NECA - Planet of the Apes

[dholden007]

I just found this, didn't even know it was in development. Damn this line could have been so epic

 

[Protozaius]

I agree with everything you said about Dr. Zaius. I love the character. By no means am I intending to marginalize Dr. Zaius , I am just trying to come up with a reason as to why sales were so low.

I just think that had they started with say a General Ursus it would have generated more sales, but I could be wrong...in fact the real reason and as much as I hate to admit it, POTA is just not popular anymore to sustain a statue/action figure line. PCS did sell out of the General Ursus on Steed statue. I don't know if they further lowered the ES, but I doubt they would have sold as many had they done Dr. Zaius instead...just my opinion. Neca is a little different since they released the lines in waves. Dr. Zaius definitely should have been in the first wave. They made 2 because the 1st one didn't come out good (especially compared to that original proto-type), although as far as I know Randy never said that. I really love those Neca figures. Great figures for a good price.

I remember Mat saying that General Ursus would have cost more to develop. Remember, their 12" line was dead for a few years at that time. So any attempt back into the world of POTA, would mean a risk for Sideshow. To cut costs on the Zaius PF, they skipped the full-color decorative box. They ended up printing the picture of the statue on the actual brown shipper. That was so sad to see when it arrived at my doorstep. But I feel lucky that they made any PF at all.

Like Randy with NECA, it was really Mat Falls that championed the POTA lines with Sideshow. He pushed hard for Apes... and being one of the founding members of Sideshow Toy, he had a lot of sway. I still don't know how he was able to convince his colleagues to take a chance on the PF line after the failure of the 12" line.

I'll never forget when I went to SDCC (in 2007 I think), and he broke the news to me that there was going to be a POTA PF. He said he was really looking forward to taking another stab at sculpting the Apes. I asked him which one would be first but he was hesitant to tell me. Knowing that I was a HUGE Zaius fan, he said that I would be happy with the choice.

 

[Protozaius]

Yeah, that orangutan would have been sweet! I'm always up for MORE orangutans!

Actually, I wished that NECA put HIM in the Wave 3 Bundle box rather than General Aldo. Make it a complete Conquest wave!

(Even though many Ape fans are enjoying kit bashing Urko with their Aldos...)

 

[dholden007]

Was the 12 inch line considered a failure by Sideshow, they went fairly deep. I was always tempted on picking them all up but so far only got Zira, Zaius and Ceasar along with the 3 Hot Toys figures.

Protozaius, you must have an amazing POTA collection. Do you have any pics by any chance? Would love to especially see the Sideshow figures displayed. I bet they look amazing together.

 

[Protozaius]

Like NECA, Sideshow developed quite a few figures in 2004 thinking they had a sleeper line on their hands. Some say that they actually choked the line with too many figures all at the same time, especially with their assortment of Taylors... flooding the market. In a span of only a few months, Sideshow had unveiled 10 POTA figures (each with large edition sizes) and a Lawgiver Statue companion piece. This is a practice that they no longer utilize. Now with their 12" lines they wait months between releases.

As for pictures, I haven't taken new ones for about a year now. At the risk of reposting pictures that have previously graced this forum, I offer these for our perusal. It's not much of a collection, but it's mine.

Here's pictures from my man cave/computer room, where I'm typing this very posting:

Three shelves of Sideshow figures (they currently have more NECA figures on them now:




My Hot Toys Gorillas (I sold that Michael Jackson Thriller figure and added my Threezero Game of Thrones figures):



My Hasbro Prototype/Test Shot Ape Collection (along with my 12" Firefly customs... look at all of the PROTOZAIUSes!):



My two Don Post masks that I've owned for nearly 40 years:



My signed Mutant Jailor and Lawgiver statue (the NECA lawgiver statue stands next to it now):



My lone Mego on display. The rest are in storage:

 

[Protozaius]

And lastly my bedroom collection with the original Morton Haak production drawing taking center stage);



My solid resin prototype Sideshow Lawgiver statue and my Angel custom Zaius heads with open mouths (each base is signed by sculptor Mat Falls):



My original Return of the Planet of the Apes pencil sketch of Zaius:



My original Simpson POTA spoof pencil sketch:



My authentic Chimp Glyphs (at least I HOPE they are authentic!) and my son's drawing of Zaius (he drew him with a lot of teeth!):



And the framed repro british quad poster of POTA that hangs in our stairwell:

 

[dholden007]

Amazing Collection indeed my friend Thank you so much for sharing.

I dont have any Medicom figures, but I really like the astronaut apes. I think someone previously said, they are too small to fit with the Neca figures. I think I will see if I can pick them up anyway. I'd also like a Taylor, as well. The Sideshow Astronaut Taylor looks pretty good too, not really too dated. Those Protozaiuses are awesome.

 

[Protozaius]

The Medicom Apes are indeed too small to mix with the NECA Apes. They are nearly an inch shorter.



As you can see from this photo the Ape-O-Nauts are much shorter than the NECA gorilla to the right and Cornelius and Zira to the left.

 

[dholden007]

What about the headsculpts on the Apenauts? Do they hold up when compared to the Neca sculpts

 

[Protozaius]

They really don't. Vinyl is a softer material so the detail in the figure is soft. Coupled with a thick paint application, the figures don't have a ton of detail.

 

[dholden007]

Too bad, was hoping I can mix some of the Medicom apes with Neca. I guess that's a problem often with collecting figures, eventually if they make a newer version, the older ones become dated.

 

[stickman]

Best Ape figures ever made!

 

[dholden007]

Best Ape figures ever made!

Yup, and this line could have been even more awesome with all the developed/pre-developed figures Neca had.

 

[stickman]

Neca blew it by not releasing any humans let alone the main protagonist of the film. Imagine Star Wars figures with no Luke Skywalker or Han Solo.

SideShow was able to give us 4 different Taylors plus Nova, and 2 mutants!

PZ is correct, Neca should have included the prisoner orangutan with the 3rd wave making it totally army builder friendly. I love Aldo but only need a few of him as he is a General and you can't have too many of them.

 

[GuruAskew]

Humans are what killed the Sideshow line and NECA was right to skip them. The Apes are the main draw by far. You might even convince a casual collector to buy any of the figures they produced as a one-off but nobody would buy Taylor alone.

Producing the "creatures" first has been a win/win twice for them. Aliens and Predators have more shelf appeal and no likeness rights. You build your base on that and if things work out your success affords you the ability to produce something with smaller margins.

The real reason this line failed is simple: this franchise is simply not as popular as Alien/Predator/Terminator. It's a generational thing. Growing up in the 80s I had almost no exposure to them. My own introduction was the 30th Anniversary program on AMC in '98, and I can't really say that took my generation by storm.

 

[Stryker2011]

I think you're wrong there. NECA had to know from the start the primary collectors of this line would have to be mostly older people, and some truly dedicated Ape fans. What kept me away from this line, was exactly what pissed me off about the Mego line back in the 70s: no Taylor, Nova or Brent. You can't have the adventure of POTA without the humans. I get that younger generations are more obsessed with the special effects, and creatures, but we older folks know that none of that works without the humans to put it all into perspective. And since NECA pretty much made it clear from the beginning that they were never going to do humans, I was out from the beginning. What really killed the SS Apes line, is the bodies were crap (there usual problem that they still have to this day), and doing multiples of the same characters; do it right the first time, and delve into the characters we never get: Julius, Lucius, the orangutans in the assembly scene.

 

[mattb483]

I have to also disgree here. I was born in 83 and I am a huge planet of the apes fan! Age has nothibg to so with it. Thats like saying a kid born in the 90's should'nt be a star wars fan cause it was made in the 70'early 80's pre dating to the old films. I wanted to pick up Necas dutch figure cause I am a huge arnold fan but could never find one, it seemed like it was the most popular figure of that line! Neca should have just done a Neca 2pk with nova and taylor. I mean what guy doesn't want a Nova figure i mean come on!!!! The medicom one has a high resale value goes for 50 bucks. I agree POTA. has a way smaller audience but NECA knew this and could see from previous toy lines. I dont know why they expected for them to sell like hot cakes? To be honest they seemed to sell just like any other toys at a good moderate pace. Neca base one weekend at comic con on the 3 pack to see if the line was dead or alive and it didnt seel well so they scrapped it. Seriously one weeekend to decide.

 

[Stryker2011]

I don't disagree with you mattb, which is why I said die-hard Ape fans, which can be any age, but most younger people are so obsessed with SE these days, that a movie like the original POTA can look pretty dated.

The other thing that killed this line was attempting to sell these in big box stores like Toys-R-Us. Those stores are very much about high numbers on current popular items, not niche market classic POTA, and I do have to say, despite some quality sculpts, these things were way overpriced for a retailer like this. If NECA had just stuck to on-line retailers, like BBTS, Alter Ego, etc, they would possibly had better luck. TRU has pretty high demands on sales in order to keep carrying a line, otherwise it's just space they can use for something else.

 

[dholden007]

Humans are what killed the Sideshow line and NECA was right to skip them. The Apes are the main draw by far. You might even convince a casual collector to buy any of the figures they produced as a one-off but nobody would buy Taylor alone.

Producing the "creatures" first has been a win/win twice for them. Aliens and Predators have more shelf appeal and no likeness rights. You build your base on that and if things work out your success affords you the ability to produce something with smaller margins.

The real reason this line failed is simple: this franchise is simply not as popular as Alien/Predator/Terminator. It's a generational thing. Growing up in the 80s I had almost no exposure to them. My own introduction was the 30th Anniversary program on AMC in '98, and I can't really say that took my generation by storm.

Agreed 100%, the real reason this line failed is becasue its just not popular enough to sustain a figure line. I don't think this was Neca's fault at all, it was a passion project for Randy. Big box stores were NOT the only place to buy these figures... they were available everywhere including just about all online retailers like BBTS. TRU had the exclusive Infantry pack (still have plenty) and good of them to carry them, but otherwise these figures were easily available everywhere. All my local stores in NYC (Forbidden Planet, Midtown Comics etc) still have plenty of them in stock. The 3 pack simply didn't sell well anywhere not just SDCC ( TRu, nor Hastings who still have them in stock) There is just not enough interest. Its hard do believe that people passed because there were no humans. Randy had said that they wanted to go deep into the line, although no humans were planned, if the license was a success who knows maybe we would have eventually gotten some humans too.

In anyone interested at Hasting has Cornelius and Dr. Ziaus v1 for only $6.99, great deal for anyone still wanting to pick them up .

 

[sallah]

Randy sent me a thank you package the other day for the part I played in supporting the line (starting the Facebook fan page, Apes day, the commercials). It contained something very special.

Randy Falk and the folks at NECA are awesome. They truly do appreciate their customers and fans.

Sallah