I'd still say a restock (or, like previously mentioned, shipping wave 3 alongside some re-releases) is a possibility. There seems to have been some restocks happening here and there- a bunch of places got/are getting more Gambit figures (it's how I got mine), and I think I saw somewhere (I wanna say Entertainment Earth?) also got a small restock of some Cyclops figures. I suppose it could be a case of "we found an extra case lying around", but Gambit at least went up for order on multiple sites, so that's gotta count for something. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hasbro do the same for at least a few of the better sellers- Wolverine, Rogue, maybe Nightcrawler. Some figures are still pretty plentiful at comic stores around me, albeit for a slight markup, so they may not need to be redone, but a sort of "Best Of" wave in the future could only mean more money for Hasbro.
It honestly feels like there would be no risk involved in re-releasing that Wolverine figure, at the very least.
It honestly feels like there would be no risk involved in re-releasing that Wolverine figure, at the very least.
Less risk than releasing a Wolverine attached to a highly successful animated show than rereleasing a Wolverine no one asked for from a blink-and-you-missed-it storyline (hot claws)? That's a safe bet. And if they're feeling really "risky", they can rerelease Rogue too.
Hot Claws is a basic blue and yellow Wolverine - which everyone wants with Deadpool & Wolverine. That re-release has nothing to do with that figure itself.
I think part of the issue is with Target's overzealous clearance practices - waves are gone in two months. To then have empty pegs - for months. It certainly helps those of us who are price conscious and paying attention - but it does not help the overall retail environment. It's devaluing and, like I said, leads to just no product being available.
I don’t know about other Targets but that Hot Claws Wolverine literally disappeared from the Targets I usually frequent from the timeframe of the release of the Deadpool movie until now. And they carried a lot. Like at least 10 to 12 Wolvies per store.
I’ve no dog in this game since I have my 97 Wolvie and Rogue, but rereleasing them in the remainder of this year or early next year would probably be a good idea for those that missed out or are just getting into the line.
Oh if only it were actually that easy. They are many examples where they have been caught out, one that sticks in my mind was the white storm retro packaging variant that was re-released and people posted pictures of them peg warming. Unfortunately what people say versus what people do can make judging a figures popularity very difficult, so often in demand figures are really only wanted by a handful of vocal people on a few message boards and they could be people who missed out waiting for a discount the first time around. Also im not 100% about this but I think a wave of figures may have the same sku so there is no real way of telling if one particular figure sells a lot quicker then others in the wave. Anyway I don't think it is as easy as you think.No, let's not overthink how difficult it is to rerelease popular things. It's not difficult and if it's a popular item there's no risk. No risk to Hasbro, no risk to retailers.
MOTU Origins does this right. Popular characters from the line that have spiked on the aftermarket got a "Fans' Choice" reissue in a short amount of time. Just yesterday Hasbro themselves rereleased the GI Joe VAMP at a $30 mark up and the preorder is already long gone.
"Thinking about" this, "factoring in" that, "guessing about" something else is a whole lot of mental gymnastics that you don't need to do. Was the figure popular? Did it sell? Are there people asking for more? It's not difficult at all.
I think they could have rereleased hot claws Wolvie with silver unpainted claws and blue paldrons instead of black and they probably would have disappeared even faster. You basically have a catch all Wolverine right there with the general Astonishing look from the outfit he wore after Astonishing. Would anyone even care about the box art not matching? I doubt most would notice among the general audience just wanting something Wolverine around the time of the movie release.
I’ve no dog in this game since I have my 97 Wolvie and Rogue, but rereleasing them in the remainder of this year or early next year would probably be a good idea for those that missed out or are just getting into the line.
The problem with this is the lead time from deciding "this is a good idea" to getting these into stores. First, the company has to decide - 'This might be a good idea'. Arguably, that thought could have occurred to them in April when the show was clearly a hit and stores were selling through their cases of '97 figures quickly.
But even if they had that idea in April and discussed it with Target (and/or WalMart, GameStop, Amazon, etc) who got on board and agreed to re-order - then they have to find space in the production schedule.
They have to go to the factory, which is busy running some other product. They have to interrupt the schedule at that factory and have them re-insert product molds for the - '97 figures to re-run them.
And, do they do "all stars" from Wave 1 and 2? They don't want to end up with a bunch of extra Bishop or X-cutioner's clogging pegs - so is it Rogue, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Wolverine and...
And does the tooling even work out for that? Do some of the molds combine pieces for certain characters? To run Wolverine do they also have to run parts for say, Bishop? Tiny Magneto? Does that, in part, dictate the mix they have to make?
By the time they get the factory to put those tools back onto the production line, get the right plastic mixes back in place etc - get everything printed, painted, assembled, packaged and ready to ship - then they have to get it to port, onto ships, across the pacific, into trucks and out to distribution centers who then have to distribute to stores. That process takes months.
For real even if they decided three or four months ago to do more X-Men '97 figures for retail those would NOT be in stores yet. The logistics wouldn't work out for that. So it's possible they may even be trying to do what people are asking for here and we just haven't seen that yet.
It's still a faster turnaround time, I'd imagine, than creating them in the first place. They have to draw it out, plan all the articulation and paint, convert it into a 3D form, print the protoype, wait for approval from Marvel, all that fancy stuff, on top of actual production. The show ended a couple months ago, and it was a certified hit long before the finale- if they wanted to get more figures out in time for the holidays, I think they easily could. It's not easy to produce figures, that we all know, but these are also not quite as involved as many other lines. The molds already exist, and there's less paint apps than some of the other lines, no need for likeness approval, etc. If Hasbro and Marvel both want more 97 stuff on the shelves, they'll get them there eventually.
It's still a faster turnaround time, I'd imagine, than creating them in the first place.
Agreed - that's why it's months not years
if they wanted to get more figures out in time for the holidays, I think they easily could.
I think "easily" is maybe not the word I would use. Like I said - just because they have the molds already doesn't mean they can just flip a switch and turn the machines on. Those molds were taken off the production line and moved somewhere out of the way - unless they were being repurposed to use for some other figure that went into production.
And - there is a production schedule for these factories. Deciding to do another run of product that wasn't on the schedule means you have to insert it into the queue, disrupting other stuff. There are logistics to work out about that.
It's certainly doable, but it's not as easy as a snap of the fingers. And it isn't instant.
@panthercult I did also say early next year. So if they decide in April that gives them 9 to 11 months to refresh Wolverine and Rogue which are the only two that I mentioned. Doesn’t seem too unrealistic to me to get done in that time.
@leor Definitely - and I wasn't saying anything you were saying was wrong. I was really using your comment as an entry into the broader discussion of why it's harder than just injecting more of the figures people want to see back into the store. It wasn't that I thought you, in particular, didn't understand the necessary time frames.
@panthercult It’s all good. The only other thing that might delay an early next year refresher is Chinese New Year. Don’t the toy factories take a week or month off or something?
Yeah - I would imagine if they decided to do this, that might not be an issue. That shuts down the factories for sure, but assuming they had some sense of urgency about a restock, that part should be done and things should at least be on boats by that time if not already on US shores.
I guess the timing is the real issue. Like say production for the refreshers end in mid or late December. The factory might hold the product since it’s too close to the holidays and decide to ship after the New Year. But I would imagine they would finish at least in late October or November. That gives them 6 to 7 months to make it happen. Still quite possible.
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