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megatronus wrote:

LordTwann wrote:

megatronus wrote:

T-Macksimus wrote:I give the figure itself a solid A+ and I give Hasbro a heart-felt F-U.

I'm not sure why you blame Hasbro for this - they want you to buy the figure just as much as you do. Fault with poor distribution likely falls on the brick & mortar retailers.

I could be wrong in what I'm about to say because I don't know everything. Just a preface, and I will gladly be corrected if/when I'm wrong.

I get why the primary problem with the figure distribution is with retailers. However, Hasbro does operate their own storefront in Hasbrotoyshop.com. If it's simply a problem with retailers not ordering the figures I don't get why Hasbro isn't selling the figures on their own site. Also it stands to reason that if hasbro is sitting on a backlog of figures why can't online retailers like BBTS and others get stock in? From an outsider position the most logical conclusion is that hasbro vastly underproduced the figures. Again there may be things I don't understand about retail business and distribution, and there may be information I don't have, but there again Hasbro is being pretty tight lipped about it.

Just because Hasbro operates their own dinky site doesn't mean they would overproduce figures just to sell on said site. If Hasbro operates like a traditional producer of goods, and I suspect they do, chances are they're going to take the hard orders from retailers/distributors, reconcile those with Hasbro's internal forecasts, and then produce a certain number of figures based on those numbers. BBTS may order a large quantity, but I would wager that their order pales in comparison to TRU, Target, etc. Orders are probably solicited up to 6 months in advance of product hitting shelves.

Obviously, the predicted number of figures needed doesn't always jive with the reality - sometimes Hasbro will overproduce based on predicted demand, and sometime they underproduce. And it sucks because a lot of the predicted demand likely comes, as I've speculated, from retailers' orders, which are in turn based on historical trends and seasonality. One of the reasons I personally think the Waspinator/Goldfire/Skids/Dreadwing wave was underproduced is due to it releasing after the New Year, when toy sales are historically down; retailers probably didn't order as many as they could have. And it's hard to say that Hasbro should have known 6 months in advance that this wave would be as popular as it was.

I'm sure I sound like a Hasbro apologist. I'm not trying to be, and Hasbro certainly shoulders some responsibility, but statements along the lines of "Y U HATE US HAZBRO!!!" annoy the hell out of me. The world is more complicated than people like to think.

LordTwann wrote:Just calling it like I see it, and the best I can tell from the information presented me, Hasbro really screwed the pooch. Who knows maybe it'll be like Blaster was last year and we'll see tons of them hit stores in August, but Hasbro sure isn't talking.

First you say Hasbro is tight-lipped and now you say information was presented to you... what information?

LordTwann wrote:On a side note this all just supports what I've been saying for a while now. Hasbro should adopt a subscription model for the generations line (and possibly the masterpiece line as well) like the Masters of the Universe toys. You subscribe for a year and get all the released figures, then there are a number produced beyond that which people can pick up in stores or online. That way the collectors never miss a figure.

That actually sounds like a great idea.

The "information" I speak of is what I can see and hear. I see that there is no supply and lots of demand.

And I'm not saying Hasbro should overproduce figures. I'm going to have to make some assumptions based on logic here because I have no actual production numbers or hard data. But lets look at wave one of generations deluxe 2014. They were released and sold only very briefly the end of last year supposedly, I personally never saw them. Now if as most seem to suggest and suspect retailers under ordered them, that stands to reason that either a) They're sitting in some warehouse somewhere, or b) production is tied to actual orders and since only so many of those were placed, only so many were produced. Or maybe there's a c) Hasbro for some reason only made a very small quantity and then retailers ordered from that small pool. Or maybe I'm missing something, but these seem the most likely conclusions, and none are good.

So you lets say B) Retailers only want this many so that's what they make. Hasbro has to notice that the orders for the product are way under the numbers that previous waves have sold. That's where they could step in and make more to sell themselves on their site. They have the means. The typical numbers may pale in comparison to orders from Walmart or Target but it's still a pretty robust site.

Now I fully admit that I'm guessing, I'm not a retail specialist. I'm just looking at the world around me with it's complete lack of supply in retail sources and ebay prices of $50 on a $12 figure. That's pretty startling for a figure that's only a couple months old that isn't supposed to be some sort of collectors item. And I'm not a Hasbro hater, I love them, always have, that's why I want to see them succeed and make good products and make us all happy. However here they made a mistake, and I believe it's far to simplistic to say it's all the retailers fault, they want to make money too, and without product to sell they're not doing that.

And to get myself back to the original topic, this fig looks cool. While the attempts at sticking the character into canon in the comics is kind of ham-fisted I do think it's a cool mold, and if I ever actually see him at retail I may grab him.

LordTwann wrote:

megatronus wrote:

LordTwann wrote:

megatronus wrote:

T-Macksimus wrote:I give the figure itself a solid A+ and I give Hasbro a heart-felt F-U.

I'm not sure why you blame Hasbro for this - they want you to buy the figure just as much as you do. Fault with poor distribution likely falls on the brick & mortar retailers.

I could be wrong in what I'm about to say because I don't know everything. Just a preface, and I will gladly be corrected if/when I'm wrong.

I get why the primary problem with the figure distribution is with retailers. However, Hasbro does operate their own storefront in Hasbrotoyshop.com. If it's simply a problem with retailers not ordering the figures I don't get why Hasbro isn't selling the figures on their own site. Also it stands to reason that if hasbro is sitting on a backlog of figures why can't online retailers like BBTS and others get stock in? From an outsider position the most logical conclusion is that hasbro vastly underproduced the figures. Again there may be things I don't understand about retail business and distribution, and there may be information I don't have, but there again Hasbro is being pretty tight lipped about it.

Just because Hasbro operates their own dinky site doesn't mean they would overproduce figures just to sell on said site. If Hasbro operates like a traditional producer of goods, and I suspect they do, chances are they're going to take the hard orders from retailers/distributors, reconcile those with Hasbro's internal forecasts, and then produce a certain number of figures based on those numbers. BBTS may order a large quantity, but I would wager that their order pales in comparison to TRU, Target, etc. Orders are probably solicited up to 6 months in advance of product hitting shelves.

Obviously, the predicted number of figures needed doesn't always jive with the reality - sometimes Hasbro will overproduce based on predicted demand, and sometime they underproduce. And it sucks because a lot of the predicted demand likely comes, as I've speculated, from retailers' orders, which are in turn based on historical trends and seasonality. One of the reasons I personally think the Waspinator/Goldfire/Skids/Dreadwing wave was underproduced is due to it releasing after the New Year, when toy sales are historically down; retailers probably didn't order as many as they could have. And it's hard to say that Hasbro should have known 6 months in advance that this wave would be as popular as it was.

I'm sure I sound like a Hasbro apologist. I'm not trying to be, and Hasbro certainly shoulders some responsibility, but statements along the lines of "Y U HATE US HAZBRO!!!" annoy the hell out of me. The world is more complicated than people like to think.

LordTwann wrote:Just calling it like I see it, and the best I can tell from the information presented me, Hasbro really screwed the pooch. Who knows maybe it'll be like Blaster was last year and we'll see tons of them hit stores in August, but Hasbro sure isn't talking.

First you say Hasbro is tight-lipped and now you say information was presented to you... what information?

LordTwann wrote:On a side note this all just supports what I've been saying for a while now. Hasbro should adopt a subscription model for the generations line (and possibly the masterpiece line as well) like the Masters of the Universe toys. You subscribe for a year and get all the released figures, then there are a number produced beyond that which people can pick up in stores or online. That way the collectors never miss a figure.

That actually sounds like a great idea.

The "information" I speak of is what I can see and hear. I see that there is no supply and lots of demand.

And I'm not saying Hasbro should overproduce figures. I'm going to have to make some assumptions based on logic here because I have no actual production numbers or hard data. But lets look at wave one of generations deluxe 2014. They were released and sold only very briefly the end of last year supposedly, I personally never saw them. Now if as most seem to suggest and suspect retailers under ordered them, that stands to reason that either a) They're sitting in some warehouse somewhere, or b) production is tied to actual orders and since only so many of those were placed, only so many were produced. Or maybe there's a c) Hasbro for some reason only made a very small quantity and then retailers ordered from that small pool. Or maybe I'm missing something, but these seem the most likely conclusions, and none are good.

So you lets say B) Retailers only want this many so that's what they make. Hasbro has to notice that the orders for the product are way under the numbers that previous waves have sold. That's where they could step in and make more to sell themselves on their site. They have the means. The typical numbers may pale in comparison to orders from Walmart or Target but it's still a pretty robust site.

Now I fully admit that I'm guessing, I'm not a retail specialist. I'm just looking at the world around me with it's complete lack of supply in retail sources and ebay prices of $50 on a $12 figure. That's pretty startling for a figure that's only a couple months old that isn't supposed to be some sort of collectors item. And I'm not a Hasbro hater, I love them, always have, that's why I want to see them succeed and make good products and make us all happy. However here they made a mistake, and I believe it's far to simplistic to say it's all the retailers fault, they want to make money too, and without product to sell they're not doing that.

And to get myself back to the original topic, this fig looks cool. While the attempts at sticking the character into canon in the comics is kind of ham-fisted I do think it's a cool mold, and if I ever actually see him at retail I may grab him.

Ah, but the thing about Ebay, "Collectable"=/=High Price and High Price=/= Collectable. Look at he Botcon stuff, those were intended to be collector's market figures, not all of them hold value. Meanwhile, things that people really want go up in value, supply and emand.

Looking at your list of potential scenarios, B) is the most likely. That's how Model Train manufactuers are working now, only its based on end-customer orders instead of stores. And it sucks, becaus you have to pre-order everything from $20 cars to $500 engines, (That's 1:87 scale prcing, the Oscale Lionel guys pay double or triple that) and then hope they don't all show up at the same time.

Imagine having to go to Walmart anf tell them "Next week I'm going to need a gallon of milk, a big pack of toilet paper, a bunch of bananas, diapers for my baby, pens, Hostess Cupcakes, bread, eggs, printer ink, and a new pair of shoes." just in the hopes hat they'll have it for you, or else they might not order enough. Its that bad in the model trains world, and its a business plan that is spreading because it doesn't create a lot of warehousing costs and unsold product.

And if the stores are posting lower sales number for 1st quarter 2014, its more than likely this is a trend Hasbro already knows about. Now, if t number comes in lowballed like Swerve and Cosmos did, then they are gonna panic and scramble like they have. But I don't think that's the case with the mainline figures. Megatronus has it right, Hasbro is gonna have an idea of what they think they'll sell. If the orders come in higher, they make more. If its a bit lower, then they HTS the difference. If it's substantially lower, then its time to evaluate whether a line is actually gonna sell. We may want the figures, but Hasbro isn't gonna swallow a bullet like a full line, and risk the product stallling out (debt) or underselling a client (even though they turned it down to begin with, egos run deep)

The other options: A) If so, then its probably in Walmart and Target stock, buried under old waves still trying to get out. I'm only just seeing the newest Beast Hunters CASES at Walmart. I get off work at 11pm, so I can see the boxes being wheeled out when I go to the store. Its not that I'd missed the new waves, they've not been on the pegs. The only reason I got Prowl was because he had a free Bulkhead attached to him, the older 2013 w2 stuff is still on the skids in back.

One of my Wlamarts just put up a Generations Megatron. I don' know if he's the last member of a case or a returned unopened figure, but the potential for the first is very strong.
G

EDIT nm.

Eeewww


Hope these ebay auctions don't end too high. This looks like a really bad factory reject.

*sidesteps essay posts*

i dont even like this mold but im diggin crosscut. i mean, id like his silver to be all shiny like united or asia three packs, but its not a deal breaker by any means. ill buy him just cause takara and hasbro doing the same figures lately seems iffy but wont be upset to re-buy if takara polishes him up.

I don't know why everyone is so upset with Hasbro over the availability of Skids. It proves Hasbro's dedication to G1 authenticity that Skids is so shortpacked and difficult to find at retail.

Yes, but I was only trying to add a little levity via Transformers-centric "bad comedy." Plus, I'd wager that the one from this wave that EVERYONE wants is Skids, being that he helps to complete the 1985 Autobot cars. Goldbug doesn't quite have the same "buzz" as Skids, and although G2 and Beast Wars have dedicated fanbases, Dreadwing and Waspinator don't have the same station in Transformers fandom that G1 characters do, even ones that are in all of two episodes of the original cartoon in what amounts to token appearances.

K2vox wrote:EASY pass. crappy NON-painted gray body and look at those FEET. paint gaps?! good god. I can't even...

Color-blind, you are. Crosscut is molded in SILVER plastic.