Any chances of seeing 12" Marvel retro figures?

[ThePlayerOnTheOtherSide]

If I understand correctly, part of the license parameters were one figure for $80, which is why the 2 suits were added to make it more appealing.

But could 12 inchers be made for $80? I think a replica Hulk or Cap America in 12 inch form with replica box might sell better because the price being more in line. Now for Spidey it might not make as much sense but I'd be all over a replica Hulk 12" for $80. Could also give them a chance to make Mr Fantastic and Doctor Strange.

Any feasibility to that idea?

[ovenmitt]

MARVELOUS IDEA! Does Hasbro's Marvel license include 12" CLOTH costumed figures? I have wondered why Sideshow has not been able to make 12" Marvel figures!

Or what about 1/4 18" scale like FTC is doing with DC and Batman TV? DST was planning 1/4 Marvel cloth costumed figures a few years back like DST 1/4 Star Wars figures! Maybe now is the time! SUPERSIZE Marvel Megos!

[ovenmitt]

DST 1/4 Star Wars with VOICE chip were $80 each. DST was going to sell 1/4 Marvel without voice chip to lower cost.

Today I would pay $80 for a 1/4 Marvel CLOTH costumed figure even without voice chip!

DSTZach, has DST reconsidered 1/4 Marvel figures?

[MIB41]

If I understand correctly, part of the license parameters were one figure for $80, which is why the 2 suits were added to make it more appealing.

But could 12 inchers be made for $80? I think a replica Hulk or Cap America in 12 inch form with replica box might sell better because the price being more in line. Now for Spidey it might not make as much sense but I'd be all over a replica Hulk 12" for $80. Could also give them a chance to make Mr Fantastic and Doctor Strange.

Any feasibility to that idea?

I've never quite understood the explanation on the $80.00 price point being a licensed requirement since Amok has it listed for $69.99. How can you have a "sale" on a price restrictive product?

http://www.amoktime.com/ds0421001.html

[ThePlayerOnTheOtherSide]

DST 1/4 Star Wars with VOICE chip were $80 each. DST was going to sell 1/4 Marvel without voice chip to lower cost.

Today I would pay $80 for a 1/4 Marvel CLOTH costumed figure even without voice chip!

DSTZach, has DST reconsidered 1/4 Marvel figures?

18 inchers honestly wouldn't interest me. Replicas of the 12" figures in their 'original' boxes definitely would. Could also add a few figures, a 12" Thor would be amazing.

[figureaddicted]

I've never quite understood the explanation on the $80.00 price point being a licensed requirement since Amok has it listed for $69.99. How can you have a "sale" on a price restrictive product?

http://www.amoktime.com/ds0421001.html

I'm glad someone mentioned this. I've seen another website list it at either 59.99 or 69.99. I doubt so much that its a sale price as it is a possible indication of the MSRP being lowered. Which im all for obviously. Just curious if thats the case, because 20 or even 10 dollars less might get more on board who were on the fence.

[Mego-Amigo]

12 inch would kill my interest completely. I am excited about what we may get in 8 inch especially the Mego reproductions but I don't collect any 12 inch figures.

[madmarva]

I've never quite understood the explanation on the $80.00 price point being a licensed requirement since Amok has it listed for $69.99. How can you have a "sale" on a price restrictive product?

http://www.amoktime.com/ds0421001.html

The $80 price point is the suggested retail price. The lowered price at the on-line outlets is a reduction of the on-line retailer's profit. It's just like what Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Amazon do with various items such as DVDs, books, CDs and what not.

I'm guessing Hasbro set the price at a point in which it believed the product would not be in competition with its other mass-market and possibly specialty-store figures.

[DSTZach]

Our SRP is $80. It's what our distributor's discounts are based on. Retailers can charge whatever they want, so if they don't think they can sell it for $80, but want to have it in their shop, they may charge less. Many retailers regularly offer competitive pricing on their products.

I do not know if 12-inch is an option for us. I would imagine not, but perhaps. The president of DST, who signs all these deals, went after this license and loves Marvel, answers all questions submitted to Ask DST at artasylum.com. Link is at the top of the page. His columns come out weekly or biweekly.

[ovenmitt]

DSTZach,

What about 1/4 18 inch Marvel cloth costumed figures like DST was once going to make?

[MIB41]

Our SRP is $80. It's what our distributor's discounts are based on. Retailers can charge whatever they want, so if they don't think they can sell it for $80, but want to have it in their shop, they may charge less. Many retailers regularly offer competitive pricing on their products.

I do not know if 12-inch is an option for us. I would imagine not, but perhaps. The president of DST, who signs all these deals, went after this license and loves Marvel, answers all questions submitted to Ask DST at artasylum.com. Link is at the top of the page. His columns come out weekly or biweekly.

Hmmm. What you said really only reinforces what I was thinking. Because an SRP is different from an MIR (manufacturer-imposed requirement). If the license was restricting you on what you could sell it for, then you would have to impose an MIR on the dealers to satisfy that requirement. If you're offering an SRP, with no price restriction to the dealers, then you're not bound by one price point on the license. It's open to whatever profit margin the dealer wants to make from wholesale cost. So the SRP sounds more like a calculation based off the costs associated with buying the license and making the product itself, than a restrictive clause within the license. If Hasbro was trying to keep you priced out of the market they were selling to, why offer the loophole to break the price restriction and do exactly that?

[DSTZach]

We offered our 18"Deadpool a long time ago, and our contract may have changed since then. And orders on DP were low initially, maybe they'd be better now, but we also don't have any other active 18" lines any more, so...

I don't think there's any way to dictate how much a retailer sells something for, since every store has different overhead costs and discounting timelines. But whether the price requirement is on our wholesale price or our SRP, the end result is the same, since one is based on the other.

[MIB41]

We offered our 18"Deadpool a long time ago, and our contract may have changed since then. And orders on DP were low initially, maybe they'd be better now, but we also don't have any other active 18" lines any more, so...

I don't think there's any way to dictate how much a retailer sells something for, since every store has different overhead costs and discounting timelines. But whether the price requirement is on our wholesale price or our SRP, the end result is the same, since one is based on the other.

That's especially interesting because the wholesale price to dealer is only $40.00 per set. Now clearly the wholesaler has a markup to the dealer, but if we examine just the wholesale cost to dealer alone at $40.00, then compare with your SRP, that's a 100% markup from the wholesale price to retail. So I guess I remain perplexed as to why you're charging so much when there's no price fix at the wholesale level to indicate a reasonable markup would place a dealer at your SRP. Even the $69.99 price by others is a 70% markup, which explains why they had so much room to change that price point and still profit nicely. I would certainly invite you to offer a better explanation to clarify why there's such a huge discrepancy from wholesale to retail.

[enyawd72]

$40 wholesale versus $80 retail?

Very interesting...

[DSTZach]

I don't think that wholesale price is correct, it sounds a little low -- but not ridiculously low. I don't know what the wholesale/retail relationship is like in the auto industry, or the grocery business, but I'm pretty sure a 40% discount is average for most small goods, like books and toys. Now, you can call that an 80% markup if you like, but most of that price difference is needed to pay for the retailer's rent, staff, shipping costs, advertising, etc. (I don't know if all of that technically falls under "overhead," but let's say it does, for brevity's sake.)

We're not forcing the retailer to charge more than wholesale, we're giving them a wholesale discount so they can buy our toys, get them into the hands of consumers, and, by selling them, pay for their overhead. The retailer's operating costs determine how much of that discount they can pass along to the consumer without eating into their profit. If if a retailer can charge less than SRP, then maybe they have low overhead (a one-man eBay store), or have to compete by offsetting customer shipping costs (any e-retailer), or maybe they simply buy and sell at a very high volume (Walmart). If they have to charge more, they may have high overhead (mall store) or are paying international shipping and import duties from another country (non-U.S. retailers).

But no matter what they charge, only a fraction of that price difference is actually "profit" to them. The rest goes to paying the bills on the place where you go to buy your toys.

Sorry, that was my layman's explanation of how wholesale/retail works.