[Snowflakian]

Repaints - So long as it's a character people will buy, pretty much forever. Repaints are cost effective, the line itself wouldn't last long at all if every character had an entirely all new mold. It's just not smart business. This also recoups mold costs faster, and keeps figures within a certain price margin.

The movie blockbusters have to do with retailer ordering amounts. Until retailers don't want it, or don't order it. Yes hasbro will keep making em. We've seen this happen in reverse recently too. Hasbro passed on doing X-Men First Class, and retailers started clamoring for something. So TRU got wolverine claws, and the First class comic packs were out there(the only planned hasbro one). The same happened with Captain America being more successful than probably planned initially. All of a sudden it got comic packs, and target wanted an exclusive. Lines that aren't selling don't get that or even continued retailer support. (For example, one walmart here has GL figures at normal price, another just one town over has already started to clearance them out with no plans to order more.) Thor here surprisingly is doing decent, the figure are picked pretty clean cept for loki, odin and thor himself, but those have higher case ratios than the others to make sure any kid can walk into a store and get them. The opposite happened with Green Lantern in many areas. The blockbuster was expected to move large amounts of merchandise, so retailers wanted exclusives, but in turn with how mattel made the figures, they didn't sell in many areas. Mattel needs to learn that collectors buy for higher articulation, and kids want to be able to pose their figures too while they play with them. Staction figures rarely sell well in any medium.

The random oddities like snowboarding captain america do end up selling for birthdays, kids, and holidays, besides those interested in them. TBH, I've never even seen one in the wild, the cap selection here is pretty barren unless you go shopping on restock day, but again each store moves different volumes for their area, what you see doesn't reflect the nation. Heck what you see in suburb may not reflect the next. (One target here moves high volumes faster than another, so while one has the newest GL wave, MU waves, and more, the other still has slightly older stuff and older revision cases to work through.)

I can see this line lasting all the way until the renewal date on the contract so long as hasbro keeps balancing mainstays alongside obscures. Mainstays make sure the kids can always get the characters they want, the obscures keep the collectors coming back and comic fans. Revision waves make sure the demand will be met too. I just finally found a thanos the other day for my collection, and he was someone in a wave way back in january, so the revisions helped me personally too. This is also why we see so many spider-mans, wolverines, ironmans and so on. They sell. Even if it's just that random grandma buying ironman for their grandkid, or the random kid begging mommy for a wolverine figure while they are shopping for toilet paper or whatever else. Last christmas, Ironman 2 figures were on just about every kids christmas list. It's not overstock you're seeing at retailers of that line, it's the continued ordering of it because it sells, unlike say tron legacy or green lantern in many areas that are already clearancing those out and trying to move them to get rid of them.

Even in this economy, Hasbro profits keep going up, except for the board game division which is why you see the new promotion about trading in old games for new ones now. Board games have a generational, and handed down issue associated. Once you have checkers, or monopoly, typically you won't need another for a good long while. Whereas with action figures, everyone wants their own toy of whichever character. Board games are played with people, action figures typically one plays with themself, or if they have friends over or are at a friends house which in turn also raises awareness of certain figures, and kids will want their own for when they get home from said friend's house.

Wallets get tighter for collectors, but the market itself isn't collector driven. It's a hit across the board with kids and collectors alike. That's what keeps it alive. This alongside with hasbro's knowledge of product refreshment by rebranding or changing up packaging keeps the line going strong. (Hence the Nick Fury, Osborn, Now Steve Rogers packaging.)