Hasbro, what are you doing? Have you forgotten to ship?

[Darth Sidious]

Hasbro, I come to you with a problem that you may not be aware of. And if you really do check out this forum, then I am going to make you aware. Myself and many others on these forums haven't seen anything new in a really, really long time. The fact that our stores are not recieving new shipments should concern you too. After all, SW figures are probably your hottest item, and if you release new ones, people will buy them! If not, then you are losing money. A specific item that is very hard for pretty much everyone to find is the Acklay. And I am VERY sure people would buy Acklays if you put them in stores. They are affordable, and it was probably the most popular beast in the Geonosian Arena. Here are some quotes from a few of my fellow members:

DeadEye -

All they have here are freakin' reeks. No acklays, no TA Anakins or Mauls, no deluxe Yodas or 3POs, not even any freakin' Ki-Adi's or Teemtos!

As you can see, the REEKs are taking up space. You are releasing too many of them, and if you put more Acklays out instead of REEKs, you will probably notice an increase in beast sales.

I haven't seen the cantina sets either!

These would sell too, if they were released in greater numbers...

Ok. Weird thing happened--the Wal-Mart here just got the 12" Zam and Super Battle Droid--those are brand-new, aren't they? So where's everything else?

I am not putting down the 12" Line, but I believe your 3 3/4" are your main sellers. Prioritize, Hasbro, release the hot sellers first.

Actually, I haven't seen jack at Target! No accessory sets...nothing! Just hordes of Captain Typhos and the basic C3PO and lots of Deluxe Jangos.

Your accessory sets are truly works of art. They allow people to build their armies and get new accessories at the same time. People who have lost weapons would love these. But they aren't easy to come by either... :(

CrunchyNug-

I, too live in L.A. and have only seen the Acklay twice!!! And this WAS months ago. I think the problem is that they shared a split case with the Reek - two Acklays and two Reeks.

See? If there were less REEKs and more Acklays per case, you would sell many more beasts! Know why the REEKs are warming the pegs? Because everyone has one! We don't need them anymore. We are going through Lacklay. (Lack of Acklay)

Lowly Bantha Cleaner-

It's been nearly two months since I last bought a Saga figure.

Is this what you want? People aren't buying your figures as much. It is NOT because Star Wars is dead, it is because the only things we have are Padmes, C-3POs, and Kit Fistos. Give us new figures!

Hango Fett -

i wish i had one...that is about the only thing i really need to complete my arena diorama! i might have to resort to the dreaded...*gulp* ebay! there i said it!

People's sets are incomplete. An arena scene just isn't an arena scene with only 2 of the 3 beasts. And people are going to start buying off of E-bay. If you care about your customers in the least, you won't make us pay $19.99 for a basic figure. You will give them to us so we don't have to resort to such measures.

InsaneJediGirl-

I havent seen Acklay,Teemto,TA Anakin,Ki Adi(Not that I want him),Maul,Unleashed Vader,Padme,and Anakin,Deluxe Yoda/C-3PO

Nothing new for her either.

Everyone wants new items, Hasbro, and you have to realize this. As stated by Obi-Wan, we form a symbiant circle. You give us the figures we need, we give you your money. But a lack of new figures means a lack of money for you. You do not have to listen to me if you do not want to, but it would be a financially wise choice if you did. Star Wars is not dead, but your company's reputation will be if things do not change. It does not just afflict small areas in certain sections of the US (And other countries). From California, to Kansas, to Ohio, many people are missing new figures. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you know anything about finances you will do the right thing. :)

[bigbarada]

Not that I don't applaud your effort here, but you are barking up the wrong tree. Hasbro can't ship the toys to the stores if those individual stores don't order them. Hasbro would love to get every figure into ever store, however the stores are the ones drowning in backstock (Hasbro is partially responsible for this, though) and simply won't order new toys if they can't get rid of their old toys. If things keep going like this, retailers' support will collapse and the line will die.

The same thing happened with Kenner in the mid 80s, they had big plans for a second wave of POTF figures however retailers were tired of Star Wars figures clogging the pegs, thus they simply quit ordering them and the line died (Lucasfilm was partially responsible for this too). It wasn't that Kenner just woke up one day and said, "Oh, we're tired of making Star Wars toys, let's kill the line." They truly wanted to continue the line, but the fans weren't buying enough toys to please the retailers, since most kids had moved on to GI Joe and Transformers. When the middle man (the retailer) walks out, the chain breaks.

So, it is not Hasbro's fault. It is the fault of your individual stores. However, if ALL of the outlets of ALL national chains are dropping support for the Star Wars line, that doesn't bode well for the line continuing into 2003.

We just may have to accept that these are the final days of the line. Hasbro could up the quality of their product and start listening to fans again and producing all the figures we have been asking for for years; but that still wouldn't solve the problem of stores dropping support of the line due to poor sales of their current stock.

[Darth Sidious]

You do have a point there, but Hasbro could have fixed this problem by listening to the fans and finding out who is warming the pegs, and ship less of those figures in each case. The current stock won't sell because of their case assortments. If they stop shipping Padmes and stuff, there wouldn't be all this surplus stock of pegwarmers.

[Vortex]

Big B is totally correct and I'd just like to add this little bit.

All the big suppliers HQ pre-order this stuff 4-6 months in advance, if not a year down the road, and then they dole it out to the invidual stores. Its the marketing and sales people that take a risk and order the quantities. It's a huge crap shoot as to what is going to be hot and what's not.

They orded way too many similar cases at the start, hoping star wars would be hot, and it hurt the stores. The figs didn't move as fast as they hoped or the kids just weren't into it. Add in the fact they all got burned with Ep I, plus L.O.T.R and Harry Pothead following shortly, I'm guessing the stores are gearing more toward that since its much more popular with the kids than star wars is.

[bigbarada]

Harry Pothead and the Stoned Sorcerer;):D:D

I hate to say this, but if Hasbro really wants to get the kids interested in collecting Star Wars toys again, they might have to change the format of the line.

Either make the figures smaller (1"-2") thus cheaper (under $2 per figure) and more collectible. This would be similar to the advantage Star Wars had in 1978, since the toys were so small and cheap, kids could collect them all on their meager allowances. Remember that boys toys averaged between 8"-12" inches back then, Kenner's 4" line was pretty innovative.

OR

Make the figures bigger and higher quality. Basically a sort of halfway point between the 3 3/4" line and the 12" line. I'm thinking of an 8" line with soft goods clothing. The downside to this would be more expensive figures and, like today, a more collector driven market.

I personally think Hasbro could do some wonderful things with toys on the scale of those 32X military figures that came out not too long ago. Vehicles would be smaller and less expensive and figures could be offered in packs of five or six.

Sure the tiny size wouldn't allow for much articulation, but I got along just fine with little unarticulated plastic soldiers when I was a kid.

Anyways, just some ideas to salvage some interest in the line.

As for the stores getting clogged with pegwarmers. Hasbro is very much at fault for that. They decided to inflate demand by shortpacking new figures with tons of old figures. They figured this would only make the collectors more interested in getting new toys, but it backfired dramatically. Even the most devoted of collectors will reach a point where they will just throw up their hands and say, "I give up!" Hasbro took a gamble and lost, and it shows in the shelves overflowing with 4/23 figures.

Although, who knows? Maybe the line dying and Hasbro surrendering the liscense would be the best thing that ever happened to Star Wars collecting. I'm sure there are plenty of smaller toy companies who would love to snatch it up and breath some new life into the Star Wars brand name.

[Rogue II]

Originally posted by bigbarada

Make the figures bigger and higher quality. Basically a sort of halfway point between the 3 3/4" line and the 12" line. I'm thinking of an 8" line with soft goods clothing. The downside to this would be more expensive figures and, like today, a more collector driven market.


Didn't they already try something similar to this? I know I saw a Darth Maul and Obi Wan.

I would probably quit collecting if they stop making the 3-3/4" line. I would think about collecting a smaller line, but there is no way I'd collect anything larger than the current line.

[Vortex]

I'd like to see Todd McFarlane and his crew do some star wars figs...

Spawn Wars?

Star Spawn?

[Beast]

God no, Todd McFarlane's crew make some horrible figures. I remember picking up a few of their figures and you mess around with them for a while and limbs and heads snap off. I've never had that trouble with Hasbro's stuff. They may make a few mistakes, but I don't think I wanna see any other companies take a crack at the Star Wars line. Since that would likely be the end of the 4" line. :)

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

[Vortex]

Interesting. I've never had a problem with the few spawn items I've bought.

You have to admit though they would be pretty cool to say the least.

[Jargo]

I agree. I wouldn't buy bigger figures or smaller ones. The unleashed figures are fine for a certain type of collector but they don't do a damn thing for me. It would be such a huge step backwards to go with smaller less articulated figures. For one you'd lose detail. I think going anywhere but four inches is a bad idea.
However, i do think more input from collectors is a better way to go rather than relying on stores to decide what we want, collectors could have a say in some way about which stuff is shipped in larger quantities. Similar to the fans choice just put a poll on the hasbro site that would give an upcoming wave say and the votes would decide which characters were shipped heavier in a case. Hasbro UK have been getting collectors more involved with a survey to see how we feel about the way collecting is in the UK, what's good what's bad and so on. If hasbro US did the same they might fare better with getting the stock out that people are willing to plonk down the cash for and hopefully avoid so many mistakes and pegwarmer caseloads of stuff no-one really wants. But that'd be too easy for a company that likes to complicate things needlessly.

[SithDroid]

It has gotten really hard to find things around here as well. The Luke with Landspeeder is easy to find as well as Luke's X-Wing at TRU, but all the other exclusives are nonexistent around here. Also my friend got Ki-Adi-Mundi the other day, but he was here and gone in less than a week. Where are all the figures that you promised us Hasbro. I get tired of trying to hunt for them. I remember when I was a child I could find anything I wanted because everything was plentiful, but nowadays stupid companys ship way too much of the so called "popular" characters. A prime example is the new MOTU line. I can find about tons of He-Man and Skeltor everwhere, but when it comes to the other characters such as Beast-man and Mer-Man, they are extremely hard to find because the company short packs them. I think that this practice needs to have an end put to it. Start shipping everything in equal numbers so that everyone can get what they want.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

I would hate anything different than the 3.75" figures. Anyway, I've seen the Acklay in great numbers at Wal-Mart and in smaller numbers at Target. They're gone. This is not really Hasbro's fault - it's the collectors. I know, everybody wants the new stuff, and new stuff will not come in until people clear out the old stuff. I have both Deluxe C-3PO and Yoda (3PO at Target, Yoda at KB). They were kind of pegwarming (for the day, anyway) and there were no other deluxes at KB. I got them, of course. Also, there were tons of Hangar Ani, and I saw a TA Anakin there (should have got him). So, it's not all the way Hasbro's fault that the stores ordered too many figures. I'd like to see them ship whole cases of one hard to find figure and get them into people's homes. They should do this with figs like:
*Yoda (Jedi Master) (Still haven't seen him even once)
*Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine Attack)
*Darth Maul (Sith Training)
*Padmé Amidala (Coruscant Attack)
And then release cases of two or three different figures, like Ki-Adi and Teemto. Just a thought. :)

[Vortex]

Lets toss this out there for debate.

Lets say Hasbro did ship just a case that was a 6 and 6 mix. 6 Yoda's, 6 Ki's, or whoever. OR just a case of 12 of some figure.

Store X ordered 10-20 cases half a year ago. Lets also assume that the collectors market is bigger than what it currently is, stores kept large to moderate orders, and star wars is ALMOST as hot as pokeman was with the kids.

Would this actually meet the demands or would it just stay to the cycle of peg warmers?

[Lord Tenebrous]

Quantity demanded and quantity supplied is nearly impossible to equalize. A shortage or a surplus is guaranteed in most cases.

I think stores starting cursing themselves when they found a surplus of 25th sets. But, perhaps they told themselves that those weren't focused at a mainstream market, just a collector's item. Only they got burned again on the initial AOTC waves.


Which leads me back to what I've said time and time again. Star Wars needs to focus towards children in the 4-10 age group. That's about 2-3 cases of figures TOTAL, depending on the size of the city. So 1 case if you have 1 store, 3 cases for 3 stores. Because right now we have TRU, Walmart, Kmart, Target, KB, and other stores with large displays trying to sell surplus good with a low quantity demanded.

The line is running at 10% I just hope I can get Ephant Mon before the whole thing crumbles. Prepare to meet the new equivalents of R2-B1, TC-14, and Sio Bibble....