Seibertron.com recently posted that Hasbro’s lay offs have continued. A combination of factors have lead to this, including the obvious shift to video games for many, rising production costs which now not only includes  oil prices but also increasing wage demands, lack of a TF movie, and a huge struggle with Paramount moving G.I.Joe.

It’s unfortunate, and my heart goes out to those who now find themselves unemployed. I was pleased to meet a few former Hasbro G.I.Joe designers at con that were really nice guys and had produced some amazing work and I wish them in particular, and all those leaving Hasbro the best in finding new positions in this hard economy.

But i can’t help wonder what does this mean for our favorite toys? So I thou

1. Transformers:

Recently many fans where shocked when Prime was going to be cut short and we would see a new branding after TF 4.  Execs know about layoffs before they happen, was this a related attempt to draw in new fans that were pleased with prime and to put more money towards TF 4? The TF movies, especially the first two, really  helped Hasbro with profits but they haven’t been able to capture that level of success in non movie years.

I think it’s likely related!

2. G.I.Joe

Poor G.I.Joe,  with Paramount moving the movie to post convert it the toyline was left in a mess. First it has been moved up to cover Star Trek, and so Hasbro rushed out inaccurate movie toys, then with the delay, Hasbro was left with no product on the shelves and let go most of their Joe team.  No Retaliation was a bigger financial success than Rise of Cobra, but what about the toys?  Next year marks the 50th anniversary of G.I.Joe and the action figure itself, but with no Joe team in place, and no confirmation that there will be any Joe toys at all next year and the rising cost of action figures, what comes next?

I suspect we will see some toys, but a very limited amount of them. Joe fans rebelled against reduced articulation figures, and that looks to be where Hasbro’s other lines are heading:

3. Marvel Toys:
See those Iron Man 3 toys with 5 points of articulation? Welcome to your new marvel! licensing is expensive and unfortunately for us these are moving on the pegs.I’m speculating Marvel Universe figures will officially die this year with collectors getting their ML’s and kids getting unarticulated 4 ”

4. Star Wars:

Similar to Marvel, new collector oriented 6″ line, and the 4″ guys are going to continue parts re-use,repaints, and reduced articulation.

5. Hub

This is my big worry, I’m worried the Hub is not working out as Hasbro as hoped I’m very curious to see what happens here.

So you have my predictions, want to join in on the talk? CLICK HERE to jump to the forums.