Questions for Hasbro?

[Greg]

Not a Star Wars question, but can you provide any details and/or pictures of the Cloverfield movie Monster toy that you have for pre-order on HasbroToyShop.com? Thanks for the help, and I cannot wait to see your 2008 offerings at Toy Fair next month.

[Artoo]

Where's the love for Temple of Doom or Last Crusade?
I think everyone wants a Short Round & Henry Jones Sr.

[Morgbug]

Where does Star Wars stand in the Hasbro collection of toys?  Is it THE top seller or is it in the middle of the pack or somewhere down the line?  We all like to think of it as critically important to retailers, but does My Little Pony kick it in the backside in terms of sales?

[JesseVader08]

That would certainly be an interesting question.

[Jeff]

Where does Star Wars stand in the Hasbro collection of toys?  Is it THE top seller or is it in the middle of the pack or somewhere down the line?  We all like to think of it as critically important to retailers, but does My Little Pony kick it in the backside in terms of sales?

The 2007 annual report hasn't been published, but here's how things shaped up in 2006...  (from Hasbro's 2006 Annual Report to stockholders):

"STAR WARS was the #1 property in the boys' business for the second year running and continues to demonstrate its long term viability.  Revenue for the entire STAR WARS line was $285 Million in 2006, compared to $494 million in 2005, showing that an entertainment brand layered with new innovation can perform significantly in the year following the movie."


A few things on 2005:

- yes, Hasbro had half a billion dollars in Star Wars sales in 2005   

- that $494 million in sales in 2005 produced approximately 16% of the net revenue for Hasbro in 2005.  No other product line even came close to generating even 10% of the net revenue.


Of course that was 2005, which was a movie year.  In 2006:

- In the 2006 annual report, they say that no single line of toys accounted for 10% of the net revenue, but if you do the math for Star Wars, it works out to about 9% of their business in 2006.  No other single line of products they have comes close to that. 

- In 2006, "boys toys" generated $576 million in revenue.  That means that the $285 generated by Star Wars was half of the "boys toys" sector revenue.  So in 2006, Star Wars did better then everything else in "boys toys" (GI Joe, TFers, etc) combined.

- In 2006, "girls toys" generated $530 million in revenue, but nothing comes close to Star Wars type numbers.

- In 2006, the "board games" sector generated $1.294 billion in revenue.  So, while Star Wars (and boys toys in general) are important to Hasbro ("boys toys" ranks second), the biggest part of Hasbro's business overall is still the board games.


So, there's a brief glimpse at the past 2 years. 

The 2007 annual report should be out by the end of the month, so then we'll have a better idea of how the 30AC stuff did for Hasbro.  It should be interesting to see if/how Marvel and TFers movie stuff affected Star Wars sales...

[David]

Zam Wessell? 

[Muftak]

What are the chances of seeing the Moisture Vaporator reappear as a different figure's pack-in, if not in 2008 then in 2009/10? I'm thinking Owen, Beru, Lars family Power Droid, Mos Eisley citizen...I would be more than happy to buy them all if they came with another Vaporator.

Please keep this great accessory in mind when planning future Tatooine waves, as many would love to have more than one, even if we only needed one wind-swept Luke Skywalker.

[Morgbug]

Thanks for the answer Hasbro Jeff, interesting information.  Truthfully I'm surprised by the fact that Star Wars is indeed #1 (2006) outside of a movie year.  I thought other properties would be, but perhaps that will be the case for 2007 with the movies you mentioned. 

I'd honestly thought that girls toys might be accounting for more, but I think the really hot properties in girls toys are all Mattel lines, so that would explain it.  Polly Pockets/Bratz/Barbie still rule the shelves that way and My Little Pony really doesn't cover off that much.

[ctonra]

Will the New Fall Legends line this year have a packin? and what will it be?  BOD? Coin? Stand?.   

And will BOD format be standard for all future droid releases?   for say will the next R2-D2 or C3-PO be take apart and mixed and matched with the BOD parts to create new figures or will the parts be limited to just the BOD packins?

 

[ctonra]

How come Playsets work for Indy and not Star Wars?

[The Stolen CCG License]

The Galactic Heroes at Toy Fair looked awesome!  It was everything fans of the line have been asking for, and more than anyone could have expected in a single year.

But, you're not expecting us to believe 2008 is going to come and go without a GH Ahsoka, are you?  Should we be expecting more GH news in the near future?  Maybe a long shot, but any chance an Asajj Ventress might be involved?

[Phrubruh]

Over the previous year, I've come across many TAC carded figures where the coin was missing. These where mostly UGH gold coins but I've seen silver ones missing too. Today, I've come across five battle packs where 2-3 figurers where missing. Sometimes I even find battlepacks or carded figures with other older figures put in instead. Since the stores will take back anything without looking at the box, what steps are being taken to reduce this kind of theft?

[iFett]

Big fan of Star War vehicles and I love that fact that you finally brought the Hyperspace Ring to life.  Obviously we all know that you love to repaint everything and we've got a growing fleet of Jedi Starfighters that need their respective rings.  It was painful shelling out $35 at TRU for a ship that I already own just to get the ring.  What are your plans for bringing other rings to life?  Any plans on beefing up the "stand" that you included for the ring to rest on for future releases?  Surely you can't expect us to rebuy every ship over again just for the ring though.

[Muftak]

Do you really think the pop-up dioramas got a fair shot at retail success? The 2 made barely made it on the shelf in 1998, before the big movie build-up and after most of the rest of the line got cancelled. They would just as easily fit the spot occupied on the shelf by the Evolutions line this year, for virtually no tooling cost.

Even ten years later the Cantina and Jabba's Palace are both considered essential items in a modern collection. With the Death Star, Cloud City, Ewok Village, Trade Federation Bridge, Outlander Nightclub, and Invisible Hand backdrops you might have a huge hit on your hands. Let's give them another try, with a pack-in army-builder figure for incentive, and see what happens.

[David]

Do you really think the pop-up dioramas got a fair shot at retail success? The 2 made barely made it on the shelf in 1998, before the big movie build-up and after most of the rest of the line got cancelled. They would just as easily fit the spot occupied on the shelf by the Evolutions line this year, for virtually no tooling cost.

Even ten years later the Cantina and Jabba's Palace are both considered essential items in a modern collection. With the Death Star, Cloud City, Ewok Village, Trade Federation Bridge, Outlander Nightclub, and Invisible Hand backdrops you might have a huge hit on your hands. Let's give them another try, with a pack-in army-builder figure for incentive, and see what happens.

Excellent question, I'd love to see something like that get asked.