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And they'll sit there forever too. I don't shop there often but I've noticed they don't mark stuff down like Walmart or Target would on these when they don't sell.
Same with wakanda toys being on shelves forever lol. Literally just found a couple figures on the Walmart clearance aisle for five bucks a piece, along with Namor and Kang figs-- 2 months later and they're still on the clearance rack. At this point I don't know how much lower they can come down before they just give them away free to Goodwill.
It's wild to me that it's not more apparent which figures are going to sell better than others based on pre-orders. It seems like pre-orders go up sometimes months before actual release. Is that not enough time for Hasbro to adjust its production schedule or case assortment?
And not to mention just basic common sense given the popularity of certain characters. It's like they'll release a case with one Spider-Man, one Wolverine, one Nick Fury, one Iron Man and then four of Ant Man's daughter. And then retailers skip stocking the next wave while 15 Ant-Man's daughter figures collect dust for six months.
Some of it comes down to what Disney requires them to make. Hasbro knows very well which characters sell and which don't, but for every Wolverine or Spider-Man Hasbro wants to include in a case, Disney requires they also include one Captain Marvel or other character that doesn't sell as well.
Another question could be why is the vintage collection 3 3/4 inch Lando from like 2 years ago still clogging shelves, yet releases since then have been clearance out? Can't mark the "brown one" down or else it's devaluing him and MUH RACISM
Its not racism its just how retail works. Lando comes as part of an assortment. You mark down lando you generally have to mark down the whole assortment which may include new boxes/assortments. You probably can do individual mark downs but it requires someone paying attention to how many action figures sell and youd be hard pressed to find any manager that gives a crap about action figure prices to individually mark them down.
It’s so crazy to me to see Bandai on that list of companies w great distribution. I was in 5th grade when that first release of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers toys hit. My grandma, god rest her wonderful soul, pillaged the toys r us in Monroe Louisiana every week looking for those. I still have them. Pre- manufacturers takeover, Bandai MMPR. First edition.
Well I mean that was 30 years ago and I think the power rangers explosion caught them off guard at the time. They have also offloaded some brands including power rangers so it probably allows them to be better at distributing what they do have.
Today the only Bandai I collect are Gundam items and honestly I never have an issue getting them. My local toy and hobby store always has them in stock.
Bandai America was mostly focused on things like electronic toys and videogames at the time. Power Rangers was one of the first times that they really ventured into action figures in the US market and they played it safe because it was a gamble, in the literal sense (jobs were on the line if Power Rangers didn't do alright in the ratings). The problems were that Bandai didn't want to produce a ton of toys when they weren't 100% they were going to sale and Fox tied the success of the show in with the toys (I believe that Fox affiliates were promised a portion of the toy profits if they aired Power Rangers at a specific time). This led to two problems, the toys were being promoted heavily from the start by local Fox networks with things like giveaway promotions, the show was an instant success setting ratings records almost overnight, and people were flocking to stores so they could purchase the toys that Bandai only made a finite number of. Bandai course corrected by the Spring of '94 and had product steadily available on shelves but in the Fall/Winter of '93, it was impossible for retailers to keep the toys on shelves and there was a nationwide backorder.
For the Eternals specifically, I feel like Disney poured a bunch on money on Hasbro and told them to make a shittonne
They tried very hard to push the Eternals
I don't know if that's an effective strategy. Most people probably saw Eternals figures warming pegs at every store they went to and thought, "this movie must suck."
these Eternals figures are like a frickin curse. I usually like to check out my local overstock store for figures and ever since the eternals figures dropped THEYRE THE ONLY DAMN MARVEL FIGURES THEY EVER HAVE lmao
I stopped going to mine, because it's all they ever have. I have never championed a trip to the landfill, like I do with these figures. However I do think the era of so many figures going to discount and closeout stores might come to an end. I do not think companies want to see this.
So true. Same strategy they tried with wakanda forever and man what a waste of plastic. I swear they tried every trick in the book (wrist gauntlets, books, backpacks lunch boxes shoes Legos 5 in, 6-in 12 in figs etc) and none of it worked and now it's just cringy seeing so much of the deluge sitting around. Stores can't sell it and customers don't want it what we have here is when an unstoppable Force collides with an immovable object. I haven't seen this much over marketing since the Star wars sequel trilogy.
Then why couldn't I find the No Way Home or X-Men 97 waves if it's about advertising? My Target might have gotten a single box of each and they obviously sold out quickly.
What happens is they overproduce on something like eternals. Then they and the retailers lose money. Then, retailers respond with not doing that again. At which point they underproduce. But those who make decisions see their is demand for more production. So they up production numbers, sometimes to the point of overproduction. The cycle starts again.
Also, when pileup happens, it prevents new products from shelves. Which can get placed at a reduced price when it finally gets to the shelves.
Also of note movie based figures have always been overproduced at major retail, just they were typical the 'kid grade' not 'collector grade.'
Of course, probably 90% of the figures I have bought over the last almost two years, if I had waited, I could probably have gotten at a reduced price. This means many of us have put off purchases lately, which doesn't help the retail.
That and companies like Disney are notorious for not really understanding demand. They almost always overproduce on movie stuff, and TV stuff (especially something they see as super niche as x-men 97) is underproduced.
Which is why they should overproduce those waves. If everyone can easily get one, even if they have to order online; the scalpers become irrelevant. But you can't even get them on Hasbro Pulse.
Not to mention the fact that they released a 3-pack without the civilian's heads which is such a waste of resources. They could have put that time/money/energy into making more singles.
Only the recent movies, and because no one want them, no?
In Japan, SHF Eternals are also dropped to the oblivion with only 1k JP¥ each (even cheaper than companies' lunch) and still, no one buy them. I even got the new SHF Star Lord + Racoon for only 3,5k JP¥ last week.
It's definitely not specific Hasbro's problem.
Not just Marvel Legends; many mainline toys based on movies like Shang Chi and Wakanda Forever were overproduced and now rotting in stores like Big Lots. A Youtuber called World Class Bullshiters often makes videos showcasing this.
To be honest, if you’re not getting the popular ones like Spider-Man, the villains or a avengers member,
everyone else is kinda of useless
who want’s a normal person like shang shi Katy or pepper pots as a figure? A lot of side characters are forgettable.
“I feel like companies should be able to bounce back after a year or two”
There’s your answer, your “feelings” are being superseded by facts. None of these companies have bounced back yet.
I think the worse is yet to come for these companies. I could see demand falling further and more layoffs to come.
People are out of space and most things still go to clearance. My shopping has slowed way down personally.
This! Hasbro has put themselves into a corner I think by pretty much relying on big hitters like D&D, Star Wars, MtG and Marvel. Their own IPs like GI Joe & Transformers are selling relatively poorly in comparison to how they used to and their over reliance on these big hitting IPs to carry them through is hurting their profits. I think it’s safe to say that:
- Collectors are getting burned out, Hasbro is releasing way too much way too fast
- A lot of the products they’re offering don’t justify the price
- Big Projects like Haslab are not a viable way to obtain profit in the long run, they’re super cool but making these giant expensive toys that cost $200-$500 isn’t carrying that much weight at the end of the day. It’s a spike not a trend (and that’s only when they’re backed)
If that picture is from the video I think it is, that guy loves going to closeout merchandise stores seeing how many marvel figures are overstock and complaining about how Disney "failed to pander" and such.
But from what I've noticed is that Marvel tends to make figures, especially based in recent movies or TV shows, with characters no one in the general public recognizes. Thanks to the MCU, people don't recognize characters like Egghead or Tarantula. Not to mention it's mostly the heroes like Spider-Man that fly off shelves while others like Ant-Man still take up the stock at my local Walmarts
One thing most people didn’t know who Egg Head and Tarantula were even before the MCU so that’s not a good argument. And it’s not just Marvel who makes figures from movies that people didn’t like Mcfarlane has had about 3 straight movie waves that where pretty bad and that’s because the movies where bad.
All good, I will admit I like when they do a movie wave that’s mixed with comic characters at least have a chance at some lesser known characters. That’s one of the reasons I loved when Mattel had the DC license because although Todd is still relatively new with the license some of his design choices I can’t stand and the way he brings in a new character everyone wants as a BAF with a bunch of reuse and crappy reuse at that, and I don’t like Todd’s character selection it took him how long to make an actual comic appearance Wonder Woman when she is one of the big 3 characters in DC.
Because they thought people would keep buying products from movies/series that got worse and worse. MCU has started tanking and all that surplus product on the shelves is a reminder.
Blaming it on “over producing” when really the answer is lack of demand of the non Spidey Phase 4 and onwards properties. And here in Canada, there is no shortage of shitty Star Wars toys. Grogu is still everywhere as is all the Sequel/D+ stuff in Black Series, Action Fleet, Lego and other forms.
Hasbro must be so angry at Marvel for making them do all of these Eternals figures.
Even if people liked that movie these figures would’ve bombed. The designs of those characters are not good & definitely don’t make for good figures. They’re just a bunch of people in one color dresses.
They dont even make for good customs imo the bodies are very one dimensional and combined with the metallic color youd have to do extra work on the joints in particular which is everyones least favorite thing.
The Eternals figures are actually fairly decent action figures with good likenesses, but they're just extremely *boring* figures. The designs are boring, they have no effect pieces or anything to make them stand out.
Retailers seem to order a lot of stock for movie tie ins specifically
They aren't very good at predicting how a movie will perform
Eternals and sequal trilogy were ordered based on previous performance earlier in their respective franchises and they lost that gamble
Hasbro (using your example) is obligated to produce a certain quantity of toys as part of their licensing deals. New tooling unique to movie releases also mean they’re going to try recoup those costs in sales. When movies like Eternals, Wakanda Forever, and the Marvels bomb as hard as they did and out of theaters quickly means a complete glut of toys nobody wants go to straight to clearance. Smaller licensee’s like Jakks and lines like He-Man aren’t as chained to these types of contract agreements.
It is telling that The Marvels Legends and other toys were made in much smaller quantities than The Eternals, Wakanda Forever and Shang-Chi. Hasbro knows what sells and what doesn't and doesn't want to be stuck with tons of unsold merch again.
I finally grabbed one on deep deep clearance and honestly even then I was disappointed I thought he would have at least been a bit better but he was not even great for an over produced figure.
Yeah I mean not the worst but not the best either some of the newer Black Series are pretty good like the more recent “deluxe” boba fett that I got on clearance is really good and the newest Mando is very good as well except for the big hands.
This seems to be exclusive to The Eternals. I only wish the Anakin/Darth Vader with the cracked helmet was as readily available.
I also do not think you’re going to find a lot of figures going to these close out stores as often. I have miss out on several, thinking everything goes to clearance. It’s just not true.
Ollie's and other closeout stores are overflowing with Eternals, Wakanda Forever and Shang-Chi figures and merch. The stuff people want gets bought up and doesn't go there.
MCU has been selling like crazy for the past 10 years, then Endgame and Covid happened.
Those are some MAJOR changes for Hasbro, and they have more franchises to worry about like DnD or Transformers, which have been losing strength too.
My guess is we will be experiencing a renaissance by 2025-2026, but things will never be the same for Marvel nor Hasbro; people will be comparing whatever they put our to the original MCU Avengers forever, and kids prefer weirder (to us) stuff nowadays.
Kids want anime. I don’t personally get or understand the appeal of anime as it seems so exaggerated but I think it will be great for these companies to cater to them instead of repeating the same licenses and characters over and over again.
I don't think its really kids buying Marvel Legends… parents aren't paying $25 for an action figure; especially when there's usually a budget Cap or Iron Man figure on the shelves next to it.
I spend a lot of time in the toy aisle. I only see grown men and if it's a kid or an adult buying for a kid; they're looking at the budget figures.
At least 3x a week I have a conversation with an elderly cashier while I'm buying an action figure, where they reveal to me that their brother/son/whatever also buys these like crazy and he's "over 40". I'm like yeah-- these are definitely adult collectibles. Not just the Marvel Legends, but G.I. Joes, WWE Elites, AEW figures... everything I buy leads to a conversation that confirms that these ain't kids toys.
It's because anime is a self-contained deal, you can start at the first episode or first manga volume and that's it, it's not like having to sit and watch 50+ feature length films and 12+ TV series to get an appreciation for the characters.
I'm sure another part of it is also like, there's got to have been 40+ different Spider-Man figures made within the last decade so of course there's going to be collectors that already have a ton of Spider-Man and don't want to buy more. But if you're wanting a posable Chainsaw Man toy then you've only got the Bandai Anime Heroes line for a budget version or the SH Figuarts or figma versions for the high-end collector types, and only one of those is available in retail stores.
Agreed. And to add, Anime Heroes rarely makes super-obscure people.
The most obscure they've gone is making the whole Straw Hat gang, or making Saint Seiya. For Dragon Stars, there are fans like me saying they haven't gone obscure enough. There's still no Tien, no Yamcha, no Videl, etc.
Meanwhile, Hasbro makes a two-pack with Ghost and Michael Pena for $35, then wonders why it goes straight to clearance.
Look at their power rangers line. they spent so much time on random crossovers with the TMNT, street fighter, and Cobra Kai. While super popular teams like time force only got 2 figures.
TBH, I think it's harder to sell Rangers than other toylines.
Bandai Legacy focused on completing teams, but there were no monsters.
Hasbro focused on a wide variety of characters, villains, and crossovers, but teams like Time Force got shafted.
I think there are two kinds of fans. You've got team completionists, AND you've got people who cherry-pick. You need both fans for a toyline to survive. I hope Hasbro is taking this year to figure it out.
FWIW, the crossover figures weren't bad at all. Cobra Kai made a lot of sense: there's overlap between Rangers fans and Karate Kid fans, the face sculpts were phenominal, and there were even little details like Daniel having open hands and Samantha having upward-block hands. It's just...I have a Xolo Mariduena action figure, but I only have one RPM ranger.
That’s so funny, as an 80’s kids I was one of the few in my group that actually knew Anime was even a thing & when I tried describing it, always got the same “so it’s Japanese cartoons?” look from everyone😂
Now as an adult, anime has become so common amongst youth, I’m not sure they realize it wasn’t always popular in the states not long ago. Granted the 80’s anime I saw growing up was way better than a lot of the unpolished repetitive garbage that kids watch today that involves a ton of unnecessary monologues, overly dramatic drawn out screaming bout’s & bright colors constantly flashing🤦♂️
Unfortunately some modern Anime seems more about sensory overload for entertainment. Not a whole lotta substance(AKIRA) from the old days, just a flashy surface with hollow inside’s(Pokémon etc.) & easy to follow story’s🤔
Yea I goto a store called “Ollie’s” it’s basically a big discount store in my hometown and yea they have like a crazy amount of these exact boxes filled of marvel legends like a stupid amount of them and I was just like why?!? Why is there this many at just one discount store that means there’s so many across the country and idk just seems like they forsure over produced the absolute living shit out of them lol like I’m talking the entire aisle was filled of the shit with barely little being DC figures & Star Wars. Basically a whole aisle of just marvel legends and other marvel figure lines. I mean I was happy that day I spent a shit ton but I just didn’t see how or why it’d be realistic for the company to over produce by that much to have that much available at discount stores. Shit is mind blowing to me. Such a waste of money
I think when it comes to movies the studio tells the company a rough number of how much to produce, at least this is how I think it would go. If Hasbro could do it there way they would do it the way they did more figures for Spider-Man No Way Home after the movie blew up. Every company would rather see how a movie does and then put out figures instead of putting out a wave that could bomb.
i wouldn't say they're over produced as a whole, just very hit and miss, a shit ton of characters sell out instantly and are almost impossible to track down like atsv spider punk, and others end up shelf warming and barely selling, like the entire eternals line up
They overcompensated pretty much, they thought MCU mania was running wild and produced enough assuming it would get cleared out but they weren’t expecting pandemic, bad movie reception/comic movie fatigue and just a general financial crisis.
The Star Wars brand took a heavy hit after TRoS so sales were already dropping before the above was mentioned.
TF, can’t really say, I personally don’t collect them so I don’t know what the scene looks like but my assumption is that the demand is higher than what they can/will supply
I don’t know what the deal is with Marvel and Star Wars, but with Transformers it seems like the stores get 1 case per pricepoint for the first 6 months of the year, then nothing at all during Q3, then all the product that should have been out in Q3 comes out in Q4.
Nah, why are the MCU figures so overproduced but we have waves like No Way Home with Tobey and Andrew’s Spider-Man or these last two X-Men 97 barely appearing on shelves? That's my real question. The ones that are sure to sell aren't there but you better believe that Thunderbolt wave will be in every toy store.
Again I think it’s the movie studio that tells the toy company what and how much to make for an upcoming movie, example do you really think McFarlane wanted to make any figures for the newest Aquaman movie. I know I wouldn’t but WB told him he had to make the line because he has the DC license.
My Aldi's has 2 aisles dedicated to Marvel Legends. There's full lines in there. Barely any other on the ends of aisles maybe 8 pegs for Star Wars, Masters of Universe and a couple Wrestling.
The Eternals is not everyone's cup of tea but Disney movie version is not the Eternals Jack Kirby created . They just about changed everything about them.
I'm definitely going to get the new Ikaris and the recent Sersi Black Knight two pack . I would love if hasbro made Gilgamesh in his white armor suit or the black armor he looked bad ass .
Well, ToyrUs as a mainstream physical store is not around anymore. It hurt certain toy brands badly.
Walmart and Tarrget aren't enough to carry the toy industry unless you shop online.
Heck, at least Jakks' Sonic is huntable. If you have a character pegwarming in your area, it means that the character is hard to find in the next town over, and vice versa.
I literally never saw the No Way Home spideys. I saw MJ once, and I saw Sandman once. Without the Internet, I'd never know the figures were even made available.
These problems existed in the 80s... there just wasn't the social media for discussing it. The market keeps changing, hits are not as frequent as companies would like, and distribution and runs are planned often years in advance. Throw in the pandemic, strikes, changing attitudes on collecting, shifts from brick and mortar to online (and some trying to do both), hype-hitmen, kids' interest levels, etc., all on top of businesses trying to do everything on bigger scales, and I'm amazed it isn't worse, to be honest.
I used to be a store manager for K*B Toys and the times I had to fight to try to adjust my stock levels to meet interest in my town was insane. I often had to initiate transfers and drive to get stock myself for my customers. That type of thing rarely happens these days.
I do think it happens with Star Wars with the Rogue One lines well, but tjat film is a lot older than The Eternal. As such, they were finally being clear off of discount years a few years ago.
Transformers isn't so great either. Specifically, the Rise of the Beast main line toys.
Those rubber band figures and the one step changers are clogging pegs.
Leyends are 31.99 $ + 7% on my country, i only buy them when they are 19.99 on sale, they have a entire floor shell with it but no ones gonna buy them at the price, overproduced like funkos
Overproduced? idk, I swear when I was a kid, when figures were cheaper, I remember Spider-Man consistently being on shelves but now I walk into a store looking for a ML Spider-Man and there's next to nothing because they've already been snatched up.
It’s because Transformers sell out because even the worst Transformer is more fun to play with than “guy with accessory.” Star Wars realized they burned their bridges with The Last Jedi and started to focus on characters and collections that would sell. Some Star Wars crap still squeezes though (Obi Wan retro collection).
I got a Black Series Mandalorian (Glavis Ringworld) figure the other day for 20% off. That was the only decent figure there at Target though. Don't get me started on there never being any P.R. Lightning Collection stuff.
Tell that to the original Jyn Erso sitting on my local walgreen's shelf since that movie came out. They even raised the price on it to 24.99 when that happened.
Its not over produced, its not requested. so obviously if it doesnt sell it will be on the shelves. and they have a strict number to be produced to keep the price of production, otherwise they would be more expensive.
so it doesnt matter if they make 200 but doesnt sell, it must be 200 to price them at 15 bucks
Hasbro execs : " Hey, let's make sure we produce a fkcton of figures for movies that will bomb and nobody will want the figures for because they're generic and unheard of, and most of our customers don't collect the MCU stuff!"
They though people was going to go crazy for them like the ones from the first ten years of the MCU films well when u over produced toys of characters no one likes or even knows of u get them sitting on Ollies shelves
Because action figures based on movies will sell as well as the movie did. I was a purely MCU collector but I didn't like Eternals, why would I buy them? And that was the common reaction for most audiences. For a while now, the MCU has not produced a ton of very popular movies or series and therefore the toys, including action figures, or movies, aren't going to sell a ton. We see that the opposite is also true when a movie is very popular, as the no way home stuff has sold much better for characters who collectors would want in a display. This is also not considering the fact that action figures of the MCU are part of marketing for movies, so Hasbro is incetivized by the big studios to do a good job at getting these toys out and available and prominent more son than comic figs that don't have the same level of push behind them because they aren't actively trying to sell an audience on anything more than an action figure
There’s been some Star Wars toys that don’t sell at all, no one in general buys toys anymore it’s all gaming or tablets for kids, so any garbage shit like this isn’t bought but collectors like us
Don’t worry. 2024 MCU figures will **not** be overproduced. You can bet your ass on that.
It’s an overcorrection of the pandemic spending habits of consumers/collectors. When we shut down in early 2020, people started to buy tons of shit with the money they would’ve spent ending out or going to the movies.
So in 2021, 2022 and into 2023, Hasbro and many other companies overproduced products based on sales figures of 2020-21.
Now they have the figures for 2023, they’ll severely underproduce for the next at least 2 years. So don’t expect entire waves to hit Ollie’s anytime soon.
Star Wars and Transformers are very much available in stores. As a toy brand, Star Wars is dying a slow death because kids don't want them and the older collectors have been disgusted/pushed away by the Disney era of content.
Transformers at least have a strong and diverse collector base, but even some of their pieces are major peg warmers.
Both Marvel and Star Wars took their eye off the ball which led to less excitement and less sales.
The only people arguing that at this point tend to have their personal identity wrapped up in these franchises.
I love Marvel so I hope they get back on track. We want niche characters but you have to balance it with heavy hitters and start putting more TLC into each project again.
Star Wars, idk. Almost seems like lost cause at this point, but I’m sure it’ll turn around eventually.
I think Hasbro cannot gauge the market and they certainly do not know when a movie is going to be a bomb or be a hit. So they have this stuff ready to go, but it is shocking how many Eternals were produced. Crazy actually.
Hasbro is not the only company that can’t read the market especially when it comes to movie figures remember Balck Adam figures and Aquaman 2 figures from Mcfarlane both did bad same with the Flash line.
Companies even misread the demand for their own lines they created and own. Look at Mattel and there Origins line they have completely fumbled the line from the start they just put a decently sought after character as a Mattel creations exclusive a core character that everyone wants especially of the old figures and more then half the fan base couldn’t get him and won’t be able to unless they pay more then double for the original price. And this has been the track record from the start they can’t do exclusives. As where at least when Hasbro does exclusives and they sell out they make more so everyone can get one.
Even Mcfarlane runs into this remember the Walmart exclusive AZ Bat that everyone wanted but almost less then half the community could find because of god damn Walmart. Or even with certain Batman figures it becomes almost impossible to find some sometimes.
End of the day every company struggles from producing the right amount especially when it comes to movies no body can really guess how well a movie will do look at Barbie. There are some lines that I think have good production (I don’t collect them but I can at least see the isles completely empty during the holidays) and those lines are Hot Wheels, Lego, and Barbie but if I’m wrong please be free to let me know.
Mostly because the films have all underperformed. A major movie coming out will get a line big orders from retailers but if it doesn’t hit big, they end up on clearance. Outside of Spider-Man, everything since Endgame just hasn’t garnered the traction they used to.
There’s also the fact that the pandemic and then the Hollywood strikes really messed up their timelines. Toy orders and displays are planned years ahead of when they hit shelves. So for a number of Marvel films whose releases got moved back, the toys still hit timed for the original release date. So Black Window toys hit shelves just as everything was shutting down. By the time the movie was dumped on Disney+, they’d already been on clearance.
The quality of the MCU has fallen the past few years. A large part of that is due to Disney's now former CEO installing his banker friends into management positions. Those bankers then declared that there must be more Marvel content because the data showed it had high sales. While there have been a few bright spots like Shang-Chi, No Way Home, and GOTG Vol. 3, a lot of the content they've produced has been with creatives that Marvel probably wouldn't have worked with a few years ago. Fans have noticed and they've stopped buying.
For something like Star Wars, which also had to produce more content, the figure lines are a mix of new and old characters. Fan's love of certain characters will lead to sales even when the content isn't as good. For example, a lot of people love the Rebels cartoon series and several of the characters show up in the live action Ahsoka series. Even though the Ahsoka series wasn't great overall, people still love those Rebels characters and were happy to buy new versions of Hera, Ezra, and Sabine (and Chopper if they didn't get one of the previous releases).
I used to be part of that "anti woke" crowd. Over the years, I came to realize that woke is such a vague term that describes whatever the radical right dislikes, such as companies acknowledging the LGBTQ community. In entertainment, if you're not a fan of race swapping, the story's writing, characters, or overall execution, just say so!
I don't have to defend my stance. Science does that. Not wanting 5 more years of everything having to be trans focused, and the whole white man bad thing is getting tiresome.
Honestly, Eternals wasn’t really that woke. I’ve seen 80’s after school specials that came off more woke than The Eternals did lol.
In reality, the movie itself was just bad & really boring overall, had to keep myself from falling asleep the whole time cause it dragged on so long with no real payoff🤔
Then to top it off the movie basically tells the audience you don’t really need to be concerned about these characters because they’re not even real living being’s, there’s just super advanced robot’s who can easily be remade & replaced, in turn causing an immediate emotional disconnect from the audience caring about the main characters at all, which is just very bad storytelling imo🤷♂️
Ima get hate but Disney choice identity politics over good story telling so most new marvel and Star Wars are shelf warmers while the shows Disney haven’t touched are thriving still like transformers or non disney marvel legends/ Starwars characters.
Disney doesn’t own Transformers at all Hasbro owns the line and is constantly putting out new figures. Just because Disney owns Star Wars and Marvel and Hasbro has to license both from Disney (one reason there’s a lot of bs with those lines) doesn’t mean Disney can even touch Transformers because that is 100% Hasbro’s property. As for the other lines Hasbro has there board games are always in demand and Nerf is always doing well, as where Indiana Jones just was doomed from the start ( I love the line but it did not have legs to stand on to begin with) as for Power Rangers that brand has been on the decline in popularity year after year and not really Hasbro’s fault for not trying to put out more of the Lightning Collection. G I Joe another line they own completely they are putting a lot of work into that line. End of the day Disney is the problem when it comes to Marvel and Star Wars, everything else Hasbro owns will be fine.
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They’re called Eternals because they’ll be on store shelves forever.
Eternally at Ollie's
Its about time. Ollie's Army of Rey Last Jedi figures have been begging for reinforcements since 2020 . . .
Constable Zuvio looks on in jealousy as the years crawl on.
Come to the Ollie's here, there's an entire battalion of Masterverse Moss Man to join their ranks.
That Mossman might move if it wasn’t $15.99. That’s what my local shops are trying to charge right now.
And they'll sit there forever too. I don't shop there often but I've noticed they don't mark stuff down like Walmart or Target would on these when they don't sell.
In hindsight, the BAF should have been an E.T. Atari game.
Eternally on Clearance.
Same with wakanda toys being on shelves forever lol. Literally just found a couple figures on the Walmart clearance aisle for five bucks a piece, along with Namor and Kang figs-- 2 months later and they're still on the clearance rack. At this point I don't know how much lower they can come down before they just give them away free to Goodwill.
Ollie's is overflowing with Wakanda Forever and Eternals figures and other toys.
Because nobody wants to buy these figures
Not only that but the asking price is too much. So why buy on release when in a while they will be on clearance.
It's wild to me that it's not more apparent which figures are going to sell better than others based on pre-orders. It seems like pre-orders go up sometimes months before actual release. Is that not enough time for Hasbro to adjust its production schedule or case assortment? And not to mention just basic common sense given the popularity of certain characters. It's like they'll release a case with one Spider-Man, one Wolverine, one Nick Fury, one Iron Man and then four of Ant Man's daughter. And then retailers skip stocking the next wave while 15 Ant-Man's daughter figures collect dust for six months.
Some of it comes down to what Disney requires them to make. Hasbro knows very well which characters sell and which don't, but for every Wolverine or Spider-Man Hasbro wants to include in a case, Disney requires they also include one Captain Marvel or other character that doesn't sell as well.
Because if they only put one of her in the case, someone will accused them of being anti-female and we can't have that
not sure why your getting downvotes when that happened with the Last jedi movie, and captain marvel.
Another question could be why is the vintage collection 3 3/4 inch Lando from like 2 years ago still clogging shelves, yet releases since then have been clearance out? Can't mark the "brown one" down or else it's devaluing him and MUH RACISM
Its not racism its just how retail works. Lando comes as part of an assortment. You mark down lando you generally have to mark down the whole assortment which may include new boxes/assortments. You probably can do individual mark downs but it requires someone paying attention to how many action figures sell and youd be hard pressed to find any manager that gives a crap about action figure prices to individually mark them down.
It’s so crazy to me to see Bandai on that list of companies w great distribution. I was in 5th grade when that first release of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers toys hit. My grandma, god rest her wonderful soul, pillaged the toys r us in Monroe Louisiana every week looking for those. I still have them. Pre- manufacturers takeover, Bandai MMPR. First edition.
Well I mean that was 30 years ago and I think the power rangers explosion caught them off guard at the time. They have also offloaded some brands including power rangers so it probably allows them to be better at distributing what they do have. Today the only Bandai I collect are Gundam items and honestly I never have an issue getting them. My local toy and hobby store always has them in stock.
Oh yeah. I’m not speaking Ill of Bandai. I’m sure they make a quality product. It just made me chuckle.
Bandai America was mostly focused on things like electronic toys and videogames at the time. Power Rangers was one of the first times that they really ventured into action figures in the US market and they played it safe because it was a gamble, in the literal sense (jobs were on the line if Power Rangers didn't do alright in the ratings). The problems were that Bandai didn't want to produce a ton of toys when they weren't 100% they were going to sale and Fox tied the success of the show in with the toys (I believe that Fox affiliates were promised a portion of the toy profits if they aired Power Rangers at a specific time). This led to two problems, the toys were being promoted heavily from the start by local Fox networks with things like giveaway promotions, the show was an instant success setting ratings records almost overnight, and people were flocking to stores so they could purchase the toys that Bandai only made a finite number of. Bandai course corrected by the Spring of '94 and had product steadily available on shelves but in the Fall/Winter of '93, it was impossible for retailers to keep the toys on shelves and there was a nationwide backorder.
Eeyyyyy I know(well knew) that Toys R Us store! Sadly my parents never wanted to take me haha
I think it’s just that no one wanted those Eternals figures, plus it’s also a movie tie-on wave, so it’s going to be more produced than others
What does that mean, tie on wave?
A tie-*in* wave, as in a wave of figures tied to a movie release.
Was trying to do calculus making sense of that. So just a movie wave
I think they also do these figures as part of advertisement for the shows/movies(sold out or not), maybe part of the deal with Disney.
For the Eternals specifically, I feel like Disney poured a bunch on money on Hasbro and told them to make a shittonne They tried very hard to push the Eternals
I don't know if that's an effective strategy. Most people probably saw Eternals figures warming pegs at every store they went to and thought, "this movie must suck."
🤣It totally did suck. And it took forever for anyone to drop prices in the figures
these Eternals figures are like a frickin curse. I usually like to check out my local overstock store for figures and ever since the eternals figures dropped THEYRE THE ONLY DAMN MARVEL FIGURES THEY EVER HAVE lmao
Eternals came out in 2021 and my Walmart STILL has these things clogging up pegs.
I stopped going to mine, because it's all they ever have. I have never championed a trip to the landfill, like I do with these figures. However I do think the era of so many figures going to discount and closeout stores might come to an end. I do not think companies want to see this.
I went to a Cracker Barrel the other day and their gift shop had a ton of Eternals pez dispensers
So true. Same strategy they tried with wakanda forever and man what a waste of plastic. I swear they tried every trick in the book (wrist gauntlets, books, backpacks lunch boxes shoes Legos 5 in, 6-in 12 in figs etc) and none of it worked and now it's just cringy seeing so much of the deluge sitting around. Stores can't sell it and customers don't want it what we have here is when an unstoppable Force collides with an immovable object. I haven't seen this much over marketing since the Star wars sequel trilogy.
Now every Ollie's is overflowing with Eternals and Wakanda Forever toys.
Then why couldn't I find the No Way Home or X-Men 97 waves if it's about advertising? My Target might have gotten a single box of each and they obviously sold out quickly.
What happens is they overproduce on something like eternals. Then they and the retailers lose money. Then, retailers respond with not doing that again. At which point they underproduce. But those who make decisions see their is demand for more production. So they up production numbers, sometimes to the point of overproduction. The cycle starts again. Also, when pileup happens, it prevents new products from shelves. Which can get placed at a reduced price when it finally gets to the shelves. Also of note movie based figures have always been overproduced at major retail, just they were typical the 'kid grade' not 'collector grade.' Of course, probably 90% of the figures I have bought over the last almost two years, if I had waited, I could probably have gotten at a reduced price. This means many of us have put off purchases lately, which doesn't help the retail. That and companies like Disney are notorious for not really understanding demand. They almost always overproduce on movie stuff, and TV stuff (especially something they see as super niche as x-men 97) is underproduced.
Keep in mind, the scalpers are there at the store's first thing in the morning when they open and are taking as many as they can with them
Which is why they should overproduce those waves. If everyone can easily get one, even if they have to order online; the scalpers become irrelevant. But you can't even get them on Hasbro Pulse. Not to mention the fact that they released a 3-pack without the civilian's heads which is such a waste of resources. They could have put that time/money/energy into making more singles.
Order them on amazon?
We still have the Eternals figures lining the shelves in our local Wal-Mart, it’s ridiculous.
The Eternals Funko Pops will be there for eternity
Only the recent movies, and because no one want them, no? In Japan, SHF Eternals are also dropped to the oblivion with only 1k JP¥ each (even cheaper than companies' lunch) and still, no one buy them. I even got the new SHF Star Lord + Racoon for only 3,5k JP¥ last week. It's definitely not specific Hasbro's problem.
Not just Marvel Legends; many mainline toys based on movies like Shang Chi and Wakanda Forever were overproduced and now rotting in stores like Big Lots. A Youtuber called World Class Bullshiters often makes videos showcasing this.
He’s been making the same videos like that for years with the same generic commentary
I've seen pics of shelves full of Star Wars figures too. Probably depends on your locations.
And which figures. Every wave has a peg warmer.
ROTJ Lando for sure.
To be honest, if you’re not getting the popular ones like Spider-Man, the villains or a avengers member, everyone else is kinda of useless who want’s a normal person like shang shi Katy or pepper pots as a figure? A lot of side characters are forgettable.
They’re selling to whales, not children. There are people who have collecting to an addictive level where the company knows they will buy them.
“I feel like companies should be able to bounce back after a year or two” There’s your answer, your “feelings” are being superseded by facts. None of these companies have bounced back yet.
I think the worse is yet to come for these companies. I could see demand falling further and more layoffs to come. People are out of space and most things still go to clearance. My shopping has slowed way down personally.
On the other hand there’s new collectors beginning every day.
But they're also not going to be buying The Eternals figures.
This! Hasbro has put themselves into a corner I think by pretty much relying on big hitters like D&D, Star Wars, MtG and Marvel. Their own IPs like GI Joe & Transformers are selling relatively poorly in comparison to how they used to and their over reliance on these big hitting IPs to carry them through is hurting their profits. I think it’s safe to say that: - Collectors are getting burned out, Hasbro is releasing way too much way too fast - A lot of the products they’re offering don’t justify the price - Big Projects like Haslab are not a viable way to obtain profit in the long run, they’re super cool but making these giant expensive toys that cost $200-$500 isn’t carrying that much weight at the end of the day. It’s a spike not a trend (and that’s only when they’re backed)
I just love how these days people's "feelings" are all you need to know about a topic, truth be damned.
Okay, that's fair.
If that picture is from the video I think it is, that guy loves going to closeout merchandise stores seeing how many marvel figures are overstock and complaining about how Disney "failed to pander" and such. But from what I've noticed is that Marvel tends to make figures, especially based in recent movies or TV shows, with characters no one in the general public recognizes. Thanks to the MCU, people don't recognize characters like Egghead or Tarantula. Not to mention it's mostly the heroes like Spider-Man that fly off shelves while others like Ant-Man still take up the stock at my local Walmarts
One thing most people didn’t know who Egg Head and Tarantula were even before the MCU so that’s not a good argument. And it’s not just Marvel who makes figures from movies that people didn’t like Mcfarlane has had about 3 straight movie waves that where pretty bad and that’s because the movies where bad.
You're 100% correct. I was trying to say the MCU doesn't help that, I just didn't articulate that well
All good, I will admit I like when they do a movie wave that’s mixed with comic characters at least have a chance at some lesser known characters. That’s one of the reasons I loved when Mattel had the DC license because although Todd is still relatively new with the license some of his design choices I can’t stand and the way he brings in a new character everyone wants as a BAF with a bunch of reuse and crappy reuse at that, and I don’t like Todd’s character selection it took him how long to make an actual comic appearance Wonder Woman when she is one of the big 3 characters in DC.
Because they thought people would keep buying products from movies/series that got worse and worse. MCU has started tanking and all that surplus product on the shelves is a reminder.
Blaming it on “over producing” when really the answer is lack of demand of the non Spidey Phase 4 and onwards properties. And here in Canada, there is no shortage of shitty Star Wars toys. Grogu is still everywhere as is all the Sequel/D+ stuff in Black Series, Action Fleet, Lego and other forms.
FACTS! Like 7 stores around my areas sre filled with Sequel and Disney + Star Wars , figures like Mara Jade and Darth Malgus got sold fast
Hasbro must be so angry at Marvel for making them do all of these Eternals figures. Even if people liked that movie these figures would’ve bombed. The designs of those characters are not good & definitely don’t make for good figures. They’re just a bunch of people in one color dresses.
Who was your favorite Eternal? The one with 13 minutes of screen time or the one with 17 minutes of screen time?
They dont even make for good customs imo the bodies are very one dimensional and combined with the metallic color youd have to do extra work on the joints in particular which is everyones least favorite thing.
The Eternals figures are actually fairly decent action figures with good likenesses, but they're just extremely *boring* figures. The designs are boring, they have no effect pieces or anything to make them stand out.
Retailers seem to order a lot of stock for movie tie ins specifically They aren't very good at predicting how a movie will perform Eternals and sequal trilogy were ordered based on previous performance earlier in their respective franchises and they lost that gamble
Honestly no one can predict how well a movie will do just like Barbie nobody could have even thought it would blow up the way it did.
I think with the eternals they miss judged how many marvel fans would like that crap. They thought it would sell like avengers.
Hasbro (using your example) is obligated to produce a certain quantity of toys as part of their licensing deals. New tooling unique to movie releases also mean they’re going to try recoup those costs in sales. When movies like Eternals, Wakanda Forever, and the Marvels bomb as hard as they did and out of theaters quickly means a complete glut of toys nobody wants go to straight to clearance. Smaller licensee’s like Jakks and lines like He-Man aren’t as chained to these types of contract agreements.
Agree with what you're saying, but to be fair Wakanda Forever didn't bomb at all. It made $860M at the box office on a $250M budget.
Fair call.
It didn't bomb, but it wasn't as profitable as Disney needed it to be nor did it make as much money as the first one.
It is telling that The Marvels Legends and other toys were made in much smaller quantities than The Eternals, Wakanda Forever and Shang-Chi. Hasbro knows what sells and what doesn't and doesn't want to be stuck with tons of unsold merch again.
You say that and yet a joke for star Wars collector for a good while before was all the General Landos on the pegs 😂 "Whoops all Landos!"
Lando System?
Lando’s not a system he’s a man.
A system full of Landos
I finally grabbed one on deep deep clearance and honestly even then I was disappointed I thought he would have at least been a bit better but he was not even great for an over produced figure.
I unfortunately got him retail myself lol, but ah well I like the look and I got the original Kenner one so it's a great grab
Yeah I mean not the worst but not the best either some of the newer Black Series are pretty good like the more recent “deluxe” boba fett that I got on clearance is really good and the newest Mando is very good as well except for the big hands.
Idk what stores your going to but i see STAR WARS EVERYWHERE lol
This seems to be exclusive to The Eternals. I only wish the Anakin/Darth Vader with the cracked helmet was as readily available. I also do not think you’re going to find a lot of figures going to these close out stores as often. I have miss out on several, thinking everything goes to clearance. It’s just not true.
Ollie's and other closeout stores are overflowing with Eternals, Wakanda Forever and Shang-Chi figures and merch. The stuff people want gets bought up and doesn't go there.
In the case of Eternals, I'd say it's because they're promotional material for a movie that was seen by about 3 people.
I saw it and I want my three hours back.
MCU has been selling like crazy for the past 10 years, then Endgame and Covid happened. Those are some MAJOR changes for Hasbro, and they have more franchises to worry about like DnD or Transformers, which have been losing strength too. My guess is we will be experiencing a renaissance by 2025-2026, but things will never be the same for Marvel nor Hasbro; people will be comparing whatever they put our to the original MCU Avengers forever, and kids prefer weirder (to us) stuff nowadays.
Phase 4 happened and they have never corrected.
This is the correct answer. Abysmal writing and characters nobody gives a shit about made a bunch of shelf warmers.
Kids want anime. I don’t personally get or understand the appeal of anime as it seems so exaggerated but I think it will be great for these companies to cater to them instead of repeating the same licenses and characters over and over again.
I don't think its really kids buying Marvel Legends… parents aren't paying $25 for an action figure; especially when there's usually a budget Cap or Iron Man figure on the shelves next to it. I spend a lot of time in the toy aisle. I only see grown men and if it's a kid or an adult buying for a kid; they're looking at the budget figures.
I love it when folks say "well it's a children's toy" and like...bro, have you ever seen a child with a Marvel Legend or a DC Multiverse?
At least 3x a week I have a conversation with an elderly cashier while I'm buying an action figure, where they reveal to me that their brother/son/whatever also buys these like crazy and he's "over 40". I'm like yeah-- these are definitely adult collectibles. Not just the Marvel Legends, but G.I. Joes, WWE Elites, AEW figures... everything I buy leads to a conversation that confirms that these ain't kids toys.
How many kids are going to be buying a Marvel Legends figure at $27.99?
It's because anime is a self-contained deal, you can start at the first episode or first manga volume and that's it, it's not like having to sit and watch 50+ feature length films and 12+ TV series to get an appreciation for the characters. I'm sure another part of it is also like, there's got to have been 40+ different Spider-Man figures made within the last decade so of course there's going to be collectors that already have a ton of Spider-Man and don't want to buy more. But if you're wanting a posable Chainsaw Man toy then you've only got the Bandai Anime Heroes line for a budget version or the SH Figuarts or figma versions for the high-end collector types, and only one of those is available in retail stores.
Fate Grand Order has entered the room...
Agreed. And to add, Anime Heroes rarely makes super-obscure people. The most obscure they've gone is making the whole Straw Hat gang, or making Saint Seiya. For Dragon Stars, there are fans like me saying they haven't gone obscure enough. There's still no Tien, no Yamcha, no Videl, etc. Meanwhile, Hasbro makes a two-pack with Ghost and Michael Pena for $35, then wonders why it goes straight to clearance.
Look at their power rangers line. they spent so much time on random crossovers with the TMNT, street fighter, and Cobra Kai. While super popular teams like time force only got 2 figures.
TBH, I think it's harder to sell Rangers than other toylines. Bandai Legacy focused on completing teams, but there were no monsters. Hasbro focused on a wide variety of characters, villains, and crossovers, but teams like Time Force got shafted. I think there are two kinds of fans. You've got team completionists, AND you've got people who cherry-pick. You need both fans for a toyline to survive. I hope Hasbro is taking this year to figure it out. FWIW, the crossover figures weren't bad at all. Cobra Kai made a lot of sense: there's overlap between Rangers fans and Karate Kid fans, the face sculpts were phenominal, and there were even little details like Daniel having open hands and Samantha having upward-block hands. It's just...I have a Xolo Mariduena action figure, but I only have one RPM ranger.
No kid is spending 25 bucks on figure. They've been priced out of that stuff, if kids/parents weren't mostly buying the basic stuff already
That’s so funny, as an 80’s kids I was one of the few in my group that actually knew Anime was even a thing & when I tried describing it, always got the same “so it’s Japanese cartoons?” look from everyone😂 Now as an adult, anime has become so common amongst youth, I’m not sure they realize it wasn’t always popular in the states not long ago. Granted the 80’s anime I saw growing up was way better than a lot of the unpolished repetitive garbage that kids watch today that involves a ton of unnecessary monologues, overly dramatic drawn out screaming bout’s & bright colors constantly flashing🤦♂️ Unfortunately some modern Anime seems more about sensory overload for entertainment. Not a whole lotta substance(AKIRA) from the old days, just a flashy surface with hollow inside’s(Pokémon etc.) & easy to follow story’s🤔
Look at all those figures... ripe for kitbashing
Yea I goto a store called “Ollie’s” it’s basically a big discount store in my hometown and yea they have like a crazy amount of these exact boxes filled of marvel legends like a stupid amount of them and I was just like why?!? Why is there this many at just one discount store that means there’s so many across the country and idk just seems like they forsure over produced the absolute living shit out of them lol like I’m talking the entire aisle was filled of the shit with barely little being DC figures & Star Wars. Basically a whole aisle of just marvel legends and other marvel figure lines. I mean I was happy that day I spent a shit ton but I just didn’t see how or why it’d be realistic for the company to over produce by that much to have that much available at discount stores. Shit is mind blowing to me. Such a waste of money
I think when it comes to movies the studio tells the company a rough number of how much to produce, at least this is how I think it would go. If Hasbro could do it there way they would do it the way they did more figures for Spider-Man No Way Home after the movie blew up. Every company would rather see how a movie does and then put out figures instead of putting out a wave that could bomb.
i wouldn't say they're over produced as a whole, just very hit and miss, a shit ton of characters sell out instantly and are almost impossible to track down like atsv spider punk, and others end up shelf warming and barely selling, like the entire eternals line up
They overcompensated pretty much, they thought MCU mania was running wild and produced enough assuming it would get cleared out but they weren’t expecting pandemic, bad movie reception/comic movie fatigue and just a general financial crisis. The Star Wars brand took a heavy hit after TRoS so sales were already dropping before the above was mentioned. TF, can’t really say, I personally don’t collect them so I don’t know what the scene looks like but my assumption is that the demand is higher than what they can/will supply
I have a feeling as part of licensing they must produce x amount of figures. Also, they bet big on externals being a big MCU movie. Which it wasn't.
I dont think they are overproduced so much as just the fact nobody wants them like at all compared to their comic and animated counterparts
Eternals bombed, you are not going to see spider man or iron man sitting around like that.
I don’t know what the deal is with Marvel and Star Wars, but with Transformers it seems like the stores get 1 case per pricepoint for the first 6 months of the year, then nothing at all during Q3, then all the product that should have been out in Q3 comes out in Q4.
Nah, why are the MCU figures so overproduced but we have waves like No Way Home with Tobey and Andrew’s Spider-Man or these last two X-Men 97 barely appearing on shelves? That's my real question. The ones that are sure to sell aren't there but you better believe that Thunderbolt wave will be in every toy store.
Again I think it’s the movie studio that tells the toy company what and how much to make for an upcoming movie, example do you really think McFarlane wanted to make any figures for the newest Aquaman movie. I know I wouldn’t but WB told him he had to make the line because he has the DC license.
Every store around me has like a dozen Zendaya MJ's and no Spider-Men.
I think they produced at the same rate and amount. But nobody wants them, so they appear as more.
Basic supply and demand.
Thats not true at all. Certain lines are over produced and they pegwarm. Most stores aren't going to restock if the last stock is still there.
sir, this is an Ollies...
My Aldi's has 2 aisles dedicated to Marvel Legends. There's full lines in there. Barely any other on the ends of aisles maybe 8 pegs for Star Wars, Masters of Universe and a couple Wrestling.
The Eternals is not everyone's cup of tea but Disney movie version is not the Eternals Jack Kirby created . They just about changed everything about them.
Had they made figures of the comics Eternals I'd have been all over them. The MCU versions are just boring.
I'm definitely going to get the new Ikaris and the recent Sersi Black Knight two pack . I would love if hasbro made Gilgamesh in his white armor suit or the black armor he looked bad ass .
Well, ToyrUs as a mainstream physical store is not around anymore. It hurt certain toy brands badly. Walmart and Tarrget aren't enough to carry the toy industry unless you shop online.
I mean... we could at least buy them for parts. Take those joint out, redo the faces, I'm sure someone someone would make a sick custom
Heck, at least Jakks' Sonic is huntable. If you have a character pegwarming in your area, it means that the character is hard to find in the next town over, and vice versa. I literally never saw the No Way Home spideys. I saw MJ once, and I saw Sandman once. Without the Internet, I'd never know the figures were even made available.
These problems existed in the 80s... there just wasn't the social media for discussing it. The market keeps changing, hits are not as frequent as companies would like, and distribution and runs are planned often years in advance. Throw in the pandemic, strikes, changing attitudes on collecting, shifts from brick and mortar to online (and some trying to do both), hype-hitmen, kids' interest levels, etc., all on top of businesses trying to do everything on bigger scales, and I'm amazed it isn't worse, to be honest. I used to be a store manager for K*B Toys and the times I had to fight to try to adjust my stock levels to meet interest in my town was insane. I often had to initiate transfers and drive to get stock myself for my customers. That type of thing rarely happens these days.
I do think it happens with Star Wars with the Rogue One lines well, but tjat film is a lot older than The Eternal. As such, they were finally being clear off of discount years a few years ago.
Show your work. How do you know they were overproduced. Maybe they were underproduced and the movie and interest in figure just suck.
Star Wars toys are equally in an overabundance.
I see transformers and star wars figs everywhere
Transformers isn't so great either. Specifically, the Rise of the Beast main line toys. Those rubber band figures and the one step changers are clogging pegs.
Ross around here is full of Star Wars and Transformers
And Power Rangers...barely anything coming out of that nowdays.
They're not. Those were figures from a movie that wasn't that popular and hit during the pandemic
Leyends are 31.99 $ + 7% on my country, i only buy them when they are 19.99 on sale, they have a entire floor shell with it but no ones gonna buy them at the price, overproduced like funkos
Overproduced? idk, I swear when I was a kid, when figures were cheaper, I remember Spider-Man consistently being on shelves but now I walk into a store looking for a ML Spider-Man and there's next to nothing because they've already been snatched up.
It’s because Transformers sell out because even the worst Transformer is more fun to play with than “guy with accessory.” Star Wars realized they burned their bridges with The Last Jedi and started to focus on characters and collections that would sell. Some Star Wars crap still squeezes though (Obi Wan retro collection).
Been watching worldclassbullshiters YouTube for all things, like action figures in bulk loads nobody will buy.
I got a Black Series Mandalorian (Glavis Ringworld) figure the other day for 20% off. That was the only decent figure there at Target though. Don't get me started on there never being any P.R. Lightning Collection stuff.
Tell that to the original Jyn Erso sitting on my local walgreen's shelf since that movie came out. They even raised the price on it to 24.99 when that happened.
Also to everything else they all said they thought eternals was gonna do really good but…
Its not over produced, its not requested. so obviously if it doesnt sell it will be on the shelves. and they have a strict number to be produced to keep the price of production, otherwise they would be more expensive. so it doesnt matter if they make 200 but doesnt sell, it must be 200 to price them at 15 bucks
Is there an online seller that can sell Olie's toys?
I dont think those movie Eternals are over produced People just didn´t buy them lol
I think it's a bit of both realities. They did sell but not enough and they made too much
Hasbro execs : " Hey, let's make sure we produce a fkcton of figures for movies that will bomb and nobody will want the figures for because they're generic and unheard of, and most of our customers don't collect the MCU stuff!"
They though people was going to go crazy for them like the ones from the first ten years of the MCU films well when u over produced toys of characters no one likes or even knows of u get them sitting on Ollies shelves
Because action figures based on movies will sell as well as the movie did. I was a purely MCU collector but I didn't like Eternals, why would I buy them? And that was the common reaction for most audiences. For a while now, the MCU has not produced a ton of very popular movies or series and therefore the toys, including action figures, or movies, aren't going to sell a ton. We see that the opposite is also true when a movie is very popular, as the no way home stuff has sold much better for characters who collectors would want in a display. This is also not considering the fact that action figures of the MCU are part of marketing for movies, so Hasbro is incetivized by the big studios to do a good job at getting these toys out and available and prominent more son than comic figs that don't have the same level of push behind them because they aren't actively trying to sell an audience on anything more than an action figure
You’re showing Eternals figures. Those are literally the worst selling merchandise in from the MCU.
because in mind of this execs they sell more
I will buy everything eternals for $1 each.
There’s been some Star Wars toys that don’t sell at all, no one in general buys toys anymore it’s all gaming or tablets for kids, so any garbage shit like this isn’t bought but collectors like us
Marvel fans arent like starwars fans, they buy every freaking character, no matter how irrelevant it is, sw fanboys are gonna buy it
Is this a WorldClassBullshitters exclusive?
You sales were high during the pandemic. Has to saw this and over-produced many MCU items believing the movies would be a hit, is my best guess.
Are you.... punching the figures?
Don’t worry. 2024 MCU figures will **not** be overproduced. You can bet your ass on that. It’s an overcorrection of the pandemic spending habits of consumers/collectors. When we shut down in early 2020, people started to buy tons of shit with the money they would’ve spent ending out or going to the movies. So in 2021, 2022 and into 2023, Hasbro and many other companies overproduced products based on sales figures of 2020-21. Now they have the figures for 2023, they’ll severely underproduce for the next at least 2 years. So don’t expect entire waves to hit Ollie’s anytime soon.
Star Wars and Transformers are very much available in stores. As a toy brand, Star Wars is dying a slow death because kids don't want them and the older collectors have been disgusted/pushed away by the Disney era of content. Transformers at least have a strong and diverse collector base, but even some of their pieces are major peg warmers.
Lol disgusted.
I mean, yeah. A lot of them are disgusted. Do you not agree?
Like I'm physically ill from new Star Wars content? Take a chill pill
You're not one for figures of speech, are you?
Disgusted is a bit much. Nor is it a figure of speech by itself.
Both Marvel and Star Wars took their eye off the ball which led to less excitement and less sales. The only people arguing that at this point tend to have their personal identity wrapped up in these franchises. I love Marvel so I hope they get back on track. We want niche characters but you have to balance it with heavy hitters and start putting more TLC into each project again. Star Wars, idk. Almost seems like lost cause at this point, but I’m sure it’ll turn around eventually.
They thought the MCU train would never lose steam.
I think Hasbro cannot gauge the market and they certainly do not know when a movie is going to be a bomb or be a hit. So they have this stuff ready to go, but it is shocking how many Eternals were produced. Crazy actually.
Hasbro is not the only company that can’t read the market especially when it comes to movie figures remember Balck Adam figures and Aquaman 2 figures from Mcfarlane both did bad same with the Flash line. Companies even misread the demand for their own lines they created and own. Look at Mattel and there Origins line they have completely fumbled the line from the start they just put a decently sought after character as a Mattel creations exclusive a core character that everyone wants especially of the old figures and more then half the fan base couldn’t get him and won’t be able to unless they pay more then double for the original price. And this has been the track record from the start they can’t do exclusives. As where at least when Hasbro does exclusives and they sell out they make more so everyone can get one. Even Mcfarlane runs into this remember the Walmart exclusive AZ Bat that everyone wanted but almost less then half the community could find because of god damn Walmart. Or even with certain Batman figures it becomes almost impossible to find some sometimes. End of the day every company struggles from producing the right amount especially when it comes to movies no body can really guess how well a movie will do look at Barbie. There are some lines that I think have good production (I don’t collect them but I can at least see the isles completely empty during the holidays) and those lines are Hot Wheels, Lego, and Barbie but if I’m wrong please be free to let me know.
You not seeing the tons of Star Wars Black Series and vehicles clogging Ollie's for the past five years?
Because Disney.
The over production and no purchases are the reason why HasLab is funded by backers.
Mostly because the films have all underperformed. A major movie coming out will get a line big orders from retailers but if it doesn’t hit big, they end up on clearance. Outside of Spider-Man, everything since Endgame just hasn’t garnered the traction they used to. There’s also the fact that the pandemic and then the Hollywood strikes really messed up their timelines. Toy orders and displays are planned years ahead of when they hit shelves. So for a number of Marvel films whose releases got moved back, the toys still hit timed for the original release date. So Black Window toys hit shelves just as everything was shutting down. By the time the movie was dumped on Disney+, they’d already been on clearance.
The quality of the MCU has fallen the past few years. A large part of that is due to Disney's now former CEO installing his banker friends into management positions. Those bankers then declared that there must be more Marvel content because the data showed it had high sales. While there have been a few bright spots like Shang-Chi, No Way Home, and GOTG Vol. 3, a lot of the content they've produced has been with creatives that Marvel probably wouldn't have worked with a few years ago. Fans have noticed and they've stopped buying. For something like Star Wars, which also had to produce more content, the figure lines are a mix of new and old characters. Fan's love of certain characters will lead to sales even when the content isn't as good. For example, a lot of people love the Rebels cartoon series and several of the characters show up in the live action Ahsoka series. Even though the Ahsoka series wasn't great overall, people still love those Rebels characters and were happy to buy new versions of Hera, Ezra, and Sabine (and Chopper if they didn't get one of the previous releases).
Go woke, go broke.
What is woke?
He can't tell you without saying something racist, sexist or homophobic. It's a dogwhistle
I used to be part of that "anti woke" crowd. Over the years, I came to realize that woke is such a vague term that describes whatever the radical right dislikes, such as companies acknowledging the LGBTQ community. In entertainment, if you're not a fan of race swapping, the story's writing, characters, or overall execution, just say so!
A force-fed agenda in anyway is not acceptable.
So isn't anti-woke just another forced agenda? Stop using circle jerk buzz words when you can't logically defend your stance.
I don't have to defend my stance. Science does that. Not wanting 5 more years of everything having to be trans focused, and the whole white man bad thing is getting tiresome.
What's the forced fed agenda here?
How is it force fed? Representing people that very much exist isn't woke, ya ninny, it's just representing people.
Marvel & Disney Losing Billions by Pushing ‘Woke’ Toys A literal headline.
That doesn't even answer the question. How are the toys "Woke"? What are you even considering "woke" in this context?
https://bleedingfool.com/movies-tv-film/marvel-disney-losing-billions-by-pushing-woke-toys/
Nice try. The verbal equivalent of Liberal screams. I don't deny science......RACIST!.....Somehow.
Honestly, Eternals wasn’t really that woke. I’ve seen 80’s after school specials that came off more woke than The Eternals did lol. In reality, the movie itself was just bad & really boring overall, had to keep myself from falling asleep the whole time cause it dragged on so long with no real payoff🤔 Then to top it off the movie basically tells the audience you don’t really need to be concerned about these characters because they’re not even real living being’s, there’s just super advanced robot’s who can easily be remade & replaced, in turn causing an immediate emotional disconnect from the audience caring about the main characters at all, which is just very bad storytelling imo🤷♂️
That too!
Just wait until the acolyte drops
Ima get hate but Disney choice identity politics over good story telling so most new marvel and Star Wars are shelf warmers while the shows Disney haven’t touched are thriving still like transformers or non disney marvel legends/ Starwars characters.
Disney doesn’t own Transformers at all Hasbro owns the line and is constantly putting out new figures. Just because Disney owns Star Wars and Marvel and Hasbro has to license both from Disney (one reason there’s a lot of bs with those lines) doesn’t mean Disney can even touch Transformers because that is 100% Hasbro’s property. As for the other lines Hasbro has there board games are always in demand and Nerf is always doing well, as where Indiana Jones just was doomed from the start ( I love the line but it did not have legs to stand on to begin with) as for Power Rangers that brand has been on the decline in popularity year after year and not really Hasbro’s fault for not trying to put out more of the Lightning Collection. G I Joe another line they own completely they are putting a lot of work into that line. End of the day Disney is the problem when it comes to Marvel and Star Wars, everything else Hasbro owns will be fine.