The Energon Pub

Convening for the 44th Annual J. P. Morgan Conference was the Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner, who gave a nice speech about how well Hasbro is doing as well as some Highlights of their future plans. We have quoted some of the general Transformers points below.

You can listen to the recording in full HERE

Brian Goldner wrote:Nerf is currently the number 1 revenue maker, with Transformers being in second behind it.

Hasbro has started making a new cinematic universe, where the micronauts among others shall be brought to the big screen, and many new Brand names will be brought out. The universe shall begin around 2018/2019.

Hasbro-owned Mobile Game Developer Backflip Studios shall be cranking out some new games such as Earth Wars, which is also part of a new 360 Degrees Ways to Play which integrates toys and games, among other things. Games will also be less violence-related and more adventurous.

Frustration-Free Packaging is being researched for for online retailers.

The Fan community is now noted to be a major contributing factor to the toyline, as now over 20% of products are purchased by people over 16 years of age.

Transformers: The Last Knight will continue the storyline of Age of Extinction, while the Bumblebee movie is set to focus on Bee and most likely will be a standalone.

I remember when we fans were just 7 or 8%. Considering we're now 20% of a most-likely larger fan-base from when that original number was stated, I'd say that's a significant increase.

Mkall wrote:I remember when we fans were just 7 or 8%. Considering we're now 20% of a most-likely larger fan-base from when that original number was stated, I'd say that's a significant increase.

It is pretty surprising, but I suppose it also makes sense considering how a lot of newer toys seem to be pandering towards older fans quite a bit more - especially with the IDW-inspired stuff.
Then again, it could also mean different things. Could just mean that there's less kids getting Transformers toys which automatically pushes the fan percentage up; could also mean that rather than there being a lot more older consumerrs, instead a lot of older consumers suddenly got a lot more toys than before - Combiner Wars being a rather obvious culprit in this scenario; older consumers would be more lured by that incentive than younger consumers.
Consumers consumers consumers.

Mkall wrote:I remember when we fans were just 7 or 8%. Considering we're now 20% of a most-likely larger fan-base from when that original number was stated, I'd say that's a significant increase.

Don't you mean kids are dropping interest which means a decrease?

Kurona wrote:

Mkall wrote:I remember when we fans were just 7 or 8%. Considering we're now 20% of a most-likely larger fan-base from when that original number was stated, I'd say that's a significant increase.

It is pretty surprising, but I suppose it also makes sense considering how a lot of newer toys seem to be pandering towards older fans quite a bit more - especially with the IDW-inspired stuff.
Then again, it could also mean different things. Could just mean that there's less kids getting Transformers toys which automatically pushes the fan percentage up; could also mean that rather than there being a lot more older consumerrs, instead a lot of older consumers suddenly got a lot more toys than before - Combiner Wars being a rather obvious culprit in this scenario; older consumers would be more lured by that incentive than younger consumers.
Consumers consumers consumers.

I would be very interested to see the numbers for Combiner Wars, considering it's been stated else where that the executives didn't expect it to make money without heavy mold reuse. If it was a resounding success in a non-movie year, that would be a nice middle finger to the decision makers at Hasbro and a great pat on the back to the design/development team that pushed for it.

I'm also shocked that only 20% of TFs are bought by people over 16. Apparently, kids have a lot more spending money these days if 80% of TFs are bought by people 16 and under. I'm assuming that was supposed to read as 'bought for', not 'bought by'.

Deadput wrote:

Mkall wrote:I remember when we fans were just 7 or 8%. Considering we're now 20% of a most-likely larger fan-base from when that original number was stated, I'd say that's a significant increase.

Don't you mean kids are dropping interest which means a decrease?

No I don't. All we know is that we are now 20% of a fanbase, which is up from about 7-8% of what it was back when I first heard that number in (I think) 2008.

In 2008 TF: Animated had just come on, after a cartoon hiatus since TF: Cybertron Ended, and The first live action movie had just announced earth-shattering earnings (I think, I can't be bothered to dig up numbers). I suspect that TF Fans at the time were the hardcore ones who had mostly stuck around, the rest of the numbers were kids gobbling up the newly-released media. The fandom was in its rebirth. We were %8 of a smallish fanbase. For thinking sake; I'm imagining 8% of 100, which would be - of course - 8 fans and 92 kids.

It's been almost 10 years since the movie kicked life back into the TF Fandom. Since then there's been 4 movies in total, and a 5th on the way. There have been 4 cartoon series, 2 of which are still on the air and running at the same time. There are also games and comics, and a great deal of merchandise obviously aimed at the 6-and-under market. There is a much larger kid base out there now than there was previous. Those kids in 2008 are now most likely over the age of 16. Many have dropped out, but some continue. All of this leads to a a much larger fan base out there now of which we 'fans' are this 20%.

Remember how I gave the base number of 100 in 2008? Now for the sake of argument I'm picturing the base number to be 1000.

%8 of 100 = 8 fans and 92 kids
%20 of 1,000 = 200 fans and 800 kids.

That's the funny thing about statistics. Only having one number is useless without the rest of the picture

So did he mention anything about the overpricing, terrible distribution or the low quality problems or just how great they are at ripping consumers off?

Megatron Wolf wrote:So did he mention anything about the overpricing, terrible distribution or the low quality problems or just how great they are at ripping consumers off?

Why would they talk about the ridiculously high standards the fandom expects out of them?


Their toys and they are a business they are going to do this always.

Megatron Wolf wrote:So did he mention anything about the overpricing, terrible distribution or the low quality problems or just how great they are at ripping consumers off?

Half of those seem more like the store problems rather than Hasbro themselves...

Kurona wrote:

Megatron Wolf wrote:So did he mention anything about the overpricing, terrible distribution or the low quality problems or just how great they are at ripping consumers off?

Half of those seem more like the store problems rather than Hasbro themselves...

Yes that part is their fault not Hasbro's.



i always wondered why things were expensive like that wouldn't more people buy their products if it was cheaper and make a lot more money that way?

I think part of it is a decrease in children playing with actual toys as opposed to electronics.

I also think it is the fact that they are making better stuff now than they did in the past. Back then we would have a nerdgasm just to see a core character like Ironhide come out. Now it seems like little is off-limits, which also explains why 3rd party stuff has gone down in both popularity and value the last 2 years or so.

20% ? That is a very positive development. means more suckers fans to buy Hb's products.

Especially the many man children who keep on buying the high end expensive products. I hope the trend keeps on growing.

Kids don't have control over the purse strings. I wonder how much % of the 20% are females? Are there more female collectors now?

fenrir72 wrote:Kids don't have control over the purse strings. I wonder how much % of the 20% are females? Are there more female collectors now?

Who cares if thier female?


A collector is a collector.

make the bumblebee movie like the deadpool movie and it will be great

Hasbro are a business, and the goal of most businesses is to minimise costs and maximise profits. A lot of their actions shouldn't come as a surprise really, especially if they still get sales.

As for general kids playing with toys, it's true, ever since their advent and especially since the psone/ps2 era, games consoles have been more popular. Adding smartphones and tablets onto that and you can see why traditional toys are in troubles of sorts.

Deadput wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Kids don't have control over the purse strings. I wonder how much % of the 20% are females? Are there more female collectors now?

Who cares if thier female?


A collector is a collector.

Well no, it is an interesting question. Hasbro have been appealing to females a lot more recently with the likes of Victorion, Windblade, her comic bringing back a ton of other female characters like Chromia and Elita-1; while also having originals like Nautica - plus the presence of Strongarm on RiD and Quickshadow on Rescue Bots. Transformers is far more inclusive of female fans than it has ever been, so it would be interesting to see how much female collectors have increased as well.
I-I'm one of them btw hi

Brian Goldner wrote:Nerf is currently the number 1 revenue maker, with Transformers being in second behind it.

Interesting, I'd expected Star Wars to be the big one after the new movie came out. Maybe the increased prevalence of (often superior) imported toys swept Hasbro's feet from under them?

Hasbro has started making a new cinematic universe, where the micronauts among others shall be brought to the big screen, and many new Brand names will be brought out. The universe shall begin around 2018/2019.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Hasbro-owned Mobile Game Developer Backflip Studios shall be cranking out some new games such as Earth Wars, which is also part of a new 360 Degrees Ways to Play which integrates toys and games, among other things. Games will also be less violence-related and more adventurous.

Merchandise-based microtransactions? "Less violence"? Oh boy.

Frustration-Free Packaging is being researched for for online retailers.

Yeah. Hasbro. Maybe before you focus on the packaging it might be an idea to focus on making toys that don't suck?

The Fan community is now noted to be a major contributing factor to the toyline, as now over 20% of products are purchased by people over 16 years of age.

...And yet Hasbro continues to simplify and dumb down their supposed "collectors" products.

Transformers: The Last Knight will continue the storyline of Age of Extinction, while the Bumblebee movie is set to focus on Bee and most likely will be a standalone.

I'm looking forward to The Last Knight, but do we really need a Bumblebee movie? And a bloody Hasbro Cinematic Universe?

Ugh.

Deadput wrote:Who cares if thier female?

Well, considering some tales from past Botcons, I'd say they do, and now Hasbro does...