[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trebleshot

As Kylactus mentioned, female heroes generally aren't that popular with little boys, which is Hasbro's target audience when it comes to Marvel toys. If female action figures didn't sell, Hasbro probably wouldn't even bother making them at all. Why make a product that no one will buy? So it's not a question of whether female action figures sell or not, it's how many will sell.

With regard to villains, I'd imagine typical boys in Hasbro's target age group just want their favorite hero and one other guy to act as that hero's punching bag. So it doesn't really matter which villain they get, whereas collectors actually care about the details and have favorite villains.

This is the flaw in the reasoning for female figures. The assumption is that action figures are for boys and dolls are for girls. When in reality it's only a matter of taste instead of gender specific toy lines. Female heroes typically sell out whenever they are on shelves. I can't think of a single female figure that's ever peg warmed from Marvel. They need to up the case assortments on that end to reflect as such. I'd be more inclined to believe it's on the retailer end demanding mainstays to stay interested in the offerings, as they don't often have accurate retail data and are only reacting on their own "base understanding."

The old mentality of "girls toys" and "boys toys" needs to be tossed out the window. They should focus on them being "Marvel superhero toys" that are for fans both young(kids) and old(collectors) instead of attempting to gender role them.

Out of the new offerings with Infinite. So far the only two that are direct must haves for me personally are Red She-Hulk and Wasp. Wasp herself is also a direct example of a female figure they should push more. She was an audience favorite when Avengers: EMH was airing and would cater well to both boys and girls who enjoyed that show. As a figure she has high demand before even factoring in collectors. Shortpacking her as they have makes no sense whatsoever when you look at her marketability.

As for villians, that varies. Some are high demand, while others are too obscure. Oddly enough Batroc though is a mildly high demand one now thanks to the animated Ultimate Spider-man. So as long as the animated presences keep bolstering visibility, they could do more obscures with an expected demand behind them.

Again though, the problem is on retailers. The typical retailer knows Ironman, cap, thor, hulk, etc. Pretty much any mainstay or movie titled character. So to them, ordering a case of pure obscures or female figures or anything that's "alien to them and not prioritizing general recogniziability is a risky endeavor." Whereas kids watch the toons and the movies +more. And instead are missing out on exactly what they want to purchase.

Take Thor for example. A warriors three box set makes sense on all ends except to the retailer who has no idea who they are. Toss Sif in there too and it's guaranteed to not stay on shelves.

The fact it'd have no Thor figure though, means retailers would want to skip that idea even if it would sell like hot cakes.

This is the problem with the middle man major retailer system, but it's slowly changing as visibility is increasing more and more. Personally, I think it's the major retailer system that's the real culprit behind the slow sales of action figures.

Sales are slow, but stores aren't carrying what's sought after. They cling to the notion of the mainstays being what should be pushed which in turn is causing the slow rate of sales, and then them wanting to axe carrying the line altogether. Pretty much they are shooting themselves in the foot, and then taking away what's a decent product line because of forcing hasbro to appease them.

How we've yet to have a White Tiger figure because of her ultimate Spider-man exposure is further evidence of this appeasement. She's high profile to kids and collectors alike, but not to retailers at all. She'd be a high demand figure the same as Wasp is, and she also expands on the diversity of the figures as well.