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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 7, 2019 19:20:24 GMT
Yes good point. Let me look at the thread here and see if it can be untangled. If not we may start again. EDIT: There, how's that? You can't deny the will of the Hub and try afresh just because it becomes difficult to untangle something.. Oh I can. But the untangling went well. |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Apr 11, 2019 16:58:33 GMT
That's sad. Shame Hasbro UK can't get their act together. Ultimately they will suffer as a result. |
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Post by Pinwig on Apr 11, 2019 18:10:32 GMT
That is sad, but you can't blame them. My concern would be that if it sours the relationship they have with Hasbro UK it could have repercussions down the line. It's pretty poor if Hasbro are offering these products so preorders can go up and then not fulfilling them. I wonder where the actual problem is.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 11, 2019 19:13:44 GMT
Hasbro UK. They've not been filling the orders in a timely manner.
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Apr 11, 2019 19:17:17 GMT
Exactly.
They made noises about wanting to reach out and work with retailers, and then have dropped the ball massively.
If you can't supply the toys, the retailer will go elsewhere, I can't imagine Andy is all that concerned about souring a relationship given they haven't gotten anything out of.
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Post by Pinwig on Apr 11, 2019 19:41:48 GMT
No, I mean more precisely. Are Hasbro UK just inept, or are they not being serviced properly within the global company? The shift from wave cases to solids obviously has a problem somewhere. Are Hasbro still soliciting waves because it's what they've always done, not being aware that fulfillment will work differently because purely in terms of volume you can't expect a whole wave of figures supplied as solid cases at once, the numbers there would be multiples of what they're used to, otherwise there'd be no point in switching to solids.
It's like Hasbro are following the US release schedule not realising that they can't, possibly because they have to wait in the worldwide queue for fulfillment, possibly because solid cases take longer to produce than wave cases. There's only so many figures you can get out of the same mould at once.
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 11, 2019 21:07:02 GMT
If Hasbro UK were any good at distributing toys in the first place, so many fans wouldn't flock to online retailers just to get mainstream toy releases. It's not just about cost or ease of ordering: many folk just can't find the toys in brick and mortar shops at all. Even wave 1 stuff of lines is hard to find now.
-Ralph
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Post by Shockprowl on Apr 11, 2019 21:52:50 GMT
It... It's unbelievable.
You gotta feel sorry for shops like Kapow, just trying to make a living.
And fans, like us, who just just just WANT TOYS! But can't get them....?!
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Post by Pinwig on Apr 11, 2019 22:02:14 GMT
If Hasbro UK were any good at distributing toys in the first place, so many fans wouldn't flock to online retailers just to get mainstream toy releases. It's not just about cost or ease of ordering: many folk just can't find the toys in brick and mortar shops at all. Even wave 1 stuff of lines is hard to find now. -Ralph That is very true, but again I'd like to know the real truth. It's it Hasbro's ineptitude? Or are shops just not wanting generations? Studio series and Cyberverse don't seem affected by this issue. Why is generations different? |
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Stomski
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Post by Stomski on Apr 12, 2019 8:40:37 GMT
Hasbro UK. They've not been filling the orders in a timely manner. T-Shirt! |
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Post by The Doctor on Apr 12, 2019 11:18:00 GMT
Seconded.
-Ralph
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Post by reilly2040 on Apr 12, 2019 13:35:18 GMT
The Hasbro UK thing is really bewildering. Especially when partnered with Kapow that’s pretty much easy money for them. As a company that presumably wants to make money it makes so little sense to screw this up.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Apr 12, 2019 13:48:58 GMT
And yet they've screwed it up in a near identical way to how they behave with every toyline: first wave comes out promptly, second is delayed, third is delayed even further, lucky if you get fourth onwards.
The solid cases has added a bit more randomness to the situation.
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Post by reilly2040 on Apr 12, 2019 14:24:50 GMT
Yeah its all very odd. Kapow provided them with a guaranteed market, who would happily buy entire waves, or at least complete cases of all deluxes/voyagers etc. Yet its like Hasbro UK just don't like earning money. You can almost understand it (frustrating as it is), with brick and mortar shops who have to worry about providing diverse stock and shelf warmers, but its just weird they would behave in the same way towards a specialist retailer, especially when it was their stated intent to not do exactly what they did.
Hats off to Kapow for trying to work with them them. I imagine they've sadly lost some sales out of this, but it was worth trying to support Hasbro UK if they'd gotten their act together.
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Apr 12, 2019 16:26:58 GMT
It would help if Hasbro UK could be a bit more transparent about this, but I'm sort of willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Often a regional / national department of a multinational headquartered elsewhere doesn't have quite the autonomy and power you might hope for. I imagine Hasbro UK acted in good faith but then when it came down to it international priorities won out over the collector's market for one European country.
When I worked for MUJI 20-odd years ago it was quite extreme - we literally did not know what would be in any given shipment from Japan until we opened the boxes in the stockroom, and then had to arrange and improvise shop displays around what we found! I'm not complaining, it did make it more interesting than most shop jobs and gave some room for creativity...
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Post by Bogatan on Apr 12, 2019 17:00:05 GMT
No, I mean more precisely. Are Hasbro UK just inept, or are they not being serviced properly within the global company? The shift from wave cases to solids obviously has a problem somewhere. Are Hasbro still soliciting waves because it's what they've always done, not being aware that fulfillment will work differently because purely in terms of volume you can't expect a whole wave of figures supplied as solid cases at once, the numbers there would be multiples of what they're used to, otherwise there'd be no point in switching to solids. It's like Hasbro are following the US release schedule not realising that they can't, possibly because they have to wait in the worldwide queue for fulfillment, possibly because solid cases take longer to produce than wave cases. There's only so many figures you can get out of the same mould at once. I don't think switching to solid cases should radically change how many of each product is being made. From what I understand from Fun Pub and that attack piece about mistreatment of chinese workers in Hasbro factories a few years back the production line just makes toy x for as long as planned and then moves on to the next product. Those are then distibuted and I guess someone has to be at the back of the line. If Walmart suddenly decided they wanted more of that product I think they have the power to get it and someone further down the line is left hanging. If Hasbro UK are towards the back of the line then that might be a partial explanation. If Hasbro UK were any good at distributing toys in the first place, so many fans wouldn't flock to online retailers just to get mainstream toy releases. It's not just about cost or ease of ordering: many folk just can't find the toys in brick and mortar shops at all. Even wave 1 stuff of lines is hard to find now. -Ralph That is very true, but again I'd like to know the real truth. It's it Hasbro's ineptitude? Or are shops just not wanting generations? Studio series and Cyberverse don't seem affected by this issue. Why is generations different? I wonder if shelf warmers are less of an issue for the junior lines? Being bought by parents who dont know for kids who maybe care less about the specific character they get. Generations on the other hand obviously has a collectors market that does result in shelf warmers. Combine that with overstocking of wave one of lines since Combiner Wars or when ever TRU failed exclusive deal ended and I think retail stores have just given up on it. Just look at Tescos getting the same two waves of Titans Return for two Christmas's in a row, how does that even work? The question then would be is it Hasbro UK choosing to invest too heavily in wave ones or are they just fulfilling orders from retailers who havent grasped that the buying pattern for collector based toylines is different from other toylines. I mean its not like later waves dont show up, at least some of the time directly Hasbro UK stock rather than grey imports, so Hasbro are getting them, its just that the stores that should be selling them dont want them. Not that that would explain the same screw up happening with Kapow and solid cases of figures. |
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Post by The Doctor on May 17, 2019 9:00:02 GMT
Chap was at the recent TF Nation Manchester meet and mentioned his wife was the manager of FP Manchester. For the last few Generations ranges including Siege the store has put in big orders for TF stock but find that Hasbro UK rarely bother to ship them any stock at all. Every now and then a case or two will turn up and that's all. Attempts to get Hasbro UK to give them the stock they have ordered are usually fruitless. Apparently it is frustrating from a business point of view as when they can get some Generations TF's in they sell out very quickly.
-Ralph
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Post by Dezzeh on May 17, 2019 9:29:48 GMT
Kapow will be going bck to US stock - and I suspect the other big names will be as well
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Post by duffism1981 on May 17, 2019 10:30:00 GMT
The other week I was in A1 Comics with Nick where the had the wave 2 deluxes Minus Chromia. They did say they were still waiting for Chromia. Now I wonder if they are also dealing with Hasbro UK.
I ma interested to see what shows when, or if, wave 2 shows up in Symths.
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Jim
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Post by Jim on May 17, 2019 12:10:57 GMT
Wave 2 deluxes haven't shown up in Smyths in Germany, despite being out in a supermarket chain for a couple of months now, though wave 2 Battlemasters have.
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Post by drmick on May 18, 2019 9:25:37 GMT
I still don't have any of Siege wave 2, given that I preordered the entirety of it from IDToys and Kapow.....
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Post by duffism1981 on Jun 8, 2019 5:24:08 GMT
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Jun 8, 2019 10:09:31 GMT
The wave 2 deluxes have not shown up in Smyths in Germany at all, despite having been out for a couple of months in some other stores.
When I was last in Smyths the other day they had restocked on the wave 1 micromasters and and voyagers. Wave 2-wise I've only ever seen battlemasters there.
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Post by Llama God on Jun 22, 2019 15:30:05 GMT
Was: thread Hasbro UK - What *Are* You Doing? I've been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks now, but... haven't. But now I am. So yay. So, Star Action Figures posted something interesting about their attempts to secure product from Hasbro UK recently, and although Star's focus is on Star Wars figures, I think it's a fairly safe bet that the same will apply to Transformers and other brands, too. The post can be found here, but for ease of not going to the Book of Faces here's the text: So it basically seems like Hasbro announced a thing that they weren't quite ready to announce, and then ballsed it all up. But it also sounds like it's something they actually want to get right, and will be working to correct, so it may well get better in the future. 1985 me wondering where he can buy Swoop or Shockwave is still dubious, but we'll see... |
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Post by Pinwig on Jun 22, 2019 16:04:18 GMT
Interesting, ta for posting that.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 22, 2019 16:26:45 GMT
I'm cynical and seen Hasbro UK balls it up again and again. That looks very similar in tone to previous "we're going to get better, honest" messages put out and every time they, or the parent company, **** it up. The point for getting right was the start of this year, when you had all the online retailers onboard and not X months later when you've really hacked them off.
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 22, 2019 16:43:33 GMT
That post states they went to Sdcc in June 2019, which is this year. There's also an element of confirmation bias: it is naturally in that retailer's interest to have good relations with Hasbro UK (which I understand).
Also, I do support the UK market but only when Hasbro UK actually makes the product available to buy. I can't buy things that don't exist on shelves.
I rarely buy from online toy retailers as higher prices plus postage put them above my reach due to my income level. Hence why I tend to mostly buy at brick and mortar stores (if the stock is available) or off Amazon with free shipping.
It's not rocket science but a company can sell more things if they properly distribute the things (and if retailers want to order them).
I very much want to be making posts in the near future about how easy it is to find TF figures in stores but I'm not holding my breath!
-Ralph
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Post by Llama God on Jun 23, 2019 7:10:27 GMT
I'm going to assume they meant that they went to SDCC in 2018, but mis-typed. And aye, of course they're going to be bigging themselves up - they want people to buy from them. But I still suspect that there's some truth in it.
As Phil says though, the point they needed to get it right was much, much earlier than this. A little time will tell whether this message is honest, or whether it's just more of the same not understanding or plain not caring...
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 12, 2019 14:23:49 GMT
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Post by Philip Ayres on Aug 26, 2020 9:18:14 GMT
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