just noticed this printing error from way back, clearly this is a 7 pack not a 4 pack

that would be an expensive wall at $8-10 per jar

Wow this sounds familiar, same points being made on one side same lame excuses being made on the other.

but are you even allowed to do headman? i thought he was outlawed by Hasbro

you can try to justify the price with global pandemic and high shipping costs etc, but when you have another soon  to be released set, (that in its self is over priced but lets disregard that fact for now) the FF set that offers 6 figures and one glorified accessory(herbie) plus more actual accessories compared to this 5 pack with one glorified accessory (scott) both of which are new tools,  for the same price there really can be no argument.

yup clumsy fingers

more like What ever!

for $50  5 pretty plain minimates  (where is all this so called printing on the sides of legs/torso ? ) and one "accessory"  and this is the same price as the FF boxset which has 6 full figures and an equal type accessory(herbie with flight stand is not counted as a figure in that set)

and its Disappointing that there is no Watcher, as this was a perfect place to offer him.

ill wait until i can get it for <$30

What if?!

uh its a funko pop so its about 6" tall 

when i finally get these i think they will look good next to this guy

https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Arsenal_(Mighty_Morphin_1)

reading more"  the green one is a villain, until he turns good and becomes white ranger. so we have our first baddie

ok incase anyone else wanted to know  i found this"

Blade Blaster

Standard Blade Blaster

Small Sticks that could turn into small swords or ray guns, used as the Ranger's sidearms. Only killed one monster (Weldo), but also destroyed Billy's evil copy in Blue Ranger Gone Bad. In stick mode, the Rangers can use them in the "Tower Formation Attack". In which the Rangers form a standing tower with Trini and Kimberly standing on the shoulders of Jason, Billy, and Zack. The tips of their blasters are pointed together to create a pyramid shaped energy blast that is then fired at the opponent.

but green doesnt get a red gun right? as there are only two, and the smaller red pieces?

i guess i need to find some kind of PR wiki and brush up

so i stumbled upon a couple sets of these(cheap)  and though i know very little about them i grabbed them. cuz Minimates.

so someone clue me in on the accessories. whats with all the red guns? does one go to pinkie and blue guy?and the other red things?  i assume the blue spear is made up from the two sais so its one or the other, pinkie has the bow,  green gets a dagger in his holster and holds the sword. where does the assembled Bow/sword/daggers/sais thing go? and poor mr Roboto is weaponless?

thanks

nice job on all

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Top Notch work

1 hour ago, elhonez said:

Reed would be interesting. 

yeah but is he "visually dynamic"? I guess if hes all stretched out

its got to be Moonknight 

oops was cutting and pasting between mcu list and database mates guess i mis-posted a few(tm and walker)

i guess a few are cartoon versions  too, my bad ?

reed richards

prof x

Eddie Brock / Venom

Curt Connors / Lizard

J. Jonah Jameson

Moon knight

Norman Osborn / Green Goblin

4 hours ago, DSTZach said:

I was referring to the size of a single blister card backer (ML vs. MM) not mattering too much in the grand scheme of things. When you have to cut four cards, individually blister 4 figures, then put them in a cardboard footlocker, it can affect the price. Unfortunately.

no, no when the avengers hex thing was coming out, people(me) were discussing the price increase and you stated that the fancy cardboard packaging added little to the overall price of the set, that why its a bit odd  that now ( sure its probably more cardboard for the footlocker than the hex) the packaging can add 25% to the price and not because of inflation as that is already accounted for in the $30 for 4 MM

3 hours ago, DSTZach said:

It's actually not funny when you say we're taking advantage of false data to artificially increase prices.  

Quick hits:

- One four-pack of MM uses about as much packaging material as one ML figure. So it's more like 1:4 than 1:10. I couldn't do the math on one MM in packaging, as we haven't done that in a while. 

- Yes, ML have 11 parts or so. But they don't have to hand-print detailed linework on 2-3 sides of every part. That's why I said the paint costs were comparable on a MM.

- I mentioned MS because it demonstrated in our own stable of products why McFarlane doesn't have to change their price -- high-priced toys can absorb a few cents change easier than low-priced toys. 

And MM have not doubled in price, unless you are comparing a mass-market produced, underpriced WG 2-pack MM from two years ago to a specialty-produced 4-pack MM from six months from now. Then, absolutely. BUT if we were making MM for Walgreens today, they couldn't possibly offer them for $7.50, no matter how little profit they want to make. It would probably be closer to $10 or $12, and then, only due to volume. 

And you can't just dismiss "if they're not profitable" as an "I understand." Do you want Minimates? Then we need to pass that cost increase on. If MM fans -- old AND NEW -- don't want to pay it, then they will die a natural death, not living on life support, where we make the product and sell it at zero-profit prices.

And we certainly try to sell to larger stores. Marketing can help get it in front of consumers, but Sales needs to get it in front of retailers. (It's complicated, I know.) License has a lot to do with it, hopefully AEW action figures selling out regularly will lead some retailers to bring Minimates in. BUT hopefully the marketing we did on the license announcement will bring consumers and retailers to the table, the story was picked up pretty widely by sports and toy sites alike. 

I take little joy in refuting posts, but I think it's necessary in order for fans to really understand what's going on. 

 

Where did i say you're "taking advantage of false data to artificially increase prices.? " dont put words in my mouth

i simply said you were trying to have the fans/consumers pay more of a price increase than other companies, i have no access to your data, so how would i know if its false or not?

okay:

"One four-pack of MM uses about as much packaging material as one ML figure. So it's more like 1:4 than 1:10. I couldn't do the math on one MM in packaging, as we haven't done that in a while"

i dont believe i said 10x as much packaging i said more, your misconstruing things.

but on a 1:1 ratio or a 2pack to two Ml figures its obvious that ML uses way more.

-" Yes, ML have 11 parts or so. But they don't have to hand-print detailed linework on 2-3 sides of every part."

ok maybe they dont but do MM? really? c'mon

"MM have not doubled in price, unless you are comparing a mass-market produced, underpriced WG 2-pack MM from two years ago to a specialty-produced 4-pack MM from six months from now. Then, absolutely."

you kind of answered your own question here, yes as a consumer i was paying @$8 for a two pack(@$4 per MM) now its $30 for a 4 pack($7.50 per mate)so roughly a 100% increase in price in 1-2 years 

"And you can't just dismiss "if they're not profitable" as an "I understand." "

i can and did, like any other product i understand that a company not being able to turn a profit may end up  canceling that product, would i be happy about that? No but i certainly  understand it.

"Do you want Minimates?"  i think i  already answered that but , Yes, do i want to pay way too much for them compared to other products? NO!

"And we certainly try to sell to larger stores. Marketing can help get it in front of consumers, but Sales needs to get it in front of retailers. (It's complicated, I know.)"

Ooh salty, yes i misspoke/typed i meant Sales not Marketing 

"License has a lot to do with it, hopefully AEW action figures selling out regularly will lead some retailers to bring Minimates in. BUT hopefully the marketing we did on the license announcement will bring consumers and retailers to the table, the story was picked up pretty widely by sports and toy sites alike. "

I hope it does lead to MM ending up in larger outlets of course, i wonder how wrestling fans will view the value of a $30(or more?) 4pack of MM to a $20 6" figure? 

"I take little joy in refuting posts, but I think it's necessary in order for fans to really understand what's going on." 

 and i appreciate you talking to us, but as you have admitted in our back and forth you seem to "make" a lot of errors in your information. 

1 hour ago, DSTZach said:

Okay, MY math was wrong. You were wrong about HALF of what you said, not most. But ML does not use 10x the material across the board. 

Okay, you could argue that a ML uses 10x the plastic of a MM. I can see that. And while I am frequently informed that ML re-uses body tooling at a high-ish rate, let's ignore that since ALL MM bodies and heads use the same tooling and say they have 10x the NEW tooling on one ML vs. 1 MM. Say 1-2 steel tools per ML vs. 1 tool for 4-6 MM.

But packaging is comparable dollar for dollar. Our blister for $30 worth of MM is comparable to a $25 ML package. So let's say 4× cost. And the amount of printing and number of paint applications on one MM is, I think, comparable to that of one ML. The AMOUNT of paint is not the primary cost, the number of things they have to paint is. And printing on 11 different MM parts adds up. 

As far as "using" the current reality as an "excuse" to raise prices, that's a heck of an accusation. While I'm sure some items like gas and cars are seeing artificial inflation, toys made overseas, of plastic, by a large population of real people, not machines, are absolutely seeing an increase in costs.

Plus, more expensive items can absorb increases in cost easier than low-priced items. I've said before that MM don't have a very large profit margin, so a few cents' increase in cost per MM can severely impact the amount of profit we make, making MM literally not worth making. We have to increase the price just to make them profitable and pay salaries. We can't sell a toy at break-even prices. 

The number of sets made also affects price. We can charge WG less for a set made at Walgreens numbers than we can for a set made at specialty store numbers. And WG can charge less because they don't need to make a large a profit.. they make their money in volume, and charge more for other things. WG two-packs were $8, but specialty two-packs were $10. And now they need to be more. 

Note that although the cost increases are the same, we have not increased the price of Marvel Select (yet), because a few cents can be absorbed by our profits on that line. We aren't making as much, but so far it is manageable within the pricing structure. So McFarlane is either absorbing the cost increases, or they were selling their figures for too much to begin with.

Not trying to pick a fight, just trying to explain the reality.

how was i WRONG about half my statements?

figure to figure a ML uses lets say 10x  the plastic  of a MM

 packaging wise you cant change it and say $30 worth of MM vs $25 of ML it has to stay figure to figure not 1ML vs 4 MM so two MM in a tiny box vs 2 ML with their giant packaging they use a ton more

paint you say the number of apps is comparable ok, but you cant disregard the amount of paint even if its just a bit still its not free so more =more$ because as you said a few cents can "severely impact"  the price.  i believe the average ML has at least 11 parts by the way so...

tooling im sure you can fit alot more "new" parts on a MM one than a ML just based on the scale of the parts, both lines have a lot of reused parts but i still give the nod to ML they always have new heads, and accessories lately MM have been very vanilla mates with paint and maybe one or two accessories. so the whole body is reused every time so another one on the list that i was " right" about but you want to ignore that. hmm

just imagine a MM deadpool vs a ML deadpool same colors same(id say ML would have more but whatever) apps its going to be more paint, more plastic more packaging more $ but they have only raised their prices what 25% MM have doubled in price in the last year or 2, so yeah a few cents can raise the price but double come on,   and if they are not profitable i can understand, but trying to squeeze the fans  for them to turn a profit is crap. if specialty 2 packs were $10 why are they now essentially $17 (6pack $50/3) thats quite the bit of inflation compared to the competition. 

i also understand how it works when you can sell in higher numbers via a store like WG to have them be a bit cheaper for the consumer, so whose fault is that get out there and sell them to some big store buyers, i see all kinds of crap toys being sold in target, walmart etc surly dst could land one of them if they really wanted to, maybe they need better marketing.

FYI  McFarlane is absorbing the cost increases, it can be done.

i dont know why you bring up unrelated things like the relationship between cost and height, and Marvel select, who was talking about either one of those things? not Me.

and no i dont think youre trying to pick a fight but it does seem funny how you always quote me then try to refute my posts

1 hour ago, DSTZach said:

The VHS 4-packs are $30. $40 is for the single-carded footlocker sets. It's confusing, I know. 

right so $7.50 per MM and $10 for cardboard which i remember you saying didnt add much to the price of the sets, 25% seems like a lot to me, thats ok  It's confusing, I know.