The Action Figure Industry Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- The action figure industry appears to be broken. Distribution is terrible. Adult collectors are ignored at retail. There are more and more exclusives each year and many collectors are being priced right out of the market because of the sheer amount of product.
Transformers, Star Wars, Marvel Legends, Hot Toys, twelfth scale, sixth scale, quarter scale, retro, vintage, comic style, 8-bit. Where do you even start? How do you?
But can it be fixed? Can it grow and change?
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As someone who has worked in the industry as a toy designer, worked in toy sales from everything between a Toys R Us employee to having my own online store, as well as being a collector most of my 37 years on this planet, I can confidently say it's an issue of demand for products that are meant for collectors, thus a market flooded with artificially created "collectables" not "toys." Toys used to become collectable through a natural process, but over time the industry has mutated into this creature where they produce items that they themselves either deem as collectables(limited edition, chase figure, store exclusive, collectors edition) or otherwise intend them to be seen as collectable thus branding them in such a way that collectors will steer towards those items specifically. It's not just action figures, it's ANYTHING that was once seen as a collectable. Look no further than Funko Pops for a prime example. It's essentially an over-saturated market full of items that have no real value, or rather have an artificial value placed on them based on items of the past that had value based on scarcity. The reason that 1978 mint condition Kenner Han Solo is worth $1000 is because back then nobody was thinking, "well damn, better keep this baby in the package!" No, every kid was ripping that badboy off the card and playing the hell out of it in the yard, getting chewed on by the dog, and buried in the sandbox. Now everyone and their sister is keeping every toy they see mint in the package, inside a protective clamshell, in a plastic tote, in climate controlled storage. Helll, I'm guilty of it myself still. And with an over-saturation in a market created by resale, there now, to an extent at least, exists very little to no resale value. We all helped create this monster.
All great points. Thanks for sharing. I think we can all agree that it isn't sustainable as it is, fr much longer.
Ryan Purvis Damn, that old school Solo figures sucks too. If you gave me a mint copy for free, I'd resell it immediately to some jerkass who loves that crap. I ain't keeping an old crappy figure, smh. Now if you gave me a $7 Darth Maul figure from the newer lines, I'd keep it in my collection just because it's badass Darth freaking Maul.
No u
But Boba Fett
I'm starting to get sick of hunting. I feel like a predatory animal stalking stores and finding that one figure that some collector tried to hide on the shelf until his payday. To collect action figures, you need to be a velociraptor.
And honestly it's somewhat fun. I've found handfuls of figs under shelves or behind big items and moved it around to screw with the ppl who hide them. I think I have a Qi'ra and vintage Wolverine I might pick up in a couple months if it's still there lol.
It also sucks when figures are overpriced online and you have no choice but to hunt. Goddamnit, where IS Hungrrr?
I found 3 Netflix punisher figures hidden at Walmart. Bought one and hid the other 2 in various places around the store.
RileyZilla'sRevenge How about a surfing allosaurus armed with a bid sniper rifle?
Mason Shane you are SO RIGHT!! I’ve gone to Walmart so many times toy hunting only to come back to empty pegs and shelves I’ve lost count. Ridiculous!
"Quality begins to drop but the price never follows"...transformers.
They're like pokemon. But you still wanna catch them all. I hate that.
Seige/Earthrise line has been an improvement
@@Venom3254 And the price has?
@@somarriba333 Not really, but having seen, seen, held and played around with some of them, I feel these are worth the asking price.
But that's not really the argument made in this video anyway, is it? It's that if quality drops, one would logically expect prices to follow. With the recent Transformers lines, quality has actually increased: they're sturdy and robust, no cheap, easily breakable plastic, they look a lot like the original G1 designs, just with slightly modernized alt-forms, and the transformations are generally solid (no real shell-formers). They're good action figures, and have good build quality. They're objectively better toys with a far better build quality than the vast majority of 80s, 90s, or 2000s Transformers (and I'm basically only interested in G1, so if I was biased at all it'd be towards the 80s toys). So why would you expect the price to drop for an improved, higher quality product than what came before?
Masterpiece transformers
Convention exclusives need to go away. God, I hate them so much.
This. This x1000.
I agree i hate it too
Convention AND Store exclusive. It pisses me off not buying some exclusive figurines just because I live in France. I already have to buy most of them through import because our toy'rus do not even sell Marvel Legends... But hey, he remains the speculators on ebay and amazon! These assholes selling a figurine more than twice its price... Fuck them and fuck this exclusivity shit.
Dont be such a broke bastard go to a convention and shut up
@@GOJOWrestling
Hey!
Just wanted to say, thanks for the reminder that the TH-cam comments section is full of douchebags and arseholes!
Keep up the good work asshat!
I feel like most toys don’t have as much packaged with them. Ninja Turtles in the 80s came with a weapon assortment from ninja stars to fist daggers to a spear plus the turtles’ weapons. Belts came off. Tons of articulation and a character bio. Cool stuff.
Toys now are just a character in a bland box with maybe...maybe a weapon.
YskiTV! ...i love TmNt figures since growing up in the 80s. Im happy that NECA did us justice!
The Nickelodeon TMNT and Usagi Yojimbo were amazingly detailed, articulated and came with plenty of accessories. The secondary guys...not so much but they kept the figures in the 10 dollar range which was amazing and showed Hasbro and its 5 POA overpriced 3,75 figures was inexcusably expensive
To be a contrarian I think a lot of emphasis is placed on packaging and less on the actual product.
nishant patel I didn’t think of that, but I think you’re right
YskiTV! Very true
toys are too friggin expensive
ArtDocHound I agree. I think that they are really geared more towards collectors. This stuff, at these price points, are not really aimed at kids.
Preach
Wait until they go on sale
I agree. $20.00 for a freaking 6 inch toy. Come on.
L O R D V2 The ones you really want, are short packed, on purpose, to drive up the craze for them. They have to be on the shelves to go " on sale". And the most popular figures don't last that long. Most are snapped up by " toy pirates" looking to up the price, 40 to 60 percent, or more, to resale to collectors who " must have" it.
I want to see the 3.75 scale figures from hasbro to be revamped. They have gi joe, marvel, Star Wars, and now power rangers. Put them all out with the same articulation and kids can have all kinds of their own adventures with them it’d be great for parents too because they will all work with each other’s play sets and vehicles and they will be able to get more mileage out of the figures.
Thirded
GI Joe has been put to sleep until 2020.
why is that?
Joey Cool productions the IDW publishing company shared universe concept possibly had something to do with it. IDW and Hasbro developed a shared Marvel-esque universe containing MASK, GI Joe, TF, ROM, Micronauts and Visionaries comics, a GI Joe TF film was rumored, but stopped late last year.
Joey Cool productions it’s been deemed a movie only brand for now. The movies didn’t do as well as hoped and two separate release date moves caused retailers to set on product that was very unrelated to the movie and soured retailers on the brand, even the tru vehicle packs sold so poorly tru wouldn’t take them for the last wave of exclusives
When the system decries that I can barely get my hands on the figures I want -- and that's before you even consider imports -- it is well and truly, most definitely broken.
sXeblues what I can't stand and figure out is why do the companies insist on making figures of background and non descript figures that they KNOW WONT sell and become peg warmers instead of investing that money into making really good figures that collectors and fans want.,..as an example take that 6 breasted dancer from return of the Jedi jabbas palace...Hasbro made a figure of her for the legacy collection...I just can't understand why...even a blind person could have seen that was going to be a peg warmer straight away.
sXeblues meanwhile in Japan, we have to pay 40$ for a single marvel legend, 30$ for a 3.75 vintage series Star Wars figure, and can’t even find them in stores anyways. This is truly a problem on a international scale.
Stephanie Mckeever Star Wars is probably the singular offender along those lines, as compared to most other lines and brands... And really, if you take a look back at the origins of the merchandising of the Star Wars brand, it's actually always been that way. But, I feel you. I never needed figures of every single character or thing that stood upright, that just happened to appear for a split-second, in one frame of the original trilogy. And their short-packing, or running limited supplies of much more interesting, sought after characters, breaks my last nerve.
hardy james That sucks, man... Most def. But, I guess it's kind of an even turnaround, since so much of the stuff they import over from Japan can be pretty costly, stateside. Still; What a pain in the ass.
sXeblues I agree...and if you look at the vintage collection (the 1 that began in 2010 ) it took hasBLOW....and yes I did say HASBLOW FOREVER to release figures from the phantom menace...and when they finally did what did they release....droids and aliens that NOBODY cares about or wants but they couldn't release a senator palpatine or chancellor valorum that they (Hasbro) KNEW fans and collectors wanted
Transformers fans are going through this A LOT right now if they collect anything of The Last Knight, RID Combiner Force, Titans Return, or Power of the Primes beyond wave 1. Wave 2 of Power of the Primes is nowhere to be seen while wave 3 is appearing, the last waves of Titans Return barely hit retailers, a good 50% of The Last Knight toyline never hit store shelves, and the last few waves of RID figures like the deluxes and Crash Combiners barely showed up on pegs. HASBRO, get your shit together. We WANT to buy your products, but how can we when the retailers we depend on don't even have them to sell? All this amounts to is consumer frustration and * _looks at Transformers want list_ * many, many lost sales.
The Transformer situation is driving me mad at the moment, they're available somewhere...just nowhere near me.
Not shipping waves at random is par for the course with Transformers in the UK and Ireland, I tend to pre-order them from Japan (and ship whem with the Japan-exclusive toys and kits I collect) and cancel the orders when and if they show up at retail here.
I feel your pain. I never saw any titans return waves past 3 in stores. I found the final figure in a wave of 99% re-releases at Walmart. No Percepter, Misfire, Topspin, Twintwist or any of the others. I'm not even buying power of the primes except for legends class and Jazz. It's not fun anymore. I can't afford $45 with shipping for a cheap and hollow Transformer.
Truth in what you said. Every time I go into any store around me and I go to the Transformers section, every peg hook is empty. If I want to get a figure, I have no choice to go to online retailers.
I hear you, but for me, after Prime ended, the quality drop for the price was too much for me, and I quit collecting TF as a whole. Saves me some cash, I guess...
I miss the good old days. So many Turtles. I remember one trip to K Mart I was looking at Turtles in the main action figure section when I was approached by another kid. He asked if I liked TMNT and I'm like, yeah. Kid has me follow him to the back of the store (kinda sketchy in hindsight), and there was entire aisle, two sides completely full of Turtle figs and vehicles. Mutagen Man was mine!
Great video, Dan, as usual! And thanks for including ToyFare. (I was one of the editors of it back in the day. I'm glad someone remembers us!)
Stop artificially limiting supply of popular figures.
@Artstux Hasbro has a tendency to do that unfortunately. Black Series is notorious for rereleasing the same pegwarmers but limiting unique ones (bounty hunters, other side characters)
Artificial Scarcity should be illegal.
Nope that's the fun of the chase and grails
That's mostly why I had to pass on the TMNT Ghostbusters crossover figures; they were too expensive and by the time I was able to get to Target to get some, they were back ordered and never restocked by the time they got clearanced out. I did try my luck online, but they were like 2-3x the retail price, which was already a prohibitive $20 each in store.
Though, looking on ebay now the prices seem to have come down a bit and become more reasonable so maybe I'll try to get them now.
if there is no articulation then it is NOT an action figure it is a statue!
Nevik i thought action figure meant it needed an "action" like a karate chop or something
Are you listening Funko?!
Figurine
This has aged very well and is more relevant now in 2022 than ever.
This is a great topic! As a collector and a former retail worker, it was tough to find figures locally and often turn to online options and pay nearly double for the figures never seen on toy shelves. Missed several opportunities to have figures most wanted because they were never available on store shelves and couldn't justify jacked up online prices.
Marvel Legends are coming too fast and oversaturate the market
True... And most of em are repaints that's why I stopped collecting a whole wave 2 years ago. They're going for quantity over quality cause they know that there are people that will buy their product regardless of how it looks. It's a good thing to be a picky collector. And it's also good to have competitors such as import companies.
not true the Walmart closest to me is swamp with old stock Marvel Legends. that's a problem I've been seeing with the Transformers stores gets swamped with a wave and then and quickly fall behind.
defender of the good..Im happy with my Marvel Legends collection from 10yrs ago! No need to re-buy them all over again unless they make a big Sentinel again!
In theory they are, but I haven't seen much of anything in months. The Solo wave of SWBS hit last month at Walamrt; ONCE, but was marked down to $0.03 due to the shared SKU, so I got Han, Lando, Tarkin and 2 Jawas for less than $1. MLs are worse, but thankfully I don't collect many of them, so it's not as bad there. WWE Elites are also the same way. Nothing for months, and when there is a restock, it's old stuff. I know I can order most of this online, but I prefer to see it in person so I can check paints as much as possible.
I remember i was sad when toy biz 5" scale line drops for the launch of Marvel Legends
Power of the Primes wave 2, am I right fellow Transformers collectors?
Nick Ferrazza I feel ya bro. I feel ya...
Gods, YES.
Amen brutha
You're Goddamn Right!
I was lucky enough to find the wave for a couple visits for like the first 2 weeks after they had been reported in stores. I feel for you guys who never saw them.
Your content keeps getting better. It's been fun watching this channel mature. Keep it up.
I like this channel even though I don't collect toys. I find this type of informative video interesting and I watch stuff like this about classic video games too, even though I'm not much of a gamer in my adulthood.
I miss Toyfare Magazine, specially Twisted Toyfare Theatre 🤣
I will wait for the app and/or service where you are able to create your own action figure with and without license.
You put lots good points, great video! As always 👍🏽✌🏽
its called Hero Forge look it up
Green Lantern HG I know I miss toy fair too and the special figures they would sell.
Twisted ToyFare theater was the shit dude hell yea
ToyFare was OFF THE HOOK!!!!! 👊
Toys are not marketed at children. Look at the complexity of some of today's action figures. They are not " toys", they are collector pieces. $20 for a single Marvel legend figure? But I have a bunch. Why? The sculpting, the paint apps, etc. I want a miniature copy of my childhood heroes, that look and feel exactly like my memories of them. And I've dropped a lot of cash on this stuff. And I don't play with it. It stays in the package, and when I'm looking through my collection, it's like a trip back to my youth, a carefree time, when my toys, and imagination were everything. Way before the responsibilities of adult life. And in the past 20 years, I, and others like me, have become the focus of the toy companies. Not to many people are dropping 20 bucks on a plastic Spiderman for 7 year old Joey to tear the arms off of, or smash with a brick.
Sorry but cheap moulded plastic junk like Marvel Legends is a toy, to be played with...by children. They're not quality, detailed and potentially fragile collector pieces like Mezco's One:12 Collective with high price tags and serious sculpt and paintwork.
They're cheap and accessible toys. As for keeping them in the box, that's not collecting for memories, that's just value hoarding.
I think keeping it in the packaging vs opening it to appreciate and admire the piece separates the posers that like to flaunt rarity and imaginary value from the true collectors who buy them to open, appreciate and display as they're intended to be.
No one kept their toys in the packaging as a kid.
Also, worth adding, I don't know what kind of childhood you had but here in the UK, toys have always generally been much higher priced than in the US and when I was just a kid, being an only child meant I was pretty lucky to have a dad who got me alot of toys, those toys mainly being Marvel figures and they were roughly around £14-15 which approximately equates to around $19-20 and I generally smashed these about, threw them out of windows and down stairs because they were durable, moulded plastic toys no different than the builds of Marvel Legends line.
Most are all still intact in a box.
So yeah you'd be surprised how much toys cost and how that price point is a general average here that a parent wouldn't really think twice about buying 'little Joey' a marvel legends figure for his sand pit.
How about a "What happened to Mcfarlane toys?" not my idea, but a great one
Very true!!
Troll Bones
mcfarlane.com/toys/brands/star-trek/
do you mean like quality wise? cuz they still make action figures. I just got the relatively new borderlands figures and their great quality and a pretty fair price
They're still around, and the quality is still damn good IMO. Much cheaper than say Sideshow and especially Hot Toys. Even Sideshow is starting to bug me with their quality, which for the amount they charge is seriously going downhill. Get some better sculptors already!!
Used to get some of the McFarlane ones. Just picked up the Marvel Disney Exclusive Thanos. Diamond Select, I think, made it. Looks as good as the McFarlane Spawn figures. Same heft too.
Great video!! It sucks that the toy industry is struggling. A large problem is the pricing, another one is the limited selection in stores. Finding stuff is sometimes freaking impossible, and I'm not even talking about exclusives!
Finally, someone with a far reaching voice speaks up about some of the issues within the industry.
The action figure/toy market isn’t necessarily dying. I think kids have too many other distractions these days and companies see that, so now they’re trying to draw in both collectors and children alike. That doesn’t always work though. And they’ve dabbled in that tactic for years, but never to the extent we are seeing today.
And the collector market is shrinking as prices keep skyrocketing. It’s becoming a problem. Enjoy it while it lasts boys.
The ship started sinking the moment it was okay for Play Arts to begin charging over $100 a figure and now Figmas, Mafex and even some Figuarts are hitting near a C-note. Don’t even get me started on anime pvc statues/figures. They’ve doubled in price, and are now creeping up to triple, for barely a smidge of improvement in quality, over the years.
Having the mentality that “they/you/we will buy it anyway” is what led us down this path. I’ve never been of that mindset.
Hot Toys is slowly creeping up to the $300 mark per figure, on average. That’s not accounting for die-cast releases of Iron Man figures, which have been sitting pretty at that price range for a while now. Three hundred dollars!!! I never thought I’d see them climb to that price range this quickly, in the ten plus years that I’ve been collecting them. I remember when $160 seemed high as hell.
And it’s hard to really feel sorry for these companies, knowing that this bubble is going to burst right in their faces, when they’ve played games with us time and time again. Re-release after re-release. Update after update. Skimping out on accessories and sculpt variations, only to turn around and throw it in with a full fledged rehash later. Lackluster articulation and paint apps are also still prevalent.
It’s long since gotten out of hand. It’s time for these figure companies to wake up. Get it together or collecting will be nothing but extremely limited online exclusives and retail Pops, Transformers, Star Wars and Marvel Legends.
The pace of releases of Marvel Legends this year, the poor distribution, product disappearing from my cart online before I have a chance to hit "submit", and the SCALPING...it's killing what was meant to be a fun hobby for me. I may have to take a break from it, if it keeps up like this. I've got most of the major characters I want, already.
(As long as I get my Walgreens exclusive FF Thing figure...gave up on Walmart Thanos, which never hit my suburban Philly area...!)
I've never seen Walmart Thanos either, and I don't care to pay the inflated prices for it.
ZombieSnake57 I don't have a Thanos, but I did experience this with Groot. I wanted that Baby Groot, but Groot was so similar to the BAF, I passed.
Seen plenty of Thanos's here in Texas. But yeah it's been crazy how the waves have been dropping. Seems like soon as you turn around another one is out. And they are so scattered and haphazardly put out, I know they can't wonder why sales are so off
As someone who lives in NE Philly, I feel that pain too, Joe.
Sometimes, we even have to...gasp...go over to Jersey...the struggle is real...
If I were Hasbro, I'd keep reissuing popular figures that sell for far too much on the secondary market. Reduces new production costs while keeping collectors happy by satisfying the demand. Reduce the number of new waves coming out every year, increase the number of figures in the waves and abandon the build a figure idea (again save on production costs). Sell the bigger figures that would typically be build a figures as one complete figure at a higher price point, make them store exclusives to keep retailers happy and incentivise in store purchases.
The only problem with this theory, though, is that the build-a-figure method is Hasbro's goldmine. With emphasis on online case purchases nowadays, people are far more inclined to buy a wave of 7 figures for 3 that they really want, 2 that are okay and 2 they don't want, all for a complete BAF. That way, all of the product is shifted by people whose arms are tied if they want a popular build-a-figure or guaranted rare figures in the set. It's a pretty genius way of getting people to buy things they don't necessarily want.
jackthecb I know and I get that's how they make their money and shift unwanted figures. I was pitching an idea that would give consumers more of what they want while still making money by eliminating the costs that go into producing those figures no one wants. Make more of what people do want equals more money for you and retailers. I see so many unsold Marvel Legends figures from years ago in stores, since they're those figures you'd only buy to complete a build a figure.
Javed Ahmed many simply would skip the bigger figures if sold separately . The haslab preorder model might work
jackthecb for a complete large Sentinel as shown in the X-Men comics I'd pay a little more than getting figures I don't want or care for. I'd rather see Hasbro continue their 3 3/4 and ML anyway, but if I had my wish, all figures lines would be 3 3/4, I could finally have the epic fights I had in my imagination as a kid! Marvel v DC v GI Joe v SW v TF v ROM v MASK v Micronauts!
Hasbro has reissued a couple of very hard to find Transformers Legends scale figures, I think as a test to see how well they sold. And as case filler. I think they need to do that more.
Agree with everything you said. The thing that is driving me mad more than anything is convention and store exclusives. They are an absolute disaster and do nothing more than inflate the prices of those items on the secondary market. No one wins, except for scalpers.
Here in Australia I collect transformers. 98% of my collection is imported. My country is terrible for store stock. We are around 3 months behind the releases.
And that's if they even ARRIVE in stores! Now, as of today, we're blocked from purchasing on Amazon, and hiked an extra 10% on international ebay goods. Extremely dark days being a collector 'down under'...
I'll never understand collecting funko. hideous figures that people just leave in the box.
And they saturate stores enough that they pre empt the figures collectors actually want.
This.
then dont buy them
I don't even know if their head moves...
Probably because Funkos are little keepsakes that has such a broad selection spanning so many franchises that there's something for everyone and on top of that is actually reasonably priced and can be picked up as a gift for someone with thought put towards their hobby, interests or favourite franchise.
Not like the disgusting prices of Three:Zero, Mezco or Sideshow or the utter garbage overpriced plastic shit that Neca pumps out and like idiots we collectors consume because of the obsessive pitfalls of this hobby.
Seriously, I recently forked out over £275 (approx $345US) for 4 fucking 6" Mezco One:12 Collective figures, some of which aren't even rare or even the full retail price, they're barely bigger than Funkos and yeah while they're much better in quality the price jump between them is ridiculous.
The more reasonable and accessible price makes Funkos much more of a 'collectible' product than One:12 etc and many other figure brands which are so expensive you have to be absolutely dedicated and committed to the character you want to buy and plan exactly which you will buy and which you'll have to skip.
A Funko I can pick up for fun from any franchise if it takes my fancy and add to my quickly growing collection without it crippling my wallet or taking up half a shelf to display.
I'll never understand why people buy the plastic jointed figures that look like embarrassing cheap toys. Joints are ugly to me and I wouldn't even think about displaying them in my expensive collection, hence why I only opt to buy the One:12 range because the miniature fabric clothing hides those joints.
Australian prices for comparison
Vintage Collection - $25AUD/$18.36USD
6 inch Black Series - $39AUD/$28.64USD
Prices are getting ridiculous. 10 years ago the same things, usually with better quality were far cheaper. I'd pay between $14-18AUD for Star Wars figures, and that felt fair. Why did I think it was fair? Decent paint apps, accessories, and things were easy to get ahold of. Hell, I was able to get Clone Troopers whenever I wanted, now I can't even get a decent one off Ebay unless I go for Figuarts as they're about the same cost as the Black Series after their collector mark-up.
Yea, the prices down here are killer! And it's about to get even worse with the "Amazon tax"...
GimpedLoco Lol you got jerked, mate. Star Wars Clone Wars figures were selling for $6 at Winners in Canada several years ago around early 2012. They were from the 2011 3.75 waves with cool accessories & pretty good quality.
GimpedLoco does it go the same for video games there?
Many great points and I agree the industry is going through a lot of growing pains. You claim to not be an expert, yet there were many great business approaches thrown out there near the end. Awesome video as always, and keep'em coming.
Best stuff I've heard on this matter. So now, we as the collectors should create some sort of petition for these major retailers & manufacturers.
You guys are awesome, I feel like I have friends with similar interests when I watch your videos. No one I know is into collecting figures and they think it's silly but I don't care! It's fun! Happy hunting! Maybe I'll run into you one of these days, I love about 40 mins from Manchester!
James Marchand Same here Bruv... no one close to me I know collects. The struggle is real.
cbp_figures at least we have the internet! Haha 🤣
James Marchand ask the people who think your hobby is silly, what they're hobby is.. watch their silly faces turn red
We all can be friends xD
Same here
Hold on, what? Figure swappers? Good grief.
Boy you nailed it, this is an excellent analysis. Someone send this to every toy company and retail purchasing manager. And just to underscore my biggest beef, I HATE HATE HATE EXCLUSIVES!
Biggest gripe remains online stores of brick'n'mortar ones which treat case boxes as 'blind boxes', particularly for Hasbro stuff. So you cannot pick what is in the case.
I cannot tell you how much I love your channel and videos!! I’m a relatively new Marvel Legends collector so your reviews have been incredibly helpful. I just wanted to say thank you. Cheers!!
In theory almost every figure is attainable. It's a matter of investing time and money into it. That said I understand that it might be off putting to people, but I don't see it changing anytime soon. You have to look for the right online shops, the second hand market and dare I say it, in certain cases high quality bootlegs on the black market.
The only way to fix this situation is to do away with exclusives, maintain a global release date for all markets, produce popular figures in adequate amounts and use a fixed release window between new figures. This will create much more stability, much more revenue for manufacturers and many more happy collectors/customers. But what do I know.
Awesome video. Thank you for addressing the shameful lack of distribution from manufacturer to retail stores. I am so excited was a store gets new products, there something with seeing the package and figure in hand verses an online picture. However most stores around me don't get new products, like marvel legends, in on a regular basis. I still have not seen the Lizard wave anywhere. I much rather buy a figure from an actually store than a website, especially when it is a US company. Brick and mortar stores are not dying because are going to the stores. They are dying because they aren't getting the products people want, manufactures don't seem care to if stores ever get they products, and if a store ever gets a shipment it is only one case of eight figures.
Well said. The industry is broken, if the toy companies cannot put product in the hands of the buyers, everyone loses. Hasbro toy shop is their own worst enemy. Make this website work!!
Love you Dan!! Keep up the great work on your awesome channel 😘
Its a pain to collect toys now days, I am an upstarting collector and my stores don't stock, Amazon has scalpers, and everywhere is just way to over priced for people to get a lot of figures
It's easier when you don't consider yourself a collector, You don't feel obligated to buy anything just to "finish a collection" and you can buy what you want when you want and sell what you want when you want without "breaking a collection"
If the price isn't good then just buy something else that's cool because you don't need it for your collection.
I consider my toys : "A bunch of stuff I like that I acquired.
SKS Studios Toronto the problem with the overpriced toys in Amazon comes when I just want a specific figure (Power of the Primes Leader class Optimus Prime for example) it's up at 80 dollars, I don't want toys for collection sake, I buy the ones I like, but damn, the ones I like happen to be rare and expensive, plus it sucks with the combining gimmick, I hava a hand piece and a 2 alt modes that will never see the light because the only reason for it's existence is scattered in different waves and prices skyrocket every month, I miss Titans Return tbh
I understand what you are saying and I sympathies with you, They do that because they know people will pay. Good luck with the hunt
SKS Studios Toronto thanks dude, I hope to find a decently priced Optimus toy, seriously, 80 bucks for a hollow lump with cheap stickers isn't a good deal at all hahaha
You kind of came into Toy collecting at a really bad time. Similar to people getting into retro gaming now. Toy collecting and Retro gaming has become REALLY popular in the past 8-9 years.
Yeah I mean just use a bit of superglue, it should fix it up right good
As a adult collector i find it almost impossible to find any new toys in my area. I primarily collect marvel legends and transformers.
Neither have had new figures in stock for several months at this point and with it being easier to shop online it's just not worth the hassle to go toy shopping anymore.
I completely agree, everyone is a collector nowadays and scalpers profit on OfferUp and Letgo. Sometimes even pre orders are a nightmare with products selling out in 2 minutes
This is still very true it’s really Annoying I waste gas going to the store all the way in another town to get a store exclusive and most of the time end up empty handed
i feel like i’m a rare case in that i never really had toys like action figure type toys when i was younger but now collect them. so i don’t do it for nostalgia. i started collecting in my teens after seeing an ad in a comic haha!
Isn't it interresting, how an open market system forces changes. And those changes don't always work out.
A shame though that the prices have been relative high if you think that the target should be kids.
They have whole separate toy lines aimed at kids. Case in point, Transformers, You have Masterpiece /3rd Party (Collector), Main Line ( PotP, Siege) ( Collector/Consumer), Cyberverse, 1 step changers, etc. (Kids).Star Wars Black Series isn't for Kids. For the more demanding adult consumer/collector, theirs figuarts, and Hot Toys.
Love this! Especially the oversaturation of product flooding the market with low quality product. A couple companies come to mind... F...O, H.....O etc.
This is still true for March 2021. It is hard to find GI Joe Classified, especially Target exclusives, and Masters of the Universe/WWE, Transformers, etc. Too many scalpers.
Do you know why? Because adults hoard all the figures kids want, in hopes of getting the "rare" and well preferred figures so they can resell them at stupid high prices to other adults. As a result, the kids who might want to purchase those toys just lose their interest in toys. Besides, toy manufacturers keep on creating action figures that are not even for play but more for displays.
Yeah I had that exact same experience in the 1980s when I was a kid looking for the globe Star Trek the Next Generation figures, I had trouble finding all the figures and then when I went to my local Star Trek convention and I found out why I had trouble finding the stuff, half the crap I was looking for was at somebody's kiosk with double the price. I ended up getting the entire set for about $10 each a couple of years ago on eBay. Sadly I had to wait like 20 years to get it for a decent price.
You don't think, that Adults are the only people really interested in higher end toys, because kids are more into digital media like games nowadays?
I worked at a Toys R Us for a few years and the adult collectors looking for Hot Wheels were disgusting. When the truck came in, they'd be camped outside the front doors half an hour before we opened to paw through the pegs looking for one, then would ask if they could look through our overstock.
Most of us worked there because we liked making kids happy and genuinely loved seeing the looks of delight on their faces when we handed them that one toy they couldn't live without; the idea that those selfish, greedy pricks would rob a child of that joy made us want to make their search as difficult as possible, so we'd stonewall the adult collectors as much as we could get away with. Some of my coworkers would even intentionally find out which cars our regular kids were looking for and intentionally set them aside for the kids when they came in after school.
Cinco A Mano have you seen that SNL skit where they have Star Wars action figure collectors
Nowaday figures are more expensive and in lower quality than ever. I've have melted plastic straws that look better than some of these.
You know what dan, you made a lot of valid points in a eloquent professional manner. It’s hard like you said people steal things out of packages and the store wants you to pay for full price. My son is s big power ranger fan and Bandai of America made things really difficult to buy figures and megazords etc. especially when they show on a package what figures are coming out but doesn’t say how...in example a villain ended up in a two pack instead of being released by itself. I think the Internet can be a blessing and a curse. We can get things quicker but because of eBay people are paying more than what is worth . Great video as always
this shows how tough it is to be a collector, especially dedicated ones...stores dont sell the figures u want, if u find any they usually sell in sets with figures u dont want, search online and the prices are insanely expensive...
The only thing I do on the internet is watch figure reviews, the. Buy the figures if they are cool, that’s why I own so much freaking neca and marvel legends
It's dead because of the McFarland era. Some really cool toys...at a higher price so then star wars, marvel legends etc. Then quality went to💩 and the inflated prices went higher👎
Unfortunately everything has it's time😳😳😳
Tom Griffiths Those mcfarlane figures were overhyped anyway. They looked good for the time but they were janky as hell, horrible poseability.
WWE is BETTER than NJPW! New Japan SUCKS! Amen🤘
Another thing I rarely hear talked about if at all is playability. I understand the market and inflation but, I've began really noticing that the figures themselves have taken pretty big dips in quality while the packaging becomes more elaborate and outlandish. This is problematic because it only serves to incentivize collectors who plan on leaving the figures in the packaging as opposed to those of us who plan on taking the figure out and playing with it and discarding the package.
This is so true. The worst part for me is that I rarely shop online (although it does happen time from time) and my main source of Transformers and Marvel Legends is my local stores, where some waves or figures sometimes don't ever even show up. It's so frustrating. But I try to make do.
And dont forget those in the fan-art communities as well who did the work the toy companies wouldnt. Timmverse properties like Batman The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond were all kept alive by dedicated fans/creators (like myself and a few friends) who made custom figure kits and parts to expand the lines places Mattel and Kenner never thought, or were never brave enough to dare go. It became evident that Mattel and Kenner were never going to make show accurate representations of Batman Beyond and other Timmverse shows, so I and a few other folks took it upon ourselves to do the work the big companies wouldn't. While I speak strictly of my own venture, there are people out there making custom toy kits or I guess you might call them garage kits for lines like He-man, GIJOE and a slew of other toys lines.
Scott Hall Have you checked out DCC? They have an entire Timmverse line! The JL line is releasing this year!
I have actually, but I wont buy any of their stuff ever again cuz the quality is dog shit. I stopped buying Mattels line also cuz it was so bad that I had figures disintegrate after owning them for a few months. The SDCC Giganta dress on both figures literally turned to dust after having the figures for about 2 months and that's just 1 example. Part of the reason I started making customs and opened up a customs store featuring JLU and Timmverse figures and parts because the stuff Mattel/DCC made was such garbage. Also cuz there were a ton of characters they never made that I ended up making for the line.
Black series Boba Fett, MOTU Classics, probably wont ever have them. Just too hard to get a hold of for a fair price. Never even saw Boba in store. 😭Awesome video
Jrex 919 just got black series boba for my birthday.it cost my girlfriend £60.aweso.e figure.even the K.O.version is worth pickin up on ebay 4 less than $20 dude
kryo Boy congrats! What a score. I would hate to buy ko's, but i have considered it. We'll see. Give your girlfriend a thumbs up, thats awesome. 👍
The one MOTU Classics figure I would love to own is the Filmation version of He-Man, but every time I see one online or even in comic shops they cost a fortune. As much as I would love to own that figure, my wallet says NO!!
alucard624 yup, i hear you, Skeletor or Trap jaw are my serious wants but same deal, just cant do it. Time to play lotto i guess
+Jrex 919 Even Man at Arms and Orko of all characters are super expensive. Orko for Pete's sake!!
I started collecting Transformers about 10 years ago, and I've almost given up on the franchise. The Bayformers breathed some new life into the toylines and Revenge of the Fallen really brought a major step up in quality, but that quality began to decline with The Last Knight (even the packaging got worse). Then the Robots In Disguise line came out, and that was just godawful. Now we're at a point where quality is all over the place and the toys are more expensive than ever. Scout-class figures geared toward younger children are $10 or more, Deluxe-class figures are close to $20, Voyager-class figures are $30 or $40, and anything larger is $50 to $70. It's a goddamn nightmare.
Distribution at retail sucks. Can't find figures without going online. Not to mention that the companies have gotten cheaper with quality, sculpting, paint and articulation. Four Horsemen-like sculpts were traded for Happy Meal sculpts. And then, the prices have gone up...
I live in hk, so bandai takes most of my cash lol.
I look at the pricey hasbro and mattel stuff and in like, wow ugly because figuarts and bandai model kits are just wayyyyy nicer.
I do wish neca and megabloks wete easier to get in hk
Most times it's impossible to find it at brick and mortar and find it at at a convention that is overpriced
But I buy takara transformers now inside of the 💩 in stores. Cheaper is always better
I remember a time I use to be able to walk into my local retailers like K-mart and Wal-mart and be able to pick up both GI Joe and Star Wars figures at my leisure at affordable prices. Now half the retailers I use to go to are gone, and the other half I never want to go to anymore because they don't have what I want anymore. Over half the toy lines I use to like are dead now for no explicit reason other than typical Hasbro negligence, and the other half I don't even want even more due to quality being dropped while prices get higher. The past 6 years has been a nightmare for 3.75" collectors like myself. It's broken.
Yes. People do return old TV's in new boxes. I have to inspect each one and it's a sad state of affairs when I get one back that says 'For Hotel Use Only'.
It's also reviewers fault. For example, Marvel legends are awful, all have the same mold and terrible paintjob but youtubers try to sell them as a good action figures because the companies send free samples.
Queen of Spades Ouch. I really enjoy the new Marvel Legends. I mean Toybiz's run probably had the better Marvel Legends but the current stuff is still cool in my opinion of course. It's all about preference I guess.
Hugo Ayala Toybiz ones, most of all of them, have better sculpt, paint, articulation. Nowdays, if Blackheart made it to hasbro ml... Is going to be a venom with a Blackheart head.
Queen of Spades A valid point and I agree with you but this, the whole toy collecting is just a hobby and the consumer can always just not buy it. Reviews are never what determines for me to buy a product.
I've found that the newer waves aren't as sturdy. They have a lot of out of the box flaws such as articulation issues caused by over paint, etc. Although the facial recognition is creating greater likenesses, they are showing improvements with articulation...we are getting more factory flaws, bobble head syndrome, loose joints or too tight joints out of the box, gaps and visible seems, and I dare fear, that in some cases, the plastic quality is dipping, to keep the price point where its at.
That said, if Hasbro re-booted 90 percent of Toybiz stuff I would not have an issue with it. Overall, I think it would be a better product. The only question would be, what to do with a whole line of dead figures?
8:27 increase unregulatabled resale environment 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
I was a collector for over 15 years and I bought Star Wars toys from 1997 to 2005. I realized this will be a financial black hole. So I started buying my favorite franchise MOTU classics but the insane high pricing for them (up to around 100 Euros in Germany) I just couldn’t afford it anymore. Then I tried Neca but also extremely hard to get (because of forced availability) and exclusives which were even harder to get and just plain insanely pricey. I stopped for good. In Germany we’re getting flooded with Funko toys and I hate them to death. Really, really hate them.
Great stuff. Toy Galaxy continues to be one of the best of the bigger toy channels around.
Great vid, because it's so true...
I took a steal home today!
ToysRUs has good bargains all the shelfs were empty earlier
I payed $20 for:
- Triton 3.75' Marvel Legend
- Black Series Admiral Ackbar and First Order Office
- "Batman Classic TV Series 3-Pack The Riddler, King Tut, & Mr. Freeze.
- Marvel Legends Enchantress and Executioner 2-Pack 3.75'
Weird. I got the executioner and enchantress pack today too but at a Goodwill for 2 bucks.
JRSanchez93
It cost 4 for me :'v
L O R D V2 It was marked as four but they had a yellow tag sale so those along with an infinite series grim reaper were half off. I also got a 2016 Ghostbusters figure but she was a red tag...still though 1.99 isn't too bad for nib fgure, even if I didn't like the movie that much.
JRSanchez93
Lucky the infinite series at my toysrus we're gone only Triton was left
JRSanchez93 I saw the Enchantress two pack last week at Toys R' Us, but I didn't buy it. I also saw it at a Goodwill onq Memorial Day, but I didn't buy it. I don't know why. Oh, well. Goodbye, TRU.
I'm nowhere near the collector I once was, but I still try to make the occasional stroll through the figure aisle when I have to hit the big box retailers. It's been the exact same thing for years now. WWE, TMNT, whatever DC is doing at the moment, ten different Marvel lines and maybe Transformers or Power Rangers.
I'm loving these editorial-like videos.
Toy Galaxy really has its plastic articulated finger on the pulse of this and related industries.
Keep em coming. Glad you're there to share these insights with us all.
We need to ban kids from buying our toys
I say just get rid of kids entirely. Future generations will thank us.
the Hasbro star wars toy line has no playsets and like barely any vehicles! 😠
For the basic figures, I think that has a lot to do with, all the stuff they DID put out, winding up on the Clearance shelf. Where the Basic and 3.75 figure line shines is Vehicles. Most of which would be astronomical in price if they did it in a 6 inch line. (Cough, First Order Tie Fighter).
Usually I can keep up, but this fast tempo explanation of intricacies blew right over my head...
great job summing up the modern collectors woes in one video. One thing you said that I wholeheartedly agree with is, Toy companies have themselves (Hasbro, etc) open the door for the KOers to flourish. Just like you said, why not capitalize on popular figures, but make LESS of what people will buy, example Stormtroopers. The KOers are actually satisfying a HUGE portion of the collecting base. I used to be all "Harble garble..KO companies are wrong..garble" but now I buy from them all the time. The real massive rise of the KO Transformer, and point to me where they gained legitimacy was during Transformers, The Last Knight toyline. I was able to buy a HIGH QUALITY oversize KO of voyager Megatron (Rendsora) and have it shipped to my house here in the U.S. 4 months before I even seen the real retail one. Thats part of the distribution plan, Which is STILL the toy companies fault.
Simply put, toys are not good value for money any more.
Mainly when compare to electronic.
When we're little we only had 8 bits games now it's like photo realistic 3D.
Does the realism take the fun out of it though?
If hasbro would quit putting out crap and a metric butt ton of crap the industry would be better. I'm leery of them owning power rangers.
When Gamestop and ThinkGeek are better options for collectors, you know toy retailers have a serious problem. I blame the store managers for not training employees properly on ordering SKUs and UPC. Walmart is the worst. Great Video
Something I hate about the Figmas and Nendoroids I collect. Exclusive parts. If you order directly from the manufacturer you'll get a part to the toy no other retailer gets. The part is usually pretty nice, but I end up paying full retail and a high shipping cost.
You hit on a huge point...the incentive of buying the entire line. Not sure why the distributor or the retailer themselves has not thought of this. But if you can somehow monetize that go for it. Great episode.
great video, it's true, the industry is a total mess right now, in the uk you'd be lucky to walk into a toy shop and find anything new because the shops dont seem to have any kind of continuity with what they're stocking, and most still dont cater to collectors, so you're better off going online, hopefully someone with fresh ideas comes along soon and changes things up.
As a near 30 year old I wish youtube ran ads for Transformers or Figuarts rather then beer and lotto. When I want to waste money I want my vice not the vice I can't resell or will lose money on.
My issue is that the cheapest will always be the initial release. So you're forced to save up while the preorder counts down. Otherwise you'll regret it when you have to pay 200$+ on something you want later.
I like how it’s done in the Japanese higher end market. Preorder the figure within a certain period of time and you get it. No fuss, no muss.
I'm a modern Transformers collector and I have trouble getting my hands on what I want. There are no less than 3 Transformers lines on the shelves right now (Bumblebee Movie, Cyberverse, and Siege). At brick and mortar stores, the shelves are clogged up with Bumblebee movie and Cyberverse figures. It took about 3 months for the first wave of Deluxe Siege figures to be consistently in stock (they would arrive and then be bought almost immediately). Hasbro staggered the release of the Siege Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader class figures, the last of which has been shipping since January, but not arriving at most brick and mortar stores yet. I've been keeping track of the Siege line on Amazon and pretty much all of the figures, for the first month or so of their availability, were selling out within an hour of becoming in stock and showing back up on the site at a 30-50% mark-up. I'd order things through third parties like BBTS, but preorder fulfillment dates are so vague and unpredictable that I'm never sure if I'll have the money for the figures at the random time they come in.
This video has so much truth in it. Alas, the ways of the retail companies that stock toys mirror retail companies that stock so many other things.
They don't want to have too much stock on the shelf because it's dead money, so they don't order enough stock to meet consumer demand thereby driving away sales when people come into the store and then have to find their items elsewhere.
They don't want to have competitive pricing because they will "lose" money, but what they are really doing when being competitive pricing is making not a big a profit as they'd like.... and yet by not being competitive they lose whole sales, thereby making no profit at all.
So much wrong.....
The figure/BAF piece swapping is soooooooooooooo fn annoying. I was told by a walmart person that unless like 50% of the toy is missing they will just put it back on the shelf. So new toys with old ass BAF parts are technically still 'complete' and thus no matter how many times you bring it up to them, they are still back on the shelves.
This video is so nice that I had to watch it twice. And it's SO on time, I've been thinking about this a lot lately and having discussions with others. I'm not sure what the answer is, but something has to give. I'm an adult with a decent career making decent salary, active on the internet (more than average) and pretty knowledgeable about collecting toys, yet I feel so helpless as I'm constantly behind the curb. I feel like all I do is miss out on pre-orders and imports; I just cry inside as I have to settle for watching numerous TH-cam reviewers and people from overseas horde everything I'd like to own, and it's exacerbated by the fact that so many offerings now are so tempting since they cater to features I've been desiring for decades now. It's a shame.
I hear you. I'm in the same boat. Have to try to focus on the stuff that you specifically like instead of trying to get it all.
To many scalpers going into the stores clearing the shelves and heading straight to eBay with a couple extra zeros along for the ride. The black series figures are a perfect example of this
Hunting for a figure for weeks, searching various stores, then finally getting it in your hands is a great feeling...but unfortunately those days are coming to an end...today everything is just a click away.... Sad......
My timing of being born to experience action figures was spot on! Born in 75, by the time I hit around 5 y/o my first toy were Star Wars, and few other figures I can’t remember at this time. But in 82 on up was when I started collecting GI Joes and He-Man figures. Didn’t have Transformers because they cost more then action figures. No big deal because I preferred collecting Joes! Heck I even got the Tomahawk helicopter for my 12th Birthday which came with the driver Lift Ticket, which IMO is one of the coolest Joe vehicles they did before they got crazy creating crazy looking vehicles later on.
Excellent video, guys. Big thumbs up for a great use of St. Vincent. This gets a RT from me as well.
I find myself constantly pre-ordering, then cancelling once items hit shelves and I buy them, saving 20-30 bucks. As Dan stated, the ONLY benefit of pre-order is ensuring you get a copy of what your looking for. The downside is that often, they don't get their stock until AFTER most big box stores get their stock. If your lucky enough to get the whole wave, and often times stores are apprehensive about selling you ALL of them, due to low initial stock, you can always fill gaps with Amazon, and still come in under Pre-order cost.
I buy everything online, there's never anything where I live.
Man, it's almost like it's been all downhill since toys, cartoons, comic books, and video games stopped be created with little kids in mind. I never thought I'd entertain the idea that adulthood is underrated.
Not my Hot Toy industry. As a 30 year old who collects 1/6th scale figures, the toy industry is not dead. Maybe for kids but definitely not for collectors.
I agree with you there. Kids are more geared towards phones etc. Where we adults are collecting hot toys etc. Im 33 years old and i have about 5 hot toys and lots of figures i have collected. Now i have stopped and now diecast 1:64 scale cars and trucks
When I was kid maybe around 2009ish. I remember shelves being full and stocked with new figures all the time. But now I feel like the shelves never get restocked. I see waves being skipped because they wait so long to restock
During the 70’s, brick n mortar stores sold accessory kits for kids in my day after Star Wars, well after Planet of the Apes. Those kits were for Barbie, Ken, $6 Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman. Millennial toddlers turned Apple stores into smartphone and tablet petting zoos. That’s their childhood interest. Preordering is a 1 to 2 yr waiting period pain. So are prices depending what your interest selections are. Now, Mego (a defunct 70s toy brand) is making a comeback.
I'm almost exclusively a Legends collector, and one thing I think might help prevent scalpers (assuming Hasbro thinks that it is an issue to attack) is for every year to do a 'christmas' case release, where they re-release their most popular figures(including the baf) from the scalper market as a case... I mean a re-release of Wolverine(juggernaut wave), Cable (juggernaut wave), Hela(Gladiator Hulk wave), Scarlet Witch(Ultron Wave), Cyclops (Warlock wave) etc... That gives the scalpers a little time to make money, but eventually floods the market with the figures that the fans aren't able to get because of the scalpers.
Of course one thing he points out in this video is that in the old days, re-releases were common, new cards or whatever, so the card might be different, but the fan still had the ability to get the figure at a later date, and knew that was going to be possible. Sure you might get a 24 character Jawa instead of a 12 character backed Jawa, but only hard core collectors are caring about that. As long as all the other pieces were there, it didn't matter.