how to make a pettition for mps

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pegasusprime
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how to make a pettition for mps

Post by pegasusprime »

hi after the evil ways of toyrus throught years i ask whey we couldnt made a pettition to change the line to an amazon exclusive or hasbrotoyshop exclusive i dont it would be much better that toyrus crappy stealing sistem i live otside us but i dont know maybe people can make the voices ear on botcon
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Knightdramon
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Post by Knightdramon »

Going to treat this as a discussion for the MPs and availability instead of a petition discussion.

Hasbro stated that TRU is the only retailer that wants to carry the MP figures. It's not a case of hasbro picking one from a list, it's the case of hasbro having only one that wants to buy them.

Who can you "blame" for that? Pretty much the great ol' fandom of...2007? 08? When was it, that 95% of the fandom collectively decided not to buy MP Skywarp, because one guy in a hicksville backwater town, found it for like 5 USD off retail.

It then became a nationwide race of people waiting until they could beat that price, and the next, and the next...until people were buying 5-10 Skywarps...when they reached 5 or so USD.

It was a case, admittedly, of Walmart ordering way too many because they foolishly thought he'd sell as well as Starscream [Starscream was at the time, a g1-accurate deco, and the only g1-accurate deco for years, while Skywarp was...a slightly different version of the japanese toy].

Walmart prolly told hasbro to f'off afterwards [not that I'm defending them or anything, but they must have lost lots of cash].

And to be honest, the TRU versions, or generally the USA releases, are only "good" for people in the US that can find them in store.

UK TRU? Price is comparable [or in the case of Prowl] more expensive than the import. France? Germany? Greece? Probably non-existent.

If these are collector pieces for "proper" collectors, then people would be buying them on release and not wait 1-2 years for hasbro to release them via whomever buys them for a bargain price.
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pegasusprime
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Post by pegasusprime »

they got other options for example hasbrotoyshop.com
amazon.com it could be a shared exclusive if amazon get year of the horse optimus why no mps they also got jetwing , hasbrotoyshop got the san diego comic con exclusives it is hasbro so yeah they have other options maybe for 2009 it wasnt but now amazon and their own store get exclusives
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Post by Unicron »

Excessive speculation ahead, you've been warned:

There's probably a whole myriad of issues preventing Hasbro from doing as you suggest. It's entirely possible that the deal for TRU to carry the MP figures is a multi-year deal and not something Hasbro feels it's worth to find a way out of. It may also have a requirement that precludes them being shared exclusives.

Hasbro may also be reluctant to have them exclusive to their toy shop site because any slow selling figure that requires a price cut is money out of their pocket. When Walmart or TRU or whoever takes chunks out of the price of a given figure it means nothing to Hasbro as they've already gotten their money by supplying stock to the retailers.

Online exclusives also have the problem of narrowing the customer base. It's conceivable that a person wandering through a TRU for something spots an MP Prime, Soundwave, Grimlock, or whoever, and remembering the cartoon and toys from childhood decides to grab one. That same person is never going to stumble onto an MP figure at an online store unless they were already looking for it.

And the SDCC exclusives are a whole different animal. They're a purposefully small production run (generally a variant or repaint of an existing mainstream released piece), intended to be rare, and the Toy Shop stocking them is a mix of allowing people unable to go to the con to get them and liquidating leftovers from the con/excess quantities made to justify producing the figures.

Also, given how slow Hasbro seems to be at putting figures up for sale on the toy shop site, I always assumed it was more of a way for Hasbro to unload excess stock or provide the customers with a back-up source for some things.
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pegasusprime
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Post by pegasusprime »

well maybe not getting out but sharing its exclusivity , for example the platinum edition optimus prime its shared between bigbadtoystore toyrus and amazon well do the same here , then all people win , toyrus have the masterpiece we also got them on amazon do you remenber unicron
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Unicron? He came out as part of Armada originally and was available at mass retail. The 2010 reissue was a different kettle of fish, admittedly.

The toy market is shrinking and, TBH, I have no issue with TRU having the MPs as an exclusive. At least there's half a chance that, in the UK at least, I can get my hands on one without having to pay shipping and customs fees etc etc. Yes, there are a myriad online retailers selling the Takara versions for the same if not cheaper (and certainly as far as Prowl goes, many places have him for the UK retail of around £60 or less, postage permitting). Okay, TRU isn't going to be convenient for everyone, if like me you like to go into shops and look at things on shelves, but they do have a website.

The demand for MP product is such anyway that they are very rarely - if ever- available at a discounted price. MP Skywarp notwithstanding.

Whilst I agree competition in the marketplace is a good thing, there probably aren't that many retailers willing to take a punt on high end collector pieces like this. Heck, we've already established that Hasbro don't really know how to market/ sell Masterpiece toys (hello MP Acid Storm), so if they don't know, how is a prospective retailer going to be swayed into buying the stock.
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Post by pegasusprime »

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Post by Skyquake87 »

Hmm, yeah the 'Anime Deco' Unicron reissue. Released in 2010 by Takara. Can't recall if that was an exclusive or not, always available from marketplace sellers on Amazon, IIRC.
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Post by Warcry »

Knightdramon wrote:It was a case, admittedly, of Walmart ordering way too many because they foolishly thought he'd sell as well as Starscream [Starscream was at the time, a g1-accurate deco, and the only g1-accurate deco for years, while Skywarp was...a slightly different version of the japanese toy].
The ironic thing about that is that in spite of them being everywhere in the US and clearanced deeply, I don't think I ever even saw him up here. It makes me wonder if it was less to do with over-ordering than bad distribution, sending too much to some locales and basically smothering the demand there.
Unicron wrote:Online exclusives also have the problem of narrowing the customer base. It's conceivable that a person wandering through a TRU for something spots an MP Prime, Soundwave, Grimlock, or whoever, and remembering the cartoon and toys from childhood decides to grab one. That same person is never going to stumble onto an MP figure at an online store unless they were already looking for it.
I'm not sure that's actually happening now, anyway. Hasbro MPs are heavily scalped, and in a lot of places they don't even get out on the shelves these days. When they come out at my local stores, they're bought up as soon as they're out on the floor -- often within half an hour of someone posting online that they're available. I've seen a grand total of one MP on the shelves in the last eight or nine years and that one was Rodimus (who the hardcore fans were iffy about due to QC issues). And even in places that get more stock, the MPs that stick around are stuff like Skywarp or Acid Storm or that stupid YOTH Prime, not anything that's going to attract a casual buyer.

About the only time I've heard of MPs that'd be attractive to non-fans (normal Prime, Grimlock and Soundwave, like you say) sticking around long enough to potentially be an impulse buy, it's in the UK and it's because TRU is charging double the US price for them...
Skyquake87 wrote:Hmm, yeah the 'Anime Deco' Unicron reissue. Released in 2010 by Takara. Can't recall if that was an exclusive or not, always available from marketplace sellers on Amazon, IIRC.
Nah, the one he linked to was a Hasbro release -- different colours and layout than the Takara one. And it was "exclusive" to multiple different retailers depending on where you lived (Amazon in the US, TRU in Canada, and possibly other places elsewhere). I'm not sure if that model would work for the MPs, though I do often wish that they could be bought directly from online retailers so that there'd be less of a feeding frenzy when TRU gets their stock in.
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Post by pegasusprime »

making them a shared exclusive would made thing easier for collectors, especially with amazon or their own store , THE BEST OPTION IS THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE SUGGEST IT TO HASBRO AT BOTCON
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Post by Skyquake87 »

...IN BLOCK CAPITALS :)

I wont be at BotCon anytime soon though.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Yeh, no. Toys are exclusive because only one retailer wants them. If Amazon haven't done a TF exclusive since 2010 it's because they don't want one, not because Hasbro won't let them. Hasbro LOVE selling toys, especially ones which're cheap to produce - like moulds Takara have already engineered. The aim of the game for them is to get these things to as many retailers as possible. The retailers, after a decade of getting saddled with 'exclusives' they often struggle to shift, aren't interested. If it was up to Hasbro the MP figures would be everywhere - exposure is king, they'd want figures at the till in Starbucks if Starbucks were actually interested.

At the same time this means TRU have them over a barrel - Hasbro dick around and run a figure through their own toy store, they suddenly find their products are allocated less aisle space, that future exclusives are unwanted, etc, etc. The Hasbro online shop seems to largely deal in overflow, unwanted exclusives and stock clearance. The stuff BBTS gets seems to be the same thing. Online exclusives are basically stuff that no bricks & mortar retailer will take.

Basically you're fundamentally misunderstanding the dynamic here. Hasbro do not go "Hey, we'll release MP Prowl as an exclusive" and field bids. They go to the big retailers like WalMart, Target etc. and say "we're making MP Prowl, are you interested?". If they say 'no' they go to the toy chains, of which TRU are basically the only one. If they choose to pass they then have to go around online retailers and see if they'll take it.

TL;DR - Hasbro want their toys in as many chains as possible. The chains do not want the toys. Complaining to Hasbro about it is illogical.
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Post by Knightdramon »

What baffles me is that the topic starter is living outside the US...which means unless he's in the UK, he has no access to the MPs released in TRU anyway.

And again, nice surprises notwithstanding, I don't see why actual collectors would prefer them in toy aisles months to a year later than the takara version anyway.
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Post by pegasusprime »

that is one of the reasons i started the topic if they were amazon exclusive it would be more easy for me , amazon indeed got exclusives the platinume edition line is a shared exclusive , from what i can understan on 2009 no one wants to take them but since that year has passed 5 years amazon have change but the problem is the multiyear agreement , is suppose they have , even though i dont want to recognized , from 2008 to 2011 the transformers have become much more proofitable thanks to the movies, ,but for 2000 something when they got the deal with toyrus i dont know , year of the horse optimus , starscream , jetwing have been shared exclusive with amazon so i dont understand why i would be a problem unless you are a scalper that would affect your businees but for fans , it would be great
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Knightdramon wrote:And again, nice surprises notwithstanding, I don't see why actual collectors would prefer them in toy aisles months to a year later than the takara version anyway.
I can answer that! In days of yore, the Hasbro versions available in shops were generally cheaper than the Takara versions. So if you were prepared to wait, you could get the same basic figure at a vast reduction.

Grimlock, for example, cost £60 UK RRP in 2010. The Takara version(s) released 2 years beforehand were £100 + I was happy to forego crap like the apron and drinks tray to save around £40 or more.

Likewise, Hasbro's MP Soundwave was terrific value for money, even if I did wince a bit paying £120 for him, compared to the Takara version which cost roughly the same with ONE casette, plus you were looking at £120 for the additional cassette robots, them being packed as two two packs.

The MP Cars don't offer the same cost saving, so Hasbro are on a hiding to nothing with those (assuming further releases are warranted if Prowl doesn't tank). Personally, the all-plastic nature of the MP cars leaves them feeling less of a Masterpiece to me. Others may feel differently.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

pegasusprime wrote:that is one of the reasons i started the topic if they were amazon exclusive it would be more easy for me , amazon indeed got exclusives the platinume edition line is a shared exclusive , from what i can understan on 2009 no one wants to take them but since that year has passed 5 years amazon have change but the problem is the multiyear agreement , is suppose they have , even though i dont want to recognized , from 2008 to 2011 the transformers have become much more proofitable thanks to the movies, ,but for 2000 something when they got the deal with toyrus i dont know , year of the horse optimus , starscream , jetwing have been shared exclusive with amazon so i dont understand why i would be a problem unless you are a scalper that would affect your businees but for fans , it would be great
it no work lik that try redding respons were it explaned
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pegasusprime
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Post by pegasusprime »

i read what you post but amazon indded got exclusives after 2011 remenber jetwing optimus , also the platinum line, the main problem is distribution and the amount of scalper in toyrus , and the same toyrus who is the biggest scalper yeah they initially sell optimus at 99.99 then they rise the price until 150, hasbro quality isnt the same as the takara masterpieces, the mayority of them are overpriced i dont believe mp-10 is better than rotf optimus or starscream , the same goes for cars, i dont believe they are better than rhinox or or springer, battle blades prime or the firste edition of prime voyaguers i know they are collectors items i can pay 10 or 15 more than a voyaguer for the cars but o way 100 for them , or the japanese price they are not better than some generations yeah there is the nostalgia factor but speaking honestly they arent the best thing takara have done
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Post by Unicron »

Look, I'm pretty certain no one wants Masterpieces or anything else exclusive to TRU, and no one is saying they should be. We all know TRU sucks for a variety of reasons. It's just there's certain realities to the situation that we can't change, chief among them being that TRU is the only major retailer at this point that's willing to stock Masterpieces.

As for the 'shared exclusives'... that's actually a pretty bad misnomer. They're not exclusive to anywhere. It's basically a marketing term for a bunch of repaints they couldn't get Walmart, Target, and the like to take, so they slapped a on label and sold them to a bunch of web retailers. Amazon being one of several places to sell these 'shared exclusives' doesn't mean they'd be willing or perhaps even able to take on something like the Masterpiece as exclusives.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I'm mildly surprised many retailers are particularly interested in TF toys full-stop; the sales drop-off since ROTF must be terrifying. As far as shifting plastic goes the movie bubble has been and gone; DOTM taking a billion while the toyline was cancelled after a few waves could well be a game-changer for the franchise.
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Post by Warcry »

Cliffjumper wrote:I'm mildly surprised many retailers are particularly interested in TF toys full-stop;
I'd go one further and take the "TF" out of that sentence. The drop-off in the toy industry in general has been shocking. Transformers is likely doing well by comparison to most brands, but at a certain point you have to wonder if we're looking at the beginning of the days when big-box retailers flat-out don't even have a toy section. In Canada both Sears and the Bay have basically given up on the concept (Sears still sells toys in their Christmas catalogue but few if any stores have physical stock anymore). Walmart, Target and London Drugs are the only major department stores left that stock toys, and the latter sells clearance outlet fodder rather than first-run stuff.

My best guess is that stores see toys as loss leaders more often than not -- if a kid drags mom and dad in to look for the newest TF or Star Wars figure, the parents might wind up grabbing soap or milk or a DVD or something on the way to the till. But as soon as that attraction factor is outweighed by the opportunity cost of using that floor space for stock that actually sells, even the Walmarts and Targets of the world are going to say enough's enough.

Ten years from now everything could be a TRU exclusive by default, at least when it comes to brick-and-mortar sales. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, if it means that other toy-centric chains start up to fill the gap.
Cliffjumper wrote:the sales drop-off since ROTF must be terrifying. As far as shifting plastic goes the movie bubble has been and gone; DOTM taking a billion while the toyline was cancelled after a few waves could well be a game-changer for the franchise.
In retrospect I think ROTF was a sign of things to come. The first two or three waves, with toys that kids might actually care about, sold fairly well. But the later waves just didn't shift at all.

(I wonder where all those Tuner Mudflaps wound up?)

It shouldn't have come as much of a surprise that DOTM didn't do well, and to be honest I'm really surprised by the huge toy push that Hasbro is putting on for AoE. I mean obviously you should have some shelf presence but putting out three or four versions of each on-screen character seems like a terrible idea.
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