Hasbro's Starting Line Up

[Night Wolf]

Ive said this before but we need lebron with a miami heat jersey....instant buy from me

[thewyldman]

Ive said this before but we need lebron with a miami heat jersey....instant buy from me

Yeah I wish it wasn’t Lakers Lebron but eh

[NEW BATMAN]

same, need miami heat lebron and need dwyane wade too. if lebron goes into deeper discount i might get two and repaint one into the heat colors.

[EnigmaticClarity]

Does anyone see any indicators from Hasbro as to whether $29.99 is the new price point or a temporary sale? I'm guessing it's just temporary until after the NBA All-Star game in three weeks.

[Night Wolf]

same, need miami heat lebron and need dwyane wade too. if lebron goes into deeper discount i might get two and repaint one into the heat colors.

Good idea about repainting. oh hell yeah. if they ever do a Dwayne Wade thats even more valuable to me!
plus black paint is the easiest to paint over on a figure, so thats good.

[PurpleLantern]

No MLB Baseball yet?

Is NBA current players or retired players too? I would guess retired players need separate deals.

I would hope lowered price is a response to poor sales due to high price. Haven't seen any of these in stores. Is this Hasbropulse exclusive?

[theflicker]

No MLB Baseball yet?

Is NBA current players or retired players too? I would guess retired players need separate deals.

I would hope lowered price is a response to poor sales due to high price. Haven't seen any of these in stores. Is this Hasbropulse exclusive?

Not yet.
Current.
Yes.

Sucks because baseball is my sport. I hope the line doesn't die before they get there.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[PurpleLantern]

I just want a Super Saiyajin Barry Bonds with huge elbow guard. Maybe some other MLB'ers too.

[Nebraska]

I want a Charles Barkley to pit against my S.H. MonsterArts Godzilla.

[TheSameIdiot]

I ended up ordering a Lebron and a Curry because of the batch of players available because the others outside of Greek Freak might get some "Who?" questions in 10-15 years

From non-basketball fans maybe. I don't see Ja Morant going anywhere anytime soon.

[EnigmaticClarity]

Or Luka given that he's outpacing all but a small handful of NBA legends by the time they were his age of 23. The main question with him is who is his closest equivalent--is it Bird? He's already eclipsed Bird, although he has no McHale or Parish yet to start going for championships. Is it LeBron? Maybe so, and statistically he's probably the closest match, although maybe a closer one is Oscar Robertson. Is he a Magic parallel? Again, Magic wasn't as good as him by age 23, so not exactly. He was clearly better than Dirk ever was probably even just in his rookie year that one year he played with him, and Dirk wasn't a passer so he's not much of a comparison.

[Threash]

They really should have gone with some Dream Team caliber players to start the line, other than Lebron and Curry I don't see any of this guys selling outside the one city they play in.

[fac]

I think the player selection was strong in terms of players likely to be future Hall of Famer types.

The problem is, I still think, that most fans care about their team first and have no interest in having an opposing team's current player in their collection. Maybe kids follow players more, but then you need a kid priced product. People will get HoF/Legends players not from their team after they have retired - that's a different sort of "collection". I would never have gotten a Bird, Magic or Jordan figure while they were playing - but if I collected an all-time greats NBA line of course they would be included. (Note, I am much more of a baseball fan but it still holds - I'm not buying a Trout figure now as he is the enemy, but after he retires? If I had a shelf with 25 other HoF players I'd likely add him...)

[Threash]

There are some current players with broad appeal, like Lebron and Curry and possibly Giannis (if HP sold stuff in Greece they would've made bank), and while I don't doubt most of the lineup besides MAYBE Trae Young are all future HoF players they are still going to have a very hard time finding a market outside of their city or state.

[TheSameIdiot]

I think the NBA has a pretty big fan base, and it's unique in the fact that fans are more open to opposing players. Most Cavs fans, for instance, would have a begrudging respect for Steph despite going 1-3 against him in the Finals. Basketball players are as marketable as soccer players because their faces are also exposed, and even more so because there are fewer of them and they're all consolidated in one league. A lot of kids now don't root for jerseys/franchises so much as individual players. I'm about 30 and even I have done that with LeBron.

The trouble is the pricing, figure quality, and interest.
- $50 was too much, especially when you know they plan (or planned, depending on how this line moves forward) on re-using body molds and offering the same player in different jerseys.
- The quality is two-fold. They're being compared to MAFEX's excellent MJ and LeBron figures, which featured soft goods and retailed for about $25 more. They're also a bit awkward/frumpy looking with the massive rubber overlays.
- Ultimately, though, I think the biggest issue was interest. Toy collectors are stereotypically a nerdy, sports-averse bunch. You probably aren't getting a ton of consumers from our side of the market. So, in that case, are sports collectors jumping into the action figure market? Hard to say. Like gamers, they may be more interested in buying new games (or in this case jerseys or game tickets). How do they even know about the line? Hasbro pushed these with sports retailers like Fanatics and on Instagram. Is that enough? Would old-school TV ads have done better? Can you even get sports fans interested in toys?

Based on the price drop, it seems like Hasbro got the wrong answer to all of those questions.