Could Unifying the World Brands be Connected to Poor Hasbro Distribution?

[Zobovor]

So I've been noticing that a lot of people are complaining that they're having trouble finding Power of the Primes toys. Some people are just now seeing the second wave of product, despite it being released over three months ago. We should be in wave three by this point, but instead stores are either empty or are clinging to some first-wave stragglers. It's a sad state of affairs and it seems to be nearly universal.

It occurred to me that the unifying of the Hasbro and Takara product lines may be the reason for this.

Think about it. Hasbro used to do their own production run, and often Takara would lag behind by a month or more, initiating their own production run once they had decided on alternate plastic colors, different paint deco, remolding, etc. for their same-but-different toy line in Japan. Of course, now all of that is a thing of the past. The toys Hasbro and Takara are selling these days are identical in every way.

Well, it stands to reason that they're all from the same production run. It wouldn't really make sense to fire up the factory machines and do a separate production run for Takara, not if the toys are going to be identical anyway. Sure, the packaging will be different, but the toys themselves are the same.

So, could that be the reason why the supply chain seems to have faltered? If there was only one great, big production run for wave one, then maybe that's why Hasbro is still sending it to retailers six months down the road. Or, conversely, if they cranked down the production numbers for wave two, and underestimated the demand for it, then this could be why the toys have been so difficult to find. The fact that the factory is having to produce enough toys now for both the American and Japanese market may be playing a part in it, too. Maybe there simply haven't been enough toys to go around.

I mean, what other possible explanation could there be?


Zob (off to glue some pterodactyl wings to Mike Wazowski now)

[Gustavo Wombat]

Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:

> I mean, what other possible explanation could there be?

ToysRUS implosion. Fewer wave one toys ordered than expected — they set the
prices aggressively high, desperate to make a profit on the big brands, and
then they don’t sell through.

Hasbro then has a massive stockpile of Wave 1, decided that since they have
sold X% less in the first 3 months, that they will sell X% all year, and
cut orders for future waves down. Meanwhile, they keep shipping Wave 1
stock that they expected would restock ToysRUS.

If this were the case, other second tier toy lines would be facing similar
issues, but who looks at Power Rangers? We would never know.

> Zob (off to glue some pterodactyl wings to Mike Wazowski now)

I desperately hope that’s your neighbor.


--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

That's assuming the same machines were used for both Hasbro and Takara releases. Whose to say Takara doesn't have a separate line of identical factories pumping theirs out under normal circumstances and the unification of lines wasn't simply to allow product to be reallocated to different markets depending on demand? Takara's normal delay doesn't make up for the sparse shelves. I'm thinking retailers are just ordering way less, and not paying attention to various wave. When Hasbro sees an order and the retailer isn't specifying what wave, they get whatever is nearby, which is most likely wave 1.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Another thought on the subject is that we currently have the line billed as "Generations Power of the Primes," and we have another line billed as "Generations Studio Series" firmly placing it in the generations line in many stores. I know many Walmarts clearanced out the mv5 line, but the wording of the Studio Series don't place them in the movie line, and while they have the movie the characters are from on their boxes, it doesn't have the film call outs as pronounced as before, so without a specific movie they have been placed in the Generations line, so stores are having trouble distinguishing between them when ordering more, simply choosing the first thing to populate in list. Target switched a number of their former PotP pegs over to Studio Series pegs.

[David Connell]

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 9:57:26 AM UTC-4, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
> Another thought on the subject is that we currently have the line billed as "Generations Power of the Primes," and we have another line billed as "Generations Studio Series" firmly placing it in the generations line in many stores. I know many Walmarts clearanced out the mv5 line, but the wording of the Studio Series don't place them in the movie line, and while they have the movie the characters are from on their boxes, it doesn't have the film call outs as pronounced as before, so without a specific movie they have been placed in the Generations line, so stores are having trouble distinguishing between them when ordering more, simply choosing the first thing to populate in list. Target switched a number of their former PotP pegs over to Studio Series pegs.

So you're thinking it might be movie cr*p preventing POTP from getting out like it should? It's Animated/ROTF all over again!

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 2:44:50 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> If this were the case, other second tier toy lines would be facing similar
> issues, but who looks at Power Rangers? We would never know.

I like your theory, but this feels like the only sticking point. If Hasbro is unloading would-be Toys "R" Us merchandise at other retailers, I feel like I would have noticed older toys clogging up the other assortments. Obviously, not every toy assortment is as dependent on newer waves to refresh the assortment periodically (if you've seen one Fisher-Price Chatter Phone, you've seen 'em all), but the only other toy series I can even think of that I've been having trouble stocking lately is the L.O.L. Surprise! dolls by MGA, and I suspect that's the supplier failing to meet the demand. They're very popular right now.


Zob (I'm a girl watcher)

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 6:24:20 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> When Hasbro sees an order and the retailer isn't specifying what wave, they
> get whatever is nearby, which is most likely wave 1.

Yeah, and I've certainly seen that happen before. But the real question is, why is there even any wave one product left for Hasbro to send? Surely they're not still manufacturing it, six months after the fact. They should be gearing up for wave three right now. Maybe Gustavo is right, and Hasbro overproduced wave one because they were anticipating Toys "R" Us selling a lot of it for them. I would think the end result of that would be stores everywhere clogged with tons of wave one product, not a dearth of product.

> That's assuming the same machines were used for both Hasbro and Takara
> releases. Whose to say Takara doesn't have a separate line of identical
> factories pumping theirs out under normal circumstances and the unification
> of lines wasn't simply to allow product to be reallocated to different
> markets depending on demand?

I guess the only way to know for sure would be for somebody to purchase both a Hasbro and Takara toy and compare them side-by-side and discover a key difference—either a color variation or a mold change. That would prove your two-factory theory.

> Another thought on the subject is that we currently have the line billed
> as "Generations Power of the Primes," and we have another line billed

> as "Generations Studio Series" [...] so stores are having trouble

> distinguishing between them when ordering more, simply choosing the first
> thing to populate in list.

Computer inventory at the store level would make this less than probable. Even if a human worker couldn't tell the difference between this Transformers series or that one, their computer would know the onhands and, at least in the case of Walmart, reorder automatically when existing stock sold down. I'm not sure if other retailers have the same system or not.


Zob (and apparently there are such big changes coming at Walmart that they're sending us to one-day classes on how to embrace and accept change)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 11:52:32 AM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 6:24:20 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
>
> > When Hasbro sees an order and the retailer isn't specifying what wave, they
> > get whatever is nearby, which is most likely wave 1.
>
> Yeah, and I've certainly seen that happen before. But the real question is, why is there even any wave one product left for Hasbro to send? Surely they're not still manufacturing it, six months after the fact. They should be gearing up for wave three right now. Maybe Gustavo is right, and Hasbro overproduced wave one because they were anticipating Toys "R" Us selling a lot of it for them. I would think the end result of that would be stores everywhere clogged with tons of wave one product, not a dearth of product.
>

I'm sure you remember back in the DOTM days when Transformers had 20+ feet of space in each store. Now they share a 4 foot section with another toyline. But Hasbro production for first-waves could easily still be geared towards filling 20+ feet of planogram in each store, or at least 4 feet of entirely Transformers.They want the retailers to have the option to have a large display at the launch of a new line. TRU Stores had an extra 4 feet up by the front doors in the feature section for TLK.

> > That's assuming the same machines were used for both Hasbro and Takara
> > releases. Whose to say Takara doesn't have a separate line of identical
> > factories pumping theirs out under normal circumstances and the unification
> > of lines wasn't simply to allow product to be reallocated to different
> > markets depending on demand?
>
> I guess the only way to know for sure would be for somebody to purchase both a Hasbro and Takara toy and compare them side-by-side and discover a key difference—either a color variation or a mold change. That would prove your two-factory theory.
>

I'm saying they might have different factories, but to have these kind of changes they would also have to have different material suppliers, unless they made raw materials in-house also. I'd think the identical product lines would help them streamline factory supply and reduce costs for bigger bulk-buying.

> > Another thought on the subject is that we currently have the line billed
> > as "Generations Power of the Primes," and we have another line billed
> > as "Generations Studio Series" [...] so stores are having trouble
> > distinguishing between them when ordering more, simply choosing the first
> > thing to populate in list.
>
> Computer inventory at the store level would make this less than probable. Even if a human worker couldn't tell the difference between this Transformers series or that one, their computer would know the onhands and, at least in the case of Walmart, reorder automatically when existing stock sold down. I'm not sure if other retailers have the same system or not.
>

Computer inventory at Toys R Us, Target, and K mart would have a general item number used for stocking. Then each item had a sub-number for that specific item. At Target, PotP Dreadwind and Generations Rattrap have the same item number on the peg and receipt. Unless you remember your DOS commands you're not going to get to the specific item number for Jazz, any inventory check from a store employee is going to give you is for all Deluxe class toys under the Generations heading, whether it be Generations Wreck-gar or TR Windblade. The Target website will list each figure, but when you check it will say "only available in store" and will let you check your local store inventory. You check, and it says 4 on-hand, but when you check Swoop, you go to the store, and all they have is Jazz and Slug, but the combined total for Jazz and Slug would be 4. While the peg hooks labels for Studio Series have different words, they could easily be under the same item number. A few stores here had the pegs labeled Generations Tankor and Generations Rattrap until last year when a new planogram was printed out.

>
> Zob (and apparently there are such big changes coming at Walmart that they're sending us to one-day classes on how to embrace and accept change)

I'm betting you'll spend all day learning stuff that could have been an email.

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 3:59:05 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> I'm sure you remember back in the DOTM days when Transformers had 20+ feet of
> space in each store. Now they share a 4 foot section with another toyline.
> But Hasbro production for first-waves could easily still be geared towards
> filling 20+ feet of planogram in each store, or at least 4 feet of entirely

> Transformers. They want the retailers to have the option to have a large

> display at the launch of a new line.

Based on what I know about the industry, I believe that the manufacturers specify how much footage they want for their product in the retail stores. They essentially "rent" the space in the stores, with companies paying premium prices for product that's easily-visible (like right at the beginning of the aisle, which is why top brands like Tide, Oreo, Hot Wheels, etc. usually occupy that space). That's one of the reasons stores are supposed to follow the planograms so closely, because making adjustments at the store level might result in, say, giving Hasbro some space on store shelves that Mattel is paying for.

I think if stores are going to have a big Transformers display, it's because Hasbro is planning it in advance (usually coinciding with the release of a new movie). Something tells me Hasbro doesn't manufacture a bunch of "extra" toys just on the off-chance that some store somewhere wants to order a massive amount of Transformers toys.

Last Christmas, I ordered a bunch of Titans Return toys for the store, because I usually run out of Transformers during the holidays and I wanted to avoid that again. It took a long time to build up enough stock to make a big display, though. I couldn't just order 60 Deluxe toys and call it good. I had to order eight here, eight there, until I had finally built up enough inventory.

> I'm saying they might have different factories, but to have these kind of
> changes they would also have to have different material suppliers, unless
> they made raw materials in-house also. I'd think the identical product lines
> would help them streamline factory supply and reduce costs for bigger bulk-
> buying.

It seems like for a unified product line, it would be less costly to have a single factory filling orders for both Hasbro and Takara. I can't think of a convincing reason why they would have two separate factories up and running that were producing identical product simultaneously.

> Computer inventory at Toys R Us, Target, and K mart would have a general item
> number used for stocking. Then each item had a sub-number for that specific
> item. At Target, PotP Dreadwind and Generations Rattrap have the same item
> number on the peg and receipt.

Walmart was doing this until very recently. Generations toys from as early as 2012 were cross-referenced with the current product line. Fall of Cybertron, Combiner Wars, and Titans Return were all lumped together. It wasn't until Power of the Primes that they finally started fresh with a new computer assortment that wasn't linked to the older product.

If other retailers were still sitting on older Titans Return toys, then it makes sense that they wouldn't be ordering Power of the Primes. But, I've not seen evidence of this. Stores are just out of Transformers, period.


Zob (armchair market analyst)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 9:48:06 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> On Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 3:59:05 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
>
> > I'm sure you remember back in the DOTM days when Transformers had 20+ feet of
> > space in each store. Now they share a 4 foot section with another toyline.
> > But Hasbro production for first-waves could easily still be geared towards
> > filling 20+ feet of planogram in each store, or at least 4 feet of entirely
> > Transformers. They want the retailers to have the option to have a large
> > display at the launch of a new line.
>
> Based on what I know about the industry, I believe that the manufacturers specify how much footage they want for their product in the retail stores. They essentially "rent" the space in the stores, with companies paying premium prices for product that's easily-visible (like right at the beginning of the aisle, which is why top brands like Tide, Oreo, Hot Wheels, etc. usually occupy that space). That's one of the reasons stores are supposed to follow the planograms so closely, because making adjustments at the store level might result in, say, giving Hasbro some space on store shelves that Mattel is paying for.
>
> I think if stores are going to have a big Transformers display, it's because Hasbro is planning it in advance (usually coinciding with the release of a new movie). Something tells me Hasbro doesn't manufacture a bunch of "extra" toys just on the off-chance that some store somewhere wants to order a massive amount of Transformers toys.
>
> Last Christmas, I ordered a bunch of Titans Return toys for the store, because I usually run out of Transformers during the holidays and I wanted to avoid that again. It took a long time to build up enough stock to make a big display, though. I couldn't just order 60 Deluxe toys and call it good. I had to order eight here, eight there, until I had finally built up enough inventory.
>
> > I'm saying they might have different factories, but to have these kind of
> > changes they would also have to have different material suppliers, unless
> > they made raw materials in-house also. I'd think the identical product lines
> > would help them streamline factory supply and reduce costs for bigger bulk-
> > buying.
>
> It seems like for a unified product line, it would be less costly to have a single factory filling orders for both Hasbro and Takara. I can't think of a convincing reason why they would have two separate factories up and running that were producing identical product simultaneously.
>

To me, the thought pattern would be that Hasbro and Takara had separate factories during TR and earlier, as Takara changed up product lines, and their production goals shouldn't change drastically. If they reduced the total number of facilities then that would sort of explain a slowdown for distribution. You're saying the production slowdown isn't only due to the combining of factories, but that they went back to producing first wave after having previously been doing second wave. They didn't produce all of wave one and then switch over, but that they are still producing wave one.

I think it's more likely the retailers central warehouses sitting on old stock. They did a poor job of distinguishing different waves due to cross-referencing and are sitting on massive amounts of wave one, but are sending Deluxes out from other lines instead of the PotP waves.

> > Computer inventory at Toys R Us, Target, and K mart would have a general item
> > number used for stocking. Then each item had a sub-number for that specific
> > item. At Target, PotP Dreadwind and Generations Rattrap have the same item
> > number on the peg and receipt.
>
> Walmart was doing this until very recently. Generations toys from as early as 2012 were cross-referenced with the current product line. Fall of Cybertron, Combiner Wars, and Titans Return were all lumped together. It wasn't until Power of the Primes that they finally started fresh with a new computer assortment that wasn't linked to the older product.
>
> If other retailers were still sitting on older Titans Return toys, then it makes sense that they wouldn't be ordering Power of the Primes. But, I've not seen evidence of this. Stores are just out of Transformers, period.
>
>

The evidence is they ordered massive amounts of PotP wave one, and now are getting Studio Series Deluxes, but aren't getting PotP future waves. If the Studio Series comes in it's considered filling all Generations Deluxe pegs. Scanning out items they would still show in stock as they still had those cross referenced. A store usually has one or the other at this point.

> Zob (armchair market analyst)

Had a dream where I had to figure out planogram of books that came with live puppies.

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, May 23, 2018 at 2:37:40 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> To me, the thought pattern would be that Hasbro and Takara had separate
> factories during TR and earlier, as Takara changed up product lines, and
> their production goals shouldn't change drastically. If they reduced the
> total number of facilities then that would sort of explain a slowdown for
> distribution.

So, the big question remaining is: Did they anticipate this problem, or is this an unexpected side effect of the brand unification? Is this simply how things are going to be from now on, or did they go "oops, not enough toys, warukatta" and they're going to take steps to correct it in the future?

> The evidence is they ordered massive amounts of PotP wave one, and now are
> getting Studio Series Deluxes, but aren't getting PotP future waves. If the
> Studio Series comes in it's considered filling all Generations Deluxe pegs.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but don't the Studio Series toys retail at a different, more expensive price than the Power of the Primes toys?

> Had a dream where I had to figure out planogram of books that came with live
> puppies.

Just make sure you rotate your stock.


Zob (they don't come when you call, they don't chase squirrels at all, dead puppies aren't much fun...)

[Gustavo Wombat]

Well, that’s not ominous at all.