This stuff will be worthless in 10 years..

[posterguy]

"i had to “gift” my collection to a family member and managed to get it all out of the house"

ha ha , reminds me of Bruce Lee who had his HK house in his butlers name so that Linda wouldnt get it should theyve divorced. Sadly theres reason to believe Lee was a drug dealer , could also explain why he was late for filming on Enter , Linda said he had "business to attend to" (yeah , i bet he did......)

 

[MeatHookGekko]

The bubble is soon to burst.

Yeah I?m giving it less than 10 years and this stuff will be made even better for far cheaper.

And if that doesn?t sound crazy enough, it could be that it won?t be made at all anymore.

10 years..

Well what I believe will happen is there will be a timeline when lots of collectors who enjoyed that prime run of the last 10-15 years here will all get to a certain age bracket, and you see entire collections get dumped out onto the secondary market. So I'd say in 10 years from today, if you have a 50 year old collector that shifts into a 60 year old, then you'll see mass dumping. Also new generations coming up won't have the same nostalgia factor for certain things like Robocop or classic Terminator, so they won't be part of demand for that stuff.

I hail more from the 1/6th military side of the hobby. The former "vintage" collectors, many like things like Action Man, Big Jim and Lone Ranger. One of them and I exchanged several PMs many years ago, he told me it's hard to explain what Lone Ranger meant to kids of his generation. Because they'd sit around the TV and watch the TV show together with their friends and their family. But was the HT Lone Ranger and Tonto really that popular? And I'm not sure that movie gets made if not for Johnny Depp and his previous star power involved. A lot of those vintage collectors are now passed on or in retirement or in assisted living situations.

So there will be an entire wave of IPs that won't be relevant to new generations.

Delta Force Chung, who recently passed away, absolutely loved 80's GI Joe RAH. But he grew up in that era. He watched the cartoons as a kid and teen. It's not going to really connect to a 12 year old today what Snake Eyes Vs Storm Shadow meant to someone who grew up in the 80s like that.

So if you some of you want to sit and wait, you might be able to buy an entire collection for not that much down the road. The ****y trap is you also might be too old to enjoy it.

Where I see the hobby going if our society survives is high end 3D type printers becoming the new normal. But can do more than just plastic. And instead of buying a figure, you buy the "blueprints" to have your machine pump it out for you. I can see the hobby heading that way in so much that I see technological advances heading that way for many niche products.

These are thoughts about what will probably happen in a social / cultural status quo.

What I truly think will happen is close to near world wide economic collapse. The fracture signs are all here. I can't load a HT Iron Man into a shotgun. I can't eat it. I can't use it to keep me warm at night. It won't give me shelter. I can't read it and learn a new skill. In 10 years, I expect a full blown World War around the globe. Then this hobby will be not a priority at all. It might be an interesting side note when someone sifts through old wreckage like in a Fallout video game, and looks at your Avengers Thor figure while looking for Sugar Bombs and Stimpaks and bullets for your mini gun.

I don't think the stuff is "worthless", I just believe there is a larger overall context. It's not worth much to your basic survival. And it's not worth much to most everyone else. These figures and statues are a product of a society that has more than it needs and less of what it thinks it wants. But that's going to change, likely very soon, and odds on very tragically.

I also think a lot of people still in the hobby are very likely single. I don't want to judge how others spend their money, but I could not in good conscience have ever been a part of this hobby if I had kids. I couldn't do it personally. Whether I had Elon Musk money or close to no money, if I spent 150-300-450 bucks on a HT boxed set but I had children to take care of, etc, etc.

Sell your HT IW Thor and use the money to buy shotgun shells. Some people will laugh at that. I wish I could laugh at that. Hard times are coming.

 

[Masao]

Many people got into collecting for all the wrong reasons and for them there is a bubble to burst. For others, it is just a hobby that costs little money and brings some small measure of enjoyment.

 

[Patriot666]

The market values are definitely nostalgia driven. My Dad's generation were paying $50-$100k for old 50's and 60's Martin acoustic guitars, because it's what they had as teens. I wouldn't even consider paying those prices. It peaks when careers peak, ages 35-55ish, then drops off as people have to plan for retirement and stop being as materialistic as they get older. I don't care though, I'm a collector. I stopped fighting the urge and have just accepted it as a lifestyle lol.

 

[a-dev]

What I truly think will happen is close to near world wide economic collapse. The fracture signs are all here. I can't load a HT Iron Man into a shotgun. I can't eat it. I can't use it to keep me warm at night. It won't give me shelter. I can't read it and learn a new skill. In 10 years, I expect a full blown World War around the globe. Then this hobby will be not a priority at all. It might be an interesting side note when someone sifts through old wreckage like in a Fallout video game, and looks at your Avengers Thor figure while looking for Sugar Bombs and Stimpaks and bullets for your mini gun.

I don't think the stuff is "worthless", I just believe there is a larger overall context. It's not worth much to your basic survival. And it's not worth much to most everyone else. These figures and statues are a product of a society that has more than it needs and less of what it thinks it wants. But that's going to change, likely very soon, and odds on very tragically.

..........

Sell your HT IW Thor and use the money to buy shotgun shells. Some people will laugh at that. I wish I could laugh at that. Hard times are coming.

The most disturbing thing about your post is that I can no longer dismiss this as fringe, paranoid thinking like I would have only a few years ago. We really are in dangerous times.

 

[Marine Boy]

The monetary value of my collection has never been a consideration, as i don't buy to flip for profit. I buy whatever makes me happy. Money comes and goes, but time on this planet is finite, so make it as enjoyable as possible.

 

[Patriot666]

The most disturbing thing about your post is that I can no longer dismiss this as fringe, paranoid thinking like I would have only a few years ago. We really are in dangerous times.

Who would've thought the "conspiracy theorists" have been right all these years. Turns out they weren't crazy or paranoid, just paying attention. Although I believe it's much more important to live than to survive. There's no amount of prepping for a worst case scenario, so might as well live each day to the fullest.

 

[a-dev]

I'm still of the mind that it won't come to the worst case scenario - it would take incredible stupidity with a dose of pure insanity - but I can't laugh off the idea either. Some serious ***t is being said and the risk keeps rising.

As you say though, we might aswell keep on keeping on.

 

[shells075]

There still seems a pretty healthy market for HT figs. I sold a DX06 Jack Sparrow the other week for £340.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Who would've thought the "conspiracy theorists" have been right all these years. Turns out they weren't crazy or paranoid, just paying attention. Although I believe it's much more important to live than to survive. There's no amount of prepping for a worst case scenario, so might as well live each day to the fullest.

Maybe another way to unpack this is many hobbyists can re-calibrate their expectations and change up what they've been normally doing.

One of the most fun and fulfilling things I've done in this hobby is tooling around in my broken bits box . I would keep a cardboard box full of things that needed repair and the accumulated parts to repair them, but also odds and ends like broken pieces from other lines ( lots of McFarlane stuff) or oddities that could be repurposed ( old earphones that didn't work anymore but the wire looked useful to cut and use in a custom) or interesting stickers or decals or things from magazines that could spruce something up.

I'd fix weapons that broke. But I'd also try cobbling together new weapons made from the parts of 10 different things. I was often deeply engrossed in the builds and got a lot of satisfaction out of it. And it didn't cost me the 280-350 per new HT set on preorder, etc.

There is so much range in this hobby. Resin casting can be fun. Custom building. Sewing new stuff. Rebuilding body types. One of the boons we all do have is basically 20 straight years of consistent cutting edge ( for it's relative time frame on release) product. That's a large base to use as a starting point for creativity.

I saw a video a while back that said if you wanted to take a girl on a date ( do people do that anymore?), you could spend a lot of money or you could take her to the beach and go have a sandcastle building contest. I.E. try something different other than unloading lots of money into one direction.

The big thing is the hobby is supposed to take away stress out of our lives, not become a new type of stress factor that we didn't intend.

But yes, 10-20 years is about what I think we have left before nuclear war. If it's any solace, while we turn to ash, our Hot Toys Hulks were built for that kind of radiation. Silver linings and all that.

 

[Rotfish]

our Hot Toys Hulks were built for that kind of radiation. Silver linings and all that.

I wouldn't place that much faith in the materials Hot Toys uses.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

There still seems a pretty healthy market for HT figs. I sold a DX06 Jack Sparrow the other week for £340.

What if Amber bought it to burn it in effigy? And the rest of the market otherwise is collapsing?

What if that HT Tonto is bid up to 800 dollars now because Amber wants to stab it in the eye with a pencil like she was John Wick but it's the exception and not the rule.

What if Amber sees the Sweeney Todd figure and weeps because she realizes she hit the wall too hard and the Aquaman franchise is going to die off soon.

What if Amber cold calls Winona Ryder at night and laughs at her over that Dracula movie, where Keanu Reeves just startled people by sounding like a surfing hobo in Victorian era clothing. Stranger things indeed.

What if she snuck into your house while you were gone, cooked all your food, then painted a picture of Johnny's face on your walls with it, but didn't clean the Air Fryer?

Amber didn't buy your Jack Sparrow, she paid the ransom for it.

 

[MeatHookGekko]

I wouldn't place that much faith in the materials Hot Toys uses.

I saw that movie. Smarty Big Green Glasses Guy said he was built for radiation before he put on the sparkling glove with the rhinestones.

Mark Ruffalo wouldn't lie to us.

OK, I can only think of one thing that he could say that would be an outright lie

"Hello, my name is Mark Ruffalo, and I am known as a very good actor"

 

[shells075]

What if Amber bought it to burn it in effigy? And the rest of the market otherwise is collapsing?

What if that HT Tonto is bid up to 800 dollars now because Amber wants to stab it in the eye with a pencil like she was John Wick but it's the exception and not the rule.

What if Amber sees the Sweeney Todd figure and weeps because she realizes she hit the wall too hard and the Aquaman franchise is going to die off soon.

What if Amber cold calls Winona Ryder at night and laughs at her over that Dracula movie, where Keanu Reeves just startled people by sounding like a surfing hobo in Victorian era clothing. Stranger things indeed.

What if she snuck into your house while you were gone, cooked all your food, then painted a picture of Johnny's face on your walls with it, but didn't clean the Air Fryer?

Amber didn't buy your Jack Sparrow, she paid the ransom for it.

Alas, Hot Toys Tonto. Probably the least loved HT figure of all time, pretty sure you can still pick him up sealed MIB.
Didn't help of course that HT never produced a Lone Ranger fig.

 

[a-dev]

But yes, 10-20 years is about what I think we have left before nuclear war. If it's any solace, while we turn to ash, our Hot Toys Hulks were built for that kind of radiation. Silver linings and all that.

This is what we should be saving our nukes for, not threatening eachother with them. What a pathetic waste of time our species will have been if things really go bad.

 

[noheddardstark]

But yes, 10-20 years is about what I think we have left before nuclear war. If it's any solace, while we turn to ash, our Hot Toys Hulks were built for that kind of radiation. Silver linings and all that.

What you've actually done here is successfully argue that we should be collecting MORE now, not less. Because if what you say is true, no amount of money is going to save you. So we might as well spend it and enjoy while it has value, because it's not going to matter how much money is in your portfolio while you're scrambling around in the dirt.

 

[xipotec]

Societal collapse?

Gimme a break.

Financial markets ebb and flow. This is just another blip, and it does not affect anyone who works for a living, it just hurts the stock market, and 90% of people are not invested enough to care…..

 

[R_R_X]

Who knows how many of us will still be here in 10 years? All I know is whenever I look at my figures I smile and that's really all that matters.

 

[Victοr]

Personally I'm just cutting down all around. I plan to be out of the "race" by 2026 or so, and just keep an eye out for an odd release. I'm finding myself reverting closer to my original model of "only the favourites", with some extras here and there. Maybe it's the constant releases, maybe it's how awful all new installments of my pop culture "darlings" have become, but these days the figures don't feel "unique". I look at the new Cobb Vanth and yeah, he's cool and all, but I'm not getting that special feeling anymore; it just looks like a toy. And here I am with a list as long as my arm (and leg and other leg and other arm and...) thinking that I have to "represent" everything and anything. When I know, for a fact, that the moment I'm done nothing will change, and it'll just be more plastic to move.

It is all worthless. The only worth comes from personal investment into a character/line. The problem is, the more you spread your funds and attention to myriads of properties, the less significant it all becomes. It's just a sea of plastic at that stage, with no meaning in it. You can draw the line at 10, 15, 50; doesn't matter, each figure just has to have a story and some genuinity behind it. I want to leave these things to my future kids. But I can't saddle them with an entire room full of plastic dolls with pleather outfits. Would they throw it away? No, things don't work that way here. But they'd lock it somewhere in a farmhouse until the rats ate through them. Sure, you could have your children grow up with your childhood, but I don't want to do that. What, just make a list and force them through the myriads of hours I've wasted on literal nonsense? No, no way. I'm fixing my mistakes, not repeating them. So even if it's premature, I'm treating this collection as a small insight into a past childhood, for better or worse, that doesn't need to live on as anything but a condensed memory. "Hey kids, this goofy metal guy with a green cape used to be my favourite and ooooh, wait until you see this neat little army I built" hits different than "alright, now we're gonna go through the first 5 Claremont Omnis, then we'll switch to ANH-ESB EU SW before doing a detour for TOS Era Trek, so that we can then move on to-". None of these things is worth sharing with them, if I'm being honest.

As for the times, they're... weird. Exciting for some, even. But on all fronts they're not stable. Will it turn out to be "nothing" but a mere economic downfall? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not expecting nuclear armageddon. At the same time I don't want 5 years into the future to have an extra 10K tied into useless plastic because I couldn't control my OCD. If anything happens, the extra 1K spent on Doom variants across 6 years won't make a difference, but 3K here, 1K there, and so on and forth; it adds up. We all have to be more selective, and more careful in general.

 

[shells075]

Who knows how many of us will still be here in 10 years? All I know is whenever I look at my figures I smile and that's really all that matters.

Yeah, although I'm not into collecting like I was 4 or 5 years ago, the stuff I have left, I still like seeing in my collection room. I go in there every so often to see who is next on the chopping block and usually come out, having not made up my mind. My collection does need thinning out though. Trying to focus on just keeping my 80's / 90's inspired figs.