JoeCanuck
General Section => General Joe Talk => Topic started by: martin-montreal on December 19, 2008, 05:12:14 PM
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I was reading the Q&A that all GI Joe boards are posting. While all the questions were pertinent and interesting, I can?t stay the same thing for the answers? There is a trend in those answers that can be resumed in ?we will see, no plan yet?.
I was thinking, instead of asking questions to Hasbro and getting those kind of answers, what would happen if we propose something to Hasbro? We can give them ideas? like a Canadian exclusive pack or a vehicle. If we, on the board, can agree on something, why Hasbro won?t be interested in producing it? Let?s think about it? some movies did their marketing only with Internet (like the Blair witch project?) and it works.
Can we brainstorm ideas, make a survey and promote that idea to Hasbro? If the big Canadian stores (Sears, TRU, Zellers, Wallmart, etc.) don?t want it, we have our sponsors (goldenagetoys.com and eternitycomicsandcollectibles.com) with the distributing knowledge?
We also have the JoeCanuck?s store. If that thing we select is selling well, the store can make profit to invest in the next Canadian con and help Mike to pay hosting for the board.
Is it a good or bad idea?
Martin
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We also have the JoeCanuck?s store. If that thing we select is selling well, the store can make profit to invest in the next Canadian con and help Mike to pay hosting for the board.
The store is going Bye-Bye very soon. Actually, most of the stock has been sold off locally at Toy Shows and such. I really should shut the "store" section down since I have no clue what kinda stock is actually left now.
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As much as I'd love to see a Canadian Exclusive, I doubt that Hasbro, despite as much support as we can throw behind it, would consider it. I mean, they don't even give Canadian Flag stickers with their vehicles like the good old days... the most trouble they go through for us is to print bilingual packaging.
Maybe, MAYBE the closest they'd consider would be a mail-away for Canadians, but I think they even said a wishy-washy "no" to that, too.
There's a big difference in marketing a product (or movie) online and using online response as a guage for consumer demand. I'd bet that the online community represents less than 10% of the actual in-store shoppers. And even if they DID get an exclusive into Canadian only stores, the Canadian market is tiny compared to the American market - probably hardly worth the effort to manufacture (face it, if it's not worth the effort to run Canada Flag stickers, it can't be worth the effort to run plastic molds).
Negativity aside, I'd vote for Arctic vehicles. The Polar Battle Bear isn't unreasonable... And the Snow Cat would be awesome! I'd sign a petition or whatever you do... but I won't be holding my breath.
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The unfortunate thing with anything "exclusive" is that you get into unit numbers and cost per units that make the whole thing untenable in a small scale.
The GIJOE club faces this kind of thing all the time........and its why things like their convention sets are so expensive.
Its not a matter that any of these given toys costs "just a couple of bucks to make"--they only do so if they are produced in great numbers.
Per unit costs on runs that the GIJOE club handled are on the order of about 10-50 times what you'd expect.
With small retailers like those mentioned, you'd have to have a balance between the order number ( the club says they are compelled to make orders between 1000 and 5000 units) and the cost per unit.
Simply stated, is anyone here ready and willing to pay for a $50 or $100 "exclusive" if it went to a small retailer, because that is probably what it would cost?
Hasbro probably tells the Canadian retailers that an exclusive offering to them would required a set amount of units purchased, probably at an amount the retailers do not think they can sell. Usually, retailers doing the exclusive thing pay for the whole deal up front, so if there's too much product and not enough buyers, the peg/shelf- warmers sit until discounted and the retailers take the loss.
Any time we do see exclusives up here, its usually an offering that is so large that the US chain diverts some of it north to the chains up here, like TRU etc ( who are separate from their US stores) and essentially lets us piggy-back along on the order.
But the risk of over-ordering is still there--and more than a few exclusives end up being very common ( ML Crystal White Queens anyone??)
This is why we do not see those kinds of offerings up here as much anymore, and will probably not see at all in the future even if the property is crazy-hot at the time. Given the market climate right now, the retailers up here are taking ZERO chances with things like exclusives, because they simply cannot absorb a potential loss like that.
There's a big difference in marketing a product (or movie) online and using online response as a guage for consumer demand. I'd bet that the online community represents less than 10% of the actual in-store shoppers.
I used to think the numbers were 1 in 10 myself, and they used to be.
The industry folks i have talked to over the past year say that number has changed, drastically......to the tune its now somewhere between 1 in 100 to 1 in 1000.
The online communities tend to radically overstate their populations and the interested parties--and its easy to understand why. We, as a community, have such a vested emotional interest in the stuff.
But........the reality is that, as a consumer demographic, we represent a VERY small, albeit mostly dedicated, segment and Hasbro and most of the major retailers know this.
The thing is that the casual consumer base needs to express more interest for certain lines to offer more--which is why some GIJOE items have not made it up here as yet in any sizable amounts.
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I would like to see a larger vehicule to be produce like the Snowcat or better, the Hydrofoil! but let's face it, my inside voici tells me I shouldn't hope too much...
Its not a matter that any of these given toys costs "just a couple of bucks to make"--they only do so if they are produced in great numbers.
That comment gave my an idea: If (by any chance) there will be a Canadian exlusive (one day), it should:
- Not cost too much to produce because it cannot be sell for a too high price;
- Ideally, it will be mass produce to keep price down, but Canada is a small market. So it is impossible to do anyway...
I brainstormed with myself and here are my ideas:
- It should be a small vehicle that people will like to army build (that itself increase the initial market);
- It should be a color variation from a vehicle that will be produce for the US market anyway. So the mold will be reuse, reducing his producing cost;
- It should be cool (of course) to interest Canadian retailer. So something from the vintage era that will please collectors like us and young kids.
I was thinking:
- Since we already got a Black HISS and the Black Stinger is coming soon, why not releasing a black ASP with a black MMS (Sears did it in the past, why not 26 years later?)
- Or, since a blue Flight pod was made, why not a blue SNAKE (like the one in 1985) with a red SNAKE (like the one release in the UK) - that would be a nice wink for the international market.
Add a:
- Black or blue Cobra trooper with the ASP/MMS set (or even a black Crimson shadow guard),
- Red or blue Cobra trooper with the SNAKEs set (or even a Crimson guard),
... and you got a top seller, even for $19.99!
After doing these, nothing would stop Hasbro producing a white SNAKE, a green (or even red) SMS or a blue ASP. What do you think?
I can totally see myself buying 3 of each case!
Martin
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see these are the questions we should ask hasbro. instead of us speculating on how they do things we should just ask them how they determine things. I'm not saying people aren't right I just wouldn't mind knowing how the business works officially.
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I think an exclusive repaint is possible, at least economically, for companies. Exclusive toys just don't make financial sense, especially to a small market like us.
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You have some good ideas for repaints and I would buy some of those myself, but probably only one of two. The problem with the idea is do we know if the molds for things like the ASP or Snake armour are still around? It would be very expensive to have those re-tooled. Look at the Mauler Tank the MC group wanted to make a few years ago. Thhey knew they needed to retool a couple of the smaller pieces but during production another piece broke in mid production and they had to scrap the whole project. It's very risky and could become a huge money pit.
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You have some good ideas for repaints and I would buy some of those myself
Great! When do we start asking Hasbro Canada?
The problem with the idea is do we know if the molds for things like the ASP or Snake armour are still around?
I'm not sure this is still the main question because all the molds have been retooled for the new 25th ann. line. I mean, the foot peg and the back whole are now smaller and the figs are a little bit taller so some seats (like for the HISS) have been ajusted.
I still think Canada (and the rest of the World) deserve a cool exclusive something for the fan.
Martin