I posted this on another board but wanted to throw the same question out here and see how the responses compare.  Besides, I think its a pretty good thought provoking question even though its been beaten to death...

Okay, what's going on...

I was reading the new Toy Box section of the SW Insider, a nice addition if I may add, and there is a part that says the lack of availability is due to the retailers not ordering things from them.  It explains the ordering and distribution process but most of us know how it works.  Anyway, my question is, what's going on?

We all know the figures are produced and many people have found a few at retail and others have picked up cases online.  but the availability is so screwed up.  Some places have the new figs but only a case or two and they sell quickly.  Other places miss entire waves and then show up with a new one.  Other places have had empty pegs for a month...

Is hasbro shorting the retailers?  My local Targets have had nothing new since Xmas.  Are the retailers not ordering?  Wal Mart has picked up a few cases now and then but they still have some stores with a load of pegwarmers.  Is it really just a slow time?  But a huge toy time like easter showed no improvement...

Just wondering what the general thought was.  or maybe someone knows for sure.  I stopped making toy runs and its worked out cause there hasn't been much to report in my area anyway for the past month...

Maybe the war is to blame...

#1 Case Assortments

They had this figured out during POTJ, no repacks in most of the cases.  Each Wave came with new figures and cases only contained one wave.  With Saga we see a trend back to the old days of POTF2, holdovers into new cases means product glut on the pegs.  Horrible, Horrible, Horrible.  

They need to fix this, Immediately

#2 Over Production coupled with Lack of interest

At first they learned their lesson it looked like, product was actually moving very well, there weren't bins upon bins of figures ala EpI.  You didn't see pegs being restocked with Wave 1 product...until around the Luke/Vader and Palpatine Waves.  Sales dried up faster than the Sahara and I'm sure all of that stuff was already in production and it came to retail and sat.  I still think my Target has cases of this stuff in the stock room  Add in a post movie year, kiddos not into SW anymore (where is that attention span ) people tired of the SOS on the pegs, distribution/retailers cutting back means lower sales in general

So has Hasbro cut back production or are Stores not ordering or are people turning to etailers?

#3 More competition and Price Point

Action figure aisle is cluttered with a ton of product, Simpsons, LOTR, Marvel, Batman, GI Joe, He-Man, Power Rangers, TMNT, Spider-Man, McFarlane, Peanuts, Harry Potter all for about the same or even cheaper price.  My toy dollar keeps getting spread thinner and thinner each year

#4 Lack of Quality

Long running complaint of mine, the Saga figures suck quality wise compared to a lot of POTJ product (action features, pre posed etc etc) Add to that a lack of bang for the relative buck plastic wise and I can see why people aren't buying anymore


The big question for me remains where is all of the figures if Hasbro hasn't cut back on production.  I got my first 2003 figs in early March, here we are in mid May and I still haven't seen anything at Target or Wally World or TRU...that is 2 months behind sightings of the Han/Chewie and Yoda waves means there is a ton of product possibly sitting somewhere that isn't being unloaded

Everyone here has made some incredible points about distribution.  In my immediate area (which includes 3 Targets, 1 Walmart, 1 K-Mart, 1 TRU, 2 KB Toys, and 1 Meijer) there hasn't been a single new figure since November.  About 30 miles away from me I've heard reports from other people (on other boards) that some of the deluxe figures made their way to the pegs.  Being unemployed and with not a whole lot to do I thought it would be cool to go on a hunt.  Took me about 45 minutes get there.  I power-walked all the way toward the Star Wars section and of course they had nothing new.  Just a bunch of the regular peg-warmers.  That left a very salty taste in my mouth.

It seems like its this way in the majority of this country.  Don't you think Hasbro would know by now their number one target market are collectors (like us)?  With that in mind, I don't understand why they don't manufacture and distribute more frequently to retailers.  Even without having a job, I would still continue buying the stuff up.  That's what credit cards are for.  

All I know is I'm thinking of quitting this sucks soooo much

I've already gone the way of online.  Being in Canada, it sucks even worse.  Prior to about a month ago, the last new figures we saw were Palpatine and Djas Puhr, shortly after Christmas.  Then, out of six walmarts in our fair city, two cases of the pilot wave showed up.  In April, one case showed up that contained the newer Maul (1st saga version) and anakin tatooine attack.  Wow.  But that's it.  

I have no idea how distribution works in the US, but I can tell you Canadian retailers are pretty much hooped by the system.  In spite of different waves/assortments being available, when a Canadian retailer orders a new shipment of Star Wars action figures, they are sent, by Hasbro Canada, whatever is next in the warehouse to go.  If that happens to be the same wave over and over again, that's what they get.  

During POTJ we repeatedly received case after case that contained Leia, Chewie mechanic and Aurra Sing.  Aurra's cool and all, but not when there are 30 on the pegs beside 60 Leia and 20 chewie's.  During Saga, stores continually restocked with the wave containing Mace Windu, Bespin Luke, Bespin Vader and Orn Taa Free.  That was better than the POTJ stuff because it at least sold, but sheesh.  5 months of the same stuff showing up.  Collectors weren't happy.  Kids probably weren't happy and retailers really weren't happy.  The worst part is it gives retailers the impression the stuff doesn't sell.  And they are right.  I myself must have bought about 8 of the Bespin Vader.  A couple for trades.  One carded, one loose.  A couple more to put away for future trades.  Oy.  

In Canada at least Hasbro must bear the brunt of the responsibility.  I have no idea if it works the same way in the US.  It may well, but given what Newforce seems able to do, maybe not.

I think OCB nailed some really REALLY solid points as to the hows and whys of our current distribution woes...  

I've been in business for years.  I've studied the toy industry independantly, and it was the subject of a report I did just this semester.  OCB really pinpointed some good instances where Hasbro isn't a strong company when it comes to this line.  

#1 Case Assortments

Indeed, and this is a point where Hasbro's 100% responsible for their own actions...  They mix these cases based on their own data, but methinks they need some new marketing analysts over there, because whoever predicted that "Let's only pack one Imperial Officer" in a case needs to be put out on the street with no severance pay.

That's one instance of poor business...  There's many more.  

To use another line's problems that are similar, who over at Toy Biz decided "Yeah, we need more King Theodens" in their case assortments?  

What these companies should do is pack these figures who would/should be weaker sales in fewer #'s...  You should then have enough flexibility within your company to REPACK this figure as necessary, but for this strategy to work one must actually have close contact with, and listen to their fan base...

IE: Ask Andy sections have to be read, and read thoroughly, and other sections of various fan forums must get some reading from the company.

Other companies are capable of this type of "flexible" work within the organization, but Hasbro's more of a traditional company, and that may be an area they need to start restructuring to make their product lines more efficient.  They're more a verticle structure, as opposed to horozontal, and I think that hurts them often.

#2 Over Production coupled with Lack of interest

A-Freakin'-MEN...

Contrary to what we maybe wish, and what some of us believe, Star Wars isn't the end-all-be-all of the toy industry...  Sad to say folks, but Star Wars just simply isn't the hot seller we wish it to be.  As a matter of fact, while Hasbro tried citing high sales of Star Wars product last year, that's inevitable since it was a movie year...  What they  neglected to show during their sales reports was what the damage was at the end of the year.  

Even before X-Mas, the Star Wars line was in a downward spiral that was dragging the year's books down.  As I recall, reports in the early part of the year cited other Hasbro product...  STRONGER Hasbro product, as being the savior that kept them from having a large loss.  

It's a shame to see it, but Star Wars just isn't a top toy anymore.  Its hayday was back sometime around '97 I believe, and it has spikes, but it's like a sluggish stockmarket on a steady decline, if you prefer that analogy.  

#3 More competition and Price Point

Something I've preached for some time, but what others have argued with me...  Competition DOES exist for Hasbro...

Hasbro's constantly competing for the child's $ everytime that a kid is in a toy aisle, and they just don't have a line that has a broad appeal to kids.

We love it...  Some kids love it...  Sadly, we're not their main focus (As we should be no matter what the year), and what's more sad is that kids have BETTER choices out there in the toy aisle.  

A kid has so many "new" things pulling at his/her increasingly fickle personality, that they are going to go for the best of the best...  A kid's gonna buy the figure that has that fun appeal, and while it took Hasbro a year, they finally grasped it that Action Features don't mean their product suddenly rivals the poseable accessory laden Power Ranger.  

It's the same reason G.I. Joe is getting MORE focus this year than Star Wars...  Hasbro rode that movie wave last year, and didn't exactly capitalize on it as they could've, and yet G.I. Joe had a strong enough year that they're not gonna sink more $ into that strong brand.  

Kids love G.I. Joe...  He's got it all...  Star Wars figures are mini statues with lame features, and few accessories, with even fewer vehicles or playsets.  

I think Hasbro's pricepoint is accurate for the general scale of the product they offer ($4.99 for 1:18/3.75" figures), but what they don't really see is that for around $4.99 you can get a simply more FUN figure in G.I. Joe, or 21st's X-Treme Detail...  

I don't even personally LIKE the new G.I. Joes, but from what I gathered during my research for my paper last semester, the Joe line is one of Hasbro's goldmines, and that's a TRUE line they're going to impress both kids and adults with (Just not me, though the line is impressive from my business standpoint).

So in short, yeah Hasbro has super competition working against them, and Star Wars is NOT immune to that competition...  Sure Hasbro COLLECTORS will buy up new stuff, but what Hasbro wants is to attract "casual" buyers and children...  Neither of which they're EVER capable of doing with the Star Wars line...  

That's a big issue they need to work on.

#4 Lack of Quality

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I agree with this...

I sort of touched on it above.  Hasbro doesn't compete... Their Star Wars line is of the same scale as multiple lines, but yet it's laughably poor in comparison.  The funny thing is that Hasbro shows amazing glimmers of being the dominant toy company...

For instance, their sculpts...  Hasbro has some misses, but they have solid sculptors at their company that rival the work of supposed Industry Leaders like MacFarlane Toys.  Anyone who owns Ephant Mon knows what I'm talking about...

Sculpt is an area that Hasbro went from being weak in to actually being rather dominant.  They are inconsistent in other areas though.

I've yet to see Hasbro do true justice to ANY figure in the department of articulation...  And that's a big problem when you're literally in the toy aisle competing with lines such as Lord of the Rings, X-Treme Detail 1:18, G.I. Joe, etc...  

Like I said though, Hasbro has these little glimpses that they can do SO much better with these figures...  When you see a Commtech Stormtrooper or a Cantina Han, you have to wonder why can't t hey all be AT LEAST that good or a little better?  Other toys are, and other toys are having stronger sales...  

BBi's 1:18 military line is ready to take off in the aisles of major retailers this year supposedly.  We're talking about one HELL of a small company here who did 1:18 stuff on a whim to see if they could compete directly with 21st Century toys...  Guess what, their $4.99 masterpieces flew of the shelves for the most part, and that line's set to expand not only in what they offer but also in the outlets by which they are sold.  

And when it boils down to it, these figures are going to be just one more kid on the block that's of "higher quality" and for a similar price to the Star Wars figures...  I bet they do well, and I know for sure they're taking some of my collecting $ with them already.  Who else's shall they take?  What kid is gonna say "Forget that Anakin figure, I want that Marine like the guy I saw on TV"?

Owning a license to a toy line doesn't mean you have a monopoly on it...  Hasbro can profit off Star Wars, sure...  But for them to make this line something that everyone wants, they need to make changes...

Instead, they issue statements that essentially are saying "It's not our fault, retailers aren't interested" when they really should be honest and say retailers aren't interested because their product doesn't move for a myriad of reasons that they need to work on...

Losing action features was a start, and hopefully not the end either.

The funniest thing about this whole mess is that Andy is actually trying to pass the buck onto the retailers that they aren't ordering product, when all of the blame lies squarly back on his team and their blundering on the line for a good year plus now

I'm a little too tired to go into nearly as much detail as JJ did, so I'll make it short and sweet:  I blame 99% of it on Hasbro.

I'm gonna have to agree with you on that one Chewie.  I don't think it's really the retailers' fault... I would have to blame Hasbro.  They're the ones who are only packing on Red Battle Droid per case, right?  Not the retailers!