I make no pretenses about being an ardent HT supporter. Yes, I’ve bought an absurd amount of HT figures, but I?ve also purchased Toys Era, SooSoo, and other unlicensed figures, as well a good number of very expensive customs (some of which have later been knocked off and sold for a fraction of what I paid). That’s no secret. I completely understand why HT doesn?t want to produce every B-list, C-list, or D-list character on the team roster when they can make 5x as much on a Batman or Spiderman, or 10x on another Iron Man. Their business strategy has been very successful. That said, it shouldn?t come as a surprise that HT’s success in growing the 1:6 market, coupled with collector demand for additional characters, has created a niche opportunity for unlicensed producers and customizers. Just look at some of the Marvel, DC and Star Wars “wish list” threads — not to mention several other underserved licenses they hold like Aliens, Terminator, Predator, and The Matrix. There’s simply no way Hot Toys can meet that demand. Sure I’d prefer to just buy licensed figures, but if the licensees don’t produce certain characters either because they don’t think they’ll sell enough or they don’t have the bandwidth, I’ll absolutely buy the UL figures. It’s not about saving a few $ by purchasing cheap knockoffs, it’s about filling in lines because oftentimes that’s the only way to get certain characters. I would also venture that Hot Toys is somewhat accepting of the fact that unlicensed and custom figures are a reality of the marketplace until and unless they perceive them as impacting sales, or when unlicensed figures of characters that are on their radar screen start popping up.
My main point above was that given collector demand, it would be great to either see HT subcontract out parts of their major licenses to 2-3 smaller companies to produce B-tier and C-tier characters, environments, creatures and vehicles, or for Marvel, DC and Star Wars to award 1 or 2 additional 1:6 licenses to create some much needed competition in the marketplace.
It’s kind of ridiculous for folks to point fingers at UL companies like SooSoo and ToysEra as if they are this shady underside of the collectibles industry and committing some heinous crime against mega corporations. These are tiny companies producing maybe 300-400 figures per that are simply taking advantage of a niche opportunity, putting in the work to produce decent quality products, and trying to make some money in the process. And yes, that’s how HT started.
