Hasbro held their 2021 First Quarter Financial Results Conference Call a few hours ago and presented the results to their investors.
Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner stated the following:
“Transformers revenue growth was led by gains in the U.S. and Asia Pacific, and global point of sale was up nearly 40%. Innovation and storytelling are central to driving Transformers and the eOne team is expanding the reach and relevance of the brand through world-class entertainment across platforms and demographics. We delivered our latest War For Cybertron content in partnership with Netflix on December 30 supported by new products that drove the first quarter’s performance. War for Cybertron Chapter 3 will be airing this summer and, in partnership with Paramount, the next feature in the theatrical Transformers franchise is slated for 2022.”
“Transformers continued to be the top brand performer on Hasbro Pulse in the first quarter delivering the much anticipated HasLab Unicron. The brand kept the momentum to start Q2. In partnership with Robosen, during Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest earlier this month, we unveiled a $700 Auto-Converting Optimus Prime Robot, which sold out in pre-sale in less than 10 hours.”
“With our partners at Paramount, the G.I. Joe Snake Eyes movie release is now set for July 23 and the brand team continues to drive engagement and demand with fans through product and events including our Pulse initiatives.”
During the Q&A Session, the toy giant elaborated on its entertainment plans.
“We continue to look at how we put our Hasbro IPs in the market. There’s a very strong demand for world-class IPs and Hasbro has an array of it. [As I mentioned] we are working on a number of brands and we’re starting to see the traction around brands like My Little Pony which we talked about is on Netflix in September, Transformers: a new TV series going on air in other platforms and our film, coming next year in partnership with Paramount, and then Power Rangers: you’ll hear more about it, but we’ve been developing and we expect shortly to be able to talk about, a brand new content for [Power Rangers] that will go after a multitude of audiences which will be on a streaming platform.”
“A couple of new films, G.I. Joe and My Little Pony. We are lining up our inventories for those major initiatives.”
You can check out the presentation slideshow, after the jump.
Music
It's likely they're correlating the popularity of the toyline with Netflix to give investors more confidence in the upcoming BotBots show which will also be on Netflix. And probably an escuse to continue to do the bare minimum with future "adult-oriented" series.
Fenrys
They didn't sell off E-one, the sold the music branch of E-one which was pretty extraneous to their purposes
Maximus Danz
Sorry, your original post just read very "geewuner" esque.
ZapRowsdower
Not promoting G1. You dont know me enuf to make that assumption, though I understand there's a palpable hatred for "geewun" on here.
Maximus Danz
1. Never said my Beastwars toys. I don't collect Beast Wars
2. I wasn't talking about just beasts, I'm just saying that Kingdom as a whole is doing well.
I don't know why you feel the need to keep promoting G1 superiority, but this seems like an equal effort.
Fafnir72
Agreed on both counts. I don't want to kick an already dead horse but the Netflix show did an AWESOME job in showcasing "all" the products in the current line. Whoever is spinning that PRAISE Release is indeed heavily invested with Netflix!
Hb must have miscalculated the demand for ER SW as indeed , supplies can't meet the demand, domestic USA or even in Japan/Asia. Siege SW had lot's of overstock because some idjit in Hb decided that the yellow visor sells better that the animation red version (Hb should shoot the sod in the gluteus M for gross incompetence)
ZapRowsdower
Keep in mind that they threw in a bunch of G1 toys like Huffer, Cyclonus, Arcee, Optimus, etc. in ur BW toys. As someone else mentioned, not a bad way to show BW line succeeding! lol
Im not surprised TFs r leading the pack: u see the extra emphasis on Pulse, where other brands feel like second choices (in terms of promotion and releases). Still, nothing from gaming or girl brands? Is that a sign that Hasbro is struggling post-pandemic??? (Misread that; quote in post did not mention other brands) They just sold off E-One, so Im not feeling too confident in their recent decisions…
ZapRowsdower
Couple of sticky points for me:
1) GI Joe lining up inventory? Hasbro has done an EPICALLY PISSPOOR job of lining up Joe inventory. Best place to buy Joe figures is ur nearest scalper, thanks to insulting supply and distribution problems. Did Goldner mention his new Movie Joe figures failed to sell out at all?
B) Earthrise/WfC figures are selling because of that crappy Netflix show? REALLY??? (I guess when ur selling a media-tie-in narrative, even ur fails r rpic wins). Ur enjoyment of said program aside, I dont believe anyone is buying specifically because of Netflix TF programming. I mean, Goldner is telling investors that the wrapping paper sold the gift, when we bought specifically for the figures inside. But sure, spend more $$$ on the paper and jack up TF toy prices. Great.
The Madness
Uh, I find it hard to believe the increased revenue is due to the Netflix series. I wonder how they extract their finding from the effect of the pandemic on this and last years results? Do they just compare it to other lines without any promotion?
Still, someone decided to release the first G1 alt-mode accurate modern toy releases of Soundwave and bumblebee in the Netflix line, two of the most identifiable Transformers ever. So that tells us somebody is heavily invested in promoting the Netflix collaboration as a resounding success.
deaddude
Same here, I'm definitely one of those people who only had a passing interest in Transformers until Kingdom brought back the beasties. I had a couple Earthrise and Titans Returns figures, but since Kingdom came out my collection has roughly tripled!
Galvatron1998
No problem! As a Beast Wars fan I'm really glad to see that Kingdom is doing as well as it is. I saw Beast Megatron on shelves once (it went home with me) so there's definitely an audience for them.
deaddude
Huh, never knew that was a thing. Sorry, my bad then. As you were!
Galvatron1998
I agree, hence why I used the blue text (blue text = sarcasm).
deaddude
Your local toy section isn't representative of the entire toy purchasing population. It tells you virtually nothing about the popularity of specific products.
If anything, the fact that beast figures such as Megatron and Airazor are still commanding at or above-MSRP prices on the secondary market (eBay, Mercari) suggests to me that demand for these figures is incredibly high – people want figures faster than typical retailers are supplying them.
Galvatron1998
But I still see wave one deluxes on pegs so clearly Beasts are a bust.
motorhead9999
Wait, there's a Snake Eyes movie coming out on July 23? Of this year? Has there even been a trailer released for that?
Maximus Danz
WOW! TF up by 40%!
Looks like Kingdom really is killing it.
SilverOptimus
News Post: TFW2005 Coverage of Hasbro 2021 First Quarter Financial Results