How do YOU feel about Hot Toys re-releases?

[Grosby]

As I said earlier, many people are letting older figures go at a higher value to pick up long desired grails.

In that situation, someone is buying that 'grail,' someone is spending money there, it's not just money that appears out of thin air. Where is that money coming from and what happens to that in this theorized scenario?

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but this scenario has been thrown out there a few times now and that part has never been explained.

 

[Boba Ben]

As I said earlier, many people are letting older figures go at a higher value to pick up long desired grails. So selling, say, a P1 Predator would've gotten them both the '89 Batman and Joker and made a nice dent in say Red Skull. Now with the cost plummeting, HT's essentially neutering themselves as the P1 can't even be sold for MSRP. Instead of this person buying 3 new figures, HT has one person buying the re-release as "Classic Predator." Or say, someone selling their Tumbler pre-rerelease to fund their 2012 HT collecting. Now just think about how that compounds in terms of all the collectors who do this on the regular basis. The new business gained won't een come close to compensating for the more hardcore HT fanbase's devotion to multiple purchases across multiple lines. It's a stupid business decision for a quick cash grab. Any business who looks at the immediate future instead of the long term, is destined to fail.

I have two of the Predator 1 figure and I'm just keeping him. I saw a lot of people trying to sell him for lower than retail, but it's not worth getting $150 for each of them to me. I'd rather just enjoy them on my shelf at this point.

 

[COSMOSTARX]

You guys should encourage and support smaller companies making figures and picking up licenses.

Bending over for just one company and then being mad at them for trying to make money is silly.

 

[thenammagazine]

In that situation, someone is buying that 'grail,' someone is spending money there, it's not just money that appears out of thin air. Where is that money coming from and what happens to that in this theorized scenario?

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but this scenario has been thrown out there a few times now and that part has never been explained.

Saving up that much money to buy a figure on the secondary market shows more of a focus in collecting. The dude saving up to buy an Elder Predator isn't suddenly going to change his mind and the entire focus of his collection to buy the Sucker Punch girls and X-Games Green Goblin.

You guys should encourage and support smaller companies making figures and picking up licenses.

Bending over for just one company and then being mad at them for trying to make money is silly.

Sick around, newbie and educate yourself a bit by reading other threads. You'll learn that most of the people posting in this thread collect more than just Hot Toys. It'll help you look less green behind the ears.

 

[Rotfish]

So selling, say, a P1 Predator would've gotten them both the '89 Batman and Joker and made a nice dent in say Red Skull. Now with the cost plummeting, HT's essentially neutering themselves as the P1 can't even be sold for MSRP.

Not really. People are not only able to sell their P1's above MSRP, but some collectors are also on the lookout for them due to the price drop. Put a P1 on eBay for $275 or under and there are bound to be takers.

I could agree if these figures were marketed to kids, or available via the toy chains. But they're not. They're "adult collectibles" marketed at adults as "limited edition," half of which is essentially a lie.

Well... yeah. Therein lies the real reason everyone's pissed. They break their promise either by re-releasing or by manufacturing a large edition size that's much too big to be considered "limited."
I don't see the company tanking, though. Older collectors may be put off by their decisions, but fresh meat comes in faster than the old meat can stand to leave. Every newbie and his grandma are getting the HT bug, so technically, the company is trading its old audience for a new one that will be more forgiving (mostly since they didn't own the first versions to begin with). This isn't to say that many collectors from the first wave won't stay behind, because they will.

 

[Blkinterceptor]

Well... yeah. Therein lies the real reason everyone's pissed. They break their promise either by re-releasing or by manufacturing a large edition size that's much too big to be considered "limited."
I don't see the company tanking, though. Older collectors may be put off by their decisions, but fresh meat comes in faster than the old meat can stand to leave. Every newbie and his grandma are getting the HT bug, so technically, the company is trading its old audience for a new one that will be more forgiving (mostly since they didn't own the first versions to begin with). This isn't to say that many collectors from the first wave won't stay behind, because they will.

 

[thenammagazine]

Not really. People are not only able to sell their P1's above MSRP, but some collectors are also on the lookout for them due to the price drop. Put a P1 on eBay for $275 or under and there are bound to be takers.

I had one listed MIB at Classic's MSRP of $225 and had zero bites. At the end of the day it had 141 page views and 16 watchers. Next?

 

[COSMOSTARX]

Sick around, newbie and educate yourself a bit by reading other threads. You'll learn that most of the people posting in this thread collect more than just Hot Toys. It'll help you look less green behind the ears.

This forum's postings revolve around them too much to see past it. It's hard to believe that anyway.

 

[EVILFACE]

I've just melted down all my Hot Toys stuff and sculped it into big hand flipping the bird. Will be sending it to Hot Toys tomorrow.

 

[SAB]

You guys should encourage and support smaller companies making figures and picking up licenses.
Bending over for just one company and then being mad at them for trying to make money is silly.

Sick around, newbie and educate yourself a bit by reading other threads. You'll learn that most of the people posting in this thread collect more than just Hot Toys. It'll help you look less green behind the ears.

This forum's postings revolve around them too much to see past it. It's hard to believe that anyway.

But who are these other companies that aren't being supported?

People gobble up Enterbay and new companies like Blitzway as well. I'm sure BigChiefStudio's is going to do very well with Doctor Who as well.

Hot Toys is just the biggest.

 

[thenammagazine]

Don't forget about Art Figures, Triad, Soldier Story, BBi, etc., and the huge custom section. But if he actually acknowledged them, his point would be invalid.

 

[Shai]

A year or 2 ago, seeing how good the Hot Toys figures were, I nearly jumped ship and drop Sideshow stuff for them.Until I saw, as a collector all those re-release ____...That was a mess I wasnt ready to get into.

Neca does it too, always re-releasing their figures.


Sideshow = Integrity

Moral: Stick with Sideshow.

 

[COSMOSTARX]

They're big. I just find it a bit ironic people want them to make so many things but they don't want them to remake older stuff. I think a great point in them remaking stuff is to bring in more customers and of course make money.

Granted, people have their opinions and feelings about things, I just find it awkward that so many people voted for having things and keeping it that way so new collector's can't get into the hobby.

On the flip side, is it misleading for them to make new things while some people, right before the announcement of a reissue, pays double or triple for the same item? Or is it just bad timing? They don't control when people buy dead stock items.

My original post just intended to spark some fire into maybe investing in other stuff. I bet 3A could make a sick Tumbler if they got into it. That new MGS Rex looks amazing.

Don't forget about Art Figures, Triad, Soldier Story, BBi, etc., and the huge custom section. But if he actually acknowledged them, his point would be invalid.

Yeah, I'm sure if people were more vocal about it I would remember those companies. They're small enough to be looked pass while browsing the forums.

 

[Grosby]

Saving up that much money to buy a figure on the secondary market shows more of a focus in collecting.

I see. Both sides are really in quite poor financial situations, huh? The seller can't buy figures unless he has 'grails' to spare, and the buyer can't buy figures unless he saves. The driving force keeping HT afloat is really quite a cut-and-dry Dickensian lot.

I can accept that there are some like this but to say it's on such a scale that it's noticeable on HT's bottom line, I find that very hard to believe. I think it is more likely as Blade says, any impact such buyers had/have will be negligible (short- and long- term) against buyers of re-releases. I say the amount of people who buy the re-release of Robocop, for example, will completely and utterly slaughter the amount of money bought in by re-sales (leading to new figure purchases) of the original RoboCop releases in all the time they've been out.

The dude saving up to buy an Elder Predator isn't suddenly going to change his mind and the entire focus of his collection to buy the Sucker Punch girls and X-Games Green Goblin.

But the dude selling the Elder Predator, he definitely will pick himself up some Sucker Punch figures and a Green Goblin to boot...

 

[Butters]

Don't forget about Art Figures, Triad, Soldier Story, BBi, etc., and the huge custom section. But if he actually acknowledged them, his point would be invalid.

So, basically you think that HT is on the verge of going out of business and everyone should stop collecting them now?

A year or 2 ago, seeing how good the Hot Toys figures were, I nearly jumped ship and drop Sideshow stuff for them.Until I saw, as a collector all those re-release ____...That was a mess I wasnt ready to get into.

Neca does it too, always re-releasing their figures.


Sideshow = Integrity

Moral: Stick with Sideshow.

Sideshow are parters with HT.

 

[thenammagazine]

I see. Both sides are really in quite poor financial situations, huh? The seller can't buy figures unless he has 'grails' to spare, and the buyer can't buy figures unless he saves. The driving force keeping HT afloat is really quite a cut-and-dry Dickensian lot.

So you're saying you can still buy more figures with less money.

I can accept that there are some like this but to say it's on such a scale that it's noticeable on HT's bottom line, I find that very hard to believe. I think it is more likely as Blade says, any impact such buyers had/have will be negligible (short- and long- term) against buyers of re-releases. I say the amount of people who buy the re-release of Robocop, for example, will completely and utterly slaughter the amount of money bought in by re-sales (leading to new figure purchases) of the original RoboCop releases in all the time they've been out.

Calling BS. They'll sit around and wait for HT to remake an ED-209 before dropping mad cash on an original.

But the dude selling the Elder Predator, he definitely will pick himself up some Sucker Punch figures and a Green Goblin to boot...

This very board represents a small portion of the industry. What we see here is a small reflection of the market. Stroll through the WTT threads and look how many people are trading single grails for multiples.

So, basically you think that HT is on the verge of going out of business and everyone should stop collecting them now?

Nope, but not thinking that this won't effect future growth is completely naive.

 

[Droog Alex]

Sideshow = Integrity

Moral: Stick with Sideshow.

Yeah, stick to your integrity. I'm using my money to buy figures from whomever makes 'em best.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Getting the opportunity to own a new T-800 Endoskeleton & Robocop - enough said!

 

[Hamanu]

Nope, but not thinking that this won't effect future growth is completely naive.

Right. Just like the roleplaying industry was affected by WotC's takeover of TSR. I was a "hard core" gamer throughout the 90ties and I whined and moaned about WotC "ruining" the hobby with their business practices and changes from 2nd to 3rd edition. Now the fans of the 3rd edition are _____ing about the 4th which is modeled after WOW.

So, yeah. They've lost a part of the "old school" niche market, but they're on the verge of going mainstream and they're making a s***load of $$$, just like Metallica that faced criticism for "selling out" after they made their first video and they're also bathing in gold like Scrooge McDuck.

Wake up people. HT is a business that sells figures for money. Making figures isn't a hobby for them, regardless of what their PR and marketing says. They're not in it "for the fans."

While they were trying to make it in the business they catered to the collectors' sense of pride and ego, but now that they are selling thousands of each figure and have the rep to convince Nicholson to sign off on his likeness, why would they give a rat's ass what a small part of a small community (yes, this is a small community compared to the globe) thinks about their policies.

And personally, I'm glad that they're re-releasing the figures. I buy my figures for display, not for retirement and I'm happy to have the option of getting the ones I missed at retail.

And to the "collectors" that are in it for bragging rights or profit I say "Tough luck." Buy a customized, limited edition Ferrari if you want to be so exclusive.

 

[thenammagazine]

Right. Just like the roleplaying industry was affected by WotC's takeover of TSR. I was a "hard core" gamer throughout the 90ties and I whined and moaned about WotC "ruining" the hobby with their business practices and changes from 2nd to 3rd edition. Now the fans of the 3rd edition are _____ing about the 4th which is modeled after WOW.

So, yeah. They've lost a part of the "old school" niche market, but they're on the verge of going mainstream and they're making a s***load of $$$, just like Metallica that faced criticism for "selling out" after they made their first video and they're also bathing in gold like Scrooge McDuck.

Wake up people. HT is a business that sells figures for money. Making figures isn't a hobby for them, regardless of what their PR and marketing says. They're not in it "for the fans."

While they were trying to make it in the business they catered to the collectors' sense of pride and ego, but now that they are selling thousands of each figure and have the rep to convince Nicholson to sign off on his likeness, why would they give a rat's ass what a small part of a small community (yes, this is a small community compared to the globe) thinks about their policies.

And personally, I'm glad that they're re-releasing the figures. I buy my figures for display, not for retirement and I'm happy to have the option of getting the ones I missed at retail.

And to the "collectors" that are in it for bragging rights or profit I say "Tough luck." Buy a customized, limited edition Ferrari if you want to be so exclusive.

What planet do you live on? Table-top RPGs have almost gone the way of the dodo, with stereotyped maternal basement dwellers pretty much running the ships hoping to get even the smallest interest diverted from the card-based games and online MMORPGs.