Why Hasbro is missing the boat...

[SuperflyTNT]

I was on Ebay over the last few days and I noticed that there were over a thousand auctions for HS product. People are paying ridiculous sums for stuff that retailed for 10$ in stores.

So, seeing as there's demand, and it's CLEAR demand, I believe that Hasbro is missing the boat. I can virtually guarantee that if they changed the model to more of a hobby game model rather than a mass market model, with a price increase to $17 or so, and they did a test run of reprinting maybe 5,000 units of Wave 4, they would sell in record time.

Hell, they could sell it primarily through their own website to lower the costs to consumers while retaining maximum margins. When people are clamoring to buy your old product and you have the means to reprint it with no additional engineering work, you should go for it.

So, Hasbro, I know you're not reading, but please, remove your head from your collective rear ends and reprint popular waves such as Wave 4, the Tundra, Lava, Jungle, and Road sets. People will buy them, even for 10$ more than was last priced. It's very clear to me.

A strong secondary market is a very strong sign that demand still exists.

[nyys]

Yep, reprints make a lot of sense, it's a win win for them, but I guess they can't be bothered or simply don't care.

[SuperflyTNT]

There's definately risk, I can grant that, but I think it's a winning proposition.

[Master of Disaster]

While there is some risk to it, I am quite sure those reprints would sell extremly fast.

It'd be great if they re-released those waves and expansions you mentioned. But, will they? Sadly, no. I just don't see them doing it.

[nate the dawg]

FLGS-available reprints would be sweet, even at a higher cost. And, while I still believe that the game will come back, it's my supposition that it won't be for a few more years, when the economy has "bounced back" a bit, and (hopefully) has shifted more toward production/manufacturing.

[Yodaking]

Yup, mentioned the same thing quite a while back. Reprinting the old waves, those waves that have already paid for themselves in terms of development cost on their first run, in small print runs should have been an easy way to cash in while keeping the game 'officially' alive. Then once Obama is gone, the economy can come back to life and they can consider investing in making all new waves of product once again. The flat out decision to suddenly end a game designed from the very beginning to be reprinted without first milking it for a while was an extremely poor one. Pushing out 3 new waves & a new MS all in one calendar year during a weak economy was another poor choice. They could have easily spread that amount of new product out over 2-3 years with reprinted waves mixed in if they wanted to keep the brand profitable.

[Son of Arathorn]

Reprints make sense. We all understand this. Why doesn't Hasbro? Dund Crippled their reasoning and logic skills. That, or just, y'know, WotC. Thats my unbelievably strange

[Killometer]

Lessee, sets I would buy as soon as it hit the shelf at 17 bucks a pop...

Wave 2

• Knights and the Swog Rider x2
• Minions and Drones x3

Wave 3

• Heroes of Nostralund x1
• Kilts and Commandos x1
• Monks and Guards x3

Wave 4

• Lawmen and Samurai x1
• Greeks and Vipers x3
• Soulborgs and Elves x2

Wave 6

• Shades and Orcs x4
• Archers and Kyrie x3
• Zombies x3

So that's 26 boosters minimum, totalling $442, plus I'd buy at least one Tundra and another Jungle set, and I'd probably still want to pick up more Knights, Aubriens, Drones, Sentinels, Heavies...So maybe I should hope that it stays out of print.

[worldsenemy]

Originally Posted by Killometer

Lessee, sets I would buy as soon as it hit the shelf at 17 bucks a pop...


Wave 2

• Knights and the Swog Rider x2
• Minions and Drones x3

Wave 3

• Heroes of Nostralund x1
• Kilts and Commandos x1
• Monks and Guards x3

Wave 4

• Lawmen and Samurai x1
• Greeks and Vipers x3
• Soulborgs and Elves x2

Wave 6

• Shades and Orcs x4
• Archers and Kyrie x3
• Zombies x3

So that's 26 boosters minimum, totalling $442, plus I'd buy at least one Tundra and another Jungle set, and I'd probably still want to pick up more Knights, Aubriens, Drones, Sentinels, Heavies...So maybe I should hope that it stays out of print.

Now that's a hit to the wallet! I would be in the same boat. I'd buy so much more terrain.

[Killometer]

Originally Posted by worldsenemy

Now that's a hit to the wallet! I would be in the same boat. I'd buy so much more terrain.

Yeah, that's a pretty big chunk of change, but considering that it would easily cost 3 times that on epay (at current rates) I wouldn't feel quite so bad.

[Xn F M]

Heroscape simply doesn't fit into Hasbro's current business model.

Someone posted a link to Hasbro's shareholder profit statment/end of year buisness anaylsis pamphlet thing in another thread and in that pamphlet it specifically states that Hasbro is shifting to a brand-based marketing strategy. They want big, recognizable brands that they can push based on name alone (G.I.Joe, Transformers, I'm sure eveyone's noticed all the new NERF Super-Soakers); Heroscape is not one of those products.

Sure it's obvious that there is money to be made with Heroscape, it's just not going to be Hasbro that does it (at least until their brand-based marketing stops becoming profitable). Maybe if the sale rumors play out another company will step in and move things forward, but these things can take a long time to fully play out.

[lefton4ya]

So how about MarvelScape, TransformersScape, StarWarsScape, SpongeBobScape, and MyLittlePrincessScape? Then they can use their licenses and cross0market it better.