Support us on PATREON: / retroblasting Michael has some thoughts about the state of the toy industry. #RetroBlasting #targetexclusive #scalpers #preorder
I recently watched as some Target workers were putting new MOTU origins where ever there were empty peghooks. There were so few I chose to let them go.
I miss Toys r Us. The one in my hood always had the figures I wanted. Yeah, the prices were $1 or $2 higher, but they had them in stock. Target and Walmart's shelves are always empty.
Really most of the problems Mike laments about all go back to the fall of ToysRUs as the root cause. There is right now a market hole in a lack of adequate toy distribution to retail. Caused by the lack of a dedicated National or regional merchant.
I worked for a pharmacy retail chain that had exclusives. I tried repeatedly to order Black Series and Legends figures for our shelves. I finally quit and moved on last week. We had not had a single Black Series figure come in for a year by that time. I promise you the retailers are trying to stock their shelves. The product does not exist. Michael is 1000% correct.
@@LewisChristisonVids after TRU went out of business they had this big plan to become a major hub for collectibles and children's toys. We ended up with no fewer than 30 pieces each of the same Fortnight figure roughly the same for unpopular Marvel Legends figures. Most of the toys they ended up selling or carrying were the cheapo 6.99 age 5 and under schlock that were generic. Whenever we did have cool figures they also sold right away. Then one day we just stopped getting them in. It's a huge shame.
@@autoneurotic They have the oddest selection of upscale collector toys and the cheapest junk I've ever seen. I give Walgreens credit for at least trying.
Your problem at say Walgreens is the Warehouse isn't stocked (especially w/ cases of figs). UNLIKE A WALMART WAREHOUSE. Hubs are Massive! Some deal w/ both on-line sales & load trucks daily for Super Centres. *I know for A FACT !!! A 100% FACT; That at Walmart anyway, Nobody is re-ordering the re-ups!* Thus e.g., they get 1 Case of the New Marvel Legends (New Shang-Chi wave) & if A secondary or etc. Case is not re-ordered by any associate or A manager etc., There's A 90% Chance the Next case of _Marvel legends_ to arrive will be the next quarters New Wave.. An if the guy/gal doing the bi-annual reset doesn't care, or know what's going on in the "Figs section". Certain BEST SELLERS; like (Mattel) WWE ELITE- Can easily be deleted (pushed out) of the "Figs isle" altogether. > If something New like them Under $20 Predator figs, due to its size, takes up the old WWE ELITE row. Or The New Predator figs get foolishly assigned A Double row, Post reset. An the careless dummy doing said re-set doesn't notice; That (Mattel) WWE ELITE Needs to be re-assinged or relocated.. Than them WWE ELITE's- ESSENTIALY GET PURGED FROM THE SYSTEM! And that particular store will Never get WWE ELITE's back until someone observant w/ means, points out the problem. Or it's fixed buy the system itself, Post the Next (6-8 months later) re-set. As far as ordering A New case or two (or three) of _Marvel Legends,_ MoTU, Fortnite, Star Wars Retro, Star Wars _Black Series,_ WWE ELITE's etc., goes- At Walmart [It] literally takes less than A minute! If you're an employee & on the clock; and in arms reach of the Action figure bar code / SKU; (click) "Order -1+" (Enter how many cases) than click "Proceed", it reads the order back, than click "Confirm".. Its that easy! YOU COULD RE-STOCK THE ENTIRE "Figs section" IN LESS THAN 15mnts! With Multiple Cases & Multiple waves of Each & Every whatever. Just like TRU used to. Yet they Never do it! Cause the system is Happy, when the 1 Case ordered "Sell's Out".
@@latestred6510I tended to notice that the Walmarts by us tended to be rather careless when it came to their toy sections. Way back when I was into the 12 inch figures, I often ran into issues with product on the shelves that was not in their computer systems, usually leading to the dreaded "price check" (Walmarts by us never had anyone respond to price checks). Either that, or their figure aisles would look perpetually empty (I think Fox News used a picture of one to reenforce their idea that Biden is waging a personal "war on Christmas"... that's my political humor). My mom even had one Walmart associate tell her that they do not reorder items that sell out(????). She was not asking about toys either.
You're 100% correct ...... Due to the unavailability at retail locations, I've mostly stopped collecting new products, I now spend most of my collecting dollars on Ebay buying for the vintage side of my collection.
Same here- stores around me have NOTHING. Making it worse is that literally half my pre-orders from a year and a half ago STILL haven't come in despite it being PRE-ordered, while a bunch of them are now on ebay for triple the price.
@@zufalllx I wish I could, but the part of Texas I live in is 2 hours away from the nearest store with vintage collectables. So Ebay is the only way ...... I'd love to have a store close to me that carried the vintage stuff I collect.
@@burntvirtue hell yeah! Imaginext and DC were clearly marketing towards collectors towards the end of there line. Because no kid knows about sinestro corps batman, but we do and we love that fisher price is doing this.
Lego has lost their god damn minds. City and star wars sets in particular are always 10-20$ (CAD) overpriced on what they should be. With the pandemic and people having way less spending power what do they do? FUCKING NOTHING DIFFERENT. Not even making more sets in the 20-30$ range, they still keep making 100-200$ sets as a matter of course. They're a dumbass company that just so happens to be sitting on a gold mine of a product.
I'll just want to say something since I just can't help myself. Back in the day, the playground, arcades, comic book stores, and toy stores are places for kids to make friends. These are the things I've missed most that I want my son to experience---to personally socialize and play with other kids, talk to the toystore attendants regarding the new toys (i.e., quality, articulations), and to brag that I've got the latest toys and comics to my friends and kins or frown that I could not afford to buy what I want because I was a kid back then. So many stores are closing, playgrounds and malls demolished, the pandemic, street riots, online bashings and bullyings...I am still amazed that my son has the optimism that things will get better. I gotta say I'm proud of him for that mindset.
i don't wanna sound like a grandpa with all that "back in the day", but 2020 and how virtual it all got made me realise how bad people actually were at forming interpersonal relationships without electronics being involved, especially when kids started their new year at a new school after having spent the last few months doing it all virtually and seeing the impact it had on my younger relatives. making friends is just so different now.
Your son hasn't been around long enough to see the juxtaposition that you have. Optimism is good for your well-being though. Life is better when you simply look at things from a positive perspective. Nature will have it's way, and ultimately, nature's way is good. Mankind is just nature, and the earth is just a speck of dust in the universe anyway. There's really nothing serious going on, but we're wired to make mountains out of molehills.
3:00 Hasbro meets 17% of it's demand. Also Hasbro: We need another 429 niche versions of Monopoly! And also Hasbro: Heroscape sets on Ebay is triple the price we could sell it at......let's not produce any, and lose those fans forever! And even though we could tie-in with Marvel and DC, let's not do that either!
@@paulcoy9060 Yeah I think they see kickstarter and want to play forgetting that if they sold on their own site for reasonable prices they could set a preorder limit of say 4 months and fullfill ALL orders. Why have a limited number of the get go?
Like Coco? Hmmm.....I think I'd go with the under appreciated Starscream.....ew, ew, ew....scratch that....I'd be screaming like inhumanoids DECOMPOSE!!!!
Masters Of The Universe 2002: *He-man and Skeletor everywhere. The rest of them, no where to be found* That's what killed the 2002 line. I tried to collect the 2002 line but after that shit-show, I never bothered to buy another MOTU figure ever again. I really wanted to collect MOTU Classics but I resisted the temptation.
It seems to me that the problems of the toy industry are driven by the same thing as drives the problems of Hollywood and genre movies/TV. They put more importance on focus groups and what they say, than what their customers actually want, and put more importance on social media engagement than customer feedback.
I had two eBay buyers over Christmas, who were buying vintage Joes for their sons. I was glad that they let me know, so I could make sure the packages would reach them in time, and also so I could throw in a few extras. They even sent me photos of their kids opening their Joes on Christmas. It was a cool feeling to see those kids reliving the same excitement that I remember from so many Christmas mornings, but there was also a sadness to it, because I know that most kids today just don't get to have that experience...that experience that we all had growing up, especially in the 80s and 90s. The toy companies need to start marketing to kids again, and kids need something to pull them away from their phones, video games and computers for a while. It's great that the toy companies remember us from those glory years, and want to include us in their new promotions, but kids need toys more than ever...they need a childhood...you market to them, the distribution will solve itself, because every parent will be demanding that the stores stock their shelves, and that should finally light a fire under the a$$e$ of the corporate dopes at these toy companies. The new generation has to be the voice, because we the adult collectors won't be around forever, and if we are the only voice, all the magic of this stuff is going to die with us.
The problem is, kids get introduced to phones and tablets and on-demand shows at such a young age now. They can just go from one passive engagement activity to another (watching, not doing) unlike in our time. We had 20 minute episodes with days in between to absorb and mull over stories before flooding our brain with new material. Kids now have Tik Tok - everything comes in bite sized, one minute installments, and there's never an end. Every time they press the button to watch another video, their brain receives a tiny hit of dopamine, the same drug we got bigger hits of when we received toys that we coveted. In short, kids don't have the patience or imagination for hand held toys anymore, at least past the age of two or three when they get their electronic devices.
I've noticed rise in 3D printed parts too. Now with software and people that know to 3D individual parts? The companies either aren't noticing or too arrogant to pay attention.
@dirtyvarmint Well I guess someone enjoys paying more than needed. I guess you love when commodity brokers drive up the cost of food too by buying it and creating artificial scarcity.
@odeerg come on bro.... Corporate America doesn't go to the trouble of selling ANY product that's not profitable. If sales are so poor and demand is so insignificant they wouldnt go online....they'd cease to exist. Idk where you live? But in my state, in Ohio, toy stores are popping up EVERYWHERE and that includes some really HIGH rent or mortgage payments but the demand for BOTH vintage AND modern "Adult Collector" wise, regardless of age because I see kids pretty often who classify as Adult Collector...the demand is such that these businesses are booming. I think your comment is one side of the coin that people ALWAYS jump at ... It's like "In case of fire break the glass" and grab the old "toys Rre fir....duuuh, kihds ya dummy! Collectors only make up 1/3rd of a 1/2 of the first 3/4's of the percentage of shelf space x 2nd quarter advertising budget.....uhhh, honestly I thought that was pretty much common knowledge whether you TOY or not?!?" And it's just regurgitation because you heard someone else argue it and thought they sounded smart....and were such a handsome guy....and though you're painfully aware that YOU could never look that handsome you think to yourself that maybe to a future outsider, such as yourself concerning your toy crush, reading in that if YOU argued the same points and won.... well maybe an even UGLIER dude would be like...hmmm, that guys so right on the money AND though he'll never be confused with Clooney....well, he's no Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld either! Well .... Feel free to scout the comments section for lurking fuglies and crouching Harry's hidden Hendersons bro....I bet they aren't coming to admire your TOY insider insight.
You can see the sales peoples perspective though. We know there is 400% demand for a particular product that always sells out immediately. So raising the price is just guaranteed easy profit off customers. They don't care as long as 100% gets sold. Collectors can be their own worst enemy.
@@SW0000A - But surely these aren't accurate numbers. For example, the guy who picked up the Target exclusive MOTU set, he found two in the wild. So isn't it just as easy to say that the toy company is producing a surplus? I'm not a collector, just a fan of toy videos; I'm just nostalgic. I'll yield to those of great knowledge of the industry, but it just seems a toy company would want to achieve as much satisfaction as possible, especially when the tooling price is so high.
@@jeremyj2667 I agree. But I think in the video he has a point about this. The sales people want bullet points to make them look good. They can throw out there that they always sell 100% of the product. They know no one will look at it the other way as no one knows how much is being left on the table. It is bad for the customer but they don't care as long as we keep buying.
You nailed it, I don’t even mess with the frustration of target and walmart anymore. I get 95% of my figures from BBTS. Sometimes I get lucky and find stuff at retailers if I’m shopping, but I’m not going out of my way. I’m burned out spending so much time looking and there’s nothing there
Spin Masters, a company I’d never heard of a couple years ago, is currently killing it with their DC/Batman action figure line. The shelves and pegs are almost always full, and it’s not because they aren’t selling. They are being restocked regularly, which is clear because the villains and rare variants are always the first to go, but I see them come and go all the time. They’re good figures, too. Wish I’d been buying them when they first came out last year.
The DC line that is strictly focused on kids and a lower price point. I hope the line does well. I don't want to see a future where children get completely priced out of playing with toys.
@@jeremysmith4620 What's infuriating is that these 4" DC figures are $8 and feature plenty of articulation. Meanwhile, Hasbro's 3.75" Marvel retro line is $10, 5 points of articulation, and almost impossible to find on the peg.
This forced lack of supply just to create “buzz” is ridiculous. Kenner used to stack the pegs, hell even Hasbro used to back in the early 2000’s. I feel bad for the kids today with little to no complete waves available to them.
They all want their brand to be as cool as Apple so they can brag and boast to their friends about who they work for. People are messed up! Everyone seeks validation and approval from strangers, and this is the end result.
@@zachary_attackery No, it's because $15 in today's money is the equivalent of $6 back when most people complaining about those prices were kids decades ago. Yes, I miss the days when action figures were $5.00 too, but I also don't lose sight of the fact that amount was in mid 1980's money.
This seems to go back even further than the last 10 years. In the early 90's, I was just out of High School and working in the toy dept at Target. This was the era when the TMNT figures were blowing up. As far as I can remember, we were putting in orders all the time, and once in a while ONE measly case of TMNT figures would show up on a truck which we would immediately take to the aisle and would immediately be devoured by the Christmas shopping moms. But even back then I was always perplexed by the business decisions. You see, ALL the mom's really wanted were the Turtle figures themselves and were not interested in the villian figures. The villian figures were packing the pegs but there were never any Michaelangelo's, Donatello's...etc. Every case that arrived on a truck contained ONE of EACH Turtle, and the rest was filled with more of the Villians! I would vent to these frustrated moms that I couldn't understand why these companies would fail to see the obvious solution which was to freeze production on the villians, and just keep churning out boxes of just the Turtles! But this never happened the whole time I worked there. I've always thought that big corporations only cared about profits, but that doesn't jibe with these toy manufacturers. I don't get it. Is it a power thing? Are they like Immortan Joe from Mad Max Fury Road when he walks out and turns the water pipe on for a few seconds?!
Reminds me of: ~•We want more! He-Man & Skeletor! °-O...ok, we'll come up with more Goodies & Baddies; be right with ya... ~•no...No...NO. We specifically meant The Main 2, man! °-øøp$
The other side of things is big corporates answer to shareholders and boardrooms. Its not like one super boss has the power to actually do anything useful, or has a weak point to exploit like in video games.
@@fmsyntheses you are missing the whole point. People don’t collect these as Toys to play with. Most of it has to do with the art of the figurines. That can be the box art or the figurines themselves. Dioramas are also a consideration too. Buying a Tie Fighter with correct to scale panels is cool as shit. No different than building a model Spitfire or F15 etc etc.
@@fmsyntheses yeah for me. Even as a kid it was about realism of the figurines. Even the box art. I wanted to keep mine packaged at latest by Christmas of the 1986. Not sure what a Gunpla is though. Check out Only One Kenobi RUclips channel. Myself I. Like the OG trilogy of Star Wars. But love the new figures with old school movie packaging predominately. For me it the vintage collection in box or cardback. Plus loose modern figures. 1978 to 1985 is to expensive overall for me. I have a few on cardbacks. I will get into them next. All be caught up in 2 years. I stopped in 2004. Now that I got my house and finishing my basement all have more room. Plus I love the Hot Toys figures. I use to collect the WW2 stuff. Real history. But I have enough if that. SW is a childhood slash nostalgia plus the OG I appreciate even more now. As an adult.
Hunting for action figures in the wild used to be so much fun and the thrill of finding what you were looking for was king! Nowadays I might as well just give up on the toys and hunt for sasquatch....there's probably a better chance of finding him!
So true I remember back when Potf95 came out I was doing 4-5 stores and in a week I had managed to pick the entire wave. Plus you could find them anywhere There was plenty and no scalpers
This is the most honest and genuine breakdown of an entire collapse of not only an industry but the fracturing effect that it has caused an entire collecting community as well. Well Done Michael! #Bravo 👏 👏 👏
Let's also point out that the major toy companies are based in CA. Those product managers and buyers and sales guys have not seen an office--or a customer in over a year. They are sitting in the pajamas watching Netflix. They don't give a crap that we're schlepping to every retailer several days a week for things they worked on two years ago. They don't care.
You are right , I life in Germany and I have Sold my Origin stuff because you can't find anything in the normal Retail . I now came to the decision to collect myself only Vintage . It's a lot easier to find the vintage versions than the new, it's a hobby and should be fun instead of stressing you out !
Many of your points are valid. As a lifelong toy fan I am tired of the unavailability of these products. The price and stress of getting these products make me think that the day has finally come to stop. After all the price certainly will not drop. Thanks Michael, always informative.
I’m only 11 and I collect vintage Motu the real ghostbusters and Kenner Star Wars and toys these days besides the new Kenner ghostbuster classics and it’s really a shame and I wish even though I was not around I really do wish toys were as good as they use to be.
You really do offer a unique perspective in the collecting realm of the RUclips market. Thank you for being one of my favorite channels over the last couple years!
The Fortnite toys strike me as something kids don't actually want, but they sell a few because the kids' grandparents go shopping for the kids' birthdays and ask "hey, my grandchild likes Fartknock, I'll buy him this neon teddy bear with an assault rifle that says Ferknerk".
They actually don't just sell a few, this is one of the only things I believe Michael gets wrong in the video, and I can't blame him as it's not his particular interest. When he stated that about Fortnite figures not selling I did a grand total of 5 minutes of research to see that Fortnite topped action figure sales in 2019 and was 4th in the action figure category in 2020. There are multiple companies producing the figures now and Hasbro has just piled in as well on top of Jazzwares and Mcfarlane. So someone is definitely buying them. I think they are cared heavily in retail because they are so popular. If I used the same logic that would have meant that when I was a kid no one bought GI Joes, but that wasn't the case. They just outsold many of the other brands and got ordered in higher volume more often than other brands. I'm guessing that's part of the idea with Fortnite. It has been such a cultural juggernaut over the last few years that they were ordered in much higher numbers. Sale through is occuring, but so are restocks where those restocks aren't occuring with more traditional properties. Hard to say. Someone is buying them though, the sales data definitely seems to back that up. I thought the same thing from encountering the inventory in the wild initially until I got curious after hearing Michael during this video.
My Nephews who LOVE Fortnite play it all the time have no interest in the Fortnite toys maybe if it worked like Amiibos or Skylanders they'd like it but a plain action figure for 9-year-olds yeah couldn't care less
At what point does Mattel and Hasbro get drunk off the smell of their own hubris and start trying to pay their employees in hype? Employee: "Hey, where's my paycheck?" Hasbro: "You don't need money, just tell everyone you're working on THE hottest and hard to find toy line in the industry!"
Does anybody remember how understocked the Captain Rex Black Series was and then years later he was found in bunches at Ross. People would’ve bought this at retail for full price but for some reason he was found at a discount store.
And now the same figure goes for above $100 on eBay and Mercari and people are STILL buying him for those prices 😂😂😂 Hasbro seems to think that creating artificial scarcity will make their toylines even more appealing and sought after, but all it's doing is making people not care and quit altogether
Becauase hasbro leaves transformers, sw and marvel sitting in warehouses, ive seen this same topic time and again in diff collector groups and podcasts. Its well known that hasbro lets things sit, then you get them next year randomly on clearance.
The start of this video is the entire botch of the Wal-Mart/Hasbro collab of the GI Joe "Retro" Collection in a nutshell. You can't even fully blame the Coof for this as Hasbro has had a tarnished reputation for years!
Breaks in box in large numbers before receiving figure and refuses to refund. That trick only works on some figures. Some still break anyway or are broken before you receive them.
The issue is that most figure content creators on RUclips are corporate boot lickers who do nothing to press the issue and tip toe around companies like Hasbro because they don’t want to lose access to interviews and free loot. It’s become a major issue. Many content creators I have on record just admitting it’s the way it is and oh well. They do nothing to help the fan base and only make things worse. It needs to end.
Free loot, attention a buck in their pocket from ads and patreon. There is no incentive to bite the hands that feed them. Its shitty, but its opportunistic for sure. The ugly part is people not seeing them as paid marketers and borderline actors/entertainers from day one. We dont complain about folks on the tv doing it, as everybody gets it. But there are still sometimes gullible people who dont understand youtube is big business. Its not about giving anyone a voice or audience, that is just a byproduct.
Realistically, no amount of RUclipsrs complaining would likely make the industry care or change. Unless and until it starts having a serious impact on the bottom line, they're going to do what they do.
Haters: " Oh no, the collectors are complaining again" Collectors: " If there wasn't so much wrong in the industry to complain about, we wouldn't be complaining so much!"
@dirtyvarmint I think the word "collector" should be replaced with consumer. I just want to walk in a store and buy the thing I want, it sucks when these companies don't want your money!
@@chrisbooth478 That's what I'm talking about. I want the X-men jet transformer period. I do not care if it is a Target exclusive, or if every store carries it. I do not want it because it is rare. I think it is a fun idea for a toy and I like it. If everyone else in the world has it, that would not change how I feel about it. like it and I want to buy it. They should make more than only enough to have two or three per store when they could sell a dozen or so when that many people per store want one. Something that sells out online within 60 seconds is ridiculous. The same thing just happened with the PS5. Many stores finally put a limit on how many per customer or iP address could get one.
Just my opinion, but it does get a bit ridiculous how much adults complain about not being able to buy a lump of plastic in the shape of something they remember from their childhood. Yeah, it's a mild annoyance, but there are so many bigger issues in life.
The Wal-Mart in my town never has much in the action figure toy aisle. It has been this way for the past several years. A new line or wave of a line comes out, and it sells out. It's never put back on the shelves. I think the toy companies need to start fixing distribution to sell their toys. When I was a kid, the toy aisles were well-stocked and had many different toys to choose from.
Amen to this. I rarely see Black Series, Vintage Collection, G.I. Joe classified or retro, or anything really interesting in the action figure department anymore. And when I do, it’s a miracle and I stand there in disbelief! Everything I buy now is online. Ironically due to my channel name, I prefer action figures, but I can’t buy the things in person! Just preorders and Amazon at this point.
Some people will likely blame the pandemic for the poor distribution and product supply, but the fact of the matter is that this has been an issue for years. I think much of these issues could be solved using modern technology and adjusting the supply to meet the demand, and to do so in targeted ways and engage with buyers and consumers in meaningful ways. Then again, Michael was right about Hasbro Pulse from day one, which would be an effective way to fulfill consumer demands. Instead it's an overpriced mailing list for people to get the same 'Sold Out' message that they could get for free on big box retailer websites. 🙄
Totally agree. I remember going to the stores and the pegs were full and you had to have a system for looking through all the pegs to find the ones you were looking for. And the joy of finding the figure you have been searching for and someone else also finding theirs. I still have dreams and memories of discovering a figure on a peg that is filled with figures.
My god I have left a lot of comments..lol but when you watch a video for 20 minutes you make a lot of great points! And when you said the juice is getting not worth the squeeze your 100% on point
the toy industry was murdered by Hasbro the day they put "collector's edition" on a figure and made two billion copies. After they warmed the bargain bin for a few months, their data said "It's profitable to not over produce."
Same situation here in California. There are teams of guys that go from Target to Target buying EVERYTHING to take to the local warehouse toy show that's held every week. There are ZERO toys on the shelves.
Honestly man, I gotta say, at least in my area, I see the Fortnite stuff well stocked, and I see it sell and RESTOCKED regularly. I think it's an instance where Jazwares actually knows how to distribute stuff, not that they're pegwarming, but that they're always well-stocked. Not to mention they're making great products, source material aside. It's a real shame the state of toy industry right now. Sure Covid could be to blame, I know where I work (the furniture industry) our distribution and supply took a massive hit. But Hasbro themselves have said they were minimally affected... so honestly that can't be used as an excuse. Also this exclusive shit has to end. Honestly, one solution I feel like could resolve a lot of this is made-to-order preorders. Super7, NECA, Four Horsemen, etc., have done this for a while and it gives everyone a chance to get what they want. Sure it may take a while, but when the preorders are already months out, what's a few more months' wait really? Great vid man!
Hi, I’m a kid toy collector, and I would like to know where to buy some cool iron man figures, like extrimis iron man, Norman Iron patriot, Mcu Iron patriot,and stuff like that, from a iron man fan, to an iron man fan
the thing that bugs me the most is how can preorders sell out, since preorders should mean that your putting your self on a list for a toy that has yet to be made , not for ones that are made and sitting in a warehouse waiting to be shipped, so if they fix the preorder system everyone will be able to get what they want and buying limits and scalpers will be done ,cause all figures will be made to order
Ive given up on stores and given up on pre orders. Had so many stores stuff up my orders, cancel them, deliver a year after release or just outright steal my money using it as interest free loan to further their business.
Without online stores it is nearly impossible to collect in Australia. I still havent seen the first MOTU 2020 line in any mainstream brick and mortar stores. Vintage is easier to find than modern.
Nowhere has got them in any chain stores. There is still a chance mid year but i bet we will get wave 1 shelfwarmers and nothing more. Some stock has trickled into import specialiasts but that is it for oz
Lots of great points in this video. Thanks for getting these notions out there. More supply, better supply chains, more attention to getting products into hands at retail prices in collector condition.
It’s frustrating to find transformers at Ross, Marshall’s, TJ Max etc after spending a year hunting at Walmart and Targets for the same figures. I’ve already spent the premium to buy it online after giving up on the hunt. It’s not going to matter soon. I’ve almost got every transformer I wanted besides Metroplex and once I’m satisfied with collecting Motu Origins then I’m done with toy hunting and collecting. I’m tired of these shenanigans with limited stock and rising prices. BBTS is king and thank you Retroblasting for highlighting this problem with the industry.
Totally agree with you, kids don't buy toys anymore. Toys are now aimed at the adult collector. This is why when you see shelves are full then it's like stepping into a time machine and going back to the 80's. I love that meme that says "Hey remember that toy you bought as a kid for $5, well we've made it again for you but now it costs $30". 😂
WRONG! I hit 10 stores the other day & the action figure aisles were loaded with little kids. I couldn't even move. I saw a little boy trying to buy a Transformers Cyberverse Hot Rod but his mother told him he didn't have enough money. I was thinking about how everybody says kids don't buy toys anymore & I wished you could've seen what I was seeing.
@@n7bansheebait299 we've lost so many toy stores because kids don't buy enough toys. Even going to our nearest toy store with my daughter she's mostly interested in blind bags, LOL dolls etc. The smaller the toy the better. Unlike Target and Walmart we don't get any of those figs here in Ireland and most have to be bought direct from NECA or Super7. The few Comic Stores have huge markups on the few figs they do manage to get in. The stories of the guys I follow on RUclips where they confirm how much fuel they've wasted to finally find that one fig they were looking for really doesn't justify the cost of the fig. These companies need to sort out their distribution logistics much better.
@@MassHystarix partially true. A lot of parents have taken that as the easy route. Our daughter recently got a tablet but uses it mostly in front of us. But she's only allowed on it for a certain amount of time then needs to go play with her physical toys, which she is happy to do. But her taste in toys is also influenced by RUclipsrs so again it's all blindbags and LOL dolls. Thankfully she also loves TMNT so she has her own set of figs, and she's got into WWE so has some figs from that too. 😁
It's amazing that Toy companies don't mind screwing over their customers, but bend over backwards to appease the retailers. It's as if they forgot who they were making their product for in the first place. You are totally right about the distribution/production issues going seriously downhill over the last 10 years. Thanks for another great video !
I've been saying brick & mortar stores are obsolete for years now. Except for groceries, it's a lot better to order online & have your stuff simply delivered to your front door.
I used to work at Walmart and was nightly made to unload the trucks even though I was a salesman. So I always knew when a wave of Star Wars figures (which is what I collect) would arrive. I could set aside every figure I wanted and then go and fill the pegs in the Star Wars section. The majority of those figures, unless we got quantities for an end cap or a special display, would be gone within a week or so and then it’d be a wait of weeks to months for another shipment. By 2010 it was just a single case or two and months waiting once they were gone. They always run through the toys quickly, and neglect to send more, even though they were on order. So the demand is there, still, but there’s no supply. This is how it is over a decade later. I don’t even bother with retail stores anymore because they never have what I want. I just buy from Amazon and role the dice that they’ll be in decent shape or I’ll have to ship it back for another, and the price is the same. I don’t understand how these companies are staying afloat if they don’t make products that people actually want.
You can't even get the MoTU Origins line in Australia. Buying through eBay isn't a good idea either. We're lucky to see virtually anything at times. I've been lucky enough to find some of the Transformers I'm still looking for. I still prefer bricks and mortar stores. My local toy store has been pretty good. With them I've been able to get the McFarlane stuff. The only downside, as you said, is having to buy the entire wave just for half of what I'm after. Luck to you in finding what you're looking for.
I'm reminded (every time I try to find a G.I.Joe Classified figure or anything at all in Walmart's empty Star Wars section) of the Christmas of 2013, when FROZEN came out . . . but nobody had Elsa dolls. The value of those dolls skyrocketed, people lined up outside TRU or Disney Store before it opened, and the Mattel executive who made the decision to underproduce Anna and Elsa by the tens of thousands lost his job. It blows my mind that there are people making these corporate decisions today that not only hold on to their positions, but get juicy bonuses after every sales quarter.
That was a somewhat different issue based around the fact that Anna was supposed to be the main character and thus was heavily featured in the merch and Disney didn't realize Elsa would become the breakout character from the film. That was Disney's miscalculation, not Mattel's.
I think it's more to the fact that companies are switching to a low volume high margin (demand & supply) rather than a high volume low margin retail. This helps reduce the risk of manufacturing, simply cause what if you manufacture 100,000 products but are not able to sell them out. Not justifying their actions, but toy companies have automatically priced their toys out of buyer's share of wallet. These toy companies then blame gaming companies saying buyers prefer to buy console or computer games rather than toys. I also find the quality of toys are terrible as compared to what we used to get 20 years ago. Anyway, I don't think this is going to change any time soon. I just stopped buying toys because the price point companies expect me to pay to onboard is just not worth it anymore.
Honestly I'm starting to believe the manufacturers are working with the scalpers these days. I just don't get how a current run product is being scalped on the back toy market.
I'm glad I mostly collect stuff from the early 2010's instead of modern stuff. I had such a headache trying to get a damn Stinky Pete from Mattel's Toy Story line recently. First off, only on Amazon despite not being an exclusive, and then, when I needed to take a moment for the monies, I come back to only find scalper listings on that page, and it doesn't come back into regular priced stock for almost a month(though it was admitably VERY amusing to watch the scalper prices get lower and lower as they realized that nobody was going to pay their outlandish prices), but if I had missed a VERY specific instance of it being back in proper stock, I would still be without one because that listing sold out not even 20 minutes after I secured one. It shipped and arrived a month early, at least, and the box was in good condition, but I can't imagine having to go through that over and over again. Heck, I wanted to collect Jakks Pacific's Sonic line last year, but they STILL have never listed more than a few figures online at their official price, so I gave up. Toy stock was a managable disaster before, now it's just a shitshow.
Im 50 years old and feel so lucky I was in the age range to pick up GI Joes, in 1984 when the product was white hot, all the toys were imaginative, technical and detailed. Big shout out to Larry Hamma who was given a 'sow's ear" of the GI Joe comic book as a full time job. In Comics, writing a toy comic is considered a "lame gig" think: Crystar and the crystal Warriors," How good was Larry's effort? 40 years past, we are still talking about it May 09, 2021. Another big shout out to Artist Hector Garrido the man who painted the action figure box art
@@3Storms Larry Hama also did four issue run called Wulf the Barbarian absolutely awesome one shot book, the company ran out of gas quick, great simple story, great art
Excellent, insightful video, Sir! You've put a face on all the frustration we've been dealing with. I've recently decided to abandon big box altogether and just order my TFs online. I'm too dang old to keep making that arduous journey across the parking lot and all the way to the back of the store only to find empty pegs. It got to the point where I was carrying sticky notes with me so I could leave snarky messages about the empty pegs and how it would be nice if someone would dredge up the modicum of intelligence necessary to fill them.
Thank you, Micheal! It makes so much sense now! You solved the problem of several areas! I cannot fathom why you’re not working in the decision making for Mattel or elsewhere!! You even solved the Scalpers hell! 🤯😘😃😍
I'm so glad I'm subscribed to you. :) Your explanation sounds more accurate than the other dude's (I also watched that other video when they posted it and didn't agree with their conclusion either). If this was just a 'kids-not-buying-toys' issue then Hasbro and Mattel wouldn't keep catering to them by stocking shelves with Barbies and Transformers. But it's a combination of adult collectors frenzy-buying-up whatever they can find and the toy industry creating an artificial shortage scenario by pushing out more retail-chained 'exclusives' and limited runs. It's all become an adult toy collector's sport now. I still believe scalpers are part of the problem (a result of covid quarantine and lay-offs). They escalated the shortage and are the reason why it feels more intense this past year than in previous ones. But after hearing your explanation, I think this rings more true. The price hike is INSANE! I didn't realize this until I started collecting Neca figures, beginning with their Aliens figure line. It used to cost 20-25 bucks. Now? You'll be lucky if it's 30 bucks! It's impossible for today's kids to get into toys since they wouldn't have that money on them, nor would their parents be willing to throw down that kind of cash (especially if they know little Jimmy will break it). The toy themselves aren't designed for grubby, reckless hands either. Today's kids wouldn't be able to play with them. But the worse part is today's kids can't get the action figure they want due to these limited, often retail-chained exclusive runs. After seeing your video, I now realize these weren't incidental decisions. They were intentional decisions... all made by the toy companies to shift focus on adult collectors (the ones WITH the money). Toy companies like Neca have artificially created a Tickle-Me-Elmo crisis for each of their toy releases. I can't help but feel this bubble will eventually burst. Much like how the comic industry imploded on itself during the 90s when it tried to exclusively focus on comic collectors and create artificial shortage demand with their endless 'limited-edition' runs, I feel like the toy industry is due for an implosion. They're essentially capping-out their potential profits by catering and depending on one specific type of audience. While we got the money, it's impossible to buy something we can't find!
One thing to keep in mind though, after Star Wars' colossal failure that left hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic to gather dust on shelves, toy companies probably rather would SELL everything they make even if it means making a bit less money, than having wasted money by leaving product sitting on shelves. This may be a bigger concern to retailers, but I just feel it's worth mentioning.
Even the "Toy Guru" has talk about the empty pegs problem somehow. Weird fact: In my country, Ecuador, I found the Ghostbusters' kids toy line on the main toy store, I know in USA there's nothing.
Your comment about the greyskull fist fight is spot on too! I went in to grab one and a guy tried stealing it from me while I was doing the self checkout. Grabbed it right off my register
I am so tired of hearing the BS excuses from Hasbro. When you have LEGO at one end of the company size spectrum and McFarlane at the other end, and both of them are doing a better job on distribution, supply/demand, etc than Hasbro then their excuses start to fall pretty damn short.
I saw where Toy Guru blamed collectors for buying up all the SKUs that were designed for the kid market (ie., one case of figures is supposed to last a while on the shelf). However, my Walmart has been empty pegged since before Christmas. It seems like if you run out of stock on a popular item, you REstock. That'd make sense to me, but alas no.
FWIW many big box retailers restock, especially for certain products like toys, on a fixed schedule not necessarily as demand indicates, which I believe is what Scott was talking about there.
I enthusiastically appreciate the content and perspective presented on this channel. I love the toy collecting hobby but it is becoming something crazy. An educated opinion that holds so much weight..thank you good sir
Hi. I own a hobby shop and we're experiencing the same problems, but with model kits. It boils down to the fact that everything is made off-shore and that the new countries making the "toys" are delaying release times and amounts. For example, I've had to wait four to six months after the announced release date on Carrera Slot Cars. For example, the 1977 Pontiac was suppose to be released in June, but didn't get on shelves until November of the following year. From what I discovered using the Carrera example, the product is designed in Austria, then the plans are sent to China to be produced into toys with a release date and time frame for production. The factory in China then sets up their own schedule and delays the original toy companies. The Chinese manufacturer can also "sell" the idea to other Chinese factories and have them produce it instead, thus causing a big ball of confusion for the original toy company. Also, there's a lot of "We asked you to make this, and you made that" type of thing going on, as well as missing tooling and product. - Also, there are delays in over-seas shipping. The "rules" that work at home are not the same rules in a different country. That's why you will see that the smaller domestic manufacturers that make their own product in their home country, like Atlantis Models and Salvinos JR Models are able to get their products manufactured and delivered on time.
Pre-orders from Target and Walmart are not guaranteed. Sometimes when they have a pre-order, the pre-order is gone in a matter of minutes. Some stores get more stock than others. Some stores never see the product. Neca is the worst.Hasbro wants the demand to go up so they can release a re-paint and make money off the mold. Instead of two cases retailers get one case. Some get the stock late.
I have a good friend who works for Walmart as the receiving supervisor. We had a conversation about this very topic. He states that it's not even the distributors oh, they have the stock at the warehouses. They have an automated ordering system that does not allow them and they are actively told not to manually order stock. So I don't even think the toy makers it's the retail stores.
Yea, its mostly the stores. They order the product, they are the customer in that instance. I worked with Walmart as a vendor selling product to them. They have all the control and tell you what they want and how much to make. What makes matters worse is the department heads are constantly trying to move up in the company and may only be in a department like toys for a year or two, so then you have " the new guy" who either doesn't know what he's doing or wants to change things just to show off his ideas. Toy companies would love to sell more I'm sure but the Targets and Walmarts have to order them. There is the whole "kids don't buy toys anymore" thing and stores are ordering less toys accordingly, but more recently they seem to be catching on to adult collectors and hopefully things will improve. I remember the days when message boards not long ago were saying adult collectors are only 3-5% of toy market, now everyone says kids don't want toys... Hope things get better but it takes time.
I've given up on the War for Cybertron line. It's not just the distribution, it's the fact that a wave is gone within a few months, bar a few peg warmers. There was a time when a wave was consistently on shelves for a couple of years. The characters that are in the cartoon are no longer available to buy but the time it airs. No wonder kids aren't into toys, when they can't even get the figures they're watching.
The Legacy Collection sat in my walmart for years as a kid. I was always looking for TFU Shaak Ti, as a kid i wasn't aware of how crazy rare she was. After about a year of always seeing the same toys on the shelves every trip, i gave up because i was a kid who couldn't understand why the toys were always the same. I started collecting again a few years ago and finally got my TFU Shaak Ti for a pretty penny on Ebay for my birthday but hey, thats collecting now, I GUESS. Love RB, keep up the awesome work Michael!
Nobody in the toy business today can beat the heyday of the 70's and 80's. Kenner, Marx, Matel, etc, had it nailed down with regular stores. In those days, the toy section of a department store had dedicated toy stores beat.
I was talking to the department manager of walmart in my little town a few days ago. About the Star Wars Retro line, among other things. He said that he put in for a bunch of cases, because he has had multiple people ask about them. But, according to their inventory listing they aren’t even slated get one case. Only the bigger stores. He said it was the same with the Masters and 3.75 Joes. So, Hasbro and Mattel aren’t even shipping enough product to give every store a case.
Приколы
i'm 45 seconds in and the thing that shocked me the most is you were asked by the target if you needed any help.
Ha! Was thinking the same. I can't even get a Target employee to make eye contact let alone approach me asking if they can help.
I feel like this a fictional piece added to embellish the story. Like the ghost of Obi-Wan appearing to provide guidance to Michael.
I have not been there, not even been to America, but THAT made me spill my tea! 🏆🇬🇧
I recently watched as some Target workers were putting new MOTU origins where ever there were empty peghooks. There were so few I chose to let them go.
Yeah, They usually scatter like cockroaches when I turn the corner .
I miss Toys r Us. The one in my hood always had the figures I wanted. Yeah, the prices were $1 or $2 higher, but they had them in stock. Target and Walmart's shelves are always empty.
Straight truth! Once TRU went out of business, so went the relative ease of finding figures.
Really most of the problems Mike laments about all go back to the fall of ToysRUs as the root cause. There is right now a market hole in a lack of adequate toy distribution to retail. Caused by the lack of a dedicated National or regional merchant.
I'm going to toys r us today, I wonder if the Canadian chain will expand back into the States?
@@keithhorning7753 they will
@@keithhorning7753 They can’t. At least not under the TRU brand. The Vulture Capitalists still own the name and branding.
I worked for a pharmacy retail chain that had exclusives. I tried repeatedly to order Black Series and Legends figures for our shelves. I finally quit and moved on last week. We had not had a single Black Series figure come in for a year by that time. I promise you the retailers are trying to stock their shelves. The product does not exist. Michael is 1000% correct.
Was it walgreens? That's such an odd choice for toy exclusives.
@@LewisChristisonVids after TRU went out of business they had this big plan to become a major hub for collectibles and children's toys. We ended up with no fewer than 30 pieces each of the same Fortnight figure roughly the same for unpopular Marvel Legends figures. Most of the toys they ended up selling or carrying were the cheapo 6.99 age 5 and under schlock that were generic. Whenever we did have cool figures they also sold right away. Then one day we just stopped getting them in. It's a huge shame.
@@autoneurotic They have the oddest selection of upscale collector toys and the cheapest junk I've ever seen. I give Walgreens credit for at least trying.
Your problem at say Walgreens is the Warehouse isn't stocked (especially w/ cases of figs). UNLIKE A WALMART WAREHOUSE. Hubs are Massive! Some deal w/ both on-line sales & load trucks daily for Super Centres.
*I know for A FACT !!! A 100% FACT; That at Walmart anyway, Nobody is re-ordering the re-ups!* Thus e.g., they get 1 Case of the New Marvel Legends (New Shang-Chi wave) & if A secondary or etc. Case is not re-ordered by any associate or A manager etc., There's A 90% Chance the Next case of _Marvel legends_ to arrive will be the next quarters New Wave..
An if the guy/gal doing the bi-annual reset doesn't care, or know what's going on in the "Figs section". Certain BEST SELLERS; like (Mattel) WWE ELITE- Can easily be deleted (pushed out) of the "Figs isle" altogether.
> If something New like them Under $20 Predator figs, due to its size, takes up the old WWE ELITE row. Or The New Predator figs get foolishly assigned A Double row, Post reset. An the careless dummy doing said re-set doesn't notice; That (Mattel) WWE ELITE Needs to be re-assinged or relocated.. Than them WWE ELITE's- ESSENTIALY GET PURGED FROM THE SYSTEM! And that particular store will Never get WWE ELITE's back until someone observant w/ means, points out the problem. Or it's fixed buy the system itself, Post the Next (6-8 months later) re-set.
As far as ordering A New case or two (or three) of _Marvel Legends,_ MoTU, Fortnite, Star Wars Retro, Star Wars _Black Series,_ WWE ELITE's etc., goes-
At Walmart [It] literally takes less than A minute! If you're an employee & on the clock; and in arms reach of the Action figure bar code / SKU; (click) "Order -1+" (Enter how many cases) than click "Proceed", it reads the order back, than click "Confirm"..
Its that easy! YOU COULD RE-STOCK THE ENTIRE "Figs section" IN LESS THAN 15mnts! With Multiple Cases & Multiple waves of Each & Every whatever. Just like TRU used to. Yet they Never do it! Cause the system is Happy, when the 1 Case ordered "Sell's Out".
@@latestred6510I tended to notice that the Walmarts by us tended to be rather careless when it came to their toy sections. Way back when I was into the 12 inch figures, I often ran into issues with product on the shelves that was not in their computer systems, usually leading to the dreaded "price check" (Walmarts by us never had anyone respond to price checks). Either that, or their figure aisles would look perpetually empty (I think Fox News used a picture of one to reenforce their idea that Biden is waging a personal "war on Christmas"... that's my political humor). My mom even had one Walmart associate tell her that they do not reorder items that sell out(????). She was not asking about toys either.
You're 100% correct ...... Due to the unavailability at retail locations, I've mostly stopped collecting new products, I now spend most of my collecting dollars on Ebay buying for the vintage side of my collection.
Same here- stores around me have NOTHING. Making it worse is that literally half my pre-orders from a year and a half ago STILL haven't come in despite it being PRE-ordered, while a bunch of them are now on ebay for triple the price.
💯 collecting new stuff is a fool’s errand.
Same here.
Stop ebay. check a local toy shop or a facebook group
@@zufalllx I wish I could, but the part of Texas I live in is 2 hours away from the nearest store with vintage collectables. So Ebay is the only way ...... I'd love to have a store close to me that carried the vintage stuff I collect.
$27 for a figure is nuts!!! I know I'm talking about 20-30 years ago, but that is the price we used to pay for vehicles and playsets!
The original millennium falcon was priced at 27.99
Exactly. This is why I got into Imaginext, and the cheaper (but quite cool) Lanard products.
@@burntvirtue hell yeah! Imaginext and DC were clearly marketing towards collectors towards the end of there line. Because no kid knows about sinestro corps batman, but we do and we love that fisher price is doing this.
@Who Knew! The Salt Must Flow McFarlane figures aren't for kids, they even say on the box now that their products aren't "toys".
Lego has lost their god damn minds. City and star wars sets in particular are always 10-20$ (CAD) overpriced on what they should be. With the pandemic and people having way less spending power what do they do? FUCKING NOTHING DIFFERENT. Not even making more sets in the 20-30$ range, they still keep making 100-200$ sets as a matter of course. They're a dumbass company that just so happens to be sitting on a gold mine of a product.
I'll just want to say something since I just can't help myself.
Back in the day, the playground, arcades, comic book stores, and toy stores are places for kids to make friends. These are the things I've missed most that I want my son to experience---to personally socialize and play with other kids, talk to the toystore attendants regarding the new toys (i.e., quality, articulations), and to brag that I've got the latest toys and comics to my friends and kins or frown that I could not afford to buy what I want because I was a kid back then.
So many stores are closing, playgrounds and malls demolished, the pandemic, street riots, online bashings and bullyings...I am still amazed that my son has the optimism that things will get better. I gotta say I'm proud of him for that mindset.
i don't wanna sound like a grandpa with all that "back in the day", but 2020 and how virtual it all got made me realise how bad people actually were at forming interpersonal relationships without electronics being involved, especially when kids started their new year at a new school after having spent the last few months doing it all virtually and seeing the impact it had on my younger relatives. making friends is just so different now.
Your son hasn't been around long enough to see the juxtaposition that you have. Optimism is good for your well-being though. Life is better when you simply look at things from a positive perspective. Nature will have it's way, and ultimately, nature's way is good. Mankind is just nature, and the earth is just a speck of dust in the universe anyway. There's really nothing serious going on, but we're wired to make mountains out of molehills.
@@jmp_fr People are afraid to talk and reveal that they are fools, so they mostly don't talk. At least that is wise of them!
If I was the head of Hasbro, I'd be screaming like Cobra Commander in that one classic G.I. Joe episode: "Morons! I have morons on my payroll!"
That would be the coolest boss ever!!
3:00 Hasbro meets 17% of it's demand.
Also Hasbro: We need another 429 niche versions of Monopoly!
And also Hasbro: Heroscape sets on Ebay is triple the price we could sell it at......let's not produce any, and lose those fans forever! And even though we could tie-in with Marvel and DC, let's not do that either!
Your right but remember Cobra commander was an idiot too so maybe he IS already heading Hasbro!😅
@@paulcoy9060 Yeah I think they see kickstarter and want to play forgetting that if they sold on their own site for reasonable prices they could set a preorder limit of say 4 months and fullfill ALL orders. Why have a limited number of the get go?
Like Coco? Hmmm.....I think I'd go with the under appreciated Starscream.....ew, ew, ew....scratch that....I'd be screaming like inhumanoids DECOMPOSE!!!!
Origins: He-man and Skeletor everywhere. The rest of them, no where to be found.
I never saw them at my 3 wal mart and toys r us (I live in Canada) i see the others but no He man and skeletor
I never see he-man or skeletor but I see Roboto everywhere
Masters Of The Universe 2002: *He-man and Skeletor everywhere. The rest of them, no where to be found*
That's what killed the 2002 line. I tried to collect the 2002 line but after that shit-show, I never bothered to buy another MOTU figure ever again. I really wanted to collect MOTU Classics but I resisted the temptation.
The Walmart here is packed with zodac, shera, merman and roboto for weeks now.
Exactly how I called it at the on set.
It seems to me that the problems of the toy industry are driven by the same thing as drives the problems of Hollywood and genre movies/TV. They put more importance on focus groups and what they say, than what their customers actually want, and put more importance on social media engagement than customer feedback.
It’s the same elites. There all of the same genetics 🧬. Follow the line.
@odeerg that’s awesome man. You are a real hero. A true hero.
@odeerg You don't think they would sell more action figures if people could actually find them?
You have more chance capturing me than finding store exclusive
want some beef jerky?
I had two eBay buyers over Christmas, who were buying vintage Joes for their sons. I was glad that they let me know, so I could make sure the packages would reach them in time, and also so I could throw in a few extras. They even sent me photos of their kids opening their Joes on Christmas. It was a cool feeling to see those kids reliving the same excitement that I remember from so many Christmas mornings, but there was also a sadness to it, because I know that most kids today just don't get to have that experience...that experience that we all had growing up, especially in the 80s and 90s. The toy companies need to start marketing to kids again, and kids need something to pull them away from their phones, video games and computers for a while. It's great that the toy companies remember us from those glory years, and want to include us in their new promotions, but kids need toys more than ever...they need a childhood...you market to them, the distribution will solve itself, because every parent will be demanding that the stores stock their shelves, and that should finally light a fire under the a$$e$ of the corporate dopes at these toy companies. The new generation has to be the voice, because we the adult collectors won't be around forever, and if we are the only voice, all the magic of this stuff is going to die with us.
The problem is, kids get introduced to phones and tablets and on-demand shows at such a young age now. They can just go from one passive engagement activity to another (watching, not doing) unlike in our time. We had 20 minute episodes with days in between to absorb and mull over stories before flooding our brain with new material. Kids now have Tik Tok - everything comes in bite sized, one minute installments, and there's never an end. Every time they press the button to watch another video, their brain receives a tiny hit of dopamine, the same drug we got bigger hits of when we received toys that we coveted. In short, kids don't have the patience or imagination for hand held toys anymore, at least past the age of two or three when they get their electronic devices.
We should both be writing books, scripts, essays, songs, poems, etc., judging by our creative output in the comments section!
Do u still sell Vintage Joes?
I would not be surprised if people abandon toy companies and 3d print their own toys.
I've noticed rise in 3D printed parts too. Now with software and people that know to 3D individual parts? The companies either aren't noticing or too arrogant to pay attention.
3D print them with what? If the toy companies can't get or afford the resources to mass produce toys, how do you expect to?
@@jmogler uh, filament to print 4 average 6 inch figures is $22.18 shipped. Color change also is available.
Physical toys in general are not mainstream anymore.
Scalpers+exclusivity= screwed over customers. The Hasbro playbook
Scalpers are terrible if your collecting toys. Even worse if your collecting trading cards
Either scalpers forget children like toys too or they are actively screwing over parents.
@dirtyvarmint I'm gonna assume you're being facetious.
@dirtyvarmint Well I guess someone enjoys paying more than needed. I guess you love when commodity brokers drive up the cost of food too by buying it and creating artificial scarcity.
Not sure how wanting to pay retail is considered spoiled or entitled.
When toilet paper companies get supply and demand correct faster than the toy and electronics industry
Absolutely
Well now we know that if toilet paper is out of stock, we can use NECA.
Asswipe is really important.
@odeerg I’m not so sure. You are right. But I’ve been in the Star Wars toy isles and the pegs are bare
@odeerg come on bro.... Corporate America doesn't go to the trouble of selling ANY product that's not profitable. If sales are so poor and demand is so insignificant they wouldnt go online....they'd cease to exist. Idk where you live? But in my state, in Ohio, toy stores are popping up EVERYWHERE and that includes some really HIGH rent or mortgage payments but the demand for BOTH vintage AND modern "Adult Collector" wise, regardless of age because I see kids pretty often who classify as Adult Collector...the demand is such that these businesses are booming. I think your comment is one side of the coin that people ALWAYS jump at ... It's like "In case of fire break the glass" and grab the old "toys Rre fir....duuuh, kihds ya dummy! Collectors only make up 1/3rd of a 1/2 of the first 3/4's of the percentage of shelf space x 2nd quarter advertising budget.....uhhh, honestly I thought that was pretty much common knowledge whether you TOY or not?!?" And it's just regurgitation because you heard someone else argue it and thought they sounded smart....and were such a handsome guy....and though you're painfully aware that YOU could never look that handsome you think to yourself that maybe to a future outsider, such as yourself concerning your toy crush, reading in that if YOU argued the same points and won.... well maybe an even UGLIER dude would be like...hmmm, that guys so right on the money AND though he'll never be confused with Clooney....well, he's no Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld either! Well .... Feel free to scout the comments section for lurking fuglies and crouching Harry's hidden Hendersons bro....I bet they aren't coming to admire your TOY insider insight.
Hasbro Logic:
We’re going to start charging more for the products that you can’t find.
You can see the sales peoples perspective though. We know there is 400% demand for a particular product that always sells out immediately. So raising the price is just guaranteed easy profit off customers. They don't care as long as 100% gets sold. Collectors can be their own worst enemy.
@@SW0000A - But surely these aren't accurate numbers. For example, the guy who picked up the Target exclusive MOTU set, he found two in the wild. So isn't it just as easy to say that the toy company is producing a surplus? I'm not a collector, just a fan of toy videos; I'm just nostalgic. I'll yield to those of great knowledge of the industry, but it just seems a toy company would want to achieve as much satisfaction as possible, especially when the tooling price is so high.
@@SW0000A but wouldn’t producing an amount that satisfies demand also increase profits?
@@jeremyj2667 I agree. But I think in the video he has a point about this. The sales people want bullet points to make them look good. They can throw out there that they always sell 100% of the product. They know no one will look at it the other way as no one knows how much is being left on the table. It is bad for the customer but they don't care as long as we keep buying.
You nailed it, I don’t even mess with the frustration of target and walmart anymore. I get 95% of my figures from BBTS. Sometimes I get lucky and find stuff at retailers if I’m shopping, but I’m not going out of my way. I’m burned out spending so much time looking and there’s nothing there
I love wasting hours and travel fuel not finding things. Dum de doo. 90% of anything i get last 5 years is online.
i'am totally with you on all of what you said. BBTS for sure. but, just in case i do browse Amazon from time to time. So yeah, i'am with y'ah
I just pick something up if I happen to find it: like the Origins Keldor Figure today.
I've got most of mine from BBTS as well. Why Walmart as Target doesn't want my money is beyond me.
Spin Masters, a company I’d never heard of a couple years ago, is currently killing it with their DC/Batman action figure line. The shelves and pegs are almost always full, and it’s not because they aren’t selling. They are being restocked regularly, which is clear because the villains and rare variants are always the first to go, but I see them come and go all the time. They’re good figures, too. Wish I’d been buying them when they first came out last year.
The DC line that is strictly focused on kids and a lower price point. I hope the line does well. I don't want to see a future where children get completely priced out of playing with toys.
Spin master makes figures? I thought they only made games like cards and marbles.
@@Klonoahedgehog their DC line is really cool if you're 7, which is awesome and a space that has been underserved for a long time.
@@jeremysmith4620 Fuck that. It's just as cool if you're 37 too.
@@jeremysmith4620 What's infuriating is that these 4" DC figures are $8 and feature plenty of articulation. Meanwhile, Hasbro's 3.75" Marvel retro line is $10, 5 points of articulation, and almost impossible to find on the peg.
This forced lack of supply just to create “buzz” is ridiculous. Kenner used to stack the pegs, hell even Hasbro used to back in the early 2000’s. I feel bad for the kids today with little to no complete waves available to them.
Kids don't want these. Its guys in their 40s. That's why they cost $15 instead of $6.
Kids aren't buying them
@odeerg Perhaps that is because they only satisfy 17% of the market. Sell to the other 83% and make more money.
They all want their brand to be as cool as Apple so they can brag and boast to their friends about who they work for. People are messed up! Everyone seeks validation and approval from strangers, and this is the end result.
@@zachary_attackery No, it's because $15 in today's money is the equivalent of $6 back when most people complaining about those prices were kids decades ago. Yes, I miss the days when action figures were $5.00 too, but I also don't lose sight of the fact that amount was in mid 1980's money.
This seems to go back even further than the last 10 years.
In the early 90's, I was just out of High School and working in the toy dept at Target. This was the era when the TMNT figures were blowing up. As far as I can remember, we were putting in orders all the time, and once in a while ONE measly case of TMNT figures would show up on a truck which we would immediately take to the aisle and would immediately be devoured by the Christmas shopping moms.
But even back then I was always perplexed by the business decisions.
You see, ALL the mom's really wanted were the Turtle figures themselves and were not interested in the villian figures. The villian figures were packing the pegs but there were never any Michaelangelo's, Donatello's...etc.
Every case that arrived on a truck contained ONE of EACH Turtle, and the rest was filled with more of the Villians!
I would vent to these frustrated moms that I couldn't understand why these companies would fail to see the obvious solution which was to freeze production on the villians, and just keep churning out boxes of just the Turtles! But this never happened the whole time I worked there. I've always thought that big corporations only cared about profits, but that doesn't jibe with these toy manufacturers. I don't get it. Is it a power thing? Are they like Immortan Joe from Mad Max Fury Road when he walks out and turns the water pipe on for a few seconds?!
Reminds me of:
~•We want more! He-Man & Skeletor!
°-O...ok, we'll come up with more Goodies
& Baddies; be right with ya...
~•no...No...NO. We specifically meant The Main 2, man!
°-øøp$
In this episode Michael dunks on the industry
And The Idiotic (recent) Junkman video.
I agree. I'm really getting sick of limited editions, chase and store/website exclusives, and short packed items. I just want the figure.
I guess no one in the toy industry ever heard the expression "don't bite the hand that feeds you." They seem to enjoy shooting themselves in the foot.
Makes me wonder if the guys who run these companies actually go outside, they never seem to know what’s going on in the real world
The other side of things is big corporates answer to shareholders and boardrooms. Its not like one super boss has the power to actually do anything useful, or has a weak point to exploit like in video games.
Thanks to both of you for defending the guys behind these million dollar companies lol, I’m sure they don’t care about my comment
I’m not even a toycollector. But I like these kind of video’s the best. This is the reason i’m subscribed to your channel.
Star Wars is still worth it.
@@fmsyntheses you are missing the whole point. People don’t collect these as Toys to play with. Most of it has to do with the art of the figurines. That can be the box art or the figurines themselves.
Dioramas are also a consideration too. Buying a Tie Fighter with correct to scale panels is cool as shit. No different than building a model Spitfire or F15 etc etc.
@@fmsyntheses yeah for me. Even as a kid it was about realism of the figurines. Even the box art. I wanted to keep mine packaged at latest by Christmas of the 1986.
Not sure what a Gunpla is though. Check out Only One Kenobi RUclips channel.
Myself I. Like the OG trilogy of Star Wars. But love the new figures with old school movie packaging predominately. For me it the vintage collection in box or cardback. Plus loose modern figures.
1978 to 1985 is to expensive overall for me. I have a few on cardbacks. I will get into them next. All be caught up in 2 years. I stopped in 2004. Now that I got my house and finishing my basement all have more room.
Plus I love the Hot Toys figures.
I use to collect the WW2 stuff. Real history. But I have enough if that. SW is a childhood slash nostalgia plus the OG I appreciate even more now. As an adult.
Hunting for action figures in the wild used to be so much fun and the thrill of finding what you were looking for was king! Nowadays I might as well just give up on the toys and hunt for sasquatch....there's probably a better chance of finding him!
I'm currently camped out at Loch Ness. Heard Nessie's got the real deal on those Neca Turtles in Disguise.
Thank you for making me laugh! 👍😅
Sad but true
So true I remember back when Potf95 came out I was doing 4-5 stores and in a week I had managed to pick the entire wave.
Plus you could find them anywhere
There was plenty and no scalpers
I miss those days when stores used to have plenty of figures in stock. I don't even bother with going to stores anymore.
I’d love to see you discuss this issue with Spector creative
Pretty sure that is who he is referencing regarding "Kids don't buy toys" BS
How about the issue that IS Spector creative?
Everything about Scott "toy guru" Neitlich is the worst.
@@burntvirtue what does everyone have against Spector creative?
@@SharpsBox same I really enjoy his content
I don't even collect toys and I say this is one of the most important videos you'll ever do.
This is the most honest and genuine breakdown of an entire collapse of not only an industry but the fracturing effect that it has caused an entire collecting community as well. Well Done Michael! #Bravo 👏 👏 👏
Let's also point out that the major toy companies are based in CA. Those product managers and buyers and sales guys have not seen an office--or a customer in over a year. They are sitting in the pajamas watching Netflix. They don't give a crap that we're schlepping to every retailer several days a week for things they worked on two years ago. They don't care.
Hasbro's based in Rhode Island.
Mattel in CA
I miss toy shops.
You are right , I life in Germany and I have Sold my Origin stuff because you can't find anything in the normal Retail . I now came to the decision to collect myself only Vintage . It's a lot easier to find the vintage versions than the new, it's a hobby and should be fun instead of stressing you out !
Time for REMCO to make a comeback after all these decades.
Many of your points are valid. As a lifelong toy fan I am tired of the unavailability of these products. The price and stress of getting these products make me think that the day has finally come to stop. After all the price certainly will not drop. Thanks Michael, always informative.
Fans are doing ALL the work...
I’m only 11 and I collect vintage Motu the real ghostbusters and Kenner Star Wars and toys these days besides the new Kenner ghostbuster classics and it’s really a shame and I wish even though I was not around I really do wish toys were as good as they use to be.
You really do offer a unique perspective in the collecting realm of the RUclips market. Thank you for being one of my favorite channels over the last couple years!
The Fortnite toys strike me as something kids don't actually want, but they sell a few because the kids' grandparents go shopping for the kids' birthdays and ask "hey, my grandchild likes Fartknock, I'll buy him this neon teddy bear with an assault rifle that says Ferknerk".
Yup. Only bought a few of the sets because they come with those tiles you can make buildings out of.
They actually don't just sell a few, this is one of the only things I believe Michael gets wrong in the video, and I can't blame him as it's not his particular interest. When he stated that about Fortnite figures not selling I did a grand total of 5 minutes of research to see that Fortnite topped action figure sales in 2019 and was 4th in the action figure category in 2020. There are multiple companies producing the figures now and Hasbro has just piled in as well on top of Jazzwares and Mcfarlane.
So someone is definitely buying them. I think they are cared heavily in retail because they are so popular.
If I used the same logic that would have meant that when I was a kid no one bought GI Joes, but that wasn't the case. They just outsold many of the other brands and got ordered in higher volume more often than other brands.
I'm guessing that's part of the idea with Fortnite. It has been such a cultural juggernaut over the last few years that they were ordered in much higher numbers. Sale through is occuring, but so are restocks where those restocks aren't occuring with more traditional properties. Hard to say.
Someone is buying them though, the sales data definitely seems to back that up. I thought the same thing from encountering the inventory in the wild initially until I got curious after hearing Michael during this video.
spot on!
My Nephews who LOVE Fortnite play it all the time have no interest in the Fortnite toys maybe if it worked like Amiibos or Skylanders they'd like it but a plain action figure for 9-year-olds yeah couldn't care less
"Fartnock"....LOL.....genius
We Need Toys-R-Us back! Nuff said
I highly doubt that would ever happen
At what point does Mattel and Hasbro get drunk off the smell of their own hubris and start trying to pay their employees in hype?
Employee: "Hey, where's my paycheck?"
Hasbro: "You don't need money, just tell everyone you're working on THE hottest and hard to find toy line in the industry!"
Does anybody remember how understocked the Captain Rex Black Series was and then years later he was found in bunches at Ross. People would’ve bought this at retail for full price but for some reason he was found at a discount store.
And now the same figure goes for above $100 on eBay and Mercari and people are STILL buying him for those prices 😂😂😂 Hasbro seems to think that creating artificial scarcity will make their toylines even more appealing and sought after, but all it's doing is making people not care and quit altogether
Becauase hasbro leaves transformers, sw and marvel sitting in warehouses, ive seen this same topic time and again in diff collector groups and podcasts. Its well known that hasbro lets things sit, then you get them next year randomly on clearance.
The start of this video is the entire botch of the Wal-Mart/Hasbro collab of the GI Joe "Retro" Collection in a nutshell. You can't even fully blame the Coof for this as Hasbro has had a tarnished reputation for years!
The G.I. Joe Retro vehicles are the ONLY things I bother to buy. Kind of thankful it's a small line.
Michael, I have a MOTU group on FB and this is all we are talking about. Thank you for shining a light on this issue!
“NECA stuff is trash!”
No it’s not!!
Breaks in box in large numbers before receiving figure and refuses to refund. That trick only works on some figures. Some still break anyway or are broken before you receive them.
The issue is that most figure content creators on RUclips are corporate boot lickers who do nothing to press the issue and tip toe around companies like Hasbro because they don’t want to lose access to interviews and free loot.
It’s become a major issue. Many content creators I have on record just admitting it’s the way it is and oh well. They do nothing to help the fan base and only make things worse.
It needs to end.
Free loot, attention a buck in their pocket from ads and patreon. There is no incentive to bite the hands that feed them. Its shitty, but its opportunistic for sure. The ugly part is people not seeing them as paid marketers and borderline actors/entertainers from day one. We dont complain about folks on the tv doing it, as everybody gets it. But there are still sometimes gullible people who dont understand youtube is big business. Its not about giving anyone a voice or audience, that is just a byproduct.
Realistically, no amount of RUclipsrs complaining would likely make the industry care or change. Unless and until it starts having a serious impact on the bottom line, they're going to do what they do.
Haters: " Oh no, the collectors are complaining again"
Collectors: " If there wasn't so much wrong in the industry to complain about, we wouldn't be complaining so much!"
@dirtyvarmint I think the word "collector" should be replaced with consumer. I just want to walk in a store and buy the thing I want, it sucks when these companies don't want your money!
@@chrisbooth478 That's what I'm talking about. I want the X-men jet transformer period. I do not care if it is a Target exclusive, or if every store carries it. I do not want it because it is rare. I think it is a fun idea for a toy and I like it. If everyone else in the world has it, that would not change how I feel about it. like it and I want to buy it. They should make more than only enough to have two or three per store when they could sell a dozen or so when that many people per store want one. Something that sells out online within 60 seconds is ridiculous. The same thing just happened with the PS5. Many stores finally put a limit on how many per customer or iP address could get one.
Just my opinion, but it does get a bit ridiculous how much adults complain about not being able to buy a lump of plastic in the shape of something they remember from their childhood. Yeah, it's a mild annoyance, but there are so many bigger issues in life.
The Wal-Mart in my town never has much in the action figure toy aisle. It has been this way for the past several years. A new line or wave of a line comes out, and it sells out. It's never put back on the shelves. I think the toy companies need to start fixing distribution to sell their toys. When I was a kid, the toy aisles were well-stocked and had many different toys to choose from.
Amen to this. I rarely see Black Series, Vintage Collection, G.I. Joe classified or retro, or anything really interesting in the action figure department anymore. And when I do, it’s a miracle and I stand there in disbelief! Everything I buy now is online. Ironically due to my channel name, I prefer action figures, but I can’t buy the things in person! Just preorders and Amazon at this point.
I like that you said kids who like fortnight dont buy toy and adults who buy toy dont buy fortnight...nailed it.
Some people will likely blame the pandemic for the poor distribution and product supply, but the fact of the matter is that this has been an issue for years. I think much of these issues could be solved using modern technology and adjusting the supply to meet the demand, and to do so in targeted ways and engage with buyers and consumers in meaningful ways.
Then again, Michael was right about Hasbro Pulse from day one, which would be an effective way to fulfill consumer demands. Instead it's an overpriced mailing list for people to get the same 'Sold Out' message that they could get for free on big box retailer websites. 🙄
Oh and now you PAY for the privilege of not getting toys in that hasbro bullshit store.
Totally agree. I remember going to the stores and the pegs were full and you had to have a system for looking through all the pegs to find the ones you were looking for. And the joy of finding the figure you have been searching for and someone else also finding theirs. I still have dreams and memories of discovering a figure on a peg that is filled with figures.
Thank you so much for your insight. You always break it down perfectly with logic. Love RetroBlasting!
Always enjoy your perspectives. This is part of the reason I’m really selective on what I collect anymore.
Idea for toy companies - continually produce copies of an in-demand toy until demand for it subsides, rather than only making 2,000 total
I like this idea.
Probably your best video, Michael. Hits all the points that truly needed to be addressed. Perfect.
My god I have left a lot of comments..lol but when you watch a video for 20 minutes you make a lot of great points! And when you said the juice is getting not worth the squeeze your 100% on point
the toy industry was murdered by Hasbro the day they put "collector's edition" on a figure and made two billion copies. After they warmed the bargain bin for a few months, their data said "It's profitable to not over produce."
I always thought that was Playmates and Star Trek?
@@boblowes Honestly you can insert whatever franchise you want, the result is still the same
Once again, Michael hits it out of the park. Keep fighting the good fight.
Same situation here in California. There are teams of guys that go from Target to Target buying EVERYTHING to take to the local warehouse toy show that's held every week. There are ZERO toys on the shelves.
Honestly man, I gotta say, at least in my area, I see the Fortnite stuff well stocked, and I see it sell and RESTOCKED regularly. I think it's an instance where Jazwares actually knows how to distribute stuff, not that they're pegwarming, but that they're always well-stocked. Not to mention they're making great products, source material aside.
It's a real shame the state of toy industry right now. Sure Covid could be to blame, I know where I work (the furniture industry) our distribution and supply took a massive hit. But Hasbro themselves have said they were minimally affected... so honestly that can't be used as an excuse. Also this exclusive shit has to end.
Honestly, one solution I feel like could resolve a lot of this is made-to-order preorders. Super7, NECA, Four Horsemen, etc., have done this for a while and it gives everyone a chance to get what they want. Sure it may take a while, but when the preorders are already months out, what's a few more months' wait really?
Great vid man!
Hi, I’m a kid toy collector, and I would like to know where to buy some cool iron man figures, like extrimis iron man, Norman Iron patriot, Mcu Iron patriot,and stuff like that, from a iron man fan, to an iron man fan
the thing that bugs me the most is how can preorders sell out, since preorders should mean that your putting your self on a list for a toy that has yet to be made , not for ones that are made and sitting in a warehouse waiting to be shipped, so if they fix the preorder system everyone will be able to get what they want and buying limits and scalpers will be done ,cause all figures will be made to order
Exactly!!
Ive given up on stores and given up on pre orders. Had so many stores stuff up my orders, cancel them, deliver a year after release or just outright steal my money using it as interest free loan to further their business.
Without online stores it is nearly impossible to collect in Australia. I still havent seen the first MOTU 2020 line in any mainstream brick and mortar stores. Vintage is easier to find than modern.
Same here in Germany.
Nowhere has got them in any chain stores. There is still a chance mid year but i bet we will get wave 1 shelfwarmers and nothing more. Some stock has trickled into import specialiasts but that is it for oz
@@JONNYSORENSEN_AU we get so screwed over here....
Lots of great points in this video. Thanks for getting these notions out there. More supply, better supply chains, more attention to getting products into hands at retail prices in collector condition.
It’s frustrating to find transformers at Ross, Marshall’s, TJ Max etc after spending a year hunting at Walmart and Targets for the same figures. I’ve already spent the premium to buy it online after giving up on the hunt.
It’s not going to matter soon. I’ve almost got every transformer I wanted besides Metroplex and once I’m satisfied with collecting Motu Origins then I’m done with toy hunting and collecting. I’m tired of these shenanigans with limited stock and rising prices. BBTS is king and thank you Retroblasting for highlighting this problem with the industry.
Totally agree with you, kids don't buy toys anymore. Toys are now aimed at the adult collector. This is why when you see shelves are full then it's like stepping into a time machine and going back to the 80's.
I love that meme that says "Hey remember that toy you bought as a kid for $5, well we've made it again for you but now it costs $30". 😂
I would’ve been pissed as a kid trying to buy just one figure costing up words of 20 dollars. When ya come in with a 10 ya got in a birthday card lol
WRONG! I hit 10 stores the other day & the action figure aisles were loaded with little kids. I couldn't even move. I saw a little boy trying to buy a Transformers Cyberverse Hot Rod but his mother told him he didn't have enough money. I was thinking about how everybody says kids don't buy toys anymore & I wished you could've seen what I was seeing.
@@n7bansheebait299 we've lost so many toy stores because kids don't buy enough toys. Even going to our nearest toy store with my daughter she's mostly interested in blind bags, LOL dolls etc. The smaller the toy the better. Unlike Target and Walmart we don't get any of those figs here in Ireland and most have to be bought direct from NECA or Super7. The few Comic Stores have huge markups on the few figs they do manage to get in.
The stories of the guys I follow on RUclips where they confirm how much fuel they've wasted to finally find that one fig they were looking for really doesn't justify the cost of the fig. These companies need to sort out their distribution logistics much better.
@@Sparkykelly1 I think it's the parents fault, they just want electric babysitters
@@MassHystarix partially true. A lot of parents have taken that as the easy route. Our daughter recently got a tablet but uses it mostly in front of us. But she's only allowed on it for a certain amount of time then needs to go play with her physical toys, which she is happy to do. But her taste in toys is also influenced by RUclipsrs so again it's all blindbags and LOL dolls. Thankfully she also loves TMNT so she has her own set of figs, and she's got into WWE so has some figs from that too. 😁
It's amazing that Toy companies don't mind screwing over their customers, but bend over backwards to appease the retailers. It's as if they forgot who they were making their product for in the first place. You are totally right about the distribution/production issues going seriously downhill over the last 10 years. Thanks for another great video !
I've been saying brick & mortar stores are obsolete for years now. Except for groceries, it's a lot better to order online & have your stuff simply delivered to your front door.
I used to work at Walmart and was nightly made to unload the trucks even though I was a salesman. So I always knew when a wave of Star Wars figures (which is what I collect) would arrive. I could set aside every figure I wanted and then go and fill the pegs in the Star Wars section. The majority of those figures, unless we got quantities for an end cap or a special display, would be gone within a week or so and then it’d be a wait of weeks to months for another shipment. By 2010 it was just a single case or two and months waiting once they were gone. They always run through the toys quickly, and neglect to send more, even though they were on order. So the demand is there, still, but there’s no supply. This is how it is over a decade later. I don’t even bother with retail stores anymore because they never have what I want. I just buy from Amazon and role the dice that they’ll be in decent shape or I’ll have to ship it back for another, and the price is the same. I don’t understand how these companies are staying afloat if they don’t make products that people actually want.
You can't even get the MoTU Origins line in Australia. Buying through eBay isn't a good idea either.
We're lucky to see virtually anything at times. I've been lucky enough to find some of the Transformers I'm still looking for.
I still prefer bricks and mortar stores. My local toy store has been pretty good. With them I've been able to get the McFarlane stuff.
The only downside, as you said, is having to buy the entire wave just for half of what I'm after.
Luck to you in finding what you're looking for.
I'm reminded (every time I try to find a G.I.Joe Classified figure or anything at all in Walmart's empty Star Wars section) of the Christmas of 2013, when FROZEN came out . . . but nobody had Elsa dolls. The value of those dolls skyrocketed, people lined up outside TRU or Disney Store before it opened, and the Mattel executive who made the decision to underproduce Anna and Elsa by the tens of thousands lost his job.
It blows my mind that there are people making these corporate decisions today that not only hold on to their positions, but get juicy bonuses after every sales quarter.
That was a somewhat different issue based around the fact that Anna was supposed to be the main character and thus was heavily featured in the merch and Disney didn't realize Elsa would become the breakout character from the film. That was Disney's miscalculation, not Mattel's.
Once again Michael. You hit the nail on the head again. Thank you for doing what you do!!! Keep it up!
I think it's more to the fact that companies are switching to a low volume high margin (demand & supply) rather than a high volume low margin retail. This helps reduce the risk of manufacturing, simply cause what if you manufacture 100,000 products but are not able to sell them out.
Not justifying their actions, but toy companies have automatically priced their toys out of buyer's share of wallet. These toy companies then blame gaming companies saying buyers prefer to buy console or computer games rather than toys. I also find the quality of toys are terrible as compared to what we used to get 20 years ago. Anyway, I don't think this is going to change any time soon. I just stopped buying toys because the price point companies expect me to pay to onboard is just not worth it anymore.
Honestly I'm starting to believe the manufacturers are working with the scalpers these days. I just don't get how a current run product is being scalped on the back toy market.
I'm glad I mostly collect stuff from the early 2010's instead of modern stuff. I had such a headache trying to get a damn Stinky Pete from Mattel's Toy Story line recently. First off, only on Amazon despite not being an exclusive, and then, when I needed to take a moment for the monies, I come back to only find scalper listings on that page, and it doesn't come back into regular priced stock for almost a month(though it was admitably VERY amusing to watch the scalper prices get lower and lower as they realized that nobody was going to pay their outlandish prices), but if I had missed a VERY specific instance of it being back in proper stock, I would still be without one because that listing sold out not even 20 minutes after I secured one. It shipped and arrived a month early, at least, and the box was in good condition, but I can't imagine having to go through that over and over again. Heck, I wanted to collect Jakks Pacific's Sonic line last year, but they STILL have never listed more than a few figures online at their official price, so I gave up.
Toy stock was a managable disaster before, now it's just a shitshow.
Glad somebody brought up that godforsaken Jakks Sonic line, impossible to find without insane scalped prices, absolutely broken industry lol
Im 50 years old and feel so lucky I was in the age range to pick up GI Joes, in 1984 when the product was white hot, all the toys were imaginative, technical and detailed. Big shout out to Larry Hamma who was given a 'sow's ear" of the GI Joe comic book as a full time job. In Comics, writing a toy comic is considered a "lame gig" think: Crystar and the crystal Warriors," How good was Larry's effort? 40 years past, we are still talking about it May 09, 2021. Another big shout out to Artist Hector Garrido the man who painted the action figure box art
@@3Storms Larry Hama also did four issue run called Wulf the Barbarian absolutely awesome one shot book, the company ran out of gas quick, great simple story, great art
Excellent, insightful video, Sir! You've put a face on all the frustration we've been dealing with. I've recently decided to abandon big box altogether and just order my TFs online. I'm too dang old to keep making that arduous journey across the parking lot and all the way to the back of the store only to find empty pegs. It got to the point where I was carrying sticky notes with me so I could leave snarky messages about the empty pegs and how it would be nice if someone would dredge up the modicum of intelligence necessary to fill them.
Even before the evil microscopic villain put a stranglehold on the universe, I couldn't find any of the characters I wanted.
I should have known it was Baron Karza behind burying toy aisles in Fortnite crap and cutting off all the cool stuff...
15:36 I'm a Gen Z I buy toys
But I hate Fortnite
Thank you, Micheal! It makes so much sense now! You solved the problem of several areas! I cannot fathom why you’re not working in the decision making for Mattel or elsewhere!! You even solved the Scalpers hell! 🤯😘😃😍
The two figures that were bought were from Target Employees, using their 10% discount, in which they side-hussle as scalpers on E-bay.
I'm 44 and I would buy every G.I. Joe figure if they were re-released.
When did HASBRO become the toy industry's version of EA Sports(it's in the game)??
This video is on point. Thank you, needed to hear this from somebody else besides in my head. 👍
I'm so glad I'm subscribed to you. :) Your explanation sounds more accurate than the other dude's (I also watched that other video when they posted it and didn't agree with their conclusion either). If this was just a 'kids-not-buying-toys' issue then Hasbro and Mattel wouldn't keep catering to them by stocking shelves with Barbies and Transformers. But it's a combination of adult collectors frenzy-buying-up whatever they can find and the toy industry creating an artificial shortage scenario by pushing out more retail-chained 'exclusives' and limited runs. It's all become an adult toy collector's sport now. I still believe scalpers are part of the problem (a result of covid quarantine and lay-offs). They escalated the shortage and are the reason why it feels more intense this past year than in previous ones. But after hearing your explanation, I think this rings more true.
The price hike is INSANE! I didn't realize this until I started collecting Neca figures, beginning with their Aliens figure line. It used to cost 20-25 bucks. Now? You'll be lucky if it's 30 bucks! It's impossible for today's kids to get into toys since they wouldn't have that money on them, nor would their parents be willing to throw down that kind of cash (especially if they know little Jimmy will break it). The toy themselves aren't designed for grubby, reckless hands either. Today's kids wouldn't be able to play with them. But the worse part is today's kids can't get the action figure they want due to these limited, often retail-chained exclusive runs. After seeing your video, I now realize these weren't incidental decisions. They were intentional decisions... all made by the toy companies to shift focus on adult collectors (the ones WITH the money).
Toy companies like Neca have artificially created a Tickle-Me-Elmo crisis for each of their toy releases. I can't help but feel this bubble will eventually burst. Much like how the comic industry imploded on itself during the 90s when it tried to exclusively focus on comic collectors and create artificial shortage demand with their endless 'limited-edition' runs, I feel like the toy industry is due for an implosion. They're essentially capping-out their potential profits by catering and depending on one specific type of audience. While we got the money, it's impossible to buy something we can't find!
One thing to keep in mind though, after Star Wars' colossal failure that left hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic to gather dust on shelves, toy companies probably rather would SELL everything they make even if it means making a bit less money, than having wasted money by leaving product sitting on shelves. This may be a bigger concern to retailers, but I just feel it's worth mentioning.
Even the "Toy Guru" has talk about the empty pegs problem somehow. Weird fact: In my country, Ecuador, I found the Ghostbusters' kids toy line on the main toy store, I know in USA there's nothing.
I'm sure those figures go for $30 or more a pop over there to. The import tax there is insane. Unless things have changed since my last visit.
@@Flanman113 Remain the same. Seems like some taxes are going to be changed in June when a new president arrives.
@@DanyTV79 I was following that. I'm glad Chavez JR wasn't voted in, that may have wrecked the country for sure.
Your comment about the greyskull fist fight is spot on too! I went in to grab one and a guy tried stealing it from me while I was doing the self checkout. Grabbed it right off my register
@@opticracer3927 nope not at all. What’s crazy is how easy they are to get now
Michael, thanks for always speaking out and keeping the toy community in mind.
I am so tired of hearing the BS excuses from Hasbro. When you have LEGO at one end of the company size spectrum and McFarlane at the other end, and both of them are doing a better job on distribution, supply/demand, etc than Hasbro then their excuses start to fall pretty damn short.
I saw where Toy Guru blamed collectors for buying up all the SKUs that were designed for the kid market (ie., one case of figures is supposed to last a while on the shelf). However, my Walmart has been empty pegged since before Christmas. It seems like if you run out of stock on a popular item, you REstock. That'd make sense to me, but alas no.
FWIW many big box retailers restock, especially for certain products like toys, on a fixed schedule not necessarily as demand indicates, which I believe is what Scott was talking about there.
I enthusiastically appreciate the content and perspective presented on this channel. I love the toy collecting hobby but it is becoming something crazy. An educated opinion that holds so much weight..thank you good sir
Hi. I own a hobby shop and we're experiencing the same problems, but with model kits. It boils down to the fact that everything is made off-shore and that the new countries making the "toys" are delaying release times and amounts. For example, I've had to wait four to six months after the announced release date on Carrera Slot Cars. For example, the 1977 Pontiac was suppose to be released in June, but didn't get on shelves until November of the following year.
From what I discovered using the Carrera example, the product is designed in Austria, then the plans are sent to China to be produced into toys with a release date and time frame for production. The factory in China then sets up their own schedule and delays the original toy companies. The Chinese manufacturer can also "sell" the idea to other Chinese factories and have them produce it instead, thus causing a big ball of confusion for the original toy company. Also, there's a lot of "We asked you to make this, and you made that" type of thing going on, as well as missing tooling and product. - Also, there are delays in over-seas shipping. The "rules" that work at home are not the same rules in a different country.
That's why you will see that the smaller domestic manufacturers that make their own product in their home country, like Atlantis Models and Salvinos JR Models are able to get their products manufactured and delivered on time.
Pre-orders from Target and Walmart are not guaranteed. Sometimes when they have a pre-order, the pre-order is gone in a matter of minutes. Some stores get more stock than others. Some stores never see the product. Neca is the worst.Hasbro wants the demand to go up so they can release a re-paint and make money off the mold. Instead of two cases retailers get one case. Some get the stock late.
I have a good friend who works for Walmart as the receiving supervisor. We had a conversation about this very topic. He states that it's not even the distributors oh, they have the stock at the warehouses. They have an automated ordering system that does not allow them and they are actively told not to manually order stock. So I don't even think the toy makers it's the retail stores.
Yea, its mostly the stores. They order the product, they are the customer in that instance. I worked with Walmart as a vendor selling product to them. They have all the control and tell you what they want and how much to make. What makes matters worse is the department heads are constantly trying to move up in the company and may only be in a department like toys for a year or two, so then you have " the new guy" who either doesn't know what he's doing or wants to change things just to show off his ideas.
Toy companies would love to sell more I'm sure but the Targets and Walmarts have to order them. There is the whole "kids don't buy toys anymore" thing and stores are ordering less toys accordingly, but more recently they seem to be catching on to adult collectors and hopefully things will improve. I remember the days when message boards not long ago were saying adult collectors are only 3-5% of toy market, now everyone says kids don't want toys... Hope things get better but it takes time.
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@@Zen_walker😂
I've given up on the War for Cybertron line. It's not just the distribution, it's the fact that a wave is gone within a few months, bar a few peg warmers. There was a time when a wave was consistently on shelves for a couple of years.
The characters that are in the cartoon are no longer available to buy but the time it airs. No wonder kids aren't into toys, when they can't even get the figures they're watching.
The Legacy Collection sat in my walmart for years as a kid. I was always looking for TFU Shaak Ti, as a kid i wasn't aware of how crazy rare she was. After about a year of always seeing the same toys on the shelves every trip, i gave up because i was a kid who couldn't understand why the toys were always the same. I started collecting again a few years ago and finally got my TFU Shaak Ti for a pretty penny on Ebay for my birthday but hey, thats collecting now, I GUESS. Love RB, keep up the awesome work Michael!
Nobody in the toy business today can beat the heyday of the 70's and 80's. Kenner, Marx, Matel, etc, had it nailed down with regular stores. In those days, the toy section of a department store had dedicated toy stores beat.
These are on CLEARANCE now January 21 2022. Just need a little patience. You don't have to have it on the first day or week.
Exactly. We're in a weird time, so delays are expected.
Excellent video. Hope these toy companies are listening!
I was talking to the department manager of walmart in my little town a few days ago. About the Star Wars Retro line, among other things. He said that he put in for a bunch of cases, because he has had multiple people ask about them. But, according to their inventory listing they aren’t even slated get one case. Only the bigger stores. He said it was the same with the Masters and 3.75 Joes. So, Hasbro and Mattel aren’t even shipping enough product to give every store a case.
This is also happening in the cult & Horror Blu Ray industry as well.