What's up with availability

[Dimetrodon]

I don't know whats up with avaliability... all I know is that I havent seen anything new since... well... last year.

yeah i see that all too well here.

what up with distribution you ask? i don't care...
i just wait for it to be not screwy as all i want are my damn toys....

you don't see this happen with books, comics, or music....
why toys?

[dustrho]

You only see this happen with toys because Hasbro is the manufacturer of the toy line.  Comics, books and other items are from non-Hasbro companies.

[CHEWIE]

Yep, and Hasbro is also the ones who keep repacking the Destroyer Droid for whatever reason, overproduced the heck out of pilot Jango, etc, etc, etc.

For them to blame the retailers is a pathetic excuse and by saying that it isn't their own fault is lame.  They handled this the wrong way, and I feel they owe the retailers and fans an apology.

   

[Darth Homer]

what up with distribution you ask? i don't care...
i just wait for it to be not screwy as all i want are my damn toys....

you don't see this happen with books, comics, or music....
why toys?

You don't see this happening with other products because they have release dates.  I've said this before and I 'll stand by it.  If Hasbro had release dates like they did for the first installment of the Saga series, many people would be a lot happier.  Colelctors could know when new product was out, retailers would be able to get better information about peoples spending habits, we wouldn't have to rely on paying higher prices for online retailers...

[Jedirhino]

Dimetrodon glad to see you here with some of the others...hopefully more will come here now...I haven't seen anything since the Lott Dod wave and I had to pay mucho for Ephant Mon...

[Scott]

Just was thinking this past weekend about one factor I hadn't considered: the economy

Retail right now is hurting, people aren't really spending and so retailers are going to be really cautious with what they buy.  If I were a toy buyer I too would cut way back on marginal non-movie year stuff.

[Morgbug]

Yes and no Scott.  The Canadian economy is not showing the same slow down that the US economy is.  Our dollar has climbed 13 cents relative to the US greenback.  

Just a thought, but of course it doesn't counter that distribution in Canada always sucks, unless a movie has been or will be released within 2 months.

[JediMAC]

Two of my local Targets just completely CLEARED their Star Wars figure pegs over the weekend.  We're talking the removal of a couple hundred of the same pegwarmers for many months now.  I was chatting with my buddy Matthew (FishEyedLouie), and he said that he talked with a Target employee near his work who said that a Hasbro rep came by and pulled all the old SW stuff down at that Target as well last week.

This recently happened at another (4th) local Target here a couple weeks ago - pegs totally emptied, then a few days later FishEyedLouie scored a MASSIVE TON of all the new 2003 Collection 2 figures (of which he gave me a few  ).  So this is a very good sign, to say the least...  The stuff should be coming down the pipeline, so try to be patient and not do anything crazy (like pay inflated prices anywhere)...  Hang in there, I think there may just be a light at the end of this horribly long tunnel!  

Viva la Saga!  

[chuckles]

I hope you're right. I hit up about a half dozen different Targets in the area this past weekend and all but one had completely empty pegs.

But here's something interesting. One of those Targets that was void of all Saga figs this past weekend, I checked there again today and low and behold, 12-15 figs were there....the same stinking pegwarmers that had been removed just a week ago.  

[MetalJedi]

I wish Hasbro would do something instead of nothing.

[dustrho]

I wish Hasbro would do something instead of nothing.

Or at least fess up to it.

[Darby]

All of you guys have detailed what's wrong with the current situation better than I could, so I'll just say that from a retail point of view, the SW ship has been sinking since '98.  This pattern of glut, Hasbro dudes coming to the stores and clearing them out for new product has happened how many times now?

And who's fault is that?  Hasbro does terrific things with SW - I'm so glad they're making SW toys - but their production management (case assortments, over-production) is puzzling.  Now, it would have killed any other line by now.  These retail fluctuations have been going on for five years, and maybe Hasbro has found an acceptable level of comfort with them.

Me, I just learned to buy online.

[Nicklab]

Availability is a very difficult issue.  But here's my take.

How Hasbro is responsible?  The case assortments.  Some case assortments just have too many of certain characters.  And then they show up in future assortments when the demand has already been filled.  Hence, you get pegwarmers.  Next item for Hasbro:  SKU's are only for Collection 1 & Collection 2.  Individual assortments should be given individual SKU #'s.  It would help the retailers re-order the items that are selling well.

How retailers are responsible?  Over-ordering.  Again.  They did it with EPISODE I.  Those first few waves just warmed the pegs for a long time.  With EPISODE II they did a little bit better this time around, but they didn't look past the 2002 Holiday season in terms of demand.  Hence, we've got too much 2002 stuff on the pegs and shelves and we're already close to Q3 of 2003.

[Darth Broem]

Personally I think it's more the retailers (buyer's) fault than Hasbro.  I think these stores order too damn much of the same cases of figures.  Then they come to the conclusion that "Star Wars toys don't sell well."  Well yeah when you order too much of the same product.  There really is no reason to have 25 pegs full of the same case of figures.  

Kaybee was doing great in this regard when Ep2 came out here.  They had a lot of pegs but not nearly as much as Wal-Mart and Toys R Us.  Kaybee was able to sell through their quantities and actually ordered the next wave or two instead of the initial waves again and again.  Eventually a slow down got them.   Now they have the same figures but at least they have a Buy one Get one Free deal going where they are trying to get rid of old stock.  

Wal-Mart and Toys R US and Target here have let the quanities stay there.   Get rid of that old stock and get new in there.   Don't buy so many damn cases of the same figures over and over.  It's not rocket science!