The Future of Star Wars Collecting?

[Muftak]

Exactly. It makes too much sense! 

[Mister Skeezler]

What they should do with pre-orders this far out is let it be open for a certain amount of time and then Amazon/Walmart/Target/whoever would then know how many to order and Hasbro would know how many to make.  That way everyone will get what they want, Hasbro and the retailer are not sitting on a bunch of stock and everybody's happy.

That's precisely why this will never happen.

NECA does this. You have a week to order, and they make the amount that are ordered.

[JediJman]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought the whole point of a pre-order was to gauge consumer interest and then update production to match or slightly exceed that amount.  Is there any benefit to the manufacturer or retailer beyond this?  If I sell a product coming in October today versus just selling it in October, what is the benefit beyond holding onto your money for a few extra months (which honestly is not worth the amount of added costs they probably have in setting up and facilitating the pre-order).  What am I not understanding?

[Dave]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought the whole point of a pre-order was to gauge consumer interest and then update production to match or slightly exceed that amount.  Is there any benefit to the manufacturer or retailer beyond this?  If I sell a product coming in October today versus just selling it in October, what is the benefit beyond holding onto your money for a few extra months (which honestly is not worth the amount of added costs they probably have in setting up and facilitating the pre-order).  What am I not understanding?

Unless its a kickstarter, they don't even take your money until it ships.  I don't really get it either.

[Muftak]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought the whole point of a pre-order was to gauge consumer interest and then update production to match or slightly exceed that amount.  Is there any benefit to the manufacturer or retailer beyond this?  If I sell a product coming in October today versus just selling it in October, what is the benefit beyond holding onto your money for a few extra months (which honestly is not worth the amount of added costs they probably have in setting up and facilitating the pre-order).  What am I not understanding?

Given the short windows on the Star Wars online preorders, I have never assumed these were a "gauging interest and building a factory order" situation so much as a "coordinating online availability with online reveals before Yakface can spoil them" deal. But it is really getting out of hand, with unrevealed figures sold out, presells for next March sold out,

The Bad Batch pack is getting a rerun after insane preales, and I would imagine that rerun will get presold too. The TVC Jabba's Palace set got a second run back in 2019 too after everything sold through on initial release. That led to overstock and clearance.

The only Hasbro products that are presells in the real sense are HasLab campaigns. The rest are marketing schemes that are grinding the fun out of the hobby for many.

[JediJman]

Given the short windows on the Star Wars online preorders, I have never assumed these were a "gauging interest and building a factory order" situation so much as a "coordinating online availability with online reveals before Yakface can spoil them" deal. But it is really getting out of hand, with unrevealed figures sold out, presells for next March sold out,

The Bad Batch pack is getting a rerun after insane preales, and I would imagine that rerun will get presold too. The TVC Jabba's Palace set got a second run back in 2019 too after everything sold through on initial release. That led to overstock and clearance.

The only Hasbro products that are presells in the real sense are HasLab campaigns. The rest are marketing schemes that are grinding the fun out of the hobby for many.

I'm not sure I'm on the same page with any of that.  If the goal is to get news out before Jayson spoils it, you can just announce that it's coming without the headache of setting up, releasing, selling, and managing all these pre-orders.  I think in general collectors would be happier knowing a product is coming and that they'll have an equal shot at getting it when its released versus the masses crying out when a pre-order sells out in 2 minutes and they're left in limbo for months wondering if they'll find more or have to turn to Ebay.

I also don't see how the Bad Batch sell out is considered "insane presales" versus anything else that's sold out out in minutes.  If they had a huge quantity and still sold out, that would make sense, but I don't know that any of us knows the production number on these.  I don't recall a second production on the Jabba's Throne, but I do recall them hitting stores well after they were made available online, which is a good recipe for retailer clearance. 

A recent example that I think worked pretty well was the Heroes of Endor set.  They clearly made an initial production run, then opened up orders to inform the numbers on a second production run that took another 6+ months to get to people.  But if you're putting up preorders for stuff that is expected to hit in May of 2022 right now, you'd think they would just take as many orders as possible, then adjust the production as needed. I know the factories are probably backed up with production schedules, but I would be shocked if they couldn't still make adjustments this far out.

[Rob]

Agreed.  Whether an initial preorder sale is insane or not depends on how many orders they take, and we never have that info.  If they only sell a few hundred or whatever, of course it sells out fast.  Personally I think they’re trying to create hype, but the fact that almost every TVC item sells out relatively quickly without sitting around in stores these days tells me they’re underproducing them, probably on purpose.

[Muftak]

My original point with the Bad Batch 4-pack was that from announcement to preorder to sell out it all took place in the span of a few hours. If you were away from social media during the day that day you missed even the option of attempting to get them.
That is the insane part to me.

[Nicklab]

I find this recent trend of a 24 hour lifespan of announcing the item/preselling the item/selling out of the item completely baffling. The Bad Batch 4 pack sold out insanely fast at Amazon (who obviously weren't holding some back for retail stores like WalMart and Target might) with a six-month window before delivery. Hasbro later announced that there would be more put up for presale eventually, I assume once they secure a window for another run at the factory.

This week the WalMart Clone Wars Microseries figures ddi pretty much the same thing, though it looks like WalMart did stagger the availability somewhat to give more buyers a chance. Still, everything was sold out within a couple of days of the announcement of such product. And again, this is just presales--the product won't be here until sometime next year.

I have to agree, I'm baffled about these supply chain issues when the delivery dates are over 6 months away.  How are Hasbro AND the exclusive retailers letting this happen when there are customers who want the product? 

We have been through Hasbro's production timeline ad nauseum.  But once the figure has been sculpted, engineered, tested and tooled, and the packaging has been approved, it's ready to go into production.  Are the production facilities so tightly scheduled and maxed out that they can't plan for additional runs of in-demand product?

This also brings the Bad Batch 4-pack to mind specifically.  Captain Howzer in the show was revealed as Captain Ballast in the figure reveal.  That figure isn't scheduled to be released until January, but the packaging is already locked down and the packaging can't be revised?  WTAF???

The really disturbing part of this week's presale (to me) is the 3 Black Series figures--those sold out SIGHT UNSEEN. All they've posted is images from the 2003 cartoon. One can assume these will be repaints of previously released versions, but still--they could also be literally anything else.

This sets a crazy precedent where Hasbro doesn't even need to make a prototype before getting our money anymore. What happens next?

This one is really cause for concern.  These are 3 Black Series figures that already have a based price of nearly $27, and Grievous costs even more.  And we don't even get a prototype image?  But of course they sold out, sight unseen except for placeholder stills from the animation.

I think that Hasbro should do better.  They have a responsibility to be more transparent if they're going to offer a pre-order of any kind.  We really need to see the products before this kind of offering.  Yet so many collectors just went along with it because of FOMO.  And that overall sense of FOMO has been driving EVERYTHING in both the Vintage Collection and the Black Series.  There's no room for anyone to just wait and see what they want to order.  You have to make a decision during the preorder window or you may be SOL.

[Matt_Fury]

If my YouTube channel ever gets big enough that I could get invited to Q&A's, I'll ask!   

[Jeff]

Are the production facilities so tightly scheduled and maxed out that they can't plan for additional runs of in-demand product?

100% yes.

It is my understanding that things are managed so closely, you can't just say "hey add another 10,000 figures to my order".  If you do that, something else is getting delayed or cancelled and another client may be upset.  And the additional figures can affect the cost per unit or planned labor cost, planned storage cost, planned shipping cost.  If Star Wars team has a budget for a particular quarter, they can't just add without taking from something else, especially at the very tight profit margins the Star Wars team needs to meet.

Look at all those small kickstarter type action figure lines.  They get a hard copy tooled up, paint it and open up pre-orders/kickstarter.  And then it takes you 16-20 months to get your stuff.  If Hasbro were to announce a product, open pre-orders for 6 weeks and then use that to set a production run, you'd be pre-ordering 12 months in advance...  which is kind of what happens with the HasLab stuff as someone pointed out.

[Dave]

Sounds like they need more factories.

[McMetal]

I’d much rather have the security of knowing I will easily be able to preorder everything I want, if that means waiting 12 months, no problem. This instantaneous sell out nonsense is just horribly frustrating.

[Rob]

I just wish that instead of six retro boba fett's they'd raise the price to $15 and put out new, interesting characters, and more of them.

The line has turned into repacks, clones, and a new Mandalorian figure here and there.  It's gotten boring. 

[Diddly]

I've been under the assumption that there are two factors currently hurting the hobby:

1. The cost of licensing that Hasbro has to pay Disney just for Star Wars alone
2. The commercial failure of the Sequel Trilogy and its merchandise

We know that Disney increased licensing costs back in 2012 or 2013, and I want to say Hasbro recently signed an extension? Then you have to factor in the rising costs of production, materials, shipping, etc. All of that adds up to a pretty penny, and since Hasbro, LEGO, and other merchandisers have taken a bath on Sequel Trilogy items, I can totally see Hasbro playing it easy and only producing a specific number of figures to guarantee that they sell (and for a profit), and don't hang around clearance aisles/stores for years like Jyn, Cassian, or anything from Last Jedi.