Is Plastic Free Packaging Biting HASBRO in the Arse?

Greetings All!

Today I want to talk about the Decision HSABRO made to go "Plastic Free Packaging" by 2023, and how it seems to be playing out to date. I will use the USA as the basis for this observation as little of this product has arrived in big box down under yet. 

The sentiment from collectors has been somewhat negative towards this decision as a lot of the purchasers of these product lines are collectors who value the box art in addition to the figure it contains often opting to keep the item unopened and displayed as such usually in some form of protective case. So if you can't see the figure what is the point? In my opinion if this was given expert consideration, the better option for HASBRO would have been to identify its collector lines and its children’s lines and treated them differently.

Lets look at children’s lines the style of figures and packaging used there should be graphic eye-catching and appealing to the age appropriate  target consumer. Hidden twist ties in an open style plastic free package would certainly suit this market, similar to what they have tried to achieve with their cheaper offerings with poor result to date.

Then there is the adult collectables lines like Star Wars Black Series and Vintage Collection and the Marvel Legends lines and to some degree Transformers: I say some degree here because transformers are usually removed from packaging by nature of what they do, transform. In the first instance here we need to ask, is the decision to remove plastic to reduce waste. If so then what was the point, as a large percentage of buyers do not open them, hence no waste. Secondly, to address the opener waste issue, simply replacing the existing plastic used with recyclable PET plastic, which the protective case manufacturers have been using for years, and adding a " please consider the environment when disposing of this plastic" label on the rear would kick all the goals in this area. If we truly need to remove the plastic from the packaging, then best option may be a box style similar to the "Star Wars Publishing" line box (NECA Style), with the opening front flap that has character specific artwork and an opening option to allow the figure to be seen with or without recyclable PET plastic if it is still a sticking point.

But enough waffle from me, lets look at some facts. This year has seen Target in the USA drastically reduce its Marvel offerings, whether this is a result of the new package we do not know, but this is what we do know. The new box figures they do have at this stage are the new thor  movie line, a current release movie that is performing reasonably at the box office, but that is not transitioning to the toy line. Target are not displaying these figures in the mainline toy isle, they are end cap displayed away from the action figure isle, and not only that they are being clearanced. So why is this significant, to understand you need to know about endcap placement, recommended retail pricing, sales and clearances. This a complicated area so lets do it by point explanation and summary.

1. End cap placement is promotional and paid for at an additional premium to isle placement by the manufacturer.

2. Sale items are discounts offered by the manufacturer whereby the vendor (Target) are given cash credits to the value of the RRP to stock the item. in other words if the RRP is $40 and it is on sale for $30 the manufacturer gives the store a guaranteed $10 toward every sale as compensation to stock poor performing items, so the vendor keeps thier profit margin.

3. Clearance is the store say this is shit get it out of my store as quickly as possible to allow us to put stuff that people want in its place, selling at substantial losses.

So now we know that, you can draw your own assumptions: the latest Marvel figures (in the new packaging where you don't see the figure), released in line with the latest blockbuster movie in HASBROs' most successful Marvel market  the USA, is being clearanced!

I will do a follow up article on consumer trends in toys in the next few days to add some substance to these claims but in the mean time think on it for yourselves and see what you come up with.