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Cobotron wrote:Hey! You seemed to have attracted a wild Megatronus. They're hard to find, but boy are they fun when you catch one!
kurthy wrote:Do you think Haslabs are also market research that they can show Walmart, Amazon, and Target when they're approached about exclusives and what not as well as the regular line? Especially since we've lost two major retailers since Combiner Wars came out, they're probably working more closely with the big 3 when making decisions.
Cobotron wrote:Hey! You seemed to have attracted a wild Megatronus. They're hard to find, but boy are they fun when you catch one!
megatronus wrote:I don't think HasLab will ever be *relevant* market research for the big retailers, because one of the main thrusts of HasLab is to pursue big projects that would be too risky for retailers to stock their shelves with.
The prepaid, made-to-order aspects of a HasLab are designed to combat the tendency of big ticket items to clearance out at retailers. Whatever the success of a HasLab, the model simply isn't compatible with the way big box companies do business.
kurthy wrote:megatronus wrote:I don't think HasLab will ever be *relevant* market research for the big retailers, because one of the main thrusts of HasLab is to pursue big projects that would be too risky for retailers to stock their shelves with.
The prepaid, made-to-order aspects of a HasLab are designed to combat the tendency of big ticket items to clearance out at retailers. Whatever the success of a HasLab, the model simply isn't compatible with the way big box companies do business.
I don't mean as far as the price point, but for character selection in lines. To be able to say we shipped 27k of this character from a Japanese continuity and this is why we're including this other Japanese character in this line. Or why we're including more decepticons in this line rather than just a few.
Cobotron wrote:Hey! You seemed to have attracted a wild Megatronus. They're hard to find, but boy are they fun when you catch one!
megatronus wrote:kurthy wrote:megatronus wrote:I don't think HasLab will ever be *relevant* market research for the big retailers, because one of the main thrusts of HasLab is to pursue big projects that would be too risky for retailers to stock their shelves with.
The prepaid, made-to-order aspects of a HasLab are designed to combat the tendency of big ticket items to clearance out at retailers. Whatever the success of a HasLab, the model simply isn't compatible with the way big box companies do business.
I don't mean as far as the price point, but for character selection in lines. To be able to say we shipped 27k of this character from a Japanese continuity and this is why we're including this other Japanese character in this line. Or why we're including more decepticons in this line rather than just a few.
I see what you're saying - I don't think that comes into play when you talk to retailers. The way buyers at these companies asses product lines, it's much less about individual characters in the mainline, and more what exclusive sub-lines Hasbro can offer to draw people into the store. Keep in mind, these toy buyers are not Transformers experts. I can almost guarantee that no buyer challenged the Hasbro seller about the inclusion of Leo Convoy in the Legacy: Evolution lineup. Walmart was much more interested in what the Velocitron subline would include, or whether they should continue with their Beast Wars reissue exclusives based on their performance the last 12 months.
kurthy wrote:megatronus wrote:kurthy wrote:megatronus wrote:I don't think HasLab will ever be *relevant* market research for the big retailers, because one of the main thrusts of HasLab is to pursue big projects that would be too risky for retailers to stock their shelves with.
The prepaid, made-to-order aspects of a HasLab are designed to combat the tendency of big ticket items to clearance out at retailers. Whatever the success of a HasLab, the model simply isn't compatible with the way big box companies do business.
I don't mean as far as the price point, but for character selection in lines. To be able to say we shipped 27k of this character from a Japanese continuity and this is why we're including this other Japanese character in this line. Or why we're including more decepticons in this line rather than just a few.
I see what you're saying - I don't think that comes into play when you talk to retailers. The way buyers at these companies asses product lines, it's much less about individual characters in the mainline, and more what exclusive sub-lines Hasbro can offer to draw people into the store. Keep in mind, these toy buyers are not Transformers experts. I can almost guarantee that no buyer challenged the Hasbro seller about the inclusion of Leo Convoy in the Legacy: Evolution lineup. Walmart was much more interested in what the Velocitron subline would include, or whether they should continue with their Beast Wars reissue exclusives based on their performance the last 12 months.
Thanks, interesting. So who decides case counts because of the scuttlebutt around Cosmos was that Walmart decided to shortpack him, not Hasbro and that the TF team didn't even know? Is that correct, or did I misunderstand something?
He said "asses" product linesmegatronus wrote:The way buyers at these companies asses product lines, it's much less about individual characters in the mainline, and more what exclusive sub-lines Hasbro can offer to draw people into the store.
megatronus wrote:kurthy wrote:megatronus wrote:I don't think HasLab will ever be *relevant* market research for the big retailers, because one of the main thrusts of HasLab is to pursue big projects that would be too risky for retailers to stock their shelves with.
The prepaid, made-to-order aspects of a HasLab are designed to combat the tendency of big ticket items to clearance out at retailers. Whatever the success of a HasLab, the model simply isn't compatible with the way big box companies do business.
I don't mean as far as the price point, but for character selection in lines. To be able to say we shipped 27k of this character from a Japanese continuity and this is why we're including this other Japanese character in this line. Or why we're including more decepticons in this line rather than just a few.
I see what you're saying - I don't think that comes into play when you talk to retailers. The way buyers at these companies asses product lines, it's much less about individual characters in the mainline, and more what exclusive sub-lines Hasbro can offer to draw people into the store. Keep in mind, these toy buyers are not Transformers experts. I can almost guarantee that no buyer challenged the Hasbro seller about the inclusion of Leo Convoy in the Legacy: Evolution lineup. Walmart was much more interested in what the Velocitron subline would include, or whether they should continue with their Beast Wars reissue exclusives based on their performance the last 12 months.
The dangerous thing here is that's the totally wrong lesson to learn from Jhiaxus' success, in my opinion. He's iconic for that era (at least for those of us around back then) and never had a proper toy, but is probably about as deep as things need to go for the G2 comic in the main line. I think what Jhiaxus shows is that even 1) only somewhat recognizable characters for the fanbase at-large with 2) significant roles in fiction that 3) never had toys representing that appearance well are ripe for success in the current market environment.Emerje wrote:Likewise back at Pulse Con when they were announcing the winners for the Transformers fan vote it was pointed out that Motormaster beat Jhiaxus by less than 150 votes, which caused Evan from the marketing team to visibly recoil and say "yeah, G2 comic book lore stuff. Yeah, OK, interesting, we'll have to do some more."
ScottyP wrote:The dangerous thing here is that's the totally wrong lesson to learn from Jhiaxus' success, in my opinion. He's iconic for that era (at least for those of us around back then) and never had a proper toy, but is probably about as deep as things need to go for the G2 comic in the main line. I think what Jhiaxus shows is that even 1) only somewhat recognizable characters for the fanbase at-large with 2) significant roles in fiction that 3) never had toys representing that appearance well are ripe for success in the current market environment.
Jhiaxus is, for me, the counterpoint to the sometimes unnecessary repaints based on repaints that never were/were only once/etc (thinking of stuff like Nightprowler here.) A toy deco that never was or barely was without any actual character behind it is generally kinda bleh, assuming it's not on the originally intended toy. A character that existed without a toy behind it? That's money.
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