Hasbr-uh-oh - Business and Tariffs Discussion

Hasbro still need a business, they will still try and make stuff.

Further price increases and cost cutting seem pretty inevitable though. I dread to think what leaders will be like in future. Astrotrain might be a high mark for new tools.

I have had parts of Bruticus multiple times since Energon and never finished it, then thought AOTP was out of the running but managed to start it despite everything. Now to see if the track record continues regardless...

Anonymous X said:

Are we allowed to discuss outside of P&R how there’s a real possibility that upcoming figures might not hit the market at all unless they’ve already been produced at factories in the far east? The global oil shortages are not just going to make Transformers stuff more expensive, potentially a lot more expensive, we might not have new figures produced to buy in the first place. I honestly think that the upcoming SS, AotP and cross-brand products we officially know about is all we’re going to get for the foreseeable. Short of a miracle.

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Should be. We had a HUGE discussion here with the tariffs last year. But let's just keep it relevant to Hasbro and the impact on business and us, that's all that is being asked.

Given lead times, I'm not overly worried about products until probably next spring. As is, I've been suspecting major structural shifts in the Transformers brand structure, simply because it feels like we're "due" for it. I think Hasbro has a LITTLE bit of wiggle room to bump up pricing on the collector range...but the kids range will probably suffer the most. And if Mattel maintains the pressure I'm seeing with MOTU, WWE, and DC, in terms of the quality of the "kids stuff", Hasbro might have to do some major soul searching when dealing with bloated partner brands like Marvel and, especially, Star Wars.

This isn't the first time the price of oil has gone up. Hell, what we have now is about on par with June of 2022. It's far below if you factor in inflation.

We may see a critical rethinking of the line, but Hasbro isn't just going to throw in the towel. Smaller figures, less accessories, other cost-cutting measures are probably heading our way if this stuff doesn't resolve itself soon, but Transformers isn't going anywhere. At least not due to the price of oil

I'm more worried about it on the consumer end. Inflation, tariffs, the cost of oil.. all of these mean less spending dollars, which means less sales of luxury items like toys. But that will take longer to manifest effects on the line as a whole.

Star Wars/Marvel has an advantage in having already-existing simpler and smaller lines, that would be easy to adjust. But at the same time, those same lines have a LOT of redundancy in both sizes and features, and a great many other licencees. I could see them narrowing a bit, and very probably incurring the wrath of Disney doing it seeing as they have dropped licensees for not giving them the return they wanted before. The market is having a lot of pressures, there may not be room for as much overlap on so many repetitive lines. Heck, Playmates is very shortly not going to be one of the many Ninja Turtles makers.

Hasbro does have one huge advantage in Transformers in that it's THEIR IP, and while there are a lot of sub-licencees now for all sorts of stuff, they've kept the core 'transforming robots' in house between them and Takara. So if they have to start cutting, it would likely be the edges and not the core conceptual area, if that makes sense?

On the consumer side, though, that's the big problem for ALL companies. Most of my money right now is car payments and medical stuff. Everything else is secondary. So if prices go any higher, the stuff I can't eat gets cut first. Like I said, I thought Bruticus was out. I managed to start it. I doubt this late that Swindle will be impacted. But as with all things right now I will only make solid plans for what I can see in front of me.

If the economic situation doesn't improve, I could see Hasbro doing a new line of Transformers at a smaller size scale then what's going on right now. Like just shunt characters down one size class. Leader-sized characters becomes voyagers, voyager sized characters become deluxes, deluxe sized characters maybe get shrunk to a new size class between core and deluxe.

Not only would they save on materials, but it'd also give them an excuse to do new versions of everyone.

Just bring back CORE. Call it something else if you have to. Retailers don't pay enough attention to notice.

Undead Scottsman said:

If the economic situation doesn't improve, I could see Hasbro doing a new line of Transformers at a smaller size scale then what's going on right now. Like just shunt characters down one size class. Leader-sized characters becomes voyagers, voyager sized characters become deluxes, deluxe sized characters maybe get shrunk to a new size class between core and deluxe.

Not only would they save on materials, but it'd also give them an excuse to do new versions of everyone.

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I've honestly been expecting them to do that the last few years, but they've managed to hold on. Though, comparing Combiner Wars leaders to modern, you can see the difference.

This also makes the issue of larger characters harder, as more and more characters are getting bumped up a size class. Now we have a lot of larger characters that would need to be Commanders, but that size class is mostly taken up already. A lot of these guys are going to be waiting a long time, and they're probably not giving us a third Commander figure per year any time soon.

There's going to be yet ANOTHER way for you to enjoy Hasbro's legacy content. Hasbro Entertainment has joined with linear broadcaster Get After It Media (GAIM) to launch a linear Hasbro Legends channel. This is NOT the same as the FAST channel currently airing on sources like Amazon. Think of this as being more akin to MeTVToons for those stations operated/licensed by Get After It Media.

Somehow The Hub returned.

I miss the Hub. It started out so hopeful, and that would be really nice right now.

I give this a year before it goes under

I love MeToons, and it's been amazing some of the incredibly obscure things they've gotten their hands on, like the old Black and White HUMAN Tom and Jerry, and more. For more modern stuff they have the Real Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, etc. I'm surprised though given that there is now a full broadcast cartoon channel that Hasbro is putting so much money and effort into doing it themselves rather than offering MeToons a license to show their catalog. Less effort on their part and no actual cost outlay, as the MeToons people would have to shoulder all the efforts for advertising, syndication, equipment, time slots, etc. Heck, under normal licensing, MeToons would have to pay HASBRO to do it. And I seriously doubt MeToons would say no to them, in some interviews they've hinted that Transformers, GI Joe, and He-Man would be their holy grails to get on the air.

Wake me when someone pulls off the miracle of putting RID 2001 back on the air.

Platypus Prime said:

I'm surprised [...] that Hasbro is putting so much money and effort into doing it themselves

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Hasbro.

I'm so glad all this craziness hasn't managed to change them one bit.

I doubt it...Mattel has had some of the more successful IP adaptation streaks in a while (Barbie) and MOTU, despite not being out yet, is driving toy sales and attention in a way that the original MOTU movie just didn't all those years ago. I guess we'll see, mergers and sales happen all the time, but this bizarre condensing of so many industries is looking more dystopian RPG background every day.

The thing about investments is that they're not actually money until you find someone to buy them off of you. The investors pushing for this probably want a big fat immediate payday, rather than getting a little bit of money here and there as the stock price increases and they sell a few shares. A big one and done pile of cash that they can then go and do whatever they want with it.

That said, according to the article, the "group" pushing for this represents 4% of Mattels overall stock, so unless they can convince a bunch of other investors to get on board, this is just a tiny voice yelling into the void.

Platypus Prime said:

I doubt it...Mattel has had some of the more successful IP adaptation streaks in a while (Barbie) and MOTU, despite not being out yet, is driving toy sales and attention in a way that the original MOTU movie just didn't all those years ago. I guess we'll see, mergers and sales happen all the time, but this bizarre condensing of so many industries is looking more dystopian RPG background every day.

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It was touched on earlier, but while Mattel is bigger and has an impressive IP roster, their sales have been sluggish due to the fact that everything they make is made overseas and suffering under Trump's tariffs.

Meanwhile, Hasbro has MTG. The cards are printed in the US, which means it's essentially a cheat code. Hasbro's own not insubstantial IP catalogue has been struggling like Mattel's under the tariff situation, but Mattel doesn't have a MTG product that's both domestic and incredibly popular.

Then you have the Hot Wheels x Transformers collab line. Which is getting multiple waves and even retailer exclusives. It's probably the most extensive collab line yet, and it's due to both Hasbro and Mattel being very happy with its success. So that may be greasing the wheels at Mattel.
"Look at what we can do together."

To be clear I don't want this to happen. Hasbro and Mattel are the big two of American toy companies, and while a combined entity wouldn't be a de jure monopoly, it would be a de facto one. You're basically looking at McFarlane, NECA, SpinMaster, and Playmates, and none of them are anywhere near Hasbro or Mattel's size, much less those two as a combined entity. A merger would be a bad thing.

But I can see why it would be appealing to shareholders. Especially Mattel shareholders who either see it as a huge payday or are coveting Hasbro's Wizards of the Coast stuff that gets around the tariff bs.

Playmates is already having some weird issues, having lost Ninja Turtles for the first time since the original TV series, while ALSO having Hasbro outsource some of their own IP to them. I find the whole thing to be a rather confusing mess, I admit...