State of the Action Figure Market---A long Rant

[BadCompany]

I have been collecting figures for going on 15 years. I have lived

during what I think was the golden age of action figures, the

1980's.

I vividly recall going to K-mart and Zayre and digging through G.I.

Joe's, He-man or the newest Star Wars Assortment.

I recall seeing Transformers for the first time. I remember the

day I got my first Super Powers figure. Those were magical

times that I will always cherish and try my hardest to relive.

I look at the way things are today and it frustrates me and

makes me very sad. What ever happened to the day when

characters were plenty and various? Do you think that G.I. Joe

would have been as popular if the first series was 10 versions of

grunt one bad guy and one sidekick?

Superpowers only duplicated one figure and that was a mail

away. You got one of all the main characters. You did not have to

search for hours and days looking for that one figure that was

short packed in one in every 13 cases. There were no bogus

variants or chase figures or exclusives. The only rare one was

rare due to a factory mishap. Star Wars figures were plentiful and

made so you could have any character you wanted no matter

how long they were on screen. From Han Solo to Hammerhead,

they were all there. There were no worries about making

Princess Leia because she was a female action figure. You

wanted her you got her.

Little boys bought her, not mention Scarlett, Lady Jaye, The

Baroness, Cover Girl, Wonder Woman, Cheetara, Teela , Evil

Lynn and the Sorceress to name a few.

Why do we need 15 different Batman figures? In day glow

costumes, with lame gear that the character would never use.

And we get only one villain? In one of the most villain rich

universe's in the history of comics we get one dang villain?? We

get six of the seven members of the Justice League and now

they expect us to hunt for Hawkgirl!!

They say that little boys do not want to play with her. Have these

idiots actually seen the cartoon? She is not only in most every

episode, she is a kick butt character who takes no crap. If I was 8

or 9 years old I would want the entire team, the one I see on the

television and I would want villains. Who in the world does their

market research?

Where did they learn that kids want the same guy 2000 times?

That they don’t want the unique characters? If that is true, and

this market research is what they base their lines on then some

one should tell them that the unique characters fly off the shelves

and the lame idiotic Superman and Batman variants clog the

shelf along with the He-man and Skeletor figures that they could

not give away. For every Samuari He-Man that sits there a

Clawful or a Buzz-Off would have put money in their greedy

pockets. Tell them to look at the Marvel Legends figures. Great

sculpting, joints, play value and unique rarely repeated figures.

Yeah they have a short pack and a chase figure problem that I

think sucks but at least the rest of the line makes up for that. I

search for Buzz-Off and Evil Lynn and my fingers and my eyes get

tired of looking through all the other crap that not only are

collectors leaving but also kids, their bread and butter look at

and laugh.

Things should go back to the way they were. Lets have some

great lines with rich character selection and then move onto

different versions of characters. There is no reason why the

Batman line should have a whole series of Batman varients and

one short packed, rare villian or sidekick. You have a whole

universe of characters at your fingertips, try something new.

D.C. direct is a shining beacon in a sea of soon to be

clearance Batman and He-man figures. I have news for you

Mattel the snake men will not save your line because your case

assortments, exclusives and over production has already killed

it, but by all means do not learn from that go ahead and kill

Batman and the Justice League too.

I will continue to support this hobby I love it. I just hope for the day

when things go back to the way it used to be. Thanks for

listening to all that I really had to get that off my chest.

[Three Storms]

Yah the exclusives and short-packs are slowly eating away at the patience of a lot of people. I've dropped several lines because of them proving to be too frustrating for me. Hobbies are supposed to be enjoyable and not a source of added stress, and when the enjoyment stops, so does my collecting of a given line.

 

Little boys bought her, not mention Scarlett, Lady Jaye, The

Baroness,.........

 

When I was a boy in 1984 when the Baroness was new, I only saw ONE throughout her 1984 and 1985 re-cast runs, and I bought it. I never saw another carded Baroness until Ebay came around, believe it or not (saw an occasional loose one in a hobby shop for around $80 in the early 1990's) I live in a city with tons of Targets, Wal-Marts, three TRU's and (back then) K-Marts as well. I was the only kid I knew that had one, because no one else I knew could find it (they did like it because of the bad-*ss all-black factor). Either San Antonio got short-changed, or she was short-packed way back in 1984. I saw tons of Firefly's, Snake Eyes 2's, Zartan's etc, but for some reason only one Baroness.

 

Why do we need 15 different Batman figures?

 

Because HUGE companies like Warner Brothers have HUGE licensing fees, and the only way a toy maker can possibly afford to pay them is to saturate the toy aisles with as many toys as possible, even if it does get a bit repetitive.

 

They say that little boys do not want to play with her.

 

They are right. It's hard enough for them to even sell MALE action figures to kids too focused on video games and other diversions, and short-packing automatically starts feeding frenzies among older collectors who WILL buy her under such a circumstance. They win with that scenario.

 

Have these idiots actually seen the cartoon?

 

Yah they've seen it. Typical cartoons (not all) are infomercials franchised by the toy makers to sell the toys.

 

 

For every Samuari He-Man that sits there a

Clawful or a Buzz-Off would have put money in their greedy

pockets.

 

Clawful and Buzz-Off did put money in their pockets. The scalpers bought as many as they can get their hands on, leaving them to be artificially scarce; and making some die-hard fanboys wanting them even more than if they had just rotted on pegs.

[Dieselboy M]

in short: times change.

[Devilbat]

Yeah, the good 'ol days...(sniff)

 

I remember we had these two stores locally called Roses and Heck's (hee hee funny name), and man I can remember literally when you could look on one side of an isle in either store and see MOTU and G.I. Joe just hanging and piled everywhere, and then on the other side was Star Wars and Transformers, just ripe for the picking. Maybe it seemed like so much since I was alot smaller in those days, but I can remember just sorting and digging through the piles of carded Joes lying on the bottom shelves and hanging on the pegs. Those were the days...

 

As for how things are these days, as much as I love repaints, I hate short-packed figures, store and online exclusives, five-hundred variations of main characters, and freakin' scalpers. I enjoyed collecting Star Wars a whole lot more before they started doing the same characters over and over and over. Do them once and do them well is my motto concerning figure sculpts.

 

But y'know, as bad as things are sometimes, I still enjoy reliving great childhood memories by buying some the old and new toys that are available today. I feel like it's even better in a way; I'm grown and I can spend my money on whatever I want without begging parents or earning the money to buy something, and I don't have to wait for Christmas or my birthday to get that one toy I want badly. I can go online and find older tpys I lost long ago and buy them new again, and newer versions of old favorites excited me and remind me of simpler times.

 

So overall, I have a few gripes, but I'm having a blast, and that's what it's all about. :wink:

 

 

[Mastermind]

Yeah, I've been in this hobby for a long time too and it frustrates me to no end to see short-packed figures and store exclusives rip the action figure world apart. I was so gung-ho to collect the new Masters of the Universe line until I couldn't find Teela and Orko. I went on E-Bay and they were everywhere for ten times the price I could have paid at the store. What killed Masters of the Universe for me was that the coolest figure in the whole line - Keldor - was a frickin' convention exclusive. I won't support the Star Wars line anymore because of the same thing. When I was a kid I could find any Star Wars figure I wanted and as many as I could afford to get. If I wanted twenty Stormtroopers I didn't have to send away to the fan club or mortgage the house - I just went to Sears and Woodwards and bought them. I didn't have to travel to Disneyland to buy six exclusive droids and a ship or be somewhere at the right time to get a Jorj Sacul figure. I think back to when I was a kid and ''WOW' would I have been one upset little guy if someone told me I couldn't get a figure I wanted just because my family couldn't afford to go to Disneyland or a convention.

The funny thing is that the older I get and the more money I make the less I seem to be able to afford what I want. My tastes haven't gotten that much more expensive - it's just that the toy companies have marketing strategies that defy explanation.

To be fair to the G.I.Joe team, they have been doing a pretty good job of releasing stuff to both the fans and the kids (except in CANADA, :evil: rotten Hasbro Canada and rotten Wal-Mart and Toys R Us for not giving the line a chance). I remember going to Toys R Us in the mid-80's and wandering down TWO whole aisles devoted to G.I.Joe, the Transformers, He-Man, Star Wars and every knock-off that dared to copy the money-makers. I also remember seeing actual kids in the toy aisles and not just scalpers hoarding the short-packed items. Yeah, things change and while we have the technology to make better-looking figures we have somehow lost the ability to distribute those figures to the public who is getting fed-up and leaving the hobby altogether.

[useless]

Little boys bought her, not mention Scarlett, Lady Jaye, The

Baroness,.........

 

When I was a boy in 1984 when the Baroness was new, I only saw ONE throughout her 1984 and 1985 re-cast runs, and I bought it. I never saw another carded Baroness until Ebay came around, believe it or not (saw an occasional loose one in a hobby shop for around $80 in the early 1990's) I live in a city with tons of Targets, Wal-Marts, three TRU's and (back then) K-Marts as well. I was the only kid I knew that had one, because no one else I knew could find it (they did like it because of the bad-*ss all-black factor). Either San Antonio got short-changed, or she was short-packed way back in 1984. I saw tons of Firefly's, Snake Eyes 2's, Zartan's etc, but for some reason only one Baroness.

 

I found a case of the opposite, back in about 1987 or so (memory is rather hazy as to the exactly when, as these are childhood memories) I ended up being draged into a department store I would otherwise never go into, they had not many first rate toys, most were cheap knockoffs, but they had about three dozen Hasbro Lady Jaye figures: no other Action Force/Gi Joe stuff, just lots and lots and lots of Lady Jayes, draw your own conclusions

[Compact Attitude]

Mattel is trying to fix their mistake by recalling the peg warming Masters of the Universe figures and re-packing them with the harder to find figures, but I think this is too little too late. Toys R Us has already cut the sell space down on the line, and clearanced some of the vehicles, even after most stores increased the size of boys world with the new reset. I remember how alot of poeple said that this line would destroy the other lines, even I thought these looked better then wave 1. But after seeing the peg warming and the anger in collecting all the short packed ones, I think Joe will rule the action figure aisle again soon. 8)

[HMI]

Well, back in the 80's there wasn't #$## like Beyblades, Yugioh, or whatever Japanese import taking kids attention away. Not to mention video games.

 

Companies don't want to fill every store coast to coast with stuff that isn't going to sell. It would sell to fans in a heartbeat, but we can't carry any given line. (Star Wars maybe, but that's about it.)

 

But that still doesn't excuse chase figures. I'd rather Twilight Frodo never have been made, because now my LOTR collection will be forever incomplete.

[Darren]

Mattel is trying to fix their mistake by recalling the peg warming Masters of the Universe figures and re-packing them with the harder to find figures, but I think this is too little too late. Toys R Us has already cut the sell space down on the line, and clearanced some of the vehicles, even after most stores increased the size of boys world with the new reset. I remember how alot of poeple said that this line would destroy the other lines, even I thought these looked better then wave 1. But after seeing the peg warming and the anger in collecting all the short packed ones, I think Joe will rule the action figure aisle again soon.  8)

 

Hasbro seems to be ruling the action figure aisles...though overall toy sales claim Beyblade or whatever-the-hell-that-crap-is is dominating the sales charts.And I can see why,I've seen kids at stores holding that junk.Nevertheless,at TRU's in my area,there have been one of two lines that are the first action figures that are proudly displayed outside the shelves on the endcaps....G.I. Joe and Transformers.And I think thanks to the inclusion of the collector-desired Unicron and TRUs recognizing that desire for all things Unicron (even Wheeljack is a hot seller),they've moved Transformers to the front.

 

Meanwhile,the other popular stuff I see is the Spiderman series,TMNT (which doesn't seem to be selling at all),LOTR,Marvel etc.,DC etc. and some MOTU....but MOTU seems to be fading fast.MOTU is losing the shelf space,stores don't bother to reorder new lots to fill empty MOTU pegs (even a TRU in my area hadn't reordered a thing),and a lot of the MOTU line is tossed into the clearance racks.It's really sad though,because MOTU is a damn good line with some excellent figures and designs,but Mattel seems adamant about all the chasers and variants and whatever,that once the collectors get their He-Mans and Skeletors in whatever armors or whatever features,they just hunt for those chase figures and that's it.And MOTU just rots on the shelves unless scalpers come along or retail decides they're not selling.I really don't know cause I'm not an insider...but either MOTU will die out because of this...or Mattel is just asking retailers to clear space so they can hope to attract some more attention with their MOTU "Snake Men" line....which I will definitely be purchasing!

 

I hope MOTU doesn't end,as I'm just starting to like it and picking up some of the figures I like.Heck,my lil bro even found a variant Buzz-Off and that's a lucky find!

[TransformHeadOn]

Clawful isn't making anyone any money, since he hasn't been released yet.

 

And besides the female action figure comment (although we've got 3 new female figures from GvsC so far, with more to come) I don't see how this is Joe specific.

 

But, yeah . . . the 1980s were the toy collector's Shangri-La, and will never return, unless kids get so bombarded with technology that they get all burned out and want something more creative.

 

Either that, or tons of adults will need to suddenly feel urges to collect action figures, because we're totally in the minority here, folks!

[Three Storms]

Little boys bought her, not mention Scarlett, Lady Jaye, The  

Baroness,.........

 

When I was a boy in 1984 when the Baroness was new, I only saw ONE throughout her 1984 and 1985 re-cast runs, and I bought it. I never saw another carded Baroness until Ebay came around, believe it or not (saw an occasional loose one in a hobby shop for around $80 in the early 1990's) I live in a city with tons of Targets, Wal-Marts, three TRU's and (back then) K-Marts as well. I was the only kid I knew that had one, because no one else I knew could find it (they did like it because of the bad-*ss all-black factor). Either San Antonio got short-changed, or she was short-packed way back in 1984. I saw tons of Firefly's, Snake Eyes 2's, Zartan's etc, but for some reason only one Baroness.

 

I found a case of the opposite, back in about 1987 or so (memory is rather hazy as to the exactly when, as these are childhood memories) I ended up being draged into a department store I would otherwise never go into, they had not many first rate toys, most were cheap knockoffs, but they had about three dozen Hasbro Lady Jaye figures: no other Action Force/Gi Joe stuff, just lots and lots and lots of Lady Jayes, draw your own conclusions

 

 

I too saw a ton of Lady Jaye's, but still only one Baroness.

[revsears]

this post isn't joe exculisive but a great post none the less.

 

Alot of this is the toy companies themselves fuuing up. Thankfull joe is doing this really well.

 

Tmnt seemed to sell well then they came out with turtles in sports gear, not one of those sold.

 

Motu is very nice but not enough articulation for my taste. But yeah all i see is he-man and skeletor. I saw mechanick the other day and there are the occaisanol (i just went blank,) teela's dad. But i've never seen most of the figs.

 

Marvel legends has that chase problem too and Marvel has sctizo scales. How can that big hulk be the same size as hobgoblin? How come they keep calling them 6"? there not ther 7". Not only that but spidy classics was just over 6" and now you would have to buy new ones cause they increased the scale.

 

One thing joe does wrong: the price. I blame that more on wal-mart and the like. This year joes were supposeed to be 6.99 i never saw cheaper than 7 something and it was usualy 7.99.

 

WHY? they user less plastic than marvel legends! Why must they cost this much? If they were just all 6-6.99 i would load up on em.

[Blackmada]

I remember those old days and miss them too. I think the problem with scalpers and varients and shortpacks would not be quit so bad if there was no internet to sell them on.

 

There should be a law that nothing can be sold for more than retail price on the internet unless it is at least 5-10 years old.

[useless]

I remember those old days and miss them too. I think the problem with scalpers and varients and shortpacks would not be quit so bad if there was no internet to sell them on.

 

There should be a law that nothing can be sold for more than retail price on the internet unless it is at least 5-10 years old.

 

Such a law would completely cut off my suppliers of US store Exlusive figures like Tiger force, Python Patrol, Night force or the upcoming Cobra trooper pack. I don't really need to futher point out how much that'd suck.

[Blackmada]

I remember those old days and miss them too. I think the problem with scalpers and varients and shortpacks would not be quit so bad if there was no internet to sell them on.

 

There should be a law that nothing can be sold for more than retail price on the internet unless it is at least 5-10 years old.

 

Such a law would completely cut off my suppliers of US store Exlusive figures like Tiger force, Python Patrol, Night force or the upcoming Cobra trooper pack. I don't really need to futher point out how much that'd suck.

 

I don't have a problem with online retailers selling stuff. I am just saying they should not be allowed to jack the prices up the minute they get the stuff in.

 

I was directing what I said more towards e-bay and the scalpers selling things like hard to find MOTU etc. for so much. Example, a $7 brand new figure should not be allowed to sell anywhere for $25.

 

I can understand vintage toys and even some stuff from the 90's selling for more.