|
|
Post by shanieomaniac on Oct 7, 2023 16:33:19 GMT -5
Just as an interesting note to this conversation.
I was talking with a good friend today about Mattel and this individual is heavily into Barbie collecting.
They told me that there are Barbie subreddits and forums out there that are full of absolute horror stories from Mattel. We had a whole ranting discussion about how Mattel can't even distribute its flagship line properly, how is it ever gonna make WWE work? They told me that they're in Canada and their closest walmart hasn't gotten a single elite in the store in TWO YEARS. And the only store nearby that does have Elites, all it's had in the past year is about 5 Kamas that nobody wants to buy. They're on clearance, they still can't move them and there are no other elites there at all.
So yeah, turns out this isn't just a WWE problem, mattel distribution apparently sucks across the board.
|
|
bish
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Oct 8, 2020 7:49:38 GMT -5
Posts: 255
|
Post by bish on Oct 7, 2023 20:14:59 GMT -5
Businesses commonly carry debt. I know it seems like a big number but it needs to be taken in the context of their revenue and profit. Looks like they did $5.4 Billion in revenue in 2022.
They also had a net profit of $2.26 Billion as of June 30th this year.
The debt will not force sudden product streamlining as that will narrow their revenue streams and risk profit margins, and more importantly to the suits- the stock price.
If CC or Retros get cut it’s because the line isn’t profitable, not the company as a whole.
|
|
|
|
Post by venomeratt on Oct 7, 2023 20:53:56 GMT -5
Most major companies are in debt. Depends on the debt, and when it needs to be paid, as well as their debt to EBITDA, free cash flow and market capitalization. You cant really just say "they have tons of debt" and get too worried. Every major US automaker and telecom company is in major debt. Walmart as well. But if its managed right and only certain risks are taken, its not out of the norm. In their market they often have a top selling toy line of the year.
And as far as distribution. You also cant blame them for how walmart stocks their shelves. Walmart buys the product from mattel at wholesale so they can sell it at MSRP and make a profit by going through the eork of shipping and displaying in their stores. Once mattel send their product to Walmarts distribution centers, its up to Walmart and their inventory program to get it out quickly, to the right stores, and on the floor. The problems of not seeing product for long periods of time, or never seeing a certain wave while others have so many of that wave they immediately have to discount them,nor product never making it out of distribution centers and then becoming out dated and selling it to resale/liquidation shops for cheap like Big Lots or TJ Maxx or Ross or Berlington... thats all on Walmart.
|
|
humbruh
Mid-Carder
Joined on: May 11, 2023 11:19:42 GMT -5
Posts: 87
|
Post by humbruh on Oct 7, 2023 23:35:16 GMT -5
Just as an interesting note to this conversation. I was talking with a good friend today about Mattel and this individual is heavily into Barbie collecting. They told me that there are Barbie subreddits and forums out there that are full of absolute horror stories from Mattel. We had a whole ranting discussion about how Mattel can't even distribute its flagship line properly, how is it ever gonna make WWE work? They told me that they're in Canada and their closest walmart hasn't gotten a single elite in the store in TWO YEARS. And the only store nearby that does have Elites, all it's had in the past year is about 5 Kamas that nobody wants to buy. They're on clearance, they still can't move them and there are no other elites there at all. So yeah, turns out this isn't just a WWE problem, mattel distribution apparently sucks across the board. Yep it really is that that bad for Mattel products here in Canada and impossible to find WWE Elite and MOTU stuff in stores. You can find a lot of it from online sellers but it's far from perfect. The Ruthless Aggression line here for our Walmarts online is slim pickings with only 1-2 figures you can still buy in stock (Shelton and Cena). No idea if we will ever get any of the Ultimates (Rey, Brock, RVD, and Eddie Guerrero) and Edge hasn't showed up yet. Target exclusives which are suppose to come to Canada's Toys R Us are not sold on their website at all and I've only seen them a few years back on pegs in store. There's no other option but to pay much more then most of us are willing to pay on the second market. I don't quite get what's going on at all. Hasbro's stuff here is easy to trackdown online and anything that's exclusive we can find on Walmart or Toys R Us online. We have no idea what's going on with Mattel and no one seems to want to offer transparency with what's going on except the one guy with MOTU Origins saying international customers are having a harder time finding stuff and that they were going to offer to us the exclusives on Mattel Creations at some point. I've asked Steve a couple times on here but just radio silence. They don't have the answers I guess and it's out of their hands I'm sure they will claim. |
|
|
|
Post by kirk815 on Oct 8, 2023 10:53:56 GMT -5
A little off-topic, but also related - is it just me or is RSC not restocking elite sets like they used to.
It seems like something changed around the mid/late 90 series.
Figures sell out and it takes like 3+ months for a restock and then it is usually only certain figures (instead of the whole set).
So either RSC is ordering less, the figures are more popular and/or Mattel has cut back on the production of the main elite series.
|
|
|
|
Post by shanieomaniac on Oct 9, 2023 22:42:54 GMT -5
A little off-topic, but also related - is it just me or is RSC not restocking elite sets like they used to. It seems like something changed around the mid/late 90 series. Figures sell out and it takes like 3+ months for a restock and then it is usually only certain figures (instead of the whole set). So either RSC is ordering less, the figures are more popular and/or Mattel has cut back on the production of the main elite series. I have noticed that RSC restocking has gotten odd lately, but I've mostly noticed it in the basics. They'll be completely sold out of a set for months then suddenly the entire set is in stock again out of nowhere, like how randomly, last month, all the sets from 128-139 seemed to simultaneously come back in stock at around the same time, despite currently being on set 143 for preorders. As for the Elites, it's hard to say. I don't tend to keep track of Elite restocks as much because most Elites I buy when they are first available or preorder them. But I do think that Black Friday season this year is going to be extremely slim pickings for WWE because there isn't a whole lot of back stock on the site right now outside of wave after wave of basics. Plus an entire backlog of AEW. Although I'd say a big reason for that is that there hasn't been much that's come out this year to put on sale. I went back and looked at my holiday orders from last year as well as the database and by the looks of it, there were 9 numbered Elite sets that came out last year, vs us being on track for *6* this year. Meanwhile, the subsets and side series have gotten way more prevalent, most of which were rereleases. Wow. I didn't realize till I looked at the numbers just how comparatively few new Elites we got this year. So yeah, I don't know if it's so much that Ringside is having trouble restocking recent Elite sets as much as it is there just aren't as many new figure sets to restock. |
|
secondwhiteline
Main Eventer
Joined on: Nov 18, 2015 13:06:39 GMT -5
Posts: 1,543
|
Post by secondwhiteline on Oct 10, 2023 14:04:55 GMT -5
I think it probably seems like fewer Elites than it is, because so many are showing up as exclusives or ancillary product. We've had numerous Legends waves, quarterly waves, the return of Defining Moments, the Top Picks waves, Ringside exclusives, Ruthless Aggression, Monday Night Wars when that shows up...And then Ultimates expanding probably impacts the amount of Elite product they're expecting people to buy, too.
|
|
|
|
Post by shanieomaniac on Oct 10, 2023 20:21:58 GMT -5
I think it probably seems like fewer Elites than it is, because so many are showing up as exclusives or ancillary product. We've had numerous Legends waves, quarterly waves, the return of Defining Moments, the Top Picks waves, Ringside exclusives, Ruthless Aggression, Monday Night Wars when that shows up...And then Ultimates expanding probably impacts the amount of Elite product they're expecting people to buy, too. This is sort of what I was getting at. There are so many side lines and rereleases that there are very few numbered waves coming out. The problem is that the numbered waves are almost exclusively where the FTIL superstars hit from. So with them releasing all these exclusive flashback side lines, there's not a whole lot of new wrestlers being made, or really, non-legends figures at all outside of the basics line. I get that everyone on here wants legends only but, you know, some of us actually watch and want wrestlers from the current product as well. I don't need the Steiners, I don't need Hogan, I don't need Warrior, just let me complete a current roster faction before people from it start getting released. The Judgement Day has been around for how long now? It shouldn't take two years worth of releases to make a complete set! Same with Damage CTRL. The waves are close together yet it's gonna take us how long to get a whole three woman trio. Honorary Uce should have been made by now. Damien Priest is gonna be long gone from TJD before his figure comes out. They pushed the crap out of Demonic Alexa and yet we only got one basic, one elite, and a 2-in-1 ultimate. Stop giving current talent the shaft and stop focusing all your effort on what amounts to ebay exclusives. |
|
|
|
Post by Action Figure Attack on Oct 10, 2023 21:59:20 GMT -5
I think it probably seems like fewer Elites than it is, because so many are showing up as exclusives or ancillary product. We've had numerous Legends waves, quarterly waves, the return of Defining Moments, the Top Picks waves, Ringside exclusives, Ruthless Aggression, Monday Night Wars when that shows up...And then Ultimates expanding probably impacts the amount of Elite product they're expecting people to buy, too. This is sort of what I was getting at. There are so many side lines and rereleases that there are very few numbered waves coming out. The problem is that the numbered waves are almost exclusively where the FTIL superstars hit from. So with them releasing all these exclusive flashback side lines, there's not a whole lot of new wrestlers being made, or really, non-legends figures at all outside of the basics line. I get that everyone on here wants legends only but, you know, some of us actually watch and want wrestlers from the current product as well. I don't need the Steiners, I don't need Hogan, I don't need Warrior, just let me complete a current roster faction before people from it start getting released. The Judgement Day has been around for how long now? It shouldn't take two years worth of releases to make a complete set! Same with Damage CTRL. The waves are close together yet it's gonna take us how long to get a whole three woman trio. Honorary Uce should have been made by now. Damien Priest is gonna be long gone from TJD before his figure comes out. They pushed the crap out of Demonic Alexa and yet we only got one basic, one elite, and a 2-in-1 ultimate. Stop giving current talent the shaft and stop focusing all your effort on what amounts to ebay exclusives. There’s the same amount of mainline Elite waves in 2023 as 2022 and it’ll be the same number of waves in 2024. |
|
|
|
Post by shanieomaniac on Oct 11, 2023 6:47:50 GMT -5
This is sort of what I was getting at. There are so many side lines and rereleases that there are very few numbered waves coming out. The problem is that the numbered waves are almost exclusively where the FTIL superstars hit from. So with them releasing all these exclusive flashback side lines, there's not a whole lot of new wrestlers being made, or really, non-legends figures at all outside of the basics line. I get that everyone on here wants legends only but, you know, some of us actually watch and want wrestlers from the current product as well. I don't need the Steiners, I don't need Hogan, I don't need Warrior, just let me complete a current roster faction before people from it start getting released. The Judgement Day has been around for how long now? It shouldn't take two years worth of releases to make a complete set! Same with Damage CTRL. The waves are close together yet it's gonna take us how long to get a whole three woman trio. Honorary Uce should have been made by now. Damien Priest is gonna be long gone from TJD before his figure comes out. They pushed the crap out of Demonic Alexa and yet we only got one basic, one elite, and a 2-in-1 ultimate. Stop giving current talent the shaft and stop focusing all your effort on what amounts to ebay exclusives. There’s the same amount of mainline Elite waves in 2023 as 2022 and it’ll be the same number of waves in 2024 Really? Hmm. Must have miscounted then. I did fail math. Sorry to bother. I didn't mean to come off as mean. I was just really really exhausted and cranky from being up all night. Please forgive. I'll go now. |
|
|
|
Post by J-MANN on Oct 11, 2023 7:46:08 GMT -5
How many waves do we actually get per calendar year? 5 or 6? If I remember correctly, wasn’t elite 100 the first wave from Ringside this year, or was it Elite 101?
|
|
secondwhiteline
Main Eventer
Joined on: Nov 18, 2015 13:06:39 GMT -5
Posts: 1,543
|
Post by secondwhiteline on Oct 11, 2023 7:47:46 GMT -5
I think it probably seems like fewer Elites than it is, because so many are showing up as exclusives or ancillary product. We've had numerous Legends waves, quarterly waves, the return of Defining Moments, the Top Picks waves, Ringside exclusives, Ruthless Aggression, Monday Night Wars when that shows up...And then Ultimates expanding probably impacts the amount of Elite product they're expecting people to buy, too. This is sort of what I was getting at. There are so many side lines and rereleases that there are very few numbered waves coming out. The problem is that the numbered waves are almost exclusively where the FTIL superstars hit from. So with them releasing all these exclusive flashback side lines, there's not a whole lot of new wrestlers being made, or really, non-legends figures at all outside of the basics line. I get that everyone on here wants legends only but, you know, some of us actually watch and want wrestlers from the current product as well. I don't need the Steiners, I don't need Hogan, I don't need Warrior, just let me complete a current roster faction before people from it start getting released. The Judgement Day has been around for how long now? It shouldn't take two years worth of releases to make a complete set! Same with Damage CTRL. The waves are close together yet it's gonna take us how long to get a whole three woman trio. Honorary Uce should have been made by now. Damien Priest is gonna be long gone from TJD before his figure comes out. They pushed the crap out of Demonic Alexa and yet we only got one basic, one elite, and a 2-in-1 ultimate. Stop giving current talent the shaft and stop focusing all your effort on what amounts to ebay exclusives. No argument here regarding current talent. My Legends collecting is sharply limited to a few specific names, and one of them is out of the line now. The bulk of my collecting is women's roster, and there are plenty of names I'm unlikely to see as Elites because of the limited number of spots for women. I've honestly been a little surprised to see how slow the turnaround has been on stuff like new Sami figures. |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,099
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Oct 26, 2023 20:16:57 GMT -5
Mattel still currently has around $2.33b of debt, as reported in June 2023, down from $2.58b, one year before. However, it does have $299.9m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about $2.03b. I think execs will be looking at lines that aren’t Barbie or Hot Wheels and cutting down . Retros and Coliseum in particular, are my favourite lines but they don’t appear to be selling that well on Mattel Creations. Wave 1 of CC is still for sale! I feel we’re on the cusp of many changes for this line and probably many more cuts just like WWE are going through at the moment. I wouldn’t mind if they reduced the number of elite figures in each wave to 4 with no chase - same with Legends. 4, with no chase. I think it’s becoming a bit saturated anyway. Also reduce Ultimates to 2 per wave again so they feel more special again. I’m probably in the minority here but what are your thoughts? It seems you have a talent in predicting the future. S8 superstars was cut down to 3 recently I think we will see this happening in other lines as well |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,099
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Oct 26, 2023 20:38:30 GMT -5
Mattel has access to all of the sales data so they will make their business decisions based off of that. If there are lines that aren't doing well, then they will cut them or find another outlet to live on. It's possible that retros and CC eventually end, but it seems like Mattel Creations has lower expectations than traditional retailers (and they are cutting the middle man/retailers out so that probably allows them to do so). Suggestions of cutting elites down to 4, Ultimates down to 2, and getting rid of Chase figures sounds more like a wish from collectors that are overwhelmed trying to collect everything or might not be able to keep up financially (which I totally understand). They wouldn't have just increased Ultimates if it didn't make sense financially so I don't think reducing two of their popular lines Ultimates/elites is going to help their debt (probably will make it worse). Also, if you cut elites down to 4, then the elite budget gets cut and has to be spread against 4 figures instead of 6/7 (Chase). That's going to hurt the line more since that means less accessories and quality (soft goods, belts, etc.). Same for Ultimates - I'm not sure if we would be getting Asuka's robe if it was still only 2 figures. It's also worth noting that the Creations items are pure profit for Mattel. I think the markup is usually around 100% on toys. So I'd imagine that Mattel is probably ok with a slower sell-through rate if it means a much larger chunk of the profits. WWE seems to be doing great numbers right now, and overall this is probably the healthiest the line has been at retail in ages. Remember when the store exclusive lines were getting cancelled very time you blinked an eye? I get people wanting more of what they like and less of what they don't, and there have been some glaring design issues lately. But for a line that is 13 years in, it's honestly impressive how well it's doing and their ability to keep the product relatively fresh for collectors across all ages and eras. Agreed. Personally, for me the line struggling the most right now is hot wheels. Their glory days from the mid to late 90s is over and they have been trying to get back to that ever since without success. They are now trying to go all in with their monster trucks which have more shelf space than the regular cars. I hardly ever see anyone buying hot wheels anymore. Hot wheels are a good example of what happens if you make every car 10 times over with slight changes. They are out of ideas and color combinations. Most of their car choices now are fantasy and futuristic in nature. They should scrap the regular line and start over with new collectors numbers in a slightly bigger size. Oh wait they are already trying that.... So yeah they better get out of debt because when the 10th version of Leonardo is released they Will lose steam in yet another line. For the time being wwe is doing great but only because the exclusives are pulling people into walmart. Eventuall like the rest of us the average buyer will get tired of seeing either empty pegs or an increased price point every other 6 months. hasbro needs to cut out marvel legends. Everything disney(star wars especially) is completely dead. They are rotting on every single ollies shelves. Hasbro got greedy and started asking 25 dollars for some of these figures (29.99 for the gamorrean guard from sw). Mattel needs to be careful that they don't make the same mistake. They have already increased the price of their superstars figures twice and everyone has their limit. Personally 25 is mine. Having paid 4.99 to 8.99 for most figures up until the mid 2010s I just can't justify a 3-fold increase in just 7-8 years for the same stuff (high points of articulation already existed in marvel legends and mcfarlane figures way before mattel did the same with their wrestling figure lines). I believe for many that breaking point is arriving. Mattel is doing the best they can under the situation they are in. They are simply a victim of inflation. YOU KNOW THINGS ARE BAD when hot wheels struggle with a 20% increase in price. But they need to know where to draw the line. |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,099
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Oct 26, 2023 20:56:56 GMT -5
Do you really think buyers for Walmart and Target are looking that closely at lineups? They're ordering a number of units based on inventory and time of season. I regularly buy NXT and womens figures. But the female figures are objectively an absolute albatross at retail. They move far, far more slowly and are regularly available for $3-5 on RSC. Maybe licensor requirements come into play. But you can't say that Jazwares or Mattel don't have some responsibility when a handful undesirable characters don't sell and clog up the pegs at thousands and thousands of stores nationwide. Yeah, even though Walmart and Target don't know/care, Mattel has to know what is shipping out to some degree. Someone eventually comes into the Walmart near me and takes the super old stuff away, so someone is paying attention to something. Both supplier and vendor are well aware of what comes out. There is a reason sports cards are non existent at walmart now. Walmart is to blame for supply issues and suppliers like mattel and hasbro are to blame for bad lineups but walmart isn't blind to that and they order what sells. It just doesn't get put out in volume the way we are used to seeing it pre-pandemic. Now shipments come in smaller quantities. There is a lot of fear all around that product will get stuck on shelves unsold when it appears to be pegwarming (most repeat buyers are scalpers). There is definitely a strategy at play but I think walmart is playing with fire as the Internet allows us all to buy things online on ebay and that eventually causes walmart to mark down their figures to 5.99 in some cases (3.99 at target). So they will lose in the end. They are better off putting out specific figures that are not pegwarming. Toysrus was great at doing that (they cared). Mattel could also help out by only sending the figures people need in subsequent shipments. Fun thread to read keep the replies coming |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,099
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Oct 26, 2023 21:26:24 GMT -5
Here is how i see this going down.... Within 5 years from now they will restructure or file for bankruptcy protection and layoff a bunch of employees. Within 10 years they will be bought/taken over by someone else. If hasbro gets there sheet together then it will be them. If not it will be some company like Bain Capital the same one that ran toyrus into the ground with similar results. What needs to happen is someone with elon musk money needs to buy mattel. Someone who cares and wants to see mattel survive. So they would need to clean house of all the dead weight in the company, and kill all toy lines that are losing money. They also need to partner with amazon and sell everything online that they sell at walmart and target stores. That would put pressure on them to do a better job to stocking there products or.... They should implement some kind of vendor or store within a store system with dedicated employees. That will ensure there products are fully stocked in stores. The problem is who is going to want to sink billions of dollars into this which they will probably never see that money back ? So if i was a mattel or hasbro employee i would update my resume because long term there days are numbered. Mattel loses money literally almost every quarter, year after year. Agreed the risk is huge and there is so little left that mattel can do to keep boys or girls buying action figures. I see toys all together disappearing with just a few left in the end. Only toys with longevity to me is legos and playskool. Games like monopoly might stick around but sold a lot less. Even staples like bicycles will get replaced. I've said it many times when 80s merchandise goes away so too will the collectors. The last 3 years has woken people up to what's important. Freedom and health or hot wheels and barbies. Most people now buy bread and pasta before the latter. You can bet the same is happening now in Ukraine and israel. I always thought a mattel store (like a lego store) is the best way forward. Cut out the middleman and keep all the profit. Mattel does not need walmart to sell wrestling figures (or motu/gijoe etc. Haslab is proof of that. They just need to get rid of basics. Truth is most parents are nOt buying toys at walmart anymore and are instead buying them at ollies or five and below for much less. P s. I think hasbro will dissappear first. Their star wars lines are dead and their ipo's in general are much thinner than mattel. Either way I don't think either of them can survive unless they reinvent themselves. They need to get out of toys and into something else. |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,099
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Oct 26, 2023 21:53:11 GMT -5
Every time I enter the toy aisle it’s guys I’ve never heard of. This is what happens when a mark decides who goes in the lines. Mattel will live forever, but it would be great if they put actual stars on shelves. Get Macho Man back. His corpse has more life in it than 99.9% of people in the biz today. It's statements like these that remind me how out of touch this board is with the regular consumer. You can't only sell nostalgia and you especially couldn't do it forever. A person born the last day Macho was on TV is a full grown adult today, multiple generations of wrestling fans have been made and have never seen a match of his, every single day Macho Man becomes less and less relevant to the modern wrestling fan. This may be hard to swallow, but maybe, just maybe, wrestling figures aren't catered to your demographic anymore, and there's nothing wrong with that. Yup this. Action figures is mainly an 80s phenomenon. Our generation (the ones mainly on this board) are what have kept it alive for as long as it has. But like everything it will dissappear the way mecchano did (and was replaced with legos). Some say action figures were replaced by size from 12 inch to 3 3/4 inch to 6 inch but size is not the difference. The difference is the Internet and the fact that kids no longer go into their sand box to set up a gijoe battle scene (oh how I miss those days) or wrestle with their neighbors on a handmade ring. Nope video games/tiktok/youtube/etc have replaced that for newer generations. Macho man will live in time as an action figure for most of us and roman reigns will live on as an in-game character for many PlayStations to come. 80s nostalgia is almost over and by the time kids today grow up to be 30 years old they will probably not be collecting the way we did in the amount we did because of a multitude x # of reasons. I guess we can say that collecting in itself is 80s nostalgia and the sign of its times when the us-of-a was arguably at its strongest. |
|
|
|
Post by newgenandy on Oct 31, 2023 14:43:31 GMT -5
It's statements like these that remind me how out of touch this board is with the regular consumer. You can't only sell nostalgia and you especially couldn't do it forever. A person born the last day Macho was on TV is a full grown adult today, multiple generations of wrestling fans have been made and have never seen a match of his, every single day Macho Man becomes less and less relevant to the modern wrestling fan. This may be hard to swallow, but maybe, just maybe, wrestling figures aren't catered to your demographic anymore, and there's nothing wrong with that. Yup this. Action figures is mainly an 80s phenomenon. Our generation (the ones mainly on this board) are what have kept it alive for as long as it has. But like everything it will dissappear the way mecchano did (and was replaced with legos). Some say action figures were replaced by size from 12 inch to 3 3/4 inch to 6 inch but size is not the difference. The difference is the Internet and the fact that kids no longer go into their sand box to set up a gijoe battle scene (oh how I miss those days) or wrestle with their neighbors on a handmade ring. Nope video games/tiktok/youtube/etc have replaced that for newer generations. Macho man will live in time as an action figure for most of us and roman reigns will live on as an in-game character for many PlayStations to come. 80s nostalgia is almost over and by the time kids today grow up to be 30 years old they will probably not be collecting the way we did in the amount we did because of a multitude x # of reasons. I guess we can say that collecting in itself is 80s nostalgia and the sign of its times when the us-of-a was arguably at its strongest. I think part of the problem is lack of imagination When I was a kid (I’m 40 now) we had cartoons morning and after school then would play outside Reinacting what we saw. We’d have a handful of games for a console so action figures were a cheaper and more varied option for play Nowadays kids are not outside playing power rangers etc, kids have cartoons 24/7 and parents are more likely to shove the kids infront of a screen be it tv, tablet etc The biggest mind blow for me is kids sound rather watch other kids inbox snd play with toys than play with toys themselves, it’s crazy! I’d have a handful of hasbro wwf figures and irs was also a red or a manager, I had two bret harts so one was Owen etc. nowadays kids don’t pretend one wrestler is another because they have a steady stream coming weekly it seems like so even if they do play it’s reduced. I mesn before I got my ring I cut open a cardboard box and drew on it and coloured it in for a ring etc. |
|
nomorexclusives
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jul 31, 2023 16:49:31 GMT -5
Posts: 1,099
|
Post by nomorexclusives on Nov 1, 2023 3:14:58 GMT -5
Going back to the topic. I have been investigating a bit the differences between the way mattel and hasbro are getting ready for the toymageddon and based on the following article www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/hasbro-and-mattel-have-very-different-visions-of-the-future.htmlit is clear to see that mattel is going to try to get their moneys worth before it all blows up in their faces while hasbro is trying to survive for the long term and trying to adapt to the current inflation problems around the world. "Mattel projects that consumers will accept new price increases and continue to buy at the same volume and velocity that they have been doing during the pandemic While Hasbro’s toy division remains 62% of its revenue, or about $3.98 billion in 2021, there are now other aspects of its business that are growing in importance. In 2021, Wizards of the Coast and digital gaming accounted for $1.28 billion in revenue, or 20% of the company’s total, and entertainment was 17.9% or $1.15 billion. Mattel is going more horizontal while Hasbro has gone more vertical, Johnson said. Time will tell which is the right way to go about it." This explains why they keep raising the prices on us but they seem to be out of touch with collectors and especially parents. As said before the day toy prices are at 25$ a figure is the day I look for another hobby. At some point it just gets too expensive. |
|
mrh
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 1, 2018 0:11:53 GMT -5
Posts: 3,481
|
Post by mrh on Nov 1, 2023 4:22:11 GMT -5
This is probably more concerning -- bad news for toys. But it makes sense -- younger people are not buying them in anywhere near the numbers before computers. Adapt or die...
|
|
