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Truthfully I think the two biggest issues is the amount of figures produced and a lack of a TV show. If you look at the toy lines that have truly been successful the one that comes to mind most recently as long running is Power Rangers. A show that came out when my now 21 year old boys were 5 or 6. You don't see that anymore. Other successes like Hot Wheels, Barbie, etc are aimed at kids even younger than the age we were still playing with toys.
Fisher Price did better with their action heroes line because young kids play with toys and older kids go to video games. You need to keep kids in the market playing with toys longer than the 6 or 7 year old range or the number of consumers available drops drastically. I think there is a lot of hype with the brave and bold line because kids see it on TV and want to play it at home. Same with the JLU figures. They were extremly popular when the show was airing regularly but seemed to drop off when it was cancelled. If there had been a popular show on when these 9" figures came out I think they would have had a much bigger following and success.
They were also hard to find at first, a trait that has started since the ebay secondary market has been created. Non collecting ebay sellers will scour the aisles looking for stuff to sell and absorb a lot of the initial offering to flip for a profit. Lack of supply causes many collectors to simply look elsewhere for something to spend their money on. Some choose to pay the ebay price but that group is not large.
The non removable uniform would be an issue to a Mego collector but not to a kid that has no idea what a Mego even is, and that kid is a much bigger part of the national consumer market nowadays. If a kid sees Batman on TV he wants to play with Batman. As soon as he sees something else it's bye bye Batman. Old show goes away, gotta get the new shows toy line. What do you think has made more money for the Power Rangers franchise? The show rights or the toy rights? I've gotta believe the number of years and number of toys produced has been the biggest financial gain for the owners. The show is hardly any good. It's poorly acted. TMNT is 10 times better written but no where near as successful. In fact you could say the only reason TMNT keeps popping it's head out of it shell (pun) every couple of years is because PR kept the whole martial arts,battling the bad guys deal running for so long. As long as the show succeeds the toys do to. Star Wars is another good example. Keep putting out cartoons and stuff and the toy line will continue. They keep dragging stuff out and then producing more toys. $$$$$
If you look at the successful lines now the toys tend to drop off at around 7 or 8. Boys gravitate toward video games and girls toward clothes and such. Wii, Playstation, or Xbox. What boy 8-10 doesn't have one? What girl 8-10 doesn't have some clothing with Hannah Montana, or High School Musical on it. Tween boys wanna hang with their buds playing video games and talk about girls, while tween girls wanna go to the mall shopping with their friends and talk about boys. Not stay home and play with Barbie dolls and action figures. For years we've told our kids to act like big girls and boys and now they're doing it, just at a very much younger age. Who says kids don't listen?
The comic industry is not strong enough to support a toy line and movie figures are through the instant the movie hype is gone. IMO that's why you don't see toy lines spanning multiple years anymore. Hit the market grab some cash and move on to the next property. See you all at the premiere of "High School Musical the 50th year class reunion". Coming to a theatre near you in 2055 if we keep buying this crap.
Would have been nice if these figures could have been released with the new GL dvd. I would have liked to see how it affected the demand on the GL and Sinestro figures.
Fisher Price did better with their action heroes line because young kids play with toys and older kids go to video games. You need to keep kids in the market playing with toys longer than the 6 or 7 year old range or the number of consumers available drops drastically. I think there is a lot of hype with the brave and bold line because kids see it on TV and want to play it at home. Same with the JLU figures. They were extremly popular when the show was airing regularly but seemed to drop off when it was cancelled. If there had been a popular show on when these 9" figures came out I think they would have had a much bigger following and success.
They were also hard to find at first, a trait that has started since the ebay secondary market has been created. Non collecting ebay sellers will scour the aisles looking for stuff to sell and absorb a lot of the initial offering to flip for a profit. Lack of supply causes many collectors to simply look elsewhere for something to spend their money on. Some choose to pay the ebay price but that group is not large.
The non removable uniform would be an issue to a Mego collector but not to a kid that has no idea what a Mego even is, and that kid is a much bigger part of the national consumer market nowadays. If a kid sees Batman on TV he wants to play with Batman. As soon as he sees something else it's bye bye Batman. Old show goes away, gotta get the new shows toy line. What do you think has made more money for the Power Rangers franchise? The show rights or the toy rights? I've gotta believe the number of years and number of toys produced has been the biggest financial gain for the owners. The show is hardly any good. It's poorly acted. TMNT is 10 times better written but no where near as successful. In fact you could say the only reason TMNT keeps popping it's head out of it shell (pun) every couple of years is because PR kept the whole martial arts,battling the bad guys deal running for so long. As long as the show succeeds the toys do to. Star Wars is another good example. Keep putting out cartoons and stuff and the toy line will continue. They keep dragging stuff out and then producing more toys. $$$$$
If you look at the successful lines now the toys tend to drop off at around 7 or 8. Boys gravitate toward video games and girls toward clothes and such. Wii, Playstation, or Xbox. What boy 8-10 doesn't have one? What girl 8-10 doesn't have some clothing with Hannah Montana, or High School Musical on it. Tween boys wanna hang with their buds playing video games and talk about girls, while tween girls wanna go to the mall shopping with their friends and talk about boys. Not stay home and play with Barbie dolls and action figures. For years we've told our kids to act like big girls and boys and now they're doing it, just at a very much younger age. Who says kids don't listen?
The comic industry is not strong enough to support a toy line and movie figures are through the instant the movie hype is gone. IMO that's why you don't see toy lines spanning multiple years anymore. Hit the market grab some cash and move on to the next property. See you all at the premiere of "High School Musical the 50th year class reunion". Coming to a theatre near you in 2055 if we keep buying this crap.
Would have been nice if these figures could have been released with the new GL dvd. I would have liked to see how it affected the demand on the GL and Sinestro figures.
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