>>5501771>a coincidence when fans say they want something and it comes out anywhere near timely.>makers don't listen to what fans want... can you be any dumber?
>Preorders, prepaid with a reasonable time period, can fix most of the problems on the customer end.Can you be any dumber?
How would that fix it for mass market retail? They'll never consider that because it would mean keeping track of more shit that they don't have space for.
And this is already happening with collector toys... been happening since Previews existed. Comic shops and the like go the extra mile because they dont need to stock up on 10,000 units of diapers.
>They have no other meaningful data because they don't bother to collect itActually, they do.
Toy reps do take notes and share it with managers, who have their own observations and report back to higher ups.
The fact toy companies try to stay away from minorities, old people, bearded people, and girls comes from these reports. I know a lot of people here talk about how they need more female figures and bring up so-and-so shelf warm like crazy, but that's purely anecdotal and the evidence is extremely limited compared to what the stores/toy makers know.
The fact that bumblebees pile up is only because they reached a saturation point for the highly popular character and that's impossible to tell unless you only deal with preorders, which will never happen at mass market. Mass market stores are happier with this model over one that leaves out the majority of toy buyers.