What CTVT did right... Munsters and I Love Lucy

[samurainoir]

Just as a tangental thought to the thread on where to go with the 1/9th or "retro" scale figure, the comparisons to the 1/6th scale are inevitable. What is kind of interesting to me is that there is perhaps a parallel with the 1/6th doll and action figure evolution despite being on different sides of the gender aisle.

Mego had crossover appeal and took advantage of it, so there is a generation of women our age who grew up with a short period of 1/9th figures. I'm thinking specifically of Wizard of Oz being a top seller for Mego as well as stuff like Charlie's Angels. I don't know enough about Dinah Mite to know how well she sold back in the ay, but there must be a doll collecting community for her nowadays of a certain size.

We're seeing a glimpse of the potential for crossover with the current Wonder Woman retro action demand. Anecdotally, I've heard that the biggest comic store here in Toronto can never keep Wonder Woman figures of any kind in stock because of their large number f female clientele that collect WW.

There has only been one company in the retro game that seems to have courted the "doll" collectors, and that is CTVT to varying degrees of success (ironic that their main bread and butter is wrestling). Obviously the Brady Bunch license might skew to a female demographic.

It appears though that their big successes in terms of licensed figures appears to be I Love Lucy, which is undoubtably a "doll" fan base... And Munsters which probably does stand on both sides of the fence for male and female. These were the series of figures that sold out from CTVT right?

[thunderbolt]

if they could have gotten the rights to Robert Reed the Brady's would have done a lot better and had a pretty good cross over appeal too.

[The Toyroom]

Robert Reed is missing from a lot of Brady merchandise...his estate is tough to deal with I think...

[GaryPlaysWithDolls]

I really dig the Munsters. i would LOVE Addams Family, though!

[Brown Bear]

I was super excited when Happy Days CTVT first cam out, but poor likenesses and poor quality soon spoiled my excitement.

I'd still buy in to a Happy Days line if done better. I would be thrilled if CTVT tried making their 8" lines in 12" format now.....just imagine a 12" Fonzie figure.

[MIB41]

I think the Munsters have always been a property people wanted to see in the 8 inch scale, so that was a home run for CTVT. And they had a number of good ideas along the way with the remakes of the Mego Western Cowboys, Knights, and Robin hood lines. But as was so often the case, quality compromised the line. And it became such a wide spread problem that when a figure didn't have defects, that seem to be the exception to the rule. CTVT slowly started becoming more of an accessory website than figure based company. And I give them credit for trying to cycle through all of the defective product they had while trying to keep the eight inch business afloat. That's why the KISS announcement was met with excitement but also a little trepidation. Paul has certainly shown us some great pics of what the 12 inch bodies look like, so that seems to have passed the sniff test. But 8 inch figures (which is what many seem to be interested in) are still up in the air. Are those new bodies equally as good as the twelve inch? Are the outfits well tailored? It's no accident this line is coming out under the "Figure Inc." parent name instead of CTVT. So what the company does right with quality will once again play a huge role in what transpires with these licenses. I personally think the KISS license is a huge gamble given their well earned reputation for poor quality bodies. Will the consumer forgive and invest the big sticker price they are asking? That is the $100,000.00 question.

[tllgn]

sci-fi,horror and superheros ,fantasy stuff all seem to do well in the "8"format,i think the i love lucy figures ,tex willer, did well because they didnt make as many as they did their other lines ,space 1999 is sci-fi ,but doing this line without martin & barbara was far worse then not doing mr.brady ,and they may have over produced them,bif bang pow is doing sci-fi fantasy for the most part with really good properties no happy days here (thank goodness ,emce also is sticking so far with sci-fi-horror. the most popular lines mego did were sci-fi,superheros ,happy days ,our gang,waltons,dukes,chips are lines i liked ,but today their not to expensive to get ,i got a fonzie in the box very nice for under $ 30 ,wish i could get a carded ironman or batman for that ,cttv should follow emce /bif bang pow ,and maybe with kiss as an interesting property is their new beginning. although i would love to see gilligans island done.

[johnmiic]

CTVT had a solid seller in SPACE:1999. Why didn't they think to continue with other Gerry Anderson shows? They could have done UFO. What a great mix of characters that would have been. In cases like Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet big out of scale heads, which CTVT is known for, would've made sense. Even if not a hit here in the USA, (that I doubt), these would certainly have been a hit overseas where Gerry Anderson shows were extremely popular.