Limited editions, re-release, open edition?

[Darklord Dave]

Not what I meant. This forum is a welcome side effect of limited edition collectibles. They bring in collectors with a different mindset than those who collect the mass produced stuff. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part, they're two different kinds of collectors. The proof is out there. Compare SSF to Rebelscum, Spawn.com or Hisstank and you'll see what I mean. Plus, nowadays, I've noticed that when many make the jump from those to high-end, suddenly they become self-appointed accuracy experts. Further proof they just don't grasp the concept.

I think that's an over generalization. I've been a "toy"collector in the past, although for "toys" 1/6 has always been my focus. I think they can graduate to higher end items and become valuable members of the community. It's probably more a maturity issue - those that can afford higher end collectibles tend to be older, thus less likely to be quick with the stupid comment (there are exceptions of course).

 

[thenammagazine]

Or they have a brain and refused to pay scalpers and opportunists hyper inflated prices.

If you used yours, you'd realize scalpers set the prices so high because that's exactly what people are paying. No customers = no high prices.

I think that's an over generalization. I've been a "toy"collector in the past, although for "toys" 1/6 has always been my focus. I think they can graduate to higher end items and become valuable members of the community. It's probably more a maturity issue - those that can afford higher end collectibles tend to be older, thus less likely to be quick with the stupid comment (there are exceptions of course).

Disagree. It's not an over-generalization, but a simple observation. A certain product brings a certain clientele. The three other forums I mentioned have an environment based on the markets they're founded around. Just like this one is geared more toward high-end collecting. I'd be curious to see age stats for all the forums. I think you'd be pretty surprised to see just how "old" the majority on those other forums are.

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

These threads confuse my brain. I find myself agreeing with people I don't normally agree with, disagreeing with people I normally agree with, partially agreeing with other people I normally agree/disagree with and then disagreeing with myself. I think I need to leave this topic.

I can't even tell if i agree or disagree with this

 

[Kibishii]

I am curious as to why a limited edition size dictates what you would pay for a figure. Iron Monger is $500 and is just as cool if there are 10,000 of them or there are 500.

My thinking is simple economics...why am I going to spend several hundred dollars on items that I know for a fact will be overproduced and sell for much less within a short period of time?

I haven't preordered a single Hot Toys item in the last 6-8 months from Alterego simple because I know the item will not "sell out" and I can get it from eBay or GoHastings for much less. So far this has worked with six figures and I am betting that it will work Iron Monger. Yes, I want Iron Monger in my collection, but I am not going to spend $500 on him when I can wait until he is released and spend $400.

I think mass producing these sort of undermines what we've come to know as high-end, limited edition collectibles. We're a more "adult" community than those who prefer the "TRU" offerings, collectible-wise.

As Nam pointed out, there is a distinct difference between mass-produced, Hasbro-type action figures and $200+ Hot Toys type figures & $300+ statues. I don't mind spending $10 even if I know it will mass produced, re-released, and be worth much less in a short period. However, we aren't talking about cars or houses; these are high-end collectibles. I fear that "open editions" and "re-releases" are going to flood the collectible market so much that they destroy the market.

I'm pretty sure I would still buy and enjoy Hot Toys figures if 50,000 of them were produced and they sold for $60 a pop at Toys R Us, assuming the final product was the same.

The thing is, the higher the edition size and lower the price, the lower the quality will inevitably become.

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

My thinking is simple economics...why am I going to spend several hundred dollars on items that I know for a fact will be overproduced and sell for much less within a short period of time?

I haven't preordered a single Hot Toys item in the last 6-8 months from Alterego simple because I know the item will not "sell out" and I can get it from eBay or GoHastings for much less. So far this has worked with six figures and I am betting that it will work Iron Monger. Yes, I want Iron Monger in my collection, but I am not going to spend $500 on him when I can wait until he is released and spend $400.

Would you say then that this new trend of figures not selling out is bad news for Hot Toys?

 

[turtlepower73]

i think you need to keep items available to people..if you make limited you won't keep people collecting .you will lose them as collectors. they will focus in on something new.

 

[Darkseed]

I haven't preordered a single Hot Toys item in the last 6-8 months from Alterego simple because I know the item will not "sell out" and I can get it from eBay or GoHastings for much less. So far this has worked with six figures and I am betting that it will work Iron Monger. Yes, I want Iron Monger in my collection, but I am not going to spend $500 on him when I can wait until he is released and spend $400.

I don't understand everyone's rush to pre-order Almost everything HT remains in stock even exclusive "guaranteed" to sell out items.

SS has a better average of selling out exclusives but even theirs aren't quick or guaranteed.

 

[Kibishii]

Would you say then that this new trend of figures not selling out is bad news for Hot Toys?

It may be good for them in the short term, but long term I don't see them being able to regularly increase their prices and I fear for their quality control. Again, why am I going to preorder from Alter-Ego (my normal Hot Toys supplier) when I can simply wait for the release and save so much? When "retail price" become a joke, Hot Toys will implode.

I bought the HT Batman Begins: Bruce Wayne, HT Scarecrow, and the SDCC Ironman at cost, but they were limited.

Here is a very quick run down of my Hot Toys purchases over the last year:
Captain America 150ish, Thor $130ish, RE Jill Valentine BattleSuit 120ish, RE Alice 140ish, Spiderman $120, Odin $120, Ironman V 170ish

 

[karamazov80]

The thing is, the higher the edition size and lower the price, the lower the quality will inevitably become.

I don't see why this should be the case. If you invest just as much in the quality of the materials, in the factories/workers painting and putting the things together, and in administration/quality control, simply up-scaling it by buying materials in much larger quantities, getting more bang for your buck with the tooling and molds, establishing a more efficient distribution chain, etc., then it seems like this would be very feasible.

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

i think you need to keep items available to people..if you make limited you won't keep people collecting .you will lose them as collectors. they will focus in on something new.

Limited edition one-of-kind collectibles is the industry-wide standard since the industry started for Hot Toys, Sideshow and all others, it's how they made money & gathered followers and customers.

Items being limited, one-of-a-kind and rare makes the items unique & desirable, them being mass-produced and remade will only make them lose quite a bit of that appeal.
People have compared Hot Toys to Hasbro which is unfair but also apt as Hot Toys is behaving more like a mass toy company than the limited collectible company it is supposed to be.

Hot Toys is the only collectible company i can think of to break them standards.

I don't understand everyone's rush to pre-order Almost everything HT remains in stock even exclusive "guaranteed" to sell out items.

SS has a better average of selling out exclusives but even theirs aren't quick or guaranteed.

But since it wasn't that way until the last year and a bit it obviously means there has been a change from needing to pre-order to secure the figure at all to not having to do that, this change is because one of two changes has occured:

• Retailers are getting a larger supply of the figures from Hot Toys, meaning they've upped their edition size
  
• People aren't ordering as much due to any number of reasons such as economy is affecting their collecting fund, the characters they want aren't being made, the price increase is too much for them, they have the character already, etc...

 

[jye318]

Statues should all have limited edition and never re-release, that is why we call limited edition collection, HT can re-release whatever they want buy take away" limited" , figure is just different then statue IMO

 

[karamazov80]

Statues should all have limited edition and never re-release, that is why we call limited edition collection, HT can re-release whatever they want buy take away" limited" , figure is just different then statue IMO

That seems like a kind of arbitrary distinction. Seems that figures are just more popular than statues in general, which is why more are produced.

 

[Gates70]

Limited edition one-of-kind collectibles is the industry-wide standard since the industry started for Hot Toys, Sideshow and all others, it's how they made money & gathered followers and customers.

Items being limited, one-of-a-kind and rare makes the items unique & desirable, them being mass-produced and remade will only make them lose quite a bit of that appeal.
People have compared Hot Toys to Hasbro which is unfair but also apt as Hot Toys is behaving more like a mass toy company than the limited collectible company it is supposed to be.

Hot Toys is the only collectible company i can think of to break them standards.

+1...if I'm going to pay stupid money for an action figure, it better be limited, in which case HT isn't anymore. I'm no flipper whatsoever, but I like my collection to have some value if I'm putting so much money into it. I recently stopped collecting HT and have been selling them off to just stay with statues. I'm not going to support any company that charges me an arm and a leg for an action figure when I can get a statue for $50-$100 more that is limited (and in 1/4 scale to boot). The perfect example is the DX Joker 89 coming out. $250 to $275 ! A little more and you can get a PF.

 

[a-dev]

+1...if I'm going to pay stupid money for an action figure, it better be limited, in which case HT isn't anymore. I'm no flipper whatsoever, but I like my collection to have some value if I'm putting so much money into it. I recently stopped collecting HT and have been selling them off to just stay with statues. I'm not going to support any company that charges me an arm and a leg for an action figure when I can get a statue for $50-$100 more that is limited (and in 1/4 scale to boot). The perfect example is the DX Joker 89 coming out. $250 to $275 ! A little more and you can get a PF.

And you lose the fun of poseability and get an inferior paintjob. Nah, for me the figure is more worth it.

 

[Gates70]

And you lose the fun of poseability and get an inferior paintjob. Nah, for me the figure is more worth it.

I never played with my dolls. I just placed them in their case and that's it. The paint is inferior, sure. But some of them like the new T1 PF is pretty good ! Better paint job or not, when people come over, they gravitate towards the PFs, not the action figures. It's almost like they don't see them sometimes and just comment on the PFs. Hell, I gravitate around my PFs more as well.

 

[karamazov80]

I'm not going to support any company that charges me an arm and a leg for an action figure when I can get a statue for $50-$100 more that is limited (and in 1/4 scale to boot).

If you feel the statues are such a better value, then I think this is the right move. If size and edition size matter most to you, then the difference in price would seem almost negligible considering how much smaller HT figures are and how many more are produced. But as a-dev says, HT has its pros that Sideshow statues don't. Paint work for instance, articulation/display options, and the level of detail you get with the small accessories.

 

[karamazov80]

I never played with my dolls.

Insults like this come off as pretty weak on a forum dedicated to toys and statues of cartoon/comic book/movie characters that people pose around their house IMO. You are no cooler than others because you collect statues of superheroes and GI Joes rather than dollies. We're all geeks here. Sorry to break it to you.

 

[a-dev]

I never played with my dolls. I just placed them in their case and that's it. The paint is inferior, sure. But some of them like the new T1 PF is pretty good ! Better paint job or not, when people come over, they gravitate towards the PFs, not the action figures. It's almost like they don't see them sometimes and just comment on the PFs. Hell, I gravitate around my PFs more as well.

Fair enough. The biggest items in my collection do tend to be more eye-catching - perhaps because I have fewer of them though which itself makes them stand out. How about 1/4 scale poseable figures, such as is now becoming all the rage with EB and HT? Would you consider those?

 

[Boba Ben]

I have statues and 1/6 figures, but I really do like my 1/6 collection better. They make me happier.

 

[Gates70]

Insults like this come off as pretty weak on a forum dedicated to toys and statues of cartoon/comic book/movie characters that people pose around their house IMO. You are no cooler than others because you collect statues of superheroes and GI Joes rather than dollies. We're all geeks here. Sorry to break it to you.

Wasn't meant as an insult and why would you feel it's an insult ? I obviously have / had tons of them.