I have worked in retail for 3 decades, in various capacities from sweeping floors to managing departments. You want your products to sell? Pricing, availability, and advertising! It's not hard. It's simple. Gimmicks may work. Marketing tie-ins may work. But sticking to the fundamentals is fool proof. Hasbro is like a restaurant with access to great ingredients serving familiar dishes but with too many inept cooks messing up the menu! Pricing, availability, and advertising, plus new management!!!
The challenge in today’s market is targeting the advertising correctly. Before 2000 it was simple. Commercials on watched programs for the demographics they’re targeting. Today there is so many apps, streamers, and even video games occupying kids time, that specific targeted marketing is near impossible.
@@joehenry9546 And arguably it applies to any and all companies, be they Hasbro, Mattel, Playmates, even non-toy companies like Frito-Lay or Samsung. It's to the point where all of them are charging prices for things that get worse year after year, doesn't matter if it's action figures, dolls, board games, video games, food, drink, consumer electronics - They're all affected.
The advertisements back in the day were the cartoons themselves. Nowadays everything is lazily made, even the theme songs are utterly garbage and generic.
They did the same thing to the sports card market. Instead of marketing it to kids, it is now marketed to adults. A regular child could not afford a pack of cards today. Real shame.
Boomers - "Why kids have it so easy these days, they can just pay for a pack of cards with their allowance! Why, back in my day, we didn't have an allowance, we had to work hard throwing news papers, mowing the lawns, collecting bottles for recycling, running beverage stands, all during a blizzard, 18 hours a day ever day, and we had school too, walking ten miles uphill both ways! They gotta toughen up and learn some pain because I hate these little shi--I mean, teach them some respect!"
The biggest issue with marketing to adults is price point. When a kid could buy a pack of cards for under a dollar and possibly get something worth 50-100 bucks- you had wild fire. My son will hound me for Pokeman card packs, they’re inexpensive (50 cent packs- to which he will buy 20-40 bucks worth over a two week period).
Want to see a garage full of sports cards, action figures, slot cars, and Lego that my (now) 18, 13, and 13-year old boys can’t even see through their iPhones running on 1% battery or the PS5 they begged for? I tried for years … they want what their friends want: screens. Can I blame a kid for wanting Forza over endlessly cleaning Tyco track so the pickup shoes can warm up?
Aging Gen-Xer here; I am done with nostalgia. Last time I was tempted at Target to buy the animated Boba Fett(just a repaint really), I told myself that's a tank of gas right there & Buyer's Remorse later. I think I mostly agree, maybe even wholeheartedly agree, with your assessment. Kids still want toys but most toys today are landfill of the near future. 😢
You're right about future land fills. I love toys, always have since I was four (the earliest I can remember) and I had experienced everything from model trains to Star Wars to Zoids to Transformers, etc. Those toys from the 60's to the mid-90's were simply too awesome and I know many of them are nearly impossible to get your hands on. But they are worth it. The garbage I see now is just that: garbage. Over-priced junk that will never increase in value (Funko Pops) and will ultimately end up in a landfill somewhere, poisoning the land. And some of the worst offenders are Gen-Xers like me that are consumed by a weird all-too encompassing sense of "nostalgia." So these ones, who ought to know better, are spending truck loads of money on worthless junk. And this nostalgia crap has to STOP. There is NO moving forward with fresh ideas, it's just miring oneself in the past, and that foul well is rapidly running dry. After it does, what then? There's nothing newer or better waiting in the wings. Simply sad, but preventable at the same time.
100%. Hasbro has consistently been pricing kids out of toys for years. They will die with us if they don't course-correct immediately. Well said Michael.
I don't care what hasbro's excuses are, the fact that the price of transformers has literally doubled over the last 20 years is F&$king stupid and inexcusable.
In 2003 i was nervous but did ask my parents for a deluxe class transformers and got one that i cherished. These days they have gotten worse and so expensive me with a salary doesnt buy them
@@vilebasterd5729 Your name sure is correct. The problem isnt going up in price, its also the persistent decline of quality and the ammount of stuff you can buy for that inflated price. A 2007 deluxe class Transformers had more durable plastic and was bigger than a Voyager class today that costs three times more. If food saw inflation of this type, people would be rioting.
There's also a reason why those figures end up at stores like Ollie's rather than larger cities. They don't want people in their biggest buying markets to perceive those brands as being worth less than the retail price. It's why when Mattel ships certain things to Big Lots, they make deals to avoid cheaper product ending up in bigger markets - to the point where they even have certain products cost MORE in bigger markets than in smaller markets. (a few years back you could find Ghostbusters 2 figures for almost 80 dollars each in California Big Lots in bigger cities and MUCH cheaper in smaller cities. It's a crazy deep dive behind the curtain when you do the research.
I commented to a mate of mine just the other day.....never in my life would I have thought that a little over a decade after Disney bought Lucasfilm that I would walk into the toy section of my local Kmart and not see a single Hasbro Star Wars toy on the shelf. Disney's destruction of the most successful movie brand of all time is truly staggering.
The problem is that you are walking into the toy section of Kmart...a company that has been on life support for over a decade. Why anyone would expect to see a well stocked toy department in a Kmart in 2023 is beyond me.
@@robertdickson9319 Kmart in Australia has no connection with its US namesake and is not suffering the same misfortunes. In fact, Kmart is one of Australia's most trusted brands. Kmart here not having Hasbro Star Wars is akin to McDonalds not having a cheeseburger in their menu.
As a transformers collector, I yern for the days when a transformers character's genesis started with "you know what would make a fun toy", rather than "how can we milk the same design we've been rehashing for the last 40 years?"
@@HAGZ0483 What puts me off personally is rather than having a brand new set of characters, a brand new set of ideas for toys we 90% of the time will always have Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee and various other G1 characters or their names reused because of the fact Hasbro has to keep using their names or lose the trademarks, which they already have lost the name of for characters like Bluestreak, Jazz and Hound a decade or so ago. That might've changed now but it did happen. When you compare the Transformers market now to say what Japan was doing in the late 80's, we had new toys, new characters and even new shows which didn't reuse many characters. Its a way to keep Transformers fresh and doesn't always have to mean total reboots with existing characters.
@@GinraiPrime666 Why wouldn't you keep using the pillars of the franchise? just like every justice legue cartoon and toyline has superman and bat-man, thats what makes a brand successful.
@@HAGZ0483 As successful as in the 90´s, until Kenner had rescued the Transformers name just barely with Beast Wars, doing something completely new? I´m sick and tired of the same old faces and names on repeat. I have concluded my collection for good because of quality, prices, stagnation and unashamed corporate models trying to pricegauge my emotional investment in nostalgia. And I´m by far not the only one who totally quit collecting or is approaching the definitive end fast. Mainstream Pop Culture as a whole industry has to think really hard and fast what they want to do after us, if they want to continue to exist.
@@Thysamithan Completely new like prime vs megatron just in different altmodes? we already had beastformers on the late years of g1, the lack of media support and cheaping out selling mostly repaints on g2 is what almost killed TF on america.
"Let's Market to Boomers" Boomers spend their money on big things like trips and cars, are downsizing into smaller homes and they were never big into buying toys anyway." "Lets market to Gen-Xers" Gen X-ers are big into Star Wars but have to spend all of their extra money to buy groceries and support their families. "Let's market to Millennials" Millennials are BIG into toys but have to save every extra cent so they can buy an overpriced shoebox house and start a family. "Let's Market to Gen-Zers" .Zoomers barely have the money to afford the rent on a one bedroom fleabag apartment, and when they do have extra cash, they spend it on cheaper, more ephemeral pleasures like video games. They're more into anime and manga anyway. "Let's Market to Women" Women have little interest in Action Toys and those women who are big into Barbie usually aren't having children to pass that love onto. The recent Barbie movie was aimed at 40 year old feminists, not children. "Let's Market to Social Justice Warriors" SJWs will support a company's decision to pander to them because they view it as a win for their Cause, but that support rarely translates into actual sales. "We've run out of people to Market to." Children: "How come I can never find any cool toys at the store?"
If Takara, Bandai, Medicom, and other Japnese toy companies started selling their toys across North American retailers like Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart, they could annihilate Hasbro, Mattel, and maybe even NECA. I think we, Japanese, care about toy crafting and its quality way more than anyone else in the world
I'm impress with Bandai Figurs Spawn looks Amazing with Bandai fashion Care if u play Elden Ring That's also Bandai Creation i could see how they Make toy s Look like The Video characters & detailing On action Figurs
This is so well said! The sad part is that this is almost exclusively for “Boys Toys”. I have a daughter and the girls toys are filled to the brim, stocked shelves, tons of new products, and legacy brands. All geared towards kids. But just a couple of aisles over in the action figure aisles, it’s like a desert wasteland. Mostly geared towards adult collectors. It’s a really sad state of affairs.
I think where a lot of where the crossed swords between Michael and people like toyguru occur comes down to how you define toys. The vast majority of toys are sold to children, however the bulk of that are preschool toys, cars and puzzle type toys, also toys figures tend to include things like bicycles and playground style equipment, even at times some sporting goods and pool stuff is collected under the toys category. However most collectors definition of toys are action figures which make up a relative small percentage of "toy" sales and all signs would point to the majority of action figure sales being adult based.
Hasbro reminds me a lot of Disney. They had their properties and then suddenly bought out some of their competitors for their strongest IP and never thought about phase 2. They expected to go straight from acquisition to profit and it shows.
This year's Barbie movie and your post reminded me of an event in 1964--Mattel bought the rights to the Lilli doll. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild_Lilli_doll My sister had a Bild Lilli doll, though I'm not sure why or how--I do remember that the hair was bolted to the head and that the shoes were molded onto the feet. Even today I see cheap dollar store 12" fashion dolls with these features. Mattel didn't buy out a competitor in order to go straight from acquisition to profit because Barbie was already out-selling all competitors with a sound concept (little girls can be anything they want to be) and a solid marketing strategy called "razor and razor blades." Bild Lilli was a gold digger--she went out for a good time. Men bought Lilli things just to be with her. Lilli's niche market was very limited as was her line of clothing and accessories in either 7.5" or 12" format. Barbie's frontier was the limits of imagination as alluded to in the 2023 Barbie movie. Barbie was never anatomically correct but was too "curvy" for mothers who wanted to raise decent daughters and be blessed with grandchildren. Barbie's world was far more expansive (and invasive) than Lilli's world. The cheap knockoffs resembling Barbie and Lilli sold, but here's the irony: Barbie outfits for those cheap dolls proved to sell better. The "razor/razorblade" concept is selling the razor cheap to use proprietary blades and then selling LOTS of blades to a guaranteed customer. Who cared if an ugly knockoff doll sold for half of a real Barbie when the cheap knockoff doll needed a dream house, a car, a boyfriend, and far more clothes than Lilli had? Besides, American girls knew the importance of having matching accessories, especially footwear. Those permanently molded-on shoes clashed with most outfits! It was all about the accessories and Barbie's "impossible" body was designed to look good in Playscale clothing. Fabric thickness would make the doll "look fat" if Barbie dressed in layers as did adult American women in the Fifties and Sixties--the real women also were confined in girdles and corsets and bras and had a slip or two under their dresses--and stockings, too! Barbie didn't. The problem was the American system of civil courts. Lilli's IP owners could sue, and even when they lost in court, Mattel would have taken a hit paying for lawyers. Bad publicity in the Doll Wars would potentially hurt sales. It was less expensive and good marketing to buy out a rival even though there was little chance that Lilli would win against successful Barbie. Anything can happen during a jury trial. I regard Mattel's buyout as a permanent out-of-court settlement. Why didn't Mattel simply churn out Lilli dolls and go from acquisition to profit? Barbie better fitted the market--selling dreams to little girls. Lilli was an inferior product in that marketplace. Barbie was the empress of the world of little girls' dreams. The "profit" was avoiding a messy and expensive legal battle. "You can't patent the human body" and Barbie had design differences--and a totally middle-class American small-town background. Lilli was in a dead-end job trading on her youth and beauty. Barbie was making a mark on the world and the sky was no limit--Astronaut Barbie broke that glass ceiling. Barbie was selling quite well--the Lilli investment was to prevent future legal actions because both were adult female dolls that had interchangeable outfits and were not the good Hausfrau--Lilli was an office worker and Barbie was a career woman, but that difference might have escaped the notice of the courts. Disney has had a love-hate relationship with Mattel because without going to premium dolls Mattel's quality produced superior Disney princesses with the right price point. Disney had problems with its "A Bug's Life" and "Tangled:" rival studios had released "Antz" and "Rapunzel" before the Disney edition hit the market. No doubt that the Daily Wire production of "Snow White and the Evil Queen" is giving Team Disney an excuse for their wretched production. Buying IPs and then sitting on them is a good way to limit competition--but Disney sitting on "Sound of Freedom" for five years can be viewed as unfair competition under the Sherman Anti-trust Act. Acquisitions can go only so far. Mattel bought out a rival because even though that Lilli IP was no competition in Barbie's marketplace there is more than one way to turn a buck. If you cannot compete, SUE!!! When I was getting my business degree I was able to verify that large corporations develop bloated bureaucracies that strangle those corporations. I observed the corporate take-over of the boardroom and the rest of the company by Human Resources--and the shedding of skilled labor--during the late Eighties and early Nineties. I offered this advice to a smug manager after being turned down for a job ("overqualified" and didn't fit into their company ecosystem) that he needed to learn a trade or get his CV circulating NOW because firing all the workers gave managers nothing to exercise their people skills on. Fax machines were being replaced by the office computer sending electronic text messages. Filing cabinets were being displaced by computer files. I had a degree in electronics majoring in telecommunications with a minor in computer science--the two were merging at the time ("Now all restaurants are Taco Bell"--er, all communications are digital microprocessor based) and why have someone to manage the secretarial pool when voice to text would eventually replace the typist? No more mail girls, either--mail would be significantly reduced. I entered business school with a lot of misconceptions--for one, I thought restaurants served food, but what the restaurant sells is SERVICE. The product that entertainment companies and toy companies produce is the service of fun. Sometimes pursuit of profit obscures how the company arrived at the bottom line. Mattel didn't buy the IP rights to Lilli to buy profits from selling that doll. Mattel bought the IP rights so that Mattel didn't bleed out in court.
Have u seen the Disney Figure Tod McFarland came out with they look cool but prizes it's worth it if your collecting Disney. still McFarland Toys are growing on people & now kids Disney McFarland figures are outgrowing Hasbro they Akways Say Smaller Comoany Are makeing More Money compare to Hasbro i have not Got me Hasbro toys In A long time prizes are high on plastic that Made America 🇺🇸 grow look at legos where they are Going
Hasbro better act together company s like McFarland. can buy them out The Greatest Creator Of img comics Tod. McFarland he sold. img comics & invested in Creating Action figurs & doing It for Kids & adults McFarland. Was smart he can buy out Hasbro & run the Toy busness Prizing Action figurs is important
I have been having a field day at Ross over the past month. Almost every exclusive transformers figure have been showing up for 1/3 of the normal price.
Tell me about it. I found Studio Series Preceptor, Tomax and Xamot from GI Joe, and the Sideswipe/Skywarp 2-Pack all at Ross all for the cost of maybe two figures at retail.
Any company that has billions to lose on pointless ventures but refuses to give us a $10 deluxe class transformer deserves to go under. Hasbro is not the same company that made my childhood. Now it feels like a vampire.
I honestly think that the only reason the Haslab fundraisers happened was to basically be life support to the Hasbro online shop which wouldve been shuttered anyway.
I think at least part of it is a "might as well" proposition. They have a bunch of projects fans/collectors keep asking for but which they're not confident they can actually sell, so it's probably worth the minimal development costs to at least see if some of them can.
There's also a good reason why Transformers is the only brand that hasn't had a failed campaign yet. Hasbro KNOWS the transformers fandom will absolutely riot if they throw in a bunch of cheap repaints or lazy add-ons for campaigns. They almost flew to close to the sun for Unicron, that BARELY made it through. But I've never heard anyone express buyer's remorse for Victory Saber, and I assume Deathsaurus will be the same way.
Hasbro is creatively bankrupt while acting like they'll go bankrupt by improving quality of their products. Then they wonder why everything is pegwarming and hurting their sales.
Yes sir, just like Hollywood, the toy companies have lost all imagination and simply want to tread well-worn paths. They seem to have forgotten that trailblazing new paths is what made them big brands to begin with.
At least Transformers are still cool I guess, but a lot of that is thanks to Takara. You look at the kids Transformers toylines that Hasbro's shat out to go with RID15-Earthspark and.... yikes.
I’m going to add this comment on because it’s in relation to this discussion, but has anyone else noticed a major decline in customer service in general? It’s gotten to a point when I walk into a store nobody says hello…Just today I called a restaurant to place an order for pickup and they literally just picked up the phone and didn’t even say hello! What’s going on with businesses in general these days? It almost feels like we are legitimately on the last leg of our current system, and I have no idea what comes next.
Not just you. My wife and I were talking about this too. We are late 40s Gen-Xers and we cannot believe the decline in customer service. It's astonishing.
@@sci-fi.tsunamiDude, that's just nuts! I think everyone is being driven mad by too much social media, too much divisiveness in politics and news, inflation, lack of meaning and purpose, comparing our lives to others, and on and on. I hope you can find another shop to do the repairs. But like the recent new clip from South Park "Into the Panderverse", handymen can behave rudely with impunity now because they're in such great demand from a society of people who no longer know how to do anything.
Maybe the persom who answered the phone at the restaurant was a young person with no social skills and very poor training. Management should train people to do these things. If you ever get to go to an In N Out burger, you'll see what good service looks like. They still select and train their employees well. Same with Chik Fil A.
Thats a good thing. Its very American for people to smile at you and say hello and pretend they are happy while working in retail. More honesty is good.
Ollie’s is America’s largest retailer of closeout merchandise and excess inventory. Means that Hasbro and Mattel have warehouses of these toys collecting dust, I have seen toys based on movies that came out like 5 years ago. You are right they never got to the stores.
Meanwhile LEGO can take those IPs (SW and Marvel) and produce enough toys to satisfy kids and adults alike... no BS unless you try to get a year old or retired set, you get whatever you want when it's released at any number of retailer or online....
Toy companies are just adjusting to the times. This isn't the 80's and 90's anymore, when kids reach a certain age, they lose interest in toys and gravitate more towards video games and other electronics (like smart phones and tablets). Kids today don't have the same upbringing we had. They don't play in the streets and they don't really play with action figures beyond the ages of 9 or 10. Toy companies have shifted to adult collectors because we are the ones keeping the market alive. The reason kids don't play with toys isn't because they can't find toys, they are simply not as interested in them, as our generations were. They much rather spend their time playing games online with their friends or on social media. Marketing isn't the problem or poor strategy, it's just a shift in modern culture, which has changed over time and technology is the reason why.
On point. So sad we have not seen modern toys of M.A.S.K.. Inhumanoids, Centurions and Visionaries. These could have been epic toy lines. Re-releasing the orginal versions of these toys to kids while at the same time making collector versions for adults seams like a no brainer. They could also release HD versions of the cartoons or at least time this with re-releases of the originals, not "modern" interpretations of these cartoon on DVD or digital. They do this and kids could be introduced to these classics and many of their parents who loved these shows growing up would have something to share with their kids. Why has this not happened? I just introduced shows like Jem and Gummy Bears to my teenage daughter and she loved them but that was it because there was no other merchandise or toys to go with them. BTW she said she hated all the "modern" stuff aimed at her age group and was looking for something else which gave me the idea to share these with her.
I’m starting to get really angry about how predatory GI Joe Classified has been. Every potential troop builder has either been an exclusive or a deluxe figure, forcing you to shell out even more than than you should have.
And let's not even get into the fact that some figures never hit retail in some areas only to show up at Ross for $6 apiece (Tomax and Xamot). And yes, I bought them.
I remember buying an IronMan and Whiplash from the second movie. Came with whips, plates that moved, elbow and knee joints, balls on the hips. The paint wasn't stellar, but you could do the superhero-landing pose with both of them, they stood up on their own. IronMan3 came out and I bought a couple of the cooler background armours. They came with a second arm with a toy feature, but no longer any joints on the elbows, no balls on the shoulders or hip and no paint at all and that's where I stopped. -Since then, they've lost the play feature and (at least here in the UK) nearly DOUBLED in price. I've collected Nerf blasters since I was very small. I bought one at goodwill the other day and was marveling while watching your video at how the bodyshells are a good 4mm thick heavy plastic. I could drop this down the stairs and it would be perfectly fine. I've got blasters I bought in the early 2000s that still run and look as good as they did when I got 'em. Over the last few years they've gone to flimsy plastic bodies that are thinner than the knock-off brands, and shoot maybe 1/3 as well, at 3x the price of the competition. Who are these aimed at? The figures are of obscure versions, too basic, and/or too expensive for kids. They're too s**t for adults. Like movies and TV shows, even videogames, these companies are chasing nostalgia from a market they've also alienated by repeatedly telling them *"we don't care about our older fans"* while not bothering to make a toy a child can even *play* with without breaking it.
I am 100% convinced they funded the remaining Haslab "backers" themselves. There was no way they could go into today's Livestream with another failed crowd fund!
Or they just inflated the numbers. Just no way it could be funded at the last minute. Instead of needing 10k backers they only got 5-6k and said screw it. Get it done.
I think you are missing two major points. First: Pre-orders have killed the retail stores. I pre-order EVERYTHING from BBTS, EE, Pulse, etc. It seems like most collectors are now pre-ordering figures. It takes too much time to hunt stuff down. Second: Kids today don't play with toys as much as we did... they play video games. The younger generations will collect video games when they are older.
You are missing the broader point that pre-orders happened AFTER the toy companies started abandoning marketing to kids. They created a self-fulfilling prophecy. But hey, if you wanna keep arguing this with me, you can also argue with the actual toy industry that PROVED all of this in the recent article discussing the industry now prioritizing adults.
In the 60's and 70's, Hasbro's designers were taught that they had to "think like a ten year old." But they have given that up. I like that I can get G.I. Joe Classified, but they are NOT targeted at 10 year olds or younger. Leave the collectibles to the companies licensing from Hasbro, and make fun toys for the next generation to love.
I have been in awe of the history of Hasbros rise to the top as the largest toy company in the world thanks to GI Joe Transformers, and My Little Pony. Yet I have seen throughout my childhood to adulthood that they have dropped the ball significantly time and again despite owning almost every property that has made money in the past century. If they wanted to bring back GI Joe in the 3 3/4" scale they could and even retool rerelease and make old and new vehicles and playsets for fan they could sell all 500+ action figures and the nearly 100 vehicles and playsets without needing to add anything to them and even keep the price relatively cheep on store shelves while making a profit. For the lore/comics/cartoons find anyone who is a fan of this property and or has worked on and respected the lore that came beforehand. There is no need to force inclusivity into it as the entire toy line and series was already inclusive and wasn't in your face about it. From Tunnel Rat, Road Block, Heavy Duty, Jinx, Stalker, Spirit, Scarlet, Cover Girl, and Zap, (just name a few) these are all people who are either non-white or women and have their own characteristics and feel real. For Transformers focus on the bots fighting a nearly endless civil war on another world expand it with other aliens, factions and threats while focusing on the story and characters to get kids and adults interested in the show and toys. For MLP, look at the entirety of the 4th Gen take notes on what made it so appealing to so many people and add to it, tell fun stories and sell merchandise to the kids. For the licesnsed properties create cheeper products stay away from crowd funding and make plasets and vehicles large enought to fit the action figures. (Looking at you Star Wars). If they do this they should be fine, but i think it will take them losing a lot more money before they get this message.
I feel for G.I. Joe fans... when Hasbro purchased Power Rangers outright (not just the toy license), I was really at odds what to make of it. On one hand, I was happy we might see some better worldwide distribution (we didn't). I was hoping that the toyline they were promising might inject some new life and garner some more mainstream attention (it didn't). I was hoping the show will be in safe hands (it wasn't). Instead what we got was a hit-or-miss collector's line (which is usually 1 step forward, 3 steps back on a lot of the product, despite some truly great figures here and there), a kids toyline that they downscale so much on a yearly basis, the 30th anniversary season does not have a SINGLE action figure or zord on the market (and maybe even planned), absolute clowns at events ("Move on to Star Wars, come on, guys") and the show that's been going on continuously for 30 years ending production because Hasbro have zero idea what they're doing with the brand... To use a quote from "RoboCop": "...what a bunch of morons. They're gonna manage this department right into the ground." Why would you buy a franchise outright and deliberately try to move away from adapting Sentai footage from Toei, if you don't have long-terms plans for it and are simply going to kill it? There's no way anyone can convince me that over the past 10 years, Power Rangers has been serious competition for Transformers... I never had this problem with Bandai America, because while they goofed up from time to time, PR was still their star brand. But now that Hasbro's in charge I completely understand all of the complaints I've been seeing from fans of their other franchises over the years...
I’m glad you were able to check out Ollie’s. It’s jaw-dropping how much product goes from target, Walmart and toys r us to Ollie’s. Crazy thing is that it’s still mostly products kids don’t want so they continue to remain peg warmers. Jeff of World Class Bullshitters makes vids of the toys that don’t sell even at clearance.
Part of the discount store is distribution. Target & walmarts get cases of one figure and then if figure isn't hot it sits and stores don't order the next several waves. Meaning some area that would buy never see the toys and they go to bargain stores wherever they're dumped.
@@wesleyhendricks2486 Absolutly distributions is a huge problem! But also not given fans what they want or understanding the market is a huge problem. The fact you have Popular mainline gi joes as very limited pulse and convention exclusives is mindboggling!
@@wesleyhendricks2486I wonder what role Amazon may have played in all these other retailers' distributioj issues, if any. It seems like maybe once the big river started taking such a large market share, all the brick and mortar retailers started going to hell.
Checked out an Ollie’s yesterday and it’s literally a Toy Graveyard. Boxes of phase 4 MCU Legends, retro carded Falcons, and those fortnite arcades were 1.99 each. No wonder people aren’t paying full price for these. Wait a few months and you’ll find it at an Ollie’s or a Ross
I'd pick up a Retro Carded Falcon for $6 if I saw it at Ross. Distribution is even worse on the west coast though. None of those figures probably ever crossed the Mississippi.
Michael, you nailed it. It would be way too easy to say “why are they doing such a shotty job marketing to adult collectors?” But in reality, ignoring the kids is sinking them right now and ultimately could ruin them. All of this GiJoe stock is headed to Ollies. I am adult, I can wait patiently for it all to end up there. Kids won’t/don’t wait. So many lost opportunities for Hasbro. Sad.
I'll trade the Ollie's in my area for the ones in yours. All I see from Classified in Ollie's are Lady Jayes and Snake Eyes movie figures...maybe 20 figs per store, compared to the 100s of Marvel Legends they all have.
@@lonedragon3261 it’s a waiting game. Unfortunately, the closest Ollies to me is 34 miles away and not easy to get to. When I travel, I look up the closest ones and visit them. One Ollies in Aurora, Illinois is full of classified figures. The one across town in Streamwood, has none.
Where is Hasbro "ignoring the kids"? All I see on the shelves are Hasbro toys aimed at kids - the Transformers cartoon line is not selling. Star Wars role-play & Grogu toys are clogging the aisles (yet I can't consistently find TVC figs). All of the 5 POA Marvel figures intended for kids are hanging out at Walmart. Plenty of Hasbro board games, preschool toys & arts/crafts are on the shelves. Hasbro is NOT ignoring the kids - they are ignoring the adult collector market and fighting a losing battle with kids buying toys in general.
@@robertdickson9319 You kind of made the point clearer. Even with shelves full of toys, they seem to have no idea how to market to kids. The kids don’t want the stuff. From a certain point of view, that’s ignoring the kids.
@@jjdinanno4147 Well, I guess "from a certain point of view" that may be considered "ignoring" the kids but IMO that's a stretch. We can agree though that the shelves have plenty of product for kids & we can agree that, in general, the kids don't want them - or maybe the parents are not willing to pay the current prices for them. As far as marketing to kids where do you feel Hasbro is dropping the ball? I'm assuming they still have focus groups & market research telling them where the best options for their ad $$$ are. I see plenty of toy ads on the TH-cam videos aimed at kids. There are still cartoons on open-air, cable & streaming TV as well as older stuff on TH-cam/streaming. There are super hero, fantasy & sci-fi movies out today that we would have died for in the 80's. Realistically, kids today still have access to the same marketing strategies that hooked us 40 years ago and, depending on how you get your entertainment, they have more access to the stuff than we did. I just don't see what other options are available to Hasbro that you feel they need to do a better job of exploiting. I think the big issue is not that Hasbro is failing at marketing, it's that they are fighting a losing battle - lower birth rates in general mean a smaller audience. Higher prices mean parents are not as likely to buy a kid a toy while grocery shopping. Toys R Us no longer exists. Kids are more interested in video entertainment at a much earlier age than they were when we were kids. Lego is a far more popular toy today than it was 40 yrs ago which vaccums up a lot of disposable income. IMO too many collectors are still stuck in the 80's and early 90's and seem to think that the toy manufacturers should still be operating that way in today's world; I don't see it happening.
When Matty Collector existed and did the He-Man Classics like I noticed a price bump at retail after a few years. The Hammond Collection Brachiosaurus proves what you can get to retail in size and quality.
And here’s the death spiral. The toy industry has now missed out on people who would be passionate to work at hasbro and Mattel won’t work there. The people who should have grown up with toys didn’t because they couldn’t find them or couldn’t afford them so they went else where. The people in The toy industry during the 1990’s grew up smashing Luke against stormtroopers. But the kids who were playing with tmnt did the “sell to adults like me.” And no there are no kids growing up with toys. So who’s inspired to make the next line?
I truly believe the age of the action figure will completely die when Gen X and Millennials are gone. I have two sons. One 19. Who briefly played with action figures as kid but never stuck with them for long and 3 year which obviously right now just loves his cars , trains and trucks. We will see if he takes an interest as he gets older. Im guessing probably not. The age of technology is also a culprit here. Video games are what young Millennials and especially Gen Z hold dear. That’s their childhood memories. Now granted, that can vary depending on how they were raised, but the majority of these children are raised with heavy tablet usage. That effects everything. As stated in the video the toy aisle are shrinking drastically. The only thing smaller than toy aisles are physical media sections. Toys with be the next thing to go except for toys geared for babies and toddlers. Are the big toy companies to blame? Most definitely! The change in technology and societal life is also a huge factor as well. Keep in mind the true idea of what we think of when we hear action figure has only been around since the birth of Megos and didn’t get really take the toy world by storm until kenner Star Wars. That’s around 5 decades and only really 3 of those were at a pinnacle of popularity, 70s/80s/90s.
Great video! I collect Vintage Collection Star Wars. I live in an area in CO where we don't get mass quantities of figures. We don't have Ollie's out here either. I always cringe when I see full pegs of Star Wars figures on clearance that people post from Ollie's. I would had bought these figures at my Target or Walmart if they had been distributed and sold there. Otherwise I have to order off the Hasbro Pulse site and the prices seem to get more inflated as time goes on. I feel I'm getting priced out of the hobby. So I pick and choose carefully what I buy now. Even when it comes to crowdfunding their toys.
The last real attempt to market G.I. Joe to kids for any prolonged period was Sigma 6. The 25th anniversary (and subsequent series) were all targeted to nostalgia buyers. The Rise of Cobra was a tepid attempt to market to kids by adding spring-loaded features. Hasbro has lost kids. It's evident when you walk down the toy aisles at Walmart/Target or if you spend time with any actual children whose parents don't push nostalgia lines on their kids. My nephews have ZERO interest in Transformers, G.I. Joe, Marvel Legends, Star Wars etc. For them-- it's all about Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog. Oh, and Minecraft... None of those are Hasbro lines. The fact that so much product is hitting Ollie's and Ross right now is a terrible sign. Healthy brands, top-selling brands don't hit discount chains.
Don’t forget store exclusives too; not only is it annoying that only one store will carry this toy but they never make enough of it that people can actually find it.
Ive purchased a lot of hasbro stuff this year that I did want but initially felt $24.99 was just too much and passed on price. Now everything I wanted was clearanced to 75% off or more and felt great about having them! And I do not care about buying stuff just to support a line. If toy lines die it cannot be blamed on me, a casual consumer and it's silly when they try and do so
I would go pretty crazy over some new Centurion and Mask toys...I don't understand why they just don't roll those brands into GI Joe. I will say there aren't enough truly cool and fun youth toys on the shelves. I look for toys all the time for my 7 yr old daughter and I can't find nothing beyond Barbie. And Walmart is almost doing a lawsuit level of mishandling distribution across all toylines. Ross has turned out to be an almost guarantied source of Walmart stock that never reached shelves. Ollies seems to get everything that was out a few months ago.
Thank you! I was in Ollie's the other day and was amazed at their recent Hasbro stock. Beast Wars Optimus Primal and Megatron, Retro Collection Star Wars, Black Series Star Wars, Ghostbusters... where the hell was this stuff at retail?
There are figures in the TF line that were made Target only and such. These are ones that fans were clamoring for to grab. I then see posts showing Ollie's and Ross getting them in when no one could find them. Bizarre.
Hasbro doesn't give a fig about the retailer. You can't get most Hasbro toys at retail. It's all HasLab and Hasbro Pulse. If you put in an order with Entertainment Earth, the order just gets canceled after six months with a note "the supplier said they are out and won't be producing anymore," so if you REALLY want it, you pay double on the secondary market. EFF Hasbro.
What's getting cancelled? I use bbts and Amazon to buy 3 3/4 star wars figs and transformers, I've never had a pre order canceled on those sites. I get the retail struggle as I live in Canada and we don't get a line of toys for like a year after it's comes out.
@@awesomeatronik The Star Wars TVC Deluxe Imperial Stormtrooper Figure. It was with Entertainment Earth Here's what they said: "Unfortunately, we're sorry to report that the manufacturer has notified us that we will not be receiving any additional shipments of the Star Wars TVC Deluxe Imperial Stormtrooper Figure (Item HSF5575) you ordered, because they have discontinued production of this item. No additional information was provided to us by the manufacturer as to why this occurred. Sadly, that means we will not be able to ship it to you and have cancelled it from your order. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes."
@@TroyPacelli Was that the one on the cardback for the first Star Wars movie? There's one still being released, but they keep taking their dear sweet time releasing it! Some have shown up on ebay. These are the ones that were originally going to be Walmart exclusives.
@@TimHayes No, I'm referring to the Fives Clone Trooper from Clone Wars. I had it on order for Netter for Christmas two or three years ago, and they kept pushing it out and then I just got it last year.
I understand perfectly. I've tried for years to have that discussion and have gotten nothing but accusations, dishonesty, and childish arguments. I have no reason to argue now and frankly I don't know if it was ever worth it. It has never been a problem of misunderstanding but of complicity and you cannot get out of it by arguing. You cannot hope to be able to convince those who only see their interests in the short term.
Totally agree with your take on this. I also check out the toy aisles wherever I go. For one I can’t believe the prices for figures now. Plus the constant rehash of classic characters be in Star Wars, Transformers, etc… I mean how many Darth Vader figures can you have? You are also correct in that these figures are only appealing to the older adult collectors and that market is shrinking. It’s also true that toys, cars etc.. are collectible and valuable because not many survived. We played with them in the case of toys and drove them in the case of cars. Trying to put that lightning back in the bottle is a fool’s errand.
It's depressing how my local Ross has all the toys I've been searching for MONTHS for at regular Target/Walmart stores. I was a big SW/Indy collector circa 2007-09 and while some figures were indeed tough to track down (Mcquarrie Fett and Elsa Schneider come to mind.) it was NEVER this difficult to find toys. All you had to do was check a couple stores a week and you'd find the newest wave at retail. I was living in Long Beach, CA at the time which had a thriving collector market and there was plenty to go around for everyone. Hasbro and Mattel have really screwed the pooch on this one.
These companies lost me when Beast (blue haired version from the animated show) was short packed or a chase or whatever it is. I refused to get any of these at that point. At this point in my life I have focused on silver/bronze comics as my collection. Side note - I admire Michael for always being truthful and sticking to his guns even when its not popular to do so! Lots of respect to you!
HASBRO needs to focus on what’s brought them to the dance to begin with; and that’s make good toys. I’ve never seen such an incompetent company like HASBRO. They do stupid shit all the time. All they gotta do is focus solely and completely on making their toy products top notch. If they do that and give the customers what they want with good business ethics, their profits will make themselves and then some.
"Come on down to Crazy Eddie's Ziggurat of Nerf! We've got boomerangs, footballs, rifles, pistols, and soccer balls! And they're stacked floor to ceiling in all configurations! Pyramid, Mound, Lean-To, Wigwam, Igloo, and even Yurt! So come see us here at Crazy Eddie's!... because not only is it Nerf or Nothing, it's miles and miles of architectural piles!"
Maybe. Just maybe raising prices was a bad idea. Also I find it funny that Giant man couldn't be on shelves or a preorder yet a 1,500 dollar Transforming Grimlock can be.
Raising prices isn't absurd period in Biden's economy period period besides that, Kala parents seem to have no problems by an iPhone's or iwatches for their little kids... So toys aren't that much to some?. Lol
@@miragexl007 It its and isn't on rising prices. iPhones are multi-useful and "essential" to everyday life. Cell phones are mini computers that phone/email/text/camera/gaming, etc. Also they last long time. I've seen parents shy away from big price tag toys in stores. Even collectors may be cutting back. Ton of stuff showing up at Ollie's and other places more than usual. Giant Man and $1500 Grimlock is tough sell even to adult collectors. I don't know anyone who bought Grimlock. Giant Man almost didn't make the cut and personally not worth $200 price tag. With so much selection on toys along with inflation of food, gas, etc some things may take serious hit.
An unfortunate consequence of the CEO who died being the only one who really wanted it, hence the hiatus Maybe things will turn around with the reboot, we’ll have to see
Hasbro hasn't given a crap about kids for years and years. If you look at a toy aisle these days, it pales in comparison to the toy aisles of yore. There's nobody duking it out on the pegs. And no advertising really in the form of tv shows for kids to link them. Mattel is nailing it in that area, at least enough to stave that perception off. But ti all come sdown to this, you're a toy company, make toys for kids, big things little kids can get there hands on and manipulate without damage. And keep your adult market sure, but these guys had a model and just tossed it. Saturday morning cartoons man, that was the toy company advertising bonanza. Why they never came up with a replacement is beyond me.
And the few TV shows they do have to advertise to kids, Transformers and Power Rangers are barely being marketed at all. Hardly any trailers and commercials for the shows. And long gaps in between episode batches due to the streaming format.
Lego is a privately owned company, not publicly owned like Hasbro. The stock market is a gambling casino, investors don't care about goods and services or long term strategies.
45 bucks for a Snake Eyes!? Wtf?! I'd have left it as well. They(the toy companies) are cutting their own throats by not marketing to kids. Great vid, Michael. BTW, the Wendigo looks great with the rest on that shelf!
They're killing the golden goose to harvest the eggs that the goose hasn't yet laid. As you said, they're cutting their own throats. But that's the problem with corporate culture - they're always chasing quarterly profits and not long term visions, and if the executives get fired in a few years when their companies tank, they'll get huge severence packages and new jobs immediately. Because, you know, they're sociopathic enough to be able to justify paying employees as little as possible and laying them off at the drop of a hat in order to continue ensuring those quarterly profits.
One thing I forgot to comment on earlier. So, the old brands they own outright. MASK, Visionaries, Inhumanoids, Centurions. I don’t have kids, so I’ll pose the question to the more knowledgeable. Would those properties be interesting enough to today’s generation to buy? I mean, they were interesting to us, but would they need retooling to interest todays kids? I do think something should be done with these brands, but, not sure how easy that would be just to put back in production.
As a father of two young boys, it amazed me to see the state of the toy isles when I first started looking at action figures for them. At first it was just movie figures, then it moved to recycled IPs from my youth. As much as my kids like my old MOTU or GI Joe figures it does feel weird having to buy them the same figures. There isn't a lot of imagination or innovation for creating new IPs. I get the whole target adult collectors as I myself if I go in I'll buy everything I need in one go whereas buying for kids I'll get them to pick 1 or 2 figures. But this crowdfunding and large products seem excessive.
Toy stores are unfortunately going the way of scale model shops and comic book stores, the industry gave up on kids and the video game industry is reaping the rewards. The Japanese are about the only people producing great product while marketing through anime/manga
Just my observation here. Part of the issue is that kids aren’t playing with action figures anymore. I grew up with Star Wars, GI JOE, and a little bit of He-Man (I was kinda done with toys by then). All of those had movies and/or cartoons behind them. I do believe that is key here. My nephew is 5.5 and he’s interested in Hot Wheels & Matchbox but zero interest in action figures.
I had a late kid. I'm 49 and he's 8. We go down the toy isle. I look through the Transformers, Marvel, DC, and Joe. He goes to the small gamer section and wants Pet Simulator X, Roblox and Minecraft toys. Kids still buy toys its just the IPs have shifted. Yes Joes, Marvel/DC and Transformer/Turtles/MoU are for adults but the kids IPs are Among Us, Fortnight, Minecraft, Roblox the toy manufacturers just need to be faster converting the hot games to toys before they burn out. My kid told me last month when I pointed out an Among Us toy, he said Dad that game is dead. They just have to get faster if they want the kid market back.
As Michael rightly points out in this fantastic video, the horse has already bolted on the disturbing business practices of Hasbro and Mattel and all of the people now claiming that the Emperor is naked, should have seen it from the get go.
Regarding the aisles, I noticed that too. In the 1980s there were so many toys that where I lived in Ontario, Canada, there was an actual toy store chain called Toy World. They're long gone. Even anchor department stores at malls had big toy sections. Toys R Us still exists near where I live but about half their store is Chinese knock-offs now, even the number of game console games has diminished. Likewise, EB Games have been closing in some places. Brands and items I used to look for as a kid are practically gone: Matchbox, model kits, 1/72 figurines, Lego trains; even the Lego Bionicle that my first son liked so much in the 1990s (and saved that company, I saw somewhere) are gone. When I was very young there actually was an independently owned and operated Lego store in my city, long before Lego franchise stores appeared. There were hobby stores, one was selling only model trains and accessories for train layouts. It's a very different world now, there seems to be much less to choose from.
As usual I agree with the vast majority of what you are saying. However, I strongly disagree with part of it. I think that for Hasbro to appeal to kids, they need to explore both videogames and movies because that's where they will find them these days. They have failed to build on those so far. But properly used, the movie studio they already own could give them a lot more control over the properties they decide to explore and exploit. However they need to do it well and put resources, creativity and real talent to thrive in those markets. As I see it, the real problem here is that companies like Hasbro and Disney are so deep into thinking like mere corporations (meaning money-making and accounting machines) that they have forgotten how they became what they are in the first place.
That is the problem. Toys are no longer cheap, disposable entertainment. Give a kid an action figure that’s $25 USD and it breaks instantly because kids are often rough on their toys, and you won’t see that parent too quick to buy another. Then there’s the scalper problem where a kid can’t complete his ‘team’ because there’s a short packed figure that the scalpers have gobbled up, on top of the distro problems. Here, I think, is the core problem. The industry still has the ‘embedded knowledge’ that it’s still the ‘60s, where there were THOUSANDS of retailers that sold toys, and the network of hundreds of wholesellers, distributors and jobbers that sold to them. Most every department store had a toy department. ‘Dime’ stores. The giants of Sears, Wards and Pennys. The catalog stores like Whitmark. And the dedicated toy stores like Kay Bee and Circus World, the big box standalones Playworld, Children’s Palace and Toys R Us. So much linear shelf space to fill! And that is ALL GONE. The internet NEVER took up that slack. Who is left as the national toy store? Walmart and Target. And THEY cannot take up that slack. Why? Because they do not have anyone who actually KNOWS TOYS doing the buying, promotion, merchandising. All those department stores, they all had a manager. And so every store had a different ‘feel’ and specialized in different lines, brands. Oh and that. There was SO MUCH competition for all that shelf space! Mattel, Hasbro, Kenner, Ideal, Topper, Remco and all the others I’m forgetting. There was a whole lot of ‘throw it at the wall and see if it sticks’ going on and when a hit happened, Barbie, GI Joe, Hot Wheels, everyone tries for a piece of that pie. Hot Wheels begat Johnny Lightning and so on. It kind of makes me sad that Legos and overpriced ‘blind box’ stuff will end up being all that a toy department is. We’re heading in that direction at lightspeed.
I always remember when I was a kid or even a teenager going into the toy sections of the department stores. At least two full Ilses of Star Wars minimum. Whole chunks of places like Kay-be or toys-R-us dedicated to Star Wars or GI-Joe or even Transformers. It is an embarrassment for what Target and Walmart are today in comparison.
I totally agree! As time goes on I find myself buying less and less hasbro products, (unless I find them on clearance ) and moving onto other companies like Valaverse. And hasbro used to be my go to. Just tired of disappointed after disappointment from them.
Everything said in this video is what I've been observing, too, in the last 15 years or so up here on the west coast of Canada. I got back into collecting Transformers a little after the first live action movie. When the second movie released, there was a sea of transformers, on pegs, in boxes, and in so many varieties from movies and TV. If you had a modicum of patience, you were almost guaranteed to get what you wanted at retail, maybe even on sale. When the third movie came out, there was a noticeable decline in availability. It's been downhill ever since. The prices have double, availability has shrunk, and quality has dropped. The only thing that has improved is their ability to mask cost cutting tricks. Right before Covid, I had decided to stop collecting Transformers after a certain line and move on to the new Gi-Joe classified. I was still going to cherry pick Transformers that I found interesting, but otherwise, the prices were just too much, and I really didn't need any more repeats of characters. After you get your 40th version of Optimus Prime, the next one starts to loose its luster. Any way, to make a long story short, I never finished collecting that last Transformers line, and I've almost completely given up on collecting the Gi-Joe classified, because of availability. Even though I have a source to pre-order and guarantee that I can get something I want, I've been worn out. I simply don't care enough anymore. I still check the sparsely stock shelves from time to time, and when I see something I might want, like the Marvel Squadron Supreme figures, I look at the price tag, I look a the fact that it's a two box instead of a single figure, and I sigh because the cost is more than two individual figures. At that point, I put it back down and walk away.
Question: what is hasbro gonna do when we have had our fill of these ips and or we are all dead? They wont have any toys or new ips for nostalgia for the new generations. I know thats a long way off but now is the time to establish new customers
Outstanding! This video is why I’ve really taken a step back and look at other people creating content to justify the importance of haslabs: why would a multibillion dollar company who “targets” kids, need to crowdfund a large item, That only adults will buy for themselves?
It's more efficient, Walmart doesn't want a $600 Unicron taking up shelf space, they won't even clearance a $40 Tie Bomber after 4 years of collecting dust. Some Targets clearance toys 75 to 90%. Would we get any of the Haslab stuff from typical retailers? I think not.
Wasn't it just about a year ago that the adult collectors' market was being dismissed and ignored as being insignificant when compared against total spending for the industry by some "experts"? Seem to remember that kidadults was the pejorative term.
Yeah, trying to find merchandise in the wild has been becoming more and more difficult. Online purchases have been growing to fill collections. All the older department stores are of course gone with the dinos. It was fun and exciting going up the toy aisle to see the new offerings, now a couple key strokes and whoop there it is.
I had the same experience as you. Found Cliffjumper in Target. My favorite Transformer when I was a kid. Was excited to buy him until I saw the price was $25! Put him back on the peg while he was still warm, walked past the Tiger Force Dusty that had been guarding the aisle for months and never looked back.
As a 40 y/o man this year remembering commercials that simply do not exist is sad. Imagine seeing a cobra hammerhead ad on YT. I would be so pumped. Also these big box distros need to held accountable. Hasbro needs to do better ultimately.
At this point they'd be better off just licensing third party makers like they did for some of their Transformers toys and figures. At least they''re available on retail.
While I don't disagree with what you're saying, Michael, for example, the transformers line is called "legacy" I think you're missing another key point. Play patterns have changed, for example kids are moving to video games instead of action figures. While poor decisions by hasbro, etc, may have contributed to this issue, the competition has never been fiercer, and I don't know how you change those patterns back.... M.A.S.K , it's a crime they haven't rebooted it.
I'm not sure what sort of money kids have these days but I was lucky to scrape together a few bucks to by a pack of 5 M.U.S.C.L.E./ kinnikuman minis back in the day.
So, based on what I’ve seen, I really wonder how the Final Faction toys are performing with kids among all of this. It’s the Dollar Tree GI Joe/Star Wars line of action figures and vehicles that cost a buck or two. I think collectors are probably targeting that TOO because some of the more interesting characters are impossible to find.
Excellent Points. Kids are now priced out of comics and toys and even the basics. We are in an economy now where everyone has to work, even if your age 3. And I love the analysis of the toy aisle resembling something like the Soviet Union. Where the product is way in the back, and not celebrated for kids or adults. The industry is really in a free fall for everyone. Uncle Tim has even stated when we die, they might as well bury our action figures and stuff with us. Since nobody is gonna appreciate it after us. The industry had a great run, but it feels like I am in purgatory. Sure we can get stuff more easily through ebay and amazon and other outlets, but now the inventory is limited. Ahhh!! We can't survive in this economy. Neither can kids, toys, movies and everything that keeps our imaginations going. Hasbro asking for crowd funding is proof of that. I mean come on....
The Adult Collecting Community is wildly out of touch with how and where Hasbro makes money. Hasbro isn't really a toy company anymore. They are a collectable card game and TTRPG company that dabbles in toys now. Nearly all of its profit come from WotC products like Magic the Gathering and D&D. The toy profits, particularly by individual lines, are a drop in the bucket comparably. Especially from their licenced brands. Im sure Play Doh and Monopoly are some of their strongest performers in toys because they appeal across the board to everyone and arguably define their toy "archetype." Licenses are fatigued, overpriced and languishing everywhere with the exception of bright spots like G.I. Joe. How long until Hasbro takes the turn and just drops licensed toys entirely? Three years of inventory issues issues up for a fraction of the cost at discount stores makes me think we may not be too far away from a serious reduction or termination of many licensed product lines.
Just wait for Snake Eyes and Timber to show up at your local Ollies. I just picked up Hand and Diana for 9.99 a piece there, and waiting for the rest of the kids to show up.
I have worked in retail for 3 decades, in various capacities from sweeping floors to managing departments. You want your products to sell? Pricing, availability, and advertising! It's not hard. It's simple. Gimmicks may work. Marketing tie-ins may work. But sticking to the fundamentals is fool proof. Hasbro is like a restaurant with access to great ingredients serving familiar dishes but with too many inept cooks messing up the menu! Pricing, availability, and advertising, plus new management!!!
The challenge in today’s market is targeting the advertising correctly. Before 2000 it was simple. Commercials on watched programs for the demographics they’re targeting. Today there is so many apps, streamers, and even video games occupying kids time, that specific targeted marketing is near impossible.
Imagine how much advertising Hasbro could of done with the 4 billion dollars they spent on studio IPs
@@joehenry9546 And arguably it applies to any and all companies, be they Hasbro, Mattel, Playmates, even non-toy companies like Frito-Lay or Samsung.
It's to the point where all of them are charging prices for things that get worse year after year, doesn't matter if it's action figures, dolls, board games, video games, food, drink, consumer electronics - They're all affected.
@@joehenry9546 kids of today watch LESS TV, I see more shows and commericals targeted to BOOMERS.
The advertisements back in the day were the cartoons themselves. Nowadays everything is lazily made, even the theme songs are utterly garbage and generic.
They did the same thing to the sports card market. Instead of marketing it to kids, it is now marketed to adults. A regular child could not afford a pack of cards today. Real shame.
Boomers - "Why kids have it so easy these days, they can just pay for a pack of cards with their allowance! Why, back in my day, we didn't have an allowance, we had to work hard throwing news papers, mowing the lawns, collecting bottles for recycling, running beverage stands, all during a blizzard, 18 hours a day ever day, and we had school too, walking ten miles uphill both ways! They gotta toughen up and learn some pain because I hate these little shi--I mean, teach them some respect!"
@@ahmataevo
I'm surprised you didn't mention fighting two lions, who now do your taxes.
I was a teen collecting basketball cards in the 90's. They werent cheap then either, but I bet its a lot worse now.
The biggest issue with marketing to adults is price point. When a kid could buy a pack of cards for under a dollar and possibly get something worth 50-100 bucks- you had wild fire.
My son will hound me for Pokeman card packs, they’re inexpensive (50 cent packs- to which he will buy 20-40 bucks worth over a two week period).
Want to see a garage full of sports cards, action figures, slot cars, and Lego that my (now) 18, 13, and 13-year old boys can’t even see through their iPhones running on 1% battery or the PS5 they begged for? I tried for years … they want what their friends want: screens. Can I blame a kid for wanting Forza over endlessly cleaning Tyco track so the pickup shoes can warm up?
Aging Gen-Xer here; I am done with nostalgia. Last time I was tempted at Target to buy the animated Boba Fett(just a repaint really), I told myself that's a tank of gas right there & Buyer's Remorse later. I think I mostly agree, maybe even wholeheartedly agree, with your assessment. Kids still want toys but most toys today are landfill of the near future. 😢
Plus they totally changed boba fett from the Empire Strikes Back version, so why even bother?
You're right about future land fills. I love toys, always have since I was four (the earliest I can remember) and I had experienced everything from model trains to Star Wars to Zoids to Transformers, etc. Those toys from the 60's to the mid-90's were simply too awesome and I know many of them are nearly impossible to get your hands on. But they are worth it. The garbage I see now is just that: garbage. Over-priced junk that will never increase in value (Funko Pops) and will ultimately end up in a landfill somewhere, poisoning the land. And some of the worst offenders are Gen-Xers like me that are consumed by a weird all-too encompassing sense of "nostalgia." So these ones, who ought to know better, are spending truck loads of money on worthless junk. And this nostalgia crap has to STOP. There is NO moving forward with fresh ideas, it's just miring oneself in the past, and that foul well is rapidly running dry. After it does, what then? There's nothing newer or better waiting in the wings. Simply sad, but preventable at the same time.
100%. Hasbro has consistently been pricing kids out of toys for years. They will die with us if they don't course-correct immediately. Well said Michael.
Agree. Like who wants to buy a 25 dollar action figure for a child who may break them right away?
They’ve been pricing this adult out of toys for years too!
I'm thinking about buying a $400 toy, but I would never buy one for a kid. A $50 version of the same toy for a kid, absolutely.
@@mattdawg83686that’s what I was going to say. 👍
"They will die with us..." well said!!
I don't care what hasbro's excuses are, the fact that the price of transformers has literally doubled over the last 20 years is F&$king stupid and inexcusable.
What about transformers that dont transform? Ridiculous
Exactly. Which is why the price of food and fuel is identical to the prices from 2003
In 2003 i was nervous but did ask my parents for a deluxe class transformers and got one that i cherished.
These days they have gotten worse and so expensive me with a salary doesnt buy them
Yeah because its not like anything has gone up in price over the last 20 years...
@@vilebasterd5729 Your name sure is correct.
The problem isnt going up in price, its also the persistent decline of quality and the ammount of stuff you can buy for that inflated price.
A 2007 deluxe class Transformers had more durable plastic and was bigger than a Voyager class today that costs three times more.
If food saw inflation of this type, people would be rioting.
There's also a reason why those figures end up at stores like Ollie's rather than larger cities. They don't want people in their biggest buying markets to perceive those brands as being worth less than the retail price. It's why when Mattel ships certain things to Big Lots, they make deals to avoid cheaper product ending up in bigger markets - to the point where they even have certain products cost MORE in bigger markets than in smaller markets. (a few years back you could find Ghostbusters 2 figures for almost 80 dollars each in California Big Lots in bigger cities and MUCH cheaper in smaller cities. It's a crazy deep dive behind the curtain when you do the research.
I commented to a mate of mine just the other day.....never in my life would I have thought that a little over a decade after Disney bought Lucasfilm that I would walk into the toy section of my local Kmart and not see a single Hasbro Star Wars toy on the shelf. Disney's destruction of the most successful movie brand of all time is truly staggering.
I miss Kmart.
The problem is that you are walking into the toy section of Kmart...a company that has been on life support for over a decade. Why anyone would expect to see a well stocked toy department in a Kmart in 2023 is beyond me.
@@robertdickson9319 Kmart in Australia has no connection with its US namesake and is not suffering the same misfortunes. In fact, Kmart is one of Australia's most trusted brands. Kmart here not having Hasbro Star Wars is akin to McDonalds not having a cheeseburger in their menu.
@@robertdickson9319it’s the same at walmart
It’s delicious. Disney sucks now
BTW, NO CROWD FUND was ever marketed to children. NEVER ONCE. Children do not have $300 for props they already got at Spirit Halloween for
Crowd funding is nonsense...it was never a thing in the 80s and 90s so why do they (HasBLOW) think its fine now?
👋
As a transformers collector, I yern for the days when a transformers character's genesis started with "you know what would make a fun toy", rather than "how can we milk the same design we've been rehashing for the last 40 years?"
We've been getting new charaters every line, the modulators, fossilizers etc are exactly what you're asking.
@@HAGZ0483 What puts me off personally is rather than having a brand new set of characters, a brand new set of ideas for toys we 90% of the time will always have Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee and various other G1 characters or their names reused because of the fact Hasbro has to keep using their names or lose the trademarks, which they already have lost the name of for characters like Bluestreak, Jazz and Hound a decade or so ago. That might've changed now but it did happen. When you compare the Transformers market now to say what Japan was doing in the late 80's, we had new toys, new characters and even new shows which didn't reuse many characters. Its a way to keep Transformers fresh and doesn't always have to mean total reboots with existing characters.
@@GinraiPrime666 Why wouldn't you keep using the pillars of the franchise? just like every justice legue cartoon and toyline has superman and bat-man, thats what makes a brand successful.
@@HAGZ0483 As successful as in the 90´s, until Kenner had rescued the Transformers name just barely with Beast Wars, doing something completely new?
I´m sick and tired of the same old faces and names on repeat.
I have concluded my collection for good because of quality, prices, stagnation and unashamed corporate models trying to pricegauge my emotional investment in nostalgia.
And I´m by far not the only one who totally quit collecting or is approaching the definitive end fast.
Mainstream Pop Culture as a whole industry has to think really hard and fast what they want to do after us, if they want to continue to exist.
@@Thysamithan Completely new like prime vs megatron just in different altmodes? we already had beastformers on the late years of g1, the lack of media support and cheaping out selling mostly repaints on g2 is what almost killed TF on america.
The amount of transformers I’ve picked up for 10 bucks at Ross and Ollie’s is insane . $60 toys for 16. 20 for 9, the ark for 50?
Wow impressive imagine you saved a lot
Shame we don’t have Olies here in Canada Id do the same
WHAT ! I guess I need to check Ross and Ollies. I need an Ark....... Unless a third party makes one better. *LOL*
I picked up one for $7 and it was the most flimsy POS made of plastic I have seen.
"Let's Market to Boomers"
Boomers spend their money on big things like trips and cars, are downsizing into smaller homes and they were never big into buying toys anyway."
"Lets market to Gen-Xers"
Gen X-ers are big into Star Wars but have to spend all of their extra money to buy groceries and support their families.
"Let's market to Millennials"
Millennials are BIG into toys but have to save every extra cent so they can buy an overpriced shoebox house and start a family.
"Let's Market to Gen-Zers"
.Zoomers barely have the money to afford the rent on a one bedroom fleabag apartment, and when they do have extra cash, they spend it on cheaper, more ephemeral pleasures like video games. They're more into anime and manga anyway.
"Let's Market to Women"
Women have little interest in Action Toys and those women who are big into Barbie usually aren't having children to pass that love onto. The recent Barbie movie was aimed at 40 year old feminists, not children.
"Let's Market to Social Justice Warriors"
SJWs will support a company's decision to pander to them because they view it as a win for their Cause, but that support rarely translates into actual sales.
"We've run out of people to Market to."
Children: "How come I can never find any cool toys at the store?"
If Takara, Bandai, Medicom, and other Japnese toy companies started selling their toys across North American retailers like Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart, they could annihilate Hasbro, Mattel, and maybe even NECA. I think we, Japanese, care about toy crafting and its quality way more than anyone else in the world
I'm impress with Bandai Figurs Spawn looks Amazing with Bandai fashion Care if u play Elden Ring That's also Bandai Creation i could see how they Make toy s Look like The Video characters & detailing On action Figurs
This is so well said! The sad part is that this is almost exclusively for “Boys Toys”.
I have a daughter and the girls toys are filled to the brim, stocked shelves, tons of new products, and legacy brands. All geared towards kids.
But just a couple of aisles over in the action figure aisles, it’s like a desert wasteland. Mostly geared towards adult collectors.
It’s a really sad state of affairs.
I see Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse playsets come our of Trailers at me Amazon facility all the time.
I think where a lot of where the crossed swords between Michael and people like toyguru occur comes down to how you define toys. The vast majority of toys are sold to children, however the bulk of that are preschool toys, cars and puzzle type toys, also toys figures tend to include things like bicycles and playground style equipment, even at times some sporting goods and pool stuff is collected under the toys category. However most collectors definition of toys are action figures which make up a relative small percentage of "toy" sales and all signs would point to the majority of action figure sales being adult based.
Hasbro reminds me a lot of Disney. They had their properties and then suddenly bought out some of their competitors for their strongest IP and never thought about phase 2. They expected to go straight from acquisition to profit and it shows.
This year's Barbie movie and your post reminded me of an event in 1964--Mattel bought the rights to the Lilli doll.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild_Lilli_doll
My sister had a Bild Lilli doll, though I'm not sure why or how--I do remember that the hair was bolted to the head and that the shoes were molded onto the feet. Even today I see cheap dollar store 12" fashion dolls with these features. Mattel didn't buy out a competitor in order to go straight from acquisition to profit because Barbie was already out-selling all competitors with a sound concept (little girls can be anything they want to be) and a solid marketing strategy called "razor and razor blades."
Bild Lilli was a gold digger--she went out for a good time. Men bought Lilli things just to be with her. Lilli's niche market was very limited as was her line of clothing and accessories in either 7.5" or 12" format.
Barbie's frontier was the limits of imagination as alluded to in the 2023 Barbie movie. Barbie was never anatomically correct but was too "curvy" for mothers who wanted to raise decent daughters and be blessed with grandchildren. Barbie's world was far more expansive (and invasive) than Lilli's world. The cheap knockoffs resembling Barbie and Lilli sold, but here's the irony: Barbie outfits for those cheap dolls proved to sell better. The "razor/razorblade" concept is selling the razor cheap to use proprietary blades and then selling LOTS of blades to a guaranteed customer. Who cared if an ugly knockoff doll sold for half of a real Barbie when the cheap knockoff doll needed a dream house, a car, a boyfriend, and far more clothes than Lilli had? Besides, American girls knew the importance of having matching accessories, especially footwear. Those permanently molded-on shoes clashed with most outfits! It was all about the accessories and Barbie's "impossible" body was designed to look good in Playscale clothing. Fabric thickness would make the doll "look fat" if Barbie dressed in layers as did adult American women in the Fifties and Sixties--the real women also were confined in girdles and corsets and bras and had a slip or two under their dresses--and stockings, too! Barbie didn't.
The problem was the American system of civil courts. Lilli's IP owners could sue, and even when they lost in court, Mattel would have taken a hit paying for lawyers. Bad publicity in the Doll Wars would potentially hurt sales. It was less expensive and good marketing to buy out a rival even though there was little chance that Lilli would win against successful Barbie. Anything can happen during a jury trial. I regard Mattel's buyout as a permanent out-of-court settlement. Why didn't Mattel simply churn out Lilli dolls and go from acquisition to profit? Barbie better fitted the market--selling dreams to little girls. Lilli was an inferior product in that marketplace. Barbie was the empress of the world of little girls' dreams. The "profit" was avoiding a messy and expensive legal battle. "You can't patent the human body" and Barbie had design differences--and a totally middle-class American small-town background. Lilli was in a dead-end job trading on her youth and beauty. Barbie was making a mark on the world and the sky was no limit--Astronaut Barbie broke that glass ceiling. Barbie was selling quite well--the Lilli investment was to prevent future legal actions because both were adult female dolls that had interchangeable outfits and were not the good Hausfrau--Lilli was an office worker and Barbie was a career woman, but that difference might have escaped the notice of the courts.
Disney has had a love-hate relationship with Mattel because without going to premium dolls Mattel's quality produced superior Disney princesses with the right price point. Disney had problems with its "A Bug's Life" and "Tangled:" rival studios had released "Antz" and "Rapunzel" before the Disney edition hit the market. No doubt that the Daily Wire production of "Snow White and the Evil Queen" is giving Team Disney an excuse for their wretched production. Buying IPs and then sitting on them is a good way to limit competition--but Disney sitting on "Sound of Freedom" for five years can be viewed as unfair competition under the Sherman Anti-trust Act. Acquisitions can go only so far. Mattel bought out a rival because even though that Lilli IP was no competition in Barbie's marketplace there is more than one way to turn a buck. If you cannot compete, SUE!!!
When I was getting my business degree I was able to verify that large corporations develop bloated bureaucracies that strangle those corporations. I observed the corporate take-over of the boardroom and the rest of the company by Human Resources--and the shedding of skilled labor--during the late Eighties and early Nineties. I offered this advice to a smug manager after being turned down for a job ("overqualified" and didn't fit into their company ecosystem) that he needed to learn a trade or get his CV circulating NOW because firing all the workers gave managers nothing to exercise their people skills on. Fax machines were being replaced by the office computer sending electronic text messages. Filing cabinets were being displaced by computer files. I had a degree in electronics majoring in telecommunications with a minor in computer science--the two were merging at the time ("Now all restaurants are Taco Bell"--er, all communications are digital microprocessor based) and why have someone to manage the secretarial pool when voice to text would eventually replace the typist? No more mail girls, either--mail would be significantly reduced. I entered business school with a lot of misconceptions--for one, I thought restaurants served food, but what the restaurant sells is SERVICE. The product that entertainment companies and toy companies produce is the service of fun. Sometimes pursuit of profit obscures how the company arrived at the bottom line.
Mattel didn't buy the IP rights to Lilli to buy profits from selling that doll. Mattel bought the IP rights so that Mattel didn't bleed out in court.
Have u seen the Disney Figure Tod McFarland came out with they look cool but prizes it's worth it if your collecting Disney. still McFarland Toys are growing on people & now kids Disney McFarland figures are outgrowing Hasbro they Akways Say Smaller Comoany Are makeing More Money compare to Hasbro i have not Got me Hasbro toys In A long time prizes are high on plastic that Made America 🇺🇸 grow look at legos where they are Going
Hasbro better act together company s like McFarland. can buy them out The Greatest Creator Of img comics Tod. McFarland he sold. img comics & invested in Creating Action figurs & doing It for Kids & adults McFarland. Was smart he can buy out Hasbro & run the Toy busness Prizing Action figurs is important
I have been having a field day at Ross over the past month. Almost every exclusive transformers figure have been showing up for 1/3 of the normal price.
Tell me about it. I found Studio Series Preceptor, Tomax and Xamot from GI Joe, and the Sideswipe/Skywarp 2-Pack all at Ross all for the cost of maybe two figures at retail.
Any company that has billions to lose on pointless ventures but refuses to give us a $10 deluxe class transformer deserves to go under.
Hasbro is not the same company that made my childhood. Now it feels like a vampire.
I honestly think that the only reason the Haslab fundraisers happened was to basically be life support to the Hasbro online shop which wouldve been shuttered anyway.
I think at least part of it is a "might as well" proposition. They have a bunch of projects fans/collectors keep asking for but which they're not confident they can actually sell, so it's probably worth the minimal development costs to at least see if some of them can.
There's also a good reason why Transformers is the only brand that hasn't had a failed campaign yet. Hasbro KNOWS the transformers fandom will absolutely riot if they throw in a bunch of cheap repaints or lazy add-ons for campaigns. They almost flew to close to the sun for Unicron, that BARELY made it through. But I've never heard anyone express buyer's remorse for Victory Saber, and I assume Deathsaurus will be the same way.
@@TransDrummer1312GI Joe hasn't had a failed campaign yet.
Hasbro is creatively bankrupt while acting like they'll go bankrupt by improving quality of their products. Then they wonder why everything is pegwarming and hurting their sales.
Mattel too. Very poor decision making.
Yes sir, just like Hollywood, the toy companies have lost all imagination and simply want to tread well-worn paths. They seem to have forgotten that trailblazing new paths is what made them big brands to begin with.
Do they wonder though? Cause they have already made their money by selling to the retailer.
At least Transformers are still cool I guess, but a lot of that is thanks to Takara. You look at the kids Transformers toylines that Hasbro's shat out to go with RID15-Earthspark and.... yikes.
I’m going to add this comment on because it’s in relation to this discussion, but has anyone else noticed a major decline in customer service in general? It’s gotten to a point when I walk into a store nobody says hello…Just today I called a restaurant to place an order for pickup and they literally just picked up the phone and didn’t even say hello! What’s going on with businesses in general these days? It almost feels like we are legitimately on the last leg of our current system, and I have no idea what comes next.
Not just you. My wife and I were talking about this too. We are late 40s Gen-Xers and we cannot believe the decline in customer service. It's astonishing.
@@sci-fi.tsunamiDude, that's just nuts! I think everyone is being driven mad by too much social media, too much divisiveness in politics and news, inflation, lack of meaning and purpose, comparing our lives to others, and on and on. I hope you can find another shop to do the repairs. But like the recent new clip from South Park "Into the Panderverse", handymen can behave rudely with impunity now because they're in such great demand from a society of people who no longer know how to do anything.
Maybe the persom who answered the phone at the restaurant was a young person with no social skills and very poor training. Management should train people to do these things. If you ever get to go to an In N Out burger, you'll see what good service looks like. They still select and train their employees well. Same with Chik Fil A.
Thats a good thing. Its very American for people to smile at you and say hello and pretend they are happy while working in retail.
More honesty is good.
maybe the Americans had the right idea@@StudSnob
Ollie’s is America’s largest retailer of closeout merchandise and excess inventory. Means that Hasbro and Mattel have warehouses of these toys collecting dust, I have seen toys based on movies that came out like 5 years ago. You are right they never got to the stores.
Meanwhile LEGO can take those IPs (SW and Marvel) and produce enough toys to satisfy kids and adults alike... no BS unless you try to get a year old or retired set, you get whatever you want when it's released at any number of retailer or online....
Toy companies are just adjusting to the times. This isn't the 80's and 90's anymore, when kids reach a certain age, they lose interest in toys and gravitate more towards video games and other electronics (like smart phones and tablets).
Kids today don't have the same upbringing we had. They don't play in the streets and they don't really play with action figures beyond the ages of 9 or 10.
Toy companies have shifted to adult collectors because we are the ones keeping the market alive. The reason kids don't play with toys isn't because they can't find toys, they are simply not as interested in them, as our generations were. They much rather spend their time playing games online with their friends or on social media.
Marketing isn't the problem or poor strategy, it's just a shift in modern culture, which has changed over time and technology is the reason why.
On point. So sad we have not seen modern toys of M.A.S.K.. Inhumanoids, Centurions and Visionaries. These could have been epic toy lines. Re-releasing the orginal versions of these toys to kids while at the same time making collector versions for adults seams like a no brainer. They could also release HD versions of the cartoons or at least time this with re-releases of the originals, not "modern" interpretations of these cartoon on DVD or digital. They do this and kids could be introduced to these classics and many of their parents who loved these shows growing up would have something to share with their kids. Why has this not happened? I just introduced shows like Jem and Gummy Bears to my teenage daughter and she loved them but that was it because there was no other merchandise or toys to go with them. BTW she said she hated all the "modern" stuff aimed at her age group and was looking for something else which gave me the idea to share these with her.
I’m starting to get really angry about how predatory GI Joe Classified has been. Every potential troop builder has either been an exclusive or a deluxe figure, forcing you to shell out even more than than you should have.
The funny thing is the "exclusive" title only applies to contries were the store has branches
And let's not even get into the fact that some figures never hit retail in some areas only to show up at Ross for $6 apiece (Tomax and Xamot). And yes, I bought them.
That is why I stopped collecting that line.
I remember buying an IronMan and Whiplash from the second movie. Came with whips, plates that moved, elbow and knee joints, balls on the hips. The paint wasn't stellar, but you could do the superhero-landing pose with both of them, they stood up on their own.
IronMan3 came out and I bought a couple of the cooler background armours. They came with a second arm with a toy feature, but no longer any joints on the elbows, no balls on the shoulders or hip and no paint at all and that's where I stopped. -Since then, they've lost the play feature and (at least here in the UK) nearly DOUBLED in price.
I've collected Nerf blasters since I was very small. I bought one at goodwill the other day and was marveling while watching your video at how the bodyshells are a good 4mm thick heavy plastic. I could drop this down the stairs and it would be perfectly fine. I've got blasters I bought in the early 2000s that still run and look as good as they did when I got 'em.
Over the last few years they've gone to flimsy plastic bodies that are thinner than the knock-off brands, and shoot maybe 1/3 as well, at 3x the price of the competition.
Who are these aimed at? The figures are of obscure versions, too basic, and/or too expensive for kids. They're too s**t for adults.
Like movies and TV shows, even videogames, these companies are chasing nostalgia from a market they've also alienated by repeatedly telling them *"we don't care about our older fans"* while not bothering to make a toy a child can even *play* with without breaking it.
Iron man 2 was released THIRTEEN YEARS AGO
I am 100% convinced they funded the remaining Haslab "backers" themselves. There was no way they could go into today's Livestream with another failed crowd fund!
What failed this time?
Or they just inflated the numbers. Just no way it could be funded at the last minute. Instead of needing 10k backers they only got 5-6k and said screw it. Get it done.
It's a big company. I wouldn't put it past them.They're making money either way.
I think you are missing two major points. First: Pre-orders have killed the retail stores. I pre-order EVERYTHING from BBTS, EE, Pulse, etc. It seems like most collectors are now pre-ordering figures. It takes too much time to hunt stuff down. Second: Kids today don't play with toys as much as we did... they play video games. The younger generations will collect video games when they are older.
You are missing the broader point that pre-orders happened AFTER the toy companies started abandoning marketing to kids. They created a self-fulfilling prophecy. But hey, if you wanna keep arguing this with me, you can also argue with the actual toy industry that PROVED all of this in the recent article discussing the industry now prioritizing adults.
In the 60's and 70's, Hasbro's designers were taught that they had to "think like a ten year old." But they have given that up. I like that I can get G.I. Joe Classified, but they are NOT targeted at 10 year olds or younger. Leave the collectibles to the companies licensing from Hasbro, and make fun toys for the next generation to love.
I have been in awe of the history of Hasbros rise to the top as the largest toy company in the world thanks to GI Joe Transformers, and My Little Pony. Yet I have seen throughout my childhood to adulthood that they have dropped the ball significantly time and again despite owning almost every property that has made money in the past century.
If they wanted to bring back GI Joe in the 3 3/4" scale they could and even retool rerelease and make old and new vehicles and playsets for fan they could sell all 500+ action figures and the nearly 100 vehicles and playsets without needing to add anything to them and even keep the price relatively cheep on store shelves while making a profit. For the lore/comics/cartoons find anyone who is a fan of this property and or has worked on and respected the lore that came beforehand. There is no need to force inclusivity into it as the entire toy line and series was already inclusive and wasn't in your face about it. From Tunnel Rat, Road Block, Heavy Duty, Jinx, Stalker, Spirit, Scarlet, Cover Girl, and Zap, (just name a few) these are all people who are either non-white or women and have their own characteristics and feel real.
For Transformers focus on the bots fighting a nearly endless civil war on another world expand it with other aliens, factions and threats while focusing on the story and characters to get kids and adults interested in the show and toys.
For MLP, look at the entirety of the 4th Gen take notes on what made it so appealing to so many people and add to it, tell fun stories and sell merchandise to the kids.
For the licesnsed properties create cheeper products stay away from crowd funding and make plasets and vehicles large enought to fit the action figures. (Looking at you Star Wars).
If they do this they should be fine, but i think it will take them losing a lot more money before they get this message.
I feel for G.I. Joe fans... when Hasbro purchased Power Rangers outright (not just the toy license), I was really at odds what to make of it. On one hand, I was happy we might see some better worldwide distribution (we didn't). I was hoping that the toyline they were promising might inject some new life and garner some more mainstream attention (it didn't). I was hoping the show will be in safe hands (it wasn't). Instead what we got was a hit-or-miss collector's line (which is usually 1 step forward, 3 steps back on a lot of the product, despite some truly great figures here and there), a kids toyline that they downscale so much on a yearly basis, the 30th anniversary season does not have a SINGLE action figure or zord on the market (and maybe even planned), absolute clowns at events ("Move on to Star Wars, come on, guys") and the show that's been going on continuously for 30 years ending production because Hasbro have zero idea what they're doing with the brand...
To use a quote from "RoboCop": "...what a bunch of morons. They're gonna manage this department right into the ground."
Why would you buy a franchise outright and deliberately try to move away from adapting Sentai footage from Toei, if you don't have long-terms plans for it and are simply going to kill it? There's no way anyone can convince me that over the past 10 years, Power Rangers has been serious competition for Transformers...
I never had this problem with Bandai America, because while they goofed up from time to time, PR was still their star brand. But now that Hasbro's in charge I completely understand all of the complaints I've been seeing from fans of their other franchises over the years...
I’m glad you were able to check out Ollie’s. It’s jaw-dropping how much product goes from target, Walmart and toys r us to Ollie’s. Crazy thing is that it’s still mostly products kids don’t want so they continue to remain peg warmers. Jeff of World Class Bullshitters makes vids of the toys that don’t sell even at clearance.
Part of the discount store is distribution. Target & walmarts get cases of one figure and then if figure isn't hot it sits and stores don't order the next several waves. Meaning some area that would buy never see the toys and they go to bargain stores wherever they're dumped.
@@wesleyhendricks2486 Absolutly distributions is a huge problem! But also not given fans what they want or understanding the market is a huge problem. The fact you have Popular mainline gi joes as very limited pulse and convention exclusives is mindboggling!
@@wesleyhendricks2486I wonder what role Amazon may have played in all these other retailers' distributioj issues, if any. It seems like maybe once the big river started taking such a large market share, all the brick and mortar retailers started going to hell.
Checked out an Ollie’s yesterday and it’s literally a Toy Graveyard. Boxes of phase 4 MCU Legends, retro carded Falcons, and those fortnite arcades were 1.99 each. No wonder people aren’t paying full price for these. Wait a few months and you’ll find it at an Ollie’s or a Ross
I'd pick up a Retro Carded Falcon for $6 if I saw it at Ross. Distribution is even worse on the west coast though. None of those figures probably ever crossed the Mississippi.
what can you say about kenner toys
Michael, you nailed it. It would be way too easy to say “why are they doing such a shotty job marketing to adult collectors?” But in reality, ignoring the kids is sinking them right now and ultimately could ruin them. All of this GiJoe stock is headed to Ollies. I am adult, I can wait patiently for it all to end up there. Kids won’t/don’t wait. So many lost opportunities for Hasbro. Sad.
I'll trade the Ollie's in my area for the ones in yours. All I see from Classified in Ollie's are Lady Jayes and Snake Eyes movie figures...maybe 20 figs per store, compared to the 100s of Marvel Legends they all have.
@@lonedragon3261 it’s a waiting game. Unfortunately, the closest Ollies to me is 34 miles away and not easy to get to. When I travel, I look up the closest ones and visit them. One Ollies in Aurora, Illinois is full of classified figures. The one across town in Streamwood, has none.
Where is Hasbro "ignoring the kids"? All I see on the shelves are Hasbro toys aimed at kids - the Transformers cartoon line is not selling. Star Wars role-play & Grogu toys are clogging the aisles (yet I can't consistently find TVC figs). All of the 5 POA Marvel figures intended for kids are hanging out at Walmart. Plenty of Hasbro board games, preschool toys & arts/crafts are on the shelves. Hasbro is NOT ignoring the kids - they are ignoring the adult collector market and fighting a losing battle with kids buying toys in general.
@@robertdickson9319 You kind of made the point clearer. Even with shelves full of toys, they seem to have no idea how to market to kids. The kids don’t want the stuff. From a certain point of view, that’s ignoring the kids.
@@jjdinanno4147 Well, I guess "from a certain point of view" that may be considered "ignoring" the kids but IMO that's a stretch. We can agree though that the shelves have plenty of product for kids & we can agree that, in general, the kids don't want them - or maybe the parents are not willing to pay the current prices for them.
As far as marketing to kids where do you feel Hasbro is dropping the ball? I'm assuming they still have focus groups & market research telling them where the best options for their ad $$$ are. I see plenty of toy ads on the TH-cam videos aimed at kids. There are still cartoons on open-air, cable & streaming TV as well as older stuff on TH-cam/streaming. There are super hero, fantasy & sci-fi movies out today that we would have died for in the 80's. Realistically, kids today still have access to the same marketing strategies that hooked us 40 years ago and, depending on how you get your entertainment, they have more access to the stuff than we did. I just don't see what other options are available to Hasbro that you feel they need to do a better job of exploiting.
I think the big issue is not that Hasbro is failing at marketing, it's that they are fighting a losing battle - lower birth rates in general mean a smaller audience. Higher prices mean parents are not as likely to buy a kid a toy while grocery shopping. Toys R Us no longer exists. Kids are more interested in video entertainment at a much earlier age than they were when we were kids. Lego is a far more popular toy today than it was 40 yrs ago which vaccums up a lot of disposable income. IMO too many collectors are still stuck in the 80's and early 90's and seem to think that the toy manufacturers should still be operating that way in today's world; I don't see it happening.
I could listen to this man talk about the toy industry for hours. Great video.
When Matty Collector existed and did the He-Man Classics like I noticed a price bump at retail after a few years. The Hammond Collection Brachiosaurus proves what you can get to retail in size and quality.
And here’s the death spiral. The toy industry has now missed out on people who would be passionate to work at hasbro and Mattel won’t work there. The people who should have grown up with toys didn’t because they couldn’t find them or couldn’t afford them so they went else where. The people in The toy industry during the 1990’s grew up smashing Luke against stormtroopers. But the kids who were playing with tmnt did the “sell to adults like me.” And no there are no kids growing up with toys. So who’s inspired to make the next line?
I truly believe the age of the action figure will completely die when Gen X and Millennials are gone. I have two sons. One 19. Who briefly played with action figures as kid but never stuck with them for long and 3 year which obviously right now just loves his cars , trains and trucks. We will see if he takes an interest as he gets older. Im guessing probably not.
The age of technology is also a culprit here. Video games are what young Millennials and especially Gen Z hold dear. That’s their childhood memories. Now granted, that can vary depending on how they were raised, but the majority of these children are raised with heavy tablet usage. That effects everything. As stated in the video the toy aisle are shrinking drastically. The only thing smaller than toy aisles are physical media sections. Toys with be the next thing to go except for toys geared for babies and toddlers.
Are the big toy companies to blame? Most definitely! The change in technology and societal life is also a huge factor as well. Keep in mind the true idea of what we think of when we hear action figure has only been around since the birth of Megos and didn’t get really take the toy world by storm until kenner Star Wars. That’s around 5 decades and only really 3 of those were at a pinnacle of popularity, 70s/80s/90s.
Great video! I collect Vintage Collection Star Wars. I live in an area in CO where we don't get mass quantities of figures. We don't have Ollie's out here either. I always cringe when I see full pegs of Star Wars figures on clearance that people post from Ollie's. I would had bought these figures at my Target or Walmart if they had been distributed and sold there. Otherwise I have to order off the Hasbro Pulse site and the prices seem to get more inflated as time goes on. I feel I'm getting priced out of the hobby. So I pick and choose carefully what I buy now. Even when it comes to crowdfunding their toys.
Two big back to back retro blasting videos. Michael never sleeps
The last real attempt to market G.I. Joe to kids for any prolonged period was Sigma 6. The 25th anniversary (and subsequent series) were all targeted to nostalgia buyers. The Rise of Cobra was a tepid attempt to market to kids by adding spring-loaded features.
Hasbro has lost kids. It's evident when you walk down the toy aisles at Walmart/Target or if you spend time with any actual children whose parents don't push nostalgia lines on their kids. My nephews have ZERO interest in Transformers, G.I. Joe, Marvel Legends, Star Wars etc. For them-- it's all about Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog. Oh, and Minecraft... None of those are Hasbro lines.
The fact that so much product is hitting Ollie's and Ross right now is a terrible sign. Healthy brands, top-selling brands don't hit discount chains.
Don’t forget store exclusives too; not only is it annoying that only one store will carry this toy but they never make enough of it that people can actually find it.
Ive purchased a lot of hasbro stuff this year that I did want but initially felt $24.99 was just too much and passed on price. Now everything I wanted was clearanced to 75% off or more and felt great about having them! And I do not care about buying stuff just to support a line. If toy lines die it cannot be blamed on me, a casual consumer and it's silly when they try and do so
I would go pretty crazy over some new Centurion and Mask toys...I don't understand why they just don't roll those brands into GI Joe. I will say there aren't enough truly cool and fun youth toys on the shelves. I look for toys all the time for my 7 yr old daughter and I can't find nothing beyond Barbie.
And Walmart is almost doing a lawsuit level of mishandling distribution across all toylines. Ross has turned out to be an almost guarantied source of Walmart stock that never reached shelves. Ollies seems to get everything that was out a few months ago.
Is Blitzwing at Ollie's?
Try Ramen Toys for some 3rd party Centurion and Mask.
Matt Tracker is part of G.I. Joe
Luke Reynold's just did a video wondering why Hasbro won't do MASK. He rightly points out there's an audience to buy it, like himself.
Thank you! I was in Ollie's the other day and was amazed at their recent Hasbro stock. Beast Wars Optimus Primal and Megatron, Retro Collection Star Wars, Black Series Star Wars, Ghostbusters... where the hell was this stuff at retail?
There are figures in the TF line that were made Target only and such. These are ones that fans were clamoring for to grab.
I then see posts showing Ollie's and Ross getting them in when no one could find them.
Bizarre.
Hasbro doesn't give a fig about the retailer. You can't get most Hasbro toys at retail. It's all HasLab and Hasbro Pulse. If you put in an order with Entertainment Earth, the order just gets canceled after six months with a note "the supplier said they are out and won't be producing anymore," so if you REALLY want it, you pay double on the secondary market. EFF Hasbro.
What's getting cancelled? I use bbts and Amazon to buy 3 3/4 star wars figs and transformers, I've never had a pre order canceled on those sites. I get the retail struggle as I live in Canada and we don't get a line of toys for like a year after it's comes out.
@@awesomeatronik The Star Wars TVC Deluxe Imperial Stormtrooper Figure. It was with Entertainment Earth Here's what they said: "Unfortunately, we're sorry to report that the manufacturer has notified us that we will not be receiving any additional shipments of the Star Wars TVC Deluxe Imperial Stormtrooper Figure (Item HSF5575) you ordered, because they have discontinued production of this item. No additional information was provided to us by the manufacturer as to why this occurred. Sadly, that means we will not be able to ship it to you and have cancelled it from your order. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes."
@@TroyPacelli Was that the one on the cardback for the first Star Wars movie? There's one still being released, but they keep taking their dear sweet time releasing it! Some have shown up on ebay. These are the ones that were originally going to be Walmart exclusives.
@@TimHayes No, I'm referring to the Fives Clone Trooper from Clone Wars. I had it on order for Netter for Christmas two or three years ago, and they kept pushing it out and then I just got it last year.
Here lies Hasbro...R.I.P 1923-2029
I understand perfectly. I've tried for years to have that discussion and have gotten nothing but accusations, dishonesty, and childish arguments. I have no reason to argue now and frankly I don't know if it was ever worth it. It has never been a problem of misunderstanding but of complicity and you cannot get out of it by arguing. You cannot hope to be able to convince those who only see their interests in the short term.
Dont worry guys, I just got back into toy collecting, so they'll be making that much more money from now on.
Totally agree with your take on this. I also check out the toy aisles wherever I go. For one I can’t believe the prices for figures now. Plus the constant rehash of classic characters be in Star Wars, Transformers, etc… I mean how many Darth Vader figures can you have? You are also correct in that these figures are only appealing to the older adult collectors and that market is shrinking. It’s also true that toys, cars etc.. are collectible and valuable because not many survived. We played with them in the case of toys and drove them in the case of cars. Trying to put that lightning back in the bottle is a fool’s errand.
It's depressing how my local Ross has all the toys I've been searching for MONTHS for at regular Target/Walmart stores. I was a big SW/Indy collector circa 2007-09 and while some figures were indeed tough to track down (Mcquarrie Fett and Elsa Schneider come to mind.) it was NEVER this difficult to find toys. All you had to do was check a couple stores a week and you'd find the newest wave at retail. I was living in Long Beach, CA at the time which had a thriving collector market and there was plenty to go around for everyone. Hasbro and Mattel have really screwed the pooch on this one.
These companies lost me when Beast (blue haired version from the animated show) was short packed or a chase or whatever it is. I refused to get any of these at that point. At this point in my life I have focused on silver/bronze comics as my collection.
Side note - I admire Michael for always being truthful and sticking to his guns even when its not popular to do so! Lots of respect to you!
HASBRO needs to focus on what’s brought them to the dance to begin with; and that’s make good toys. I’ve never seen such an incompetent company like HASBRO. They do stupid shit all the time. All they gotta do is focus solely and completely on making their toy products top notch. If they do that and give the customers what they want with good business ethics, their profits will make themselves and then some.
"Come on down to Crazy Eddie's Ziggurat of Nerf! We've got boomerangs, footballs, rifles, pistols, and soccer balls! And they're stacked floor to ceiling in all configurations! Pyramid, Mound, Lean-To, Wigwam, Igloo, and even Yurt! So come see us here at Crazy Eddie's!... because not only is it Nerf or Nothing, it's miles and miles of architectural piles!"
Maybe. Just maybe raising prices was a bad idea. Also I find it funny that Giant man couldn't be on shelves or a preorder yet a 1,500 dollar Transforming Grimlock can be.
I think so too! I think the videos of Transforming Grimlock is cute and all but I would never buy him myself due to money.
But wait, Hasbro didn't make it, just licensed. It's still a good point tho.
Raising prices isn't absurd period in Biden's economy period period besides that, Kala parents seem to have no problems by an iPhone's or iwatches for their little kids... So toys aren't that much to some?. Lol
@@miragexl007 It its and isn't on rising prices. iPhones are multi-useful and "essential" to everyday life. Cell phones are mini computers that phone/email/text/camera/gaming, etc. Also they last long time. I've seen parents shy away from big price tag toys in stores. Even collectors may be cutting back. Ton of stuff showing up at Ollie's and other places more than usual.
Giant Man and $1500 Grimlock is tough sell even to adult collectors. I don't know anyone who bought Grimlock. Giant Man almost didn't make the cut and personally not worth $200 price tag. With so much selection on toys along with inflation of food, gas, etc some things may take serious hit.
Hasbro straight out owns Power Rangers, they bought it from Saban, but they have also started flaking and letting it whither recently.
An unfortunate consequence of the CEO who died being the only one who really wanted it, hence the hiatus
Maybe things will turn around with the reboot, we’ll have to see
Hasbro hasn't given a crap about kids for years and years. If you look at a toy aisle these days, it pales in comparison to the toy aisles of yore. There's nobody duking it out on the pegs. And no advertising really in the form of tv shows for kids to link them. Mattel is nailing it in that area, at least enough to stave that perception off. But ti all come sdown to this, you're a toy company, make toys for kids, big things little kids can get there hands on and manipulate without damage. And keep your adult market sure, but these guys had a model and just tossed it. Saturday morning cartoons man, that was the toy company advertising bonanza. Why they never came up with a replacement is beyond me.
And the few TV shows they do have to advertise to kids, Transformers and Power Rangers are barely being marketed at all. Hardly any trailers and commercials for the shows. And long gaps in between episode batches due to the streaming format.
“Hasbro will die with us”. We are Hasbro. Great video.
Meanwhile Lego is always readily available, even the latest releases. Amazing what caring does, as does hiring merchandisers.
Lego is a privately owned company, not publicly owned like Hasbro. The stock market is a gambling casino, investors don't care about goods and services or long term strategies.
45 bucks for a Snake Eyes!? Wtf?! I'd have left it as well. They(the toy companies) are cutting their own throats by not marketing to kids. Great vid, Michael. BTW, the Wendigo looks great with the rest on that shelf!
They're killing the golden goose to harvest the eggs that the goose hasn't yet laid. As you said, they're cutting their own throats. But that's the problem with corporate culture - they're always chasing quarterly profits and not long term visions, and if the executives get fired in a few years when their companies tank, they'll get huge severence packages and new jobs immediately. Because, you know, they're sociopathic enough to be able to justify paying employees as little as possible and laying them off at the drop of a hat in order to continue ensuring those quarterly profits.
One thing I forgot to comment on earlier. So, the old brands they own outright. MASK, Visionaries, Inhumanoids, Centurions. I don’t have kids, so I’ll pose the question to the more knowledgeable. Would those properties be interesting enough to today’s generation to buy? I mean, they were interesting to us, but would they need retooling to interest todays kids? I do think something should be done with these brands, but, not sure how easy that would be just to put back in production.
As a father of two young boys, it amazed me to see the state of the toy isles when I first started looking at action figures for them. At first it was just movie figures, then it moved to recycled IPs from my youth. As much as my kids like my old MOTU or GI Joe figures it does feel weird having to buy them the same figures. There isn't a lot of imagination or innovation for creating new IPs.
I get the whole target adult collectors as I myself if I go in I'll buy everything I need in one go whereas buying for kids I'll get them to pick 1 or 2 figures. But this crowdfunding and large products seem excessive.
Toy stores are unfortunately going the way of scale model shops and comic book stores, the industry gave up on kids and the video game industry is reaping the rewards. The Japanese are about the only people producing great product while marketing through anime/manga
Just my observation here. Part of the issue is that kids aren’t playing with action figures anymore. I grew up with Star Wars, GI JOE, and a little bit of He-Man (I was kinda done with toys by then). All of those had movies and/or cartoons behind them. I do believe that is key here. My nephew is 5.5 and he’s interested in Hot Wheels & Matchbox but zero interest in action figures.
IT'S THOSE DAMN VIDYA GAMES!
Don’t forget price point. $$ The prices for action figures are ridiculous!!
I had a late kid. I'm 49 and he's 8. We go down the toy isle. I look through the Transformers, Marvel, DC, and Joe. He goes to the small gamer section and wants Pet Simulator X, Roblox and Minecraft toys. Kids still buy toys its just the IPs have shifted. Yes Joes, Marvel/DC and Transformer/Turtles/MoU are for adults but the kids IPs are Among Us, Fortnight, Minecraft, Roblox the toy manufacturers just need to be faster converting the hot games to toys before they burn out. My kid told me last month when I pointed out an Among Us toy, he said Dad that game is dead. They just have to get faster if they want the kid market back.
Hasbro and Mattel never addressed the loss of TRU, and what that did to their retail footprint. They just ignored the problem and let it metastasize.
Great video. This toy biz situation mirrors so many other sectors of pop culture these days (movies, TV, print...)
As Michael rightly points out in this fantastic video, the horse has already bolted on the disturbing business practices of Hasbro and Mattel and all of the people now claiming that the Emperor is naked, should have seen it from the get go.
Regarding the aisles, I noticed that too. In the 1980s there were so many toys that where I lived in Ontario, Canada, there was an actual toy store chain called Toy World. They're long gone. Even anchor department stores at malls had big toy sections. Toys R Us still exists near where I live but about half their store is Chinese knock-offs now, even the number of game console games has diminished. Likewise, EB Games have been closing in some places.
Brands and items I used to look for as a kid are practically gone: Matchbox, model kits, 1/72 figurines, Lego trains; even the Lego Bionicle that my first son liked so much in the 1990s (and saved that company, I saw somewhere) are gone. When I was very young there actually was an independently owned and operated Lego store in my city, long before Lego franchise stores appeared. There were hobby stores, one was selling only model trains and accessories for train layouts. It's a very different world now, there seems to be much less to choose from.
As usual I agree with the vast majority of what you are saying.
However, I strongly disagree with part of it.
I think that for Hasbro to appeal to kids, they need to explore both videogames and movies because that's where they will find them these days.
They have failed to build on those so far. But properly used, the movie studio they already own could give them a lot more control over the properties they decide to explore and exploit.
However they need to do it well and put resources, creativity and real talent to thrive in those markets.
As I see it, the real problem here is that companies like Hasbro and Disney are so deep into thinking like mere corporations (meaning money-making and accounting machines) that they have forgotten how they became what they are in the first place.
That is the problem. Toys are no longer cheap, disposable entertainment. Give a kid an action figure that’s $25 USD and it breaks instantly because kids are often rough on their toys, and you won’t see that parent too quick to buy another.
Then there’s the scalper problem where a kid can’t complete his ‘team’ because there’s a short packed figure that the scalpers have gobbled up, on top of the distro problems.
Here, I think, is the core problem. The industry still has the ‘embedded knowledge’ that it’s still the ‘60s, where there were THOUSANDS of retailers that sold toys, and the network of hundreds of wholesellers, distributors and jobbers that sold to them. Most every department store had a toy department. ‘Dime’ stores. The giants of Sears, Wards and Pennys. The catalog stores like Whitmark. And the dedicated toy stores like Kay Bee and Circus World, the big box standalones Playworld, Children’s Palace and Toys R Us.
So much linear shelf space to fill! And that is ALL GONE. The internet NEVER took up that slack.
Who is left as the national toy store? Walmart and Target. And THEY cannot take up that slack. Why? Because they do not have anyone who actually KNOWS TOYS doing the buying, promotion, merchandising. All those department stores, they all had a manager. And so every store had a different ‘feel’ and specialized in different lines, brands.
Oh and that. There was SO MUCH competition for all that shelf space! Mattel, Hasbro, Kenner, Ideal, Topper, Remco and all the others I’m forgetting. There was a whole lot of ‘throw it at the wall and see if it sticks’ going on and when a hit happened, Barbie, GI Joe, Hot Wheels, everyone tries for a piece of that pie. Hot Wheels begat Johnny Lightning and so on.
It kind of makes me sad that Legos and overpriced ‘blind box’ stuff will end up being all that a toy department is. We’re heading in that direction at lightspeed.
I always remember when I was a kid or even a teenager going into the toy sections of the department stores. At least two full Ilses of Star Wars minimum. Whole chunks of places like Kay-be or toys-R-us dedicated to Star Wars or GI-Joe or even Transformers. It is an embarrassment for what Target and Walmart are today in comparison.
Hasbro is batting their customers back n forth like ping pong until the customer disappears
I totally agree! As time goes on I find myself buying less and less hasbro products, (unless I find them on clearance ) and moving onto other companies like Valaverse. And hasbro used to be my go to. Just tired of disappointed after disappointment from them.
The problem is all the IPs have been ruined by Disney so young kids would rather play games or watch tik tok.
Standing ovation for Michael.. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏.... And Hasbro / Mattel hope you watch this and wake up.
Everything said in this video is what I've been observing, too, in the last 15 years or so up here on the west coast of Canada. I got back into collecting Transformers a little after the first live action movie. When the second movie released, there was a sea of transformers, on pegs, in boxes, and in so many varieties from movies and TV. If you had a modicum of patience, you were almost guaranteed to get what you wanted at retail, maybe even on sale. When the third movie came out, there was a noticeable decline in availability. It's been downhill ever since.
The prices have double, availability has shrunk, and quality has dropped. The only thing that has improved is their ability to mask cost cutting tricks. Right before Covid, I had decided to stop collecting Transformers after a certain line and move on to the new Gi-Joe classified. I was still going to cherry pick Transformers that I found interesting, but otherwise, the prices were just too much, and I really didn't need any more repeats of characters. After you get your 40th version of Optimus Prime, the next one starts to loose its luster. Any way, to make a long story short, I never finished collecting that last Transformers line, and I've almost completely given up on collecting the Gi-Joe classified, because of availability.
Even though I have a source to pre-order and guarantee that I can get something I want, I've been worn out. I simply don't care enough anymore. I still check the sparsely stock shelves from time to time, and when I see something I might want, like the Marvel Squadron Supreme figures, I look at the price tag, I look a the fact that it's a two box instead of a single figure, and I sigh because the cost is more than two individual figures. At that point, I put it back down and walk away.
Question: what is hasbro gonna do when we have had our fill of these ips and or we are all dead? They wont have any toys or new ips for nostalgia for the new generations. I know thats a long way off but now is the time to establish new customers
I think whoever wrote that article speaking about the growing adult sector was looking at the Target collectors spot getting bigger.
Its says it all about HasBLOW when the ONE and ONLY property they own outright is not a priority for them and they dont seem to care about.
Outstanding! This video is why I’ve really taken a step back and look at other people creating content to justify the importance of haslabs: why would a multibillion dollar company who “targets” kids, need to crowdfund a large item,
That only adults will buy for themselves?
It's more efficient, Walmart doesn't want a $600 Unicron taking up shelf space, they won't even clearance a $40 Tie Bomber after 4 years of collecting dust. Some Targets clearance toys 75 to 90%. Would we get any of the Haslab stuff from typical retailers? I think not.
Wasn't it just about a year ago that the adult collectors' market was being dismissed and ignored as being insignificant when compared against total spending for the industry by some "experts"? Seem to remember that kidadults was the pejorative term.
Yeah, trying to find merchandise in the wild has been becoming more and more difficult. Online purchases have been growing to fill collections. All the older department stores are of course gone with the dinos. It was fun and exciting going up the toy aisle to see the new offerings, now a couple key strokes and whoop there it is.
I had the same experience as you. Found Cliffjumper in Target. My favorite Transformer when I was a kid. Was excited to buy him until I saw the price was $25! Put him back on the peg while he was still warm, walked past the Tiger Force Dusty that had been guarding the aisle for months and never looked back.
I was at Walmart yesterday and was perplexed that they’re trying to sell a single action figure for between $25-$45. Really? I mean. Really?
The Giant Man....cracks me up. To each their own
One pf the biggest delivery systems for toy commercials was Saturday Morning cartoons and that is gone
As a 40 y/o man this year remembering commercials that simply do not exist is sad. Imagine seeing a cobra hammerhead ad on YT. I would be so pumped. Also these big box distros need to held accountable. Hasbro needs to do better ultimately.
Commercial ads like that would certainly be better than much of the junk and borderline rippoff schemes that youtube accepts for ad revenue.
At this point they'd be better off just licensing third party makers like they did for some of their Transformers toys and figures. At least they''re available on retail.
While I don't disagree with what you're saying, Michael, for example, the transformers line is called "legacy"
I think you're missing another key point.
Play patterns have changed, for example kids are moving to video games instead of action figures.
While poor decisions by hasbro, etc, may have contributed to this issue, the competition has never been fiercer, and I don't know how you change those patterns back....
M.A.S.K , it's a crime they haven't rebooted it.
Yeah, adults are mostly buying the toys. What do the kids have?
I'm not sure what sort of money kids have these days but I was lucky to scrape together a few bucks to by a pack of 5 M.U.S.C.L.E./ kinnikuman minis back in the day.
"Children" are to busy with digital media or technology to care about "toys".
So, based on what I’ve seen, I really wonder how the Final Faction toys are performing with kids among all of this. It’s the Dollar Tree GI Joe/Star Wars line of action figures and vehicles that cost a buck or two. I think collectors are probably targeting that TOO because some of the more interesting characters are impossible to find.
The other property that Hasbro owns that you were thinking of is power rangers.
Excellent Points. Kids are now priced out of comics and toys and even the basics. We are in an economy now where everyone has to work, even if your age 3. And I love the analysis of the toy aisle resembling something like the Soviet Union. Where the product is way in the back, and not celebrated for kids or adults. The industry is really in a free fall for everyone. Uncle Tim has even stated when we die, they might as well bury our action figures and stuff with us. Since nobody is gonna appreciate it after us. The industry had a great run, but it feels like I am in purgatory. Sure we can get stuff more easily through ebay and amazon and other outlets, but now the inventory is limited. Ahhh!! We can't survive in this economy. Neither can kids, toys, movies and everything that keeps our imaginations going. Hasbro asking for crowd funding is proof of that. I mean come on....
Fantastic discussion.
The Adult Collecting Community is wildly out of touch with how and where Hasbro makes money. Hasbro isn't really a toy company anymore. They are a collectable card game and TTRPG company that dabbles in toys now. Nearly all of its profit come from WotC products like Magic the Gathering and D&D. The toy profits, particularly by individual lines, are a drop in the bucket comparably. Especially from their licenced brands.
Im sure Play Doh and Monopoly are some of their strongest performers in toys because they appeal across the board to everyone and arguably define their toy "archetype."
Licenses are fatigued, overpriced and languishing everywhere with the exception of bright spots like G.I. Joe. How long until Hasbro takes the turn and just drops licensed toys entirely? Three years of inventory issues issues up for a fraction of the cost at discount stores makes me think we may not be too far away from a serious reduction or termination of many licensed product lines.
I was gonna say this. The stock value lives and dies with Magic: The Gathering now.
Just wait for Snake Eyes and Timber to show up at your local Ollies. I just picked up Hand and Diana for 9.99 a piece there, and waiting for the rest of the kids to show up.