Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016

Monday, July 6th, 2015 5:26am CDT

Categories: Event News, Company News
Posted by: Va'al Views: 24,421

Topic Options: View Discussion · Sign in or Join to reply

From ToyWorldMag, we receive news of a development concerning the UK branch of Hasbro, and its participation in the UK Toy Fair in 2016. It appears that the company would rather favour the German fair in Nuremberg over the London event, due to the latter being shifted to a date too close to the former.

While the news is a little surprising for a fairly big company, UK Toy Fair has not always brought gigantic amounts of news in terms of new products in the Transformers department - except for Age of Extinction licensed material - and Nuremberg was the first sighting of Titan Devastator. Nonetheless, we're interested in your thoughts, over in the Energon Pub!

Toy World has learnt that Hasbro will not be exhibiting at Toy Fair in 2016 because of the proximity of dates of Toy Fair and the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 2016.

A spokesperson from Hasbro UK told Toy World: “Hasbro will not be exhibiting at the next London Toy Fair due to the complexity of the global toy show calendar in 2016. As part of a global organisation we have had to make this tough choice to ensure we utilise our people and resources as efficiently as possible. We nevertheless continue to maximise support for Hasbro’s sales in the UK and remain committed to the toy industry. This is wholeheartedly demonstrated by our attendance at many of the other UK shows and events, our extensive showroom at our Stockley Park offices and our passionate involvement in the Industry’s charitable ventures. We would like to wish London Toy Fair 2016 every success.”

Majen Immink, head of Toy Fair operations and sales commented: “We are sorry not to be welcoming Hasbro back to Toy Fair in 2016. Every year we do expect to see changes in the floor plan as some exhibitors won’t be able to return for varying reasons. We fully appreciate that the date change in 2016 will have impacted on some of our exhibitors more than others. We are nevertheless encouraged by the response by exhibitors and the number of returnees to the show. We have worked hard to mitigate the issues created by the change in the schedule but we do understand that we will not have solved the issues for every company. We, of course, look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2016 and beyond.”

Credit(s): ToyWorldMag

Got Transformers News? Let us know here!

Most Recent Transformers News

Russian Fans will be able to watch Rise of the Beasts in Russian Despite Sanctions

Posted 21 hours ago

Peter Cullen talks of the Integrity and Courage Found in Rise of the Beasts and Sends us his Love

Posted 22 hours ago

ThreeZero Rise of the Beasts Bumblebee First Look

Posted 23 hours ago

Hasbro Adds Pride Merchandise Featuring Transformers and More - Proceeds Benefit LGBTQ+ Youth

Posted 23 hours ago

New Jurassic Park Transformers Crossover Set Revealed Based on Dilophosaurus and Nedry

Posted 1 day ago

Click here to post your comment about this news story!

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1706562)
Posted by Oddimus Prime on July 6th, 2015 @ 6:11am CDT

Dang it!

I was going to go this year but couldn't for various reasons so I was looking forward to going next year... ho hum.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1712455)
Posted by RAR on July 23rd, 2015 @ 1:17pm CDT

If Hasbro was feeling sneeky they could give a bunch of packaged Samples to their wholesalers and let them display them instead.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1717676)
Posted by LegendaryAntiHero on August 12th, 2015 @ 6:22pm CDT

Well, that's a darn shame. I hope they still sell exclusives at Comic Con next year

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1759048)
Posted by Stuartmaximus on January 24th, 2016 @ 11:04am CST

This is where just that extra bit of explanation on the part of Hasbro would have stopped a million internet rumours. If they'd said from the start 'the dates clash and we can't be in two places at once' no one would have even questioned it.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1759154)
Posted by Stuartmaximus on January 24th, 2016 @ 7:45pm CST

any toyfair photos yet?

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1759161)
Posted by RAR on January 24th, 2016 @ 8:43pm CST

Sounds like another example of Budget cuts imposed from on high to me.
Perhaps the other fairs will be bulked up with Hasbro Products to compensate.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1759232)
Posted by Va'al on January 25th, 2016 @ 5:18am CST

Stuartmaximus wrote:any toyfair photos yet?

No. There is no Hasbro, there are no Transformers. There may be licensed material, but Va'al had to work all weekend.

We will be covering New York Toy Fair, of course, next month though!
(And I am waiting to hear back about Nuremberg.)

RAR wrote:Sounds like another example of Budget cuts imposed from on high to me.
Perhaps the other fairs will be bulked up with Hasbro Products to compensate.

I'm not entirely sure I follow what you're saying here, care to elaborate?

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1760415)
Posted by LegendaryAntiHero on January 28th, 2016 @ 4:37pm CST

I look forward to your coverage. I'm eager to see what the next Comic Con exclusives are

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1762427)
Posted by Stuartmaximus on February 3rd, 2016 @ 6:46am CST

Va'al wrote: but Va'al had to work all weekend.

why are you speaking about yourself in the 3rd person like that? wouldn't it have just been easier to say that I(meaning YOU) had to work all weekend.

unless there's another Va'al that we don't know about

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1804139)
Posted by Va'al on July 9th, 2016 @ 2:07am CDT

Via the Toy News Magazine, we have a brief look into some market-speak from Hasbro UK & Ireland, concerning their future plans for that corner of the toy market. As expected, not much is really said at all by David Henderson, the recently appointed Country manager, but he does comment on the difference between US and UK markets, and vaguely talks about future plans; you can find extracts from the full interview - found here - below.

Reminder: Hasbro UK has already announced that it will not be participating in the London/UK Toy Fair.

Where are the areas of improvement for Hasbro in the UK and Ireland and how are you looking to tackle these?

The team has done a phenomenal job in all areas. The key for our team is to be relentlessly focused on driving our business, understanding our consumer and connecting with them across all possible touch points.

Simply put, we must not be satisfied with our current momentum and always be seeking out new opportunities to connect with our consumer.

[...]

Having moved to the UK from the US, what do you view as the key differences for Hasbro between both markets?

Simply put, there are many differences and many similarities, but that is only on the surface. I want to immerse myself in the culture, learn from my team, our retailer partners and the consumers.

I was born and raised in Canada and have lived in the USA for the past nine years. I have been fortunate to travel to and work in many countries and know that many differences exist, but the common bonds are also very strong. I can’t wait to learn more about these great countries and their people.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1804140)
Posted by King Kuuga on July 9th, 2016 @ 2:24am CDT

"What are areas of improvement?"
"We must not be satisfied!"

"What do you view as the key differences?"
"I've lived in Canada, America, and the UK."

he'd make a great politician.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1804163)
Posted by Prowl4 on July 9th, 2016 @ 7:30am CDT

David Henderson would want to get his finger out and start giving us waves past one and two!

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1804672)
Posted by Evil Eye on July 11th, 2016 @ 3:54pm CDT

David Henderson eh? So that's the guy to blame for the atrocious distribution in this country.

(Lights torch)

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1814946)
Posted by Va'al on August 13th, 2016 @ 1:36pm CDT

With the new Hasbro UK and Ireland appointment, as we reported a while back, it looks as though at least the brand Licensing & Publishing departments will attend the 2016 Brand Licensing Europe expo in London, if not the UK Toy Fair. The news comes from the event's site, here, which lists the following under Hasbro's exhibitor page:

About Hasbro Brand Licensing & Publishing
Hasbro is committed to leveraging its beloved brands, including TRANSFORMERS, MY LITTLE PONY, MONOPOLY, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAY-DOH, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and our newest franchise HANAZUKI to Create the World’s Best Play Experiences. At Brand License Europe 2016, Hasbro will continue to bring our stories to life across multiple mediums including entertainment, publishing and branded experiences. Hasbro will also showcase a successful range of High End Fashion from industry taste-makers, as well as a broad range of consumer products including Toys & Games, Back to School and Apparel & Accessories at this year’s show.
Product Categories (8)

Character & Entertainment > Character & Animation
Character & Entertainment > Digital Content/Gaming
Character & Entertainment > Film
Character & Entertainment > Music
Character & Entertainment > Performance
Character & Entertainment > Theme Park
Character & Entertainment > Toys & Games
Character & Entertainment > TV/Broadcast

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1814957)
Posted by RAR on August 13th, 2016 @ 1:47pm CDT

Prowl4 wrote:David Henderson would want to get his finger out and start giving us waves past one and two!

They'd be better off waiting a bit longer to release things in the UK and then co-shipping wave 1 and 2 at the same time. then the wave 1 glut will not result in as much shelf hugging issues of over produced characters.

--------

I wonder if it was Hasbro in part wanting the last Knight robot mode images released so early as they wanted to show them to Licence holders to put on T-shirts etc..

As it seem likely that Transformers 5 is going to have a harder time making it's money especially in the US so they really need to not sleep walk through the merchandising like they did with Dark of the Moon to some extent and even more so with Age of Extinction.

They made a bit of a pigs ear out of selling the Dinobots to people for example.

I hope Hasbro has enough sense to not be signing any TRU exclusivity deals again.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1815115)
Posted by Shinkyuseishu on August 14th, 2016 @ 4:21am CDT

Once again we'll get close to nothing in France, especially in interesting Transformers toys line...

All true fans have to order overseas, thank you Hasbro!

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1815117)
Posted by Stuartmaximus on August 14th, 2016 @ 4:31am CDT

Dr Va'al wrote:With the new Hasbro UK and Ireland appointment, as we reported a while back, it looks as though at least the brand Licensing & Publishing departments will attend the 2016 Brand Licensing Europe expo in London, if not the UK Toy Fair. The news comes from the event's site, here, which lists the following under Hasbro's exhibitor page:

About Hasbro Brand Licensing & Publishing
Hasbro is committed to leveraging its beloved brands, including TRANSFORMERS, MY LITTLE PONY, MONOPOLY, LITTLEST PET SHOP, NERF, PLAY-DOH, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and our newest franchise HANAZUKI to Create the World’s Best Play Experiences. At Brand License Europe 2016, Hasbro will continue to bring our stories to life across multiple mediums including entertainment, publishing and branded experiences. Hasbro will also showcase a successful range of High End Fashion from industry taste-makers, as well as a broad range of consumer products including Toys & Games, Back to School and Apparel & Accessories at this year’s show.
Product Categories (8)

Character & Entertainment > Character & Animation
Character & Entertainment > Digital Content/Gaming
Character & Entertainment > Film
Character & Entertainment > Music
Character & Entertainment > Performance
Character & Entertainment > Theme Park
Character & Entertainment > Toys & Games
Character & Entertainment > TV/Broadcast

We can but hope that they'll drop more images of TRypticon! as well as other figs....Broadside maybe?

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1853647)
Posted by Va'al on January 22nd, 2017 @ 4:10am CST

Though Hasbro is not participating, as we knew, at Toy Fair UK 2017, there is a new article about the company and its franchises in the latest issue of Licensing Magazine (which you can view in full here). What we find inside are a number of licensed products for My Little Pony, Nerf and obviously Transformers for the upcoming year, from schoolwear to stationery, to easter eggs and books - but of particular interest is a new Panini-released bi-monthly comic featuring a new scenario not far from what we've heard about the next season of Robots in Disguise. Some speculation, however, might point towards a The Last Knight setting too, given that we are in a movie year again, and it would be odd not to have that publicity tie-in. So, some potential spoilers in the article below, and a short transcript beneath it!

The robots return to newsstands with stories that are set after the war between Autobots and Decepticon. The giant robots have left the earth and have returned to Cybertron, where they must reconstruct society that had been divided by thousands of years of conflict... from June 2017, the magazine will be available every two months in comic book stores and bookshops.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1853651)
Posted by Carnivius_Prime on January 22nd, 2017 @ 4:46am CST

Every two months? Man, I miss getting a Marvel Transformers comic EVERY SATURDAY MORNING! Will lkely buy it if's Last Knight. I enjoyed most of the movieverse strips in the Titan Publishing magazine over the years.

Re: Hasbro Withdraws from UK Toy Fair 2016 (1853710)
Posted by Prime Nova on January 22nd, 2017 @ 1:22pm CST

The news yesterday reported this was a new Panini comic following the ones they have been producing since 2007 based on the Movies. But Panini UK don't make any movie comics - that was made by Titan UK. Panini gave up with Armada #9 which they never stated at all that it was cancelled anywhere.

Click here to view additional comments about this topic at the Energon Pub Forums ...