2010 Clone Wars Packaging

[Jayson]

Packaging is the cheapest part of the equation when taking into account the actual pricing of merch and it's the easiest thing to update to give the illusion of "new stuff" on the pegs. If things are warming the shelves in the 2008 blue/white packaging that is more attributable to the "**** in the box" versus its wrapper.  

Good point - so shouldn't Lucasfilm want their licensees to focus on the product and not changing the packaging every year? It may be cheap to manufacture, but it can't be easy to have to shift gears and make new templates to cut the cardbacks, mold the bubbles or trays, etc...

Seems like a distraction that shouldn't be necessary.

To print a "X" quantity of cardbacks in blue doesn't cost any more than printing "X" in red (aside from one time new diecut and outer bubble tooling investment). So if they to reprint "X" in blue to avoid an esthetic update isn't really a savings because they have to print something anyway. So, it's best to use the printing budget dollars to keep the line looking fresh and to issue repacks to offset new figure/packaging tooling.

[Pete_Fett]

aside from one time new diecut and outer bubble tooling investment

It's this investment that I'm talking about.

Not to mention the fact that they had to develop cardbacks, character art, bios, etc... for close to 20 figures that could have just continued to ship in their blue/white packaging if the packaging had stayed the same.

It just doesn't seem like any of these costs could have possibly been recouped by now:
1) Making a new tool for the bubbles
2) Making a new die-cut for the card backs and the bubble inserts
3) Making a new cardboard shipping box
4) Hiring a designer to develop/design a new cardback layout
5) Hiring a artist for paintings of each of the characters

I understand that the overall cost of manufacturing the packaging once all of the above is done is negligible but those things do cost a good amount of money. Money that wouldn't have needed to be spent if they just stuck with the Blue/White packaging from July 2009 - June 2010.

[Jayson]

aside from one time new diecut and outer bubble tooling investment

It's this investment that I'm talking about.

Since those tools are used to stamp out/vacuform 1000's of card backs, inserts and bubbles across all three lines, the costs for those are some of the first that get recouped. (Not to mention the savings in shipping the smaller form factor cards.)

(not trying to be argumentative here, just my 2˘   )

[Jesse James]

Packaging is the cheapest part of the equation when taking into account the actual pricing of merch and it's the easiest thing to update to give the illusion of "new stuff" on the pegs. If things are warming the shelves in the 2008 blue/white packaging that is more attributable to the "**** in the box" versus its wrapper.  

Changes in packaging are also, in theory at least, a method to help retail to know to move certain product out (through a sale, clearance, or whatnot) and that new items are losing space to those older ones.  At least with other products that can be the case, so I assume Hasbro's probably taking that into account somewhat.

[ruiner]

Listen, SW is an enigma.  It's one of the few properties that keeps its footing at retail and therefore requires constant maintenance. 

This brand needs a new look every year or so otherwise consumers (and retail buyers) lose interest.  The style guide updates are a necessary evil for a brand / license this large.

These changes aren't made for the sake of making changes - there's always a reason behind them.

[Pete_Fett]

(not trying to be argumentative here, just my 2˘   )

I know Jayson - I'm just trying to gain a better understanding, that's all...

I understand what ruiner and Jesse are saying too - there are two issues I see with what they both said however, although, I'm not sure if it's just poor management on the part of the licensees or laziness.

Issue 1: Change in the packaging to help retail know to move certain product through...
I'm all for a clean cut-over from one product line to another - and yes, they are great indicators to a retail chain like WM/Target/TRU that it's time to refresh their stock. There seemed to be a clean cut over from the 30th anniversary stuff in 2007/beginning 2008 to the Blue/White stuff in July 2008.

When they cut over to the new Red/White stuff this summer, it was a "soft launch" and therefore IMHO it became pointless. I don't know where all you guys live but around here in NJ there is still PLENTY of the Blue/White packaged product to be found - the biggest contributor to this are the local TRUs and so far, due to backlogs of CW product in the Blue/White packaging, they have been EXTREMELY slow in getting Red/White Clone Wars product. In fact, the only Red/White CW figures that the TRU by my work has had up until this weekend were loads and loads of Commander Ponds - who hasn't been selling. The Blue/White CW stuff has been selling though.

So explain that one. If the line needs to stay "fresh" then why are the Blue/White packaged figures still selling?

Issue 2: Changing the packaging helps refresh the look and prevents consumers from loosing interest
Like ruiner says, SW is an enigma - the real maintenance that it needs though is media support - whether that be movies or a cartoon or a live action TV series - it needs SOMETHING to keep it going.

Hasbro has all but come out and said that the kid interest in the line is keeping it going. In the 80s kid interest in the line died because kids didn't have anything else Star Wars to watch (there were the Ewoks and Droids cartoons, and those had lines of their own, but those cartoons were NO WHERE near as successful as the Clone Wars cartoon has been). If the kids didn't have the Cartoon Network Clone Wars series to watch, interest in Star Wars would be at an all time low. Regardless of how many times they released Anakin on a different cardback, it would not entice kids to buy him. They would have to be relying on new kids discovering the PT (or the OT) and looking to get some figures from those movies and that = a very small audience.

Packaging changes are only going to keep you afloat for so long and in the long run I think you're going to end up alienating your core die-hards (if that hasn't happened already) as you continue to ask them to buy and re-buy the same figures only on a new card.



Just my 2˘   

[Jesse James]

So explain that one. If the line needs to stay "fresh" then why are the Blue/White packaged figures still selling?

In my best estimation it's simply that retail's less interested in sales and clearances on toys.  I just nabbed a couple blue/white figures at KM again tonight...  TRU locally is pretty depleted on the blue/white stuff last I saw, but WM has a TON of it at almost any given WM you visit...  Part of me blames that largely on WM's wishy washy clearancing policies more than anything...  Some WM's still have 30AC figures for full price (albeit in clearance aisles or with "clearance" red/white stickers on them).  WM's just a dick like that.

I think some of that though is just retailers being stubborn.  They're not dictated when to put stuff on sale, but Hasbro's packaging changes I think are a nudge to do so, to some degree.

[Jayson]

So explain that one. If the line needs to stay "fresh" then why are the Blue/White packaged figures still selling?

LFL dictates the line refresh but not now the old product sells through to get the new stuff out. (Unless there was a big marketing push/hard street date.) Individual retailers are probably unwilling to clear out merchandise to make room for the "new" stuff especially when they share the same asst. numbers as previous card styles.

Packaging changes are only going to keep you afloat for so long and in the long run I think you're going to end up alienating your core die-hards (if that hasn't happened already) as you continue to ask them to buy and re-buy the same figures only on a new card.

I don't think that is their intention. I think that they're of the mind that a new crop of collectors come up every couple years, and although they are rehashes to us, repacks are multi-purpose: profit generator and keeping core/main characters on the pegs for the fledgling collector.

[JediJman]

How is changing the packaging going to alienate hard core fans?  I don't get that one.  From a pricing perspective, basic figs would be $8 right now with or without new packaging.  That's just the SRP they've decided to roll with and seems like it's working okay for them to date.  If there is any packaging investment in changing to new styles or color schemes, I'm sure that just depletes a small portion of the penny profit per figure. 

Anyway, I still really like the deisgn so far.  Will be good to see what the rest of the line looks like and what they do with Legacy (or whatever it will be post Legacy!)

[Pete_Fett]

How is changing the packaging going to alienate hard core fans?

I would argue that the "Two of everything" type collector is an endangered species, there are far fewer of us than there were in 2005 and there are A LOT fewer of us than there were in the late 90s.

Granted this type of collecting style is my choice and no one is forcing me to collect the line that way (I have to throw that in).

But at this point, when I reach the point of saying "enough is enough" it's going to mean that for me I collected up to a certain packaging style. Once the packaging style changes, I would resign myself not to buying anything in that packaging. I know quite a few collectors who did that when the ROTS line ended and the packaging changed over to the TSC collection.

One of my friends, he had been getting one of each figure to keep MOC and when the new Red/White CW figures hit and he was having trouble finding really good C9+ condition CW figures on the pegs, he gave up and is now collecting only opened figures. So there's an example of how a packaging change from a cardback that had very few corners to one that had more than it needed drove a collector to essentially purchase HALF of what he had been purchasing.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, this sort of thing just happens. So perhaps alienating was the wrong word, I guess what I was getting at was that a packaging style change gives a collector an "out", a break point to say "ok, I'm done". And while I'm not so egotistical to think that my dollars spent really amount to a hill-of beans for Hasbro, I know I am not alone in that mentality - and that adds up when you start to lump several collectors together (or so I'd like to think).

[Nicklab]

I was a loose and carded collector for about 5 years.  And it was a very liberating day when I decided that I wasn't going to do that anymore.  Even now I think the size and scope of each line has been so great that it's financially prohibitive to do it.  If you're wealthy enough where you can collect both the packaged and loose items AND have the space for it all?  More power to you.  I know that I felt a lot better about collecting when I made my own decision.

[Darby]

I really applaud people who can collect both carded and loose - I'd love a carded collection myself - but it was a very liberating day too when I decided I would collect only loose figures, and nothing else.  I will occasionally cross the line for things like Wedge's X-Wing (it's Wedge!).  Figures alone is staggering - my mind boggles at what I buy, and it falls out of my head when I think of someone buying the total range of what Hasbro does.  I think the number of people that do that is very small, but still.

[Jabba the Slug]

I collect mostly loose figures (99% of my collection is loose), but I keep the special figures (exclusives/internet exclusives, mail-aways, old-era figures) packaged.

As for the new TCW packaging, it's BEAUTIFUL! I love that blue background sky, and it's cool to see Rex in action looking somewhere we can't see.  I reeeally hope that they keep the same angular package shape as the red-carded figures, but with the new background. 

[McMetal]

In the latest round of QA, Hasbro confirms 32 TCW figures next year before the package relaunch in the Fall. 

[Jabba the Slug]

In the latest round of QA, Hasbro confirms 32 TCW figures next year before the package relaunch in the Fall. 

So lemme get this straight - TCW is continuing up till the package relaunch, while it's only the realistic-styled figures that are taking a break? Reasonable, especially since so many collectors are catching up from the delays in figure shipments.