Following the announcement of last year’s amazing success, Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner joined with host Jim Cramer of Mad Money to tell us a little bit more.
Mr. Goldner explained that there will be more episodic Transformers content in the future in addition to online, fan-generated and live action movie content.
“It’s all about engaging the consumer across storytelling and innovation, a lot of digital engagement. We do it all around the world, Our international business, category for category and region for region, we are up considerably.”
Goldner explained that the company relies on proprietary consumer insights to get a clear sense of what customers really want. They use the feedback to guide product development and create entertainment experiences for fans around the brands they like.
You can watch the video on CNBC’s Mad Money.
BigRed
http://files.shareholder.com/downlo…ro_Q4_FY_2016_Earnings_Management_Remarks.pdf
"Powered by our all-screen, year-round storytelling, TRANSFORMERS had a strong finish to 2016, posting double-digit growth in the second half of the year and is well positioned for the next chapter of the TRANSFORMERS franchise."
So no, Transformers sales are not down. On the contrary, it grew.
AzT
Investor Presentations webcast happening right now
Events & Presentations – Hasbro, Inc.
Hasbro to Webcast Investor Presentations From Toy Fair on Friday, February 17, 2017 (NASDAQ:HAS)
MpCollector81
… And yet they still don't see the potential in updated G1 styled media content playing off the success of Transformers Devastation/Earth Wars… oh wait… TF Devastation only sold like 240'000 units… nevermind…
Louise Belcher
Well, boys tend to play video games more then girls, but girls usually stop playing with toys earlier. I don't see exactly how Hasbro going to make a good TF line for girls (they don't have much of history in making girls toys and those they made are mostly fine, nothing special), but I like to imagine line of Licca Chan dolls being sold with TF, it could be one the coolest toylines ever, in my personal opinion.
MartyFeeb
Ouch. I guess TF sales are down? (Who here has actually seen anyone buy Yokai Watch items? )
And the girl category growth trend is exactly why the TF franchise would benefit from launching a girl line of TFs!
MartyFeeb
LEGENDS WHEELIE!!!!
I just realized another QC nightmare. I'm a huge fan of Wheelie, so having bought multiples, I can say that the majority have the same issue TFW2005 itself noticed: nothing pegs together well in alt mode! This is especially frustrating when you consider how screen accurate and awesome the alt mode is…. only to have a b*tch of a time having it stay together.
That's the main issue, too: it's one thing to say, "Oh, it's January/February, so of course stock is bad everywhere!" But when 2017's first Legends stock includes Gnaw, a toy that's taken 30+ years to see again, it's understandably even more frustrating!
Hasbro finally revisits Headmasters and the 86 movie characters…. only to bumble a good chunk of the toys with design and QC issues. That's a major fail, considering how long fans have waited to see these lines come to fruition. And the fact that Hasbro has NOT addressed these QC issues shows how little they care for your satisfaction – honestly, I commend the fans who can take their money elsewhere and break free of the routine. Hasbro should be more responsible. The predictable, movie-based delays to the Generations line isn't even going to be addressed either! So, in a nutshell, Hasbro routinely makes plain that the collector is last on their mind, and as a customer who pays Hasbro and helps keep it in business, I think we have a case to b*tch and stop buying these defective products!
When you think about it, isn't it about time Hasbro sends an official rep to address these issues or concerns? I've seen much smaller companies do just that: they hire a customer relations rep to communicate with fans on boards. Even if it amounts to nothing, at least it would show that they are actively listening to our complaints and open to correcting them. (The silent way they correct things now is not acceptable. They should formally address our issues, rather than ignore them. Maybe the next TF Generations line will solve the wobbly hip joints, but shouldn't Hasbro do something about all the defective toys they've already duped us into buying? Wouldn't a 3P company send a replacement part when they screwed up?)
MartyFeeb
Thanks, Bell! (Also, sorry I forgot to thumb your post about that Hasbro CEO remark! Your comment on "proprietary customer insights" had me laughing! ).
Anyway, that Wreckgar issue you had? It was the handle bars breaking off, right? Cause that mold is notorious for that issue – if you have a copy with handlebars intact, it's only because you haven't touched it much! But back then, that sort of thing was rare – a design flaw that didn't happen as often as it does today. Maybe HAsbro is just rushing through product (which is a good argument, if you consider how many more toys they make now).
The wobbly TR toys… (and I assume you're thinking about Skullcruncher/smasher, like me!), that's a FANTASTIC EXAMPLE of what we're talking about here: clearly, Hasbro didn't care to correct the issue, as the wobbly legs affect ALL COPIES OF SKULLSMASHER. That's not a weird cosmic coincidence, and Hasbro does get final versions of toys to test out – Hasbro clearly said "f*ck it" and shipped out those toys floppy on purpose. That's called cutting corners, as it would have cost more time and money to correct what was likely a badly measured part not fitting correctly. But another reason this stuff happens more is the lack of pins and screws – those used to hold legs more securely, for example, but have been reduced to save on costs. Plastic on plastic hinges/joints are always going to end up floppy (and Hasbro should know this from their 1980s GI Joe's!).
Anyway, the floppiness is particularly bad on the TR toys because they feel like old GI JOE's from when you open them! That's messed up.
bellpeppers
My only problem with this post is that I could only like it once.
I myself have had remarkable luck over the years. Of all the figures that have come and left from my ownership I've only had 1 breakage: RtS Wrek Gar. Everything I've had has been good quality.
Occasionally I'd have a figure where a limb likes to pop off. Is that q/c?
It wasn't until TR when I experienced an unprecedented amount of wobbly heads and floppy limbs.
If the story about mass customer complaints about RotF's complexities are to be believed then I would hope the same would be true for the TR's lack of q/c.
bellpeppers
Interesting read.
I even understood some of it.
Ish.
Thanks for it.
Louise Belcher
To conclude this discussion I will say this, I don't give a damn whether a company profis or not, unless it makes good quality products! Almost all American playline toys today are cheaply made, it's not the quality we used to have in the 80'-early 2000's, heck even up until to 2012 they were a lot of good toys, which now have become rare. This all thanks to Mattel and Hasbro disgusting monoply on the toy market which used to have a lot more differnet companies, in other words lack of competition. As some people mentioned about the third party, the prices of what supposed to be regular retail children toys keep rising to the point where it's almost as buying adult collector/import toys. As for today I am more focused in collecting Japanese toys, I get much more suprior quailty and value for my money then few dollars less cheaper American toys. Not to mention, that shipping from Japan is actually cheaper for me. As for now, since Hasbro stopped painting the micro Titan Masters' heads and God forbidden waste on every transformer one more small drop of paint for this, I am waiting for the Takara Tomy versions. If Takara Tomy also sold separate Titan Masters like hasbro, I would buy theirs too instead of Hasbro.
MartyFeeb
There are some great examples of just this:
The Rescue Bots Brachiosaur Heatwave was defective from GO. Check the reviews and find tons of parents that were irritated with how defective this toy was – Hasbro had a chance to test the toy, and they would have seen the obvious problem… but did they stop production or fix the issue? F*CK NO. They sent the toy out. I, myself, exchanged this toy THREE TIMES and had the same result with all 3.
RID Warrior Ratchet had a broken panel hinge on my copy… maybe luck of the draw, but upon close inspection, you could easily tell it had everything to do with the plastic quality and tolerances – it was not a random production defect or molding issue. Maybe it's not "mush", but the toys are evidently less strong/sturdy.
Movie Battle-action toys (from TF4) broke like you would not believe! Slash, for example, had a tail-whip action, but this tail easily broke off… again, because of inferior plastic – the plastic literally crumbled at the hinge, not unlike GPS. The Stegosaurus toy had a similar issue, where it snapped in half, at the waist – again, because of inferior plastic that crumbled. These are NEW TOYS, not toys from 30 years ago. They broke apart as though they were 30 years old!
Those are just some examples off the top of my head. And granted, they are the far and few between hundreds of releases… but the trend is there. If Hasbro continues to look for ways to drop costs, this will become more and more common to the point where even YOU cannot ignore the lower plastic quality or QC problems.
For now, I'm elated that these issues have evaded you or your attention – no one wants Hasbro to sell you a defective product! But when someone does make mention of it, or criticizes a particular release, it's really not irrelevant or insane to question Hasbro as a whole. That's your job as a consumer: to either appreciate or condemn your purchases, and to ALWAYS hold the manufacturer accountable. The antithesis of criticizing Hasbro? Caveat emptor. And we certainly don't want to go back to those days, do we? You may call this overly dramatic, but P.T. Barnum had a name for some of you: mark!
lordmegatron64
TL;DR
5 years ago Hasbro\'s figures were made of sterner stuff and had actual creativity involved.
Now Hasbro's figures are Hollow, Cheaply made, simple, and overpriced.
Convoy
I think the main thing Shareholders bring is capital. But it is generally known that there is a discrepancy between short term interests of shareholders and long term sustainability of businesses. In some big corps the executive staff have a legal obligation to shareholders to increase year on year profits. I went to a lecture once, where a prof. was arguing how the effect of 'expecting growth' actually leads to lower consumer welfare. So one example was how we keep money in Banks and just assume we should get interest without actually working for it. So then the banks become shareholders in companies like Hasbro and push for short term profits. Then those same customers of the bank are worse off because for that little bit of interest they get in a savings account then live in a society that is being constantly squeezed.
There are interesting models being developed though and some are already widely used. Like crowd sourced funding, so investors really know what they're investing in and often have a vested interest. Like you could imagine a crowd funded 3rd party toy. Obviously this is better suited to smaller projects with timescales.
For bigger businesses there are interesting value led models. So where you prioritise upholding certain core values than increasing profits. This is of course how many small (especially family run) business run already. There are versions of this developed for large businesses too.
Of course the Share holder led model is still the status quo, so more interesting work is I guess is how to build share holder bodies that hold a firm to account for more than just profit. I remember going to conference in Brussels and hearing from a German group doing stuff with adidas on that. I'm not sure how far they got though.
I'm currently working with a team looking at how tech innovation is way more effective from smaller firms than larger ICT corps. So we're looking at business models that can bridge resources gaps but still get that innovation. When it works its actually really profitable and some of the tech solutions are amazing.
Sorry, I just realised this is so off topic. But basically there are really interesting models out there and a lot of effort being put into finding ones that work in practice. But I'm no sure this is really applicable to Hasbro…
Windsweeper II
Aye, but how are you gonna do that when they own everything.
RKillian
I would think that a better business model would in fact be one that told shareholders to shove off, get a job, and work for a living. Free enterprise would accomplish so much more if it didn't have to carry that dead weight.
Windsweeper II
The intrests of large shareholders are always completely contrary to the intrests of workers and customers, this is nothing new. Profits must always increase while costs must always decrease.
Its a miracle we get the quality of toys we do.
You dont like hollow arms, breaking hinges, loose limbs, lazy repaints.
I dont either and i'll complain about them when i like and i wont look crosseyed at anyone complaining about them.
But if you want better toys you better develop a better businessmodel that makes shareholders more money cause it aint happening any other way
Hoffman
But with those criteria they wouldn't be $15 to $18 anymore.
Automaster
Without having read all 8 pages, I feel I can assume that with that much revenue generated, people probably feel it's come at the expense of quality. Add me to the camp that would prefer avoiding hollow figure syndrome and a return to better paint applications for the $15 to $18 being paid for a deluxe figure.
The TFDrawer
I'm not sure but it could be like the First Edition figures. We have to wait till Toy Fair to get some official confirmation but First Edition lines are supposed to be like the high end line like TFP so I hope they somehow have a better line even though that would make the Premier Editions useless.