The Energon Pub

News Credits: 349 · by **Bed Bugs** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:39 pm

Toy factories in Pearl River Delta of Guangdong are feeling the pinch felt across the globe as spending by consumers declines. Many factories have shut down and unemployment is rising in the area. How does that affect us? Well, Transformers come from factories in that area.

Experts also believe more factories will be shutting down in the near future, thereby raising the price on toys. With fewer producers of toys in China, American companies will have to compete to keep the remaining Chinese factories producing their products.

The article goes on to talk about how companies have been cutting corners to satisfy the demand without raising the prices, which explains some of the shoddy paint work and quality issues regarding newer releases. Click here read the full article.

News Credits: 10 · by **Lapse Of Reason** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:50 pm

When you think about it, $10 or so for a deluxe Transformer is cheap when you consider everything that goes into the figure from its inception to the store shelf. R&D, patents, cost of materials, labor, manufacturing, advertising, shipping, packaging, repairing global impacts from the whole process of consumerism, and profits all along the way. We are so used to inexpensive toys in the USA but good things never last forever.

Watch this to see what I am trying to say:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

by **Soldier of Shockwave** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:55 pm

This makes me very nervous. I wonder how this will affect the December area releases? also, price jacking = :sad:

News Credits: 349 · by **Bed Bugs** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:09 pm

According to the article, Christmas shouldn't be affected too badly, but post-Christmas could get ugly.

News Credits: 1014 · by **First Gen** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:14 pm

Price increases are inevitable. Theres nothing you can do to stop it.

So we pay 11.99 USD instead of 9.99 USD. Still way cheaper than our overseas bretheren are currently paying.

by **diosoth** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:38 pm

As worldwide oil reserves shrink, any novelty industry that relies on plastic will be the first thing to go, unless non-oil plastic alternatives are used more widely.

And it's starting to sound as if overseas factories simply CAN'T afford to operate at what US companies wish to pay.

News Credits: 409 · by **Stormrider** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:36 am

I wonder if this article is also taking into consideration that several toy factories are moving out of China.

News Credits: 6 · by **City Commander** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:19 am

Thankyou for making it clear First Gen. If prices get jacked up here again, I'll be quitting.

£13 (~$25) is a ridiculous price for deluxe figures.

I thought tfs were made in Vietnamese factories anyway?

News Credits: 8 · by **Electron** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:57 am

(in the voice of the gay guy in family guy) "ooooooh noooooo!!!"

joking aside oooooooohhhhh noooooooo!!!

News Credits: 12 · by **GuyIncognito** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:30 am

I wasn't worried about the global state of the economy until now. Once my supply of Transformers becomes threatened, things are getting serious. Our nation must act now to ensure that the flow of Transformers is not interrupted.

by **Valandar** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:32 am

[DuneParody] The bots must FLOOOOWWWW! [/DuneParody]

News Credits: 1 · by **rpetras** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:42 pm

As long as we don't see a 50% rise right away like Marvel legends did, it shouldn't be too bad for the consumer.

by **Cliff Jumper** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:05 pm

Here's an extraordinarily insane idea for Hasbro.. move your factories to the USA!!!!!!! I really wish they would.

News Credits: 1014 · by **First Gen** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:45 pm

Cliff Jumper wrote:Here's an extraordinarily insane idea for Hasbro.. move your factories to the USA!!!!!!! I really wish they would.

Then we'd be paying around $25.00 USD for a deluxe figure. Yeah, its crappy that jobs are outsourced, but really, we Americans ask for it with wanting the cheaper price.

News Credits: 1 · by **Bumblebeast** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:09 pm

As oil prices increase, we will see new forms of plastic appearing. It's a matter of time before we have hemp transformers (that you could smoke) or soy transformers (that would be good for your heart). In any case, they would be tastier than polivinyl chlorides.

News Credits: 8 · by **Megatron Wolf** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:19 pm

Great another price hike. Its bad enough that stores on there own will just raise the price when they feel like (TRU) but now if this keeps up it wont matter. This is going to hurt every one. Price goes up people cant buy as much due to this the toy makers lose money and then due to this, theres not enough money in the company and people get fired. Thus screwing over every one. And i never thought id here a factory was shut down in china let alone this many.

News Credits: 9 · by **Zeds** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:04 pm

Speaks volumes about the problem about putting all your eggs in one basket. The world counts so much on China. She is truly the manufacturing plant of the planet. Time to spread the production around a bit. I had seen an old thread that Tomy was shifting production to Vietnam and other countries given the lead paint issues a few months ago. If this happened then maybe Hasbro could re-direct production there.

by **diosoth** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:18 pm

China is going broke. Wonderful...

Count on factories moving, yes, but don't count on quality or safety concerns holding up. The US consumer won't pay double for such things.

News Credits: 409 · by **Stormrider** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:14 am

Zeds wrote:Speaks volumes about the problem about putting all your eggs in one basket. The world counts so much on China. She is truly the manufacturing plant of the planet. Time to spread the production around a bit. I had seen an old thread that Tomy was shifting production to Vietnam and other countries given the lead paint issues a few months ago. If this happened then maybe Hasbro could re-direct production there.

Yup, TakaraTomy is moving its factories to either Vietnam or Thailand. I think it is a good move. The labor in both of the countries is very skilled and has been undervalued since the 1990 dot bubble burst.