Hasbro layoffs

nacho

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I'm not sure if this is good, meaning that they aren't going to be bloated with unnecessary personnel and corporate red tape, or if it only further reduces the odds of products actually making it to store shelves.

I'm all for companies getting lean-n-mean because the larger they get, the less efficient they get. But it's tough to know if the positions that they eliminated were the "human resources sensitivity training video dept" or the "coordinating getting shit from china to stores" dept.

http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=278&itemid=18393
 
fogger1138

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Maybe they'll have let go the "female figures don't sell"/"we need Duke/Snake Eyes/CC in every wave"/"everyone likes oversized spring-loaded launchers" executives.
 
K-Tiger

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I've heard that the lead designer on the MU line was one of those cut.


Not really his fault they're flooding the market with comic figures.
 
NSA

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I think the MU line and Movie based lines are ridiculousness in action.. everyone says they need to stop releasing 10 versions of the 2 main characters but they keep doing it.

The Captain America line had, what? Like 2 or 3 villain characters and 47 versions of Captain America? How many do kids need/want. Why not some WWII grunt figures to go along with the Cap?
 
K-Tiger

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Someone on Joe Customs had the great idea that movie lines should be confined to a wave or two under the main MU line.


I agree. It's ridiculous to see Thors and IMs from THREE different lines on the peg at the same time. Ridiculous.
 
NSA

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Yeah that'd make a lot more sense, though I'm sure some marketing exec would complain about branding issues etc,

I so wish I had #'s on what figures sold across the country and what didn't.

Seems like there is STILL IM2 figures everywhere.
 
K-Tiger

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Marvel movie lines make me want to choke a bitch.

 
Midget

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K-Tiger said:
I've heard that the lead designer on the MU line was one of those cut.


Not really his fault they're flooding the market with comic figures.
Click to expand...

Well that sucks. The MU line was improving, in my opinion. Still too many Wolverines, IM and Spideys... but it was getting better.
 
K-Tiger

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I think he means across the line, not just vehicle drivers. ;)
 
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K-Tiger said:
Someone on Joe Customs had the great idea that movie lines should be confined to a wave or two under the main MU line.


I agree. It's ridiculous to see Thors and IMs from THREE different lines on the peg at the same time. Ridiculous.
Click to expand...

That was mentioned to Hasbro several times in various Q&As. I think that they believe that having strong movie lines means stronger sales for everything... the issue is not Hasbro, but WM and the other retailors and the distribution centers. the stores order LARGE quantity of wave 1 of each line hoping on hope that they will be able to sell lots of these to children (and adults) during all the HYPE leading up to the movie. The issue comes when the case assortment is repetative (12 figures and 6-9 of them are no more than 3 figures repeated and the remaining figures are no more than 4 other figures and EVERYONE collecting the line wants those figures). that means that 6 figures are now clogging the pegs and they do not bring more to the stores until they sell (thus leaving back logs of the future waves sittin in distribution centers until they are sold to Ross or such). Truly Hasbro (and the retailors need to look at the distribution of action figures more closely and come to an agreement that helps keep costs down (reuse of molds), aids in distribution and keeps the store pegs restocked with fresh items. I really would love to sit down with someone that has brains & common sense in a position of authority(but those traits tend to not lead to authority positions in toy companies) and explain the collectors's and kids's point of veiw in seeing these toys in the store.

enough of the soapbox... i know its a sore subject with me, and would LOVE to see it fixed.
 
K-Tiger

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Online sales don't work, either. DTC was only slightly better than the XFL.

I really dunno how Mattel does it with MOTUC. Must have baggies of crack in the packages.

Joe goes online-only again I'll just say fuck it and focus on another hobby.
 
NSA

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Seems like if they used online vendors like BBTS/etc it would work out alright. Odds are a retailer like that would have a better idea on what to order, and could make their own case assortments etc. They'd know the market they were selling to, and wouldn't want to get stuck with shitty figures.
 
nacho

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crowncoke: I don't disagree, as we've had similar discussions around here before. The "Wave 1 Effect" is primarily driven by the retailer, i.e. Wal-Mart in most cases. In their mind, the worst possible outcome is not having enough product when the movie hits. Thus they intentionally over-order W1 to see that it doesn't happen.

I've come to the conclusion that the W1 Effect is very intentional. They know it's going to happen because they have calculated the expected return and found that overloading the front-end is more profitable than trying to hit the right quantities throughout the life of the line.

I suspect that their near-infinite historical sales data tells them this: that sales lost due to insufficient stock during the peak interest for the line (i.e. during the run-up and first week or two of the film's release) is far worse than the lost sales from not stocking the later waves. It's as if the sales of later waves is so small when they do stock them, they really don't care whether or not those later waves actually hit their stores. They are capitalizing on the peak of the interest and saying to hell with the rest. It's like cherry-picking only the high demand stuff. They are licking the middle out of the sales oreo and throwing away the cookies. And honestly, if the numbers say that's the most profitable route, why not? Sadly for us, what serves collectors and what serves WM's bottom line do not match.

All I know for sure is that where WM is concerned, it's not stupidity or ignorance. It's quite deliberate.
 
K-Tiger

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Then in theory W.1 should be all killer and no filler. That's seldom the case.
 
K-Tiger

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nacho said:
If you're WM, would you rather be stuck with too many Iron Man figs or peg after peg of Loki? Iron Man will slowly trickle out and if they have to put them on clearance, they'll go pretty quick. Stuck with tons of secondary characters is a much bigger problem. They hedge their bets.
Click to expand...



I'm just sick of never seeing good figures.
 
K-Tiger

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You would.

I guess this is the price I have to pay for all the STs that made it to my AO. No L&O, no Z-V, no Ren. Scarlett.
 
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