i think instead of Hasbro talking about their slow sales numbers they should lean a little heavier on their major retail partners (Walmart, Target, TRU, etc.) to work a little better on the sales volume. By that i mean actually trying to move product through the store. The Super Wally we do our grocery shopping at has three pegs of Yarna and that's it for basic figures. No clone wars, no legends and no other legacy. I could understand if the pegs looked like that three days after Christmas, but its April now, they should be maintaining a much larger stock. And this isn't something particularly new. Every time I've been in that store, I don't visit very many Walmarts to compare it to, its been the same lack of selection. (Somewhat amusingly, someone has moved all the Yarnas to three pegs on the bottom row to show how the other 20 odd pegs are empty). I've had a similar experience at Target, only stocking Clone Wars and TRU must only be getting cases of Yarna and Plo Koon.
I think Hasbro needs to do a better job making sure a selection of their product is on the shelves in these stores, and the stores need to do a better job of managing what items sell and which don't. I bet the toy manager, or whoever, looks in the computer and sees that they have 30 figures left, and the restock threshold is 25, so they don't restock, without caring that the 30 are the same 30 that were on the shelf two weeks ago (this store has a one Moff Jerjerod on clearance for $5.00, for the last three year, uhm, how about making it $1.50 and getting it out the door).
I find it interesting that last year Star Wars was the best selling toy brand, driven in large part by the release of realistic figure, etc. Yet this year the realistic figures are the anchor holding the line down. It just feels like Hasbro is really slow with releasing product and the retailers are even slower moving that product to their shelves.
