User:Nevermore/Sandbox/Assortment
An assortment is how Hasbro typically distributes its toys to retailers. Instead of shipping every toy by itself (or in shipping cases containing nothing but multiples of the same toy), toys are grouped into assortments, in which they share a similar size, mass and parts count, possibly also the same gimmick, are typically packaged in standardized packaging sharing the same general dimensions so that different toys can be packed in a shared shipping case, and are sold under the same price point (the manufacturer's suggested retail price, or MSRP for short, may differ from the actual prices the various retailers will ask.). This system has a high advantage for retailers, who don't have to keep track of dozens of individual toys, but only of a smaller number of assortments, with the manufacturer pre-selecting the content of a shipping case. Assortments also determine the amount of budget spent on the production of a Transformers toy, such as paint or electronics. That way, retailers can order a case of toys, knowing exactly how much they will sell for and exactly how much shelf space they will occupy. If they run out of figures from a specific price point, they can simply order a new case and put them right back where they belong.
During the original Transformers toy line and its successor Generation 2, toys with a uniform gimmick were sold as their own distinct assortment, which often resulted in a plethora of different assortments, each of which consisted of no more than a handful of different toys. During its first two years, the toy line was stictly divided into separate Autobot and Decepticon assortments, each of which had their own distinct gimmicks, but beginning in 1986, shared Autobot/Decepticon asortments were introduced, which would eventually become the standard to this very day.
With Beast Wars, Hasbro's subsidiary Kenner streamlined the system into a much smaller number of standardized size classes, which would shipped in consecutive waves that would gradually introduce new figures, and could feature alternating gimmicks, continuing as ongoing assortments throughout the line (although, in the case of longer lines, an assortment could occasionally be reset while still retaining the same size class name). Hasbro subsequently played around with those size classes, testing out certain gimmicks and varying the names of the assortments, until the Cybertron establishing a naming system that (more or less) persists to this very day.
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