Think I'm starting to lose intrest in the hobby....

[willocrew]

There will come a time when people just buy less of these statues and toys simply because they have run out of space.

A drop in demand leads to drop in price at least in the short term. But what will almost certainly happen is companies like hot toys will respond by scaling back on their releases. We will start seeing less interesting stuff and less variety. All the small players will also go bust. And prices might start going up again in the long term. Overall I think we will see less variety and less conpetetion in the future with people buying less every year but paying top dollar for each purchase.

So my answer is no. Prices will not go down. It'll go up. But instead of buying a collectible a month, we might end up buying only 1 or 2 a year but end up spending $1000+ on each one.

Over the last month or so I think I have hit the wall as well. Other than getting all 4 of the Mezco One:12 Batman figures I really don’t have any desire to get anything else. I canceled all my Sideshow orders, I don’t think I am going to renew my Gentle Giant PGM Membership and while I still have two things on order with them (The Darrell and the Wolves autographed exc and the new AT-AT Walker bookends which I may or may not keep) I just don’t have any more interest in anything I see coming out from anyone right now. I have a lot of cool items that I love to look at and I don’t want to get rid of any of them but it seems like the anticipation of getting, the excitement of opening and the joy of ownership is just not that great anymore.


Cost – these things are just getting WAY out of control. $220+ for a 12” figure, almost $100 for an art print, 450+ for a PF type statue is just crazy. I know prices of all materials have gone up but when the quality of the materials used goes down yet the cost of the statue goes up its just not cool. Normally I don’t care about statue weight because how it looks is more important but comparing the original 25 lb Hulk PF to the new 5 lb one just shows me they are skimping on quality and costs but not passing that down to us in the prices. And its not just Sideshow its everyone.

Lack of Diversity – there are just way to many of the same things out there. Do we really need a 2nd Batman and Joker PF this soon? Do we really need a 5th Hulk statue? Do we really need 57 Iron Man figures? How many Harley Quinn statues have been made in the last 2 years? I know why companies do it but its having the opposite effect on me. I don’t need a 30th Harley Quinn figure at the expense of all the other cool villians. And then when somebody does have a new and cool and different idea (the Sideshow Star Wars Mythos line) it gets squashed because it doesn’t fit the “new owners” new BS direction. Thanks for nothing.

I don’t know if this is just temporary and I just need something different to peak my interest again (like the One:12 figures) or what but I can easily see myself spending a lot less money from now on. Venting over.

 

[Iggyrox]

There comes a point when collecting can only be sustained by either selling or getting a bigger man cave.

 

[jkno]

I've grown out of 1/6 figure collecting. No matter how well-made they are, I seem to be underwhelmed with every new one I get.

I'm interested to see if I have the same thoughts of the new 1/4 figures.

You will, then you'll go 1:3, then 1:2, and finally 1:1. Then your spouse will leave you for another 1:1 guy

 

[potato]

There will come a time when people just buy less of these statues and toys simply because they have run out of space.

A drop in demand leads to drop in price at least in the short term. But what will almost certainly happen is companies like hot toys will respond by scaling back on their releases. We will start seeing less interesting stuff and less variety. All the small players will also go bust. And prices might start going up again in the long term. Overall I think we will see less variety and less conpetetion in the future with people buying less every year but paying top dollar for each purchase.

This seems to happen on anything related to "Pop culture" yes? Even in toy lines, you can see what once the glories lineup ended being canned, something like McFarlanes, Bandai SIC, Chogokins etc, either they end up being canned, or cut down the release/production & turn it into a niche market only true collectors would buy by increasing the price & make it exclusive, or like what we're seeing in the 1/6, down size it to cut cost so they can offer their products at maybe "SAME PRICE" as before, thanks to inflation & what not.

There seems to have few lineups that never dies down, like Gundam Model Kits, Tamiya 4X4, 1:18 Diecast cars & Barbie Dolls. But that's probably because there's so many new designs coming out every month.

 

[Harajuku]

For me collecting has always gone in cycles. SOme periods I'm super interrested and in to it others it's just laying dormant untill some new things i "got to have" getäs released and kickstarts the "urge" again

 

[airborn007]

I can't say I lost interest but the prices has driven me out quite a bit. I went from 20 down to 2 figures only. If not for mods on both of these I would be disappointed in them.

 

[Vitus]

You will, then you'll go 1:3, then 1:2, and finally 1:1. Then your spouse will leave you for another 1:1 guy

I'm losing interest in all the scaled stuff... Hope that doesn't happen to me

 

[choopie]

This is how I feel with the current market. Too much of the same from multiple companies. As a result my interest in new items is practically nonexistent. Diversity was one of the reasons why I loved Sideshow so much. I could get one-off PFs from a number of different licenses. Now it's all Marvel, DC and SW and nothing else. I have one Sideshow item on pre-order. That's it.

Other companies are dabbling in other licenses that are piquing my curiosity. Chronicle Collectibles, for one. But it's waiting on announcements, pre-orders, shipping of product, etc. that is just killing it for me. Nowadays we have to wait years to get something in-hand. And then there are the prices. Medicom's 1:1 Woody is a unique item and one I'd be interested in. But this side of $400 is ridiculous to me. Affording it is not the issue. It's justifying the value for the price.

Cutting back on purchases doesn't help when you only buy 2 pieces and spend just as much as you would have on 4.

I don't want to give up collecting, but a number of factors are forcing my hand. The writing is on the wall here and it's a lot closer that I want to admit it is.

Lack of Diversity – there are just way to many of the same things out there. Do we really need a 2nd Batman and Joker PF this soon? Do we really need a 5th Hulk statue? Do we really need 57 Iron Man figures? How many Harley Quinn statues have been made in the last 2 years? I know why companies do it but its having the opposite effect on me. I don’t need a 30th Harley Quinn figure at the expense of all the other cool villians. And then when somebody does have a new and cool and different idea (the Sideshow Star Wars Mythos line) it gets squashed because it doesn’t fit the “new owners” new BS direction. Thanks for nothing.

 

[shells075]

If anything I'm getting more addicted to 1/6 action figures. I keep seeing figures that, I say to myself, I just got to get me that. I don't care how much it costs me I got to get it.

The latest fig I really want to get is The Freedom Warrior.

 

[jkno]

I'm losing interest in all the scaled stuff... Hope that doesn't happen to me

If that happens, just go for a 1:1 girl yourself (real one, not rubber though)

 

[devilof76]

All I buy are Star Wars 1:6 figures and DC premium formats from the Gotham universe. I have no room for boredom.

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

I've lost alot of interest as well.

After the Apocalypse mess I was turned off statues as all that waiting then having to either live with a defective product or get refund just soured the whole thing.

With figures there's some im interested in but most are MCU stuff and I couldn't care less about them. The prices are getting out of control too.

I read this book about willpower and one of the parts rang true for collectibles for me. It was called 'the promise of reward' basically it meant that the anticipation or expectation provides more happiness than the product itself and that made a lot of sense for me. For instance I got a figure the other week and haven't even opened it yet, I was happier with the reveal and hype and anticipation that anything else.

You are right, they are that not that many good figures that I want now days, Marvel hot toys saturated the market for me and actually made me not buy any marvel figure that would come out. I started with the Avengers line, but once I saw the new movie line up, Personally I wanted to stick with just main characters, but that would over saturate my wallet and nahh I'll stick with DC figs or other movie lines that interest me.

In the meantime I stick with Lego.

Agreed completely.

 

[AIR]

I've lost alot of interest as well.

After the Apocalypse mess I was turned off statues as all that waiting then having to either live with a defective product or get refund just soured the whole thing.

With figures there's some im interested in but most are MCU stuff and I couldn't care less about them. The prices are getting out of control too.

I read this book about willpower and one of the parts rang true for collectibles for me. It was called 'the promise of reward' basically it meant that the anticipation or expectation provides more happiness than the product itself and that made a lot of sense for me. For instance I got a figure the other week and haven't even opened it yet, I was happier with the reveal and hype and anticipation that anything else.



Agreed completely.

I discovered this when on several occasions I would be looking forward to getting a figure and putting it up for sale shortly after receiving it.

 

[Darth Madden]

I discovered this when on several occasions I would be looking forward to getting a figure and putting it up for sale shortly after receiving it.

Oh man, I have found myself doing that more and more over the last couple years. I agree with web-slinger in that I think the anticipation and opening is outweighing the actual item.

 

[Lejuan]

Possibly because it's only on opening the box that the full impact of spending $250 on a bare-bones figure hits home.

 

[choopie]

We'd probably be more excited about collectibles if we didn't have to wait so darn long for them. A year to year and a half wait, sometimes longer, just kills the excitement of physically owning it. Thankfully I still find extreme happiness in the statues and few 1:6 figures I acquire. The last time I sold a piece was to make room for the Allied Cap PF. I haven't sold a collectible out of boredom in about five years.

 

[airborn007]

Possibly because it's only on opening the box that the full impact of spending $250 on a bare-bones figure hits home.

We'd probably be more excited about collectibles if we didn't have to wait so darn long for them. A year to year and a half wait, sometimes longer, just kills the excitement of physically owning it. Thankfully I still find extreme happiness in the statues and few 1:6 figures I acquire. The last time I sold a piece was to make room for the Allied Cap PF. I haven't sold a collectible out of boredom in about five years.

Well said.....you get all excited then 1 year later on you forget. After a while 3+ figures start taking up a lot of space not including the original boxes.

 

[potato]

Well said.....you get all excited then 1 year later on you forget. After a while 3+ figures start taking up a lot of space not including the original boxes.

makes you miss the good ole days where new toys just pop up on the shelves out of no where and the excitement when you walk into a physical toy shop hoping to see something new.

that's the problem with age of internet, nothing's new.