The whole “Hot Rat King” debacle was the first sign Super7 was in real trouble.
”but they listened to their fans and made changes to the figure like we asked”, listen strawman I created to make a point, they were still making figures with single joints! They released matte painted Silverhawks knowing full well they were going to make you double dip to get shiny, fan demand doesn’t mean shit in the toy industry.
They canceled Hot Rat King because he didn’t sell enough and would have had to cancel him if they didn’t. Same thing happened with Star Trek Whoopie, they tried to spin it like she was moving waves because of her special friendship with Picard but that didn't work and now she’s gone. If Super7 could have gotten away with it they would have sold you two Rat Kings, the Rat King they’re actually releasing is like 90% Hot Rat King repaint with a new head and a bug glued on it, in Super7’s perfect world he would have been a 5th figure wave filler down the road where they could be heroes saying how they heard demands and were able to work something out to get you a second $60 Rat King.
I’m not even targeting Super7 as being only people to do this. You think NECA has no plans for Smoking Jacket Invisible Man or Armored Thailog? That Hasbro is only ever going to red and white costume Namorita? That Jada making Player 2 Street Fighters deluxe releases with P1 color accessories isn’t a scam to push the less desirable versions?! Every company does it, and we let them do it because we’re dirty little piggies who crave being abused!
The bottom has fallen out of Super7’s market, their base of collectors who they can push around and bully and force to buy whatever they want out of FOMO and misguided loyalty is too small to support a standard figure order. When a toy company can’t sell a less desirable variant of a demanded character because collectors would rather have *that* than nothing, it’s a really really bad sign.
I suspect Ninja April was also not selling well and would have needed to be canceled too, which is why Karai “replaced” Rat King, no other cancellations get “replaced”, but (and correct me if I’m wrong, I’m going off second hand knowledge from kickstarters here and would love to know how it really works if I’m wrong) the most expensive part of figure making is setting up the machines for tooling, since April and Karai are like 80% the same figure they’re cutting cost running a batch in yellow then a batch in black instead of splitting them over two waves.
”But Ninja Turtles is there best selling line! It can’t be in trouble!”, again fictional strawman I made up, best selling to retailers doesn’t mean best selling to consumers. If you decided today you wanted to start buying Super7 Ninja Turtles, you’d be able to scoop up the whole line at Big Bad for dramatically less than a day one collector. Where if I wanted to collect TCats (which actually might be their actual best selling to consumers line and their true legacy) I can get a few of later waves for a small discount, wave 2 is still full price, but a lot of figures are sold out.
I also noticed looking that information up that Big Bad no longer offers ULTIMATES! in waves, probably so they don’t have to swap pictures, adjust pricing, and send out emails when inevitable cancellations happen.
I wanted a Toy colors Lion-o for $30 and it was never fated to be, singles are long gone! but I wanted a Muckman for $25 and got one, I could get a second for $35 if I wanted!
Anyway, I’m rambling.
point is, I hope Super7 is actually going to turning thing around. I really want *NICE* figures of 2k3 April and Casey, I was disappointed when Super7 said they were going to do 2k3 Turts because I’d see the lovely render of April and Casey and know they were $60 fiddle pieces of crap I’d be angry I paid for (like I am every time I try to pose my ULTIMATES! Turts, realize they can’t do what I want, put them back on the shelf in frustration and watch one fall over and take out the rest of the figures so now I have a chore.) but if they get their shit together and make *Good* figures I’d gladly hand over $120* for April and Casey!
*I’d hope they get the price down though, even if just back to $50 by making the boxes less expensive and cutting a few unnecessary accessories. But if it has to stay $60, I hope they DRASTICALLY improve to finally justify that price and don’t just fill the box with prattle “remember when Playmates accidentally made that run of crossed Aprils? Well here’s that head… remember when Casey read a news paper in that one episode with no noteworthy or funny headlines or pictures? It’s here as an accessory, not a cheap paper one, a fully tooled, sculpted, and screen printed plastic piece! The cost was not eaten by us, we passed it along to you!”
Ok so am I to understand that Misfits and Danzig are cancelled? I sure thought that was an April Fools thing. Anyhow I got the Conan Reaction figures yesterday and I thought they were nice. The only issue I have is Subotai sometimes has a balance issue if you extend his bow arm all the way out. I would also have preferred that Thulsa Doom had a removable helmet. That was kind of key to the main scene of the movie.
@bgiles73 the Danzig figures are indeed cancelled. News started leaking out last week and Entertainment Earth cancelled orders on Friday or Saturday, so not an April Fool's thing. The Jerry Only and The Fiend figures are not cancelled at this time so two of the three Misfits figures are going forward, it would appear. I'm sure a ton of consumers will be cancelling their orders for those though without a Danzig to go with them so maybe they do get axed eventually. I guess it all depends on where they are in production. Plus, they've done Jerry ReAction figures before so they should have some indication of how well his stuff sells on its own. I think it was in February that Flynn indicated they had cleared everything up with those figures and they were going into production. The Danzig cancellation must have come pretty late in the process, and if it forced Super7 to eat a bunch of money, I would guess that relationship is severed. Then again, the figures are all on a MOTU style base so tooling costs are probably minimal when compared with other figures. If Flynn won't even touch the topic in his next interview with Veebs (usually takes place on or around the first Friday of each month) then that will tell me there's some salt in the wound.
I have a feeling McFarlane’s Music Maniacs is going to put one helluva dent in Music Ultimates being that they are hyper detailed, articulated, the same scale and $30 cheaper….oh and not subject to presell FOMO type marketing. At first I was thinking Glen might’ve been being a diva, but I think it might be down to him probably having a better sense of marketing. McFarlane or NECA both seem to have a larger retail footprint.
Maybe Glenn cut a deal with Todd and we'll see his likeness in the Music Maniacs line now?
I kinda hope so... really didn't like that they went with MOTU style figures for the Misfits. Just make them regular reactions so they at least fit with the existing collections if they cant or dont want to do Ultimates.
Maybe? Glenn isn't really down with realistic portrayals of himself in art. He once called the figures Jerry and Doyle did ages ago "dorky." NECA's Randy Falk has stated Glenn has turned him down numerous times because he doesn't want figures of himself made. I look at the figures he did with Medicom years ago as a hint at what he's into, and he did have a collection of Japanese vinyl toys way back in the day. Really, he and Flynn should have been a match made in heaven (hell?) since they seem to have a similar taste in toys. Regardless, I don't think he's any marketing genius. It's more like he found out late the figures were based on He-Man and thought that was lame and shut it down at the 11th hour. Plus, I doubt his doing figures with Super7 would prevent him from doing figures with another company. It definitely hasn't stopped Jerry.
@misfit Ahh yes, you make solid points here. Interesting that Glenn thought the 1/6 figures were dorky, but was cool with the vinyl stuff. I actually had those 1/6 figures at one point and totally forgot about them until just now.
At any rate, if Glenn ends up in Todd's new line somehow, it'll probably push into jumping in on collecting them. Im still selfishly hoping for a reaction though so he can hang out with Jerry and the fiend and all my other reaction musicians on the shelf.
A ReAction Glenn that looks like his character model from Aqua Teen Hunger Force would be pretty damn cool and well within the reach of the line.
Veebs monthly interview with Flynn is up. Somewhat to my surprise, the Reddit post was addressed right away. What's not surprising is Flynn dismissed it all. Make of it what you will.
The other news of more interest to me concerning the Danzig figures was also discussed. Just before the half hour mark, Flynn basically confirmed that Glenn wasn't satisfied with the paint apps so they're trying again. They were sending him new samples the day of the interview (I believe this was recorded last Friday) and if he's good with them they'll go back up for preorder. He explained the cancellations as being tied to an expiration date on preorders which makes no sense to me since we know stuff stays up for preorder for years before delivery with this company. It makes me think, despite his optimism, that there's a still a chance they don't happen. Right now, if all goes well the plan is still for all of the MOTU Misfits stuff to go into production at the same time, but since Jerry wasn't cancelled, I'm guessing if Glenn is still unhappy then maybe they just go into production with Jerry and The Fiend.
He also teased some big, joint, announcement with Hasbro coming this month. Personally, I don't care, but if this means Real Ghostbusters Ultimates then he'll at least get my attention.
People have been clamoring for Real Ghostbusters for some time, I wouldn't be surprised if Brian is trying to scoop it up. But S7 getting that license is a monkey's paw wish for me. Proton packs that won't stay on and wands that can't be held in both hands, eeesh, I dunno.
Maybe Glenn Danzig has final say over QC at S7 now since he seems to have higher standards 🤣 Perhaps that's where the rumor started.
Flynn definitely took a lesson from the "never say sorry, never admit fault, cast vision straight ahead, don't look back, exaggerate the positives, downplay and don't mention the negatives" PR playbook and in that way he's not too much different from most corporate leaders or politicians. I say that since he seems to think people were foolish to believe the Reddit post.... people believed it because of the canceled waves, the bad reviews, the growing negativity towards the brand, the dropped licenses, the complaints against price/quality, I could go on. They believed it because it seemed believable.
If there was a Reddit post saying Randy at NECA had been assigned oversight, many people would have been confused and needed receipts. NECA meanwhile has been steadily getting better and better, outside of their sales events and distro, each release gets less and less criticism.
People have been clamoring for Real Ghostbusters for some time, I wouldn't be surprised if Brian is trying to scoop it up. But S7 getting that license is a monkey's paw wish for me. Proton packs that won't stay on and wands that can't be held in both hands, eeesh, I dunno.
Ugh, definitely. They would hold them like the Hank Scorpio figure from the Simpsons line. He doesn't have any shoulder or elbow range so to two-hand hold his flamethrower the figure basically has to hold it across the belly. It's so lame, especially because the figure sells-out for the flamethrower pose at the expense of other accessories/looks and botches it.
Brian hinting that they might be working on something else with Beastie Boys is intriguing. I think their most toyetic music video is probably Intergalactic... so if they did another wave of Beasties figures from the Intergalactic video... well I probably couldn't resist.
The body Movin' video had some pretty wacky costumes too. I could see them doing figures from that. Honestly I would prefer just them in their regular stage getups though.
Yeah... I'm not sure how into that the remaining Beasties would be though. I think they're much more likely to greenlight figures of them playing characters than figures of them being themselves.
I have the Diamond Select Real Ghostbusters, and while I'm glad to have them on my shelf, I do kind of hate those figures. But I don't know what Super7 would do any better. They'll still have limited articulation, accessories that don't fit right or break easily, the paint apps probably won't be as well done as the Diamond Select ones. Super7 is still gonna be 7 inch scale, while I would prefer 6 inch.
I guess they may give each Ghostbuster a unique body. That's another thing I hate about the Select figures.
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