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Topps Mego Monday Thread

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  • LonnieFisher
    Eloquent Member
    • Jan 19, 2008
    • 10814

    You can still find them, but Mego is no longer listed on the site.

    Comment

    • Retro76
      Member
      • Aug 4, 2012
      • 53

      I do not think it’s fair to directly attribute the pause in the Mego-Topps exclusives to the criticism and complaints. If that were the case they would have paused the deal a few weeks after the exclusives began. The only change they made previously in response to the complaints was to increase the purchase limit from two to five. Seems to me that this pause is driven more on not meeting the sales numbers they were expecting.

      In the spirit of constructive criticism and having spare time this weekend following are mine in case the Mego folks are still reading these.

      The 19.99 price point: This to me is not too big of a deal since some MEGO figures are being already offered at $20 or $22. That being said you can still get a lot of current Mego figures around the $15 price point. Having Topps default at $20 is to me a customer expectation adjustment which would have been better handled if Mego had made the price point in the main retail waves prior to the Topps deal. I also know that these are supposed to be exclusives but when you factor in the other issues listed below it further complicates the situation.

      Topps’ shipping costs: To those that say that it shouldn’t be an issue please keep in mind that other Mego retailers are able to offer much better shipping terms, i.e. Walmart, Target, and Amazon offer free shipping for orders $35 and above and a $5-$6 flat rate if less. Entertainment Earth has free shipping for orders above $49, Hasbro Pulse free over $50, and others offer flat shipping rates such as $4 from BBTS. By Topps offering a minimum $10 shipping rate for one figure and $2 for each additional one the cost of one figure jumped to a minimum of $30 for one figure or approx. $25 each for two or more. This doesn’t factor in of course the situation if you live in Canada.

      The 7 day limit purchase window and weekly frequency: This is the most problematic for me. In the action figure collecting world I see two types of exclusives: Those that are a limited preset amount and can sell out immediately such as SDCC exclusives, and those that are made to order. Super7 is the best example with their Ultimates line ( i.e. Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, GI Joe, 2001 space Odyssey, etc.) which issues a limited set of figures approximately 4 per wave and offers a month to preorder. This allows folks to plan and budget as well as save on shipping. I’ve read the reason for the Mego-Topps 7 day window is because they need to immediately rush them into production. My question is what is the hurry to send a weekly set of figures into production as opposed to a monthly batch? I'm sure a lot of us would purchase more figures if that means we could save money on shipping and allow us time to budget the purchase. The argument that they cannot combine shipping loses credibility when many of us have been able to order figures from two different weeks when they overlap on Mondays. So far I’ve not heard of anyone’s combined-weeks orders being canceled.

      Nature of the exclusives: To me an exclusive is a variant of an existing character or a character that is pretty obscure that would not do well at retail. For example, I am not sure that Shazam, Black Adam, Zira and Taylor fall under this category. These 4 should have been offered at retail. It doesn’t make sense that Soldier Ape and Ursus would be more recognizable than Taylor and Zira. Brent and Mutant make more sense as exclusives due to their obscurity but not Taylor and Zira.

      Why Topps?:I am not clear what Topps has brought to the table beyond an online ordering platform. They are not a major player in the action figure/toy collectibles arena but maybe they want to be and Mego was their first attempt. If there was an expectation that they could reach a wider audience I haven’t seen that except for the eBay resellers that in addition to Topps sports cards were also reselling the Mego exclusives at crazy prices. It would’ve made more sense if they offered in the mix Topps Mars Attacks figures or some sports Megos ala Joe Namath. I wonder how this exclusives deal would be if partnered with Amazon, Entertainment Earth or BBTS?

      Finally, I sincerely hope this pause allows Mego to review and see if they can continue to offering exclusives with more customer friendly options either via Topps or another online retailer. I made two Topps orders and would have made more if the terms were better.
      Last edited by Retro76; Oct 25, '21, 12:51 AM.

      Comment

      • puckace
        Museum Super Collector
        • Feb 5, 2009
        • 249

        Well said Retro76. I would have purchased more if some of the things you suggested were done. For the record, I like the idea of putting up 8 figures for a month.

        Comment

        • Krypt0nite
          Radioactive!
          • Feb 13, 2010
          • 950

          Does anyone know what figures would have been available today?

          Comment

          • sprytel
            Talkative Member
            • Jun 26, 2009
            • 6539

            Originally posted by Krypt0nite
            Does anyone know what figures would have been available today?
            James Bond and Luke Skywalker

            Comment

            • puckace
              Museum Super Collector
              • Feb 5, 2009
              • 249

              You sure? I could have sworn it was Darth Vader and Spider-man.

              Comment

              • Krypt0nite
                Radioactive!
                • Feb 13, 2010
                • 950

                Joking aside, I'm just curious if it was going to be horror again.

                Comment

                • ODBJBG
                  Permanent Member
                  • May 15, 2009
                  • 3143

                  The two new figures every week was a horrible distribution model. Especially when these are all just preorders. It reeked (and quite possibly was) a shipping scheme. MattyCollector used to do something similar. It appears to be a way of making money on shipping, when they charged you per figure and would not let you bundle with previous purchases. What's the point? Are last week's figures really going to get to the warehouse that much sooner than the next week's? Of course not. These are all going to be on a boat together. Maybe one month's figures would come later than the previous month's, but weekly? No way.

                  But if they could charge you for shipping every week, now that's a nice little bonus.

                  None of this stuff is in stock. It's essentially made to order. One week to order popular one of a kind characters that may or may not ever be released again? What kind of sales strategy was that? There was no logical reason for the way they did this other than to rack up shipping costs.

                  This combined with already high shipping costs, extensive delays in all productions, etc... Just made this whole experiment a bad idea. Outside of people who were buying these to flip on Ebay, the Mego consumers were getting hosed. And many are still so used to not getting things that they were willing to get shafted just to get new product, but it was a poor business strategy long term.

                  One that if you really look at it for more than a minute, on a consumer level, was ridiculous.

                  I'm not sure what the retooling of the idea will be, but whatever it is, it's very likely to be better than what they offered previously.

                  Comment

                  • wise guy
                    Career Member
                    • Dec 29, 2014
                    • 894

                    Originally posted by LonnieFisher
                    You can still find them, but Mego is no longer listed on the site.

                    Why is Mego no longer listed on site if Topps is still selling these ? The site shows all figures sold out including Zombie, and Phantom, but it looks like Topps might be done with Mego. I hope they follow thru with Shazam , and Green Arrow .

                    Comment

                    • Nostalgiabuff
                      Muddling through
                      • Oct 4, 2008
                      • 11290

                      Originally posted by wise guy
                      Why is Mego no longer listed on site if Topps is still selling these ? The site shows all figures sold out including Zombie, and Phantom, but it looks like Topps might be done with Mego. I hope they follow thru with Shazam , and Green Arrow .
                      Joel already said on Facebook that all previous figures that went up are in production and will ship. he has even shown some production samples, ie Taylor's head. if you bought some, you will get them, eventually

                      Comment

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