If we were in a pre-internet age I would agree with you 100%. Though as you say, it isn't just a trade show anymore, because of the online attention it gets. For many companies it seems a means to market their product to the public as much as anything else. Going back to the Diamond Select example, they aren't really trying to drum up new companies to sell their stuff from my understanding. Most of the stuff they promote is going primarily to comic shops and other online retailers, who already know about their product, or Toys R Us, who they have an existing relationship with, and have exclusive sets that they promote at ToyFair. But Diamond often puts out a lot of new product at Toy Fair because other companies put out less, allowing them to get more relative attention than they get putting stuff out at SDCC.
There is an analogy for Hot Toys with the Sideshow affiliated retailers, who would benefit nearly as much (or little) from having specific items promoted to the public. If it weren't a costly move, I'm sure HT would send product out to the New York Toyfair. The smattering of in-person attendees at these events will always be dwarfed by the online viewing audience.
But you only see these boutique set ups that the bloggers post about. There's SOOOOO much more going on that has nothing to do with them or the press. This would be a waste of HTs time and resources as they aren't trying to land a big order from Target or Walmart to carry say 3 planogram locations of their next Avengers line up or Justice League figures.
Even Sideshow doesn't attend because they aren't doing that either. The larger manufacturers do go because their business depends on these mass orders. There'd be no Marvel Legends if they couldn't sell thousands of each wave to Wally's and Target...but the buyers want to see the product as well. That's why there's also stuff that's only shown to the retail buyers and the fan boy bloggers don't get access to that stuff. Some of it is really early prototypes. Some are just concept art. Some are major spoilers.
The press has always been involved even pre-internet. They were just reported in trade mags like ToyFare and Toy Preview.
It's still primarily a trade show. The fan boy press is just an added opportunity for the manufacturers to get free promotions for their products so why not let the bloggers blog
Hot Toys doesn't need that press cause that sh|_|t sells itself.
Well they're already mass produced. Speculation is that tens of thousands of figures are typically made nowadays. Personally, I wouldn't care how many were made if the quality remained constant, particularly if it meant a drop in price due to economies of scale, but others would be horrified at the prospect of even more being produced, I'm sure.
I would say this is probably pretty accurate. A figure like SSCs Deadpool had a production run of about 8-10k...for a Sideshow figure But it sold very well for them. Others they have produced have had much much lower numbers, like 2-4K units...sometimes less
I would imagine something like a HTs movie Deadpool saw very similar numbers but probably significantly more.
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