Hasbro Leverage

[rkwoodard]

My D&D budget has trickled to almost nothing. For 2 reasons, 1) My gaming group never games anymore (although we are all still good friends, and 2) Heroscape.

Besides being a game my wife will play, Besides being a fun little game with lots of fantasy elements and tinkering, their is one insidious factor......

When my wife goes shopping, 9 times out of 10 I can say, "Hun, I am running to the toy section to look at heroscape". I can do this at Target, at Wal-Mart, K-mart, and especially at Toys R Us. And I am at those places a lot more than I am my FLGS and a little more than at the mega-book stores that carry gaming.

So, is there any sense of competition or lost dollars between Heroscape and the RPG? How do sales compare?

And most importantly has the WOTC side ever tried to get some sort of basic game or book into Toys R Us, or Target. Surely someone at WOTC thought, if not said out loud, that doing so would be great for the D&D Brand.

Or am I off my rocker?

Thanks for any rumor, speculation, or real answers.

RK

 

[Darth Shoju]

And most importantly has the WOTC side ever tried to get some sort of basic game or book into Toys R Us, or Target. Surely someone at WOTC thought, if not said out loud, that doing so would be great for the D&D Brand.

I know Chapters and Toys 'R Us carry a D&D Basic game that comes with minis (including the Large Blue Dragon mini I believe), dice and a rules introduction with an adventure. Other than that I'm not sure what kind of big-market penetration the D&D brand has.

 

[rkwoodard]

well then, maybe it is my area

I have not seen a D&D product in my local Toys R Us since 2ed handbook. But I am in the southern USA (known as the Bible Belt) so maybe it is just my bad luck.

RK

 

[Grymar]

The Targets around here (Columbus, OH) will often carry booster packs of Star Wars minis, but not a thing of D&D.

 

[Tumbler]

Which is funny, because I spent much of my childhood reading (and memorizing so I could use against my players) 1st edition books at a toystore. My parents would never have left me in a bookstore for that long at the mall, but the toystore was fair game.

 

[jefgorbach]

KB Toys -used- to carry the occasional TSR box set but never found anything outside the FLGS, Borders, Waldens outside of that and nothing once WOTC took over. Expected things to change dramatically once Hasbro came on board but was sorely disappointed and confused they never pursued this logical option.

 

[Glyfair]

Which is funny, because I spent much of my childhood reading (and memorizing so I could use against my players) 1st edition books at a toystore. My parents would never have left me in a bookstore for that long at the mall, but the toystore was fair game.

Honestly, I've never seen the main line of D&D products in toy stores. In fact, the only thing I remember seeing were the boxed basic sets. Maybe an adventure or two, but I vaguely remember they were heavily in favor of the solo adventures. Never any AD&D stuff.

 

[ssampier]

Toy stores still exist? I had thought the discount chains had nearly driven them under.

Putting the Basic Game into mass markets is a good thing. Many people believe they never made a good basic game anyway, however, so why bother? :\

 

[Darth Shoju]

I have not seen a D&D product in my local Toys R Us since 2ed handbook. But I am in the southern USA (known as the Bible Belt) so maybe it is just my bad luck.

RK

Hmm weird. Well I was in Chapters (a big bookstore chain up here) today and they had it. Every time I go to Toys R Us I check out the board game section and the D&D Basic game is right there beside Heroscape. I don't know if I've ever seen it in a Wal Mart up here but I'll look next time I'm in one.

 

[Twowolves]

Here is how old I am:

I bought the vast majority of my 1st ed hardback books from the Sears Christmas Catalog, and the adventures from my local Ben Franklin store!