The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1 · by **Optimus1138** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:45 pm

Can't say I'm surprised. After all, if they don't sell their stuff online or send it to stores, how are they ever going to make any money?

Website · by **RK_Striker_JK_5** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:50 pm

I order most of my stuff online nowadays. Factoring in gas and travel length, it's a heck of a lot cheaper!

News Credits: 1 · by **Blozor** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:53 pm

I was just thinking last night that it's absolutely stupid that I have to pay as much for official Hasbro products as I do for third party customs because Hasbro failed to properly market the last half of their product lines.

News Credits: 331 · by **chuckdawg1999** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:04 pm

This always happens in off years when there is no movie. Be worried after DOTM if this happens again and continues to happen.

News Credits: 7 · by **TulioDude** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:07 pm

El Duque wrote:Hasbro is reporting a 71% drop in profits for the first quarter of 2011. That figure sounds worse than it actually is , as there are several factors that need to be taken into consideration. First quarter sales for toy companies usually take a hit due to following the holiday season, Hasbro has made a sizable investment in getting The Hub off the ground, and due a reduced demand for toys in the first quarter many retailers have decided to focus on clearing out leftover holiday inventory rather than ordering new product (sound familiar?).

There is however a silver lining, boys products were actually up 25% while girls, preschool, and games showed a loss. Despite their weak start Hasbro's Brian Goldner remains optimistic for the remainder of the year and states they are still on track for their full year's sales plans. Hasbro has a huge entertainment line-up for this summer, which includes toy lines for "Captain America: the First Avenger", "Thor", and of course "Transformers DOTM" to help bolster sales. To read more click follow these links: Reuters or Yahoo

Hasbro is okay.
Their sales gonna skyrocket during the summer.

by **prowl123** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:31 pm

It would help to get the Tuner Mudflaps off the shelves.

News Credits: 3 · by **Shockwave7** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:05 pm

What's the timetable? I know the movie toys are on the horizon. But I couldn't care less about the movie toys. Figures I'm waiting to see on shelves are:
Lugnut, Windcharger, Thundercracker, Wheeljack, Warpath, Frenzy/Rumble.

And that's pretty much it. I'll be done with collecting for a while once I have those. I may pick up some of the Transformers Prime figures when they come out, but that's not until this Fall or later. There seems to be a nice long 6 month stretch where I'm not expecting to buy ANY figures except the ones I listed above.

But what's the timetable? Surely (if Hasbro is putting these figures out) they will have to be in stores before the movie toys. But I haven't seen any of them. All I'm seeing is old ROTF toys and about 2,000 copies of 'electrostatic jolt'. When will the newer RTS and Generations figures be on the shelf?

I'd order them from HasbroToyShop.com, but in the short time yesterday between seeing the article and getting to a computer where I might place an order, they went 'out of stock'....

News Credits: 104 · by **Cyber Bishop** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:07 pm

whacko wrote:You know what's good or getting you earnings up? Getting you damn toys into stores!

Thank you.

by **alternator77** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:49 pm

first off i dont fault hasbro for it entirely. having said that i do fault them on a few other things.
first when you pack the figures try spreading them out evenly i think i speak for many who are tired of case assortments where theres 1 windcharger, kup, or scourge and 6 or 7 skullgrins. if you spread them out evenly then stores would go through them more frequently and then place more orders.
secondly enough with the multipacks of old/outdated figures (im looking at you gathering at nemesis :BOOM:

)when most people young and old have the leader or the individual figures already it does little good to release them in a pack for 30-50$.
thirdly encourage the stores carrying your merchandise to actually put the products online the purchase and save me some damn time/gas there is no reason for me to log on to a website (any retailer)and see they only have 5-10 figures.
fourthly enough with the repaints already. the reason skids/mudflap and jolt are sitting around is cause everyone has them (pretty much) putting lighting bolts on the side will not move them out of stores period.
fifth and finally i have no problem with bb but try not to release 10-15 this time around i have 3 (stealth,regular,cliffjumper, and ultimate)and i have NO intention of buying any more again i think many on here share this opinion.
ok rant over.

News Credits: 1 · by **Lord Onixprime** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:54 pm

chuckdawg1999 wrote:This always happens in off years when there is no movie. Be worried after DOTM if this happens again and continues to happen.

Hopefully not, with the first Prime figures coming out in October, and the full scale Prime line following suit some time after that it should supplement there being no movie. Not to mention that Classics/Universe/Generations will be back again (probably under a new moniker). The movies have yet to kill it off for good, plus Hasbro designed a lot of those figures with alternate heads. Give the retailers time to get their faith back again with the DOTM stuff and Generations whould make a come back.

News Credits: 668 · by **Autobot032** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:56 pm

It's their own fault. Over producing figures that clearly don't sell is obviously a flaw in their thinking.

Not sending new stuff out when they can is another braindead move.

And you can't tell me that retailers aren't ordering, because they are, and the new stuff sells out immediately.

Leaving loads and loads of immovable product.

The retailers are somewhat to blame, but damn, Hasbro took a large dose of stupid this year, themselves.

News Credits: 8 · by **LiKwid** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 7:22 pm

Out of all of the retailers I visit in my area the one I requent has a hard time of getting new stuff in stock and actually putting it out. What i decdided to do is when I see certain figures chillin on the pegs I buy em up and take them down to a shelter/goodwill and donate them. I figure if no one is going to buy them I might as well buy em all up and donate them to someone who appreciate having a transformer. It helps them, the collector and a nice little tax write off

everybody wins

News Credits: 1 · by **Solrac333** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:24 pm

It's the 71% of extra Tuner Mudflaps they made.

by **CybertronHotShot** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:30 pm

Seibertron wrote:I keep saying our stock got sent overseas to capitalize on the higher dollar due to a quarterly loss here. Or maybe they just got what they were supposed to get and orders are simply down.

I keep saying it and I'll say it one more time: stop wasting gas driving around for these figures, buy the figures online or import them, or don't plan on getting them.

I don´t think so, in Brazil we´re stuck with the HFTD toys in the stores and online we only have Gennerations Drift,Thrust and WFC Prime and Cliffjumper.

News Credits: 6 · by **BeastProwl** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:40 pm

well the earthquake could have had an effect too, lest we forget :-(

by **amtm** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:10 pm

An excerpt from Hasbro's annual report filed earlier this year. Maybe this will provide some insight. (Bolding added by me.)

Revenues from the Company’s top five customers, all retailers, accounted for approximately 50% of its consolidated net revenues in 2010 and 54% and 52% of its consolidated net revenues in 2009 and 2008, respectively. In recent years certain customers in the retail sector have experienced economic difficulty. ...

The Company’s revenue pattern continues to show the second half of the year to be more significant to its overall business for the full year. In 2010, approximately 65% of the Company’s full year net revenues were recognized in the second half of the year. Although the Company expects that this concentration will continue, particularly as more of its business has shifted to larger customers with order patterns concentrated in the second half of the year, this concentration may be less in years where the Company has products related to a major motion picture release that occurs in the first half of the year. In 2010, the Company had products related to the mid-year major motion picture release of IRON MAN 2, while in 2009 the Company had products related to the mid-year major motion picture releases of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA and X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. The concentration of sales in the second half of the year increases the risk of (a) underproduction of popular items, (b) overproduction of less popular items, and (c) failure to achieve tight and compressed shipping schedules. The business of the Company is characterized by customer order patterns which vary from year to year largely because of differences in the degree of consumer acceptance of a product line, product availability, marketing strategies, inventory levels, policies of retailers and differences in overall economic conditions. The trend of larger retailers has been to maintain lower inventories throughout the year and purchase a greater percentage of product within or close to the fourth quarter holiday consumer selling season, which includes Christmas.

Quick response inventory management practices being used by retailers result in more orders being placed for immediate delivery and fewer orders being placed well in advance of shipment. Retailers are timing their orders so that they are being filled by suppliers closer to the time of purchase by consumers. To the extent that retailers do not sell as much of their year-end inventory purchases during this holiday selling season as they had anticipated, their demand for additional product earlier in the following fiscal year may be curtailed, thus negatively impacting the Company’s future revenues.

by **Evil_the_Nub** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:13 pm

Megatron Wolf wrote:Maybe the reason is because theres been nothing new out since november and the shelves have been empty since mid january, theres demand but no supply and thats why hasbro is losing money. Oh and dont forget the price gouging that alot of stores are doing $15 for a deluxe and $27 for a voyager is outragious, many people see those prices and just keep walking even if they see the figure they want. If hasbro actually did some leg work this wouldnt be happening, the fans would be happy cause theyd have the toys they want and hasbro would be happy cause they'd be rich little bastards instead of just bastards. Im going to start taking pictures off all the barren isles in teh store around me and send them to hasbro, its not just tf thats not there star wars and gijoe are all gone as well or almost all gone. That hasbros 3 flagship boys merchandise. It pisses me off cause all the figures that i really want are in these last couple of wave that im sure ill never see. Its all bayformers fault if you think about it, and hasbro for making stupid repaint that no one wants or the original is still on the shelves.

I think it's a combination of retailers ordering too much of the wrong stuff that nobody wants and Hasbro trying to wedge in a couple more waves at the last second. Hasbro should have known retailers are crammed with stuff nobody wants and won't order more. Both parties need to do more research.

by **amtm** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:47 pm

Yeah, I think Hasbro needs to stop front-loading their waves with unknown characters and repaints and putting really desirable characters and new molds in late waves that retailers never order. Better selection in early waves means faster sales, means retailers will be encouraged to order more of the late waves. They might also have to resign themselves to the fact that it seems retailers don't want to order anything new for about three to six months in front of a movie. Hopefully they'll just package the recently produced, unsold waves with the DOTM line and sell them with the first wave of movie toys. Retailers will be happy to stock up when there's a big movie at the theater next door.

by **Rated X** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:43 pm

Try stopping all these corparate stratagies and just listen to your buyers. If if you really consider kids your primary target, create a damn online survey for kids on your website instead of corny video games.

News Credits: 11 · by **Overcracker** » Thu Apr 14, 2011 10:56 pm

Retailers are happy when there's a Movie associated with a toy line. However like many have said, they are too happy early on and then forget about it.

I've seen this for the past few years in retailers around me. Walmart seems to be the biggest example of this.

They'll order tons of Wave 1 and 2 of movie figures, so much that it becomes unmoveable. And then nothing.
I saw it with the 2007 movie figures where Wave wave 1 bumblebee's and barricades just sat at the pegs moths after the movie. But I never saw anything resembling waves 3 or 4. After a while they order some cases of the last waves and then move on.

And its not just Transformers, The Iron-Man 1 and 2 lines suffered the same fate. Tons of the early waves, and then nothing.

My Walmart still has several pegs full of Iron-Man 2's 3 and 3/4 inch figures sitting around. Not to mention Terminator Salvation leftovers after all this time.

Right now My Walmart's have HFTD wave with Sea Attack Ravages, Side Arm Sideswipes and tons of some version of Mudflap clogging shelves, but no Generations or Reveal the Shield stuff has made its way out.

I don't expect to see anything from those lines with the Movie nearing release.

News Credits: 3 · by **bvzxa** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:02 am

Well I wouldn't blame this on the movie-line. Hasbro should have just left well enough alone and stop trying to cash in on ROTF> HFTD should have been released in ROTF, and that way they would have gotten out Generations early. If you ask me Generations was released very badly overall.

News Credits: 331 · by **chuckdawg1999** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:24 am

bvzxa wrote:Well I wouldn't blame this on the movie-line. Hasbro should have just left well enough alone and stop trying to cash in on ROTF> HFTD should have been released in ROTF, and that way they would have gotten out Generations early. If you ask me Generations was released very badly overall.

I think the problem with HFTD and RTS is that some of the figures (Jazz, Tracks, Terradive) felt like they should've been released in the Generations line. The reason we got HFTD is because retailers asked for an extension of the movie line since that sells hand over fist.

by **Megatronsdemise666** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 1:32 am

Megatron Wolf wrote:Maybe the reason is because theres been nothing new out since november and the shelves have been empty since mid january, theres demand but no supply and thats why hasbro is losing money. Oh and dont forget the price gouging that alot of stores are doing $15 for a deluxe and $27 for a voyager is outragious, many people see those prices and just keep walking even if they see the figure they want. If hasbro actually did some leg work this wouldnt be happening, the fans would be happy cause theyd have the toys they want and hasbro would be happy cause they'd be rich little bastards instead of just bastards. Im going to start taking pictures off all the barren isles in teh store around me and send them to hasbro, its not just tf thats not there star wars and gijoe are all gone as well or almost all gone. That hasbros 3 flagship boys merchandise. It pisses me off cause all the figures that i really want are in these last couple of wave that im sure ill never see. Its all bayformers fault if you think about it, and hasbro for making stupid repaint that no one wants or the original is still on the shelves.

im sorry but Micheal Bay actually helped the transformers series a lot more than any Generations or universe toy did. think about it most of you guys liked animated, but where was it compared to the movie? it really got cancelled for it here. it would be stupid of hasbro to just have Generations around. if you people think Generations is doing better then the movie verse then your wrong. where i live all i see is the same stuff, GENERATIONS. i had a trip to cali during march and all i saw over there were Generations. i will admit that hasbro does have to stop making repaints of the movie figures, its just that they are more in demand. the movie fans dont really care or just dont know about Generations. i think hasbro should advertise there toys before DOTM showing. now with the movie toys, yeah its the same general characters, mudflap, skids and believe it or not even prime. at a target i swear they had about 10 leader class battle hooks optimus primes, if anything you should blame hasbro or the stores. i went to a wal mart and i literally saw no transformers in stock and i even asked one of the employees and they said they had not gotten a shipment. i do believe buying Transformers online is better(especially if you want the takara verions)

News Credits: 3 · by **bvzxa** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 3:32 am

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Agree!!

I dislike the movie. But the hype of the first "real" live action movie boosted the sale of Transformers, heck it brought back the brand. The reason A/C/E did well was it had a show to support it. The Classics/Universe2.o/Generations have a continuation because of the movie.

It became apparent to me when my then manager a staunch G1 collector went out of his way to pick up the 2007 movie toys on the day of release --- this movie is it. Though I now despise Bumblebee as a Camaro, they just seem to sell.

I don't blame the movie for this at all.

I think down the line if they want proper sales then properly distribute each wave.

Every Walmart and Target have the same damn toys. Worse they really stretched the line too close to the movie release. Some people are just now spotting Generations waves with Blurr in them.

For what it is worth, the report of a loss was probably predicted long before this report came out. And they also know they will make their money back once DOTM and it's respective toy line comes out.

News Credits: 127 · by **Counterpunch** » Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:56 am

amtm wrote:An excerpt from Hasbro's annual report filed earlier this year. Maybe this will provide some insight. (Bolding added by me.)

Revenues from the Company’s top five customers, all retailers, accounted for approximately 50% of its consolidated net revenues in 2010 and 54% and 52% of its consolidated net revenues in 2009 and 2008, respectively. In recent years certain customers in the retail sector have experienced economic difficulty. ...

The Company’s revenue pattern continues to show the second half of the year to be more significant to its overall business for the full year. In 2010, approximately 65% of the Company’s full year net revenues were recognized in the second half of the year. Although the Company expects that this concentration will continue, particularly as more of its business has shifted to larger customers with order patterns concentrated in the second half of the year, this concentration may be less in years where the Company has products related to a major motion picture release that occurs in the first half of the year. In 2010, the Company had products related to the mid-year major motion picture release of IRON MAN 2, while in 2009 the Company had products related to the mid-year major motion picture releases of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA and X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. The concentration of sales in the second half of the year increases the risk of (a) underproduction of popular items, (b) overproduction of less popular items, and (c) failure to achieve tight and compressed shipping schedules. The business of the Company is characterized by customer order patterns which vary from year to year largely because of differences in the degree of consumer acceptance of a product line, product availability, marketing strategies, inventory levels, policies of retailers and differences in overall economic conditions. The trend of larger retailers has been to maintain lower inventories throughout the year and purchase a greater percentage of product within or close to the fourth quarter holiday consumer selling season, which includes Christmas.

Quick response inventory management practices being used by retailers result in more orders being placed for immediate delivery and fewer orders being placed well in advance of shipment. Retailers are timing their orders so that they are being filled by suppliers closer to the time of purchase by consumers. To the extent that retailers do not sell as much of their year-end inventory purchases during this holiday selling season as they had anticipated, their demand for additional product earlier in the following fiscal year may be curtailed, thus negatively impacting the Company’s future revenues.