The State of Buying/Collecting in 2025: Even An Hour Can Be Too Late

[Dan2Dan]

So I had an experience today that's caused me to reflect back on my experiences buying new action figures in 2025. Personally, I think a lot of the following is due to lower production quantities being made in 2024-25, but that's just a guess from a distance. I'm wondering how broadly shared the following experiences are:

1. Atlas Mego Walmart Exclusive. As I've mentioned in other threads here, I had already bought and read many of the 1970s Atlas Comics. So I was excited for this 2024 Mego line, even if the specific character mix wouldn't have been my choice, and the $30 price point was higher than I was expecting. But the release of these figures was delayed a few times in 2024, into 2025. Then Walmart cancelled my pre-order for the Grim Ghost. Ultimately, I randomly saw that the Grim Ghost was in stock in the spring because it had been in my 'saved items' part of my cart when I went to buy some day-to-day household items. So I bought it at full price, expecting it to sell out in a few days, which it did. In that moment, I felt a conflicting mix of excitement to've seen it for sale and being able to buy it, but also a negative emotion that the circumstances had kind of forced me to make a spur-of-the-moment purchase decision and at full price.
2. Marvel Mego Disney Store Exclusives. I wasn't a buyer for these myself, but I totally get the enthusiasm. I watched as the Spider-Man set seemingly sold out in minutes online, and read here any number of posts from people who thought they'd successfully purchased them, only to receive cancellation notices via email a couple of hours or days later. I think I read here that the recent Fantastic Four-themed set lasted in the online store for maybe an hour or two. So I guess that's an improvement? I live less than a 2 hour drive from Disneyland, but how many Mego enthusiasts do?
3. McFarlane DC Super Powers. I've been buying many of these figures, because I liked the original Kenner line as a kid so much 40 years ago. I was thrilled that McFarlane was going to continue it. And it was available (initially) at Walmart and Target and Amazon. Easy to get and relatively cheap. But then I watched a video online a few months ago that the upcoming wave of four more figures (Cyborg, Nightwing, Deadman, and Animal Man) was likely the last wave ever in this line. And then it was revealed to me maybe a month ago that it would be a McFarlane Toy Store Exclusive. Once I read this, I instantly assumed that, as a result, these figures, too, would only be available for purchase for minutes online when they were released. I also assumed that they would be released around San Diego Comic-Con. And sure enough, at about 10 AM California time this morning, I received an email from McFarlane announcing that they were available for sale. I clicked on the link to buy Cyborg, and it was already sold out. This was literally 1 minute after the email arrived in my inbox. Crazy! 1 minute! But I did still have the chance the buy the entire wave of 4, including Cyborg. I didn't really want all four, and, with shipping, these four figures were $60 (before CA sales tax), or $15 each, for a line that had previously been $10 at mass retail. So the price was also 50% higher. I knew I literally had minutes, right then, to make a purchase decision. So I bought it, and I'm happy I did. And indeed, that set of four sold out in less than two hours, as it turned out.

But this whole process today, repeated recently with the Disney Store and with Walmart is, as I am personally experiencing it, becoming more-and-more common. I find it really off-putting. It's now actively reducing my interest in continuing to be engaged and to buy. Too hard to get. Too expensive. And now oddly requiring split-second timing and buying, or you're SOL.

New White Elephant Atomic Apemen. This whole dynamic even bled over into how I purchased a couple of White Elephant Toyz new Atomic Apemen figures yesterday. When I saw an item in the Toy Ventures Weekly a few days ago that they would be releasing them on Tuesday (yesterday), I made a mental note to myself to go to their online store on day 1 and to buy what I really wanted immediately.

More Mego in 2025? I've seen several reveals for various upcoming Mego figures that haven't yet been released. Many I would be an enthusiastic buyer of. But now I am beginning to wonder, when they are released, will the above experiences be repeated?

[EMCE Hammer]

I understand where you are coming from. I missed out on the Atlas figures, and they're really the kind of stuff I prefer. I don't own the Disney sets yet either, and I haven't been able to justify paying the mark-up on the 50th Green Arrow. Topps was a kick in the nether regions too.

That being said, I still take the stance of better than nothing.

[JamesB.]

[QUOTE=Dan2Dan;n2101963]So I had an experience today that's caused me to reflect back on my experiences buying new action figures in 2025. Personally, I think a lot of the following is due to lower production quantities being made in 2024-25, but that's just a guess from a distance. I'm wondering how broadly shared the following experiences are:

2. Marvel Mego Disney Store Exclusives. I wasn't a buyer for these myself, but I totally get the enthusiasm. I watched as the Spider-Man set seemingly sold out in minutes online, and read here any number of posts from people who thought they'd successfully purchased them, only to receive cancellation notices via email a couple of hours or days later. I think I read here that the recent Fantastic Four-themed set lasted in the online store for maybe an hour or two. So I guess that's an improvement? I live less than a 2 hour drive from Disneyland, but how many Mego enthusiasts do?

But this whole process today, repeated recently with the Disney Store and with Walmart is, as I am personally experiencing it, becoming more-and-more common. I find it really off-putting. It's now actively reducing my interest in continuing to be engaged and to buy. Too hard to get. Too expensive. And now oddly requiring split-second timing and buying, or you're SOL.]



The FANTASTIC FOUR set was admittedly available on the Disney Store site a bit longer than the Spider-Man release, but my purchase was cancelled the night of the order. The charge was even on my cc for nearly a week. I e-mailed, phoned, and messaged about the cancelation and lack of availability on the site, to no avail. Disney simply doesn't care. And MEGO was sadly silent about people not being able to get a set online. I ended up having to secure the services of a Disney Shopper, but had to resort to paying A LOT more for the set. I could probably have bought loose, vintage releases in nice condition for the same amount I paid.

As I mentioned in a post elsewhere, due to the quick online sellout (despite a mid-weekday drop and limit of one per customer), I feel Disney allocated fewer sets online this time around. Some people on here are excited for the next release. But honestly, how can you be, when it's likely going to be the same situation again?

EXCLUSIVES NEED TO END. Simple as that. These are not micro-run, custom, fan-made creations or indie company releases. MILLIONS upon millions of MEGO figures were released back in the day. Why is such a small quantity being produced now? Disney is one of the biggest corporations in the world; surely they can coordinate a larger release that will be more accessible for everyone - not just for people with their finger on the "order" button at 8:00 AM, or living next to a special theme park that, due to location and cost, most people will NEVER be able to go to.

[Sonneveld]

I want nothing more than to support toy companies at retail.

Across EVERY toy line, retailer exclusives are never in physical stock, and, as you mentioned, they sell out online instantly, or orders get cancelled.

Honestly, though, Mego's return to the marketplace has been one of the biggest disappointments of my adult collecting life. I just don't understand what they're doing.

Either its I.P. no one wants, or characters/lines people do want are never available.

[Megotastrophe]

We didn’t need a second 8” scale line of Brady Bunch or Married with Children or a third run of Happy Days figures. But that is exactly what we got. I understand some of the reasons it happened but it wasn’t what I wanted to see. And yes Old Man Yells at Clouds is my Summer Camp Secret Indian name

[Dan2Dan]

I actually empathize with current-day Mego (and other action figure companies). They can't force a big box retailer to stock their product and/or, if it then doesn't sell, prevent the same big box retailer from turning on them and demanding rebates when the retailer unilaterally decides to clearance unsold figures, thereby resulting in the toy company taking a net loss. That's not a sustainable business model. Mego also relies on 3rd party licenses, which I expect place severe restrictions on how many figures they can make and how and where they can be sold, in addition to adding another layer of business expense in the form of licensing fees and related compliance costs.

So I feel like Mego today is kind of boxed in, in a way that isn't preferable for them or their most ardent fans. If so, that sucks.

That said, I feel like current-day Mego continuing to try to work with Walmart and Disney, regardless of the frustrations that causes its most devoted followers and fans, is maybe misguided and may be a business model that's run its course by 2025. I was shocked to read here that the production run of the FF Mego figures boxed set for Disney was a mere 4,000. How much money could Mego possibly be clearing with that? Can't be much. And yet, they seem to enthusiastically embrace this partnership, which suggests to me strongly that their other lines of figures are not much, if any, more profitable, a revelation that was eye-opening to me.

I hope Mego would consider establishing a direct-to-consumer part of their business, where fans could either pre-order figures or crowd fund them, like other action figure companies. But maybe at this point, the start-up costs for that are too high and/or Mego doesn't have the related expertise in-house. And maybe their license-dependent business model makes this hard/impossible, in any event.

Maybe there's no real alternative.

[TrekStar]

We didn’t need a second 8” scale line of Brady Bunch or Married with Children or a third run of Happy Days figures. But that is exactly what we got. I understand some of the reasons it happened but it wasn’t what I wanted to see. And yes Old Man Yells at Clouds is my Summer Camp Secret Indian name

I agree, plus those lines didn’t even finish, did we really need the Facts of Life?
But for the collector, It’s a hobby for us and a business for billion dollar Disney, so it’s basically there way or the highway.

[CrimsonGhost]

I was shocked to read here that the production run of the FF Mego figures boxed set for Disney was a mere 4,000. How much money could Mego possibly be clearing with that? Can't be much. And yet, they seem to enthusiastically embrace this partnership, which suggests to me strongly that their other lines of figures are not much, if any, more profitable, a revelation that was eye-opening to me.

I think you may be surprised at how much Mego makes per figure on the Disney figures. Not having to pay for a license just on it’s own makes the profit margin quite high.