The Energon Pub

The simple fact is materials they use went up + new testing = higher cost. They have to pass it along to consumers thats why we will never see a $7.77 sale agin. When aldis has to sell for $9 to make a somewhat profit and big lots stuff is high , you know things are bad. My advice is wait till they go on clearnce there were so many movie fig produced that many stores had them for months on clearence even htf ones. Like when i got a leader brawl for $20 and recently the prime 25th box set for $20.

Again with the testing raising prices.

This is so annoying, G.I. Joes and Transformers are the only 2 properties I have seen that drastically increased, and if it were real everything would jump from all manufactures not just those 2 lines of Hasbro.

Also as far as being patriotic, I am sorry to say that we are so proud to be capitalists, yet we want to offer jobs to Americans that will in fact make the product rise in cost.

This is anti-capitalism if you can get something done cheaper somewhere else you should that is capitalism, not making jobs for people that will lower the bottom line of the company.

The prices are ridiculous for those little Marvel figures, by comparison, the Spider-Man/Movie Iron Man that are left are only 2 dollars more then those little ones.

Robot, Galactic, & Combat Heroes, Super Hero Squad also remain the same price, so if it is the "testing" I guess they skip certain products.

It is a combo of the market, price hikes, and overall parental buying drought, I have been on an isle many a time lately where some one says no way that’s $30.00 for a Voyager.

To me it is a puzzle why a company in a bad market would hike the price of an item to move fewer units at a higher unit cost, instead of lowering the price to move more units to generate a quick influx of cash until the market stabilizes.

I too am waiting for more of the Marvel products, the small plastic solid color figures, but they have not materialized.

Jestermon wrote:Again with the testing raising prices.

This is so annoying, G.I. Joes and Transformers are the only 2 properties I have seen that drastically increased, and if it were real everything would jump from all manufactures not just those 2 lines of Hasbro.

Also as far as being patriotic, I am sorry to say that we are so proud to be capitalists, yet we want to offer jobs to Americans that will in fact make the product rise in cost.

This is anti-capitalism if you can get something done cheaper somewhere else you should that is capitalism, not making jobs for people that will lower the bottom line of the company.

The prices are ridiculous for those little Marvel figures, by comparison, the Spider-Man/Movie Iron Man that are left are only 2 dollars more then those little ones.

Robot, Galactic, & Combat Heroes, Super Hero Squad also remain the same price, so if it is the "testing" I guess they skip certain products.

It is a combo of the market, price hikes, and overall parental buying drought, I have been on an isle many a time lately where some one says no way that’s $30.00 for a Voyager.

To me it is a puzzle why a company in a bad market would hike the price of an item to move fewer units at a higher unit cost, instead of lowering the price to move more units to generate a quick influx of cash until the market stabilizes.

I too am waiting for more of the Marvel products, the small plastic solid color figures, but they have not materialized.

I agrees those marvel 3.75" are a rip off , I got wolverine when target had a sale for $6 , especially when most of them have no weapons and the cards are plane. At least with gi joe you get a cool card and cool weapons and sometimes an extra like snake eyes and timber.

Highbeam wrote:Higher prices + too many shelfwarmers and not enough (or any) of the good stuff we want + economic strain + computer price glitches (such as the recent $4.99 TFA 2-packs) = losses. What I really would like to know is how much money did they lose on that glitch/super-clearance? The biggest issues I've seen are the price hikes and the lack of anything but the shelf-warmers...

And that's only referring to brick-and-mortar sales.

None...

Hasbro lost no money at all on that mistake.

This is where a lot of collectors get confused about the relationship of the big H, distribution, and retail stores.

Once Hasbro has sold their cases of toys to retail distribution units...they're done. They've made their profit. Once those toys make the boat trip from China to the US and then from the dock to the truck to the distribution center...it's over as far as Hasbro is concerned.

Jestermon wrote:Again with the testing raising prices.

This is so annoying, G.I. Joes and Transformers are the only 2 properties I have seen that drastically increased, and if it were real everything would jump from all manufactures not just those 2 lines of Hasbro.

And Star Wars and Marvel Legends (and all the offshoot lines like Hulk, IM & Spidey) and the increase in the new 3 3/4 lines vs the old lines you remarked on and Playskool & Fisher Price stuff. All those lines saw a 20% increase. So yea, other than those I haven't noticed any other increases.

You're right though, not all of those increases hit at once. Big players like Hasbro don't have to unilaterally raise all the prices at once and can take loss leaders for a bit. TF's were selling well in the wake of the first movie and when TFA was fresh and so they could count on volume (the same reason Walmart could sell them for $7.77). Once that slows down, whoopee, price increase.

How much do you suppose this has to do first with the fact that sales for Transformers jumped last summer during the first movie line when retailers couldn't keep TFTM toys on the pegs.

I have to wonder if the steep drop has to do with the end of that movie run in combination with increased prices. The article mentions Mattel's profts dropped 15% in comparison to Hasbro's 47%, but Mattel might no have made the gains Hasbro did, thus Hasbro had farther to fall.

Mkall wrote:Let's see, plastic costs are up by at least one third, leading to a price increase to cover the expenses which in turn has scared people off...


Not surprised really.

Nope not at all. I can see the supply end really not cashing in either or any end really. I wish I was a press person so I could call up Hasbro and ask why the increase in the retail price for real?

I have certainly gotten a lot more picky about what I buy at this point. I just can't afford the prices right now, and that sucks. A year ago, the situation was just so much better. Price-wise and Job-wise.

Magnimus wrote:How much do you suppose this has to do first with the fact that sales for Transformers jumped last summer during the first movie line when retailers couldn't keep TFTM toys on the pegs.

I have to wonder if the steep drop has to do with the end of that movie run in combination with increased prices. The article mentions Mattel's profts dropped 15% in comparison to Hasbro's 47%, but Mattel might no have made the gains Hasbro did, thus Hasbro had farther to fall.

Mattel has Disney and Barbie which don't hardly ever slump since parents trust the Barbie and Disney brand. Disney Princesses has been a profitable line since they introduced it.
I secretly wish that Hasbro would release the fembots and group them up and market them to little girls to get them into Transformers.