Via TFW2005 member Yaujta, we’ve got a report that the ninth assortment of Robots in Disguise One-Step Changers (though only the seventh with new toys) has arrived at US retail. This assortment introduces a new tooling of Strongarm into the mix, along with Optimus Prime making his mass-retail debut in the Robots in Disguise One Step Changers assortment. Rounding out the set of new toys this go round is a redeco of the 2016 One-Step Sideswipe as Blizzard Strike Sideswipe. This assortment was sighted at Toys R Us in York, Pennsylvania, and sports the new Mini-Con Weaponizer packaging.
AzT
$9.99 each
Transformers: Robots in Disguise 1-Step Changers… : Target
Transformers: Robots in Disguise 1-Step Changers… : Target
Transformers: Robots in Disguise 1-Step Changers… : Target
edgs2099
I've bought so far…10 of these including a few AOE ones, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I have a three year old and these are right up his alley difficulty wise. He has them mastered. I got him a Deluxe Drift from RID and I got sick to death of transforming him for the kid. These are a godsend to me.
feckineejit
>I'm expecting 1-Step changers to figure heavily into the "toys bought by undiscerning parent", due to price point and the expectation that the kid will be able to transform it without help – I'm assuming parents are still just as bad at picking toys as ours were. So they probably sell pretty well.<
This couldn't be farther from the truth. My 8 year old daughter wants the classics and the deluxes, while my 4 year old wants to be able to transform the toys and so he gets the one step changers so he can "Play the bad guy". nothing better than the sense of accomplishment when a wee one can transform the toys just like his big sister.
nstanosheck
Yeah the specifically mentioned how surprised they were that that so many kids were getting Combiner Wars. Adult collectors are 10%, SO kids were double that!
griffin-of-oz
That was a misinterpretation of one of the recent presentation slides, which was actually stating that Generations (which they had noted was aimed at adult collectors), is now 30% of their sales… but not all of that is bought by adult collectors. It was to emphasise that in the last four years, the Generations toyline had become a major TFs toyline, from its beginnings as a small sub-line behind the Movies and Cartoon toylines.
(this was something I asked the Hasbro people at BotCon to clarify, and they confirmed that)
Without having people at multiple retail stores and online stores polling the customers, they would not be able to give more than a guess the age breakdown of who is receiving their toys (not the age of the buyers of their toys).
Archon Shiva
According to their own investor presentations, adult collectors make up ~30% of Hasbro's TF revenue (I'm assuming this excludes Rescue Heroes, but probably includes licensed third party stuff). I'm expecting 1-Step changers to figure heavily into the "toys bought by undiscerning parent", due to price point and the expectation that the kid will be able to transform it without help – I'm assuming parents are still just as bad at picking toys as ours were. So they probably sell pretty well.
On the other hand, 30% is a pretty neat number, and it's not like parents don't buy Generations toys, so there's too much money in those to simply ignore them. (The aforementioned parents don't buy MP toys, and MP toys don't sell that well, from the point of view of the chain stores stuck with Bluestreak and YotG Optimus. The fact that it's obvious to us that MP Soundwave will sell like crazy and YotG Soundwave kinda won't, doesn't make it obvious to them.)
Underlord
I've seen loads of one steps on store shelves here in the UK, there always seems to be more than warriors, legions and minicons. It might be because they stack better so more can be put out
I think the newest one I've seen is spring load, but that was only twice, all the rest are the older ones.
ZapRowsdower
Please sound off if any of you are actually buying these (for you or for others).
I'd love to see the sales figures on these toys, as they make sooooooo many, and there never seems to be shortage. So they're selling really well or we'll be seeing landfill piles of these next to the E.T. cartridges, one day?
It's relevant to discuss: if these sell poorly, being so mass-produced, it's going to cost Hasbro a lot of money, and that will force them to cut corners on all the TF lines (i.e. smaller toys from here on). If they're selling really well, they will no doubt influence future toys to be as simple. However, as Hasbro aims to sell to two audiences right now, I can't help but question whether or not these toys are making any difference to the failing RID cartoon line, and if they're making no difference (sales-wise), I'm getting pretty irritated that Hasbro is theoretically p*ssing this money away, rather than releasing more MPs (which sell) or better Generations toys (which also sell). My standing theory is that a CEO somewhere is running against a wall with these mediocre toys, and that the sales data confirms it. But that's okay: it's a non-movie year, so Hasbro can theoretically bleed itself by releasing a ton of these and have a good excuse for poor quarterly earnings.
OR, these 1-steps are keeping the brand afloat, given how many are getting released. I don't know, and the ambiguity is obnoxious corporate deception. (Remember when Hasbro reps said the PRIME RID line was doing well? Then later lamented about poor sales among themselves, when they thought no one was listening? )
Dachande
Huh. Newsworthy one-steps.
Miracles never cease.
Nevermore
They're not just variants. Optimus and Strongarm are entirely new figures, this is wave 7 (or "wave 9" in the official count where two numbered waves didn't contain any new figures).
Transformers Robots in Disguise One-Step Changers Wave 9 Set – Hasbro – Transformers – Transformers at Entertainment Earth
So you've actually found new toys at retail.
There's also a new redeco of the 2016 Sideswipe sculpt (named "Blizzard Strike Sideswipe"). Bumblebee (also the 2016 sculpt) is a packaging variant for the new "Mini-Con Weaponizers" subline imprint they're all part of.
Dachande
Saw these today in York, PA at TrU:
The packaging is different than the first release, as these have green hexagon patterning on them. I figured they were variants since they don't look like the same ones clogging the pegs everywhere else.
Nevermore posted about them back in January, but I didn't remember seeing this kind of packaging before.