February Hauls

[JediTricks]

Huh. I totally meant to type "Nah" instead of "Bah" there. Minor thing, but changes the tone somewhat. Posting from my phone is weird.

Ha! I was wondering about that.

The 2009 Trek line failed, not because it's "Star Trek" but because it was handled by Playmates. Who wouldn't know the proper way to handle a toy line if it bit them in the ass. Aside from having two separate figure sizes (both 3 3/4" and 6") they also fucked up by flooding the toy aisles with everything. Then they also fucked up by having the completeness of the playsets be dependant on owning ALL of the figures and then not releasing the second wave. They honestly had their heads so far up their asses on that one that they were doing dental work. So it'll be interesting to see how Hasbro handles this.

The popcorn test was part of the appraisal inspection. They also tested for mold and other pests and what have you.

Every Star Trek movie line from 1994 until then had been handled by Playmates, Playmates who 20 years later is still making bank with TMNT so they obviously know something about running a toy line. And Playmates released 4", 6", 12" figures, role-play product, and vehicle product, all of which failed. Mattel also released movie product in vehicles and in Barbie which failed. Even at deep clearance those products still struggled to move. New Coke Trek is not a toyetic film, and collectors didn't want a big part of it (partly due to the completeness of the playsets but partly due to the product and the film, I think).

On the popcorn: Ah yes, ok, that makes more sense, my mom did that appraisal test on a condo she was trying to buy but it didn't have popcorn ceiling so I didn't realize that'd be included. That's cool.


Carl? That's a really weird one.

[Onslaught Six]

Carl? That's a really weird one.

It's because of the pose, and the way the tan vest-thing made it look like Carl's wifebeater. I dunno!

Now he's actually got his face there. Which is way creepier.

[Shockwave]

Huh. I totally meant to type "Nah" instead of "Bah" there. Minor thing, but changes the tone somewhat. Posting from my phone is weird.

Ha! I was wondering about that.

The 2009 Trek line failed, not because it's "Star Trek" but because it was handled by Playmates. Who wouldn't know the proper way to handle a toy line if it bit them in the ass. Aside from having two separate figure sizes (both 3 3/4" and 6") they also fucked up by flooding the toy aisles with everything. Then they also fucked up by having the completeness of the playsets be dependant on owning ALL of the figures and then not releasing the second wave. They honestly had their heads so far up their asses on that one that they were doing dental work. So it'll be interesting to see how Hasbro handles this.

The popcorn test was part of the appraisal inspection. They also tested for mold and other pests and what have you.

Every Star Trek movie line from 1994 until then had been handled by Playmates, And Playmates released 4", 6", 12" figures, role-play product, and vehicle product, all of which failed. Mattel also released movie product in vehicles and in Barbie which failed. Even at deep clearance those products still struggled to move. New Coke Trek is not a toyetic film, and collectors didn't want a big part of it (partly due to the completeness of the playsets but partly due to the product and the film, I think).

And they screwed up the original line too. I'll give them TMNT, but they have consistently screwed Trek royally. The first time around Star Trek fans were actually into collecting stuff. But Playmates killed that pretty quickly. As soon as they realized their toys were being bought by collectors every damn figure that came out was limited edition, exclusive, numbered, they even started putting collector cards with their toys cause God knows they were catering enough to every damn collecting cliché as it was. After a few years of this, collectors got burned and fed up and now the toys are worthless. In 2009, they flooded the market, I still to this day see figures sitting on clearance. If they'd had a more staggered release like the other companies you mentioned (who's products are not still sitting on toy aisles) they might have actually gotten to wave two. But no, they had their heads up their asses again.

And the really sad part of this is that the line had potential. The figures themselves were actually pretty good (at least the 3 3/4" ones, I didn't get the larger ones). Their Trek business model really needs tweaking. I say give it to Hasbro completely. They've been successfully making Star Wars toys for like 20 some odd years now so I think they'd handle the license well.

Shockwave
-Seriously just bought 4 sealed DS9 figures for $8.

[Onslaught Six]

I say give it to Hasbro completely.

And DC.

And He-Man.

And everything.

Other toy companies suck.

[Shockwave]

I say give it to Hasbro completely.

And DC.

And He-Man.

And everything.

Other toy companies suck.

DC I couldn't honestly care less about and I think Mattel has done pretty good with the current He-Man. At least for what they're willing to sink into it. But I do wish that line was a mass retail rather than online only. Still, they have managed to use their current business model to give us figures we never thought we'd see.

[BWprowl]

DC I couldn't honestly care less about and I think Mattel has done pretty good with the current He-Man. At least for what they're willing to sink into it. But I do wish that line was a mass retail rather than online only. Still, they have managed to use their current business model to give us figures we never thought we'd see.

At triple the price they should be, available only for pre-order for a precious few seconds, and when you get them you discover that they're misassembled/damaged in the package!

Just sayin'.

[Shockwave]

DC I couldn't honestly care less about and I think Mattel has done pretty good with the current He-Man. At least for what they're willing to sink into it. But I do wish that line was a mass retail rather than online only. Still, they have managed to use their current business model to give us figures we never thought we'd see.

At triple the price they should be, available only for pre-order for a precious few seconds, and when you get them you discover that they're misassembled/damaged in the package!

Just sayin'.

The main problem with MOTUC is that Mattel isn't willing to support it. They sink very little budget into it which is why it's not mass release and why so short a run of figures get made.

I've heard about the QC on these things but I've never had any problems with any of mine.

[JediTricks]

It's because of the pose, and the way the tan vest-thing made it look like Carl's wifebeater. I dunno!

Now he's actually got his face there. Which is way creepier.

I got what you meant actually, it's just a funny way of seeing it since it's not a wifebeater. That said, it sure is obvious NOW!

And they screwed up the original line too. I'll give them TMNT, but they have consistently screwed Trek royally. The first time around Star Trek fans were actually into collecting stuff. But Playmates killed that pretty quickly. As soon as they realized their toys were being bought by collectors every damn figure that came out was limited edition, exclusive, numbered, they even started putting collector cards with their toys cause God knows they were catering enough to every damn collecting cliché as it was. After a few years of this, collectors got burned and fed up and now the toys are worthless. In 2009, they flooded the market, I still to this day see figures sitting on clearance. If they'd had a more staggered release like the other companies you mentioned (who's products are not still sitting on toy aisles) they might have actually gotten to wave two. But no, they had their heads up their asses again.

I think the figures were numbered from the very first. And the line lasted from '92 until '99, it had the same run length as a Trek show itself, it ran product from TOS, TNG, the movies, DS9, and Voyager - that's pretty damned good considering the industry was reeling from the market all but collapsing. The reason product isn't valuable anymore is due more to the fact that Trekkies don't want it anymore. It's the same thing as Star Wars from that era, the aftermarket value of items that were in the hundreds of dollars are now going for a twenty. Very few toy lines actually stay on the market for several years anymore.

As for New Coke Trek, they released it the same way Hasbro over-releases Amazing Spider Man movie product and such, they ignored the soft trending and hoped kids would buy into the overall marketing hype. Look at The Hobbit movie product from The Bridge, or Mattel's Green Lantern figures. It's not always about the product, sometimes the market simply doesn't want the product no matter what you do.

I say give it to Hasbro completely.

And DC.

And He-Man.

And everything.

Other toy companies suck.

Hasbro sucked at DC, basically ran the same exact mistakes. Hasbro has plenty of fuckups under their belts, and their prices are out of control because their business model wasn't flexible enough and their manufacturing not diverse enough. Plus, with Mattel they're actually willing to take risks that Hasbro simply will not, look at their MOTU and their Ghostbusters and Voltron lines, all collector-focused and direct-to-consumer, all of which would have been an absolute definite "no" from Hasbro.

[Shockwave]

Yeah they were numbered from the outset. Then, after about two years, they had collector cards. Then there were exclusives. Then there were limited edition exclusives. With the collectors cards and numbers. It really just got too absurd and it wasn't even just Playmates, it started to be every damn thing with Star Trek slapped on it and Trekkies just said "ENOUGH!" and that's when the Trek market bottomed out.

Episode I SW toys bottomed out on the secondary market because Hasbro shortpacked some figures from the beginning and later flooded the market with those same figures, making their aftermarket value worthless. A lot of people got burned and gave up. At least that's how I remember it. I remember knowing a lot of people who were pissed over that.