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1701D

Member Since 16 Jan 2015
Offline Last Active Apr 07 2018 01:36 PM
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Posts I've Made

In Topic: Toys R Us stores closing down

07 April 2018 - 01:34 PM

Ugh, does it really matter Whirlygig? Because if it matters to you then fine but you know what... who cares.

Toys R Us for whatever reason is gone, the crisis here is that there are thousands of people out there whove lost their jobs and their livelihoods and here we are, the same ridiculous rabble of men who are perhaps too old to be buying toys for themselves at TRU and who are certainly too old to be getting so worked up about the opinions of others, arguing over some irrelevant nonsense about whether or not one toy company produces cheaper tat than the other...

You know what guys, Ive been thinking about this for a while now, probably a little too long to be honest but I think Im actually done right now.

I have come here often and been outspoken, right, wrong, ridiculous and perhaps some here think of me as rude, and ok thats fine but you know, that isnt who I am in reality, this place just winds me the hell up as does internet fans in general and for that reason Im out, this forum brings out the worse in me so, thats it.

Wait for me to close the door on this party before you break out the champagne 😉

In Topic: Diamond Select at Toy Fair 2018

07 April 2018 - 02:09 AM

Im not entirely sure what Diamond Selects plan is here. Are they holding off showing anything because of licensing issues or finalising a deal or are they genuinely not sure they are going to do anymore Star Trek product? Are they looking at Kickstarter as a way to get this stuff to the people who want it? (Personally I think Kickstarter is a crazy stupid idea) or are they waiting for The Toys That Made Us to air on Netflix? Were bound to get a hefty segment about DSTs Star Trek line which could reveal the future of it too...

I dont think theyre done with Star Trek though, I think things are happening, its just that theyre either unable to respond or unwilling to show anything due to not being ready to show anything.

In Topic: Toys R Us stores closing down

06 April 2018 - 07:20 PM

 
My thread of discussion here with you so far has been to call out your nonsense claim that Hasbro toys do not compare well to Mattel toys, not to tie any of that in with anything about TRU's situation.



Where exactly do I claim to say that Hasbro toys do not compare to Mattel toys?

Nonsense? Its just an opinion so chill out. If I recall, I said that Mattels Jurassic World Toys are far superior to that of Hasbro's; meaning Hasbros Jurassic World Toys. My general opinion of Hasbro has been rather critical of late however as their TOYS FOR KIDS have been lacking and have felt cheap when compared to their 2008 offering - anyone remember the Big Millennium Falcon - thats not to say that ALL of their lines are rubbish because certainly their lines geared towards collectors are anything but and as you pointed out, the 5 inch Avengers line, albeit something smaller than anything they do for Star Wars currently, is rather good. Hasbros Star Wars toys for kids are really terrible though.

I feel Mattel (the second biggest toy company to Lego) are doing better things with their toys for kids than Hasbro right now. The Imaginex lines are brilliant, their Jurassic World line looks really a lot of fun and driven by variety and quality, HotWheels, Barbie and Mega Construx, Mega Bloks... the only area I think Mattel are behind in is their DC lines, but if WB got their act together and finally sorted out their film franchises, perhaps Mattel would feel a bit better at making a proper go of their Multiverse line.
 

If you want to get on with TRU finger-pointing, well, consider that here in the US, even though Star Wars has WAY TOO MANY different active lines (which even an idiot can see...I don't know why nobody at TRU could see it...for crying out loud there was a Hot Wheels and a Titanium line simultaneously for a couple years -- yet another department where Hasbro trumped Mattel, AHEM)....... they still only accounted for about one aisle of your typical TRU store, out of countless (I dunno maybe 50-60?) other aisles...  So unless they were stockpiling Star Wars in the back to a ridiculous degree, which who knows, they might have been, it seems a bit silly to pin it all on Star Wars.

Ive not once pinned it all on Star Wars but I have suggested that one of the main reasons for Toys R Uss decline is their over reliance on Star Wars toys selling at the rate they sold at 10 years ago. I think Im not far off when I say toy stores in general put a lot of their eggs into the Star Wars basket when The Force Awakens released. That backfired as a year later, shops like TRU still had a massive stock of TFA toys still clogging up one or more aisles with even more toys for Rogue One coming in hot... it was and has been overkill with Star Wars and a huge reason as to why we havent got as much for Last Jedi and Solo.

So no Im not pinning all the blame on Hasbro and Star Wars, in fact none of the blame really. While Hasbro toys for kids are lacking the quality they had 10 years ago, the rest of the blame is on TRUs poor management; they were so out of touch with what kids wanted that they ordered a ton of Star Wars stock and stocked toys that kids just arent as Into now as they once were.

They failed to change with a changing market, they didnt act quick enough and its those who are working in their stores that are now paying the price for such a massive error in judgement, not just relying on Star Wars to save them, but Lego (another company whove seen sales decline) and other massive toy lines that were once big money makers but are now not as big.

TRUs downfall both in the US and the UK was due to incompetence in the board rooms, huge losses in recent years due to over ordering and a lack of interest from consumers, huge greed on the part of their executives who will pick apart whats left of TRU and run with the money, leaving those whove worked at store level making the sales and greeting the customers, without work, without a pension or any finciancial aid, and an unwillingness or just out of sheer ignorance and greed to accept that parents were no longer interested in visiting these large soulless warehouses and that kids were no longer playing with traditional toys but were moving to new technology and toys that offered some kind of interactivity.

As for HotWheels vs Titanium... what line still exists today... hmmm... oh yes! HotWheels...

As for Hasbro... as a complete sidebar to this topic but perhaps still as a result of TRU going under, I cant really see Hasbro staying around for much longer. Give it a few more years and theres likely to be another massive casualty of a collapsing toy industry. Like Kenner, I can see it being bought out by either another toy company like Mattel or by Disney (of which was a rumour a couple of years ago) as it becomes survival of the fittest toy manufacturer.

All of Hasbros lines that are more geared towards kids have lost so much of what made them popular for both kids and collectors. Their comparatively speaking smaller Marvel toy line perhaps being the one exception to that rule but not immune to it. The biggest toy lines they produce toys for right now; Star Wars, Transformers... both have suffered in recent months and years in a decline in sales and that IMO is down to there being such a divide in both price but also quality between their basic budget kids range and their collectors range. The day that toys just used to be toys for either kid or collector is kind of gone.

The 5 POA figures and vehicles lack detail and quality most collectors look for and the collector lines are often too expensive for parents to justify spending on kids who are more into playing video games.

Put aside what the reason might or might not have been for TRUs closure, one thing that is certain; the toy industry has and will continue to have to change in order for it to survive in a world where kids just arent interested in playing with ships or action figures anymore.

In Topic: Toys R Us stores closing down

06 April 2018 - 06:18 AM

Ok then, maybe you should go check out the basic line of Infinity War figures, which are so good they almost have this adult collector contemplating shifting gears to pay half as much and collect ACTUAL TOYS FOR KIDS instead...


Good for you, Id agree with you! The Infinity war basic figures do look good, reminiscent of Kenners old Jurassic Park figures, if there was ever a toy line to contemplate your very existence, it would certainly be the Marvel Avengers Infinity War basic figures. In these financially uncertain times I dont blame you for wanting to shift gears and return to collecting that which you most certainly had as a child. I myself are contemplating the excellent Mattel Jurassic World line! Those toys look great!

However, I would be keen to see how well those basic 5 inch figures are selling to kids and not just the dozen fanboys visiting this site but regardless I was talking about Star Wars, not Marvel - it wasnt the lack of sales of Marvel toys that helped (not caused) the closure of TRU.

Star Wars is also a far bigger toy line than Marvel and pretty much anything. Toy companies like TRU bank a lot on Star Wars toys actually selling so to use Marvel toys as some kind of an excuse seems redundant.

In Topic: Diamond Select at Toy Fair 2018

06 April 2018 - 06:11 AM

Whats KS?