[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordMudd

I don't look at Hotwheels because it isn't an action figure. He Man is an exclusive property that they don't have to pay any royalty on, unlike DC stuff. That is really the only reason they are still producing it at all.

CCC.

Yeah, but you also have to factor in how much they make on it from sales. They do direct no retailer middle man with He-Man, based on subs.

So comparing that to Hot Wheels which is all major retailers(plus all associated lines and merchandising and other media forays), Hot Wheels makes them more money than He-man.

Usually a good sign of which is making decent money is which one is licensed out to party goods too. Hasbro for example has everything from party hats, to cards, and more of Transformers. Same to Mattel with Hot Wheels.

He-man on the other hand, is only the subscription toy line. This is the same reason Cartoon Network leaned so heavily on Ben 10. They could merchandise it out better for higher returns without having to go through DC like they did for Justice League/Unlimited. Ben 10 at the height of its popularity was on everything from party goods to more. That's higher royalties and returns from licensed goods straight to them.

This is also why Mattel is trying to branch out. Revitalizing Max Steel and trying to get it to get a new foothold in the market. A new Max Steel movie coming next month, etc. The self-owned mainstream retailer market is a higher cash flow than subscription services. The problem is that the product lines aren't done well enough to make it generate high enough interest on those ends, which in turn means people forget about the property.

A decent one two punch is getting a decent product line out that generates buzz, which will keep the media in interest to see what's next, which in turn bolsters the product line's hype, and starts generating extra side merchandising like party goods.

For example, if Max Steel was closer to the 4'' Multiverse, it'd have stronger sales along with the natural gimmicks to the story conveyed line like Steel being able to clip into Max's chest and out or more. Overdoing the gimmicks though has made a clunky toy line that's mostly skipped over by all. Kids included. Failing toyline means the show won't last long even with decent ratings because it's not pushing merchandise. No show, means no extra merchandising on a media based property. It's an interconnected system for certain kinds of properties.

Hot Wheels on the other hand is a mainstay kind of line. Collector heavy and kid adored. Die-cast cars will never go out of style and is universal to all forms of fiction they can attach. So it can get merchandised out to party goods as well as sold to major retailer chains.

To each property, a different kind of approach is needed. But for toy companies, the main goal is major retailer sales and branching out from their for royalties, and if they can, ad revenue streams & home media sales too. Though really, more often that's to push product itself. Like for hasbro, that's why at some TRUs you'll see 4.99 MTMTE Tranformers DVDs right next to Generations figures on shelves. In a digital space, media doesn't have to be on TV anymore. Same as why Playmates is looking into doing the Netflix Voltron as a toyline(at least the Voltron lions).

Major retailers are the key thing here though. A subscription service can directly target a market, but it's still not the same numbers as say all the walmarts or targets and TRUs in the US ordering product by case loads for their shelves. Those are the numbers that really bring profits in. This is why many major toy companies are stuck behind the major retailer middle man syndrome. They want those numbers of sales, and have to match what the major retailers demand in some respect to maintain a decent partnership to get that material to shelves. If major retailers don't support it, it ends up as overstock, and companies take a hit on sales to unload excess via discount stores.

This is why major retailers are one of our biggest blockades as collectors. If a major retailer wants to phase a line out, or doesn't want to support it, it gets axed. That's what happened with the SHIELD tech Avengers Assemble line. Major retailers axed it before it reached wave 3, barely even wave 2. So the excess Hasbro had went to discount stores, and the line was officially cancelled. Because major retailers killed it, not because Hasbro didn't want to support it.

The same is what's happening to the 4'' multiverse line. Major retailers are phasing it out, which means the excess is going to discount stores, but thankfully Mattel was able to work out a mild deal with Walgreens too, but Walgreens alone isn't enough of a retailer to support a line itself. At least it was enough to get out the remaining wave that was produced though, but even Walgreens is clearancing those out at discounted rates.

And this is why lines we love end up dead in the water unless a company really fights for them to stay alive like Hasbro has been doing for the 4'' Marvel line with rebranding to keep it on shelves as much as possible so it can prove itself as a strong seller like it once was.

It's a very convoluted system, and there's more to it than that too. Lots of factors and market data to balance and deal with in association to what retailers want and what products they think moves.