Tsutsukakushi wrote:If Hasbro finds it hard to convince USA TRU to carry all of the smaller Voyager scale MP TF Cars-bots. Then Hasbro will ask Takara to create more Eight inch,Leader scale or bigger scale MP TF toys.
I do not believe that Hasbro has as much influence with Takara as you hope. Yes Hasbro own the Brand, but they license it to Takara to do with what they please in Japan in exchange for using Takara's manufacturing facilities and designers when needed; or something to that effect. As the MP molds are created and (most likely) owned by Takara, Hasbro might have to license their use for introduction into North America, as well as deal with whatever vehicle company licenses need to be dealt with as I'm sure US is at least a slightly different ballgame for that stuff that Japan. If the individual, non-leader or less popular characters don't sell well, then Hasbro just won't explore that avenue.
If the first batch of Hasbro MP TF Voyager Cars-bots sell badly & hardly anyone buys them. Then TRU will not carry future waves & give their feedback to Hasbro on what they think it's buyers want. This TRU feedback will make Hasbro ask Takara to create MP TF scaled toys that TRU in the USA thinks it buyers will buy more.
Not how that works. Hasbro pitches an opportunity to TRU or any other interested retailers to sell these as an "exclusive" item. They will point to sales in other markets, past sales with similar products and incorporate a whole bunch of marketing buzzwords. In the end it's up to TRU to seal the deal and stock the items. If things go well (and let's face it, they probably would as scalpers would snatch them up quickly giving the illusion of popularity), then TRU will be open to future things. If not, they will tell Hasbro, "thanks but these aren't selling. We have no interest in this type of line any more." That'll be the end of it. TRU only cares about what's selling and what isn't. It's not their job to say "Hey, try improving this..." That's what Hasbro's customer service/marketting team is for.
No,Takara can't afford to not have Hasbro sell these MP TF toys. Takara needs Hasbro,As Hasbro has more retailers worldwide than Takara does. Takara's TF toy line volume & profits is a fraction of what Hasbro's is. The TF toy creation process needs to make it's money back & get some profit. This can only happen with Hasbro's help.
Nope. MPs are made by Takara for Japan (*and the various specialty retailers in other lands). That's all they base their cost/product analysis on. If Hasbro wants to use a mold, then that's more money to them. In Japab it's Takara and ONLY Takara. Hasbro plays no role in that aspect.
Even when Hasbro does store exclusives for TF toys or toy lines. The volume & profits is still higher than Takara's. Because Hasbro offers their exclusives to more countries & sites than Takara.
That is true, but irrelevant.
With the country of Japan being smaller than Texas & Bandai dominating retailers & buyers in Japan. I suspect Takara makes the bulk of its sales from online specialty import sites worldwide. This is simply no where near Hasbro worldwide retailers,online sites & individual buyers.
Honestly, you may be right with this too, but I cannot say for sure as I have no numbers to debate it.
The idea of Sentient Robots in Japan (i.e. Transformers) is see as childish, and I mean very young childish; like 4-7 or something like that. That's why a lot of the TF shows in Japan feature anime kids who are probably younger than those portrayed in US-centric shows - to relate to the very young. However with the kids of the 80's grown up now with disposable income, Japan has a much higher nostalgic collectors market than Hasbro can hope to capture. It's this reason (among many, many others) that Hasbro lets Takara do what they do there. Takara is well verse in the market and knows precisely what should work with that market. That they're appealing to international collectors too is a bonus because it allows Hasbro to focus primarily on their target demographics while occasionally throwing us collectors a bone to chew on.
Your assumption that Takara need Hasbro's money to keep the MP line alive shows that you're spouting stuff like a know-it-all who needs to pay more attention to this type of stuff to understand how things work. I'm sure there's all sorts of other strings attached, but when Hasbro saw the Japan market, they picked up the phone and said "Hello Takara, you formed this toyline and have one of the preeminent designers on staff (I think he's still there too). Let's pool oour design and manufacturing abilities and you can do whatever you like with Transformers in Japan."
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