[TheBlueMarvel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spyne98

There are a lot of good ideas here. I don't want to quote everyone because my response post would be super long. I'm no economics expert, I'm a teacher and a radio DJ. I think that having a US based manufacture would be a great idea to help combat costs. However, I wonder if that would have an impact all over the world because the US collectors aren't Hasbro's only buyer base. I understand that shipping costs have gone up, so that's why I'm going to am idea of make them in the US, but like I said, what does that mean for other areas? I truly don't have an answer.

A few people have mentioned that this prince increase could kill the line, and I fully agree with that. Even on the customizer end, I wouldn't dream of paying full price now for a figure that I'm going to repaint/part swap. It's a strange time to be collecting. I also collect Transformers and they're going through a price hike too. That's a toy line that I used to buy EVERYONE from. I simply can't afford to do that anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benn Roe

I’m no expert on the manufacturing side of things, but you’re probably right. The other side of the coin is that shipping from the US is, and always has been, far more expensive than shipping from China, and I doubt that’s changed just because China’s gotten more expensive. Even if producing domestically might be competitive with producing and shipping from China as far as the US market is concerned, it would wreak havoc on European and Asian markets. Canada and Central America are probably already getting their product out of the US (which is why everything is already so expensive in Canada), so I doubt they’d seen any change, and Australia is probably boned either way, as usual.

You both bring up an important oversight on my part. We're not in a vacuum here in the States and shifting to American manufacturing may help with woes here, but it would also create a set of new hurdles almost everywhere else.

This leads me back to my previous sentiment that if this is to be the new normal, then Hasbro will need to give fans more to justify the hike. They'll still lose many supporters, but switching to a collector model and adding thoughtful improvements might stanch the bleed and even attract collectors that opt for the more expensive 1/12 lines. Hasbro would also need to dramatically reduce the amount of product they put out in a year. Which ain't a prob for me given I've been saying for quite a while - less is more. When Hasbro first bragged about more Legends being released in one year than ever before, I immediately looked at the quality and noticed a drop in the care given to comic canon figs. Of course, MCU budgets and details remained strong throughout that period likely bolstered by movie tie-in merch-dollars.

In any event, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.