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Rumor as to Hasbro's absence at NYCC


bman

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First off let me say that this is again according to my source as to their absence - so take it with a grain of salt. I've heard that Hasbros rumor has to deal with the 'relative' failure of the Avengers Legends Movie line. It has sold nowhere close to what their expectations were (have more on this in a minute.) so they are absent as they are 'reassessing' the viability of continuing the 6 inch lines. In Hasbro's point of view there is weak consumer demand for these figures.

 

Pt.II - Walmart.

 

According to my source Walmart forced Hasbro to give them this as an exclusive by threatening to boycott their other non-Marvel related toys. Hasbro was wary of this (as can be expected) but were given assurances that there would be more then enough demand and Walmart had enough outlets to fill what Hasbro needed to break even and perhaps release a 2nd wave of Avengers figures. Now this is where it gets insidious (IF it's true) Walmart never intended to really push this line or to stock all their stores with it. The reasoning was that if this failed to sell well it would be Hasbros fault for failing to deliver a good enough product to get consumers to buy it - and as a result of Walmart's perceived losses they could negotiate better prices for all of Hasbro's other products. Walmart supposedly never intended this to sell well or even want it to sell well as they would lose leverage.

 

So there it is, what are your thoughts? Personally I wouldn't put this past Walmart. Now (if what I'm hearing is true) the Legends line is in jeopardy again. Sad day for us all.

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I can honestly say I rarely if ever saw the Avengers movie line in stores at Walmart. But distribution was poor across the board for Hasbro products so it's hard to say if it was Walmart refusing to stock the Avengers or well, Hasbro was slow to get the product to them.

 

Of course considering how Walmart rearranged their toy aisle, leaving Hasbro with next to nothing in terms of space and even letting THE CORPS take the space of GI JOE in most stores, I'd say it is possible that Walmart did pull a fast one on Hasbro and Hasbro bucked back in anger at them.

 

But the idea the Legends didn't sell is crazy. When they were on the shelf, they were gone pretty fast. It wasn't until there were nothing but Captain America and Iron Man that you saw pegwarming start to occur.

 

I think the Legends line is likely to survive but I think it may be possible that Walmart and Hasbro are currently in a fight. There was just zero reason for Hasbro to lose shelf space to a group of second rate knock off action figures that was usually sitting in the clearance aisle until recently.

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I can honestly say I rarely if ever saw the Avengers movie line in stores at Walmart. But distribution was poor across the board for Hasbro products so it's hard to say if it was Walmart refusing to stock the Avengers or well, Hasbro was slow to get the product to them.

 

Of course considering how Walmart rearranged their toy aisle, leaving Hasbro with next to nothing in terms of space and even letting THE CORPS take the space of GI JOE in most stores, I'd say it is possible that Walmart did pull a fast one on Hasbro and Hasbro bucked back in anger at them.

 

 

Of course it should be pointed out that Hasbro had (has) the knack of NOT delivering any GI Joes to Walmart, this has gone on for the past decade.

 

Noting too that "Non-Marvel" includes the action figure juggernaught that is Star Wars makes some of this a bit tougher to believe. I can't see WM backing away from that.

 

Also what is WM's interest in the 6 inch lines, what do they care (enough to cause all of this).

 

Lastly, a huge factor is the prices, at nearly $20 the larger lines are becoming a harder sell in this tough economy, nothing is mentioned in this rumor about that.

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I can honestly say I rarely if ever saw the Avengers movie line in stores at Walmart. But distribution was poor across the board for Hasbro products so it's hard to say if it was Walmart refusing to stock the Avengers or well, Hasbro was slow to get the product to them.

You should go to my walmart 4 whole pegs of thor, iron man, loki, and Cap. They sold well for the first 2 shipments and after hardcores and collectors got their fill they just sit do to pricing

 

Of course considering how Walmart rearranged their toy aisle, leaving Hasbro with next to nothing in terms of space and even letting THE CORPS take the space of GI JOE in most stores, I'd say it is possible that Walmart did pull a fast one on Hasbro and Hasbro bucked back in anger at them.

 

GI Joe had the new movie coming out and then the movie was canceled and pushed back until 2013. the first toy shipments started to hit and then they were pulled from the shelves.

 

Also what is WM's interest in the 6 inch lines, what do they care (enough to cause all of this).

 

Lastly, a huge factor is the prices, at nearly $20 the larger lines are becoming a harder sell in this tough economy, nothing is mentioned in this rumor about that.

 

 

Yeah the prices is whats killing every 6" figure line. I like the Turtles line though and you know it will improve they have big size villains in the next wave.

 

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While some of this maybe true, I doubt that this why they are not at NYCC. This is not the first feud between toy companies and retailers. I also doubt that it;s about just 6 in ch figures rather all of their products. The toy aisles are smaller as a whole and I've seen little space for anything except WWE, Batman and the Spider Man stuff. But that's only in a few stores around here though.

As far as sales, the Avengers sold very well and really all you can find around here are Cap and Iron Man. Maybe 3 or 4 out of the 13 or 14 stores might have Thor and even less you might catch the other 3. With MLs every store I frequent even sells out of the revision waves. All I usually see any where are Constrictor, Klaw, Drax and of course Bucky. Some stores have none or don't carry MLs. I figure that's more of a demand issue though considering some of these stores are out past the suburbs near the more rural areas. These stores always seem to carry more WWE and the good stuff from those lines are gone pretty quick. Hasbro kinda screwed themselves as far as Joe goes or right now because of the abrupt delay of the movie after they threw out all of those toys which had to stop shipping. That and the fact that they probably don't have much more new product (especially for that line) than what we've already seen is reason enough for them not to really be there. We may see some of the MLs they announced in figure form finally. Who knows. I'm not worried about this line being cancelled right now. I just hope they resolve whatever issue the two might be having.

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I really don't see the line going anyplace for a long while. Three waves a year and they make money hand over fist. You have rinning changes and hard to finds. I personally have never see any legends in Walmart besides drax. They are gone as soon as they hit the self. Plus they have the iron man legends line coming out too. The problem that they have is they are putting out crap figures and people know that they are crap. Too many movie lines that fail. Make legends and mu with some movie figs on a wave and problem is solved. More shelf space and you get the best of both worlds. I do not want to see legends go anyplace seeing how the wrecking crew must be finished

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I started checking a couple of times a week when the Avengers Legends first started to hit, and I found nothing at first. Then one day my local WM suddenly had 18 Avengers figures on the pegs (I counted them), and ALL OF THEM were Captain America and Iron Man except for one Thor. I checked two or three other WM's in my area over the next few weeks, and all I ever found were tons of Cap, Iron Man and the occasional Thor. I never saw even one Hulk, Hawkeye or Loki. NOT ONE! And I was looking.

 

I remember thinking that this was the worst case assortment I'd ever seen. Six times as many Cap and Iron Man figures as the others combined. That's when I knew that something like this would happen. I told my wife, "Now you watch, they'll end up saying that 6" figures don't sell because of this crap and they'll cancel the Legends line again." Not that that has happened, but it seems one step closer to a possibility now.

 

They always do fugged up sh!t like this and then blame it on the consumer. What about the 3-figure X-Force set that sold out online in about 2 minutes? What about all the regular Legends figures that basically disappeared from shelves the day they were put out? What about the last series of 2-packs that now go for over $100 each on Ebay? Yes, it's quite obvious to anyone that nobody wants anything to do with 6" Marvel figures.

 

I am a little worried about the latest wave of Legends figures as well. It's full of repaints and characters that have already been released as Legends. (yet another Iron Man, plus Doctor Doom, Punisher, Blade, Mystique, and Deadpool). The only new character is the very obscure U.S. Agent. I think for these reasons that this series is going to sell poorly and it will be yet another nail in the Legends coffin. Stupid a$$holes at Hasbro. If they put one of us in charge of character selection Legends would fly off the shelf.

 

I at least hope they go ahead and release the Waves that have already been announced. I'm really really really going to be pissed if we get left with only half of the Wrecking Crew completed. :angry:

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I'm SO tired of this "sky is falling" rumor-mongering about the death knell of Marvel Legends.

 

And Hasbro has its hand in SO many different toy/comic related merchandise I HIGHLY doubt that if they are missing NYCC it's because they had to pull back in order to "reassess" 6" toylines. Sounds like someone talking ENTIRELY out of their hindquarters. Aren't Comic Con appearances, and Comic Con itself, BY DESIGN for the purpose of drumming up business and creating industry buzz to... SELL TOYS AND COMICS? So they're "worried" about toys not selling, so they decide to NOT go to Comic Con. Makes a world of sense. Yeah right.

 

PLEASE. Why fly into a frenzy about what MIGHT happen at a convention that has yet to occur, and try to explain away something we really have zero control over.

 

If it dies it dies, but I'll enjoy buying as many Marvel Legends as they release. I know I support the line by buying every single character. They get me with every variant and every running change. So I've done my share.

 

You get pleasure trying to make me wring my hands and fret and start mopping the beads of sweat you'd like to see forming on my brow over possibly not being able to complete my Wrecking Crew or finally nab a Jim Lee Jean Grey?! Get a freaking life. All this random speculation and rumor-mongering accomplishes NOTHING but to piss people off and jumpstart a defeatist hysteria based on NO credible information.

 

And as IF we needed another thread about why Wal-Mart is destroying the world and everyone's happiness. Plenty of those, whether it's true or not.

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I'm SO tired of this "sky is falling" rumor-mongering about the death knell of Marvel Legends.

 

And Hasbro has its hand in SO many different toy/comic related merchandise I HIGHLY doubt that if they are missing NYCC it's because they had to pull back in order to "reassess" 6" toylines. Sounds like someone talking ENTIRELY out of their hindquarters. Aren't Comic Con appearances, and Comic Con itself, BY DESIGN for the purpose of drumming up business and creating industry buzz to... SELL TOYS AND COMICS? So they're "worried" about toys not selling, so they decide to NOT go to Comic Con. Makes a world of sense. Yeah right.

 

PLEASE. Why fly into a frenzy about what MIGHT happen at a convention that has yet to occur, and try to explain away something we really have zero control over.

 

If it dies it dies, but I'll enjoy buying as many Marvel Legends as they release. I know I support the line by buying every single character. They get me with every variant and every running change. So I've done my share.

 

You get pleasure trying to make me wring my hands and fret and start mopping the beads of sweat you'd like to see forming on my brow over possibly not being able to complete my Wrecking Crew or finally nab a Jim Lee Jean Grey?! Get a freaking life. All this random speculation and rumor-mongering accomplishes NOTHING but to piss people off and jumpstart a defeatist hysteria based on NO credible information.

 

And as IF we needed another thread about why Wal-Mart is destroying the world and everyone's happiness. Plenty of those, whether it's true or not.

 

Well said man and I agree. Everything comes to an end sometime or another. We should just enjoy it while it is here.

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Well as far as online retailers go. You gotta realize mass retail is where the big money is at for a toy company. I mean don't get me wrong its great but online and collector shops are more expensive, and account for a small portion of a toy lines success. What I am worried about is they will Disappear from Mass Retail. become like Marvel Selects or something, and then they will be happy because they can ditch the BaF altogether. Just my thoughts not trying to be negative.

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