More Mego Licenses Announced! Firefly, Charmed and Wizard of Oz coming soon!

[LonnieFisher]

Agh...wrong OZ...

Did you want Dr. Oz?

[tmthor]

Again, you have to look at the demographics. Fifteen bucks a standard figure is better than I expected, and may open the door to some purchases by the young uns, but that's not going to be the bulk of sales. Two days ago, I was in Walmart and saw a small boy about 5 or 6 with his mom looking at a DC Multiverse figure he wanted. The mother flat out said, "That's $18. We're not getting that." Point is, there are kid aimed figures out there under 10 bucks, and that's what parents are going to tend toward. Now, if Mego gets back the DC or Marvel license, there's some potential inroads to be made, but, again, you're competing with cheaper versions of Batman or the Avengers on the pegs. The main market here is going to be adult fans, either of Megos or of the particular properties. Firefly has a strong cult following, Charmed is getting a new series, which will also spark renewed interest in the old (and it's entirely possible they have the rights to both series), and Wizard of Oz is an evergreen property that almost always has some merchandise being made out there. And all of these fit the Mego style well; I'd argue at least Charmed and WoO fit this style BETTER than they do Marvel Legends style plastic figures, as they are people in clothes that would in many cases be hard to do in plastic form without sacrificing major articulation. We've seen plastic Firefly figures, but I think Mego style would work at least as well. What I'm seeing isn't just going after a popular license here; it seems Mego is going after properties that would be well served by the Mego style. In a crowded collectors figure market, that's not a bad strategy.

As for the announcement itself...I JUST got done putting together a set of classic Oz Megos for both me and another for a friend, so...naturally that's one of the properties. Seriously, though, the thought of maybe getting some repros/re-dos of the very expensive Munchkins or characters like the flying monkeys would be great (monkeys would be Oz-ian army builders, as would the Witch's guards). Of course, this could be a whole new line rather than just a re-do. And I'd say the original did quite well, with 7 regular figures, three playsets, and, most of all, four munchkins that required a newly tooled body (that's the capper: major new tooling means the line had to be doing well enough to justify it) Charmed I'm definitely in for. Never watched Firefly, but that does not preclude me getting the figures. And there's always the big plus to these kind of licenses: lots of new head sculpts of just regular people; good, proportionate sculpts almost guarantee multiple purchases from me on a lot of figures.

Also don't forget Mattel seems to redo the WoO in their Barbie format and tthey seem to sell when they do....the new Mego's at $14.99 will be half the Price of the Barbies at $29.99.

[Capt_Kirk]

I'm stoked for the new Mego releases and at 15.00 a figure, that's SO much better than FTC 25.00 for a figure and 120 for a play set is ridiculous.

[Capt_Kirk]

Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, Legends of tomorrow, Black lightening, Orville, Star Trek Discovery There are present shows they can pick up. Not to mention movies. I'm going to need to get a part time job to pay for these.

BTW, Where is Mego home office located?

[hedrap]

Did you want Dr. Oz?

[emeraldknight47]

Someone mentioned SUPERNATURAL earlier and that is a line I would love to see picked up! There are a TON of characters from that show (soon to be in it's 14th Season) that could be mined for figures! If nuMEGO were to do SPN, BUFFY and DOCTOR WHO (with an appropriately sized TARDIS, of course), oh the stop-motion MEGO cross-over videos I would make!

[scott metzger]

I'm stoked for the new Mego releases and at 15.00 a figure, that's SO much better than FTC 25.00 for a figure and 120 for a play set is ridiculous.

In fairness, Mego has a deal with one of the biggest toy retailers in the US. FTC sells stuff on the web. Mego is going to have a run of 10,000 figures each. I seriously doubt FTC sells anywhere near 10,000 of each figure they make. Smaller the run, the more expensive it is to produce each figure. Now, of course, that's ignoring other things like quality control and such, which might make the Megos a much better buy even if they were the same price. As of this time. we don't know the quality of the new Megos; I'm just going by Paul's involvement and EMCE's releases as a good guess that Mego might win that contest over FTC at this point.

[hedrap]

^I see your logic, but FTC's pricing isn't about ROI. By this point, they've sold enough DC and KISS figures to cover all costs. If they hadn't, we would've seen them curtailed like the other lines. The price is high because they want a huge return on as little investment as possible.

Chris said earlier he hope something changes with FTC. If Mego sells well at Target, (by well I mean just to our collector's audience), FTC has limited to no appeal at 25-30. I doubt they'll want to drop and match, so I'd expect to see them focus on wrestling and 8-inch accessories. My worry is they're able to re-up the WB license just to shelve it. I'm hoping the 14-inch license and the Target sales is the channel for Doc and Marty.

[Werewolf]

Oz is a smart choice. Generations of nostalgia and kid appealing designs. I don't think Charmed or Firefly will sell nearly as well.

[palitoy]

Oz is a smart choice. Generations of nostalgia and kid appealing designs. I don't think Charmed or Firefly will sell nearly as well.

Firefly has a ravenous fan base, it'll do great.

[Werewolf]

Firefly has a ravenous fan base, it'll do great.

Yeah, but, the Funko Firefly Reaction and Legacy lines didn't sell all that well.

[palitoy]

Yeah, but, the Funko Firefly Reaction and Legacy lines didn't sell all that well.

I don't have access to Funko's sales data but I imagine most ReAction sales were kind of soft. The only thing that seemed to move was Jaws.

[EmergencyIan]

Is Firefly an older series or is it current? I hadn't heard of it until today...then again, I'm the kind who tends to live in the past.

- Ian

[Werewolf]

I don't have access to Funko's sales data but I imagine most ReAction sales were kind of soft.

It's not just the Reaction stuff. Funko's Game of Thrones and Firefly Legacy figures, which had very well done modern sculpts and articulation, moved slowly even on heavy discount. Even as popular as the shows are their figures didn't really move. Unlike the Funko Golden Girls figures which sold crazy good and are worth a ton on the secondary market, go figure.

[tmthor]

It's not just the Reaction stuff. Funko's Game of Thrones and Firefly Legacy figures, which had very well done modern sculpts and articulation, moved slowly even on heavy discount. Even as popular as the shows are their figures didn't really move. Unlike the Funko Golden Girls figures which sold crazy good and are worth a ton on the secondary market, go figure.

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that though many people watched the shows .....don't always collect figures. Also I think many of the product was Ill timed, ill manufactured and not distributed correctly.