Why the HOT TOYS don´t sell out anymore?

[dxdave]

I would rather have Hot Toys acquire licenses from previously unproduced characters than re-release any more flippin' Jokers. Just sayin....

 

[DeltaForceChung]

Let's see . . .

1. Overpriced.

2. Overproduction.

3. Inconsistent quality control.

4. Lack of direct contact/interaction with their customers.

5. Not listening to customer feedback.

6. Constantly producing licensed products inconsistently.

7. Constantly producing almost nothing but licensed products.

8. They believe us customers & collectors are dumb@$$ idiots that will buy almost anything & everything without question because we actually purchase enough of it to substantiate that to the point nothing sells out anymore . . . maybe the new base TT bodies, but that remains to be seen.

9. Their "arrangement" with Sideshow.

10. Generally speaking . . . 1:6 customers are not necessarily increasing . . . it's actually decreasing . . . while production numbers are decreasing . . . and prices increasing . . . resulting in no sell outs . . . we've yet to reach the ideal/perfect balance so to speak . . . unless you count dumb@$$ new collectors/customers stumbling into the hobby & having their @$$es handed over them for a variety of reasons where they quit.

 

[Solarsailor]

I disagree with number 10. I think collectors off all things have increased like the plague. With all the comic book movie's getting proper A list treatment it's resulted in a wide audience who are exposed constantly to things they would ordinarily know nothing about.

I mean almost $200 for a F#@(kin Phil Coulson figure??? are you ****ting me....

The demand is up, Hot Toys are cashing in like any good business and these things are hardly collectible anymore.

 

[TheObsoleteMan]

Nah, the collector market has definitely shrunk. It only seems like demand is high because we're on a board like this. Compared to a decade or so ago, the market is a shadow of what it once was. I guarantee you HT and Enterbay aren't pumping out nearly as many units as people think they are, that's why the prices are so high.

 

[Solarsailor]

Nah, the collector market has definitely shrunk. It only seems like demand is high because we're on a board like this. Compared to a decade or so ago, the market is a shadow of what it once was. I guarantee you HT and Enterbay aren't pumping out nearly as many units as people think they are, that's why the prices are so high.

Perhaps but Look at edition sizes now across the board on all the company's. 7500 for the regular PF batman?! Ebay flooded (and still on sale at the SS website) with HT's 1/6 Superman figure - which is probably their finest figure or at least top 5? Same with Joker.

I mean people are even buying figures just to flip for their own profit there are than many fans these days.

My mum and sister could tell you who's in the Avengers and what Thors powers are. Could you have said that ten years ago??

The marketing for collectibles has shot through the roof. You don't even need to hunt , you could probably pick up a Hot Toy at the local game traders now.

Look how much HT's churned out this year alone. It got to the point where you could have potentially had up to 6 or 7 pre-orders with an eye on another 3 (especially if your into the Avengers).

That doesn't really scream shrinking market to me anyway.

 

[DVD1]

I don't think the write is gone, or going. Rather, growing. I only got into HT about a year ago, and have enjoyed trawling the Chinese sites for figures, and going into the local toy shops that sell them. One year down, and I can say that the product shifts, and changes. I now know that if I want a figure..don't think about it, pick it up. I got the tumbler as it entered the shop. It sold out by my return visit and had doubled in price on the web, as only one or two on line stores had any left. The DX12 is all but gone.
There are exceptions. Superman, Keaton Bats and Nicholson Joker still sit in the shops. I've seen Ghost Rider and a couple of Avengers figures. Each of these tho, have prices in excess of their original rrp. There is, in my opinion, a market for HT product that is far from diminishing.

 

[Vaako]

i think it's about time that HT starts to reveal the edition numbers

 

[Monger]

Perhaps but Look at edition sizes now across the board on all the company's. 7500 for the regular PF batman?! Ebay flooded (and still on sale at the SS website) with HT's 1/6 Superman figure - which is probably their finest figure or at least top 5? Same with Joker.

I mean people are even buying figures just to flip for their own profit there are than many fans these days.

My mum and sister could tell you who's in the Avengers and what Thors powers are. Could you have said that ten years ago??

The marketing for collectibles has shot through the roof. You don't even need to hunt , you could probably pick up a Hot Toy at the local game traders now.

Look how much HT's churned out this year alone. It got to the point where you could have potentially had up to 6 or 7 pre-orders with an eye on another 3 (especially if your into the Avengers).

That doesn't really scream shrinking market to me anyway.

I agree. I would find it very hard to believe the market and the number of collectors has decreased. If anything I think it has sky rocketed, which is why I find it frustrating how narrow minded people are about ES at this point. The equivalent to an ES of 150 ten years ago may just be 500 today or more. If the market for high end collectibles has increased a lot, then the edition sizes and productions increase too. Everything is going forward in this hobby. Some people really seem like they want to be left behind too.

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

woah, im really 1 of the only 6 people who went for

The Collectors are less interested to this product. <-?!

So people think Hot Toys make too many as opposed to the prices being too high for mass sales? It only takes a day to casually browse this forum to see that a lot of people are just simply not willing to pay the current prices. So they are not interested.

I feel like voting for the first option would of reflected as " id rather Hot Toys didnt produce as many, that way when the prices shoot up on the secondary market i feel like i have a piece of plastic gold ". When i dont care about that.

Also, making 5 captain Americas, 9 Batmen & 14 Iron men cant help but weaken the interest in products also.

Agreed, when you've got those characters already and want something new it's rarely to be found amongst the next version or 2.0 of those characters

I would rather have Hot Toys acquire licenses from previously unproduced characters than re-release any more flippin' Jokers. Just sayin....

 

[Rzeznikk]

I agree with alot of this talk. Higher prices have easily turned off a lot of collectors. Especially the casual collector. Over production editions have also made an impact on how these things generally arent "collectibles" any more. They are now just really expensive, over priced TOYS. Yeah...

I started collecting HT because I wanted the definitive version of my favorite characters and with them making XXX amount of the same characters over and over again and remaking a lot of their older catalog, they have lost their integrity. Why should I buy a figure when there will be a 2.0 later on down the road that is better than the first? When does enough become enough? These are questions Ive been struggling with as a collector the last few months. And the answer is getting closer to "getting out of the 1:6 hobby" altogether rather than to keep paying these prices for product that will eventually be upped by a future release. Theres no collectibility any more. Its become over saturated.

 

[hrambo001]

I started collecting HT because I wanted the definitive version of my favorite characters and with them making XXX amount of the same characters over and over again and remaking a lot of their older catalog, they have lost their integrity. Why should I buy a figure when there will be a 2.0 later on down the road that is better than the first? When does enough become enough? These are questions Ive been struggling with as a collector the last few months. And the answer is getting closer to "getting out of the 1:6 hobby" altogether rather than to keep paying these prices for product that will eventually be upped by a future release. Theres no collectibility any more. Its become over saturated.

I couldn't agree more.

Obviously I can only speak for myself.

1. The price has gotten out of hand. The first DX figures weren't even $200.00! Now we're paying $200.00 for a Coulson? Come on.

2. I haven't been excited about a HT preview for a while. For me, it's not so much that they're milking their licenses. It's more the way that they're doing it.

As a batman fan I was excited to get Bane, Catwoman and Gordon (previously unproduced figures). But then all this excitement over the re-release of the bat-pod and the tumbler? We've seen it before. Get the '89 batmobile out, or what about the cancelled "Bat"

Stop with the 2.0 releases? I missed out on all the colonial marines but you know what. That's just part of this hobby. I would rather have HT move forward instead of back.

Take Robocop. They've done it before. So we're getting Robocop and ED again? Why not give us Cain instead?

Or the Predator license? How many more variations do we need? Why not finish up the commando team from the first movie? How about a Harrigan from Predator 2? If you even wanted to revisit Predators, how about Isabelle?

But the worse offense is stuff like X-men: FC? We've gotten one preview and the figure still hasn't gone up for sale and yet how many IM figures have been announced?

What about the Expendables 2? Prometheus? Back to the Future?

 

[Solarsailor]

I agree with alot of this talk. Higher prices have easily turned off a lot of collectors. Especially the casual collector. Over production editions have also made an impact on how these things generally arent "collectibles" any more. They are now just really expensive, over priced TOYS. Yeah...

I've had a think about this.

Although I agree with almost all of what your saying. Collectible is a very broad term. I think too many people, like an earlier poster mentioned, think they are collecting a little piece of gold and when a better little piece of gold comes out they think they have somehow been robbed.

Collectibles are something you merely collect. The uniqueness of something collectible comes about by pure chance.

I think our current generation have access to masses of information now which has lead to increased collector numbers. When you see your old Star Wars or Transformer toys go for a ton of money I think it puts a little seed in your sub conscious as if to say "I'm gona be rich in the future!!"

 

[Frank]

So if there's a trend emerging, could we say that the more certain franchises falter, the more attention is given to the retreading the old hits without lowering prices?

The Nicholson Joker not selling out makes me a little fearful for the Batman Returns villains.

 

[wavestuff]

i think you dont see hot toys selling out because their prices are just too steep. prime example is the hall of armor.

 

[Solarsailor]

So if there's a trend emerging, could we say that the more certain franchises falter, the more attention is given to the retreading the old hits without lowering prices?

The Nicholson Joker not selling out makes me a little fearful for the Batman Returns villains.

Well yeah, that's already happening. Both Dark Knight Batman/Joker figures, The Avengers, Terminator 2 etc etc.

I think in Nicholson Jokers case it could be that they just over produced. Christopher Reeve Superman is the same. Because lets face it, nearly everyone has those figures and they are among Hot Toys best 1/6.

I think that Returns line is a shoe in because it's Batman. Certain lines are bullet proof - Batman, Predator, Terminator, Star Wars.

 

[thenammagazine]

i think you dont see hot toys selling out because their prices are just too steep. prime example is the hall of armor.

I agree about the higher prices, but I also think the lack of sellouts is also due to overzealous edition sizes too. Combine those with the higher prices and you have a warehouse full of stock.

 

[JacktheRipper]

Just because a license is now recognizable to larger audience doesn't necessarily mean larger sales. Especially in the action figure market. Just 'cause my mom knows who Thor is doesn't mean she's buying action figures.
I remember when McFarlane was making the Lost figures and those that were excited about the line were saying how these will sell great because of the following the show had.

Hot Toys has become an expensive Mattel/Hasbro.

 

[Solarsailor]

Just because a license is now recognizable to larger audience doesn't necessarily mean larger sales. Especially in the action figure market.

I disagree. More exposure = better sales. It's a no brainer really.

Sure not everyone is going to buy or get into these things but when your movie hits the top 10 grossing films of all time, I think you're a safe bet at picking up a "few" extra fans....

I mean half the Avengers don't even look like the Avengers...

I'd say there would be equal or more movie fans buy action figures than fans of the actual characters themselves.

 

[thenammagazine]

I disagree. More exposure = better sales. It's a no brainer really.

Sure not everyone is going to buy or get into these things but when your movie hits the top 10 grossing films of all time, I think you're a safe bet at picking up a "few" extra fans....

I'd say there would be equal or more movie fans buy action figures than fans of the actual characters themselves.

Really? How many people do you think would buy Hot Toys Titanic figures? You think they'd sell 10,000 of them? How many members here do you think would buy them? A majority?

 

[Solarsailor]

Really? How many people do you think would buy Hot Toys Titanic figures? You think they'd sell 10,000 of them? How many members here do you think would buy them? A majority?

Your telling me there are more comic book/character fans than movie fans right? So...

Phil Coulson? - WUT
Nick Fury - Black and played by Samuel Jackson - Sold out
Hawkeye - Looks nothing like Hawkeye - Sold out
Every Iron Man figure - there are that many Iron man fans..- Sold out.?
Jake Sully - Who???
Jack Sparrow - Pure Movie character
Lt Jim Gordon - Sold out.
Terminator line - Every figure pretty much sold out.
Predator - 15 versions released.

People buy these things because they remind them of their favorite movies, not because they are "the biggest Hawkeye fans in the world".

That's pretty much what Hot Toys do - sell movie characters. That's their whole sales angle.