Hot toys figures- numbered to?

[KingGrayskull]

Dont believe that. Very popular figures such as Bruce Lee, Michael Jackson and partly Iron Man and Batman might have a little higher run but not that much. Its always a problem for a company to produce a figure limited to 800 and another one limited to 10000 as firms that are involved in the production tend to prefer the high production numbers for obvious reasons. Therefore they might take lesser projects down. I expect the production number to be between a few hundreds (eg Seeney Todd will be low numbered) and something around 3000 (Iron Man, Batman, Joker, Michael Jackson, etc.). If they think the market is there for more figures, they simply "rerelease" it (eg Mark IV and Mark VI that is a simple rerelease with only minor changes, Ledger Joker, Michael Jackson both have been retooled several times now, Batman that has been upgraded with a new headsculpt and some accessoires now). This way they can keep the production numbers relativly constant and still milk a licence as much as possible with low extra costs. Further some people feel forced to buy both variants (Mark IV and VI), so they get a little extra there.

 

[Avenger]

I think Hot Toys taps into the East Asian markets better than Sideshow. I think of Sideshow as focused primarily on the U.S., Canada, and E.U.

I wish their primary focus was on paint apps.

 

[SSC EX Hunter]

So Grayskull do u think that these people are pulling numbers outa their @$$? because I would be so disappointed if the numbers were over 5k. I mean sideshow does just fine and they produce about 1500 max of a certain figure. I mean how big do you think Captain America's edition size would be?

 

[cadaver202]

I don't get why it matters. It seems silly to worry about edition sizes. I don't buy these to worry about how many are made or what number I have.

 

[mazda-rx7]

I think that's why we have pre- orders. That determine the production run. More pre- orders mean more figures. Each retailers can only get 2-4 figures the same with customers. There is a limit per household. If you think about it the toy fair exclusive in anicom was limited to 600 pieces and sideshow will get another 2000 pieces comes out to 2600 pieces . The regular figures got to be more than that. I'm sure the early release was less. Now we have more buyers and people order more than one figure for future sales. Plus all the scalpers buying up everything. I'm afraid hot toys will crash like the stock market soon, since they are making too many rereleases and variants. People paid high dollor on the second market and get slapped in the face with a rerelease. There are too many other figures to be made, hot toys is getting greedy!

 

[karamazov80]

I'm gonna speculate 15,000-20,000 for most releases. Some have more.

 

[KingGrayskull]

So Grayskull do u think that these people are pulling numbers outa their @$$? because I would be so disappointed if the numbers were over 5k. I mean sideshow does just fine and they produce about 1500 max of a certain figure. I mean how big do you think Captain America's edition size would be?

Pure speculation from my side too. But finding 2000-3000 people willing to pay 200$ for a pimped Barbie is hard enough.

Sideshow does around 1500 max but are mostly concentrated on US/European market. Hot Toys has a strong market in Asia too. So I assume it is pretty realistically to double the amount, maybe a little more. But as mentioned before if they think there is a higher demand they simply do a variant instead of a bigger production run to increase availability.

 

[koababa]

Sideshow does around 1500 max but are mostly concentrated on US/European market. Hot Toys has a strong market in Asia too. So I assume it is pretty realistically to double the amount, maybe a little more. But as mentioned before if they think there is a higher demand they simply do a variant instead of a bigger production run to increase availability.

Hot Toys is definitely huge in East Asian markets. I make the trip to HK annually and the growth of HT there is amazing. I'm not sure the exact numbers, but several employees there have told me that they sell double the amount in Asia than in the US/Canada.

 

[KBA]

These boards have exploded with Hot Toys enthusiasts over the years, and that's just those who join message boards. Numbers have got to be massive.

 

[ProgMatinee]

I bet the numbers are about 3k each release. While they do charge more than SSC per unit, they only release a handful of product each year, so it makes sense for their numbers to be higher.

1500 for SSC product is a bit lowball. More like 2k or 3k when you consider both ex and regular editions. SSC makes their money by releasing 20-30 products a year.

Interestingly, as SSC goes closer to HT's business model, we'll see where the numbers go.

I think whatever numbers the DC line generates will probably be a good comparison to what HT does.

 

[Spanbauer]

I remember guys who would figure out how many pre-orders were left from a site by upping the number in their cart until it gave them a low-quantity warning, and the number I believe was somewhere between 50-100. The site they did this at was one of the north American vendors, either Toys2, CornerStore or Alter Ego. I forget which. But the point is, each of those vendors is only moving 100 or so per figure, Sideshow maybe double or triple that. And those places I just mentioned are about all there is in terms of North American distribution. A couple-hundred more figures for Europe, and another thousand figures for Asia, and we're talking about 2,000 - 3,000 figures for something popular like Predator, Dark Knight or Iron Man.

Like I said, there are not that many grown men with both the funds and interest to buy $200 man dolls. If they were making tens of thousands of these things, you'd see hundreds of them on eBay at any given time. Instead, there's what, maybe half a dozen at the peak of a figure's release?

 

[ProgMatinee]

As people are mentioning, HT is targeting the Asian markets. I'm not a big ebay person, but I generally don't see a lot of Asian collectors selling on ebay. My results may be different from most.

 

[mazda-rx7]

Like the toy fair batman and scarecrow was limited to 2000 figures. Then ssc get a batch and sell out. The ssc batch does not have the certified number only the tokyo toy fair. ssc must of recieved another 2000 pieces. Do you guys think that is wrong to have 2000 limited pieces at the toy fair, then ssc get some more. Then dont claim limited 2000 pieces when clearly its not.

 

[ebor]

@ Progman... I see a LOT of Asian e-bayers. Mostly the typical distributors, and many, many scalpers.

@ Mazda... SS prob had only 100 units MAX for BM/Scarecrow. They sold out in less than a day. Pure speculation, but sounds likely given the speed to which they sold out.

 

[Gully Foyle]

I remember guys who would figure out how many pre-orders were left . . . and the number I believe was somewhere between 50-100. The site they did this at was one of the north American vendors, either. . . I forget which. But the point is, each of those vendors is only moving 100 or so per figure, Sideshow maybe double or triple that. we're talking about 2,000 - 3,000 figures for something popular like Predator, Dark Knight or Iron Man.

That's some HARD COLD FACTS there!



not really. still pure speculation . . .



_________

 

[Butters]

Two or three thousand figures still isn't very many.

No way are they making 15,000-20,000 for most releases.

The 1/6 market wouldn't be big enough for that.

 

[SSC EX Hunter]

I think it's rather unfair that they dont give us the edition sizes.

 

[Spanbauer]

I think it's rather unfair that they dont give us the edition sizes.

I wish they would as well. I imagine they don't release edition sizes because how many they opt to produce is heavily-influenced by how many pre-orders their distributors put in, and they additionally leave themselves open to produce a second batch should demand allow for it.

They're not going to produce 3,000 Lt. Aldo Raine figures if they only received 50 pre-orders from their North American distributors (pure speculation on numbers). So the general 3-6 month delay between announcing a figure and releasing a figure gives them time to adjust their production numbers according to how many pre-orders they've received via their distributors.

That's some HARD COLD FACTS there!



not really. still pure speculation . . .



_________

Yes, still pure speculation. But speculation based on something

 

[Megacolor]

Two or three thousand figures still isn't very many.

No way are they making 15,000-20,000 for most releases.

The 1/6 market wouldn't be big enough for that.

I'm with u on this!! I think its more like 2,000-10,000 each releases!

 

[xjamiex]

I would bet that releases are generally around the 5000 mark and for wider DX releases, perhaps closer to 10,000.