Hot Toys Star Wars Aliens

[D.R.37]

Nice shot indeed
Only picked up Fett when these came out. Almost got the Wampa (super cool) but stepped away from the rabbit hole

 

[darth dennis]

Nice shot indeed
Only picked up Fett when these came out. Almost got the Wampa (super cool) but stepped away from the rabbit hole

I also only picked up the Fett. I seriously thought about getting the "First 12" but stopped short as I too realized it'd probably lead to many more. Did Gentle Giant finish the line? I remember calculating that it would've been around $7-8K if you collected all 93! They'd be real space eaters too!

 

[D.R.37]

I never really followed them but just saw what was at my LCS. They didn?t finish but on my quick search they made more than I realized! Seen some pretty cool displays but something I couldn?t do. Most definitely space eaters and this space has already been devoured by my 1/6 collection

 

[Raymond F.]

you guys seem to forget that even though we are big Star Wars fans who would buy this stuff, we are not enough to sustain a business due to the current model, the tooling and production costs that would warrant the price tag for HT to make any money off this stuff. The casual buyer that flushes out this business model and causes it to work is not going to be dropping 300 + dollars on any Poggle the Lessers.

So at a certain point beyond tried and true iconic designs that have penetrated into the zeitgeist of greater popular culture... honestly I struggle to think of many beyond Tusken Raider and Greedo and Jabba... have no hope in hell of being made.

No Kit Fistos, no Wattos, probably not any Nein Numbs will ever see the light off day and I'd say that's close to being fact.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I need a Two-Tubes kit. Stat!

 

[Hoody999]

That’s why people are making kits.

Where ?? Or you mean like the Gonk kit ?

 

[Raymond F.]

he means a Kit-Fisto-Kit

 

[dukefett]

HT actually proto'd Kit, with the sudden resurgence of Star Wars I'm kind of expecting them to put him out eventually.

 

[chrisstbh]

HT actually proto'd Kit, with the sudden resurgence of Star Wars I'm kind of expecting them to put him out eventually.

I?d buy Kit Fisto in an instant.

 

[Drake]

Greedo in high heels, Tarkin in slippers, what's next? Vader in flip flops?

 

[DioramaMaker]

I said this a long time ago; Sideshow needs to play to their strengths and produce aliens only. Create a line of creatures and species of the galaxy that aims for the $200 max mark, maybe even partnering with HT for manufacturing like the clones to ensure consistency. SS can't compete with the humans and most droids, but they 110% have the opportunity to fill an obvious void in 1/6 Star Wars.

In addition, add a small (single figure), medium (deluxe), and large environment (detolf+) series that's reminiscent of their old pieces and they could really be reating a supportive network of 1/6 products. Heck, the environments don't even need to be licensed products!

SS could carve out a strong, supportive market for SW rather than trying to take on HT. But instead we get things like ROTJ Luke.

 

[chrisstbh]

I said this a long time ago; Sideshow needs to play to their strengths and produce aliens only. Create a line of creatures and species of the galaxy that aims for the $200 max mark, maybe even partnering with HT for manufacturing like the clones to ensure consistency. SS can't compete with the humans and most droids, but they 110% have the opportunity to fill an obvious void in 1/6 Star Wars.

In addition, add a small (single figure), medium (deluxe), and large environment (detolf+) series that's reminiscent of their old pieces and they could really be reating a supportive network of 1/6 products. Heck, the environments don't even need to be licensed products!

SS could carve out a strong, supportive market for SW rather than trying to take on HT. But instead we get things like ROTJ Luke.

But if only buying from SS internationally wasn't so expensive compared to being able to buy HT straight from HK sellers.

 

[Chronos1919]

But if only buying from SS internationally wasn't so expensive compared to being able to buy HT straight from HK sellers.

It’s cheaper to buy HT straight from HK sellers even in the US.

 

[nexus]

I said this a long time ago; Sideshow needs to play to their strengths and produce aliens only. Create a line of creatures and species of the galaxy that aims for the $200 max mark, maybe even partnering with HT for manufacturing like the clones to ensure consistency. SS can't compete with the humans and most droids, but they 110% have the opportunity to fill an obvious void in 1/6 Star Wars.

In addition, add a small (single figure), medium (deluxe), and large environment (detolf+) series that's reminiscent of their old pieces and they could really be reating a supportive network of 1/6 products. Heck, the environments don't even need to be licensed products!

SS could carve out a strong, supportive market for SW rather than trying to take on HT. But instead we get things like ROTJ Luke.

That’s assuming SS still has a 1/6 figure license. It?s possible the license has expired or has been pulled. Folks have pointed out that the upcoming Rancor is smaller than 1/6 as well as being polystone. If SS doesn’t show any 1/6 figures at this year’s Virtual ComicCon, I think it will be pretty safe to assume they no longer have the license. If they do have the license, however, they could quickly generate revenue by rereleasing some of their high potential alien figures like Greedo, Bib Fortuna and Gammorean Guard; creatures like Dewback and TaunTaun; and environments like Yoda’s Hut. Then they could start producing new aliens, creatures, droids and environments. I don’t know if it’s arrogance, hard-headedness or greed that made them think they could compete head-to-head with Hot Toys. Sure everyone wants to go after the bigger sales and higher margins, but if that’s not possible, settle for producing a successful line with lower numbers. I’m sure there are tons of companies that would jump at that opportunity. I’d love to see Disney/Lucas grant a license to a company like Asmus for 1/6 Star Wars aliens, creatures, vehicles and environments. However, if SS no longer has a license, my guess is HT has sucked all the air out of the room and holds exclusive rights. If that’s the case, they simply aren’t going to devote their resources to chasing smaller margins (for the sake of argument: why spend say $100,000 developing a figure that will sell 2,000 units, when they can spend maybe $75,000 on a figure that will sell 5,000-10,000 units). The only thing HT could do is subcontract that part of the license out to a small, hungry company and work out a sweetheart deal where they get paid a per figure basis. They could just hand that company a list of figures; give them deadlines; and oversee QC. They could put the company into their supply chain. Then the figures, creatures and environments could be released under the HT co-brand. HT could probably even buy some of SS’s old molds and patterns to update and improve upon (provided they still have any value). Barring either SS stepping up or HT setting up a special division or subcontracting out, the only other options are non-licensed KOs, small-run customs, or DIY kits.

 

[Hoody999]

That’s assuming SS still has a 1/6 figure license. It?s possible the license has expired or has been pulled. Folks have pointed out that the upcoming Rancor is smaller than 1/6 as well as being polystone. If SS doesn’t show any 1/6 figures at this year’s Virtual ComicCon, I think it will be pretty safe to assume they no longer have the license. If they do have the license, however, they could quickly generate revenue by rereleasing some of their high potential alien figures like Greedo, Bib Fortuna and Gammorean Guard; creatures like Dewback and TaunTaun; and environments like Yoda’s Hut. Then they could start producing new aliens, creatures, droids and environments. I don’t know if it’s arrogance, hard-headedness or greed that made them think they could compete head-to-head with Hot Toys. Sure everyone wants to go after the bigger sales and higher margins, but if that’s not possible, settle for producing a successful line with lower numbers. I’m sure there are tons of companies that would jump at that opportunity. I’d love to see Disney/Lucas grant a license to a company like Asmus for 1/6 Star Wars aliens, creatures, vehicles and environments. However, if SS no longer has a license, my guess is HT has sucked all the air out of the room and holds exclusive rights. If that’s the case, they simply aren’t going to devote their resources to chasing smaller margins (for the sake of argument: why spend say $100,000 developing a figure that will sell 2,000 units, when they can spend maybe $75,000 on a figure that will sell 5,000-10,000 units). The only thing HT could do is subcontract that part of the license out to a small, hungry company and work out a sweetheart deal where they get paid a per figure basis. They could just hand that company a list of figures; give them deadlines; and oversee QC. They could put the company into their supply chain. Then the figures, creatures and environments could be released under the HT co-brand. HT could probably even buy some of SS’s old molds and patterns to update and improve upon (provided they still have any value). Barring either SS stepping up or HT setting up a special division or subcontracting out, the only other options are non-licensed KOs, small-run customs, or DIY kits.

Not saying you're wrong, but it could also be as simple as the Disney Star Wars license just being too expensive and therefore doesn't allow these types of smaller run figures to be made with a meaningful profit needed to cover what's needed to bring these figures to market.

When SS was doing these figures labour was still relatively cheap in China. Not the case any more. Therefore perhaps they decided to simply make money from distributing Hot Toys stuff instead.

It's hard to determine as some of these figures like Tuskens or Jawas are pretty basic, so why wouldn't they make them ? All in the numbers I guess.

There's a good article on Hasbro paying roughly 15-20% royalties on each figure (plus up front payments). But of course every company probably has a different licensing agreement. Materials are often typically 30-40% of a product price. Then wages, tooling, overheads etc 30 to 35%. Doesn't leave a high percentage left for profit.

If I had to guess I'd say HT or any given manufacturer has maximum around 10-15% profit.

Looking at pricing from Secret Base and that at Sideshow perhaps SS makes around $30 per figure + say $10 for shipping. Equals 16% on a $250 figure. A lot easier and less risk to make your money that way right.

 

[dukefett]

SS distributes so many companies figures too, they must make tons of money just by that. And in general they do hardly anything 1/6 in a given year. They must do like 3-4x as many statues as articulated figures of their own right?

 

[slikkerias]

I don?t think you?ll be allowed to hold on to a Disney/Star Wars license without developing anything new for two years. So I think the SSC 1/6 SW license has expired unfortunately...

 

[nexus]

No doubt the Star Wars license is a fortune (along with Marvel and DC). It’s also tough for any company to compete in a market where HT sucks most of the air out of the room. No idea of the margins, but companies are making profits. SS may very well have decided their best 1/6 play is as a distributor while seeing if they might be able to do something with comic-based figures. That said, these figures are now selling for $250-$300+ each, and most are selling out. So for now at least, Hot Toys has a pretty good business model going and no reason to mess around with it. However, if Sideshow is off the board as a competitor, HT could easily swoop in and expand into the aliens, creatures and environments niche with little to zero risk by subcontracting out. The only reason I’d see for not doing so would be fear of cannibalizing their own sales, although I think the opposite would be true. If they control all sides of the market, they make money regardless. But this is why I’m glad there are KO companies around to at least try to pick up some scraps.

 

[dukefett]

With some of the random *** third party selections for products, I'm still surprised there's so few Star Wars 3P releases. I mean no one's even bootlegged a Stormtrooper yet?

 

[Drake]

Stormtroopers were bootlegged a couple of times. There's been the odd character bootleg here and there too, but mostly there just doesn't seem to be enough interest/money/hype in it for the bootleg companies to bother running the Disney lawyer gauntlet for...