Author Topic: Did OTC Do Well?  (Read 7458 times)

Offline Morgbug

  • Old
  • Jedi Guardian
  • *
  • Posts: 16232
  • mmm. pemmican.
    • View Profile
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #15 on: December 31, 2004, 05:29 PM »
BTW, Canadian Walmarts never carried VOTC, so we don't have the same over abundance of ANH that you see.  One store did, but they order in much smaller quantities.
Minivans: a sign of the apocalypse.

Offline Brian

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 11749
    • View Profile
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #16 on: January 3, 2005, 09:44 AM »
Judging from what many have said online here, and by the scene here locally, I'd say the OTC (and VOTC for that matter) was a success.  When the OTC line first hit, it seemed to sell pretty smoothly, even sold out on a number of occasions.  It was usually pretty quick to be restocked, but continued to sell well.  Recently, like many of you have mentioned, we had a butt-load of Endor Generals alongside Bespin Leia and Lobot hitting the pegs (at Wal-Mart in particular), and I honestly didn't think those would ever sell.  They sat there for some time.  Then right around the week before Christmas until now, it has pretty much cleared out.  The Star Wars section at Wal-Mart is currently empty, with the remaining OTC and VOTC being moved to the clearance aisle, but there isn't much there either.  I'd guess around 10 or so General Landos and Bespin Leias, and a few Madines...although those seem to be slowly disappearing, probably for customs.  Target is clearancing out what they have left as well, which at our closest store seem to be pretty much just Bib Fortunas and Lobots.  Again, not a ton, but those are pretty much the only figures there.

The VOTC is a line I really liked.  It was the same here as many others have said, WAY too much ANH wave in the beginning.  I really didn't think many of those would ever sell.  Despite his pegwarming legend, I couldn't go and buy a VOTC Han Solo in our town now though, and there are hardly any VOTC anywhere.  TRU hasn't had any for a month or two now (and only Saga figures now by the way), between the two Targets we have in town there are 2 Landos, and Wal-Mart had about 5 Landos and 2 Leias, all on clearance.  I was surprised that these were all that were left, but its good to see that they sold well, at least in some areas, so hopefully Hasbro will revisit the general concept in the future.

Overall, I think the OTC and VOTC lines both did pretty good.  Taking the repacking concept of the OTC into consideration, it did almost "scary" good.  Sure, they looked good, and the cards were fantastic...and really the figure selection wasn't all that bad, but I hope this doesn't become a continued trend either.  A few here and there (well chosen), is ok, but not a line with 75-80% repacks.  But, overall, it has sold very well here and there really doesn't seem to be all that much left....and what is left, is already on clearance.  I'm glad to see its getting cleared out, and hopefully we can see some new (IE Cantina, Animated Clone Wars, and Preview Waves) hitting the pegs in the coming weeks/months.  Long answer short...I'd say yes, the OTC did pretty well, especially considering the circumstances.

Offline Scott

  • Staff Member
  • Jedi Guardian
  • *
  • Posts: 18704
  • Get Some
    • View Profile
    • JediDefender
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #17 on: January 3, 2005, 02:03 PM »
That's my fear as well Brian, Enjoy April folks because for almost all intensive purposes, the line is almost dead.  Hasbro will see this and pump out continual rereleases in a way to keep making money off the line.   All the while having little incentive to put money in to tooling and new figure development for the OT.

Why didn't we get new figures in those Craptastic four packs?  Because new figures cost too much.  Its already happened and this "sucess" is not a good sign for the future to me at all :-\

Offline Morgbug

  • Old
  • Jedi Guardian
  • *
  • Posts: 16232
  • mmm. pemmican.
    • View Profile
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #18 on: January 3, 2005, 04:02 PM »
Agreed. 

Minor paint re-deco's are fine for some of the army builders.  I didn't mind seeing Jawas, Gam Guards, Tusken Raiders being in the selections.  They're nice figures and you can always add a couple of those in.  The Imperials were nice too but the only one we saw in any abundance was the scout trooper, a previously underreleased figure from POTJ - at least locally.  Never saw much of the Stormtroopers though, not sure if anyone else did.  I did feel that the re-release of the Tie Pilot was a tad ridiculous, given it had just shown up in one of the last Saga waves. 

Where I'm more irritated is with the Vaders and Lukes, both of whoms figures were recently released on the crappier blue Saga cards.  Thinking that Vader's are cool no matter what, I didn't realize they would be again available on the OTC stuff (until I read about it anyway) so now I've got blue Saga Vader releases of figures identical to those on OTC. 

The four packs tanked up here in general.  The Imperial set never made it, the bounty hunter set sold well and then it all went into the crapper.  There's so many of those things haunting TRU it's disturbing. 

How much more can they rehash though, that will actually sell?  Sure, the last two waves of Ep I might go over pretty well, but anything from Ep II?  Nope, nothing rare there or in Saga in general, save Ephant Mon.  Do we need a rehash of Yakface?  I sure hope not. 

I hate being a pessimist (mostly cuz I'm so good at it) but I think Scott is pretty darn close to hitting the nail on the head.  Only reason he isn't bang on is because I want to hold onto a glimmer of optimism :-\
Minivans: a sign of the apocalypse.

Offline CorranHorn

  • Jedi Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 2101
  • I can't think of anything witty to say...
    • View Profile
    • The Power Of The Customizer
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #19 on: January 3, 2005, 09:47 PM »
Yeah I've been mulling over what the future lies for the Star Wars brand post-ROTS and while I think there's still enough to keep us going, I'm not sure if it will actually happen. The 4-packs though aren't exactly a good example of why we won't get new figures. The exclusives are handled by a seperate entity at Hasbro and they have never made completely new items for exclusive toys, they will modify an existing toy to make it appear new, but the less modifications that have to be made, the better in their eyes. Just look at the Jedi Council sets 3 thru 6, the biggest changes to those figures are the legs and aren't they all pretty much the same?

Anyways, here's what I'd like to see Hasbro do post-ROTS, keeping in mind that they will likely continue the re-carding of existing figures. I, like everyone else want to see new figures and with what will be a total of 6 movies having been released, I think they can easily put out 4 new figures a month. This also takes into assumption that they won't be doing EU figures.

So with the standard case holding 12 figures I'd like to see, 4 new figures in each case at 2 a piece, then one rehashed army builder at 2 a piece (these will no doubt sell like hotcakes, especially Stormtroopers [VOTC perhaps? yeah right!  :-\]) and then 2 individual rehashed characters. The individual rehashes can rotate out between main characters and unique characters as Hasbro sees fit, but in all cases, the rehashes should be the best possible versions of these figures. So that means the next Chewie that would be rehashed (VOTC not included) should be the Saga Bespin Chewie and NOT that piece of crap POTJ Mechanic Chewie!

Just a thought....
« Last Edit: January 3, 2005, 09:48 PM by CorranHorn »
Jason F.

- FFURG Admin
- Vintage Needs: Micro Collection Snowspeeder box and pilots, Micro Collection X-Wing pilot

Offline Jesse James

  • Staff Member
  • Grand Master
  • *
  • Posts: 35448
  • Slippery When Poopy
    • View Profile
    • JediDefender.com
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #20 on: January 3, 2005, 10:28 PM »
Something to consider, and I was touching on this in my original post...

What if sales weren't "high" because production wasn't high?  Adam Pawlus's Q&A column hinted that much of OTC was not highly produced.

Like I said, we view this as great sales...  Things moved off the shelves quickly, product didn't really sit stagnant (some did and still does).  But what if production didn't match nearly what a normal run of figures/sales does for Hasbro?  Sales aren't so great then...

I tend to agree Scott, that we're seeing a bad precedent beginning with OTC.  At the same time though, tooling new figures can mean higher sales in total units sold...  What it'll depend on now is if their department for determing cost and cutting from certain areas/activities will find out if re-releasing short runs of figures is more financially sound than making higher production runs of new product.

What I think we'll wind up seeing is more of a mix in non-movie years, somewhat similar to OTC.  Idealy it would be MORE new product than repackaged though, for us. :)

Like I was saying in my first post though, yes things moved, but did Hasbro really make a TON of money with it?  If they didn't sell nearly as much as they would've if it was all new product, there's two possible answers...  That the lower overall sales outweighed the lower costs and they made $, or that new product maybe would've cost more but they would've sold more units and made more $ in the long run.  That, I don't think we'll ever know, but one thing is for sure...

If Hasbro gloats up SW in a press release, they did well...  If they don't, then you can bet OTC didn't do as well as people are maybe thinking by looking at the pegs of their local store.  This isn't a black & white issue though, there's a lot they've gotta look at with this. 

And with the DVD release and all that being a big media blitz, I just really wonder if OTC really didn't do ALL that well beyond it NOT clogging pegs.  I'm not ready to say OTC was "a hit" though myself.  I'm leaning right now towards Hasbro, at most, doing a mix of re-releases now more steadily with new product, especially in non-movie years.
2011 Rebel Fleet Trooper Gets My Seal Of Approval!  But Where's The Friggin' Holster On Him!?
Jedi Defender.com Contributing Editor, Twitter @JediDefender & @Jesse_James77

Offline CorranHorn

  • Jedi Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 2101
  • I can't think of anything witty to say...
    • View Profile
    • The Power Of The Customizer
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #21 on: January 3, 2005, 10:59 PM »
Something to consider, and I was touching on this in my original post...

What if sales weren't "high" because production wasn't high?  Adam Pawlus's Q&A column hinted that much of OTC was not highly produced.

Like I said, we view this as great sales...  Things moved off the shelves quickly, product didn't really sit stagnant (some did and still does).  But what if production didn't match nearly what a normal run of figures/sales does for Hasbro?  Sales aren't so great then...

From my observations locally and what I've seen reported, I think OTC's production run was for the most part in line with a regular non-movie year's production run. That especially goes for the Dagobah, Bespin, and Endor Generals waves as these 3 waves wound up being the true pegwarmers of OTC. To offset those high production numbers, I'm sure some of the recarded figures which came 1 per case didn't see a high run.  I think if it all balances out, from August to December we saw as many OTC figures overall that we would have seen if the Saga line had continued on it's own.
Jason F.

- FFURG Admin
- Vintage Needs: Micro Collection Snowspeeder box and pilots, Micro Collection X-Wing pilot

Offline CHEWIE

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 14630
    • View Profile
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #22 on: January 4, 2005, 11:26 AM »
Corran, I agree.  I think that OTC was as big of a hit as Hasbro's had in a non-movie year since the Kenner Freeze-Frame era.

Seriously, my local Walmarts/Targets got in quite a bit of the stuff - it literally flew of the pegs.  New figures, repacks, you name it, it sold fast.  When the stores were getting in tons of SAGA figures (even new ones), they tended to sit on the pegs for a while.  Not the OTC stuff.

And the POTC figures sell like hotcakes too.  I think it's the packaging.  People can't resist it.  It's freaking awesome.

Granted, there were a few waves that seemed to be underproduced - but even the other waves sold well... I never thought that the Cantina Han repacked for the 34th time would selll... but it did.  Is that a good thing?  Well, yeah for Hasbro but not if we don't want to continue seeing repacks...

Overall, I think OTC exceeded Hasbro's expectations.  I doubt they expected to see empty pegs everywhere right after Christmas.

 :P


Offline Brian

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 11749
    • View Profile
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #23 on: March 9, 2005, 03:03 PM »
You know one thing I have noticed, at least in my area, is that I don't see any...not a single one....OTC figure hanging out at any of the stores.  Granted, they did big clearances so that helped, but many other stores (TRU in particular) had...and still have....Saga or even a few POTJ figures on the pegs.  The OTC sold out, or they at least made sure that it did.  Not a single one to be found in town now.  Just preview figures everywhere, and TRU still has their old Saga crap too.

Offline CHEWIE

  • Jedi Sentinel
  • *
  • Posts: 14630
    • View Profile
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #24 on: March 9, 2005, 03:39 PM »
Yep - Hasbro is a bunch of stupid ******** for never doing this kind of packaging in the past.  It would seem they will go back to this after ROTS dies down.

 :P

Offline Morgbug

  • Old
  • Jedi Guardian
  • *
  • Posts: 16232
  • mmm. pemmican.
    • View Profile
Re: Did OTC Do Well?
« Reply #25 on: March 9, 2005, 04:32 PM »
Our Walmarts are littered with the General Lando wave of OTC.  Mostly because they put them out after Christmas, not a particularly bright thing.  One Walmart in particular had nothing for months, then put out an end cap full of them in January ::)

TRU is still sitting on a pretty big chunk of them as well, again that General Lando wave.  The Vader and Jawas sold out of it, but the rest is blech.  We saw lots of the Saga wave with those figures, so there wasn't the shortage up here that existed down south. 
Minivans: a sign of the apocalypse.