Doctor Who at BBP No More!

[raycastile]

It seems like a lot of collector-oriented toy companies like to trickle out their products, offering one or two new characters a year. I've noticed this particularly with Universal Monsters toys, but it seems to be true with many toy lines, including this Doctor Who line. I think this is a bad trend, and has assisted more than one line in biting the dust. It robs the line of any chance of generating momentum. The different characters in a toy line promote each other. At first, you might only want one character. But once you've got him, you want a couple more, and a couple more. Or while you're searching for the "hard to find" figure, you notice that some of the other characters are pretty cool, too. Each figure in the line helps build interest and excitement for the rest of the line. But it's hard for that to happen if you only release one or two figures a year.

[jds1911a1]

How is that Character Options/Underground Toys are able to produce so many DW characters and playsets, including all the Doctors and a broad array of companions and monsters from current and classic Who? Maybe they're getting their license pulled, too, but they've already produced a ton of DW toys.

one thing that helps them is that they've had 7-8 years to build a rapport with the BBC but the prices are so high (averageing 15 a piece) I would have loved to see Jon Pertwee but I'll just have to be happy with what we got

[Mego Magyar]

It seems like a lot of collector-oriented toy companies like to trickle out their products, offering one or two new characters a year. I've noticed this particularly with Universal Monsters toys, but it seems to be true with many toy lines, including this Doctor Who line. I think this is a bad trend, and has assisted more than one line in biting the dust. It robs the line of any chance of generating momentum. The different characters in a toy line promote each other. At first, you might only want one character. But once you've got him, you want a couple more, and a couple more. Or while you're searching for the "hard to find" figure, you notice that some of the other characters are pretty cool, too. Each figure in the line helps build interest and excitement for the rest of the line. But it's hard for that to happen if you only release one or two figures a year.

I don't think that it's an intentional trend all the time to trickle things out. It seem to me that with the BBP lines and even the some DS stuff ( UM & Trek? ) that it's done more like a "Kick Starter" with the idea for a figure and then it's offered for "pre-sale" until there is enough orders to pay for production ( and a profit ). That makes it hard on collectors because they see stuff that never gets made and also because of having to wait for pre-orders to reach a certain level that causes delays. I wish that if a company ever gets the license for 8" DW figure again that they can just make figures first without the wait for pre-orders - maybe rolling over the sales from a wave of figures into the production of future waves. Of course I don't know how the business of all this really works so I might be way off but this is just how things appear to me.

[BifBangPow! JLabs]

It seems like a lot of collector-oriented toy companies like to trickle out their products, offering one or two new characters a year. I've noticed this particularly with Universal Monsters toys, but it seems to be true with many toy lines, including this Doctor Who line. I think this is a bad trend, and has assisted more than one line in biting the dust. It robs the line of any chance of generating momentum. The different characters in a toy line promote each other. At first, you might only want one character. But once you've got him, you want a couple more, and a couple more. Or while you're searching for the "hard to find" figure, you notice that some of the other characters are pretty cool, too. Each figure in the line helps build interest and excitement for the rest of the line. But it's hard for that to happen if you only release one or two figures a year.

We absolutely wanted to release as many figures as humanly possible each year. There are many intricate licensor, design, approval and factory issues that we just can't discuss here - yet all are large factors in delays. But think about it - we have a business to operate and can't make any money if nothing ships. Why would we intentionally just release a few characters per year? I promise you we wanted more - many more.

I think a few differences between a small toy company (like us) and a larger one (like CO or Hasbro) is their ability to produce many figures simultaneously, as well as have the leverage for the licensor to review large product lines in a timely manner. In any case, we certainly apologize that ongoing plans for this line didn't materialize.

[BifBangPow! JLabs]

I don't think that it's an intentional trend all the time to trickle things out. It seem to me that with the BBP lines and even the some DS stuff ( UM & Trek? ) that it's done more like a "Kick Starter" with the idea for a figure and then it's offered for "pre-sale" until there is enough orders to pay for production ( and a profit ). That makes it hard on collectors because they see stuff that never gets made and also because of having to wait for pre-orders to reach a certain level that causes delays. I wish that if a company ever gets the license for 8" DW figure again that they can just make figures first without the wait for pre-orders - maybe rolling over the sales from a wave of figures into the production of future waves. Of course I don't know how the business of all this really works so I might be way off but this is just how things appear to me.

Until Toys R Us, Wal-Mart or Target commit to a certain (large) number of pieces per year for each 8-inch brand, the above scenario will remain. We can't just make product to then just roll-over profits to the next product. From a fan view, we would love this to happen too, but from a business point of view, each product must stand on their own - and be profitable.

I can (mostly) assure you that we are no longer going to announce product for pre-order via retail channels unless there is a high degree of certainty that these products will come to market in a timely manner. The Big Bang Theory is a great example of this philosophy. You may have known about them for some time, but pre-orders haven't started yet.

[drogge]

2014

Until Toys R Us, Wal-Mart or Target commit to a certain (large) number of pieces per year for each 8-inch brand, the above scenario will remain. We can't just make product to then just roll-over profits to the next product. From a fan view, we would love this to happen too, but from a business point of view, each product must stand on their own - and be profitable.

I can (mostly) assure you that we are no longer going to announce product for pre-order via retail channels unless there is a high degree of certainty that these products will come to market in a timely manner. The Big Bang Theory is a great example of this philosophy. You may have known about them for some time, but pre-orders haven't started yet.

Will we see some new products for 2014? Any new properties? I just hope the 8 inch format will continue...

[Timothy2251]

Used my Amazon gift card from Christmas, got my First and Eleventh Doctors today. Just need Scaroth and Morbius and I have the set!

What kills it, though is the back of the packages hint at Amy and Rory, River Song and a bunch of other figures that we aren't going to get. Man, why'd the BBC screw this up for us? Really, really hope BBP and the BBC can get back together again and we get more Doctor Who figures.

[BifBangPow! JLabs]

Used my Amazon gift card from Christmas, got my First and Eleventh Doctors today. Just need Scaroth and Morbius and I have the set!

What kills it, though is the back of the packages hint at Amy and Rory, River Song and a bunch of other figures that we aren't going to get. Man, why'd the BBC screw this up for us? Really, really hope BBP and the BBC can get back together again and we get more Doctor Who figures.

OK folks. Want us to continue this line? Maybe start one of those online petitions, right?

[BifBangPow! JLabs]

Will we see some new products for 2014? Any new properties? I just hope the 8 inch format will continue...

Yes! 8-inch will continue. Toy Fair is around the corner.

[thunderbolt]

you think the BBC will even listen to that sort of thing?

[BifBangPow! JLabs]

JLabs, is there any chance that we can see pictures of the prototypes of what could have been? Just so we can dream? It would be nice to at least look at them if we can't own them. But who knows, maybe they could still happen some day? I do hope so.

Although I am really sad to see this line go, I am incredibly grateful for what we do have. I wasn't around back in the day to enjoy the Mego figures, but as a big fan of vintage stuff, I love the style of these figures. I'm glad to at least have the figures that we do in our collection. Thank you! :D

Thank you for the kind words. At this time we can't share these designs publicly. If we ever continue this deal at another time, we would want to use these designs then. Releasing them publicly also gives our competitors something to work from, so we're just not going to do that.

[boynightwing]

I want to thank you Bif Bang Pow for making me an Eleventh Doctor. He was kinda my Doctor (I've come to understand everyone has one that they click with, he's mine). Also a big thank you to Palitoy for selling him to me at Mego North. I've been going around the house taking pictures with him visiting other franchises like Transformers and Star Trek and Batman etc.