new character (or simply just repainted them). From what I've seen, the repaints of figures tend to look better than the originals anyway.

[synch]

how much of a delay can there be, i just picked up animated cybertron mode optimus, earth mode bumblebee, lockdown and prowl at my local walmart!!

 

 

Well then care to help some fellow board members out who don't want to wait another 2 months?

 

welcome to life in @can@ and anyplace else thats not in the @usa@ @firedevil@

 

Hwo long is the tfa suppose to even last anyone have any idea how many episodes or seasons or what not its suppose to be ?.. its already at episode 20?ish... most series now days only last up till about 42 episodes

[Stevy Maximus]

That does make sense, but not entirely. With 6 Walmarts, 3 Targets, 4 K-Marts, 2 TRU and 2 K-Bee (not to mention several other outlets that seel stuff like Kohl's), I think parents had PLENTY of time to pick up the various TFs for their kids, especially if you consider repaints (parents don't, generally, buy repaints, unless a new character, but collectors do ). Which is why I think these are targeted more at COLLECTORS. They are fundamentally the same as the original releases, with a few extra paint apps.

 

I think they woulda sold more had they just repainted them as a new character (or simply just repainted them). From what I've seen, the repaints of figures tend to look better than the originals anyway.

Not if they are sold out. I worked at Walmart at the time of the movie release, and I saw with my own eyes: A solid 4+ foot section was packed from 6/22 until July 1 with backstock. After the movie hit, the entire section was GONE by July 7th. And in my area here in Oklahoma, we have Walmart here in Altus, and it is a MINIMUM hour drive to another store that carries toys.

Throughout the year, stock was hit and miss, we got almost NO Voyager Optimus Prime toys (we ended up getting one or two), and by Christmas, you couldn't find a blackout. Barricade was almost impossible to find, while you could find his repaint around if you looked. While a lot of kids saw the movie at theatres, just as many (if not more) caught it on DVD, but by the time the DVD hit, many earlier figures (Leader Optimus Prime for example) were no longer available, or very hard to find.

 

The Premium Series had a few goals:

1. Get core characters back onto retail shelves

2. Suppliment the expanded movie line with additional product

With very little cost on Hasbro's part, they fill multiple consumer needs and markets while still getting product on the shelves. Yes, they redecorated them for the collectors, but there are many who missed various core characters last year who will likely jump at the chance to get the characters again.

[Stevy Maximus]

Hwo long is the tfa suppose to even last anyone have any idea how many episodes or seasons or what not its suppose to be ?.. its already at episode 20?ish... most series now days only last up till about 42 episodes

TFA will last so long as ratings remain strong and toy sales are good. Best I've been able to tell, Season 3 is well into production (probably air sometime next spring before the movie sequel) with Season 4 all but confirmed. My feeling is that so long as the line is doing well, Hasbro will continue making toys (heck, Mattel is still making animated Justice League toys, and that show has been off the air for a couple years now)

[synch]

Huh. I don't really see the movie figures move at all, until they're marked down. Walmart and Target have both had the same movie figures warming shelves for ages.

 

 

There are exceptions. Just because they are selling well, doesn't mean there won't be some odd places where they aren't moving

 

 

 

@can@ darn no hand waving emoticon! For all the emotions we have sometimes this forum lacks the most basic ... : @loll@

 

Bumblebee "first version" is still sitting around here at places... anyone want one at cost? @loll@

[Stevy Maximus]

Bumblebee "first version" is still sitting around here at places... anyone want one at cost? @loll@

WE got a few cases of that had BB 1, Jazz, Arcee, Wreckage and Payload. BB is still the fastest seller here, though.

[Destro]

Since they delayed the toys, why didn't they delay the cartoon to coincide w/ the toy release? It seems the show is doing quite well, and that might boost the toys sales. This is a slow time of year sales wise, perhaps that's the reason. Ok, I think I answered my own question.

[madman1366]

That does make sense, but not entirely. With 6 Walmarts, 3 Targets, 4 K-Marts, 2 TRU and 2 K-Bee (not to mention several other outlets that seel stuff like Kohl's), I think parents had PLENTY of time to pick up the various TFs for their kids, especially if you consider repaints (parents don't, generally, buy repaints, unless a new character, but collectors do ). Which is why I think these are targeted more at COLLECTORS. They are fundamentally the same as the original releases, with a few extra paint apps.

 

I think they woulda sold more had they just repainted them as a new character (or simply just repainted them). From what I've seen, the repaints of figures tend to look better than the originals anyway.

 

Well you forget though, that parents aren't like collectors who typically buy everything they want or need as soon as they find them or can afford to get them. Parents have far more to think about before getting their kids every Transformer they want. The longer a line is available, the more time and chances parents have to buy more of them for their kids.

 

So in the end, a kid that may have been lucky enough to get half the figures in a line, might end up with most of them.

 

I do think the premium series is meant more for collectors, otherwise they'd just keep cranking the same ol figures out as long as they could. It's the collectors who demand the better paint apps and stuff, not the kids. So I think that's a no brainer.

 

Transformer are a super hot item and have been for awhile now. When the animated line finally does hit then I don't think it will be any different. In fact, kids will be more familiar with the characters and everything so in that sense they'll probably just want the figures that much more by the time they finally are released. So I don't think the delay will hurt so much.

 

Now if there is one point to be made, it's that perhaps they are hurting the longterm potential of the line seeing it's not going to have the amount of time it would have otherwise had before the movie sequel figures hit around this time next year.

 

Instead of having a good 18 months in between, they now only have 12. Throw in Universe and other 25th anniversary goodies and well, that could prove to be too much of a good thing all at once. Recession fears don't exactly help either.

 

So in that sense, perhaps they did get a bit too greedy with the movie line. How much it will hurt we won't know until well after the next movie line hits about a year from now.

[pesatyel]

Well, one thing I've noticed.

 

One of the TRU here has, hmm must have been 24 Swindles on the pegs. And that was it.

 

Most of the stores have shelves of Incinerator who appear to be there to keep the shelves from floating away or something. @firedevil@