I Never Want To See a Bumblebee Again As Long As I Live, I don't think Hasbro knows how to Pack Toys Rating Options

[Master Fwiffo]

So, I took a stroll today down to Toys R Us and Target. Hey, they had Prime toys out!

Want to know what they had between the two stores?

15 BUMBLEBEES and Two Cliffjumpers.

And, BTW, they're sitting next to DotM Bumblebee's in both stores.

This is what is known as a 'bad start' to a toyline.

So I take a glance over at Robot Kingdom where there's some more distribution lists. In case you don't know what's coming.

http://robotkingdom.com/services/eshop/mai...=91&lang=us

Wave 1:
3 Bumblebees, 2 Cliffjumper and Wheeljacks, 1 Soundwave

Wave 2:
3 MORE BUMBLEBEES (and 1 of Soundwave, Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, Arcee and Ratchet).

Wow that's awful, I wonder what Wave 3-

ANOTHER GODDAMNED BUMBLEBEE, 2 Hot Shots (WHO IS A BUMBLEBEE REPAINT), 2 Knockouts, 1 Ratchet, Arcee and... 1 Vehicon.

So, just to be clear, in the first three waves, there are 7 BUMBLEBEES AND 2 BUMBLEBEE REPAINTS = with 3 Wheeljack/Cliffjumpers, and 2 of everything else. Except the Vehicon.

That's right, they shortpacked the first natural troop builder we've gotten years.


In short, WHAT THE HELL IS WITH HASBRO AND BUMBLEBEE? I know the theory is that Kids Want Bumblebee's, but I think DotM proved the Bumblebee craze is over - or at least lessoned. Does anything that's happened in the last couple of years justify 7 Bumblebees and 2 Bumblebee repaints (not to mention a Leader class coming later) in the first 3 waves? They're ALREADY shelfwarming!

So who here is dreading another year of straight Bumblebee's clogging shelves?

[Razorsaw]

Retailers Determine Case Assortments.

[ShinRa Inc]

As I've said elsewhere, my TRU is already two full pegs of about 20 Prime Bumblebees, one peg of Legion Bumblebees. Next to DOTM Shelfwarmers.

And then Walmart had 4 Bumblebees, a Cliffjumper, and two Voyager Primes.

Yeah, it's gotten old already.

[Darkstream]

im buying takara mostly so mostly i dont care

[Master Fwiffo]

As I've said elsewhere, my TRU is already two full pegs of about 20 Prime Bumblebees, one peg of Legion Bumblebees. Next to DOTM Shelfwarmers.

And then Walmart had 4 Bumblebees, a Cliffjumper, and two Voyager Primes.

Yeah, it's gotten old already.

Who wants to take a bet on that we're not going to get any TF Prime toys past wave, say, 4? Maybe 5?

[Spark]

As I've said elsewhere, my TRU is already two full pegs of about 20 Prime Bumblebees, one peg of Legion Bumblebees. Next to DOTM Shelfwarmers.

And then Walmart had 4 Bumblebees, a Cliffjumper, and two Voyager Primes.

Yeah, it's gotten old already.

Who wants to take a bet on that we're not going to get any TF Prime toys past wave, say, 4? Maybe 5?

Five waves is probably about right. At which time Prime Bumblebees will still be clogging the shelves. This discussion kind of already happened two weeks ago in regards to market oversaturation and stagnation. I think it was in the First Edition thread? Retailers consider Bumblebee and Prime to be the Superman/Batman/random current movie superhero and always want those two on the shelves in some form. It sucks. Hard.

[Sprocket]

It's kind of amazing how hard it is to collect a robot cast the same size as Beast Wars' first season.

[The Doctor Who]

This is the point where I break out that picture of all the Bumblebees I own (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

It's the same way over here. The stores started carrying Prime figures and guess what mute, yellow bot is clogging up the shelves already? Yes! It's the Bumblejerk himself.

You would think the retailers would have caught on by now... I mean, I'm sure they like selling their toys, right? So, if they determine case assortments, then why do they keep doing the same thing that left them with clogged shelves the last time?

[Ghost Robot]

I'm with you, Fwiff. I actually overpaid for PRID Megatron when I was at TRU last week because I was so sick of finding nothing except Bumblebees (they had six on the shelves, meaning they sold through the entirety of two cases, EXCEPT for Bee).

Now that HTS has removed all PRID deluxe listings from their site - sans BB, of course - I'm pretty much done. I'm throwing in the towel. Not being able to buy the figures I want at retail is one thing but when I basically have no options online (at least no options that don't include buying one or more Bumblebees) then this hobby starts getting to the point of being too frustrating to put up with. Throw in all the canceled figures we've failed to get recently, an entire subline (movie trilogy) that's exclusive to a foreign market (necessitating higher prices if I want to get any of those figures), and rising personal expenses and I just can't be bothered anymore.

This post has been edited by Ghost Robot: Mar 2 2012, 01:57 AM

[tec]

Remember back in the day when for a 7 year stretch there where exactly 4 BBs ever
Or the Beast-RiD era when there where no Batman/Superman type character

Im sick of BB not haveing a voice the jokes old already BB is not R2-D2

[Rosicrucian]

Or the Beast-RiD era when there where no Batman/Superman type character

Seven Optimus Primal toys. Six Beast Wars Megatron toys. Six Cheetor toys. You were saying?

[tec]

yes but never over satration like with BB or Tuner Mudflap

[M Sipher]

Yeah, because the line was nowhere near as successful then as it is now.


M "I Think I'll 'Suffer' The Success" Sipher

[Megatoron]

Could Hasbro be doing this intentionally to accumulate public animosity toward Bee in order to justify his grusome termination some point down the road, as oppose to the public outrage triggered by the death of Optimus Prime back in 1986?

[gargunkle]

I'm trying to figure out when the overBeeing started. Movie 1? Movie 2? I don't really remember it being bad at all with movie 1. Then with movie 2 we had something like this but with the twins.

Something's so out of whack.

[Betty Nor]

I'm having a hard time trying discern which of you are being sarcastic/snarky and which are being dead serious/ranting.

I'm throwing my lot in with this whole thread being ridiculous.

[Gryllid]

Could Hasbro be doing this intentionally to accumulate public animosity toward Bee in order to justify his grusome termination some point down the road, as oppose to the public outrage triggered by the death of Optimus Prime back in 1986?

Uh...probably not.

I love the idea of Hasbro intentionally making truckloads of toys that won't sell, just so people won't complain about something that would happen in a cartoon, though.

[TSM-in-N.Y.]

Not only don't retailers determine case assortments they ("they" = pretty much any brick & mortar operation) don't even do their (re)orders based on specific cases.

TRU/WalMart/Target etc. says we need more TFs: Prime dlxs./Avengers movie 3 3/4" figs./ G.I. Joe movie 2 Bravo class vehicles and so on and so forth and Hasbro sends whatever the fornicate they feel like.

They can pull off this little stunt b/c the big box retailers don't give 1/69th the thought into these toys that the collectors do.

The flipside of this coin is that the etailers make out like bandits b/c they sell specific figs and cases that Hasbro has to deliver.

EE sells me case "Y" of Hasbro's Star Wars Vintage collection figure and they (they = EE) have to deliver that specific case they advertise and in turn I ordered or they don't get my money. Hasbro has to deliver to the etailers exactly what the etailers order.

Hasbro can't just toss case after case of wave 1 of line "X" to the etailers b/c the etailers won't take them. WalMart/TRU/etc. they don't give an excrement.

I honestly don't know if, after all this time some of you who have been collectors and/or in the fandom for so many years, that you folks haven't picked up on this on purpose and think it's funny to make ignorant posts about how the sky is falling or if you are being willfully oblivious.

It's not some great conspiracy (over produce Bumblebee figs. so Hasbro can kill off the character? Are you serious?) Hasbro and the retailers/etailers are interested in only ONE thing. PROFIT!!!11one

Could Hasbro make even more money with better case ratios? Almost definetly. But it seems that everyone is satisfied with the status quo as far as the profit side of things are concerned that things don't look to be changing. At least in the near future. :-/

Perhaps all of the items that from various Hasbro lines that have either been cancelled or turned into Asian market/Canadian market/Ross and/or other discount store "exclusives" are the result of the mistakes that both Hasbro and the retailers have continually made over the last several years.


Your friend, TSM-in-N.Y.


"You have become the very thing you swore to destroy!"

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I want a Bumblebee for my backyard like Michael Bay has.

And a backyard to put it in.

But beyond that, I'm good. I have Classics, Stealth Movie, Animated, Legends, Movie Legends (old version), and a knock-off of Classic Pretender from G1. I guess I could do with a Prime version, but that's just it: a Prime version...

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[NightViper]

Not only don't retailers determine case assortments they ("they" = pretty much any brick & mortar operation) don't even do their (re)orders based on specific cases.

TRU/WalMart/Target etc. says we need more TFs: Prime dlxs./Avengers movie 3 3/4" figs./ G.I. Joe movie 2 Bravo class vehicles and so on and so forth and Hasbro sends whatever the fornicate they feel like.

They can pull off this little stunt b/c the big box retailers don't give 1/69th the thought into these toys that the collectors do.

The flipside of this coin is that the etailers make out like bandits b/c they sell specific figs and cases that Hasbro has to deliver.

EE sells me case "Y" of Hasbro's Star Wars Vintage collection figure and they (they = EE) have to deliver that specific case they advertise and in turn I ordered or they don't get my money. Hasbro has to deliver to the etailers exactly what the etailers order.

Hasbro can't just toss case after case of wave 1 of line "X" to the etailers b/c the etailers won't take them. WalMart/TRU/etc. they don't give an excrement.

I honestly don't know if, after all this time some of you who have been collectors and/or in the fandom for so many years, that you folks haven't picked up on this on purpose and think it's funny to make ignorant posts about how the sky is falling or if you are being willfully oblivious.

It's not some great conspiracy (over produce Bumblebee figs. so Hasbro can kill off the character? Are you serious?) Hasbro and the retailers/etailers are interested in only ONE thing. PROFIT!!!11one

Could Hasbro make even more money with better case ratios? Almost definetly. But it seems that everyone is satisfied with the status quo as far as the profit side of things are concerned that things don't look to be changing. At least in the near future. :-/

Perhaps all of the items that from various Hasbro lines that have either been cancelled or turned into Asian market/Canadian market/Ross and/or other discount store "exclusives" are the result of the mistakes that both Hasbro and the retailers have continually made over the last several years.


Your friend, TSM-in-N.Y.


"You have become the very thing you swore to destroy!"

We're not talking on the brick and mortar level. We're talking on the corporate level. And yes, the corporate level buyers have a huge impact on which toys Hasbro makes.