EXO-6 Star Trek "General Discussion" 1/6 Line

[Supes78/Bats89]

I'm hoping it doesn't mean fewer pre-orders and more direct purchases! I'll probably get ripped for this, but Nanjin does sound like he gets off on the idea of upsetting people and limiting who gets "his" figures. (I still remember his "limited to 50" "The Undiscovered Country" original crew box set.)That's a fast and easy way of ticking off the fan base and people who are supposed to be your customers. I guess he forgot Trek is supposed to be open to everyone. Cutting out pre-orders altogether means I'm out!

 

[Paul Arnette]

Can someone please translate this?

Star Trek figures aren't selling?

 

[Stryker2011]

Maybe it means they don’t want to spend hundreds of thousands to have stock sitting around, and they’d rather sell out...

 

[Paul Arnette]

Maybe it means they don’t want to spend hundreds of thousands to have stock sitting around, and they’d rather sell out...

Right. Which means their current stock isn't selling as much as they thought...

 

[KXG]

Yea, I think Stryker2011 is on point there, Considering several TOS and Voyager characters are still available from the site and Q can still be picked up, it does make you wonder about the numbers sold. If there’s a consistent number that Exo has come to then it would make sense.

I am guessing that Janeway really surprised them to the point that they overestimated demand for the second run and want to avoid repeating that. I think Kirk, Data and Picard has shown the true demand here and Nanjin might be realising that he can’t afford to mess around.

 

[Skyroes]

Hope that doesn’t mean shorter pre-order windows.

I’d rather have shorter pre-orders vs. him deciding not to produce a particular figure/line altogether.

 

[Pauln6a]

Exo-6 is a small producer and probably can't afford to have too much money tied up in stock for various reasons. It can't be easy to estimate the popularity of each figure and as time goes on, stock from unsold characters starts to build up. He's squaring a very complicated circle, which nobody else has been able to do at this level. It's understandable for people to be upset because they aren't always able to buy their grail figures either because they sell out or come out too close together to be affordable but there would be no ideal model that could please everyone and remain viable.

 

[Sarge]

This isn't the best time to be rolling out a product that requires throwing around money either. Two years ago I'm sure things would have been rolling much better, but no one can predict the future, so it is what it is. Even in good times, if you get one of the entire base crews, you're looking at $1500 easy, in a very short period the way Nanjin is starting to crank them out. But, it is what it is, and I'll buy simply because I know this will never happen again.

 

[youngguns303]

 

[MaxGoof]

Sales seem fine to me. I think it’s worth noting that Janeway is the ONLY Exo-6 figure Sideshow offered discounts on with their holiday sales, while they desperately try to unload Hot Toys like there’s no tomorrow.

 

[davejames]

I think Nanjin's main goal was to sell just enough figures to keep the line going. And so far his plan seems to be working pretty well.

 

[jal76]

Let’s see…there is a 1/6 scale Shran the Andorian…a 1/6 scale QUARK!!! A 1/6 scale Locutus…SISKO, Q, the list goes on!!!!! I sometimes have to pinch myself…and some folks here think that Nanjin is in danger of…checks notes…”upsetting” fans and collectors…uhm…NOPE…my rapidly filling Star Trek display would beg to differ!

 

[Willhelm1700]

All I know is that I'll chase EXO-6 figures 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give them up.

 

[mynameschris]

Hope that doesn’t mean shorter pre-order windows.

Thats what I read that to mean, with all the issues in China and I imagine delays due to materials and approvals I think we are going to see shorter PO windows and more figures going up for immediate sale so he can keep to the 5 year plan... things are going to get interesting.

I'm hoping it doesn't mean fewer pre-orders and more direct purchases! I'll probably get ripped for this, but Nanjin does sound like he gets off on the idea of upsetting people and limiting who gets "his" figures. (I still remember his "limited to 50" "The Undiscovered Country" original crew box set.)That's a fast and easy way of ticking off the fan base and people who are supposed to be your customers. I guess he forgot Trek is supposed to be open to everyone. Cutting out pre-orders altogether means I'm out!

The immediate purchases wouldn't bother me so much as if he sticks with the 50 sets and 50 only idea - immediate purchases just means I have to make more hard choices on the figure of the week... example TPM Kirk was a no brainer for me but I would rather save my money for TWOK or TUC Spock or if he does it a TVH Spock in the white robes as thats the one which springs to mind from the movies when he's not in uniform.

I think your right though I really like Nanjin and love what he's trying to achieve especially in such a niche and nitpicky fanbase who argue over pretty much everything - but he does seem to get enjoyment over people having to make hard decisions or missing on something where theres obviously demand for more.

End of the day though Im getting the chance to pick up 1/6 scale figures from shows and movies I grew up watching - in a hobby where up until Exo-6 the oldest figure (as in what it represents not the figure itself) would be the DC Iron Man Mark 6 which is from Iron Man 2 in 2010. Getting figures from something I watched in the late 80's and into the 90's/early 2000's is great when they balance out my Mando / Guardians of the Galaxy / Spider-Man collection.

 

[Pauln6a]

Thats what I read that to mean, with all the issues in China and I imagine delays due to materials and approvals I think we are going to see shorter PO windows and more figures going up for immediate sale so he can keep to the 5 year plan... things are going to get interesting.

The immediate purchases wouldn't bother me so much as if he sticks with the 50 sets and 50 only idea - immediate purchases just means I have to make more hard choices on the figure of the week... example TPM Kirk was a no brainer for me but I would rather save my money for TWOK or TUC Spock or if he does it a TVH Spock in the white robes as thats the one which springs to mind from the movies when he's not in uniform.

I think your right though I really like Nanjin and love what he's trying to achieve especially in such a niche and nitpicky fanbase who argue over pretty much everything - but he does seem to get enjoyment over people having to make hard decisions or missing on something where theres obviously demand for more.

End of the day though Im getting the chance to pick up 1/6 scale figures from shows and movies I grew up watching - in a hobby where up until Exo-6 the oldest figure (as in what it represents not the figure itself) would be the DC Iron Man Mark 6 which is from Iron Man 2 in 2010. Getting figures from something I watched in the late 80's and into the 90's/early 2000's is great when they balance out my Mando / Guardians of the Galaxy / Spider-Man collection.

It's not enjoyment at forcing people to make hard choices, quite apart from the written word not conveying intent very well, and English not being his first language, I think it's a marketing tactic. If you saw similar comments stated by a man with a deep American voice in a sofa tv ad, they would appear perfectly normal. It's just unfortunate that some of the things he says do reflect people's circumstances and dilemmas. Not even a savant like Nanjin could have predicted the world events that are having such an impact on our circumstances.

I'm currently sitting at home with Covid after a birthday night out, in the cold with a broken boiler that can't be fixed until I test negative, spending my mortgage fund on figures because I am losing all hope of owning a home at age 52. I don't expect Nanjin to take any of that into account in his marketing strategy.

On the plus side, with no heating for a week my heating bill will be lower. Every cloud...

 

[Johnny Utah]

He did go way over the top pushing Kirk.

 

[Pauln6a]

He did go way over the top pushing Kirk.

Worse than that, he told people who were on the fence not to buy it because there would be limited numbers and TWoK Kirk would be available in greater numbers. So, much like the great toilet roll panic of 2020, everyone panic bought, including those whose only reason was to sell on later at a profit. Bottom line - the figure sold fast and many people already have him in hand. From Nanjin's perspective that was a REALLY successful marketing campaign.

 

[HAL9000.]

It was all deliberate over hype/marketing from Nanjin.

On TMP, he said things like "Will these figures ever happen again in our lifetime?", "Will other figure producers charge extra because TMP has high demand characters?" (High demand, not low), "Hurry up!", "Don't miss out," etc and then once they'd sold out, he said, "Don't feel regret if you missed TMP, TWOK can compensate."

I try to only pay attention to his announcements about preorders now. The rest, to me, is noise.

 

[Pauln6a]

It was all deliberate over hype/marketing from Nanjin.

On TMP, he said things like "Will these figures ever happen again in our lifetime?", "Will other figure producers charge extra because TMP has high demand characters?" (High demand, not low), "Hurry up!", "Don't miss out," etc and then once they'd sold out, he said, "Don't feel regret if you missed TMP, TWOK can compensate."

I try to only pay attention to his announcements about preorders now. The rest, to me, is noise.

Obviously he's right and I would guess that you aren't the audience he's aiming at. I think he's always said that 1/6 Trek's problem has always been that it's not viable if you only target your hardcore base so the noise is really to try and attract those who aren't normally listening.

 

[KXG]

I also wouldn’t place much stock in what he says about marketplace value, I’m just not convinced that people are willing to throw double or triple figures down anymore. I’ve been selling comics and toys on and off for years and the reality is that when you have the auction, people don’t overbid and often you just find yourself barely breaking even.

Just because we’re seeing TMP Kirks set at £400 doesn’t mean he’s gonna sell at that. I follow exo6 search on ebay and I’m seeing their own figures at auction pretty much selling at original retail value l, if not a slight push above - we’re not talking silly money here. it’s just not worth trying to pick them up to flip. The Buy it Now options just sit there.

My plan is to grab what I really want for display and if the financial situation improves and I can grab some previous releases without breaking the bank then I’ll do so. I can completely understand where Paul is coming from. It’s cold here, we’re paying more on heating and we all have mortgage dreams but at the end of the day none of that is Exo’s problem and its just business. I’m just not buying into the hype anymore. I will still purchase what I can when I realistically can and not worry too much if I miss out on something.