Hasbro is looking to recruit a senior brand manager for its Transformers range.

The firm is looking for someone to take the reins on the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen toy line is released alongside what is expected to be the biggest summer movie of 2009.

Transformers: RoTF is expected to build on the success of the movie year 2007, when Transformers became the number one boys toy and licence.

Hasbro is looking for an exceptional individual who can not only work closely with Paramount pictures, UK retail, Hasbro sales teams, media and PR agencies in the UK but also support a global marketing drive.

Transformers is not just a movie line: the range also consists of Universe and Animated lines, contributing to its 25-year success.

The ideal candidate will have significant relevant experience, ideally in a kids or entertainment role.

Experience in budget management is required as the role has a large A&P. The successful applicant will also need to have strong management skills to enthuse the sales team.

Hasbro is looking for somebody with trade appreciation of the UK retail scene and a person who is self-motivated, highly organised and ambitious with high energy.

Applicants for the role should have a long-term strategy and short-term pragmatism outlook and have a knowledge of media, creative, promotional and PR agencies.

Finally, the right person for the job will need to be a team player.

Please forward your CV and covering letter to careers@hasbro.co.uk

Registrations are now open for the 2009 US Toy Fair which takes place from February 15th-18th at the Javits Center in New York.� The show features more than 100,000 products, including more than 7,00 new ranges and over 1,200 exhibitors, plus a full seminar programme.� You can register here.

Transformers Animated Free-to-air Petition Reminder

In a response to the economic slowdown and parents holding back on impulse purchases, both Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc have now come out saying that most of their toys will cost less than $20 this Christmas.� Both companies hope this move/statement will help boost profits in the 4th quarter sales especially since traditionally toymakers make at least a third of their annual revenue in the fourth quarter.

The average toy price currently at Mattel is just under $20, where two-thirds of Hasbro's toys sell for under that price (not so within the UK it must be noted).

Yesterday Mattel's shares climbed 10 cents to $18.14 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange, where as Hasbro's share price fell by 35 cents (1%) to $34.37. Overall this year Mattel has lost lost 4.7 percent while Hasbro's shares have gained value by 34 percent.

Toymakers raised prices this year to counter higher plastic and energy costs as well as increased product testing following last year's recalls of more than 20 million Chinese-made products. Hasbro's Goldner said the company has taken two "mid- single-digit" price increases this year and may have to further do so beginning in 2009.

TakaraTomy have told the Reuters newsagency of their post-merger plans which include plans to double their operating profit margin to ten per cent in the year ending March 2011 from 5.3 per cent last business year, in part by reducing the number of products. Other plans include the move of the company’s manufacturing base from China to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia to reduce costs and improve quality.

Kantaro Tomiyama, chief executive and president of the company told Reuters: "Following the merger we underwent a period of some internal confusion. But things have stabilised and we’ll be more prepared in a few years time for further growth..... With a good procurement and marketing strategy, they can easily achieve double-digit profitability. But I think we should be able to do that, making full use of our merger benefits.".

Whether moving their factories out of China will see a reduction or increase in thhe amount of toys leaked from the factories, only time will tell.

AP reports that "Toymaker Hasbro says second-quarter profit rose on demand for brands such as Transformers, Littlest Pet Shop and Indiana Jones. Profit rose to $37.5 million, or 25 cents per share, from $4.8 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales jumped 13.4 percent to $784.3 million from $691.4 million. International sales rose 15 percent. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 22 cents per share and sales of $675.4 million. Pawtucket, R.I. -based Hasbro Inc. raised prices to help offset rising costs".

News agency Reuters, have issued the following press release which gives more details as to which areas saw the biggest increase

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hasbro Inc (HAS.N), the No. 2 U.S. toymaker, posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, boosted by sales of toys tied to movies such as the latest "Indiana Jones" release and by brands like G.I. Joe and Transformers.
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Second-quarter net profit rose to $37.5 million, or 25 cents a share, from $4.8 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier when it took a charge for repurchasing its warrants from Lucasfilm Ltd and Lucas Licensing Ltd.

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 22 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Sales rose 13 percent to $784.3 million.

While U.S. and Canadian sales rose 11 percent to $467.7 million, sales in international markets increased 15 percent to $293.7 million, aided by a weak dollar.

Hasbro, which also owns the Littlest Pet Shop and Playskool brands, has said it expects per-share earnings to rise this year, but has also pointed to challenges, such as higher costs for transporting its goods.

"While input cost inflation continues to be challenging, thus far we have been able to mitigate most of the impact through cost savings initiatives and pricing actions," Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer David Hargreaves said in a statement on Monday.

Even rival Mattel Inc (MAT.N) is feeling the pain of rising commodity costs. The world's top toy company raised prices by mid- to high-single-digit rates across most products in June.

Hasbro said it spent $51.6 million to buy back 1.646 million shares of common stock during the quarter.

Hasbro shares have traded as low as $21.70 in the past year. They closed at $37.99 last week, nearly $2 below the year's high of $39.97, on the New York Stock Exchange."

Thanks to Jim from Mech-RC for sending us the following press release regarding a line that both Andrew Wildman and Don Figueroa have designed mechs for, though not Transformers related, you may still find it of interest.

After over two years in development, MechRCTM will finally be seeing its commercial launch this holiday season.  MechRC will be available at all good hobby retailers and directly from the MechRC store (www.mechrc.com) from September priced at around US$599

MechRCTM is the latest and, in our opinion, the most user friendly humanoid robot to hit the hobby/collectors market so far. Featuring 17 independently driven high speed, high torque, servos, MechRCTM is capable of performing astounding acts of agility all under your command straight out of the box.

Other features include:
Fully featured 3D motion editor software allowing you to create your own motions and action sequences
User friendly remote controller, allows you to control your robot just like a video game character
Lithium Polymer battery pack, provides up to 45 minutes run time
Built in audio for playback of .wav sound files
Fully upgradeable through firmware download as well as electronic and mechanical “hop-ups”
Body styling by the legendary Transformers artist, Andrew Wildman
Interchangeable body shells, designed by Transformers fan-favourite artist Don Figueroa

For an example of what MechRCTM can do, check out the excellent “Evolution of Robotic Dance” which is based on the Judson Laipply’ smash hit YouTube video “The Evolution of Dance"

Groundpounder by Don Figueroa

Shadow Stalker by Andrew Wildman

Though the final official figures have not yet been published The British Retail Consortium's most recent retail figures have shown that June's retail sales values fell 0.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared with June 2007. That means that sales have now been lower than a year ago in three of the past four months making it the worst summer since 2005. Last month's fall has been blamed on changeable weather after May's warm sun. The increasing demands on household budgets and weakness of the housing market, shoppers are becoming increasingly price-conscious and reluctant to spend on big-ticket items. This coupled with the increase in toy prizes in the 2nd half of the year mean that the trend is likely to continue.

Stephen Robertson, Director General of the BRC explained to us that "The negative result confirms fears May's modest like-for-like growth was a start-of-summer blip. While total retail sales frew in June, that was by less than half last month's figure. Retailers are doing all they can to reassure customers, offering some of the strongest discounts and promotions in decades and keeping a lid on inflation"

He continued, "Retailers are doing all they can to reassure customers, offering some of the strongest discounts and promotions in decades and keeping a lid on inflation."

Woolworths have released their predictions for the top 10 toys this Christmas, and its only just July!  As expected, despite strong sales last year there are no Transformers on the list, which can be found below.  The list is in no particular order.

Rubiks Cube
Star Wars Clone Wars Lego
Meebas
Ben 10 deluxe Omnitrix
High School Musical Sing Together Dolls
Bakugan Battle Arena
Leapfrog Tag
In The Night Garden Upsy Daisy In Her Bed
Indiana Jones Whip
Catcha Beast

We thought we'd let you all know that Tomy UK Ltd are currently recruiting for a Key Account Manager. Though not directly Transformers related, Tomy UK are of course a division of Tomy-Takara. Anyway, here are the details if anyone wants to apply

Its that time of the month when it pleases us to be able to bring you not only the latest batch of NPD Sales figures, but also other information on how Transformers has been performing as a property here within the UK.

First up, Easter. Easter fell early this year which lead to a increase in toy sales with double digit growth in the Action Figure sector. Transformers continued to perform well, despite a significant drop in the number of figures available, though it was Ben10 that out shined all other action figures with its sales over the Easter period accounting for 1/5 of the entire category!

Here are the sales charts both for March as well as the Year To Date. Transformers are marked in bold

March 2008 (� Sales)
1 Cars Assortment - MATTEL
2 Ben 10 Collectable Figures 10CM - BANDAI
3 Ben 10 Omnitrix FX Watch - BANDAI
4 In The Night Garden Talking Plush - HASBRO
5 In The Night Garden Mini Plush - HASBRO
6 Power Rangers Operation Overdrive Figures - BANDAI
7 TRANSFORMERS MOVIE LEGENDS - HASBRO
8 Tamagotchi Connexion - BANDAI
9 Hot Wheels Car Assortment - MATTEL
10 TRANSFORMERS MOVIE DELUXE - HASBRO

March 2008 (Unit Sold)
1 Hot Wheels Car Assortment - MATTEL
2 Cars Assortment - MATTEL
3 Ben 10 Collectable Figures 10CM - BANDAI
4 Power Rangers Operation Overdrive Figures - BANDAI
5 TRANSFORMERS MOVIE LEGENDS - HASBRO
6 In The Night Garden Mini Plush - HASBRO
7 WWE Ruthless Aggression - VIVID
8 Dr Who 5-Inch Figures - CHARACTER OPTIONS
9 Ben 10 Omnitrix FX Watch - BANDAI
10 Pokemon 4CM Figures - BANDAI

Year To Date (� Sales)
1 Cars Assortment - MATTEL
2 TRANSFORMERS MOVIE LEGENDS HASBRO
3 In The Night Garden Talking Plush - HASBRO
4 In The Night Garden Mini Plush - HASBRO
5 Ben 10 Omnitrix FX Watch - BANDAI
6 Ben 10 Collectable Figures 10CM - BANDAI
7 Power Rangers Operation Overdrive Figures - BANDAI
8 TRANSFORMERS MOVIE DELUXE HASBRO
9 Hot Wheels Car Assortment - MATTEL
10 WWE Ruthless Aggression - VIVID

Year To Date (Unit Sales)
1 Hot Wheels Car Assortment - MATTEL
2 Cars Assortment - MATTEL
3 TRANSFORMERS MOVIE LEGENDS HASBRO
4 Power Rangers Operation Overdrive Figures - BANDAI
5 Ben 10 Collectable Figures 10CM - BANDAI
6 In The Night Garden Mini Plush - HASBRO
7 WWE Ruthless Aggression - VIVID
8 Dr Who 5-Inch Figures - CHARACTER OPTIONS
9 TRANSFORMERS MOVIE DELUXE - HASBRO
10 TRANSFORMERS CLASSICS MINI-CON 3PK HASBRO

Hasbro Inc and Mattel both released their first quarter figures this afternoon (this morning in America) with forecasts fair even performance for both companies, but with Hasbro receiving the higher increase in profits. Well the official figures are in, shocking some forecasters, as whilst Hasbro's profits rose by 14%, Mattel reported a loss of $46.6 Million

Reuters report that "The maker of Monopoly board games said first-quarter profit climbed to $37.5 million, or 25 cents a share, from $32.9 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier.
Quarterly sales rose 13 percent to $704.2 million from $625.3 million.
Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 14 cents a share on $582.2 million in sales, according to Reuters Estimates.
Hasbro said sales climbed 6 percent in the United States and Canada and 22 percent internationally."

AP Business Wire reported "The toymaker Hasbro Inc. said Monday its earnings rose 14 percent in the first quarter on growth in brands such as Transformers and Littlest Pet Shop.
The world's second biggest toy company said it earned $37.5 million, or 25 cents per share, for the three months ended March 30, up from $32.9 million, or 19 cents per share, during the same quarter a year ago.
The results beat the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who forecast net income of 14 cents per share.
Sales grew 13 percent to $704.2 million from $625.3 million a year ago.
The company said international revenue rose 22 percent to $248.3 million, while revenue in the U.S. and Canada segment grew 6 percent to $428.5 million.
Hasbro released the results as its chief rival, Mattel Inc., said it lost $46.6 million, or 13 cents per share, missing analysts' expectations of a profit of a penny per share. The El Segundo, Calif.-based maker of Barbie dolls and Fisher-Price toys blamed higher product costs and legal fees."

Bad news for UK toy collectors, though not really surprising, toy retail forecasters have been predicting that the UK retail prices will rise in the 2nd half of this year, blaming rising costs in manufacturing, raw materials and currency appreciation. The latest forecast comes from the head of Mattel UK, David Allmark. David has warned that UK prices are likely to rises by around eight per cent in the second half of the year.

Not all toy manufactures are predicting increased prizes, Vivid Imaginations recently announced that increased manufacturing prices in China would be absorbed by the company and not passed to retailers.

Hasbro Inc are yet to comment, but you can be sure we'll be keeping a close eye on this story over the rest of the year.

Your grandparents remember a rah-rah line of 12-inch dolls with kung-fu grip, providing a male alternative to Barbie. Your older siblings (or, gasp!, parents) grew up with a highly stylized, action-packed, endearingly goofy cartoon franchise fueled by 3 3/4-inch action figures. You might recall anything from G.I. Joe Extreme to the Classic Collection, to pop-culture references like "knowing is half the battle."

Now, a star-powered G.I. Joe movie has begun filming. But the question remains: What will the movie's Joes be like? For the answer, we went straight to the only man who commands both Destro and General Hawk.

Brian Goldner is the chief operating officer at Hasbro, which first introduced Joe to action-minded adolescents in 1964, and is also the executive producer on the "Transformers" and "G.I. Joe" movies. " 'G.I. Joe' has just gone into filming this past week, with a great cast and a tremendous story all based on the comics and the animation," Goldner said. "I think fans, and fans to come, will really love what we're doing."

(In the MTV Movies blog, Goldner talks about the possibility of G.I. Joe's classic vehicles showing up in the movie.)

Undoubtedly, such statements are as musical to the ears of longtime fans as the TV show's theme song. But stars like Dennis Quaid, Sienna Miller and Marlon Wayans have been met with varying degrees of enthusiasm from such fans, and Quaid himself recently confirmed that many beloved characters — including Wild Bill, Shipwreck and Tomax and Xamot — won't be in the flick.

"We all really loved what G.I. Joe was about in the '80s; we loved that story arc and the concept of Joe vs. Cobra," said Goldner, explaining that the people who created those characters will return, even if some of their creations won't. Comics writer Larry Hama, Goldner confirmed, "is onboard, and he's working with us on the script.

"And you may see him in the movie," he added.

Noting that the flick, directed by "Mummy" mastermind Stephen Sommers, will largely sidestep the TV show and be more "about the comic books," Goldner revealed some of the major characters and plotlines the film will explore. "We all know of the Arashikage [ninja clan], and we all know of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, but we need to build that story," he explained. "We all know the story of Duke, and the story of the Baroness. ... We know the story of Destro, but do we really? We need to go back and tell the origin story of how you get a Scottish arms dealer, who comes forward in history — how does that happen?"

"And Cobra Commander," he added, referring to the evil terrorist leader who fan sites have reported will be portrayed by "Brick" star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. "In effect, this is all about the rise of Cobra Commander. ... For fans, they're really going to love this, because we take them on a journey. ... We have to go through the first chapter and then build from there."

Goldner was also eager to respond to the controversy over rumors that the patriotic nature of "G.I. Joe" was being toned down in order to be more appealing to a worldwide, post-9/11 audience. "Duke, in our story, really represents the pre-1983 G.I. Joe," he said, linking Channing Tatum's character to the dolls of the '60s and '70s. "If those fans that grew up on the 12-inch Army man are looking for where their anchor should be, it's in Duke; he's the leader of the team and clearly American.

"But the story, just like in the comic books, was a story that took us all over the world," he continued. "That's all we were really trying to get at. And everything else that fans have heard, about the early ideas or contemplations, that's really gone. ... We're talking about a story that's going to take us all over the world, from the desert to under the water, to the mountains to cities. ... Clearly, the American military is involved, as are other forces. But at the end of the day, the force that matters is the G.I. Joe force, and the Pit, and all the things that relate to that."

We caught up with Goldner at the New York Toy Fair, where he was giving fans a sneak preview of the G.I. Joe toys of the future. At the front of his thoughts, however, was the real-life stars who'd soon be creating the action figures' action. "We think it's amazing to have Channing Tatum as Duke, because I think he has a different kind of fanbase," said the executive producer, who in May will become Hasbro's CEO. "Clearly, Sienna Miller has a wonderful fanbase. Dennis Quaid as General Hawk, he has a tremendous fanbase. So bringing them all together, as an ensemble cast, is going to be really dynamic and something that people haven't seen before. But it'll still be very true to G.I. Joe."

The next question would seem to be a logical one: Will the Joes we know and love be replaced by toy versions of Marlon Wayans and Arnold Vosloo? "Well, what was so magical about the '80s G.I. Joe was the 3 3/4-inch product," Goldner said, revealing that the dimensions of the star-faced toys would be along the lines of the "Real American Hero" line. "[That size] gives people a chance to get all the figures but get all of the vehicles. So it's going to be in that scale. ... Very true to where we were in the 1980s, and then we'll take it forward.

"Steve Sommers is very different," Goldner said, contrasting him with "Transformers" director Michael Bay. "But he's perfect, because if you think about his movies like 'The Mummy,' it's the perfect action/adventure movie. If you think about what we're trying to do for G.I. Joe, really bringing back that '80s G.I. Joe from the Marvel comics — those first 155 issues are really our focus. If you think about that, you'll understand what we're trying to get at with all those characters and all the intricate relationships.

"I don't think you'd see this movie as wacky," he promised, alluding to some of the more eccentric characters from the cartoon show. "I think you're going to see this movie as being inspirational for younger kids and totally in the sweet spot for the guys who grew up on G.I. Joe."

In August 2009, we'll see it with our own eyes. In the meantime, "G.I. Joe" continues to shoot all over the world, with a budget so huge that it makes the U.S.S. Flagg aircraft carrier play set look like something you'd get at a 99-cent store.

Transformerswon four Visual Effects Society Awards on Sunday, including the top prize for outstanding visual effects in a visual effects-driven film. Transformers also won the single visual effect of the year award for its desert highway sequence, the Models and Miniatures award as well as the Compositing award. The top prize was collected by Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Russell Earl and Scott Benza.

You can read more on this story at the Hollywood Reporter.

Hasbro's 2007 sales were announced this morning with Fourth quarter sales increased 16 per cent to $1.3 billion. Net income climbed 24 percent to $133.7 million from $108.3 million a year earlier.

Full year net income climbed 45 per cent to $333 million, the biggest gain since at least 1999.

International sales increased a stagering 29 per cent, far more than the US, with strong sales for Transformers, Spider-Man, PotC and Littlest Pet Shop animals. 4th Quarter sales accounted for two-fifths of the total international profit for the year.

In related news Hasbro have named Brian Goldner as their new CEO, taking over from Alfred J. Verrecchia.