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06-27-2010, 11:19 AM | #1 |
endlesssummerofthedamned
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Midway, PA
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Particularly with toy lines that are tied into movies; I was walking around TRU yesterday and saw various things that have pushed this question to the front of my mind. Obviously, the bottom line is that the figures sell.
But what MAKES the figures fly off the shelves, or sit and stagnate in clearance bins? At TRU, there is a healthy supply of Transformers and Star Wars, and they always seem to move respectably, whether their priced within reason or not. Then there's virtually an entire aisle devoted to wrestling figures. Again, this has been a mainstay at TRU for years, so apparently they do well enough to keep their place. Same with the Power Rangers, although they have less retail space. There's also a lot of small scale collectible cars and larger Tonka or Fisher-Price vehicles, as well as remote control vehicles. There's the Marvel and DC figures, along with a lot of Iron Man and Ben 10 stuff. GI Joe is sparse, but the line is inbetween changes, but there is also the Lanard or Chap Mei Military stuff that occupies a fair amount of shelving. Zhu Zhu pets, G-Force, Wall-E and Cars also occupy a large amount of space. Then there were two huge bins of Star Trek and Terminator Salvation stuff on clearance. There was also a bunch of newer Prince of Persia, Airbender and Lightning Thief figures. (I can see the latter of these ending up in the same place as the Star Trek and Terminator stuff.) It makes me wonder. I think the halcyon days of action figures will never return to the modern world in general. As a 34 year old that grew up in the '80's and never outgrew toys, I still get excited everytime I find something that I purchase and take home with me. I don't ever recall a time in my life when I had no interest in toys whatsoever. Even when I was poor, or my life was preoccupied by other events, I still walked through a toy aisle when I had the chance. But the toys we have today just seem lackluster when compared to the stuff we had back then. There are exceptions, and I'm glad to say that GI Joe is one of them. But is this the reason toys appear to sell so poorly nowadays? It seems so many companies just want to ride on the expected popularity of movies and cartoons, instead of coming out with something original and interesting. Maybe if their focus was less on profit margins and more on striking a chord in children's imaginations, then they could actually be successful in both areas. The Star Trek toys, while attached to a very good movie that was at least somewhat accessible to children, were very plain and boring with hardly any accessories at all. The Terminator toys were attached to an R-rated film. That's hardly a good place to start with merchandise for children. But they too, while not terrible figures, were hardly anything to get excited about. But Star Wars and Transformers are very exciting for children, as well as adults. The films and the toys inspire children to use their imaginations. And they're also appealing to adult collectors. Same with the wrestling figures; I personally would never allow my children to watch this crap, but those that do are taken in by the drama and action and can easily convert that over to playing with toy representations of their favorite characters. I don't know what point I'm trying to make here, but it just seems that, in my opinion, there have been a lot of attempts made by toy companies to tie in merchandising that fails pretty dismally. I guess they're just as confused about how to make money as I am.
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06-27-2010, 11:27 AM | #2 |
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06-27-2010, 11:46 AM | #3 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: UK
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I was thinking something similar not so a long ago; it was just one of those evenings when I was just checking out old toy lines on ebay - not interested in bidding, just seeing what was out there - MASK, Visionaries, Centurions, Supernaturals, Battle Beasts, DinoRiders, StarCom, Manta Force etc etc. Then it struck me, every one of these toy lines from my youth had some unique feature (gimmick, if you will) that just struck a chord in my 8 year old mind and stuck there for the next 25 years, and that these days there just isn't that. Toy designs now just seem so incredibly lazy, and it's sad that something like StarCom or DinoRiders has more engineering and playability in it than 80% of most of the crap on pegs these days. How often have you seen a figure now and it's just a guy, it might be a guy in suit, or a guy with a hat, but fundamentally you just have a figure of a GUY - but hey, he was in that movie right? The one all the kids loved?
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06-27-2010, 12:11 PM | #4 |
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Quote:
I was thinking something similar not so a long ago; it was just one of those evenings when I was just checking out old toy lines on ebay - not interested in bidding, just seeing what was out there - MASK, Visionaries, Centurions, Supernaturals, Battle Beasts, DinoRiders, StarCom, Manta Force etc etc. Then it struck me, every one of these toy lines from my youth had some unique feature (gimmick, if you will) that just struck a chord in my 8 year old mind and stuck there for the next 25 years, and that these days there just isn't that. Toy designs now just seem so incredibly lazy, and it's sad that something like StarCom or DinoRiders has more engineering and playability in it than 80% of most of the crap on pegs these days. How often have you seen a figure now and it's just a guy, it might be a guy in suit, or a guy with a hat, but fundamentally you just have a figure of a GUY - but hey, he was in that movie right? The one all the kids loved?
I also think most toy companies realize that they have a very short window to sell action figures to kids because video games have taken over. An exception to this is Avatar, it was a unique line, the movie did really well, it was very different looking and had the support of vehicles and playsets and it seems they can't give the stuf away. Even when they marked the 4 inch figures down to $1 they didn't disappear in seconds they still kinda sat. The evo suit looked like the only thing that sold well on clearence and I think that was mostly because people used it for other lines. I hated Avatar as a film but I had to have the evo suit for my joes |
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06-27-2010, 02:17 PM | #5 |
endlesssummerofthedamned
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Midway, PA
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I still haven't seen Avatar. One day, but I just didn't think it looked very interesting. The toys looked dull as well.
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06-27-2010, 02:39 PM | #6 |
Mad Scientist at Large
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Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 14,793
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Star Trek and Terminator were cheap toys aimed at kids based on movies for adults. It was a recipe for fail. Avatar had more kids in the seats, but the toyline looked like overpriced garbage. They looked like they were going for collector-friendly articulation, but sculpts were plain and uninteresting.
Say what you will about RoC, kids liked it. All of a sudden Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were cool again, and most importantly, the toys, while being a bit expensive, weren't rubbish. The characters were big, distinctive, and identifiable. While not 100% embraced by collectors or kids, it had enough of both to move. Terminator Salvation is still peg-warming at $3 a pop. TRU has a sale btw, everything on clearance is now marked down even more, so if you guys want any T-1s or T-600s to bolster Cobra's ranks, now's the time. |
06-27-2010, 03:52 PM | #7 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: texas
Posts: 1,384
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The toys in the 80s were based on gimmicks, comic books, and TV series. In gimmicks, there were Air Raiders, which used squeeze bulbs to fire its weapons, Sky Commanders which had the figures and vehicles on strings like a tightrope walker, and one i don't remember the name of but the figures had magnets in their hands and feet. From comic books there were Crystal Warriors and Sgt. Rock figures, and from TV shows there were Dukes of hazzard, A team, Battlestar Galactica, V, Conan the Adventurer, and so on. Maybe a comics book series or cartoon series as a tie in. Now everything is tied together with toys being a small part of it. Comic Book/Graphic Novels, video games, web sites, toys, cosplay, and so on. And if the movie/TV series is mediocre or a bomb, then there is little demand for the rest of the tie ins. Case in point, terminator salvation was a crashing bore and the idea of two-inch tall action figures was really dumb! So now, a thing either hits it big or winds up in the bargain bin.
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06-27-2010, 03:59 PM | #8 |
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Quote:
Star Trek and Terminator were cheap toys aimed at kids based on movies for adults. It was a recipe for fail. Avatar had more kids in the seats, but the toyline looked like overpriced garbage. They looked like they were going for collector-friendly articulation, but sculpts were plain and uninteresting.
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06-27-2010, 04:13 PM | #9 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Joe HQ
Posts: 1,716
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Quote:
I was thinking something similar not so a long ago; it was just one of those evenings when I was just checking out old toy lines on ebay - not interested in bidding, just seeing what was out there - MASK, Visionaries, Centurions, Supernaturals, Battle Beasts, DinoRiders, StarCom, Manta Force etc etc. Then it struck me, every one of these toy lines from my youth had some unique feature (gimmick, if you will) that just struck a chord in my 8 year old mind and stuck there for the next 25 years, and that these days there just isn't that. Toy designs now just seem so incredibly lazy, and it's sad that something like StarCom or DinoRiders has more engineering and playability in it than 80% of most of the crap on pegs these days. How often have you seen a figure now and it's just a guy, it might be a guy in suit, or a guy with a hat, but fundamentally you just have a figure of a GUY - but hey, he was in that movie right? The one all the kids loved?
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06-27-2010, 04:42 PM | #10 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 8,089
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I think the success of a current toy line depends on how well that toy can be integrated into another more popular toy line that someone already owns. For example; if someone has a lot of Joes and he or she thinks that this new toy can somehow fit into their Joeverse they will more than likely buy it; and being of the same scale and having similar articulation greatly helps the blending process.
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