Talk:2013

Upcoming products?
Why are those listed as upcoming on this page when all of them have been officially announced and are available in stores?

Bluedragon1971 (talk) 01:47, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

I just looked through the UT page and don't see any post about that. When you refer to something like that, it would really be helpful if you posted the exact link to the post you are referring to. Even if Hasbro didn't originally intend to confirm them or release them, the fact of the matter is that they HAVE confirmed them, they have listed them on their OWN site, and they are readily available in stores. Now STOP your petty BS about this. They ARE confirmed, they ARE available. End of discussion.

Bluedragon1971 (talk) 12:47, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

the release post was made in november: http://urbantaggers.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/hasbro-official-release-dates-for-n.html

Wait a minute, are you SERIOUSLY telling me you belive that nonsense? Do you HONESTLY think that Hasbro would move up the release of their products by up to 6 months (May 2013 and mid 2013 for some of those in that e-mail) simply because Amazon UK posted them early? Do you understand ANYTHING about the lead times on shipping items like that to retail stores??? I have worked in several different ones (Walmart, Target, and Kmart), so I know quite a bit about how that works. Even if Hasbro did start shipping them from their factories in China or whereever the day after the Amazon posts (which is doubtful), they would still have to get the the US, get to the distribution center, get shipped to the store and make it to the sales floor. That isn't something that can happen in the course of a week or two (which is how quickly some of those blasters started showing up in stores after Amazon UK's postings). Especially for the ones that supposedly weren't supposed to get released for 5-6 months or more from then. Most of those wouldn't have even been produced that early. It isn't like these things sit around in a wharehouse for months at a time. That just isn't possible. What is more logical is that the e-mail from Hasbro Australia was wrong or only referring to the release dates for Australia, not US release dates. That wouldn't be uncommon at all for them to get products many months behind the US.

The other obvious thing you seem to be ignoring here is that one way or another, for some reason that we will never know for sure, Hasbro shipped and confirmed those blasters far earlier than what was stated in that e-mail. Therefore it doesn't matter what the e-mail said, they are confirmed and they are released. End of story. Now stop trying to make this an issue. You seem to be under the delusion that Hasbro always tells blog sites the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Did it ever occur to you that maybe Hasbro had planned all along to start shipping those blasters earlier than they told people?

There's also one other thing about retail stores that you don't seem to know. It's called a "street date". If Hasbro hadn't wanted stores to begin sales of the product before a certain date, it would have been noted on the shipping boxes, and stores can get in BIG trouble for violating that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_date The fact that Hasbro didn't put a street date on them is further proof that they wanted stores to start selling them as soon as they got them.

Besides, Hasbro isn't bound by any contract or law from changing their minds about when (or even if) they will release something. They wouldn't have shipped them to stores if they weren't considered by Hasbro's management to be a "released product".

Bluedragon1971 (talk) 18:14, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

even if those release dates were for australia, explain why hasbro confirmed the blasters and listed them on nerf.com a few weeks after amazon leaked them? it seems as if details are no announced due to the constant stream of leaks.

also explain why blasters start popping up early in stores despite official release dates? One would think that stores are told a "street date", something there along the way went WRONG. the last few big releases were advertised with official release dates but were never followed through. Hasbro embraced it the last few times, didn't even set them this time around. 108.67.98.87 20:35, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

I can't explain it all, but I can explain (as I did above) how the retail chain works. Those blasters had to already be on their way to the stores (if not already there) by the time Amazon UK made their "leak". Some of the reviews I've seen have shown the actual shipping cartons for them, and they didn't have a street date on them, and I've seen Hasbro's shipping cartons when I was working retail - if the item has a street date, it is clearly visible on the carton. Not much else I can determine from this other than the fact that, despite what they told Urban Taggers, they did intend to release these blasters in time for Christmas, which if you think about it makes a hell of a lot of sense from a business standpoint. If they blasters were ready to ship, why in the hell would they hold them off until AFTER Christmas?

Bluedragon1971 (talk) 20:43, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

Not the best image, but it was the only one I could find on short notice. This is what a street dated carton from Hasbro looks like. That big orange mark says "Do not open or sell before" whatever date, and it will ALWAYS be on an item that has a street date assigned to it. The cartons I've seen for the recent Elite blasters don't have that, so they never had a street date assigned to them.

Bluedragon1971 (talk) 20:54, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, I think they probably don't really care too much about things like that anymore, other than with movie related lines (Star Wars, Transformers, etc.) where a street date is used to keep from giving away too many spoilers about characters. In cases like that, Hasbro themselves can get into trouble with the movie studios if they leak information early, and I think we are all aware how harsh the MPAA can be about protecting their interests. I think that Hasbro has come to realize that in the age of the internet, trying to keep a product like Nerf blasters secret has become a pointless endeavor, especially when they have to coordinate with retailers, manufacturers, and shippers around the world. There are far too many people who have access to the information (and even products) long before the planned shipping date to even try anymore. As the saying goes, "the only way three people can keep a secret is if two of them are dead".

Bluedragon1971 (talk) 12:17, January 4, 2013 (UTC)