Core Class Price Point and Its Demise

[Benn]

Core as a price class is over, finished!
Core as a scale of toy never ends...

[Pinwig]

Well until they run out of possible repaints...

[The Doctor]

That will NEVER happen.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Since this thread started, 20th June*, MOST of the core toys that have been revealed have been ones we already knew about. This includes ALL of the single packed ones. There was one more intended to be with Legacy United w5 but it looks like that has been canned.

* first post is an addition to catalogue the core toys and was taken from the blank post stash.

We knew at that point there would be more coming in Multipacks, and there's a Studio Series 86 one with at least one new mould in that's yet to be revealed.

Toy colours Frenzy had already been revealed at that point. tmukhub.proboards.com/post/523174/thread

Ditto Steeljaw tmukhub.proboards.com/post/520798/thread

As had Geocron tmukhub.proboards.com/post/523142/thread

And Energon Galvatron tmukhub.proboards.com/post/523140/thread

Movie 6 Frenzy was revealed after that tmukhub.proboards.com/post/525818/thread but we'd known about him for a year tmukhub.proboards.com/post/503272/thread

The only reveal since then (so far) that we did not know about was Gamakichi in the X-Overs Naruto multipack tmukhub.proboards.com/post/530839/thread

There may well be more reveals of core toys in Multipacks but, bar Legacy Core Dinobot making a surprise return to the schedules, I will be astonished to see another Single Core Class.

[Toph]

It's pausible they may retool narufrog into Spittor or Diver, and release it as a deluxe class twopack with Dinobot.

[Philip Ayres]

Yeah Evan mentioned Spittor when revealing it so that has to be on the cards. I'll take a 3 pack of Spittor, Red Spittor and Diver

[Philip Ayres]

Let me pull on a couple of threads from elsewhere:

Nov 3, 2024 20:53:44 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Nov 1, 2024 22:21:49 GMT Pinwig said:

Not really a rumour but it pertains to forthcoming releases, RFC chatted to Hasbro at NYCC and learned that going forward there will be three deluxe waves a year instead of four, but the numbers of new deluxe scale moulds won't be reduced. They claim this means toys will be on shelves for four months instead of three to increase availability.

Oct 28, 2024 12:42:30 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Interesting comment on the mainly PR and unused mould wave: www.tfw2005.com/boards/posts/22808424/

Like United wave 5, this wave is somewhat of a last minute addition while being as cost effective as possible, it’s also why we haven’t seen the updated mainline packaging yet because it’s kind of considered a extension of the 2024 lineup.

Basically Wally World wants new toyline launches to coincide with their spring resets instead of January (when they usually do their liquidation sales). It will let them better gauge the success of new lines in their store and will let them move more new stock at full price. It also won’t interfere with their write offs the next fiscal year.

That’s how it was explained to me

I wonder if removing the core price point is a retailer demand and part of the changes above?

We frequently see Cores selling out quickly online and it's hard to find newer ones in the shops. That suggests the shops aren't ordering them.

When we do see them, they're usually older ones in quantity - there's a recent anecdote about Spikes in Tescos Entertainers - which suggests there's unsold older stock being blown out to discounters

[Philip Ayres]

I wondered if the form factor of the current Core packaging is also a factor?

They're very small and strike me as probably very easy to shop lift as opposed to when they had a larger backing card

[The Doctor]

I found Cores very hard to find ever since they moved to being sold in wee boxes instead of on cards.

On card = could find them in physical stores.

In boxes = mostly online only.

-Ralph