[flaccideagle]

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Originally Posted by trebleshot

Heh, online surveys. The ones done by retailers, right? The ones that randomly pop up once in a while, and that you can easily bypass if you're not in the mood? I highly doubt Hasbro would see anything like that from retailers, since those surveys appear to be geared towards feedback on the retailer, not a toy manufacturer or even a brand. Besides, I would imagine that online surveys probably account for a very small sampling of the overall retail market, since it does not account for purchases made at a BNR.

I was actually talking specifically about HTS, but the rest of your comment shows me where your head is at. Data from those surveys is used to make judgement calls, and if you think Walmart or Target doesn't use those surveys for anything, then you're not playing with a full deck. Look, you or I may not take those surveys, but thousands of others do. It's a huge industry. If they weren't looked at, they wouldn't pay for them, full stop. The toy industry isn't unique in the way it does business, it's like everything else. It does epic amounts of market research. It does research about the research. To say otherwise, is to sell them pretty short. You or I may not value those surveys, but it is foolish to imply no one fills them out or pays attention to them.

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Originally Posted by trebleshot

And once again, personal experience alone cannot be used to "prove" what sells and what doesn't sell. Just because one chain (or even a single store) has certain toys on clearance, doesn't mean that those toys failed at retail. The retail store/chain may have chosen simply to not carry that particular item (or items) anymore and needs to clear shelf space for a new item that it will carry instead.

They may not have sold well in that one area, but are doing great in another (MU being available at some Walmart stores, but nonexistent at others springs to mind. And in the same town, no less).

So in short, no it is not "easy to see" what sells and what doesn't - at least on a national level.

Actually it is, because on their face, items that get clearanced are items that can not be sold for full price; it doesn't matter whether its old or new or blue or purple, the store ordered a case, and the entire case didn't sell at full price, that is bad. Box retailers hate to clearance anything as like you say it means the floor space is more useful for new items. It's not personal experience it's the way it is. We can go in circles on this as it's obvious you have your position, and are the mod here, and just aren't going to be swayed. The other cases you mentioned are exceptions to the rule. I'm talking in broad strokes and it seems like you're talking about Walmart in specific.

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Originally Posted by trebleshot

But see you're missing my point. Walmart is not going to tell Hasbro, "Don't make that Rancor Keeper anymore. It doesn't sell very well. Make more of those Jedi and Sith guys. They go like gangbusters." They're basically going to tell Hasbro they want more or less cases of Star Wars, depending on how many they're selling and how many they have in stock.

Actually they do. You can see evidence of this in how many companies offer specific versions of their products for Walmart, from DVDs to milk. They don't make "specific" figures for them, but you're lying to yourself if you think there isn't a huge amount of communication between Hasbro and retailers. It's how exclusives get defined and made. You don't think they negotiate those deals? You don't think there's some discussion, like "this wave didn't sell, this one did gangbusters"? If they don't pay attention to which figures sell more than others, or which are more popular with buyers than others, how do they decide what to make?

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Originally Posted by trebleshot

One retailer adjusting the SKU description for certain toy lines is not what I would consider a "clear move" from the industry. If anything, it comes off as a pilot program. It doesn't seem to matter to the employees and the POS system that Walmart uses still has to order by the case and so doesn't keep track of the sales of individual figures for the purposes of reordering.

I'm not denying that Hasbro and co. have reps that visit retailers. I've met a couple. I know others who have met them. But you seem to be missing my point. What I'm saying is, at least in Hasbro's case, they do not look at the sales of individual figures. That is just not the reason they visit those stores - it's not even a "factor".

Really? Because you've got someone in the store, and you're going to tell them "Hey, don't go down the action figure isle." If they didn't look at individual sales like you say, we'd have shelves of Bumblebees and Wolverines, and none of the exclusives, none of the obscure characters. What would be the point of doing mixed cases, why not go back to 1996 and do solid cases of just one character? You yourself noted that individual names and SKUs are showing up. It's a fact they're showing up- retailers want this, have asked for it.

Now what stores do with them (for example, a drug store folding them into one SKU internally, or someone like FYE who re-stickers the product with their own internal SKUs) is their own thing. I'm saying this is something they said they were going to do, retailers asked for it, it's showing up, and that the trend at retail is for more information, not less.

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Originally Posted by trebleshot

For the most part, I agree. No one has successfully explained to me why OPEC seems to treat the price of oil like it's a Duncan yo-yo. But as this particular topic could very easily slip into political territory, I suggest any further discussion of it be taken to PMs.

You can't really talk oil or factories or even the toy business like this, without getting political to some extent, and that is somewhere I didn't want to go. There's the politics involved in the discussion about international vs. US toy markets too, and the misconceptions from those who don't buy from that international market as well. The irony of this being discussed on 4th July is not lost on me.

But I will say, I have no problem paying a premium for my collecting habit. If I get priced out of Hasbro's offerings then I'll go somewhere else, like I have before. There's been an amazing amount of great stuff produced since the 1960's. If Hasbro stops making Transformers or Marvel toys due to costs, I'm not going to cry in my beer. Disappointed, sure. If Star Wars figures go up another couple bucks for the 3.75-inch guys, I'll have to stop getting as many as I do per year. I don't think it's right to charge the same price for a 5 POA figure as you would a super articulated one. This is the year where what you buy really matters, as it's the first year they've cut articulation, detail, and paint without lowering the price. So I vote with my dollar.

Look obviously you have your point of view, and others have theirs. The trend on action figures in general is skewing older, whether you like it or not. Transformers has its own world where it exists, and is currently the in-vogue thing with some kids and teens.

Things have really changed in the last three years, and I see Hasbro and others making moves to fix the distro, as well as move away from toys and into other non-tangible goods (such as movies, or apps.) If you don't agree with those moves, or don't see them at your specific Wal-Mart, fine. But it's happening. The move in retail physical goods is more information, rather than less. Toys are physical goods. The altering of SKUs is part of that, much like a lot of the buzz about trackable tags. I've seen it at several stores, across several Hasbro products, to be fair I haven't seen it on Transformers. You yourself mentioned you've seen it before. Remember I'm talking about SKU, which is different than the bar code on the back of the figure. And besides, this is all pointless to discuss- the move in retail is to do away with UPC bar codes anyway, and move towards a QR Code based system, which by nature can be easily individualized.

But then Transformers aren't the toys people are really constantly, constantly complaining about distro and selection, like they are Star Wars, GIJOE, or Marvel. They can't do a Q&A without it coming up, and rightly so. Distro has been the main news story for Hasbro Star Wars, pretty much since 2010. Since after the first movie, GIJOE has been impossible for casual fans to find. So if you're only really looking at TF you aren't going to see those things. We're around the same age, and I get where you're coming from, but times have changed. Hasbro - as well as most international players in the toy market- are moving towards electronics, apps, and movies- all things with bigger profit margins, for their child-focused products.

The middle of toys is going away, it seems to be going in the direction of physical goods for children under 4, and collectors 17-40; and virtual goods (apps, video games, movies) for the 5-17 set- which is where for decades our little plastic men were aimed at. The 70's-80's model you and I grew up with is long, long gone, whether we like it or not. Your experience is the exception, not the rule- you're collector and a mod on a toy site, so of course your children would play with physical toys. If you were a mod on a video game site, I doubt there'd be an Optimus Prime in the house, but you may think "everyone has an iPad" or "Everyone has a PS3 as well as an XBOX."

The bottom line for me is, there is no clear answer on collectors vs. kids, it's a mixed bag. Some collectors think the world revolves around them and some think it revolves around the little ones. The truth is in between. If they can't see where a $5-6 5 POA Wolverine figure is marketed to, or a $150+ Transformer of a 30-year old character is marketed to, then... their bad.