I was reading the old thread started about the Amico Hulk Stunt Cycle, and it mentions only 50 of them were produced. I've heard similar stories about other toys too, such as the FunStuf Rock Trap Thing, etc.
These were not prototypes, but actual produced items.
My question is...how could production numbers that low even be possible? When you factor in the licensing fees, cost of development, paying sculptors, box artists, tooling costs, printing costs, etc. it just isn't feasible. When these toys were produced, there was no digital printing, advanced molding techniques, etc. Large orders would have to be placed with outside vendors.
My wife worked for years for a small printing company, and she said they wouldn't even take a 50 piece order for something as elaborate as that Amico Hulk box. They would have to order a minimum of 500-1000, and even THAT would be considered a relatively small order.
Same for tooling costs. No factory would even consider taking an order for just 50 of something. It just isn't worth their time. There had to be a least several hundred or maybe even thousand produced. So where are they? If retailer orders were low, I can see only 50 or so actually being shipped to stores, but then there should be a huge lot of unsold stock sitting somewhere unless it was destroyed.
Thoughts?
These were not prototypes, but actual produced items.
My question is...how could production numbers that low even be possible? When you factor in the licensing fees, cost of development, paying sculptors, box artists, tooling costs, printing costs, etc. it just isn't feasible. When these toys were produced, there was no digital printing, advanced molding techniques, etc. Large orders would have to be placed with outside vendors.
My wife worked for years for a small printing company, and she said they wouldn't even take a 50 piece order for something as elaborate as that Amico Hulk box. They would have to order a minimum of 500-1000, and even THAT would be considered a relatively small order.
Same for tooling costs. No factory would even consider taking an order for just 50 of something. It just isn't worth their time. There had to be a least several hundred or maybe even thousand produced. So where are they? If retailer orders were low, I can see only 50 or so actually being shipped to stores, but then there should be a huge lot of unsold stock sitting somewhere unless it was destroyed.
Thoughts?
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