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[akpayne]

I have been hearing rumblings through the grape vine that Hasbro isn't in a good place financially.  They have changed they way suppliers can place orders, basically cash up front of pre-orders.  I have heard from two reliable sources that if you are placing pre-orders on any upcoming waves go with a place like amazon, that doesn't ask for cash up front as the waves might not be fulfilled.

This totally sucks, but based on the recent public news from Hasbro about financial losses, mixed earning reports, and layoffs it isn't really shocking to hear.
Also why are they licensing all of their product to other companies?  Short term gain and quick revenue?

[canprime]

From what I have read and heard Hasbro under Chris Cocks is moving away from manufacturing, which is why they are licensing out a lot of their properties.  Apparently they want to be more of a license holder and let other companies handle the production (and the inherent costs with that). 

Don't know if that is true, or not, but it would make sense with how things have gone in the past year with all the new licensing agreements that were announced.   I imagine their big, in house, brands will be the last to go fully licensed if that is what they are doing.

Overall with Classified I am not too worried about preordering because so much of it ends up available everywhere, and even on sale.  Yes there are exclusives, but general retail product is still pretty easy to find.   Guess we'll see how this year shapes up.

[akpayne]

I also get the impression that Hasbro Canada will become a thing of the past.

[B]

simply mitigating risk.
By licensing it out they receive money from others and don't have to put anything out for manufacturing. Its a smart business decision after losing a ton on their movie studio stuff. Honestly the whole market of toys seems to be shifting away from mass production, i would guess because the sales numbers just aren't sufficient for a lot of lines that aren't geared towards young kids.

Time for some new companies or new properties to get started, but yeah, that risk for them is huge. Money up front will probably be the new norm.

[akpayne]

I could see 3rd party move in.  I think this is just a toe in the water product.
https://tfsource.com/fans-hobby/ve-01-air-eagle-112-scale-fans-hobby-vehicle-elite/

[canprime]

I could see 3rd party move in.  I think this is just a toe in the water product.
https://tfsource.com/fans-hobby/ve-01-air-eagle-112-scale-fans-hobby-vehicle-elite/

It's tough because Fans Hobby has been doing this with Transformers for some time now.

However it looks like the Joe team (whoever makes the decisions, not the design team) isn't willing to let them go on without some repercussions.  Apparently Fans Hobby received a C&D about the design and that is why they made the small changes they did.  I would assume it is because the Joe team has a Classified Sky Hawk in the works. 

Will either one eat into the sales of the other?  Maybe, but on the Transformers side of things it hasn't reallyl hurt either side so far.   I imagine the same will hold true here.  The only question is will there be any long term value in either offering?