JediDefender.com Forums
Collectibles => Past Hasbro 3.75" Lines => Original Trilogy Collection => Topic started by: CorranHorn on December 30, 2004, 02:31 AM
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Ok so while walking the aisles today looking for clearance items, I got to thinking, was the Original Trilogy Collection line successful? In my little corner of Chicagoland, the only OTC figures left to be clearanced out where the Bespin and Endor Generals waves. In fact for 2 or 3 weeks prior to X-Mas, these were the only OTC figures you could find at the major retailers. So did all of those recarded figures actually sell? In the end was there a market for these figures within the hobby, or did the DVD's actually help out? Here's some tidbits of how OTC moved in my area, I'd like to hear how it did in yours. My concern is if Hasbro can deem this a success, they will continue this concept to the point where retailers and customers will lose interest in the line.
* Except for the Dagobah wave case, the first 3 months saw OTC figures fly off the shelves. The local Wal-Mart had a centerpiece display with several dozen OTC figures (all recarded figs), within a day all the figs had been sold and the centerpiece was dismantled.
* The Bespin and Generals wave saw almost no distribution in the area until 2-3 weeks prior to X-Mas, now they're the only OTC figs that can be found on clearance. The oldest OTC figure I can now find is a lone Dagobah Luke at an Osco Drug store.
* Of the 3 vehicles, only the OTC Falcon can be found on clearance at Target and Walmart. TIEs & X-Wings are non-existant, unless you head to TRU which of course isn't dropping prices on anything.
* VOTC is where there's a big catch, TRU still has tons of ANH figures, while Target and Walmart are clearancing ESB figures (no C-3PO of course #$!^$#^! >:(), despite each once having tons of ANH figs. The 12" VOTC doesn't appear to have moved at all, as I still see stacks of those all around.
* Won't even talk about TRU exclusives, the TRU I hit today had at least a dozen of each of their OTC related exclusives, sans the Y-Wing.
So I kinda think OTC was successful, there was enough product to be found and much of it was purchased. Now will Hasbro see that and go "yes, recarded figures sell like hotcakes, let's do it again once Episode 3 has come and gone" or can we get back to having all new figures in each wave?
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I'd have to say it did pretty damned well, aside from perhaps at TRU, which seems to have just recently started stocking the stuff (like in the past month). But the Targets, WMs and Kmarts around here really managed to blow through most of their OTC stock, suprisingly. Granted, some of them hung around for a little while, but with the exception of Lobot, pretty much everything eventually moved. Not even any around to score on clearance this week...
TRU is a different story though. They didn't even seem to carry the OTC figures (at least here in SoCal) until maybe a month ago, when they started getting in shitloads of the the Bib/Hoth Vader waves. Considering the other stores had been selling them for a month prior, TRU is now typically stuck with their usual pegwarmers now. Same goes for VOTC at their stores. They hardly had jack until the last month or two, after everyone had already gotten their fill elsewhere...
But even a lot of the somewhat pegwarming VOTC figures like Han, Ben, Lando eventually all dried up at most stores. Kinda glad to see it, but it's pretty much just left empty pegs at most Targets and WMs for the past month or so now. Still very few POTC sitings to fill their empty gaps...
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Success is in the eye of the beholder...
Episode One, by some standards, was a success... Hasbro sold lots of product. They made lots of $ (didn't lose). They didn't meet projections though, and the abysmal sales at retail wound up causing a major distrust between Hasbro and their retail customers.
Saga the same thing could be said... Even worse perhaps since Hasbro did buy-backs which are really unheard of unless the company's kissing mucho ass to keep in good with their retailers...
OTC did seem to do well, but what kind of volume of product sold, ya know? I know that not a single OTC figure was "overshipped" in my area except perhaps the new figures like the Dagobah and Bespin waves... They shipped, reshipped, and reshipped again... Those figures didn't sell well then either (still have tons of all 3 Bespin wave, though the CCP's disappearing, and the Dagobah Wave still lingers some too). The repacks seemed so sporatically packed/shipped (some one-per case and such) that it actually controlled their possibility of pegwarming... Of course Han did, and many of those figures just released on Saga did sit a little bit, but they moved...
The product moved well though... I don't know what Hasbro was WANTING to move in OTC though. Given the DVD releases though, the big "blitz" surrounding those... I just don't know. Part of me thinks they had a higher goal than what got out there. Retail seemed slow to put the product out, they seemed hesitant to go all out with stocking their shelves too. That leads me to believe that the OTC line was no better than POTJ or other non-movie year lines, but that expectations were perhaps higher than a regular non-movie year... If that's the case, and the line didn't meet its projections but it still moved, then it's a success in a sense that it didn't turn retail OFF to SW as a brand, but it didn't produce the $ they'd maybe hoped would tie in with the DVD's.
As a consumer though, empty pegs equals happiness because it generally means the calm before a good storm... Of course, we could see massive gluts (given the time of year we're in now though, I am not counting on this) of the waves leading into the INEVITABLE massive glut of E3 product.
The line I'd say was a bigger success than OTC was VOTC. I think Wal-Mart's maybe not viewing it as such (their own fault of course), but the VOTC totally flew through Toys R Us and Target shelves out my way... WM even moved it at MOST stores. The one store I go to didn't move it as fast as others though, and was more indicative of stories of massive gluts of product and such.
Target and TRU have to have loved the OTC. I was at a TRU tonight that didn't have a single figure on the pegs... Target had no VOTC, and the WM's I was at neither one had more than 5 VOTC on their pegs.
OTC was dwindling at the WM's because of the clearances now, and Target was down to just Lobot OTC figures (10 maybe).
It's interesting to speculate what Hasbro's going to say (or not say) about the brand in coming months... OTC was a good line I think, even with the repacks, but I think for once that Hasbro smartly packed the figures to not clog things... Planned or accidental, it seemed to work. The irony then is that the NEW figures in the line were what clogged shelves. Oh the power of the carded collector... apparantly.
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The local Target didn't get any OTC figures until a few weeks ago, and it was the Endor Generals wave.
VOTC SUCKED here. ANH was fairly easy to find, ESB showed at TRU and one WM, and ROTJ only showed at Sam Goody and Target. I did manage to get a carded set, a loose set sans 3PO, and four loose Stormtroopers.
I still don't have a few OTC figures, and I'm not sure if I'm going to bother getting them. I'm missing the repacked Snowtrooper, Tusken Raider, Jawas, Lando Skiff, Leia (#9), and the Imperial Trooper. Which is pretty damn good, considering these few months brought out 38 figures plus the Post-OTC waves.
There aren't very many figures here left that aren't Endor Generals or Bespin Leia, and with WM's blowing theirs out for $3 a crack, Target's going to be the only one with any OTC figures left. TRU never bothered stocking OTC, but they got on the overpriced gravy train with the Naboo and Coruscant waves.
Surprisingly, $7 figures aren't moving. I think Hasbro and their retail partners are in for a rude awakening in April.
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OTC is nearly wiped out from my area as well, indicating a good seller and a successful campaign. In fact, the only stuff that is really sitting here is the Hoth/Repack Saga waves from early in the year. OTC came and left on top of them.
It does make me leery of the lesson Hasbro will take from the success. While repacks may sell (the best of the best of the past nine years, really, the essential characters distilled in their best versions) what I think helped the line more was the instant variety. These were not 3x4-figures-a-case waves. When figures shipped in more than one case, they were mostly one-pers. The figures that did wind up sitting (generals, Bespin Leia, early Dagobah) were the heavily-packed ones. It may have made for a tough time finding figures, but when a new case was put out, chances were someone would buy the whole case. That's what made this line move, end of story.
VOTC was same-old-same-old, first assortment massively overshipped, subsequent assortments were harder to find. It all worked out (just as it does every year), but can't we finally understand (Hasbro and retailers, here "we" means "you") that to continue this practice, the first assortment must be shipped with a wider selection of figures. If that means holding up on sending them out until production can catch up, then you need to do a little tweaking of your lead time. It will result in better sales.
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In the St. Louis area, OTC did outstanding. The only turd peg/shelf warmers were the following -
VOTC Han - too many were shipped, not enough of the ESB/ROTJ waves
Cantina Han - or whatever you want to call it, this figure has been rehashed too many times and was a shelf turd for a while
Lobot - they have all seem to have sold, but were warming pegs for a while at a lot of places
Falcon - too overpriced - stil a lot at Walmart, Target and TRU stores
X-Wing - sold now, but sat a while, would have been better if a Cloud Car was released
Slave I - should have been a few buck cheaper, some Targets never seemed to get them in, others got in a ton
Cantina Set 2 - talk about bad - the first one was great with Kitik Keedkak and another Wuher was nice, but the second set is just plain bad - a couple of other figures to replace Obi Wan and Ponda Baba would have really helped this set a lot - dust collecting at every Kmart in the area
I would say this stuff sold a heck of a lot better than any other line to date... Hasbro definitely came out ahead on these. I hope the line makes a comeback, but with a lot more *new* sculpts, although the rehashes did sell pretty darn well. There were some particular figures that were very hard to find:
- VOTC Stormtrooper
- Jawas
- Tusken Raider
- Jedi Luke
- Stormtrooper
- Scout Trooper
:P
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I think overall OTC did pretty good here. The only stuff that is really hanging around is the Endor wave. Everything else has basically been sold for the most part.
VOTC is going to stay around my area stores forever I think. Especially the first wave and a few of the Landos.
Pretty good for a bunch of repacks that a lot people whined about initially.
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From a Canadian perspective (Dale, Jesse, Koda can disagree as they see fit):
OTC would have to be listed as a success overall. I was able to find all of the figures on Canadian cardback, though not in abundance.
- the Dagobah wave was overshipped, but I think that was a reasonable thing to do with four new figures in it, including a variant (Handstand Luke).
-Vader waves were undershipped up here. I managed to find them all in multiples, but I'd say my name is dirt in my home town. I did send them out for cost or straight trade in all cases, but some local guys would have missed out pretty easily. This, however, is the case for most toys around here, ordering is pretty limited, so either be there at the right time or don't go at all.
-hardest to find figure on Canadian cardback? Stormtrooper, hands down. I think the scanning tech also sold out incredibly fast, but I actually saw enough to leave on the pegs. Not so for the stormtrooper. I found two and promptly shipped one to JuvyD and one to Japan. chuckles' still bugging me for one.
-Like the US, the generals wave seems to have overshipped, coming in last and just before Christmas in greater abundance than any other wave. The ESB wave was similarly abundant but seems to have sold better with a Vader and repainted Gam Guard. Still, the generals/Han At-St are littering the pegs at TRU, even after a buy one, get one half off sale just prior to Christmas.
-VOTC? What VOTC? Ok, so again, my name is dirt locally, but most people would not have found the ROTJ wave unless they were out shopping over a specific three day period in early December. One retailer (Superstore) carried the ANH/ESB waves, with much more of the ANH showing up. Luke/Han/Ben/Yoda hang in general abundance, but low enough numbers to not be viewed as a failure. TRU and Zellers both carried the ROTJ wave, Zellers carrying many more cases than TRU. But were you not in the store at precisely the right time, you'd be out of luck. Stormtrooper, Boba, Vader, Chewbacca, R2 and 3PO did not sit on the shelves for a period greater than a few hours. A success? Yes, resounding locally. Stores still have a few hanging about but nothing anyone wants - Han, Luke, Yoda, Ben and Lando. What happened with Leia though, why was she so hard to find? Another ugly Leia figure combined with low shipping numbers?
-As opposed to the US, none of our retailers that carry these things ever really clearances. TRU has occasional sales (something that strikes me as new, I don't recall them doing this prior to this year) but not Superstore, Zellers or even Walmart. Wally willl clearance after a big glut, but not now, they'll just let the Bossk's, IG-88's and the rest sit there for a while, a long, long while.
-I'm not real optimistic about the post-OTC waves showing up here. They may, in limited numbers (a good thing for the Sly wave) but nothing major. If the past experience with preview figures is accurate, I'll need to be at TRU at exactly the right time to find those figures as well.
OTC = success but lots of peg warmers, notably the newer figures
VOTC = resounding success but for the over shipment of ANH wave
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RE: OTC
I'll eat some crow and say that I can't believe people bought this crap. I guess spiffy packaging is enough for people to throw out the money for all of them. I saved a bunch of money and got some nice figures in the VOTC and the first two waves of OTC
And please don't think I'm ragging on anyone for buying, I realize there are a lot of completists out there and they were phenomenal looking...I'm just pissed we didn't get 38 new figures instead of 7.
RE: VOTC
This was piss poor around here. I saw ESB once, ROTJ Variant Case once and that's it. All Wal Marts around here are FULL of ANH figures that won't move for a year. Hasbro screwed the pooch on this. The figures and concept and everything was great and I hope a retailer picks up the idea as an exclusive and it keeps going
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While I agree with you on the fact that we didn't get to many "new" figures in the OTC. I have to confess that right before the OTC line was annouced I was close to retiring from SW collecting but when I saw the packaging my interest was renewed!..
There has been debate as to the DVD factoring into the OTC line up apparently Hasbro was rushed to create the line since they were planning on a DVD release after the ROTS had been out so there were rushed into creating the line and so we didn't get that many new ones! The Dagobah and Bespin waves had already been announced so those were included in the OTC line.
I can't confirm the DVD rush rumor but it would certainly make sense to me...
Overall I was pleased with the OTC line. :)
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Overall I'm pleased with the OTC too JangoJeff.
Scott - your idea for an exclusive retailer for VOTC might be the best bet - if TRU were to be exclusives for these, I think we would all be happy and able to get them in decent numbers for each assortment.
:P
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Scott - your idea for an exclusive retailer for VOTC might be the best bet - if TRU were to be exclusives for these, I think we would all be happy and able to get them in decent numbers for each assortment.
An exclusive retailer would be a good idea, if they were to continue the line. But I would have to say that TRU would be the absolute worst retailer to go with, at least in my neck of the woods. The TRU's around here are so poorly stocked, and poorly managed, and the employees are so clueless, that any kind of "exclusive" that ends up in TRU's hands causes nothing but nightmares for me.
I found the Silver Vader once. I saw the Y-Wing once. Yet, every time I go to Target, they have the Slave-1 with Boba Fett. OK, maybe that's a bad example, considering that the Y-Wing was basically a new ship and figure (or at least a new deco ship and figure), while the Slave-1 was just a repack, but TRU seems to be the worst at stocking the shelves with Star Wars product period, exclusive or not.
On the other hand, I had a hell of time finding those stupid cup sets at Target, and had to get some online help. I've still to this day not seen Leia in a store anywhere.
But back to the original question: Was OTC a success? Did it do well?
It depends on who you ask. If you ask Hasbro and most of the retailers out there, the answer would probably be "Yes", since like most others here have said, it was very tough to find certain figures in the beginning, and even now there are still several figures that I have not seen, and will probably have to resort to buying at inflated prices on ebay.
If you ask collectors, you would probably get a mixed reaction. I, for one, hated the OTC line. Yes, it was pretty, and brought back some nostalgic feelings, no doubt. But for Hasbro to have the balls to put 7 new figures into a line of 38? That's ridiculous. I know, I know, no one says I have to buy them all (except for that little George Lucas-looking devil that sits on my left shoulder when I'm out on a toy run), but regardless. There is no reason to keep releasing the same figures over and over and over again and again and again in new packaging. There are so many other figures that could have been made instead. Or at least re-release different figures, for crying out loud. How many Cantina Han figures does one need? Really??
And this "re-packing" trend continues into the Post-OTC figures hitting stores now. This is just insane. So now I have to go out and buy yet another differently carded version of Cantina Han. OK, so I don't have to, but you know I'm gonna. And so does Hasbro.
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RE: OTC
I'll eat some crow and say that I can't believe people bought this crap. I guess spiffy packaging is enough for people to throw out the money for all of them.
I didn't expect OTC to do well myself when it was announced, it seemed like a pretty bad idea. But I believe the consensus is overall it was a success as it appears that the same stuff nationwide remains, but most items moved through quickly. Dave's reminder of the recarded figures in the Cantina Post-OTC wave is a bit scary as it shows that Hasbro will be willing to continue this. Perhaps if they were to do so with figures not recarded yet, like they did with the Sandtrooper, then things could work out on a low scale. And yes the spiffy packaging did get me a bit, it caused me to buy Bossk despite the fact I had refused to get him when he initially came out in the Saga line. But I did refuse to buy other stuff down the road like Jawas and the Snowtrooper, does that save me? ;)
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Based in the St. Louis area at least, TRU does a very good job of stocking their exclusives. I can compare some of their exclusives in the past that I can think of -
TRU
POTJ AT-ST
POTJ TIE Interceptor
SAGA Landspeeder
SAGA Dagobah X-Wing
SAGA Red Leader X-Wing
12" Mace Windu
OTC Y-Wing
OTC Vader's TIE
OTC Jedi Council sets x 4
All of these items at TRU I have seen several times around their release time...
WALMART
POTJ Tie Bomber
POTJ Snowspeeder
I only saw each of these once or twice at Walmart (and I hit 2-3 different Walmarts several times a week).
TARGET
POTF2 Y-Wing
POTF2 Skiff
POTJ B-Wing
SAGA A-Wing
The only of these items I ever saw at a Target was the B-Wing 3-4 times - the others I was forced to get on the secondary market... and yeah I am pathetic, I go to 2 different Target stores a few times a week too. :-[
I won't go into Kmart/KB exclusives as there's really no reason too...
Anyways, the only place based on my experience since exclusives started around 1999 that I would recommend at all has been TRU. For non-exclusives though, they are hit or miss.
:P
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I don't know, I guess it was a mix around here.
OTC:
Only certain waves showed up here. I was able to snag a few figs that I wanted, and the ones I couldn't find, I bought online. You can still find them all over, as they probably won't move until April. :-\
VOTC:
Holy hell, I agree with you guys who hated it. The stores bought WAY too much ANH. Everything except Han sold, so there are millions of Hans just clogging the pegs. I only saw ESB once (Can still get Lando though), and ROTJ never. Thank heavens for e-tailers!
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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.
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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.
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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 :-\
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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 :-\
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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....
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.