Hasbro getting tough on prototypes on fan sites - Hasbro response page 7

[Dyzarktarzk]

Completely agree with you, WingsOfMasquerade

Stealing will never stop, sad thing.  But companies CAN stop it (a lot, actually) vy hearing their customers needs and wants as a first step.

About prototypes and unreleased products... why the toy fair's pics are so bad?  Shouldn't they promote what THEY REALLY HAVE in store for us, their customers?  Not having to search other places.  (And not to mention that having a 'mane 6' ponies is getting tiresome... as with the 'core 7'...)

I will not enter in the whole discussion about where the toy plants are, that's a whole other discussion.  But what can I say is:

If I, a customer, don't get something that I like from the 'official' producers, I'll search -or made- it.  Prototypes or un-released, and customs.

Going after the customers?  I can't understand what they're making customers angry at them, or even deciding to ditch the hobby out.  If they (Hasbro) are scared about the prototypes and unreleased toys being released unofficially, why not 'officially tease' with what is new?  FROM THEM.
Not with people loving this and freely promoting.  Searching through the whole internet about what is coming.

It sounds awful what Hasbro did.  I don't understand it (at least only the part where $$ is included... and not wanting customers and fans to know what's coming...  Only the find them when they decide to release their products at certain stores/countries, NOT WORLDWIDE).  If they are mad due to people buying things at 3X the real (...) value of an item to someone not related at Hasbro AT ALL (aka, a reseller, and Hasbro only making the original 1X)... they should and could solution it releasing all their product at the SAME TIME EVERYWHERE.

Sorry if this is a complete rant...  but...  it's what I have to write (say) about this.

[moonflower]

Just read this on Wiki and thought it relevant:-

Over the years Hasbro has outsourced the manufacture of its products to third-party companies, mostly in China. At the Chinese factories, which Hasbro does not directly own or operate, migrant workers are compensated with meager salaries for their labor. At one such factory, in Dongguan, China, basic assembly line jobs pay a little over one hundred US dollars per month,[13] China's minimum wage.
In 2007, a workers' rights group investigated several of Hasbro's Chinese suppliers and found that, in one instance, a toy factory in China's Guangxi Province had hired 1000 junior high school students. The same group discovered other widespread labor violations, including unsafe working conditions, mandatory overtime, verbal abuse and sexual harassment of employees. Hasbro issued a statement, saying that it would "act swiftly and decisively in making any necessary changes" and had "increased the intensity of [its] ongoing safety review efforts." Critics counter that, as Hasbro has no official regulatory control of these factories, it responds to such investigations by acquiring independent auditors, who make unannounced visits to the East Asian subcontractors. Factory managers are then "coached" in how to fool the auditors.[14]
Outside Asia, Hasbro owns and operates only two manufacturing facilities, one in Waterford, Ireland, the other in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, USA. In recent years, the company has cut jobs at both plants in response to increasing competition from lower cost locations in China. At the end of 2006, for example, Hasbro's Irish division laid off more than one third of its workforce.

Also, I would just like to add that while I don't blame Hasbro for trying to track down where these unauthorised goods have come from, I do not agree the way they have victimised this individual. He took down the offending pictures (even though they were not his own and readily available on the internet) and answered the questions he was given and yet they still continued to harass him. Even though he was not contacted by Hasbro directly, I imagine Hasbro would have been CC'd in on the correspondence and therefore able to intervene. Surely, the way they obtained his address was illegal?

I think this guy should contact Hasbro regarding this issue and see what they have to say about it.

[Baby Sugarberry]

Listen to your fans, listen to your buyers
Give them what they want at a cost reasonable for company, worker AND buyer
Do it in a timely manner, and to all interested areas

This is the iTunes philosophy, and you have only to look at its phenomenal success to see that it works remarkably well for everyone involved.


Can you imagine if Hasbro offered people the opportunity to design their own custom ponies?  Upload your marking artwork, choose your colors, 4-6 weeks later it arrives at your door?  They'd make a killing.

[teresat]

Listen to your fans, listen to your buyers
Give them what they want at a cost reasonable for company, worker AND buyer
Do it in a timely manner, and to all interested areas

This is the iTunes philosophy, and you have only to look at its phenomenal success to see that it works remarkably well for everyone involved.


Can you imagine if Hasbro offered people the opportunity to design their own custom ponies?  Upload your marking artwork, choose your colors, 4-6 weeks later it arrives at your door?  They'd make a killing.

WingsofMasquerade: Yes!

Baby Sugarberry: All? the custom ponies I could want....

[LuvlyMelody]

I'm reading through this again, and wow a followup from the blog owner, looks like it's spread all around the internet (maybe even worldwide?).It looks like everyone's talking about it. It's all over many blogs on the bottom of this entry. What could happen next? Radio discussions? Youtube rants from Nerf collectors? boycott? be on the news? CNN? If this spreads, I wonder if this could be a huge cripple for Hasbro.

Someone effed up big time sending goon just to learn how to shop online. lol

http://urbantaggers.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/not-just-nerf-war-about-toy-guns.html

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[Elisto]

I disagree that if Hasbro just gave fans what they wanted, there wouldn't be a problem. Maybe it would make a difference in the case of the Pony toys, but not the prototypes and errors. Those are going to exist no matter what, and collectors like rare stuff. That doesn't mean we have a right to own their "practice" pieces. And to say, well, they shouldn't advertise that they exist...they didn't! From what I understand, people went on Taobao, saw prototypes and other unusual-looking ponies, and bought them. Hasbro has nothing to do with it.

As for their factory worker treatment, I agree, it's probably bad, but 1) We don't know for sure what the conditions are, and 2) if it bothers you that much (which it does me), don't buy the toys at all. Not buy the toys officially released, buy the potentially stolen toys or fake toys, and then get mad at Hasbro's business practices only when Hasbro tries to stop the sale of things it didn't want sold.

[Ice Crystal]

Hasbro did start listening to fans eventually. The ponies they revealed at the toy fair were nothing but "fan favorites" (of their adult fans, not children) as they called them, and there was a white Celestia, too.

I'm pretty sure Hasbro knows about Taobao. Even if they didn't find out about it through this forum, there are large pony news sites that refer to it, and folks have written in to Hasbro to ask when such-and-such pony they found on Taobao will be released. Who knows how long Taobao has been around anyway? MLPs aren't the only leaked Hasbro products that can be found on there apparently. I don't blame them at all for cracking down--although I have to admit that I will miss the leaks and unique protoponies if they do.

I can't say much on the laws and ethics of the situation, honestly, so I'm not going to touch that. Most of the unreleased ponies I have seen being sold on Taobao have either been prototypes or factory rejects, all flawed, and they likely would have been tossed out anyway, so I can't see Hasbro losing money on them. I wonder if Hasbro is more worried about leaked products screwing up future advertising gigs? Or, as somebody else mentioned, Hasbro could get in trouble if a customer injured themselves while using an untested product, even though it was purchased through an auction site.

I do agree that the Nerf business is a touch shady on Hasbro's part though.

[NoDivision]

Very interesting discussions... there's a lot of good points being raised, certainly gives us as collectors a lot to think about.
 
The only thing I have to add is that we cannot conclusively know that hasbro's legal team obtained his address from the person offering him free items. They could legitimately be unconnected. Sure the timing is very coincidental, but that's a heck of a stretch for someone to go to to get an address. The legal team contacted him as he is the owner of the website, and it is easy enough to obtain the registered addresses of domain owners that I find it hard to beleive they'd have to pull a bait and switch to get it.

[sabathamk]

NoDivision, I was actually wondering if the two emails were connected at all as well.  It seems like they are due to timing, but I have to wonder, especially since he gave the address in the first case.  The email read kinda fake to me, honestly (I read through all his posted emails) and I would not have responded to such an email without actually going and directly contacting Hasbro myself rather than through this email (We have dealt with so many copycat scammers lately that it has been driving me nuts).  Something is very off about the whole scenario.  Really... I don't think Hasbro would care so much about the one guy who has been practically giving them free publicity.  It almost feels like one giant hoax.... but I could just be in denial.

[partypony566]

Regarding the Nerf thing, I think Hasbro clearly have too much time on their hands!

[Lon-san]

This is the iTunes philosophy, and you have only to look at its phenomenal success to see that it works remarkably well for everyone involved.


Can you imagine if Hasbro offered people the opportunity to design their own custom ponies?  Upload your marking artwork, choose your colors, 4-6 weeks later it arrives at your door?  They'd make a killing.

I've thought about this before. Mattel had a similar thing with Barbie once. I wonder how many colors/eyes/hair choices there would need to be to get people really interessted vs. it being profitable for Hasbro. I wonder how much something like that would cost per pony?

[knitgirl]

That idea of custom ponies is awesome! I think they should also do some 30th anniversary G1->G4 set for collectors.  I've seen so many gorgeous customs but that gets so expensive.  For starters, they could do a white unicorn pack with Gusty, Moondancer, and Glory... that would be so exciting for me! 

[Emfen]

This whole incident makes me feelign less guilty of buying stoff from tabao now.

[JoshsPonyPrincess]

I read through the whole thing and I am deeply disturbed at Hasbro's unprofessionalism. I realize they do not want prototypes leaked and whatnot but really sending people over to a bloggers house!?! This is ridiculous - they are JUST TOYS. They are meant for children not adults - I don't care how big the adult audience is for any toy - toys are originally intended for children (who shouldn't be googling anyway). They need to be going after the original perpetrators not someone who wrote about it.

If anything a blog showing what is coming up would be good for business as it gets the adult collectors excited and willing to pay the money they ask for it.

[Dragonflitter]

The only thing I have to add is that we cannot conclusively know that hasbro's legal team obtained his address from the person offering him free items. They could legitimately be unconnected. Sure the timing is very coincidental, but that's a heck of a stretch for someone to go to to get an address.

THIS.

I am not saying the guy is making things up, but so far we only have one side of the story, his. We only have his viewpoint of how things are happening. The situation from the other viewpoint might be quite different indeed. What if Hasbro really was wanting to send him some free product for his blog?

The blogger himself states that Hasbro sent him another email asking for his mailing address a second time, after he had already received the lawyer letter. This to me implies that the two instances are not connected, like he assumes they are. Like NoDivision says, that's a pretty lengthy stretch to go to get someone's mailing address.

My final say: Don't believe everything you read in a blog or other website as if it were straight up 100% fact. At least think about it a bit to see if it makes sense.