Production Captain Action Iron Man and Wolverine

[levyguy]

MIB41- I guess you are not going to receive a response to your excellent post. I would be interested in hearing Joe's reply.

Walmart, no doubt, has no interest in carrying CA, but hopefully TRU will carry the DC sets.

[The Batman Professor]

Just ordered a set from Stewart's - stoked to finally be getting these.

As for the controversy above, CAE should not be so dismissive of Castaway. Also, it is clear that getting these to market has been problematic, and CAE should be honest with their fanbase. I'm thankful that we are getting official CA costume sets of characters never before produced, but I'll believe new sets are coming out when I see them. I can still remember going to Kay Bee looking for SPEED RACER back in the day.

[thunderbolt]

was at TRU and they had piles of CA and Evil dolls, no suits to be found and still full price. Guess the business model is based on everyone buying a doll for each costume.

[levyguy]

The lack of new costumes is most likely what is causing the figures not to sell.
Interesting they are still at full price...perhaps they will be marked down around Christmas time.

[Boywonder0]

I hate these BS semantical witch-hunt conspiracy theories. I just got an email from cotsworld that the Ironman and Wolverine sets are in stock.

Totally right!

[jayraytee]

was at TRU and they had piles of CA and Evil dolls, no suits to be found and still full price. Guess the business model is based on everyone buying a doll for each costume.

Some things at TRU will be priced full price but will be on sale at the register, some clearance stuff is like that. I believe the new costume sets, wolverine and ironman will not be at TRU I don't believe. I think you have to order from an online place or find them at a comic shop. Several online retailers have them in stock now.

I have run a couple of businesses that manufacture and sell CDs and DVDs for a couple bands. My brother and I ran their websites and there was a forum there as well. The fans of the bands would chew us up constantly over semantics. Simple things like we would say the new album would be out for the music fests in June and July. We'd give updates saying the songwriter was working on songs in March, then give another update saying they were recording in April or whatever. People would claim we lied, saying "I thought you said they were already working on songs in march!!!" Working on can be demoing or writing, it doesn't have to mean recording in a studio. Then they would claim we were backtracking. Sometimes we would have everything ready and the manufacturer would have delays, then if the album didn't come out when we planned... they would claim we were dishonest. It gets ridiculous. Once someone starts building a case, they can see what they want to see in the tea leaves. They start interpreting shadows and noises and reading between the lines and assuming everything points to their forgone conclusion.

Look, the guys that make Captain Action are in the same boat my brother and I were in. If you give updates that end up being premature you get accused of lying, if you don't give updates at all.. people think nothing is going on or its all been cancelled. You are between a rock and a hard place.

To me, it makes perfect sense that they took what they thought they would need at the convention, it sold out in a day or two and they found out they didn't bring enough. If they have never sold them at the conventions before they probably estimated wrong, or it could be that they had a limited number rushed to them from manufacturing. We used to have that done for music fests, a new CD would not be finished but we'd have a limited number overnighted to us. Running these kinds of businesses isn't easy, that's why there isn't that many people doing it. If people think they could do a better job, then they should start an action figure business get a license and deal with manufacturers, distributors, advertisers and fans and see how that goes.

[MIB41]

^^^ Jayraytee, I can appreciate your knee jerk reaction to this brief exchange and your immediate instinct to fill in the blanks of what you have not witnessed from your personal experience in the consumer market. This much I can assure you without hesitation - No one has rearranged words or made assumptions about what was promised when, where, or how. And no one has asked this man to run the perfect race in an industry where many of us have friends who actually make action figures and have done it with fewer resources and less distribution than CAE, minus the issues they have created for themselves. I'm confident if Joe is everything he claims to be, he'll return and continue this conversation he started. Hopefully he understands this is a consumer discussion that has the attention of many people who have purchased from his line as well as business peers who are understandably upset by some poor chose words expressed by his partner. So there are plenty of valid and experienced folks involved in this much larger issue who are interested to hear what he has to say. I appreciate your patience while we await his response.

[EMCE Hammer]

I was in my local TRU this weekend, and it struck me as odd that the CA costumes are located in the Marvel action figure section, but the regular CA and Dr. Evil figures are two aisles away in a hodgepodge section with everything from Robocop to some of the pegwarming gross monsters from Mcfarlane or whoever. It's a challenge for a collector; I passed the figures once and didn't notice them. For someone who just sees the costumes for the first time, I'd think sales are being lost because the buyer doesn't know what to do with just a costume with no figure to wear it in sight.

[jayraytee]

^^^ Jayraytee, I can appreciate your knee jerk reaction to this brief exchange and your immediate instinct to fill in the blanks of what you have not witnessed from your personal experience in the consumer market. This much I can assure you without hesitation - No one has rearranged words or made assumptions about what was promised when, where, or how. And no one has asked this man to run the perfect race in an industry where many of us have friends who actually make action figures and have done it with fewer resources and less distribution than CAE, minus the issues they have created for themselves. I'm confident if Joe is everything he claims to be, he'll return and continue this conversation he started. Hopefully he understands this is a consumer discussion that has the attention of many people who have purchased from his line as well as business peers who are understandably upset by some poor chose words expressed by his partner. So there are plenty of valid and experienced folks involved in this much larger issue who are interested to hear what he has to say. I appreciate your patience while we await his response.

Its no knee jerk reaction, I read the above exchange and it stinks of semantics and conspiracy theories. Grown men getting bent out of shape over TOYS. I am a collector, and a business owner, but I keep a realistic viewpoint of this stuff. Its their business to run the way they want to, like it or not. They can say or do whatever they want with it. We can buy the stuff or not. Personally I am just glad we live in a day where both Captain Action and Mego type figures are being remade. I for one am not going to nit pic every move they make, they will sink or swim, its up to them.

And actually if they were smart about their business they would not come back and continue the exchange, they would stay above it.

[jayraytee]

I was in my local TRU this weekend, and it struck me as odd that the CA costumes are located in the Marvel action figure section, but the regular CA and Dr. Evil figures are two aisles away in a hodgepodge section with everything from Robocop to some of the pegwarming gross monsters from Mcfarlane or whoever. It's a challenge for a collector; I passed the figures once and didn't notice them. For someone who just sees the costumes for the first time, I'd think sales are being lost because the buyer doesn't know what to do with just a costume with no figure to wear it in sight.

TRU is terrible about that stuff, some of the old Retro action figures ended up in girl isles because the card back was pinkish. At our locals TRU they have the captain action figures on an isle with monster figures and stuff, but its actually the clearance isle. The prices on the boxes don't reflect that, but it is. Then the costume sets are in the regular super hero isle.

[enyawd72]

Its no knee jerk reaction, I read the above exchange and it stinks of semantics and conspiracy theories. Grown men getting bent out of shape over TOYS. I am a collector, and a business owner, but I keep a realistic viewpoint of this stuff. Its their business to run the way they want to, like it or not. They can say or do whatever they want with it. We can buy the stuff or not. Personally I am just glad we live in a day where both Captain Action and Mego type figures are being remade. I for one am not going to nit pic every move they make, they will sink or swim, its up to them.

And actually if they were smart about their business they would not come back and continue the exchange, they would stay above it.

There are no conspiracy theories going on here, just observations. As a business owner, you should understand the repercussions of making numerous promises, then failing to deliver on those promises. It drastically undermines consumer confidence and trust. I do not fault CA for product delays whatsoever. I understand they happen. What I DO fault them for is stringing their customers along with vague release dates over and over again for months when they obviously knew said product was not coming.
As for their supposed sell out at NYCC...here are the FACTS. Not ONE single person who supposedly bought one of these ultra rare sets posted a single photo or review ANYWHERE online. In this day and age when people post what they had for breakfast? Sorry. Not buying it. Also, not ONE single set showed up on Ebay after NYCC. Since when do comic con scalpers take a day off? Surely such a RARE sought after collectible would have been offered by someone on Ebay? And don't you find it just a little odd that with all the photos CA themselves took at NYCC of cosplayers and people posing with empty boxes and prototypes, they didn't take a SINGLE picture of ANYONE who bought a set of these HIGHLY anticipated new costume sets?
Pardon me, but I wasn't born yesterday.

[drquest]

I did buy a Wolverine set on friday and it was there last one, I was told IM sold out the day before. Someone did state the other ones were coming via "A slow boat from China". I'll see how this plays out over the next month before I jump ship

Robin NY said on the 23rd that he had purchased a Wolverine. I wished he would have posted up some pictures of it.

[levyguy]

i am interested in hearing Joe's reply but I doubt there will be one.

[thunderbolt]

I was in my local TRU this weekend, and it struck me as odd that the CA costumes are located in the Marvel action figure section, but the regular CA and Dr. Evil figures are two aisles away in a hodgepodge section with everything from Robocop to some of the pegwarming gross monsters from Mcfarlane or whoever. It's a challenge for a collector; I passed the figures once and didn't notice them. For someone who just sees the costumes for the first time, I'd think sales are being lost because the buyer doesn't know what to do with just a costume with no figure to wear it in sight.

I looked in the Marvel section to see if that was the case. There were no costumes to be had anywhere. Just piles of 29.99 CA's and Evils. They scanned at that price, too. Last time I was there they had some costumes and a few that were obvious returns, probably from people that thought they were buying a complete figure. I think the dress up concept is lost on people in the boys aisle right now. GI Joe might suffer the same fate if they brought back the classic with the uniform and gear sets.

[MIB41]

Its no knee jerk reaction, I read the above exchange and it stinks of semantics and conspiracy theories. Grown men getting bent out of shape over TOYS. I am a collector, and a business owner, but I keep a realistic viewpoint of this stuff. Its their business to run the way they want to, like it or not. They can say or do whatever they want with it. We can buy the stuff or not. Personally I am just glad we live in a day where both Captain Action and Mego type figures are being remade. I for one am not going to nit pic every move they make, they will sink or swim, its up to them.

And actually if they were smart about their business they would not come back and continue the exchange, they would stay above it.

Oh my. Did you make that statement while you combed your receding hairline in the mirror from momma's basement? I do my very best to talk to folks in an intelligent manner. But I can see you're too wrapped up in selling yourself, while you print DVD's from your lemonade stand. You speak from a position of ignorance on the matter. If you want to offer counterpoints, at least offer input that is related to the subject. Your personal labels, born from insecurity and a amateur resume, carry no weight here.

Joe came here to counter some talking points on the matter. CAE has been called out for making some negative statements towards companies that purchased their license to sell product. We know firsthand that one of those companies is unhappy with those remarks. We also know the other company currently has an overstock of product that is readily available to buy, but remains unsold no matter the placement or price point. Pictures have been offered to demonstrate this fact. CAE made it publicly known (after a lengthy stretch of missed release dates) they had to change direction and throttle back considerably on what they could make based on this company's decision to pass on the next wave. We also know that wave three is just NOW beginning to hit online retailers more than a year after it's announcement. What the consumer base is up in arms about is CAE's use of Facebook to string consumers along when inquiries were made about this release. If they knew they were losing their distribution with TRU, then they shouldn't have been telling people the product would be out "next month" (every month) for nearly a year. No one took the company's replies out of context. And when people started questioning their response, many were surprised by the kickback the company offered. That's when it became apparent the company had internal issues and was trying to smooth it over publicly while they changed directions. So when the TRU announcement finally came this past summer, no one was surprised.

And with that concession came a host of excuses, none of which ever fell on their shoulders. So yes, the base is understandably skeptical about the people who speak on behalf of this product right now. And if you want conspiracies, CAE are the people creating them. Apparently product development and consumer awareness is all on TRU. Apparently the Captain is also no good as an eight inch figure. Ouch. Ask the people who took a financial bath after the factory shut down production and took their molds what they think. So when Joe comes out here with his self-righteous stance in the midst of all of this discontent he has helped foster, it comes off pretty self-serving since, as a license holder, he was about the only person (outside the factory) that got paid for this venture. It's not surprising he hasn't come back here to continue the discussion he himself escalated. It completely fits the mold of their Facebook page. They pat themselves on the back for making empty promises, then hide behind others to take the blame. No integrity whatsoever.