What happened to being the "hottest line of 2002"???

[JediTricks]

Remember when they were saying the following?

Star Wars toys have emerged as the top-selling licensed toys of the year according to NPD Funworld, the research organization recognized as the leading source of toy industry data.... According to NPD Funworld, Star Wars also dominates all assortments/items introduced in 2002, holding four of the top five slots.

And in that article, it said Hasbro's SAGA figs and electronic role-play lightsabers were the #1 and 2 items on the list. However, if that was the case, then why did Reuters report the following yesterday?

First-quarter revenue in the U.S. toys unit fell to $153.4 million from $200.9 million a year ago, hurt by weaker sales of Star Wars toys. Sales were helped by strength in core brands like Transformers and Play-Doh, as well as continuing strong sales of Furreal Friends and Beyblade.

It seems like either NPD Funworld's data was based upon retailer buying and not customer buying which didn't take into account retailers sending back so much product, or their data and estimates were straight-up faulty. Hasbro actually showed a profit in the quarter mentioned above in that Reuters article, but it was despite the sales of Star Wars rather than because of it.

[Kidhuman]

I wish I knew. I think it is because of the shipping issues. My Wal-Mart has not put out anything since December. And even before that there were just pegwarmerss laying around for months. It is frustrating me to no end.

[Deoxyribonucleic]

It seems by these and prior articles that every year Hasbro makes Star Wars toys, they lose money. If this were the case, you'd (a general "you" ) think that they'd stop making them. However, I am going to believe that they actually make a profit, and a large one at that, from their Star Wars merchandise simply because if a business loses money on a product, they generally won't sell it anymore. Just some logical thinking there. . . besides, I tend not to believe articles as such because there's always another one that is completely contradictory to the first

[Jerjerrod]

Well, if that's a $47.5 million decrease because of the Saga-line, Way to go Hasbro.

Why doesn't Hasbro learn from their own past? POTJ was their best example of success in terms of toy quality, and marketing/sales. I bet it was caused by a stupid split-second decision that screwed up everything, I can just imagine it:

"Randall, a recently promoted marketing dude, marches through the boardroom doors, confronts the CEO, and says, 'Sir, I have a GREAT idea!' He then some how gets his ideas approved (Maybe all the bigwigs were hung-over from the office-party the night before, or maybe, their all women ), and began his quest to completely change the Star Wars toy-line to his liking... blah, blah, blah..."

[Jargo]

I believe you can link the slump in sales directly to the 'beautifully' executed action features. And the emergence of evil underlord Randy. Had both these heineous blots on the star wars landscape not appeared 2002 would have been the most successful star wars year ever I think. Perhaps there still would have been issues but not quite so many. Let's blame it all on randy@hasbroken. There's always gotta be a fall guy, might as well be him.....


I'd be very interested to see how sales differ once the action features have gone from all figures in a couple of waves time. And when and if the distribution of product actually happens. I would imagine first quarter sales for 2003 would be weak because well, there was no product to buy. Nothing new shipped and all there was in the stores was last years old stock warmed up. Hardly appetising really.

[Kidhuman]

I think the sales will increase once the clone wars merch comes out. It will be fresh stuff with nothing to pegwarm about them right away.

[Rogue II]

I think part of the sales slump is the lack of new figures reaching the shelves at retail stores. The only 2003 toys I've seen have been the Anakin and Dooku speeder bikes.

[Tycho]

Yes, I think that in 2002 SW was on top. First Quarter 2003 barely saw anything ship. Some retail pegs were warming, others were empty - and all of them were scaled pack in store plan-o-grams after the movie year.

2002 WAS a great year for SW and made it the top selling brand.

Of course a non-movie year would see a slump.

But 2003 has seen terrible distribution so far.

*I've gotten everything through Aayla Secura's wave, and rumors around here say that Yoda and Chiang, with Han and Chewie, have hit a Wal*Mart (while I was at the wrong one at the wrong time).

[Dr Zoltar]

Hasbro has also done a great job of cancelling many collectable card games. They purchased Wizards of the Coast a few years back and since then canned many of the games Wizards produced. Legend of the 5 Rings, Netrunner, Harry Potter, Pokemon (due to be cancelled soon), and their original board game Roborally to name a few. All the while trying to promote the Star Wars card game which isn't selling very well.

[Sidiously Darth]

Yo EJ!

Who's this Randy guy or did I completely miss the sarcasm?