Why not get a license people will actually buy?

[MIB41]

^^^ True... It's all very subjective.

[pmwasson]

I'm sure the boy band of the month would sell well. So One Direction?

Even Mego made Menudo figures.

[JediJaida]

One Direction? Eh; I suppose it could be worst.

Like Justin Bieber. *shudder*

Or Miley Cyrus. *shudder with hint of nausea*

[tylerh]

Hey All

Im an art director for a toy company and I work with licensors daily - (And I have no Horse in this race re: the last 8 pages of whats popular and what isnt)

First - Obviously better licenses are more expensive. Thats basic. Also - Even if you have money, some licensed are unattainable because of legal reasons, or a LOT of red tape. Also, if you have a major license, the licensor wont even look at you unless you are a firmly established company with a track record of products, and some want to know what stores you are in, etc.

The license game is REALLY hard because people tend to think that if THEY like it, everyone does. NOT THE CASE!!

For example - If someone did a line of characters from the film TREMORS, for 30$ each (mego style) I would buy them all. But how many others would?? Considering you have to make a few THOUSAND of each to be able to make it financially reasonable, You would probably be sitting on a stinker. Tremors even had 4 films and a TV series!!

Or sometimes, you might get a surprise hit - Which you dont know until it happens - But thats the thing, its a MYSTERY. And if you buy enough figures to expect a HIT every time, you will be bankrupt fast.

Im telling you from experience - Obscure 70s TV shows dont sell. YOu get the 100-200 die hard fans and maybe a few others, but when it comes down to it, you may have casually liked a show as a kid - But are you going to spend 30$ on a toy from it?? Lots of people say HECK YA!!! but not nearly as many actually open their wallets. I learned this while watching the evolution of our GREEN HORNET line of products - And that show is considered "popular."


What I have learned??? You want a character from an obscure series in your collection? Commission an artist to make you a spectacular 1-off. A lot of the guys here can do production level looking stuff.

Thats just my 2 cents!

[houseofdracula]

Well, I guess we won't be seeing the New Zoo Revue anytime soon, LOL.

[skullface]

For the life of me I cant see a Dallas line working.....ever.Who would buy a toy from a show that had no child fan base? Same thing for loveboat.There are so many better lines,just waiting to be made.Why not WW2 ,and other historical? Or shows that had large fanbases...Hogans heroes, f toop,(not a big seller but I would love to see it) I dream of jeanie, or rotate though a vintage movie line that does big movies one after the other all under one umbrella. I would buy every Ray Harryhaussen toy in 8 inch made.
I would buy a dozen skeletons alone. It really is not hard to think of things that would sell. Go to any show and talk to dealers that have sold toys for 10 years or more and we can all run down a list of stuff that will sell if done well.

[samurainoir]

For example - If someone did a line of characters from the film TREMORS, for 30$ each (mego style) I would buy them all. But how many others would?? Considering you have to make a few THOUSAND of each to be able to make it financially reasonable, You would probably be sitting on a stinker. Tremors even had 4 films and a TV series!!

I'd totally pay thirty bucks for Tremors figures as well! Give them all Graboid BAF parts.

There are fortunately, a few different financial models these days, but the beauty of a pre-tooled stock body in the Mego format is you can get a bit more boutique with your production runs.

The BBP Lost line for example only had a 1000 of each figure produced in the second series. However, given that there are millions of Lost viewers, and that they are still not selling out even at the current deep discount prices over at EE, proves your point exactly.

I know of a couple of other ReMego lines that came out with even lower initial or overall production numbers.

But again, if you are working at this level, it's completely a labour of love. Not that anyone is ever going to get rich making Megos in this day and age.

What I have learned??? You want a character from an obscure series in your collection? Commission an artist to make you a spectacular 1-off. A lot of the guys here can do production level looking stuff.

I had come to that exact same conclusion... and was in the midst of doing exactly that, when a series of events led me to jumping off the cliff. One can only dare dream of that surprise hit. 8)

[megoscott]

Hey All

Im an art director for a toy company and I work with licensors daily - (And I have no Horse in this race re: the last 8 pages of whats popular and what isnt)

First - Obviously better licenses are more expensive. Thats basic. Also - Even if you have money, some licensed are unattainable because of legal reasons, or a LOT of red tape. Also, if you have a major license, the licensor wont even look at you unless you are a firmly established company with a track record of products, and some want to know what stores you are in, etc.

The license game is REALLY hard because people tend to think that if THEY like it, everyone does. NOT THE CASE!!

For example - If someone did a line of characters from the film TREMORS, for 30$ each (mego style) I would buy them all. But how many others would?? Considering you have to make a few THOUSAND of each to be able to make it financially reasonable, You would probably be sitting on a stinker. Tremors even had 4 films and a TV series!!

Or sometimes, you might get a surprise hit - Which you dont know until it happens - But thats the thing, its a MYSTERY. And if you buy enough figures to expect a HIT every time, you will be bankrupt fast.

Im telling you from experience - Obscure 70s TV shows dont sell. YOu get the 100-200 die hard fans and maybe a few others, but when it comes down to it, you may have casually liked a show as a kid - But are you going to spend 30$ on a toy from it?? Lots of people say HECK YA!!! but not nearly as many actually open their wallets. I learned this while watching the evolution of our GREEN HORNET line of products - And that show is considered "popular."


What I have learned??? You want a character from an obscure series in your collection? Commission an artist to make you a spectacular 1-off. A lot of the guys here can do production level looking stuff.

Thats just my 2 cents!

I know the line had it's problems and came out after the show ended badly, but I'm still a bit surprised Lost was such a bust. A current property with an active passionate fan base. 13 million people watched the finale and they couldn't move 1,000 sets of action figures.

[enyawd72]

I know the line had it's problems and came out after the show ended badly, but I'm still a bit surprised Lost was such a bust. A current property with an active passionate fan base. 13 million people watched the finale and they couldn't move 1,000 sets of action figures.

I'm not. A bunch of completely boring figures of regular people with zero play value. What are you supposed to do? Re-enact your favorite scenes of people standing around talking?

[samurainoir]

I know the line had it's problems and came out after the show ended badly, but I'm still a bit surprised Lost was such a bust. A current property with an active passionate fan base. 13 million people watched the finale and they couldn't move 1,000 sets of action figures.

I always thought that this line might have stood a chance if somehow it were marketed to doll collectors. The show had a huge female following, and it does fit the "doll" category quite well. It's such an odd stigma between the labels of "action figure" and "doll"... the collectors of action figures won't touch dolls if it's labelled as such and vice versa.

My understanding is that it did well initially when McFarlane had the Lost license, but those were super realistic statues and produced within the first few years of the show.

I am really curious to see if there are enough pre-orders for Dexter to be released as a Mego, again, now that his show is over. Would have loved to see this come out a few years ago, but I can understandy why not given the controversy at the time over the existence of Dexter figures.

[megoscott]

Well, it turned out to be the wrong audience for figures, those people tended to like artwork and t-shirts and thotchkes. BBP did better with the bobbleheads. Same deal with Dr. Who, I think they did gangbusters on journals and drinkware.

But still, they couldn't move 1,000 units for a show that had 20 million viewers in 2004. So no, F-Troop is a bad idea.

[EMCE Hammer]

I'm not. A bunch of completely boring figures of regular people with zero play value. What are you supposed to do? Re-enact your favorite scenes of people standing around talking?

I had epic Waltons/Happy Days crossovers when I was a kid. Oh, the conversations we had!

[samurainoir]

I'm not. A bunch of completely boring figures of regular people with zero play value. What are you supposed to do? Re-enact your favorite scenes of people standing around talking?

You have a very valid point, but to be fair though, the Retro format isn't really geared towards any play value if we are talking about kids wanting them, given that the primary targets of ReMego are nostalgic forty to fifty year old men. Most of us just display ours. Although with that said, have you seen the amount of play value MegoScott got out of his Lost figures on his blog?

It could have just been the wrong contemporary property paired with the wrong format at the wrong time. Maybe it would have been a success if it was a limited edition of a couple of hundred Jack figures in 1/6th Hot Toys format costing $150 a pop? These things are difficult to gauge sometimes.

The McFarlane figures initially did well, and those were pretty much display pieces only with zero play value... "nerd hummels" for adult fans of the show.

[enyawd72]

You have a very valid point, but to be fair though, the Retro format isn't really geared towards any play value if we are talking about kids wanting them, given that the primary targets of ReMego are nostalgic forty to fifty year old men. Most of us just display ours.

Umm, yeah, me too! I don't play with my dolls and make sound effects or anything like that...cause that would be ridiculous. Yeah, I just display them. That's all.

[dr_cyclops]

I've always wanted "Pardieu" and "Gorvil" from "Mazes and Monsters".