mattysan wrote:Completely disagree; Hasbro has a lot more control over this.
If Walmart isn't playing by the rules, then stop giving them exclusives.
Hmm, so lets see, toy sales and sections of stores in general have been shrinking for years, and there are limited brick and mortar stores that will even carry those toys nowadays. In the US it is basically Walmart or Target with Walgreens sort of in a distant third place nationally. Sure there are some regional chains like Meijer, or dissappearing chains like K-mart in there as well.
And your solution for Hasbro to start getting toys to be released on their desired schedule is to cut off the largest chain that will carry their products from exclusives? Sure, lets cut ourselves off at the knees with Walmart, the largest retailer, makes sense.
mattysan wrote:If you think Hasbro had zero say in Redwing being a RED Card exclusive when it was so prominently advertised on their site, you're delusional. Of course they had a say in that. Target had to get the OK for that from Hasbro.
Do you actually have any facts to back this up, or just speculation? It has been a number of years since Target had any exclusives, and with TRU now out of the way, Hasbro needs other retailers like Target to pick some of these up. If I was in Hasbro's place, I'd want the second largest retailer in the US to want to carry my exclusives much more that I would worry about butthurt fans complaining about the method Target want to sell them.
mattysan wrote:EB Games in Canada has Ratchet available. Walgreens could do the same. Again, if EB Games is somehow not playing by the rules, then Hasbro should stop giving them exclusives.
You are completely lost here. EB is doing nothing wrong, they are providing the products when they are ready for release. It is Walgreens that is delaying putting Ratchet out until they reset their toy section for the holidays. It has been this way every year from TR Brainstorm, the TR clones though PotP Wreck Gar last year and will be the same this year. Your butthurt on Canada getting Ratchet first shouldn't be aimed at EB or Hasbro, but rather Walgreens. Next you will probably say they shoudl pull the exclusives from Walgreens. While I would prefer that personally, it would be a terrible business move for Hasbro to cut of any retailer outlet in today's market.
mattysan wrote:And I believe, but hey I could be wrong here, that Hasbro has complete say on what Hasbro Pulse does. They could be at least putting Barricade up for pre-order. They could offer us a special paid membership tier that gave us direct access to exclusives so that we don't have to step foot in Walgreens, Target, EB, Walmart, or any other brick and mortar location. Less cost, fewer middlemen that way. It is 2019 after all, it's idiotic not to provide this as a service to die hard collectors.
Do you understand the draw for having an exclusive product in your store as a retailer? If someone can only get this product in my store or on my website, then it increases the chance of me selling them something else from my store that they could get from my competition.
Hasbro wants to be able to sell products in as many ways and locations as possible and that requires working with your retail outlet partners, not working against them just to please die hard collectors. There are a hell of a lot more opportunities and potential customers at regular retail than there are die hard collectors. Plus, they also know the die hard collectors will be much more likely to jump through a few hoops to get the exclusives we want than the general public would be to get the basic product at regular retail. So navigating this from Hasbro's point of view requires throwing your retailers a few bones to their retail partners on exclusives.
Did it suck signing up for a RedCard? For sure
Will it suck waiting for November for Ratchet? It will
Is a bunch of pissing and moaning from die hard fans (who apparently don't understand the retail environment) going to change anything? Big fat nope
