Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

bossman328 wrote:

Noideaforaname wrote:While adult fans buy a lot, there aren't that many adult fans compared to kid fans. I'm willing to bet the majority of young boys (pardon the sexism, but these toys are geared towards boys) have at least 1 Transformer toy, while the majority of adult men only have fond childhood memories (if that, even).
Not to mention buying anything off the secondary marked = zero money for Hasbro.

Great point!! The figures on my shelf I've gotten from retail are completely outnumbered by the figures I've purchased on the secondary market (ebay/amazon/craigslist/tfw2005/seibertron/local comic shop).

Maybe if distribution improved? Many say it's the stores not Hasbro. A couple months back I spoke to a store manager at WalMart about their empty TF section. He scanned the tags to show me they had nothing in stock and had been waiting for a while for the stock to come in. Said they had a meeting about it that day, said the store was pissed about the poor distribution.
I bet no moms are buying TFs for there kids from BBTS, TFsource, Robot Kingdom etc...so there is enough of collector contingent to sustain several online businesses. In my business we are constantly looking for ways to increase our share of the market, and then increase our share of each individual wallet. Doesnt seem like Hasbro really tries much of that as I constantly see different companies taking what should be Hasbro's share when all Hasbro has to do is get their act together...It's like they think they make enough money and are satisfied. Of course I dont know any of this, but that's how it seems.

alternator77 wrote:i constantly hear "but collectors are a fraction of hasbros sales"

when in reality its more like "collectors are a fraction of hasbro sales but a huge chunk of TRANSFORMER RELATED SALES"

This implies that you have some solid numbers. Please present them in order to prove your point.

RhA wrote:

alternator77 wrote:i constantly hear "but collectors are a fraction of hasbros sales"

when in reality its more like "collectors are a fraction of hasbro sales but a huge chunk of TRANSFORMER RELATED SALES"

This implies that you have some solid numbers. Please present them in order to prove your point.

fact is i dont have numbers but the flipside is no really does except for hasbro

the point i was trying to make is that while it is true that transformer collectors dont make up a big piece of the pie with respect to all hasbro brands they do make up a considerable portion of sales in respect to transformer related merchandise. in other words lets say for argument we only comprise 5 or 6 percent of total hasbro brand purchases when you narrow it to transforming robots that percentage jumps rather dramatically. and for the record if some has just 4 figures or even 2 with the intention of getting more guess what theyre collectors as well.

dont get me wrong this isnt a rant about" wahhhhh!! i want more classics give collectors what they want" on the contrary its about botshot collectors, prime collectors,cyberverse collectors unable to get stuff because its not available. its stuff like that which lowers my confidence not so much whats being produced. for example im not too fond of the FOC line but there are many who love them and thats great but when a budding collector cant find something they want at retail it is an example of ignoring the collector base who lets face it dont need a movie or tv show to buy this stuff up.



dont know if that made sense just got off a double shift need coffee



just had a thought what do you think would happen if every collector just stopped buying transformers all together im talking from retail, online,ebay,convention and even just didnt bother registering for conventions or showing up.

what effect do you think it would have on the brand as a whole?

I have confidence that Hasbro will continue to steer the ship in a direction that they think appeals to both collectors and their intended markets. Failing spectacularly along the journey. It really felt like we were coming to a sort mutual excitement between the two entities. Then behind the scenes job repositioning happens. Now, kinda feels like we're in some strange limbo to me. Who exactly did Hasbro test their ridiculous Bruticus packaging and pricetag on? At least a $40 mark up for the 3 boxes it comes in. That is inane. Why are we left in the dark on whatever Prime figures are coming stateside? Why are we being led by the nose on anything at this point? Botcon is normally a great place to get whatever answers you might be looking for or at least get a hint towards your answer. Not so anymore. The Classics Arcee we were teased with if we supported Prime Arcee, she was exactly that. A tease. They feel that this Arcee IS G1 Arcee. Nope! Buy our "now" stuff, maybe we'll get to your wants. That attitude needs to change. I would love to get back to the mutual respect we seemed to have not even two years ago. I can't find a single Airachnid in stores. A figure that most would agree is pretty bad. So where is she? Know what I CAN find though? A healthy selection of RID BB and Cliffjumper with a random Wheeljack for good measure. Oh, and let's not forget the Bot Shots. It's the only thing I can find in the TF brand on shelves with any sort of variety. I dunno, lots of disappointments have been building for me for awhile and it finally has just all kinda piled up. I want to buy figures I will enjoy. If only they would make them.

I needed a wishy-washy "maybe, sometimes.....but not really" option to cover my thinking. Being as over entitled and bratty as everyone else why wasn't I catered for?

The Company that gve me an MP Grimlock and RTS Jazz seems to have put a lot of it's talent, effort and who-gives-a-shit on vacation this year and next year doesn't look much better. Without importing too much flame from the other thread that upcoming Asian Brawn sums things up: Lazy-ass, piss poor and downright exploitative.

Honourable exceptions being the upcomming MPs.....as long as the damn things are built better than Craptimus Ankle-Spring.........

Evil_the_Nub wrote:I voted no. Even though I think the toys are still overall good, the poor distribution and case assortment, combined with canceling of figures is unacceptable. I really like the Prime line so far, the only stinker in the group is Airachnid. But I haven't seen any new figures in months, and I keep hearing that Hasbro isn't releasing so many figures it sucking the fun right out of this.

Instead of looking forward to new figures now I'm thinking "Hey that looks awesome, $50 says Hasbro doesn't release it."

Same here. Nothing is getting released this way, as well. All I keep seeing is the yellow cancer. TRU did get the FOC line, but by the time I got there, all that was left was 2 Primes. Walmart has yet to put anything out. Target......same. Where is all the stuff goin? Am I gonna have to look at TJ Maxx again as I did for Grapple and Lugnut?

RhA wrote:

alternator77 wrote:i constantly hear "but collectors are a fraction of hasbros sales"

when in reality its more like "collectors are a fraction of hasbro sales but a huge chunk of TRANSFORMER RELATED SALES"

This implies that you have some solid numbers. Please present them in order to prove your point.

Do YOU have any solid numbers to disprove it? I would bet you don't, and really, I'd bet Hasbro doesn't either. I have never been asked to explain who I am purchasing a figure for, be it for myself as an adult collector or for a child. Even Hasbro can't verify what percentage of sales are driven exclusively by adult collectors, unless they're estimating or using TFCC/Fun Pub sales as some kind of measuring stick for, once more, an estimate.
The one thing that is verifiable is that we've heard so many times that Hasbro isn't concerned with sales to collectors that it's become one of the most preferred comebacks by drones whenever someone does dissent.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Dagon wrote:

RhA wrote:

alternator77 wrote:i constantly hear "but collectors are a fraction of hasbros sales"

when in reality its more like "collectors are a fraction of hasbro sales but a huge chunk of TRANSFORMER RELATED SALES"

This implies that you have some solid numbers. Please present them in order to prove your point.

Do YOU have any solid numbers to disprove it? I would bet you don't, and really, I'd bet Hasbro doesn't either. I have never been asked to explain who I am purchasing a figure for, be it for myself as an adult collector or for a child. Even Hasbro can't verify what percentage of sales are driven exclusively by adult collectors, unless they're estimating or using TFCC/Fun Pub sales as some kind of measuring stick for, once more, an estimate.
The one thing that is verifiable is that we've heard so many times that Hasbro isn't concerned with sales to collectors that it's become one of the most preferred comebacks by drones whenever someone does dissent.

An excerpt from TFWiki, with the relevent quote in bold:

Hasbro should totally cater to the wishes of older collectors, as they purchase the most Transformers product.

Fans would like to think they've got some sway over the direction of the Transformers brand. After all, they've been buying toys for many years (as opposed to the limited purchasing span of most children), and they buy many more toys than any individual child. And in truth, Hasbro does pay attention to the desires and discussions of its older buyers, even designing certain line segments like Alternators or Classics and its successors with collectors as the primary target audience.
Collectors, however, simply can't compare to the vast numbers of children out there whose parents buy Transformers for them. The bulk of Transformers product is purchased for and/or by young children, and if a company like Hasbro wants to stay in business and keep making money (and by extension, more toys), it must design and market its products accordingly. No accurate figures exist on the collector/children ratio, but estimates mentioned at BotCon panels range from around 10% to 20% of all purchases coming from older collectors—enough to be worth listening to, but not at all the driving force behind the brand. Past toylines have shown that betting too much on sales from adult collectors can be disastrous.

Yeah, estimates range. RhA was asking for solid numbers. As I said, no one ever asks for whom a toy is being purchased, which means that ever that estimated 10-20% may not be entirely accurate. At best it's a ballpark figure. No, I am in no way claiming to have conducted market research or anything.
Also, I didn't say that Hasbro should/must cater to us as collectors. I find that to be just as stupid as saying the company doesn't care about collector revenue.

Dagon wrote:Yeah, estimates range. RhA was asking for solid numbers. As I said, no one ever asks for whom a toy is being purchased, which means that ever that estimated 10-20% may not be entirely accurate. At best it's a ballpark figure. No, I am in no way claiming to have conducted market research or anything.
Also, I didn't say that Hasbro should/must cater to us as collectors. I find that to be just as stupid as saying the company doesn't care about collector revenue.

You've got a point, they won't know who the toys are being bought for without asking everyone who buys one. They're just guessing and not doing it well. Their estimates say that Bumblebee is the most popular character, yet here we are drowning in the damn things. However the figures the collectors want are always the hardest to find. That tells me what we want is what sells the most.