[TheBlueMarvel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hasbroherofan

OT but I found this video very informative.

That's all well and good, but that's their problem to worry about, not mine as the consumer. In the same way that manufactures don't spend much time worrying about my mortgage payments and whether I can pay my bills when determining MSRPs, I'm not going to lose sleep over their manufacturing costs and expect any less for my money and/or patronage.

While this is informative in some ways, I consume it in much the same manner that I would any other media. Is this straight news, or editorial? Is it a form of advertisement, or a PSA? Is it a hit-piece, or is it a fluff-piece? What is the relationship of the individual/source sharing this information to the industry/subject matter being presented; is this being shared/reported by an objective third-party source or an industry insider? All of these things are considerations I make before allowing someone's take on something influence my own.

I have no reason to doubt this dude, he presents as a pretty affable guy. However, there are elements of what he has shared that do smack of an apologist approach to the industry. He also admits he's a toymaker which naturally skews the perspective based on my shared rubrics for consuming print/spoken/video news and information.

Some immediate takeaways: If I accept his explanation, how did/does Mcfarlane Toys do it as a much smaller outfit than Hasbro/Mattel? (not to mention Toy Biz before them...) His comparison of Castle Grayskull sporting a $500k buck to those of $20 figures is misleading on its face, as it's not even a figure. Toy, yes. Figure, no. Additionally, using the Thing as a 'normal buck' in comparison to other figs considering the size and detail needed to represent the character properly should seem inappropriate to any collector familiar with the line/figure/character. The Thing has to be at least a penultimate sculpt if not an ultimate example of costly bucks, a fact that sort of rigs the game from the start in a slight of hand fashion.

That video was neat, but I'm not sure I buy this presentation as a be-all-end-end explanation for why we don't see more unique tooling, nor do I accept his estimates for bucks he's had no hand in developing. I'd be interested in knowing the cost for say Hasbro's Doctor Doom buck, or Mister Sinister...