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The end is nigh? Talk amongst yourselves.


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On 6/10/2019 at 8:42 AM, Donny B said:

Maybe a TCG or something akin to Munchkin.

I have Marvel Munchkin and I've used Minimates to keep track of characters and their accessories and allies.

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21 hours ago, Trekker 42 said:

There’s no damn way. Not happening. 

The article in Bloomberg says the plans are to open "about half a dozen" stores. I agree with you this is probably this isn't much more likely than the other empty promises they've been selling since TRU closed its doors, but even if it does work out it's going to be a long time before it would matter.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I have to say I’m really annoyed that there aren’t Arrowmates or any DC ones. I know it’s been a decade and I should get over it but the lack of new licenses and lack of product is driving me mental. 

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DST seems inconsistent when it comes to licenses.

We'll ask for more Star Trek from anything but TOS. So they offer a SKU of TNG, a SKU of DS9, and a SKU of ENT with the requisite SKU of TOS. When we give up and say, "Fine, you really want to push TOS for some reason. Give us variants from popular episodes like 'City on the Edge of Forever'" we're told Kirk and Spock won't sell in civilian attire.

Then DST goes after licenses like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill and John Wick where most characters are "civilian."

They get a license like Gotham, offering SKU after SKU of some of DC's most popular characters in civilian attire. When they finally have the opportunity to offer characters like Joker and Riddler and Firefly and even BATMAN, they quit.

I'd argue it's time to revisit Watchmen given how well received the HBO series has become but it would probably interfere with DST's plans to offer Minimates based on The Irishman. (Full disclosure: I know of no such plans.)

They offer a truly robust assortment of characters from the first two Alien flicks but neglect to offer a vanilla version of a key character (Bishop) from what's arguably the most popular film of the entire franchise. And don't get me started on the David/Chestburster 2-pack that represents everything wrong with planning a SKU.

I have to wonder how hard they're trying with Minimates. If you can't get comic book shops to buy Batman-related products when your parent company is Diamond Distributors, something seems off. I know The Powers That Be aren't known for rocking the boat but could we at least get some control art into Previews to see if we can get enough pre-orders for a set of Pacific Rim jaeger pilots?

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On 12/14/2019 at 1:41 AM, MisterPL said:

DST seems inconsistent when it comes to licenses.

We'll ask for more Star Trek from anything but TOS. So they offer a SKU of TNG, a SKU of DS9, and a SKU of ENT with the requisite SKU of TOS. When we give up and say, "Fine, you really want to push TOS for some reason. Give us variants from popular episodes like 'City on the Edge of Forever'" we're told Kirk and Spock won't sell in civilian attire.

Then DST goes after licenses like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill and John Wick where most characters are "civilian."

They get a license like Gotham, offering SKU after SKU of some of DC's most popular characters in civilian attire. When they finally have the opportunity to offer characters like Joker and Riddler and Firefly and even BATMAN, they quit.

I'd argue it's time to revisit Watchmen given how well received the HBO series has become but it would probably interfere with DST's plans to offer Minimates based on The Irishman. (Full disclosure: I know of no such plans.)

They offer a truly robust assortment of characters from the first two Alien flicks but neglect to offer a vanilla version of a key character (Bishop) from what's arguably the most popular film of the entire franchise. And don't get me started on the David/Chestburster 2-pack that represents everything wrong with planning a SKU.

I have to wonder how hard they're trying with Minimates. If you can't get comic book shops to buy Batman-related products when your parent company is Diamond Distributors, something seems off. I know The Powers That Be aren't known for rocking the boat but could we at least get some control art into Previews to see if we can get enough pre-orders for a set of Pacific Rim jaeger pilots?

THIS! Also My favourite.. oh xyz franchise isn't interested in minimates... and yet they then announce they license in question announces they are part of Super7. Archie just announced they are having them even,  https://www.cbr.com/archie-comics-reaction-figures-super7/

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The creators of Saga initially insisted they weren't interested in merchandising their graphic novel but now there are action figures, vinyl figurines, and even plush. Same with Game of Thrones as I recall. JK Rowling was very reluctant with the Harry Potter franchise. I had to develop an entire dog and pony show just for her at Warner Bros. before the first film hit.

Things change. That's understandable and out of DST's control. Sometimes a licensor simply gets a better offer or is shown product concepts that's more than simply slapping their IP onto Product X and that tips the scales.

My issue is when DST says "that won't sell for this property" without even trying and then proceeds to license another property with the same unsellable characteristics.

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Let's be honest: Minimates essentially died with Toys R Us. There's not enough support for the brand through just specialty stores without a big retailer on board to order enough product to get the figures made. I am hoping that DST is just hibernating a bit while keeping the line alive with just the Marvel figures, but I'm not very optimistic.

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I don't think the brand is dead, not while it's still in a lot more stores across the country thanks to Walgreens than it was at TRU. Yes, TRU offered a broader selection but that was their business model. If the sales numbers hold up, Walgreens will continue stocking Minimates.

So long as Walgreens or another large retailer doesn't cannibalize the sales at comic shops and other specialty venues, they should do okay. The problem my LCS had was the number of overlaps from popular lines like The Walking Dead and the MCU. Small retailers don't have the buying power to get the kind of discount TRU or Walgreens enjoys. Consequently they've had to charge almost $2 more for the same product. 

If anything kills the Minimates brand it'll be DST's competing assortments.

All that said, if Walgreens can stick to animated and MCU assortments while specialty gets to keep comic assortments and MCU supplementary 4-packs, Marvel should be fine. The trick is finding retailers for lines like Star Trek, Alien, and any one-shot 4-packs that comic shops won't take a chance on and don't fit Walgreens' more family-friendly inventory of toys.

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Yeah, that's basically what I mean; without TRU around there's not an outlet for those non-Marvel Minimates, because the brand isn't strong enough right now to get enough orders for seemingly anything. I doubt that we would have gotten figures for things like Beetlejuice and Pirates of the Caribbean if it wasn't for TRU, and no doubt we'd all be playing with our John Wicks right now if they hadn't gone under.

You're absolutely right that the crossover of figures between the two markets eventually led to the death of Minimates at comics shops. I used to try to still wait and buy sets from my retailer, but sometimes the TRU wave would be out weeks before the specialty wave and I would crack. Also that they were several dollars cheaper didn't help. I think most comics shops weren't aware of the overlap; they just knew that this toy line suddenly wasn't selling anymore so they stopped ordering them, so even the waves that weren't shared wouldn't get ordered. Which led us to order more from Luke and other online retailers (but really, you should always use Luke!), which further diminished comic shop sales. And now that they need that market again it's dried up.

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4 minutes ago, hellpop said:

I think most comics shops weren't aware of the overlap; they just knew that this toy line suddenly wasn't selling anymore so they stopped ordering them, so even the waves that weren't shared wouldn't get ordered. Which led us to order more from Luke and other online retailers (but really, you should always use Luke!), which further diminished comic shop sales. And now that they need that market again it's dried up.

Agreed. My LCS wasn't aware of the overlaps until I made them aware. And instead of complaining to their sales rep at DST about it, they stopped ordering so many.

The comic-based BAF sets are terrific but my latest concern is going from three full sets per case to four. My LCS ordered Marvel Series 78 for me and one other collector. The other full set hasn't been snatched up yet. I'm worried that's going to go from one hard-to-sell set to two with the new assortments. My LCS can at least break even selling 2/3 of a case but half? I doubt it. 

Series 80 might be the first Marvel series my LCS passes on if 79 doesn't sell through quickly.

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I agree with your comments on the 'overlaps ' but it worked both ways ........when I ordered from TRU.com I would only order the items that were exclusive to them ignoring the 'regular' overlapping sets .  I wasn't alone.

One other opinion of mine is that TRU Marvel waves generally had far better character selection than their contemporary LCS Marvel waves ......it was almost as if TRU got first choice of any selection that DST offered.  That's my opinion & its based on which of my favourite Marvel Minimates were exclusive to TRU .........not very scientific I know but its got to be a bit more than coincidence that the vast majority of my favourites (over many years) were TRU exclusives !

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I don't think you can compare the challenges in selling through a wave between TRU and comic book shops; if the former has leftover sets, they just get clearanced. If the latter is stuck with them, they may lose money on that case, and they may not order them again.

I know that, at least at first, DST had a lot more freedom in character selection with the TRU Marvel sets. That's why a figure like Lockjaw would go to TRU (and I suspect that they also let TRU's orders offset the costs for a one-off figure like that, which required new tooling never used again). Over the years, as they were dealing with different buyers, the relationship changed and they had to put in more recognizable characters into each set. But for as much as people hated on TRU around here, we got A LOT of figures that we would not have otherwise.

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Walking Dead Series 5 was a goddamned nightmare. I had just got a colleague hooked on TWD Minimates and that hard-to-find series soured her on the entire brand. DST lost another completist with that SNAFU.

Exclusives should be readily available online as well as in stores. I know DST has no control over that but as the brand manager, their advice should carry some weight with corporate buyers. 

Another issue is making the Best of/Greatest Hits assortments exclusive to Specialty. Those assortments were intended to be gateway drugs for the uninitiated. At $7.49 each, they could have just as easily been merchandised at checkout as impulse buys at TRU. 

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34 minutes ago, Polarboy said:

Phrasing 

:thumbsup:

 

3 hours ago, MisterPL said:

Walking Dead Series 5 was a goddamned nightmare. I had just got a colleague hooked on TWD Minimates and that hard-to-find series soured her on the entire brand. DST lost another completist with that SNAFU.

 

Something weird happened with TRU Minimates early 2014 & the consequences were that few TRU WD Wave 5 & even less Tomb Raider Minimates appeared on ebay at the time or subsequently .  You can take what I say with a pinch of salt but those 2 waves are scarce. 

I rarely buy anything 'minimate' on ebay these days but I nearly wet myself when I saw this  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Walking-Dead-Minimates-Abraham-Ford-and-Military-Zombie-TRU/254424058285?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 & this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Walking-Dead-Minimates-Eugene-Porter-and-Emaciated-Zombie-TRU/264535948882?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 last month .  

 

 

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On 12/13/2019 at 9:41 AM, MisterPL said:

DST seems inconsistent when it comes to licenses.

We'll ask for more Star Trek from anything but TOS. So they offer a SKU of TNG, a SKU of DS9, and a SKU of ENT with the requisite SKU of TOS. When we give up and say, "Fine, you really want to push TOS for some reason. Give us variants from popular episodes like 'City on the Edge of Forever'" we're told Kirk and Spock won't sell in civilian attire.

Then DST goes after licenses like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill and John Wick where most characters are "civilian."

And Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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1 hour ago, MisterPL said:

This to me is the most shocking considering how long they kept the regular figures alive and even the Library play set. Buffy has been a hot property for years and is about to get hotter moving into the new show. 

On 12/18/2019 at 4:34 AM, buttheadsmate said:

I hated on TRU.com ......emphasis on the com . I read great things here about ToysRUs ....the stores....but I had so many awful experiences with .com that the best I can say is good riddance ,they were at best, shambolic.

I never had issues with TRU or corporate but they did have a tendency to resist digital and it ended up costing them in the end. Distribution will always be important and in some instances it can be as important as the licenses themselves imho. 

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