Hasbro's masterpiece strategy is so frustrating

[herooftheday316]

Hey all

Guess I just need to vent a while and maybe try and understand how this whole thing works. Takara has been working really hard on the masterpiece line but I just don't understand where Hasbro is going with their strategy. I really wish they would come out and say what is going to happen with Sideswipe, Prowl, etc. It just seems that between announcing MP figures only once per year at SDCC or Bottom and the fact that they only release these (for the most part) as Toys R Us exclusives makes me believe they are losing out on possible revenue. I am still not sure why they can't have these toys available at at least one online retailer. Could the money they get from having single store exclusives actually make up for the lost revenue and poor distribution that comes with a single retailer strategy. I guess ultimately I wish there was more transparency from Hasbro especially in regards to the MP line. That plus I'm in Québec so it makes TRU.ca the worst possible choice of as the website won't even ship here due to packaging laws.
Can anyone logic this strategy out for me?
- Mike

[xueyue2]

My theory is that Habro's market department's director is a big scrapper himself. So he setup a very poor distribute system to test the demand, and sell the good stuffs on ebay!
Pure Evil~~~~~~~~~

[nicoath]

Originally Posted by herooftheday316

Hey all

Guess I just need to vent a while and maybe try and understand how this whole thing works. Takara has been working really hard on the masterpiece line but I just don't understand where Hasbro is going with their strategy. I really wish they would come out and say what is going to happen with Sideswipe, Prowl, etc. It just seems that between announcing MP figures only once per year at SDCC or Bottom and the fact that they only release these (for the most part) as Toys R Us exclusives makes me believe they are losing out on possible revenue. I am still not sure why they can't have these toys available at at least one online retailer. Could the money they get from having single store exclusives actually make up for the lost revenue and poor distribution that comes with a single retailer strategy. I guess ultimately I wish there was more transparency from Hasbro especially in regards to the MP line. That plus I'm in Québec so it makes TRU.ca the worst possible choice of as the website won't even ship here due to packaging laws.
Can anyone logic this strategy out for me?
- Mike

It's most likely a marketing scenerio. A poor one mind you, but nonetheless. The exclusivity to TRU is to limit quantity since on a mass release the MP figures may not appeal to the current target market (besides us). But Hasbro hasn't mentioned that they're not releasing them so there's still some hope

Plus now I know what to get you for a house-warning gift

[xueyue2]

Originally Posted by nicoath

Plus now I know what to get you for a house-warning gift

a house-warning gift？
“Alert, alert, nicoath is coming to visit master's house!"
'PATHETIC FOOLS!!! THERES NO ESCAPE!!!'

"Autobots, depend your position!"

[herooftheday316]

Originally Posted by xueyue2

a house-warning gift?
“Alert, alert, nicoath is coming to visit master's house!"
'PATHETIC FOOLS!!! THERES NO ESCAPE!!!'

"Autobots, depend your position!"

For a Phase Sixer he isn't as scary as you think.

[chovner]

Originally Posted by herooftheday316

Hey all

Guess I just need to vent a while and maybe try and understand how this whole thing works. Takara has been working really hard on the masterpiece line but I just don't understand where Hasbro is going with their strategy. I really wish they would come out and say what is going to happen with Sideswipe, Prowl, etc. It just seems that between announcing MP figures only once per year at SDCC or Bottom and the fact that they only release these (for the most part) as Toys R Us exclusives makes me believe they are losing out on possible revenue. I am still not sure why they can't have these toys available at at least one online retailer. Could the money they get from having single store exclusives actually make up for the lost revenue and poor distribution that comes with a single retailer strategy. I guess ultimately I wish there was more transparency from Hasbro especially in regards to the MP line. That plus I'm in Québec so it makes TRU.ca the worst possible choice of as the website won't even ship here due to packaging laws.
Can anyone logic this strategy out for me?
- Mike

Lol... stuff like this makes me real happy we moved away from Montreal 12 years ago. Beautiful city, but the french is just rammed down everyone's throats until you choke on it, in this case to the point where a Province in Canada can't get shipping from a company in Canada...
This reminds me of a heated conversation my dad was having with some friends around the time of one of the Referendums, saying that the rest of Canada should just line the border around Quebec with C4 and sink it, or sacrifice the Maritimes in order to be able to push Quebec into the Atalantic to float around, and then try to pull the other maritime provinces back with tug boats... lol they were all drinking at the time of this conversation .
ANYWAYS...
Yeah the MP release strategy sucks overall, I've been lucky thus far for being able to find each one and during a sale, but I can sympathize for those who end up never seeing some of these (MP Grimlock, MP Prime, soon to be MP Soundwave).

[Protoman]

Keep in mind Masterpiece toys are made for the Japanese exclusively, it's totally up to Hasbro at that point if they want to import anything.

When we get a MP WHATEVER it does not mean it was created with the intent of a Stateside release.

[thebobkat]

There are also probably a lot of licensing and legal hoops they have to jump through (especially with the cars) to get them released on the North American side too, and sometimes that cost may not be worth it for them to pursue (or they may just not be able to come to an agreement with the licensor).

[General Tekno]

Not to mention concern about the items selling.

The smaller ones would probably need to be priced like Alternators to sell, and they lack crossover appeal to model car people given they don't have interiors/working doors.

Never mind even when Alternators launched, I imagine the market wasn't quite as "you make what we want in our stores" as it is now.

[CobraCommander]

Dude... just get the Takara releases. The price difference is more but at least your chances of getting them is better.