Figures Toy Company Announces 8" and 12" KISS

[Toyman_Chris]

I love both of your ideas.....Picking one will be tough! Grrrrrrrrr

[Chris]

This is the greatest website ever. Both sets of boxes look phenominal. CTVT needs to hire you guys. I love that Mego 73 and TheToyroom went with artwork vs the photos.

Whatever box I don't go w/for the 1st series I'll get for the 2nd series. You guys are the best!

If the figures are made with real KISS blood....I'm cancelling my order. ;p

[Meule]

Really? Do you read what I write?

Yes, I do, how else do you explain comments like these?

...kinda grateful it's happening now that we've pretty much strip-mined everything else for 8"...unless they can get "star wars" or marvel, we've pretty much done everything else...

I read this as "we've done it all, there's nothing left to do"

EMCE Toys is Joe Sena and Paul Clarke. Joe does not have to spend the
rest of his life making megos - even I don't have to do it for the
rest of my life - but I probably will.

The reality is the mego universe is not big enough to justify paying
big money for licenses. Bif Bang Pow does more like bobbleheads,
props, etc. to make it profitable. EMCE is looking at other types of
toys and other knick knacks.

More of the same

And yes, I also read this

We are still making 8 inch megos for Diamond Select and working with
BBP on their figures - although not designing them - and we are still
selling our Create Your Own Zombie Kit - and we will always be out
looking for properties that make sense to "megoize" - BUT other
types of product sell better to larger audiences and are easier to
make.

Dr. Mego is not going anywhere, but not everything EMCE makes is
going to be MEGO. Did anyone here see the Cthulhu snowglobe we
made? Diamond Comics will be showing some of our new products
at Toy Fair - I think you will see that we have been very busy.

Basically, you will continue making Star Trek figures, but the other stuff will take up more of your time

[THE FALCON]

Excellent looking boxes. Well done.

[MIB41]

I think Doc makes some very good points about the Mego format. There have been a flood of companies come into this marketplace over the past ten years solely for the purpose of creating product for the Mego generation. It goes without saying this format sells to a smaller consumer base than your traditional six inch figures. So any license purchased has to be done with alot of consideration given to what you believe you can realistically profit from it. Wanting the license is not enough. You have to make sure you don't lose your investment and your shirt with it. This KISS line is a big surprise to everyone. But it's a mega huge gamble too. The KISS license has been saturated in the marketplace for years. It will be interesting to see if the KISS Army has enough appetite for two new formats in figures. I think to keep the line fresh, they will have to be changing their outfits to new eras fairly quickly to keep demand strong. I think if this line hangs around unchanged for over a year, fans will lose interest and it will fade out. They need to keep each outfit "limited" so the fan base buys them up.

[drmego]

Don't forget about Universal Monsters and Night of the Living Dead.
Barbara and Karen are in transit The factory we used, while willing
to make a small quantity, did not give the job priority.

I really enjoy working with Jay Piscopo on Commander X and now
with the child body, we can make Capn Eli - as long as Jay is up
for it.

The future of this format is in new properties - and I am always
on the lookout for characters that would work well in the clean
style of mego.

[megojim]

I think to keep the line fresh, they will have to be changing their outfits to new eras fairly quickly to keep demand strong. I think if this line hangs around unchanged for over a year, fans will lose interest and it will fade out. They need to keep each outfit "limited" so the fan base buys them up.

I couldn't agree more . . . . As previously discussed, the Dressed to Kill era, while not exciting in it's own right, is a no brainer. I think we would all agree that Destroyer would sell big time!

[CrimsonGhost]

I have to say if there's going to be variations, I would like to see new sculpts. That might not be realistic money-wise for CTVT, but I also don't know how interested I would be in buying the same doll over and over to simply get different outfits. The make-up mutated over the years, so maybe paint variation would help. Like, how cool would it be to have the Dressed To Kill figures all B&W like the Twilight Zone figures?

In the end, without seeing what variations are being offered, I can't make a decision. It's all going to boil down to how they look.

But, man an I excited to pick up that first set of 8" figures!!

[MIB41]

I have to say if there's going to be variations, I would like to see new sculpts. That might not be realistic money-wise for CTVT, but I also don't know how interested I would be in buying the same doll over and over to simply get different outfits. The make-up mutated over the years, so maybe paint variation would help. Like, how cool would it be to have the Dressed To Kill figures all B&W like the Twilight Zone figures?

In the end, without seeing what variations are being offered, I can't make a decision. It's all going to boil down to how they look.

But, man an I excited to pick up that first set of 8" figures!!

You make an excellent point here. This is something that helped tank the Captain Action line when Playing Mantis had the license. They were putting the various character costumes on Captain Action figures instead of selling the outfits separately. Fans didn't like having to repurchase the same figure over and over again just to get the costume. By the time the company made changes and got the outfits into separate retro packaging, interest had waned and it was over. I can't see where it would be cost inhibited to change the head molds every year. Although I LOVE the idea. I've already said I thought it would be a great idea to sell them as a custom kit, like Paul is doing with his Zombies. Why not? Sell some of the heads with rooted hair unpainted with outfits from each era. That way the consumer is having to at least make an initial purchase of the four figures to have the bodies for the kits. Plus fans can paint the their faces the way the band did for any era they like. That way your still moving everything your factory manufactured. But your doing it in a way that gives flexibility and variety for the consumer. I think KISS fans would eat that up. Think about it. Your own "officially" custom KISS figure where YOU apply the make up.

[Delusional B]

It sounds like the guys at Figures Toy Co. have analyzed the market fairly well, in terms of where to take the line that other Kiss figure lines haven't covered. I can't recall ANY Kiss collectible (outside of using the album photograph directly) that uses the look off the first album. Peter's make-up, alone, should make that an interesting set. I am curious about the costumes, though, and whether they will be just black outfits like the cover or the stage look from that time period. Dressed to Kill will be fun, too, if it gets that far... that's only been used on some designer vinyl style cartoony figures. The fact that they are doing new head sculpts for the Sonic Boom figures is definitely a good sign in regard to, hopefully, seeing new sculpts on subsequent releases. I could see them doing some good, more realistic headsculpts of the original members of the band and getting a little bit of mileage out of them by using them for two or three costume releases. That wouldn't bother me, too much as long as the makeup designs fit the eras... in other words, if the underlying sculpts are good, tweaking the makeup designs should do the trick for making it "fresh" for each era. Although, I don't know that most people even realize how much the makeup changes from year to year.

One thing I'd love to see (and I'm sure many Kiss fans would agree) is some other looks for Gene other than him just sticking his tongue out. That's been done to death. I'd love to see more of his close-mouthed grimaces here and there.

[MIB41]

One thing I'd love to see (and I'm sure many Kiss fans would agree) is some other looks for Gene other than him just sticking his tongue out. That's been done to death. I'd love to see more of his close-mouthed grimaces here and there.

Like this?

[Delusional B]

Bingo!