[Trivial Psychic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by webz

You make some excellent points... buuuuut... you miss one very important aspect... every time a line of MK figures is made, it's a new company licensing the brand. So said new company wants to make the characters they are certain will sell the most first, to get the $$$$ invested in securing the license, THEN make the characters that are maybe-sells.

A lack of continuity between companies does hurt, but Jazzwares held the MK license for years, churning Scorpion and Sub-Zero figures the way Hasbro churns out Iron Man and Cap. Same with Mezco, who put out 3 different versions of the duo (along with 3 versions Raiden and two different versions of the second wave.) While I don't have sales numbers, I'm pretty sure that they cannot be all that good, as neither company no longer has the license nor is putting out figures.

Jazzwares also put out Street Fighter figures for a while. They were nowhere near Sota's level of quality, but they didn't last too long either, as I remember when they came out, Ryu and Ken just languished on shelves forever until they hit the 3 for 5 dollar clearance bins. There was one character though that I never did see though...Charlie Nash, mostly because people were grabbing that guy and scalping him like crazy due to the fact that it was his only appearance anywhere in any Street Fighter line. Capo Toys couldn't even get their kickstarter off the ground when they tried, as Ryu and maybe Ken (if certain goals were reached) were the only initial figures they were offering. Figure release history plays a much bigger part than these toy companies care to realize.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Moore

People also forget that the licensor can and will dictate which products can be made first.

Absolutely this. I've missed out on this fact too in Storm Collectibles defense. I remember an old interview with the former CEO of Sota Toys over how they were under incredible pressure by Capcom to put out certain characters specifically. One character that Sota fought like hell to get done was Sodom, who Capcom was not very high on, and after a lot of lobbying, Capcom allowed it but threatened to end their agreement if the figure didn't sell well. Thankfully Sodom (as well as the rest of the first wave) was a success, and Sota was allowed to put out some really great figures afterwards.