59 replies to this topic

[bgiles73]

QUOTE (bgiles73 @ Jun 8 2009, 05:05 PM)
I can guarantee it that if DST only did two-packs with every variation of Data, Picard,7 of 9 and Worf the four most recognized characters of the 24th century era, these would be selling through too.


But everyone one around here would be complaining endlessly about how repetitive the line is.

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But isn't that what's already happening with the endless Kirk and Spocks! Not according to DST that is what the retailers are wanting to meet preorders.

[Chris]

All the stores around here that have stocked Playmates Star Trek seem to be selling very well, the local TRU hardly had any Trek left.

[knightone]

But isn't that what's already happening with the endless Kirk and Spocks! Not according to DST that is what the retailers are wanting to meet preorders.

Yes, it is. And everyone is complaining.

[knightone]

I think you're giving DST the credit for AA's achievements.

Is the Enterprise-D an AA achievement? I believe that was done under DST's flag. The tricorder may have its flaws, but it is still light years ahead of what Playmates ever did with their role-play. Their plans for the TWOK phaser seem even more ambitious. All of that is under DST's watch. So it isn't just AA that did great things. DST is also striving to raise the bar.

[JonWes]

I'm starting to have doubts about everything, including future waves of Galaxy series figures. I hate to be so pessimistic, but I get the hunch these things are not selling well at all. It really sucks because I wanted this line to be a huge success! I mean, there are two Walmarts, one TRU, one target, and two Kmarts near me. In each of these stores you'll find plenty Star Trek 09 figures. I mean, they're all over the place. I don't know why. Makes me cringe. Because this movie is such a success, I thought these figs would fly off the shelves. But, no, they're all warming pegs around me. I shudder to think if this movie flopped; maybe they'd give them away or something. I think if new waves were really to come out in August, we'd see some protos by now. Maybe show us a new accessory for the bridge or something. Throw us a bone! Due to the "poor" sales of these figs, I think they may say screw figures for the upcoming movies. And that would not be good at all.

Oh, well, I hate to be so cynical, but I'm usually right about these things. Just last month I predicted that Terminator 4 would be a huge hit. Also, predicted that Calvin Borel would win his own Triple Crown!

If you saw my post in the main Playmates Star Trek thread, you'll see that Playmates is committed (along with Wal-Mart apparently) to Star Trek for at least the fall of this year. In fact, the new wave plus pictures is supposed to be announced either this week or next. Anecdotal evidence of what seems to be selling around you doesn't help much as it seems to vary kind of wildly from region to region, I've noticed.

[gkap]

Well I'm glad the movie figs are selling in some areas they are not moving in mine. Suprisingly though the dst stuff that my tru carries never stays for long.

[Gothneo]

Playmates is committed (along with Wal-Mart apparently) to Star Trek for at least the fall of this year.

Is that really that much of a commitment though? See it takes something like 18 mos to plan manufacture and ship product so it can be on shelves, so that means that they really committed to Fall of '09 product back at the end '07 or beginning of '08.

To get product on the pegs in the fall, they need to be wrapping up the manufacture and getting them on the ship about now.

Yes, I know if the line was selling really poorly, they could probably exercise some clause to terminate production and liquidate any product made before it even ships, so the fact that they are committed to the second wave seems to be a sign that it's selling well enough that they know they can at least re-coup their production & design investment, so that's nice, but I don't really see it a s a strong commitment to anything more.

If they want to put more product out in 2010, then they have to start planning now! (if they haven't already started!)

[JonWes]

If they want to put more product out in 2010, then they have to start planning now! (if they haven't already started!)

We've known since February or March that they had four waves planned taking them into early 2010. The planning is there... whether the line has sold well enough to justify it... that's another thing. But if Wal-Mart has just committed to carrying the product in the fall as of a week or so ago then it can't be doing THAT badly. And just because the toys are made for the fall doesn't mean they'd get into Wal-Marts automatically if the line was doing badly. The toy world is full of lines with waves that ended up being dumped at Big Lots and other discount stores because the chains no longer wanted them.

[Gothneo]

JonWes, I think were both on the same page.

All I'm saying is that it's not really that much of a commitment or that big of a deal as toys for the fall have to have been made by now. Those 2010 waves should be getting close to final pre-production stages, and I would expect that they would start making them before the end of the year if they want them to arrive on pegs early 2010.

If they were going to expand the line past the original 4 waves and expand it into 2011-2012, that would be some real news, but at this time all we are hearing is that they are still committing to what they had originally planned some while back.

I really don't see that as any indication that Playmates will get, or even try to get the entire Star Trek License.

[JonWes]

I really don't see that as any indication that Playmates will get, or even try to get the entire Star Trek License.

Yep, I agree. It's actually kind of hard for me to imagine that, to be honest. Not saying it's impossible.... but I do think past series might be a bit of a hard sell to stores even.

I wonder if they could do figures from Countdown though. It'd be neat to have future Picard, Geordi, Data and Worf figures along with a Reman or something.

[FHC]

Since DST is starting to get into the TRU scene, makes me think not. Sellig through there will help their bottom line and make them more stable.

[Gothneo]

Agreed FHC, in fact it appears to me (by way of all the TRU re-issue releases come hard and fast..) that DST is putting most of it's efforts into making the TRU deal a success.

I say this only because items like the Borg wave are in the DST "Delayed" repeat loop, while the TRU stuff seems to be coming rather quickly and with new (and welcomed surprise!) items such as Cage Spock and now Kang.

But I digress, back on topic!

I would like to see Playmates support the line through next year, not because I'm personally a fan of the playmates line, but because I know there are good amount of collectors out there who are, and (more importantly) I see any Trek Product that is on the shelves as an overall good thing for the franchise... after all I really doubt I'd be getting Chapel, Rand or Kang if TRU weren't interested in the line, and I know TRU wouldn't have been interested w/o the new movie and the Playmates products.

[knightone]

Yep, I agree. It's actually kind of hard for me to imagine that, to be honest. Not saying it's impossible.... but I do think past series might be a bit of a hard sell to stores even.

This is true. TRU has the ability to buy into almost the entire DST line, but they choose to only carry TOS. I don't think Playmates would have any more luck trying to sell TNG or DS9 or Voyager to TRU either. At the most, Playmates may try to make 3 3/4" figures based on TOS. I don't think they would do a 6" line for TOS as DST/AA's 7" line is too close in scale and would be almost a redundant line now that TRU is carrying the 7" DST reissues.

[weyoun_9]

Any news on this?

[FlaBat]

I hate it when a toy company changes scales. Mattel does it with Batman all the time. JLU is one size, The Batman was another and now Batman Brave and the Bold is yet another.

The original 4

[New Frontier]

^ I think that they've actually picked up the so called ball - no one does figures in the 4 3/4 scale anymore - Playmates saw the potential of the 3 3/4 range as it is, as you pointed out, a scale that EVERYONE uses which allows for interaction between lines (for example: Star Wars and Star Trek can now be interacted by kids who love Star Wars and now love Star Trek). It also allows for more play-sets and ships that don't have to be huge or that much out of scale with the figure.

If anything i believe that for kids - which this line is primarily for - the 3 3/4 scale is the ONLY scale to produce figures in. FYI, the articulation in these figures is much better than the figures of PM's past.

[VulcanFanatic]

I too think that i would rather have seen 4 3/4" figures from Playmates than the 3 3/4" figures that we got, because i liked the original Playmates figures and the slightly larger size would have allowed for better detail. I imagine that Playmates was looking at making Playsets for the figures, and wanted to scale back the figures because larger figures mean larger playsets and larger costs to put it out, and larger prices at the store which translate into the possibility of lower sales which means less profit. My 2 cents.

[TheHSBR]

I love the 3 3/4" scale and think it was a wise move to go there. From my customizing Ive also found that the 4 3/4" scale that playmates previous did was just way out of proportion. Those figures' heads were just way too big for their bodies most of the time. I think that was the trend at the time because the Hasbro WWF line was the same exact way. I think doing that scale would only have appealed to old collectors of the line. I for one would have passed because I have no desire to return to the past and restart that line. I think the biggest mistake was the 6" line. I think they should have went a step further and gone 7" for it to match the DST line. Its really a shame that they went smaller because it would have been cool to get some matching figs in the DST scale. Marvel screwed up their movie lines for a long time by not catering to the Marvel Legends collectors. They wised up at the end by releasing dual lines. I appreciate the 3 3/4" line but really wish playmates would have gone the 1" more on their bigger figs.

[NickyTea]

I have a feeling at eventually production methods will advance to the point where figures will be so inexpensive to produce, they they'll be able to supply EVERY character. If the technology was some more advanced form of the 3d printing/CNC machining we have now, you could easily do a one-off, or on an order-by-order basis. Have a main line of figs that appear in the stores, then on the back, advertise the HUNDREDS of other figures you can order custom.

[FlaBat]

The 3 3/4" Playmates figures are on Clearance at Wal-Mart and even at $4.00 I still won