What is the deal with toy production these days?

[Captain Vegetable]

All I know is I want a god damn Energon Megatron, and I can't find him anywhere! It takes months for any Transformers to show up in Delaware after their release, and some never show up at all. On top of all that, it is very hard/impossible to buy a few of them online.

Dude, there's a Wal*Mart right at Chichester Ave. and 322. You're in Wilmington, so it can't be more than 30 minutes away. They have somewhere around 4 Megatron figures, but the boxes are shot to Hell. I mean like missing bottoms and such. The figures are all in mint condition, but the boxes suck ass. I figure you're going to open the box and display him anyway, so what the Hell. Go for it. I'll be picking mine up tomorrow.

Finding C-10 specimans were also hard to find also.

That's because the hunt for the C-10 is a wild goose chase. They don't exist, man. C-9 is the best it gets.

if they pander to it they obviously have a vested interest in it. They don't see the profits on the resale, but they do get tons of people buying complete sets and checking racks of thier figures all the time. I still don't see how a short pack or variant is different than a white lighning, or hot wheels treasure hunt which serve the same purpose. They're made to spur sales in the collector segment.

No, they are made to spur sales made to collectors in the primary market. They are two totally different concepts, and now I can see where we were misunderstanding eachother.

so if they'll do it through a mag why wouldn't they also use the same tactics in thier boxes? if anything it serves less purpose through the mag, because they might go to the store or they might not. People who hunt these figures are constantly making rounds flipping through the store shelves.

EXACTLY!!! It's the sales off the shelves that matter, which is why companies play the variant game. Not to inflate prices on the secondary market, but to increase sales to collectors in the primary market.

They occur for the reason you mention and the reasons i mention. They're manipulating collectability, 2nd market price is irrelevent to them.

Agreed, however, in your previous posts, it wasn't made so clear that this is the point you were driving at.

well i see it almost every day, and it works. Makes business sense to me.

It makes business if it drives sales in the primary market, not if it's used solely to manipulate prices in the secondary market.

Like i said, I work at a toy store, so i always get favorite figure 'X'

I wish this was the case for myself.

But I have fun chasing the chase figures, so nyah!

[Roufuss]

Going to the original topic, of "Why is the Kim Possible toys for girls", "Why are the secondary figures of He-Man and lesser known Star Wars so hard to find", and other such things, it's cause of focus groups.

Toy companies don't think "Hm, we'll make this one rare, this will really fuck them over!!!" but they think "Hm, in this wave of star wars, we're putting out darth vader, anakin, luke, chewbacca, and senator empi watttobi. Kids aren't going to want the senator, it'll mainly be an adult thing, so don't put that many in the case because only adult collectors will get him".

They never released then that scalpers hunt him down EARLY in the morning as Korian said. I used to work at TRU, and there are people who were there every morning, well before we opened, that would just run to the action figure dept with a cart, and load up on everything worth value. When the reissue Optimus Prime came out, I just put it there the night before, some dude comes in that morning and clears the ENTIRE shelf onto his cart saying how "this will make a nice profit".

The companies don't make these figures rare or chase on purpose, sometimes we're lucky to get such rare figures that the toy companies know that only adults would be into, like the SW reference above. They just seem extremely hard to get because you've got the scalper, the employee who takes it before it hits the floor (like I used to), the scalper who cuts a deal with the employee so it NEVER sees the shelf, and then after all of that other adult collectors like you and me.

But mainly it's focus groups who decide these things. The shelves were flooded with variants of He-Man and Skeletor because "the kids focus group didn't want secondary figures", and probably with Kim Possible the girls took a great liking to the toys than the boys in the focus group.

But I have fun chasing the chase figures, so nyah!

I did too until I didn't have the time to be at toy stores every morning hoping I could hit the restock before the scalpers did, and realized I was really wasting my time over a piece of plastic.

By the time I got the "almighty rare chase figure", I'd paid for the toy 4 times over in gas money, and an indescribable amount of time, only to have it sit on my shelf.

[Captain Vegetable]

Roufuss, I said the same damned thing, but without the use of the focus groups angle. Good show.

PM me your address! DO IT NOW! Stop being lazy and freaking do it! NOOOOOOOOW!!!

By the time I got the "almighty rare chase figure", I'd paid for the toy 4 times over in gas money, and an indescribable amount of time, only to have it shit on my shelf.

Did you rub it's nose in it and say, "BAD TOY! Bad!"?

[Roufuss]

Roufuss, I said the same damned thing, but without the use of the focus groups angle. Good show.

PM me your address! DO IT NOW! Stop being lazy and freaking do it! NOOOOOOOOW!!!

Yours was all broken up and hard to read, plus mine had fun talking about scalpers as well =D

And yea, people really DO pay employees for a shot to get the rare figures, because the more then make up the cost when they take it back to their own store or ebay it. I knew someone who would give me some cash as long as I held him a decent amount of new simpsons playsets and figures, like the halloween of horror type deal, or main street.

Had another guy who was the hot wheels guy, another guy who was the he-man guy. But it's bad company policy, just one of the reasons I don't work there anymore

[Captain Vegetable]

THE ADDRESS, DAMN YOU! GIVE! ME! THE! ADDRESS!

[Cheebs]

Dude, there's a Wal*Mart right at Chichester Ave. and 322. You're in Wilmington, so it can't be more than 30 minutes away. They have somewhere around 4 Megatron figures, but the boxes are shot to Hell. I mean like missing bottoms and such. The figures are all in mint condition, but the boxes suck ass. I figure you're going to open the box and display him anyway, so what the Hell. Go for it. I'll be picking mine up tomorrow.

Hmmmmm.... I'll have to go there. Thanks.

[Fe 26]

Going to the original topic, of "Why is the Kim Possible toys for girls", "Why are the secondary figures of He-Man and lesser known Star Wars so hard to find", and other such things, it's cause of focus groups.

Well what I found stupid about the Kim Possible toys was that it was being forced into a niche market the show itself isn't in. The show isn't gender biased. The only thing girlie about it is the lead character is a girl. It is a action cartoon, simplistic, but still an action cartoon. Why they tried to force the toy line into direct competition with Barbie, Bratz, and god knows what else is beyond me.

Everyone knows the easiest and best way to make money is to find a un touched niche and exploit the hell out of it. It is always smarter to do something different that you know there is a demand for, instead of starting from scratch to compete against a established product or business.

You're not going to open a comic book store in a town that already has 6 comic book stores, you want to open one in a town with one or none. Or open a related store near that store, like a arcade or video rental, something that comic book buyers would like, but the town does not already have.

Competition is always bad. No matter what, it is money you are not getting.

Why they didn't make this an action toy line for girls, or make it enjoyable for both girls and boys is beyond me. They would have made more money either way.

[stormy]

Toy companies don't think "Hm, we'll make this one rare, this will really fuck them over!!!" but they think "Hm, in this wave of star wars, we're putting out darth vader, anakin, luke, chewbacca, and senator empi watttobi. Kids aren't going to want the senator, it'll mainly be an adult thing, so don't put that many in the case because only adult collectors will get him".

they short packed Leia dude. LEIA!!

About Kim Possible, you pretty much stated the reason Ironplant. Not as much competition in the girls toy market. Companies are actually very hard up to produce toys oriented to young girls other than dolls like Barbie. It's half of the market that is severely under represented and has the potential to sell tons (the Olsen Twins demographic). I really don't think they had much choice but to attempt to position the toys in this market or risk being squeezed out of an already crowded male action isle.

[Cheebs]

The same thing happened with the Powerpuff Girls. I thought the show was funny as hell, but then every product made for it had "10 year old girl" written all over it.

[Korian]

You can get C-10 pieces if you buy a unopened case yourself.