Hot toys and Star Wars

[Pixelpiper]

Aunt Beru Deluxe FTW. Young and old heads in the box. Small carton of real blue milk as an exclusive.

 

[TheFiend]

Remember how excited everyone was when they made the announcement? You heard stuff like: "OMG! A dream come true!!" and " A new era of Star Wars!!"


So much for that.

 

[Pixelpiper]

BBTS still has 41 units of DX07 in stock - and I really have a hard time believing they're absolutely the only folks left with any stock whatsoever. Indy DX05 was around for a very long time after release as well. Slow sales on these franchises are a much more realistic and believable explanation for the lack of follow-ups than some misconstrued talk of Hot Toys trying to go around their partner in licensing. Especially when that partnership is so important to them.

 

[TheFiend]

Yup. There is no secret about it. People want to know why we haven't seen another Star Wars figure? Because Iron Man and Batman is Hot Toys bread and butter. They sell out every time. We'll see that Anakin. I don't think people have that to worry about. Hot Toys will put it out when they're good ready though. I will say this though, I think Indy took so long to sell out for other reasons than just being an older non-modern day blockbuster. Those reasons are obvious. I think it's possible to say the same for Luke. Luke is a great figure but lets face it he isn't the most interesting looking figure that would pull in casual fans. Now that's not to say that if they made another character it owuld have sold out as fast an as Iron Man or Joker, but maybe it wouldn't have lingered as long as Luke.

 

[Pixelpiper]

But I don't think an Anakin figure would have nearly the same draw as Luke or Indy, regardless of what one may think of the sculpts on those releases. Doubly so once the new movies come out - the PT will be even more irrelevant/forgotten, and many of the kids who watched them, as their first exposure to SW, still won't have reached the level of adulthood with the kind of disposable income to pop for this kind of thing.

That figure would surely languish on shelves for a very long time indeed.

IMO, a Hot Toys/Sideshow co-release of Stormtroopers would probably be the biggest hit - especially if we see more troopers in the new movies.

 

[King Darkness]

HT making Luke an ultra deluxe two in one $300 monstrosity surely didn't help. You pretty much had to be a die hard SW fan to instantly jump on Luke at retail.

HT would probably doubled sales if it had been a basic $150 figure with some good accessories, not two figures, a stand 90% didn't want/need/use and box that could double as a drafting desk driving up shipping costs.

 

[Darthrazz]

BBTS still has 41 units of DX07 in stock

How can you see that on their site? Just curious.

 

[King Darkness]

How can you see that on their site? Just curious.

BBTS has a "live" cart, so if you add something like 100 to your cart, it will self adjust to how many they have in stock.

 

[Darthrazz]

BBTS has a "live" cart, so if you add something like 100 to your cart, it will self adjust to how many they have in stock.

Got it, thanks!

 

[Pixelpiper]

But to be fair, even back when DX07 was released, Hot Toys wasn't in the $150 figure game. Had they done a lower-priced deluxe it would have still been over $200, like all the other DX releases. DX12 at $260 didn't have any issues selling out. Look at the prices and sell rates for the newly announced armory. The fact of the matter is that Star Wars, while a very hard-core franchise, for this medium just doesn't have the same kind of draw as the prime Marvel and DC characters. HT knows that, look where they focus their energy.

 

[OSCORP]

HT also made a shyyt ton of Lukes like they did CR Supes.

 

[Pixelpiper]

And Superman, a very basic release with a fancy stand, while available for a decent time at around $200, discounted in some places, did sell out. And obviously made a significant enough impression on their bottom line, that they released a new version. Yet nothing else from Star Wars.

We can all dream up crazy speculative explanations, but at the end of the day, it's usually the most simple. Return on investment - ROI. Dollars.

Do yourselves a favor and go read the links I posted about the licensing arrangements. You should also read the licensing section of the book "Anticipation" about the PT - you can find the pages in Google. Producing SW merchandise is not cheap.

 

[amvmm]

We won't see anything before 2015

 

[sixxshooter]

Will Hot Toys ever make a Darth Maul figure ?

I'm really looking to get a excellent darth maul 1/6 figure . Would love if hot toys gave it a shot . What's the chances guys ?

 

[karamazov80]

Re: Will Hot Toys ever make a Darth Maul figure ?

I would say 15%.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Will Hot Toys ever make a Darth Maul figure ?

Yeah that sounds about right, you may even be overestimating the chances by about 14%

 

[Darklord Dave]

Re: Will Hot Toys ever make a Darth Maul figure ?

Well, they have announced a Prequel figure with Anakin and Maul is popular, might even be the 3rd or 4th prequel figure they do. And at the rate they're churning out Star Wars figures, I'd guess 4th quarter....

...of 2042.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Re: Will Hot Toys ever make a Darth Maul figure ?

I'd like to see them make Maul too - but I'd prefer they make Qui-Gon first.

 

[HeubertMichael]

Re: Will Hot Toys ever make a Darth Maul figure ?

And at the rate they're churning out Star Wars figures, I'd guess 4th quarter....

...of 2042.

Perfect. It's a must buy for me, as my Medi Maul would surely have rotten completely by then!

 

[amvmm]

Re: Will Hot Toys ever make a Darth Maul figure ?

Maybe at the beginning of 2015. So they can start building the hype for December Episode VII. Anakin Ep3, Maul and Han are very good candidates.