[flaccideagle]

There's no point in replying to all of your post (as I'm not sure you remember what you posted over the course of seven pages...) but if you think Hasbro doesn't look at which characters sell more than others, or just pays attention to case sales, semi-ignores retailer and their own surveys, and doesn't use all of the tools at the disposal of modern business and does things like it was the 90's all over again, I can't help you. I have a huge amount of respect for you and the site, but that is almost as likely as Donald Trump taking off his toupee for cameras.

I can help you on your last point: We both collect, but have very different opinions and views on what children do and don't buy. You're basing it on your own personal experience- one family- and I'm basing it on tons of families. We're in different regions and I split my time between two countries, but you should accept that your situation, however cool it is, is definitely not the norm of America or even the rest of the world in 2013. Again, if you want to paint the world in your image, where kids in Japan don't play with toys and everything is made for adults, but here in the US it's all focused for the kids, go right ahead. But the old school thought process that "the toy market is geared towards kids" is the past, things have changed, they continue to. Again, if kids bought so many figures in general, Hasbro would not be buying a TV network and putting millions into video games and apps, they would be buying factories! There would be announcements made to other kids toy sites as to new action figures, when those sites tend to focus on completely different toy products, and not giving "little" collector sites the scoop.

My point is, the whole "Hasblos" argument is not defined true or false by those with unreasonable expectations, their crazy does not change what is going on- in fact it may be a symptom of the mixed message given by years of doing one product for both audiences and the change in direction and availability over the last few years, not to mention the shouts heard on high from them that they don't look at collectors as significant.