Hasbro UK Shenanigans

[Benn]

A year down the line from deciding to stay with them too.

I wonder if that's why they're taking so long on Rotorstorm?

[The Doctor]

To be fair to Hasbro, they could be experiencing delays and shortages due to The Current Situation.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Indeed. Or it could just be their stock being pinched to go elsewhere. I've replied on FB and asked if the reasoning behind the decision is known.....

[Llama God]

Indeed - as seen previously Hasbro UK doesn’t always get given sufficient stock by Hasbro itself, so it may not be Hasbro that’s at fault. But who knows..?

[Philip Ayres]

Both Kapow (https://www.facebook.com/kapowtoys.co.uk/posts/3419105164776322) and IDToys (https://www.facebook.com/indemandtoys/posts/2718085408435360?comment_id=2718165098427391&reply_comment_id=2718173075093260) being very clear that the 10am kick off this morning for Bluestreak was set by Hasbro.

[The Doctor]

A poor decision by Hasbro. While people work all sorts of shifts, a majority will be working at 10am and can't get to their phone to order a toy. If I wasn't off sick I would have been at work and couldn't have sidled off for 20 minutes to order a toy! I'll give them slack with stock levels: the Current Situation may be impeding that.

TF availability has been slowly sliding to Matty Collector level of late.

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

So did Kapow break a rule set by Hasbro by waiting until tonight, or did ID choose to put the preorder up at ten when they didn't have to...

[The Doctor]

It may have been the case that Hasbro said retailers could only sell it from 10am. It may then have been up to retailers when to sell it after that time. Star didn't have it up bang on 10.

I thought 9am Saturday pre-orders were as mad it could get yet and then...a week later...

I expect it to be properly silly for the SDCC Quint Pit. The SDCC SW figure pre-orders were at 3pm on a weeksay and it vanished from sites in minutes.

I just want the last 2 TF Tuesday figures (if they are ones I want when revealed) and the Quint Pit. Then I am done with exclusives.

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Indeed. I think it would be the latter as Kapow wouldn't want to deliberately annoy Hasbro. Which is what I'm saying - ID are busy defending themselves on FB saying it was Hasbro's decision to go for a 10am launch, when really they could have waited. It's not like they were going to be left with stock. Star I can well believe may not have realised what they had - they are very Star Wars focused and their usual announcements about TFs are vague. They didn't even promote putting Roritchi up.

Thankfully, I think the last two Tuesdays and the Quintesson Pit will be it for Earthrise apart from Thrust and Runabout. I think we're getting there. RFC this week mentioned the weird timing of the Megatron/Sandstorm preorder was because it was timed for a reveal in Singapore, which having checked would have put it about 5pm their time from when we got it in the morning.

[The Doctor]

Yes, the latter two were indeed a Hasbro Singaporw reveal which had been trailed: we just hadn't noticed.

-Ralph

[Llama God]

Aug 27, 2020 16:44:18 GMT Pinwig said:

Thankfully, I think the last two Tuesdays and the Quintesson Pit will be it for Earthrise apart from Thrust and Runabout. I think we're getting there.

You had to type that, didn’t you? And just like that!, five more exclusives appear... ;-)

[blueshift]

It's VERY Mattycollector isn't it!!

[Pinwig]

It's just fucking silly now. I went to sleep last night thinking, I am DONE with this nonsense.

[Benn]

Five? What?

[Pinwig]

This two pack is the first of five new sets but it it doesn't look like they're all exclusives to Amazon. They may be, but the wording on the press release sounds like Amazon is first up among a number of retailers.

tmukhub.proboards.com/post/423776/thread

[Benn]

Oh. oh wow.

no

nope

nope no nope no

[Llama God]

I remain hopeful that they are not...

[The Doctor]

Aug 28, 2020 7:22:24 GMT blueshift said:

It's VERY Mattycollector isn't it!!

It's worse. At least they had pre-advertised consistent times for when things went on sale and what would be going on sale.

I can't believe I'm saying positive things about Matty Collector!

-Ralph

[Benn]

These are the end times!

[The Doctor]

It really is. New Mutants is coming out in cinemas!

-Ralph

[Nigel]

A word of caution on release dates when planning purchases. I'm getting preordered Hasbro stock in through Diamond months ahead of when I was expecting it. It seems to be more Star Wars than Transformers, but I haven't checked my original ETAs on every product.

[Pinwig]

This is causing a lot of discussion and upset at the moment. The owner of Star Action figures blasted Hasbro on Facebook about it a while ago but then appears to have deleted the post. However, Phil pasted it here after I posted the link:

tmukhub.proboards.com/post/479110/thread

Jul 30, 2022 14:33:51 GMT Pinwig said:

Another surprisingly open FB post from the owner of Star on Hasbro's current problems. It's one thing us making comments like this, based largely on assumption, but this is a specialist shop owner seeing stock coming in and out saying the same thing:

www.facebook.com/staractionfigures/posts/pfbid0XvsfKJXBhMorhXZvn2jDQMkVK2UNz4B22VTrqpvpMxkPCx8W1ZgwTezDvMYJEYQYl

1) Ill thought out random and ever increasing massively inflation busting prices at a time of a global cost of living crisis.

2) Removing windows so you ask people to buy unseen figures at a time quality control is at rock bottom, and having Hasbro tell fans we only kept the windows on collector based products, as if to insult every Black Series, Marvel. GI Joe, Transformers etc collector

3) Having a pre-order system what was thought up by someone (and this as polite as I can make it) living in Cloud Cuckoo Land (Cloud cuckoo land is a state of absurdly, over-optimistic fantasy or an unrealistically idealistic state of mind where everything appears to be perfect.(to them)) Again, I cannot stress it enough at a time of global cost of living crisis, some bright spark thinks it "enhances the fans pre-order experience", by ordering hundreds of pounds worth of figures in June 2022 with a April 2023 release date, and then releasing those figures in July 2022. THIS NOT A ONE OFF HASBRO, ITS ON EVERY ****ING LINE, EVERY FIGURE. PEOPLE CANNOT AFFORD OR BUDGET WITH THIS SYSTEM. Who thought this up? It is beyond ridiculous boarding on pathetic how out of touch they are. You don't hear the back lash as Hasbro Pulse is so disliked by fans, they only buy what you refuse to let the fan stores stock, because they have no other choice.

TWO HUGE AND EMBARRASSING Black Series failures on Hasb Lab. Every other line manages to fill their Has Labs projects in short time. Why is it Star Wars manages to fail so often. Could it be they are so out of touch with what "their fans" want? Or do they find it fun or funny to make these products that are doomed to failure. It is a surprise to no one expect the brand team no doubt, when these offerings tank. And they do tank. Badly. What else can it be? What will it take for Hasbro INC to notice something is very very wrong with Star Wars and in particular Black Series at the moment.

Judging by the comments on this Facebook group and elsewhere, I would estimate around 80-90% of Black Series fans have had enough and called time on their collections. That is not an exaggeration. I stand by and have data to back that up.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR SOMEONE AT HASBRO INC TO SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE.

It's not to late, but its mightily close to the the Event Horizon and the point of no return.

They killed the 5 POA line in 2019. IMO Black Series is almost to the point of no return, what's next, vintage. The condition of the cards and the inability to listen for THREE YEARS has done that line no end of damage, more than they will ever know, (and for what, to save a few grand on cardboard over the year), and we are now starting to see the same lazy character selections and lazy repaints in that line as well.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR SOMEONE AT HASBRO INC TO SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE.

STAR WARS SHOULD BE DOUBLING IN SALES after the new Disney shows breathed fresh life into it. Instead we have a offering of repaint, rehashes, all at much much higher and random prices, and fans deserting the hobby in their droves.

I mean look at tonight. K2S0 with a back pack, and a repainted Battle Droid. £20 repaints at best £33 each! At a time the same figures released last year are in clearance bins everywhere.

Surprise surprise, people have had enough of these lazy offerings. You got away with it for a couple of years, but now its gone crash with a bang.

You can't make it up.

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

[The Doctor]

It's a pain in the bum for customers and shops.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indemandtoys/posts/pfbid02rFPVbUnnXJS3EgpdThWSjGzig6Y32ScScxyVSS3SSzXUQhBsac8yjDPjVX6N5JgHl

The Fallen is not being brought into the UK but we will likely be offering this tomorrow morning once we have pricing info. Also note that UK allocation on the Legacy wave 3 items are quite low, especially on Voyagers so advise you to order those sooner rather than later

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kapowtoys.co.uk/posts/pfbid02wfhFsXH4Xjd8JTB3vv27twfPW5ZHWKqUTdUsMsogsxcSuF1KBF72R483zGFhp5Lul

Transformers fans - the new legacy Deluxe and Voyager are currently unavailable to pre-order due to the very small quantity Hasbro UK have allocated us

[Nigel]

Aug 16, 2022 20:12:54 GMT The Doctor said:

It's a pain in the bum for customers and shops.

-Ralph

Pain in the bum? It's a pain in the bank balance. I need to put off other orders because of the things that have turned up early this month.

[The Doctor]

It's the main reason why I stopped making pre-orders for tf's. It's too difficult to budget when advertised release dates and actual release dates currently have a disparity of several months.

I wonder if online shops are being hammered with higher order cancellations than previously?

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

IDToys were moaning about cancellations only last week

www.facebook.com/indemandtoys/posts/pfbid02BpQkZ2eeVrQ3WqikvSocy1dWVAUQFV3kCoBnJkhfTTLcUG7mVHabHheo3Kh983P7l

Order cancellations are at an all time high, this is the most time consuming thing we have to deal with every day, including taking time away from packing customer orders. If you think it does not have any effect on us, it does, costs, time, overstocking and more. There are plenty of genuine reasons, and we always oblige with cancellaitons, but please consider the knock on effects.
Please support independant retailers who supported the franchises you love throughout the last 20 years.

[Pinwig]

Aug 17, 2022 10:19:22 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Transformers fans - the new legacy Deluxe and Voyager are currently unavailable to pre-order due to the very small quantity Hasbro UK have allocated us

Good lord. This gets worse and worse. Super high prices, complete lottery as to when they come out and now if you don't pre-order you won't get one. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than the one minute buying window during the exclusiveocolypse. 

[The Doctor]

Ah, but I wonder if Hasbro is just allocating smaller quantities to other online stores (while keeping plenty for Pulse) or whether smaller quantities are being allocated to the UK toy sector as a whole.

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Could it be anything to do with an anticipated downturn in sales because of the Current Situation that the online sellers are just getting caught in? Smyths is going to look pretty bare this year if it's across the board.