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...In other words, you read into what I wrote, out of bias.
When I wrote "the very people"...why did you assume I was talking about you? Truthfully, you, Oven Mitt, and the FTC crowd, are not who I was putting that question to. The old heads know who they are.
FTC didn't spontaneously generate a marketplace. The market only exists because a group of people in the 90's kept the brand's value alive by making Mego synonymous with 8-inch figures in Toy pop culture. But the problem, as pointed out by people more in the know than I, is that Mego/8-inch is not a deep pool.
The question then becomes, would FTC lose out on sales if they made general alterations to their WGH repros? I'm not talking about NECA quality, I mean why couldn't FTC take the hand/cuff design from Green Arrow and apply it to Batman, Robin and Aquaman? Why weren't the symbols silkscreened onto the suits? If they still have plant workers hand-painting eyes, why not make Batman, Robin and GA's eyes white? Why not give Shazam the correct color cape and cuffs, or Superman's belt?
Because by making exact replicas, and repeatedly releasing them, FTC is purposely weakening original Mego's place in the market, as that is FTC's competition. The more they replicate, the weaker the brand's value becomes. Ironically, the plays right into the "evil hands" of the collectors who do treat them as an investment, because it's going to place an insane premium on original MOC/MIB Mego in several years.
So when I look at FTC, I don't see owners who look at Mego the same way I, (and some others here), do. They saw an opportunity, fair enough. But the constant double-dip is usually a sign things are not moving like they thought, so it's cheaper to flood the market with replica figures whose entire production costs are already paid for, thereby killing Mego's brand value, so be it. Except, they're only in this game because of Mego, so by devaluing the original, FTC is openly exploiting Mego's lost patents, trademarks, etc...and calling it a revival. When they finally give up the replica ghost, we'll see.
...and that's the difference in the Mego business model vs FTC. Mego was mass-producing because it always had new buyers and had to change with production methods. Marty Abrams wasn't thinking "ya know, if I get rid of the removable masks or change the bodies, it's going to force a second purchase". Second purchases were to either replace broken firsts or gifts, not as variant chases.
When I wrote "the very people"...why did you assume I was talking about you? Truthfully, you, Oven Mitt, and the FTC crowd, are not who I was putting that question to. The old heads know who they are.
FTC didn't spontaneously generate a marketplace. The market only exists because a group of people in the 90's kept the brand's value alive by making Mego synonymous with 8-inch figures in Toy pop culture. But the problem, as pointed out by people more in the know than I, is that Mego/8-inch is not a deep pool.
The question then becomes, would FTC lose out on sales if they made general alterations to their WGH repros? I'm not talking about NECA quality, I mean why couldn't FTC take the hand/cuff design from Green Arrow and apply it to Batman, Robin and Aquaman? Why weren't the symbols silkscreened onto the suits? If they still have plant workers hand-painting eyes, why not make Batman, Robin and GA's eyes white? Why not give Shazam the correct color cape and cuffs, or Superman's belt?
Because by making exact replicas, and repeatedly releasing them, FTC is purposely weakening original Mego's place in the market, as that is FTC's competition. The more they replicate, the weaker the brand's value becomes. Ironically, the plays right into the "evil hands" of the collectors who do treat them as an investment, because it's going to place an insane premium on original MOC/MIB Mego in several years.
So when I look at FTC, I don't see owners who look at Mego the same way I, (and some others here), do. They saw an opportunity, fair enough. But the constant double-dip is usually a sign things are not moving like they thought, so it's cheaper to flood the market with replica figures whose entire production costs are already paid for, thereby killing Mego's brand value, so be it. Except, they're only in this game because of Mego, so by devaluing the original, FTC is openly exploiting Mego's lost patents, trademarks, etc...and calling it a revival. When they finally give up the replica ghost, we'll see.
...and that's the difference in the Mego business model vs FTC. Mego was mass-producing because it always had new buyers and had to change with production methods. Marty Abrams wasn't thinking "ya know, if I get rid of the removable masks or change the bodies, it's going to force a second purchase". Second purchases were to either replace broken firsts or gifts, not as variant chases.
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