[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slim19722

Price increases came before the reduction in articulation. Figures jumped from $7.99 to $11.99. Not mention distribution has always been a issue. Some stores missed waves entirely and some stores not carrying the lines at all. Those factors greatly impacted sales.

Price increases would have kept going up too if articulation wasn't reduced with the amount of full new sculpts the later waves had. That was the direct reason some articulation was cut. Assembly labor costs were skyrocketing, so the more part count a figure has, the production cost per figure goes up. Add in unique sculpted parts that have minimal to no re-usage, and some cost cutting measures had to be used.

One of the cost cutting moves of early ones was how there was a lot of parts re-usage, which heavily reduced the need for new sculpts. But assembly made the prices start jumping more. The economics wasn't there. Legends has the same issue right now as assembly is still relatively costly, but with their size, the price can go up to compensate. (If you've noticed, Legends themselves are starting to reach upwards of 24 per figure now. They've been gradually getting increased too because of various issues. A lot of which has to do with the world economy as a whole, and especially right now, things are a mess between different areas. When the 1:18th surge first happened, we were at a point where the economic market was beginning to rebound, and it slowly was, then if you notice, the market took a downward slop around 2014, which was starting to a little earlier, as different things that would have sustained the market better were causing issues. But to fully explain this gets into politics, and that's verboten in the rules. But suffice to say, from 2008-2012, were on a spiral upward economic path that was showing growth, and then various certain areas threw wrenches into that and gummed up the works and caused it to slow and backslide, leading to presently where we've been steadily getting shoved to a cliff with another recession looming with farther reaching impacts on a worldwide scale due to fluctuating economies abroad as well where the factories are. Our hobby, whether people like it or not, is directly tied to politics and the economy, as the market itself generally is.)

GI Joe was impacted by the price leaps too from assembly. You see it most noticeable in Retaliation as well, where they tried to offset the increase as best they could.

1:18th isn't dead, only on the back burner for now. Though a large chunk of that is wide different things from various retail support, and other issues. Was never an "act of spite" and has more to do with the market as a whole as well as cost to sales ratio. Once that can be better figured out, and a way to rebrand is settled on as well as other factors, it'll come back.

Part of what did halt the line temporarily though is Retailers too. Back during Avengers Assemble we had two lines. One was the 5 POA simplified discount line, and the other was the advanced articulated ShieldTech.

Retailers dumped Shield Tech as fast as they could in favor of the 5 POA cheaper, which is what lead to the AOU 5PoA as that's what retailers wanted to have better MSRPs for customer attention and their thoughts were that "kids really don't care and can use their imagination."

Rising costs led to lack of retailer support, though retailers were really excited for the lines until about Winter Soldier/Thor Dark World. That's where the decline started to set in some as retailers wanted something new.

This happens every so often. Product lines have to evolve. Even Legends has evolved in different ways, and right now bigger is the pull on the collector market. Later that'll hit stale saturation, and get toned down, with a new product type to push forward instead more. This back and forth balance of the market is rather natural for action figures. The market is cyclical like that. So given some time, a new push will come out of it later. But the biggest concern right now is getting costs to manageable. At content to size ratio, as well as other issues at market(including loss prevention issues), the 1:18th market is at a resting point right now until those issues can be mitigated and better balanced.

When they're competing in the market with TMNT and Ben 10, the higher cost to smaller figure isn't appealing to retailers. But if they can manage to get something back to reasonable, like Jurassic World has shown, sales strength can sustain it.

And anyway, give it some time for celebrations of the scale too. Back when the line first took off was between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the MCU. They're celebrating 10 years of MCU right now with the 6 inch which is where hasbro started with Ironman 1 and Spider-man 3 as well as Hulk. So anniversary-wise, to keep the hype rolling, the smart idea would be to wait until next year or so to do some extra 1:18th celebration packs like a re-release of the MKIII Ironman and the 6" movie 1 Iron Monger with opening cockpit.

For now, Gamerverse is the main focus. But don't count 1:18th out yet, this is only breathing space to let the market build up demand. There is a want to bring it back to full strength, but it's a matter of timing and generating the right market strength to do so from that timing, as well as making sure everything fits within cost-effective parameters to keep retail support and audience support.

Now while it's not "spite driven", some audience areas that get too demanding or angry, or otherwise act up, aren't helping the scale at all, and are making it an audience that areas are hesitant to support. No one wants that kind of person in their store or as a customer as the headache cost outweighs the profits.