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Originally Posted by miketime

I don't think Hasbro actually learns anything from the way toys don't sell. Two Targets in my area have nothing but Arctic Destros for Joes on the pegs. The Indiana Jones figs are a good example. They overstock the first 2 waves to the point where most collectors already have what's on the shelf. Part of that prob has to do with stores either buying too much or getting pressured to buy and only getting the same case assortments time after time.
It's sad that we have to go to Singapor and Hong Kong sellers to get the final Indy wave and any end of line wave assortment.

You seem to forget that we collectors are not Hasbro's target audience when it comes to most of their products and never will be. Sure, they try to cater to us whenever it matches what they're already doing, or when it's cheap and easy to do. And there's always the convention exclusives.

But first and foremost, Hasbro wants kids to buy their toys. The problem is when a new line comes out, collectors, speculators and scalpers (i.e. not kids) tear through the first two waves like a swarm of locusts in a cornfield. By doing that, sales are temporarily boosted, causing the retailer to order more (possibly excessive amounts) before Hasbro has shifted to the next wave. Then, as things start to saturate, the newer waves take longer and longer to appear because retailers wait for all the stuff on the shelves to go first (or drop to a certain level).

Also, Hasbro doesn't control how much stock a retailer carries at any given store (or at all, really). They barely have a say in how the product is displayed on the shelves. If there's too many wave 1 toys on the pegs from a specific line, it's because the retailer overestimated the demand for them.

Add to that, the fact that most toy manufactures set their wave schedules during the manfucturing stage of the toy's development, not when they're shipping it to retailers. In other words, a line is set to hit retail on a given date with wave 1 and maybe wave 2. Wave 3 is scheduled to ship from the manufacturing plants, let's say, 3 weeks later and hit retail about six weeks after the line's debut. Same for wave 4 and so on.

It's also the reason the last wave of any toy line is usually the hardest to find at retail. By that point, retailers are buying less and toy companies are making less (possibly even cancelling the line outright).

Then there's the idea of movie tie-ins, like Indiana Jones and Green Lantern. The figures weren't that good and the movies didn't do that well in theaters. Couple that with retailers assuming they would do well and movie products would fly off the shevles. So they maybe they ordered a little too much at the beginning, and it doomed Indy's toy line and will likely do the same for GL.

So there are several factors that go into why retailers might have a glut of slow- or non-moving product on their pegs and shelves.

It's also why clearance sales were invented, which are soley driven by the retailers.