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Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby First-Aid » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:51 am

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OlivusPrime wrote:Either that, or the line isn't popular with the majority of fans, meaning online stores like Kapow! don't get high sales like high street stores.


This is a very good point. Kapow is a store that focuses on the collector, not the average fan or kid on the street. The current toys have now been out for nearly two months, which means that any of the collectors that wished to buy them probably already have. Hasbro really needs to add some new figs to this line...and quickly. I'm honestly sick of looking at the same figs constantly. THe diversity of characters in ROTF was a hell of a lot better than this line. In addition, the speed with which new molds were released is much slower this time around, too. We've basically had the same figures released since the May 16th toy line release date. If they were to put out some new molds, I'm sure they'd sell more. But without that, it's not going to happen.

As for the popularity of the line, all of the mainstream stores I've seen are selling well. However, they ordered SO MUCH initial product that is restocked on a daily basis that it seems as if they aren't selling. The WalMarts here restock nightly to the tune of 2-3 cases of deluxes and 1 case of Voyagers. They can't keep the Leaders stocked because they are selling faster than they expected. Same with Target. WHat they are finding is that the Transformers-RELATED toys are not selling. THe figures are, the RPMs, powerbots, etc are not. And the Generations line has enough dust on them here to choke a camel. They have more in the back, but haven't had to stock them in nearly four months as they just don't sell. Sad, but true.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby D-340 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:52 am

Lord Onixprime wrote:

Here is to hoping they bump up the release of Prime because of this, and cancel the movie line where it is. Right now there is no hope of finding anything new because the shelves are clogged with wave 1 figures that aren't moving.



As much as I'd like to see Prime hit the shelves sooner(or any new product, DOTM is shelf warmin' away out here), I'd hate to see DOTM just stop before any of the new character molds hit. It'd kill me to not have a Dlx. Leadfoot. I do, however, think more stores need to follow suit in dropping the DOTM line. Send Hasbro a message, let them know that their crappy case assortments, poor distro, and bad choice in redecos(do we really need a BB repaint in every wave? I understand he's a popular character but this is to excessive) won't cut it anymore. Get new characters out, characters that kids and fans would want.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby noctorro » Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:03 pm

So it's bad in the UK.

Here in The Netherlands I've only seen wave 1, no Sideswipe if he's in wave 1 at all. To many voyager Optimus Prime's and deluxe/leader Bumblebees.
Generations was totally skipped in The Netherlands by Hasbro so we have to ebay/importshop.

Our DOTM toy line is also shelfwarming, but not because of the diversity in characters. A deluxe sized transformer costs 20,- euro's (28,27 dollars!!!!!!)
A voyager is 37,- (52,30 dollar) and a leader is 70,- (98,94 dollar).

That, and as said above, Optimus / Bumblebee / Ratchet have been released from the first movie so I think parents got the hint right after ROTF that they are buying the same character over and over again + the increased prices here = fail.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Lord Onixprime » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:20 pm

D-340 wrote:
Lord Onixprime wrote:

Here is to hoping they bump up the release of Prime because of this, and cancel the movie line where it is. Right now there is no hope of finding anything new because the shelves are clogged with wave 1 figures that aren't moving.



As much as I'd like to see Prime hit the shelves sooner(or any new product, DOTM is shelf warmin' away out here), I'd hate to see DOTM just stop before any of the new character molds hit. It'd kill me to not have a Dlx. Leadfoot. I do, however, think more stores need to follow suit in dropping the DOTM line. Send Hasbro a message, let them know that their crappy case assortments, poor distro, and bad choice in redecos(do we really need a BB repaint in every wave? I understand he's a popular character but this is to excessive) won't cut it anymore. Get new characters out, characters that kids and fans would want.



I agree with you, I mean I'd really love to get Dino/Mirage, Soundwave, and I'd really like a Leader Megatron to finally take the place of my '07 Leader Megatron (ROTF Leader Megatron sucked, but I really loved DOTM Megatron in the movie, which surprised me because I thought I wouldn't). But then, if the DOTM line continues, and they keep shelf warming and clogging up shelves with Bumeblebee and Prime then we are going to be screwed when TF:Prime does come around. Hasbro will only make this work if they stop with the shelf warmers (Hasbro, every kid in america has an optimus prime and bumblebee, if not 2 or 3 of them already. Give up, they are not the hot item they were) and only pack cases with new stuff people will want. They are not going to be able to drag out DOTM like they did ROTF. That is already quite apparent.

Prime was pushed back to December because they thought DOTM was going to sustain them through the fall (they originally said Prime was going to hit in like August or September). They need to get them out sooner than later. It should pick up kid interest in both the toy line and thus the Prime cartoon as well.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Sodan-1 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:34 pm

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noctorro wrote:So it's bad in the UK.

Here in The Netherlands I've only seen wave 1, no Sideswipe if he's in wave 1 at all. To many voyager Optimus Prime's and deluxe/leader Bumblebees.
Generations was totally skipped in The Netherlands by Hasbro so we have to ebay/importshop.

Our DOTM toy line is also shelfwarming, but not because of the diversity in characters. A deluxe sized transformer costs 20,- euro's (28,27 dollars!!!!!!)
A voyager is 37,- (52,30 dollar) and a leader is 70,- (98,94 dollar).

That, and as said above, Optimus / Bumblebee / Ratchet have been released from the first movie so I think parents got the hint right after ROTF that they are buying the same character over and over again + the increased prices here = fail.


And I thought we in the UK had it bad. Those prices are truely disgusting. I feel for you.

As for Kapow dropping the line: I'm really not surprised.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby D-340 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:08 pm

Lord Onixprime wrote:
D-340 wrote:
Lord Onixprime wrote:

Here is to hoping they bump up the release of Prime because of this, and cancel the movie line where it is. Right now there is no hope of finding anything new because the shelves are clogged with wave 1 figures that aren't moving.



As much as I'd like to see Prime hit the shelves sooner(or any new product, DOTM is shelf warmin' away out here), I'd hate to see DOTM just stop before any of the new character molds hit. It'd kill me to not have a Dlx. Leadfoot. I do, however, think more stores need to follow suit in dropping the DOTM line. Send Hasbro a message, let them know that their crappy case assortments, poor distro, and bad choice in redecos(do we really need a BB repaint in every wave? I understand he's a popular character but this is to excessive) won't cut it anymore. Get new characters out, characters that kids and fans would want.



I agree with you, I mean I'd really love to get Dino/Mirage, Soundwave, and I'd really like a Leader Megatron to finally take the place of my '07 Leader Megatron (ROTF Leader Megatron sucked, but I really loved DOTM Megatron in the movie, which surprised me because I thought I wouldn't). But then, if the DOTM line continues, and they keep shelf warming and clogging up shelves with Bumeblebee and Prime then we are going to be screwed when TF:Prime does come around. Hasbro will only make this work if they stop with the shelf warmers (Hasbro, every kid in america has an optimus prime and bumblebee, if not 2 or 3 of them already. Give up, they are not the hot item they were) and only pack cases with new stuff people will want. They are not going to be able to drag out DOTM like they did ROTF. That is already quite apparent.

Prime was pushed back to December because they thought DOTM was going to sustain them through the fall (they originally said Prime was going to hit in like August or September). They need to get them out sooner than later. It should pick up kid interest in both the toy line and thus the Prime cartoon as well.



Exactly, even a DOTM line refresh, the last 2 waves of Generations, something. I'm sure when this hits Hasbro's bottom line, they'll take notice.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Ultra Markus » Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:18 pm

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if everyone is doing what i am doing and trying to obtain the last of the generations an RTS figures
before the buy into the DOTM figures then sales will be poor
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Chaoslock » Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:54 pm

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Interesting, despite the ridiculous prizes, I don't see it faring worse than the RotF line here in Hungary. But yeah, there are a lot of shelfwarmers - activators, mainly. I don't even know why Hasbro is making them.

On a side note, Tesco here started distributing Cyberverse wave knowsthehellhowmany - the one with Stealth Bumblebee (I think having ten Bumblebees in one wave can count as bad box distribution), Flak, Crowbar, and Roadbuster.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby alternator77 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:03 pm

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went to nyc tru with my nephew for his birthday today to get him some movie tf's today. we walked in and he spent a good 45 minutes looking at all the stuff and walked out with a generations kup. thats it when i asked him if he wanted anything else he said "no i already have all those movie figures"

he's 7 and even he recognizes the same basic molds in different packaging. in his words "hes tired of bb" this coming from someone who has 9 of bb. its not a localized thing im getting the feeling this is more widespread than people realize. stores are starting their back to school promos and with more movies and toylines (this especially irks me) still to come this will be a hard sell for hasbro imo.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Mykltron » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:46 am

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One reason Kapow may be having low sales is that the prices are too high. £15 for a deluxe that I can get in Asda for £10. £55 for a leader that I can get in Argos for £40. That's not good marketing.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Pot Bot » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:35 am

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Mykltron wrote:One reason Kapow may be having low sales is that the prices are too high. £15 for a deluxe that I can get in Asda for £10. £55 for a leader that I can get in Argos for £40. That's not good marketing.


As Andy from Kapow stated though is that the big retailers are cutting deals with Habro to get the toys cheaper than the smaller ones can....hence the prices
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby partholon » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:35 am

thats basically what they said in their announcement.

the other stores are under cutting them.

i cant blame them myself. speaking as a fan in ireland theyve been slashing the shyte out of the prices here (which NEVER Fecking happens till somethings been out for months) and there still not shifting.

voyagers deluxes and leaders started at 26 16 and 54 euro's respectively.

within about a week they were down to 19.99, 9.99 and 44 euro.

its even screwed up some of the other releaese.

the cyberverse sets (BB and starscreams) started at 20 , making them more expensive than the voyagers ! till surprise surprise a week later there going for 15 euro.

and thats just the normal toy stores, word is tescos are even cheaper if you can find them there.

it doesnt help that we get sod selection all like the UK too. we never got half the generations stuff when it was knocking about (no thunderwing etc here) and theres still a hell of a lot of HFTD/ROTF . you literally cant get rid of leader starscream here. its going of 29.99 now. theres even some RTS knocking about, saw spec ops jazz just yesterday.

so what i think we've got going on is .

1. people are sick to the back teeth of the SAME characters being released ad nausium. i never really thought about it till reading this thread but i remember back in the day if you wanted a bumblebee you got the minibot and that was it.

no bearly disernably different remolds every year.

in the WHOLE of G1 you got original, classic pretender, and action master BB.

Which was considered overkill back then as most characters got one release and that was it.

we were getting NEW transformers characters all the time , with new gimmicks, or nothing. now its just redux after redux and i think thats led to burnout as even children can tell theyre buying the SAME thing again.

2.it looks cheap.

sorry but theres a shocking difference optics wise between the DOTM stuff and ROTF. asetehtically is just doesnt look worth it. even the first playset weve got in years, the ark , looks like it was slapped together in one night.

3.

cut the crap.

the amount of powerbots/ activators/ stealthforc/stars on the shelves is ridiculous. im all for getting the youngest kids on board but there should NOT be half the self space given over to that crap. concentrate on the bloody core product. transforming robots.

sorry for the rant.

im not even a hard core collector. i stick mainly to the comics now, but i got a fair few in both the ROFT line and the classics.

the ONLY guys so far im interested in getting in DOTM are roadbuster and topspin, with prehaps leadeer ironhide.

every other character i either dont like or could get pretty much the same for much cheaper in another line.

given all this i cant blame kapowtoys refocusing their products. makes sense to try and flog the stuff the other retailers either wont deal in (very bloody hard to get HA here) or fly out of. that way they dont have boxes of warehousewarmers.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Pot Bot » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:53 am

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Tesco's are doing mad sales, they had the deluxes for £8 up until this week, and i dare say they'll go down to that price again.

But as you sad in the last 5 years count how many Primes, Bumblebee's and Starscream we've had. Since the line appeared ages ago i have seen the wave 1's, and the only other dotm are Barricade, Jolt and Sideswipe, and voyager Skyhammer, Shockwave, and some limited Starscreams and Ratchets. You think they would have started with the newer bots, ie Mirage, Wheeljack, soundwave maybe even a wheelie and Brains
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby partholon » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:46 am

its mad to think back in the day there was NO optimus prime bar the original till the powermasters came along.

:)

i think they just need to rebalance the characters.

if they took this aproach in G1 we never wouldve got thunderwing , scorponok, fort max and co as it wouldve just been about five characters with the gimmick involved. hell hole gimmicks like the combiners proably wouldntve got off the ground.

i know with the films they HAVE to make em but theres no need for the overkill, particularly when they can flesh out the line with other characters.

wheelie as you said for instance was far more likable in this fim, theres should at least be a two pack with brains, and dear gods that soundwave looked sexy. its just begging for a HA issue with a captured carley and laserbeak to perch on his arm.

i think theyv just fallen into "batman" mode where we get loads of essentially the same bloody thing.

thats understandable in batman as theres only ONE of the bloke and ya have to pimp him out. but TF has hundred of characters to pump up the line. im amazed we never got a movieverse dinobots set. it dosnt matter if theyre not in the movies as neither was half the legends line, kids'l buy it over their 5th bumblbee.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Pot Bot » Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:32 am

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Spot on, id even be up for the usual Magnus repaint from prime (which i usually complain about). If you wanna use the bumblebee mold again, do cliffjumper, or a Windcharger, or something, yeah im sure there has to be a Prime, Bumblebee etc, but im so sick of seeing Primes, Bumblebee's etc on the shelves, and thats not including the DOTM. WHen the DOTM line first came out i went into TRU, in there they had

1x DOTM Voyager Prime
1x RTS Deluxe Prime
1x HTD Leader Prime
1x Generations WFC Prime
1x Cyberverse Prime

on top of that, pretty much the same for Megatron and Bumblebee. Thats 15 different molds, on 3 figures!!! C'mon Hasbro (and retailers) thats just plain Barmy!!!
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Red Leader » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:03 am

Mykltron wrote:One reason Kapow may be having low sales is that the prices are too high. £15 for a deluxe that I can get in Asda for £10. £55 for a leader that I can get in Argos for £40. That's not good marketing.



Your looking at the imports , all the UK stock has now been deleted and will get moved to ebay, its an impossibility to sell items we've paid shipping and import taxes on at the same price as EU stock.

Its sadly as simple as the product line being mishandled and no matter how big the movie has become it doesnt equate to toy sales sadly.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Autobot032 » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:17 am

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Red Leader wrote:Its sadly as simple as the product line being mishandled and no matter how big the movie has become it doesnt equate to toy sales sadly.


^ THIS.

Hasbro went overboard on production levels with this one. If the big box stores are having a hard time, I can't imagine what the little guys, such as yourself, are going through.

I'm a little shocked and stunned, to be honest. I had a feeling the retread figures wouldn't sell, but even the new characters are clogging shelves.

It's a shame too, because the DOTM line has some pretty great molds, and they're being largely ignored. :(
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Pot Bot » Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:00 am

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It would be nice if hasbro would actually reply to these kinds of issues, but on the other hand, im sure they'd come out with a brilliant comment, which would translate to we dont care...give us your money and stop whining!

Power to the little stores!!!!
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby starfish » Mon Jul 18, 2011 11:34 am

Couple of points...

1) The reason the larger stores can afford to undercut the independents is not necessarily any deals with Hasbro or whatever - it's simply that these are larger stores. Supermarkets and the like can afford to loss-lead, they have advantageous economies of scale, and because they sell hundreds of units every day, they can afford smaller mark-ups on the price. Stuff is always cheaper in large, national stores, be it Transformers or anything, for that matter.*

2) As shoppers, we can only base our observations on our own experiences. The figures that warm shelves in our local stores may not be the ones that seel the least globally.

The point is, if Bumblebees and Primes didn't sell, then Hasbro wouldn't make them. And yet we've had tonnes of these characters all through the movie lines. even in the first film, there were two deluxe moulds (one of which was repainted four or five times), a Legend (+ at least 2 repaints), an Ultimate, 2 Fast Action Battlers etc. etc.

Face it, if Bumblebees didn't sell then Hasbro would stop making them. The moment Hasbro stop making money on these re-treads of old characters is the moment they stop selling them.

Besides, everyone complains about Prime and Bumblebee, but strangely no mention of Starscream and Ironhide, both of which have had some great new moulds for DOTM. Maybe if a toy is fun and well-engineered, it's easier to look past the fact that it's an old character!



* With the singular exception of HMV stores in the UK. £70 for Robin of Sherwood Season 1 on Blu-ray? No wonder that chain is in financial crisis!
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Counterpunch » Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:55 pm

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Apparently Hasbro didn't do anything wrong:

http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... son/22359/

Now, do I think they should do something to make sales better for overseas buyers? Sure.

But this whole thing is hard to discuss because people misinterpret what they see on the shelves.

Full shelves at WalMart or TRU isn't a bad thing.

For one, you have no real idea of how often or when they stock. For another, you don't know if that was their whole order up front or if replenishment cases are hitting the shelves.

On the same train of thought, full shelves with product everywhere means that Hasbro has had a successful line. It means stores bought from their distributors.

Now, occasionally stores over purchase. But larger retain chains are buying these figures in bulk for 50% or less than their retail cost. They're making money hand over fist despite the impression that the stock isn't moving.

(Spoiler: It is moving.)

Now, I'm not surprised that Euro dealers, especially online stores are having a hard time competing in this climate. At least Kapow Toys was smart enough to realize this from the get-go.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby starfish » Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:28 pm

Counterpunch wrote:Now, I'm not surprised that Euro dealers, especially online stores are having a hard time competing in this climate. At least Kapow Toys was smart enough to realize this from the get-go.


But here's the problem - in the UK for some reason, there are usually many specific figures and waves that we just never see over here. For example, our ROTF line pretty much stopped halfway through (we never got the wave that contained Voyager Bludgeon - I think that was the cut-off point).

Which means that, for a lot of figures, UK fans are reliant on the smaller online retailers and the specialist dealers, because even the supermarkets and Toys R Us only go so far. The recent recession has also bit hard, with well-established brick-and-mortar retailers like Woolworths and Toymaster having ceased trading in the last few years.

With Kapow ceasing trade in DOTM toys, where do UK fans go now for the later waves (which inevitably will never reach UK shores)? I used to frenquently buy from the online retailers Xybertoys and EpicHeroes (both of which used to be great for the old die-cast Takara Alternators), but those sites are way overpriced these days - EpicHeroes' pre-order price for MP-10 Optimus Prime is £15 (24USD) higher than that of Kapow, for example.

I have bought from the US on occasion, but then we get stung with crippling import taxes. Non-Transformers related I know, but as an example I bought some CDs online the other day from HMV Japan, and got charged £35 import tax (56 USD) for 4 CD albums. It definitely pays to shop from local UK or European retailers if you can help it!

I can completely understand Kapow's decision, but it's a sad day indeed for UK fans who might like to buy DOTM toys which won't otherwise be available in the UK.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Pot Bot » Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:48 am

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starfish wrote:
Counterpunch wrote:Now, I'm not surprised that Euro dealers, especially online stores are having a hard time competing in this climate. At least Kapow Toys was smart enough to realize this from the get-go.


But here's the problem - in the UK for some reason, there are usually many specific figures and waves that we just never see over here. For example, our ROTF line pretty much stopped halfway through (we never got the wave that contained Voyager Bludgeon - I think that was the cut-off point).

Which means that, for a lot of figures, UK fans are reliant on the smaller online retailers and the specialist dealers, because even the supermarkets and Toys R Us only go so far. The recent recession has also bit hard, with well-established brick-and-mortar retailers like Woolworths and Toymaster having ceased trading in the last few years.

With Kapow ceasing trade in DOTM toys, where do UK fans go now for the later waves (which inevitably will never reach UK shores)? I used to frenquently buy from the online retailers Xybertoys and EpicHeroes (both of which used to be great for the old die-cast Takara Alternators), but those sites are way overpriced these days - EpicHeroes' pre-order price for MP-10 Optimus Prime is £15 (24USD) higher than that of Kapow, for example.

I have bought from the US on occasion, but then we get stung with crippling import taxes. Non-Transformers related I know, but as an example I bought some CDs online the other day from HMV Japan, and got charged £35 import tax (56 USD) for 4 CD albums. It definitely pays to shop from local UK or European retailers if you can help it!

I can completely understand Kapow's decision, but it's a sad day indeed for UK fans who might like to buy DOTM toys which won't otherwise be available in the UK.


Pretty much nailed it right on the sweet spot there mate.

But i will add, if you speak to alot of managers and co at places like Tesco's, tru etc, they are extremely dissapointed with how slow dotm is moving (well in Telford at least). Speaking to one of the assistants at tru near me (who is a tf's fan himself) he has said the DOTM is not moving, but every time they put 2 or 3 cases of Generations out, they are gone within hours. I know that isnt the case worldwide, or maybe even nationwide but it can still be a problem.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Counterpunch » Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:42 am

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There is a lot of anecdotal information flying around here.

There's only a few bits of hard fact:

1. Hasbro is doing well because of DotM.
2. Kapow Toys is not carrying the DotM line due to profit margin issues and competition.

Thaaaat's about it for now.

If at the end of the year fiscal report, Hasbro shows that its profits fell because large companies were not ordering replenishment merchandise and later waves of toys, then we can assume that the line was failing.

For now, much of this conversation seems to be a way for people who dislike the movie and its toys to vent that distaste by proxy.
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby starfish » Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:24 pm

Counterpunch wrote:If at the end of the year fiscal report, Hasbro shows that its profits fell because large companies were not ordering replenishment merchandise and later waves of toys, then we can assume that the line was failing.


Not necessarily. As undoubtedly happens with any line of movie tie-ins, the bulk of sales are going to occur in the month or two immediately prior to the release of the film (as the hype and media presence ramps up), and in the first few weeks after the film is released, as people watch the film, and then buy the toys based on the characters they've just seen.

Whatever happens from here on in, Hasbro have already made their millions from this movie, just on the first few waves alone, riding the crest of the wave (so to speak).

As the number of weeks since release gets ever bigger, there's always going to be a tail-off in sales around this sort of time. It's pretty much inevitable. And people are bearing witness to that.

Anecdotal evidence it may be, but it makes a lot of sense. Sure, there may or may not be a few toys warming shelves around now, but either way it won't affect Hasbro's margins, because maybe they've already made the bulk of their profits that they're going to make from this film.

Counterpunch wrote:For now, much of this conversation seems to be a way for people who dislike the movie and its toys to vent that distaste by proxy.


A-ha! Now who's the one jumping to conclusions ;)

Sure, there may be an element of fandom who don't like the Movieverse toys (which I can understand if not necessarily agree with), and some of this anecdotal evidence may well be a case of wishful thinking on the part of such individuals, I agree.

But to tar everyone with the same brush is a tad harsh, I feel. I'm a huge supporter of the movie lines and am sick of going into stores and seeing the same old wave 1 figures that I've owned for weeks now, collecting dust on a shop shelf.

Where there was once a huge display of DOTM toys in my local Tesco, it's nearly all been taken down now and replaced with a display of Cars 2 merchandise.

I love the Transformers franchise and only wish it the best of success - we only grumble because we're concerned about its well-being, not because we want to see it fail. Perish the thought!

That, and my selfish desire to own a Voyager Shockwave, when all I see in my local stores are Voyager Primes, Ironhides and Megatrons! Grrrr!
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Re: Kapow Toys to drop DOTM line

Postby Pot Bot » Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:51 am

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starfish wrote:
Counterpunch wrote:If at the end of the year fiscal report, Hasbro shows that its profits fell because large companies were not ordering replenishment merchandise and later waves of toys, then we can assume that the line was failing.


Not necessarily. As undoubtedly happens with any line of movie tie-ins, the bulk of sales are going to occur in the month or two immediately prior to the release of the film (as the hype and media presence ramps up), and in the first few weeks after the film is released, as people watch the film, and then buy the toys based on the characters they've just seen.

Whatever happens from here on in, Hasbro have already made their millions from this movie, just on the first few waves alone, riding the crest of the wave (so to speak).

As the number of weeks since release gets ever bigger, there's always going to be a tail-off in sales around this sort of time. It's pretty much inevitable. And people are bearing witness to that.

Anecdotal evidence it may be, but it makes a lot of sense. Sure, there may or may not be a few toys warming shelves around now, but either way it won't affect Hasbro's margins, because maybe they've already made the bulk of their profits that they're going to make from this film.

Counterpunch wrote:For now, much of this conversation seems to be a way for people who dislike the movie and its toys to vent that distaste by proxy.


A-ha! Now who's the one jumping to conclusions ;)

Sure, there may be an element of fandom who don't like the Movieverse toys (which I can understand if not necessarily agree with), and some of this anecdotal evidence may well be a case of wishful thinking on the part of such individuals, I agree.

But to tar everyone with the same brush is a tad harsh, I feel. I'm a huge supporter of the movie lines and am sick of going into stores and seeing the same old wave 1 figures that I've owned for weeks now, collecting dust on a shop shelf.

Where there was once a huge display of DOTM toys in my local Tesco, it's nearly all been taken down now and replaced with a display of Cars 2 merchandise.

I love the Transformers franchise and only wish it the best of success - we only grumble because we're concerned about its well-being, not because we want to see it fail. Perish the thought!

That, and my selfish desire to own a Voyager Shockwave, when all I see in my local stores are Voyager Primes, Ironhides and Megatrons! Grrrr!


I might aswell repost my last post.

NAIL ON THE HEAD!!!

I love the movies, and some of the toys, hell, even my partner has a few of the move toys (wheelie and 2 bumblebees) and she thinks collecting is geeky (in a cute way). The point is, and ill say it again even the shop managers are saying the line is selling very badly compared to the last 2 movie lines, ive even been told they wish they'd gone half and half with the rts/gens lines because those two were flying off the shelves. Nothing against the movies, look at my other posts, i really do love them, and have most of the wave 1 toys ive seen, and picked up some jap exclusives from Kapow.

Seems to me that as soon as you say anything negative about the movieverse in any way, your automatically a hater. I for one am deffinately not.
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