Hasbro To Lay Off Almost 20% of its workforce Amid Continued Slumping Toy Sales

On 10/26/2024 at 9:38 PM, MagnaPrime said:

But cox will get his bonuses. Last year and then hopefully we get a good ceo in charge.

Cocks. I'm not being facetious or inappropriate here because I'm a mod and can get away with it. That's really the guy's name: Chris Cocks.

But cox will get his bonuses. Last year and then hopefully we get a good ceo in charge.

I literally felt sick seeing it happen last time, and this time again is no different. I worked for a different company that was at it's height in the late 80s through the 90s and by the time I came in to work, it was a matter of months before massive layoffs happened. At least the toy industry does have options for creators to grow and develop in, but losing a job like that unexpectedly is horrendous.

2 hours ago, JayC said:

Problem with your argument and has nothing to do with being an apologist, but your applying one small area of Hasbro with the overall performance of the company and that just doesnt work. Action figures for adult collectors barley even rates in the big picture of Hasbro. I'm listening to their Q3 earnings conference call now and action figures for adults hasnt even been mentioned. Things like Wizards of the Coast, Magic the Gathering, Monopoly Now, Play-Doh are where their profits come from and where their focus is.

They have for sometime been moving to a model where they produce less action figures and instead license those brands more and more out to other smaller companies. Its not that adults aren't buying action figures but not in the kind of numbers a major corporation needs to be profitable. Building Blocks stuff IE LEGO is the biggest performer in the world of toys these days and those prices are really high.

I get you are only interested in things that effect you directly and no one likes high prices, but adults still buy plenty of action figures despite the so called bad economy, its just not and never has and likely never will be in the numbers to offset the loss of kids who no longer buy those kinds of toys because today's generation of kids are into other things like digital and such.

I appreciate the grander lesson. I guess I was being too myopic (as well raging frustration).

Cheers Jay

This does feel like a golden age for adult collecting (though I'm less into the third party stuff than some). Just this year I got several dream figures (Retro Cobra Commander and Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel being the two most important). And I feel like we're on the cusp of getting some great things from Marvel (at least) in the next year or two.

But I do worry about the future of some of these licenses. If the Disney licenses leave Hasbro, even if they go to someone more in tune with fans (although we've seen how that works with McFarlane), it will not be a good development. I don't particularly want to start over with Marvel figures or 1:12 Star Wars stuff. If Classified ended today, I wouldn't be that upset considering what I already have. But the Legends figures being made today are so much better than the ones being made just a few years ago that I really would like Hasbro to keep pumping out new versions of some of the A and B listers that still have pretty poor construction.

We will see I guess.

44 minutes ago, Jscott991 said:

Thank you for all the work you do translating this stuff and keeping us up to date on toy news.

No problem. And for the record the layoffs suck. John Warden had been with Hasbro for 25yrs. The day before being laid off he thought he was going to London to reveal new GIJoe product at MCM, so its pretty clear he was caught completely by surprise. Having been laid off from a job myself before I can tell you that feeling sucks big time.

That being said this Hobby of adult action figure collecting is really in somewhat of a golden age period. No the future of it I don't think lies within the large publicly traded corporations but within the small companies and independent guys. From where I sit their are far more opportunities for people like John to succeed in this industry than their ever was before. It likely means branching out on his own and less of a security blanket, but opportunities are there for people like him to land on his feet and move forward, possibly doing better than if he had stayed at a Hasbro.

Thank you for all the work you do translating this stuff and keeping us up to date on toy news.

25 minutes ago, Jscott991 said:

Hasbro, Mattel, McFarlane, and others certainly put a lot of effort into products and lines that some people continually tell me don't matter. Webcasts, conventions, enormous numbers of PR people (every brand seems to have a communications person for some reason), etc.

I do think pushing prices on a lot of their products from 2020-2022 has hurt these companies over all. That's not just toys. Prices seems to have gone over a tipping point where increases have brought negative returns.

McFarlane is not in the same category as Hasbro or Mattel and in fact no Hasbro and Mattel do not put the effort into these things you seem to think they do. Those companies are HUGE and yes its certainly the thing we here focus on but its a drop in the bucket for these publicly traded companies. Sorry it just is. And even licenses like Star Wars and Marvel, we of course here focus on things like Marvel Legends and Black series, but their are a ton of other kind of products that get produced in supporting those licenses.

Hasbro, Mattel, McFarlane, and others certainly put a lot of effort into products and lines that some people continually tell me don't matter. Webcasts, conventions, enormous numbers of PR people (every brand seems to have a communications person for some reason), etc.

I do think pushing prices on a lot of their products from 2020-2022 has hurt these companies over all. That's not just toys. Prices seem to have gone over a tipping point where increases have brought negative returns.