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Post by stc13 on Mar 5, 2022 14:26:06 GMT -5
It's a mixed bag for me. I'm really happy to see Cage still in the line - I was worried he might get pulled. Jade looks great, and they keep mixing in new talent.
But these heads look rough. And it seems like they've moved away from some of the super intricate soft goods we saw in the first few waves. Not sure how I feel about doing street clothes of Britt, Cody, and Hangman. They're different, but I'm not sure that I want to pay $20 for those figures. There's just something that feels off with the designs for me.
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Post by stc13 on Mar 5, 2022 8:46:16 GMT -5
Scorpio Sky will get a TNT Title shot on next week's St. Patrick's Day Slam. Also, Paige VanZant will officially become ALL ELITE.TK really buried the lede in that tweet. PVZ has a ton of charisma, seems like a great natural heel, and seems to has a pretty good sized following. If she becomes even half decent in the ring, she'll do very well
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Post by stc13 on Mar 4, 2022 18:38:46 GMT -5
When you look at the scope of what's available, I really do think we're in a golden age of collecting. The scope (legends, indie darlings, AEW, WWE, smaller companies, Lucha legends) of what is being made is absolutely astounding, and the quality across the board been upped over the last year or two.
And I've never felt so blah about many of my purchases. Few figures truly excite me the way I used to feel even a few years ago. I'm debating whether I need to slow down, part with some figures, or just take a break from collecting. Between difficulty finding figures at retail and space constraints, I'm just not having as much fun as in the past.
I got into collecting figures because after decades as a collectors and dealer in sports cards, I was sick of the constant chase, fomo, and fixation on "value" in the card hobby. And figure collecting is starting to feel the same way for me.
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Post by stc13 on Mar 4, 2022 18:29:45 GMT -5
Will Luminaries include talent not currently employed by AEW?
When will we see AEW figure stands? (hopefully already answered by the Q&A)
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Post by stc13 on Mar 4, 2022 16:34:06 GMT -5
There's a certain saturation point where I just lose interest. And $25 might just be it. I collect a pretty wide range - legends, NXT, and some current roster guys. But at this point I have a figure of just about everybody I want on the main roster, I have zero interest in buying NXT 2.0 figures, and almost every legend we get is a repaint. At $20, or even $22, I'll make some stretch purchases and buy a figure I don't love on a whim. That isn't going to happen at $25, even if I can afford the price hike. I was a pretty active Marvel Legends collector, but haven't bought a single figure that wasn't on clearance since the raised the price. The value just isn't there for me. I think Mattel is really overestimating their market. They're focused on short term margins, potentially at the expense of losing a good chunk of overall volume. If hardcore collectors are rethinking, I'd imagine the casual mom buying for her kid is going to have the same reaction. Crazy how so many people talk as if Mattel has a diabolical plot to stash hoards of cash through unnecessary price increases (“focused on short term margins”). It couldn’t POSSIBLY be that they’re seeing increased costs the same as everybody else and are focused on the long term viability of the line and the company! They're certainly seeing increased costs, as all industries are. Their choice is to eat those costs, take a smaller profit margin and hope to maintain the volume of sales, adjust their budget and maintain the same price point, or to pass costs to the consumer in order to preserve their target margins and probably see a decrease in sales. That's a decision that companies make every day. It's a choice. It doesn't mean their choice will turn out the be the correct one. Toys are a luxury item, and two price hikes within 12 months will definitely have an impact on sales volume that could be greater than the revenue they would lose by taking a smaller profit margin.
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Post by stc13 on Mar 4, 2022 8:21:58 GMT -5
There are a ton of possibilities, but I don't think anything is guaranteed. From what I've read, Tony Kahn purchased ROH, not AEW. That was probably just the cleanest way from a business perspective to do the deal. But it would mean that ROH IP isn't immediately included in Jazwares's ROH contract.
I still totally expect some kind of ROH footprint in the line. But it probably means Jeremy can't just go to work on it tomorrow. There will probably be some extra contractual steps and/or costs.
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Post by stc13 on Mar 4, 2022 8:17:23 GMT -5
There's a certain saturation point where I just lose interest. And $25 might just be it. I collect a pretty wide range - legends, NXT, and some current roster guys. But at this point I have a figure of just about everybody I want on the main roster, I have zero interest in buying NXT 2.0 figures, and almost every legend we get is a repaint. At $20, or even $22, I'll make some stretch purchases and buy a figure I don't love on a whim.
That isn't going to happen at $25, even if I can afford the price hike. I was a pretty active Marvel Legends collector, but haven't bought a single figure that wasn't on clearance since the raised the price. The value just isn't there for me.
I think Mattel is really overestimating their market. They're focused on short term margins, potentially at the expense of losing a good chunk of overall volume. If hardcore collectors are rethinking, I'd imagine the casual mom buying for her kid is going to have the same reaction.
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Post by stc13 on Mar 1, 2022 21:00:38 GMT -5
so is Taya IN SCALE with jazzwares and Mattel? In scale? Most likely. Perfectly sizes? Probably not. But that's true of all the companies, especially for female figures. Jazwares are way too wall, and Mattel have been turning way too small since they "corrected" the scale.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 24, 2022 13:53:26 GMT -5
Not sure that I'd be interested in the figured, but those head sculpts are incredible.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 24, 2022 9:19:35 GMT -5
Scott has been very vocal in his comments about Legends deals. It's possible they sweeten the pot and offer him terms that he would agree to. But it's also very possible they do the HOF and that's it, or Rick signs a merch deal and Scott doesn't.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 24, 2022 8:10:15 GMT -5
Love it! It really exceeds what I was expecting. And the likeness looks pretty good to me, though I wouldn't mind seeing it without the headgear.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 24, 2022 8:07:20 GMT -5
The update wasn't much of an update. Fanaticos wave 1 should be coming soon, the second wave of premium figures a little after that. It sounds like those two lines are coming from different factories. And they announced a new line of mini figs. They look cool, but I'd prefer to see them delivering on the stuff they showed nearly 3 years ago before they keep branching into more and more products.
I'm still really interested in the roster they're making and what we've seen has been fantastic. But the slow pace has really killed any buzz this line had.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 23, 2022 20:00:36 GMT -5
I didn't hate this crate, but it could have been better. The shirts are fine, but they're really going overkill with black shirts. I'm happy to get a Konnan figure, but it took me a minute to recognize who it was. I'm not a Gallows fan, so the auto is sort of meh for me.
But overall I can't complain about the value of the crates. It's a fun surprise every month, and there's always something I can get legitimate use out of. If you're looking at straight value, these things are never going to be straight up ROI. But I can definitely say I've spent more money on things that I got far less use or enjoyment out of.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 21, 2022 8:44:40 GMT -5
A WCW era Nash pops up during the intro of this video, so he's likely the brawler. While I'm definitely excited to expand my WCW collection, this makes the weird mashup Shredder figure all the more confusing.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 20, 2022 9:40:33 GMT -5
Juuuuust a little bit longer. He said in in another tweet that he hasn't seen Eddie yet, which makes me think S9 got moved around. Really hoping we still get Cage.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 19, 2022 9:33:59 GMT -5
Anybody know if any other figure have the boot covers that are on the Rockers and Retrofest Shawn Michaels?
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Post by stc13 on Feb 18, 2022 8:37:55 GMT -5
I might grab Dude Love, but my Funkos have sort of exhausted my interest, at least for wrestling. I bought a few of the Marvel Black Light and some of the holiday ones. But I can only collect and display so many lines.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 18, 2022 8:28:15 GMT -5
The only reason to do this would be a SDCC mega powers 2 pack. Charge $100 and give us all the soft goods needed to make it worth the price $100 2-pk?!?!? Jesus… I agree mega powers is the way to go but price could be more like $70 and still have plenty of goods. Yeah, I'd rather not invite Mattel to overcharge me. There's no reason they couldn't perfectly nail both figures at the existing price point including Macho's robe. I think it's been shown time and time again that the appetite just isn't there for multi-packs at retail. It's better for the retailers and for Mattel to pack them individually. The UE line has been going strong, but I'm sure they don't want to risk burning that goodwill with retailers.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 17, 2022 9:34:51 GMT -5
There’s no downside to putting Best of 2020 on the packaging However there is a downside to collectors losing faith in a company straight up rereleasing exactly the same stuff 2 years later. No matter what the majority of people on here pretend. Most of us do like the fact that a lot of these things hold a good amount of value, even if you’re idea going in is to not sell them OR, and hear me out, it could gain faith from collectors knowing that if a few people wipe out the market of certain figures they’ll go back and reissue them. For collectors. For people who actually want the figure forever. Or maybe even, and this will sound crazy, for kids who might now be able to find them in stores. This was such a unique situation - a wave that dropped right around the start of the pandemic, wasn't carried at any major brick and mortar retailer, and contained two major stars who shot up in price. While I don't think Mattel needs to continually offer re-releases - I prefer their approach to date of releasing the same character in a fresh attire, driving prices down for the old figure typically, but also giving collectors who have that figure something new to buy - this absolutely feels like the appropriate situation for it. I'm sure there are some people who are miffed. But I think it's a huge stretch to say that doing this makes collectors lose faith in a company. If anything, this gives me *more* faith that they are keep an eye on collector feedback and trying to keep the line as engaging as possible for both new and franchised collectors. Having engaged collectors leads to heavier collecting and more sales. You're a lot more likely to disenfranchise casual collectors when figures have limited runs, are in and out of stock in a flash, and getting that figure costs multiple times SRP on the secondary market. And I haven't seen anyone bring up that it sounds like this is something that retailers asked for. And if that's the case...what we think doesn't really matter. Mattel is going to satisfy their major retail partners above all else, and it's probably a big win for them to have that kind of interest.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 16, 2022 14:21:01 GMT -5
Newest crate really only has two options for a brawler unless we get a repeat. So here’s to a Candido or Buddy Matthews brawler. Candido seems like the best guess to me. He'd fit in with the ECW brawlers they've been doing. Murphy seems like it's still a little too recent since his release to be in Brawler form? I wouldn't mind another Piper. He was never a Crate Brawler, and not a lot of people have it. Not apples to apples, but it would be somewhat similar to the Hero Brawler that they did a color variation on for the Crate.
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