Author Topic: What's in that "secret" display?  (Read 9048 times)

Offline Violentfix

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Re: C3 Hasbro Q & A
« Reply #30 on: April 26, 2005, 12:33 PM »
If they don't do the twins in some form, I will quit.  With all the exclusive crap (no C3 Vader for me) and headaches with keeping up, they make it very easy for a lifelong SW fan to walk away.  "They're action figures not stand there and look at them figures?"  How about "They're just toys, people.  Not state secrets."

What I found so incredibly funny is that yet again at a Hasbro QnA attended almost exclusively by 30+ year old dudes was the "OK, we make these for KIDS" BS line they constantly throw out at us.  They once again made it a point that KIDS are #1 on their list...

THEN, they go and realease Collector Cases at Target

"So it turns out that the single greatest enemy to the Republic and the very future of the galaxy isn't the Sith. It's dust. The solution? Collector cases - only available at Target.

Protect your Star Wars collection from the elements with this five-pack of collector cases that perfectly encapsulate your Revenge of the Sith 3 ¾ action figures. Each of these durable containers is specially made for displaying your collection on shelves, stands or even your walls."

I can't wait to see the first Kid running down the aisle of Target going "mommy, mommy, can I buy this pack of 5 plastic cases!"   ::)

Maybe because they are Target exclusive means that Target actually gets the fact that only the collectors are spending the big $$ on this crap...

Jeff

This applies to my troop builder idea as well.  IF Hasbro makes these with kids in mind and at the same time realize that most kids never ever got to see the SA Clone or Clone Pilots from the AOTC lines then why don't they start over packing troop builders?  Do they think that inciting excitement over chasing figures is something that attracts parents to by a product for their kids?  No, it's a collector theory,  Make something that people want and slowly trickle more into the market causes people to buy more product in the long run.  How many Targets to you go to looking for a figure and how often do you just happen to walk out with another product. 

I work in upper management for a retail company and we employ this exact tactic except instead of collectors, we get regular people to search for the newest thing and when the person can't find the newest thing we suggest them getting the next best thing (That has a higher profit mind you) It's sleezy but it works.  I don't make this policy, by the way.

I'm sure toy companies do the same kind of thing.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2005, 12:39 PM by Violentfix »
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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: C3 Hasbro Q & A
« Reply #31 on: April 26, 2005, 05:28 PM »
This applies to my troop builder idea as well.  IF Hasbro makes these with kids in mind and at the same time realize that most kids never ever got to see the SA Clone or Clone Pilots from the AOTC lines then why don't they start over packing troop builders?  Do they think that inciting excitement over chasing figures is something that attracts parents to by a product for their kids?  No, it's a collector theory,  Make something that people want and slowly trickle more into the market causes people to buy more product in the long run.  How many Targets to you go to looking for a figure and how often do you just happen to walk out with another product. 

Here's a funny story - I was in my local WalMart and there was a mom with her son. The mother was clearly frustrated as her son was digging through the pegs. He was looking for the "red" clone - at first I figured he meant the Clone Commander, but in hind-sight he may have been looking for the Red Senate Guard - I'm not 100% certain.

Anyway, my point is that I could see that this mother was obviously trying to reward her son and bring him all over trying to find the figure he wanted, but she was CLEARLY getting tired of all the looking.

It doesn't matter what figure he wanted (Clone Commander or Red Royal Guard) the store didn't have either, so my son who was with me as well, went up to him and said - we already looked, they don't have that figure here - which was the truth, we had just got done looking for a clone commander ourselves. In the end, the kid and his mother left without picking up ANY figures.

So what Violentfix is saying is true - if the army builder figures like the Red Royal Guard, Clone Pilot and Clone Commander were readily available on the shelves, this kid would have made a purchase. But, because it wasn't, WalMart lost out on a sale AND the mother left with a very poor opinion about the Star Wars line - you don't think parents were fond of the Power Rangers toys when those figures were selling like hot-cakes do you?

Hasbro keeps telling us that they "do it for the kids" yet everything they do points to "doing it for the collectors". If it's truly for kids and not collectors then things like VOTC, Evolutions 3-packs, Unleashed or even the 500th Darth Vader - should not even exist!

The Kenner line was for kids - there was ONE Tatooine Luke, ONE Darth Vader, ONE Chewbacca, ONE Emperor, etc... Only a collector line will support continual re-releases of the same character in the same outfit for ten years.
Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!

Offline DoctorPadawan

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Re: C3 Hasbro Q & A
« Reply #32 on: April 26, 2005, 06:44 PM »
Quote
Hasbro keeps telling us that they "do it for the kids" yet everything they do points to "doing it for the collectors".

And that is the dilemma that Hasbro is going to have to face in a short period of time, I think.  As I (sarcastically, yes, but it was all probably true) alluded to in a post I made in another thread, Hasbro only actually pays collectors any lip service in non-film years, as in those years, we are literally all that they have to keep the line afloat.  During the film years, they act like we are the scum of the earth and that we don't matter a bit to the line because they are "making the toys for kids." 

The cycle usually goes like this (and look back on this if you don't believe me):

2001:  Power of the Jedi (collector based line, Fan's Choice is introduced)

2002:  Power of the Jedi (collector based line, really obscure and much requested characters)

04/2002:  Saga/AOTC line launches with stupid action features and horrible sculpting on many figures, because "kids love the action features"

2003:  Saga continues with more stupid action features in Collection 1 and a collector's focus in Collection 2.  By the end of the year, the action features are more or less nonexistant.

2004:  Saga continues with a very collector based focus.

08/2004:  Original Trilogy Collection starts; figure choices range from being kid focused to really obscure ("Cool, mom, it's the guy with the computer in his bald head, can I have it?") characters no kid would really care about.  DVD release to tie into

2005:  Original Trilogy Collection winds to a close with very collector-based figures from TPM, AOTC, and the Cantina

04/2005:  Revenge of the Sith launches.  Back to stupid action features, "these are made for kids" all over again

See the pattern?  When the fickle youth abandon SW in the toy aisles completely by January, we'll see another assortment or two (unless Hasbro has already stopped making them in anticipation of this) with action features, before they are phased out and we see the obscure and collector focused figures return.

The problem is that this time Hasbro is being much more insulting with collectors.  In 2002, it was "kids make up the bulk of our sales."  In 2005, their attitude seems to be "if you don't open your toys, you're a moron, but here's an overpriced Clone Trooper to chew on."  And in 2006 they're counting on everyone forgetting these little snide comments, but in the end scheme of things, to paraphrase one of my favorite films of all time, "When the end comes, all that will be left...is US."

Offline Nathan

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Re: C3 Hasbro Q & A
« Reply #33 on: April 26, 2005, 07:12 PM »
What the Doc said ^. I'm not a habitual Hasbro basher, but a lot of things this year really tick me off. However if they come up with another POTJ-type line for '06 I will forgive them.
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Offline Darby

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Re: C3 Hasbro Q & A
« Reply #34 on: April 26, 2005, 09:26 PM »
I don't blame them for wanting to reach out to kids, and I do think they've made incredible progress in the last few years, but they do treat collectors as if we were some necessary evil.  They can't live without us, but it would be oh so much easier if they didn't have to deal with us.  It's like a bad relationship where you keep going back even though they beat the crap out of you all the time.   ::)