Hot Toys, you’re going to put yourself out of business!

[Niceman]

Hot Toys needs to seriously improve their QC. For the prices we are paying we shouldn't be getting jacked up toys i.e. Tron Lightcycle.

You know, I thought about buying that one. Then I saw that the figure couldn't stand up straight on his own. What the heck? Why wouldn't they make the figure able to stand up straight!?!?!?! So, I passed.

 

[Grosby]

And then it comes back to the people who expect things to cost the same now vs. say 2008 personally i think is very unrealistic view of how the world works. Everything goes up in price. So many toys cost more now than they did just 1-2-3 years ago. Even the smaller toys, they all went up.

I don't think people are talking about a natural/gradual increase over time, the sort of increase you can find in almost anything, they're talking about how Hot Toys basically went from one figure to the next and made a cross-the-line price increase of at least $50 that they've maintained with every figure since. Looking at it roughly right now, it's the point where the low-end jumped from $130 to $180 and it's where $220+ figure became common and the first time a $300+ figure appeared. Looking back now, I'd say it began with the late 2011 releases. Prior to that I'd say they were increasing in price but they were doing it at what you might be able to argue was a natural rate, then it looks like one day they simply said, 'Charge more because people will pay more.'

 

[Niceman]

i got $240 from their price on their website. £124.99 + £27.50 shipping = 152.49 British pounds sterling = 241.4679 US dollars

They have something called Dynamix Print which is FREE shipping, but not sure what that is, and wasnt sure if it applied to USA customers.

Having bought one myself, the dollar exchange rate fluctuates and mine cost $245. Again, you can get it $70 cheaper in the US.

 

[Grosby]

yup, i think what is maybe upsetting people too is that they want an explanation of why the increases.

I don't know if people are wanting an explanation, I think most have settled on it being 'greed.' Whether that's right, it seems to be the answer most have come to.

I just collect them because I like them. If i have the money, ill buy them. If I don't, so be it.

Well, it's not like everyone else is saying, 'I don't have the money, I wish I could buy it but I just don't have the cash...' There's rather the question of the value of what's being offered, whether it's worth it. With price increases there eventually comes a point where it's not worth it, where people begin to feel that they're being overcharged, ripped off or played for a sucker. That's what I think a lot of people are talking about, not whether they have the money.

 

[SAB]

Haven't been on this thread in a while. Are Hot Toys out of business yet ?

 

[Lejuan]

Haven't been on this thread in a while. Are Hot Toys out of business yet ?

Delayed, as usual

 

[SAB]

Delayed, as usual

ZING !






(No my message isn't too short)

 

[Darth Con]

I was lookin at gettin a Nick Fury on ebay $209.99 USD, aus ebay conversion said it would be $206, double checked with paypal, theyre conversion is at 0.92 cents which worked out to be waaay over at $227.
Now tell me how that **** works!!
ebay says one thing paypal says another.
isnt our dollar sitting at 1.03 now?
****s me!!

 

[Hydeous]

That's how PayPal makes their money, asides from charging the usual 4%. PayPal is bigger than eBay in terms of revenue now

 

[Hamanu]

You can check the option to have your bank do the conversion instead of paypal. Doesn't mean you'll get a much better rate, though, but you might. Ebay probably uses the "average" exchange rate, whereas banks use the "sell" rate which is slightly worse. Paypal's is usually even worse than that.

 

[wookster]

You know, I thought about buying that one. Then I saw that the figure couldn't stand up straight on his own. What the heck? Why wouldn't they make the figure able to stand up straight!?!?!?! So, I passed.

Because his suit lights up...

Haven't been on this thread in a while. Are Hot Toys out of business yet ?

Not to my knowledge!

 

[RagingBull]

People aren't happy about HT 1/6 prices. Wait till there 1/4 scale figure's properly kick off. Thats one reason why I'm not even going to bother getting into there 1/4 Preds. The 1st one will be something like £325 a few figures later & I bet they'll be close to £400. Way to my much for a figure IMO

 

[Niceman]

Because his suit lights up...

I don't see why the one would preclude the other.

 

[Niceman]

People aren't happy about HT 1/6 prices. Wait till there 1/4 scale figure's properly kick off. Thats one reason why I'm not even going to bother getting into there 1/4 Preds. The 1st one will be something like £325 a few figures later & I bet they'll be close to £400. Way to my much for a figure IMO

1/4 scale will quickly hit $500.

 

[wookster]

I don't see why the one would preclude the other.

I would have been happy for them to use reflective piping, but to actually illuminate (which is the route they chose) from an internal light source would make the engineering of an articulated figure very tough to pull off (bear in mind how long the R&D + production took on this figure as it is). And that would be reflected in an even higher price, which brings us back nicely to the prices people are willing to pay.

 

[Niceman]

I would have been happy for them to use reflective piping, but to actually illuminate (which is the route they chose) from an internal light source would make the engineering of an articulated figure very tough to pull off (bear in mind how long the R&D + production took on this figure as it is). And that would be reflected in an even higher price, which brings us back nicely to the prices people are willing to pay.

Well, that's why I passed.

 

[styleznma]

That wasn't my point. The fact that these thing aren't selling out like they used to principally because the edition sizes are so large makes them less, quote-unquote, collectible. Thanks to large runs and re-releases HT have simultaneously deflated the aftermarket trade and made current purchases more expensive. The figures aren't as scarce and cost a lot more, therefore... expensive knick-knacks rather than collectibles.

This could be the single most reason why the price hike, (aftermarket). Im a videogame player for many many years now, and if you looked at Gamestop where it became the single biggest (not the best) place to buy used games; there is so much $$$ being made and the game publishers (like hottoys) saw a lost in profit for the hard work they were creating; thus they began to "attack"/re-adjust business model that would take the used game market money and place it back into theirs, intro the DLC and pre-order bonuses; you can't buy a new released game used with out some chunk of the game unavailable (multiplayer portion, content) thereby if the user wanted to experience the entire game starting at a used game price after purchasing all of missing content your close to or past the cost of a new game price, thereby slowy moving customers from buying used to new; i average 2-3 games per month and have noticed a major decline in used game purchases.

So that brings me to hottoys, as was said above in the quote, Hot toys sees the money being made in aftermarket and what better way to get rewarded for their hard work but than to increase quantity and price to make up for the lost revenue and to slow the aftermarket selling down.

Thus, i don't believe its a license issue and I really DON'T believe its a COST of Materials either for the reason ( I'm still buying Gi Joes, NECA and other 3-7'' action figures at the same price as I did 5 years ago).
And if there was a materials increase wouldn't my NECA resident evil Vector have cost over 23-25$ instead of the 14.99 at TRU?

 

[thenammagazine]

Thus, i don't believe its a license issue and I really DON'T believe its a COST of Materials either for the reason ( I'm still buying Gi Joes, NECA and other 3-7'' action figures at the same price as I did 5 years ago). And if there was a materials increase wouldn't my NECA resident evil Vector have cost over 23-25$ instead of the 14.99 at TRU?

Inaccurate comparison. Those companies produce production runs in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. They have the capability to keep costs low since they easily compensate through quantity alone.

 

[styleznma]

Inaccurate comparison. Those companies produce production runs in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. They have the capability to keep costs low since they easily compensate through quantity alone.

didnt take that into consideration, so i agree with that; What do you think the reason behind the price hike is then?

 

[thenammagazine]

think you quoted the wrong person. that wasnt my post LoL

WTF?! I don't know what happened there. Fixing it!