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New Q&A stuff from AA's site


Reideen1313

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To be fair to Chuck, most of the questions are just wants for some new line or property. However the Mass Effect news doesn't bother me even though I'm possibly one of the biggest Mass Effect fans on this board I imagine, I was so underwhelmed by some of the designs I didn't even get one 'mate :(

So what I'm also getting from this is that Wave 60 did ok? Moderate numbers sold because only moderate numbers were shipped then? Hopefully DST waits until this next batch of wave 60 that comes in to really evaluate it. It's the best idea in years, bonus parts make so much difference, especially with a team theme.

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It depends on what qualifies as a "huge" success.

In my business, if we get 80% sell through, that's really good. 100% is great. If we have to manufacture more product than expected then it's an unqualified success.

If Series 60 was produced in the usual numbers as many other Marvel assortments (help us out with that ballpark figure, BHM) then an additional 300 cases might not be considered "huge." There shouldn't be any doubt that it was successful but "huge" is subjective. I suppose if the assortment blew out within a week and they had to double their run, then Chuck would agree that it was a huge success.

That said, I'd be surprised if a wave that was designed to offer over a third more value wasn't manufactured to meet those expectations.

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Only DST knows what quantities Minimates are made in .

I think recent waves of Marvel 'mates have been produced in smaller numbers........ especially Wave 60 .

I never saw them available at all from AFX , BBTS sold out their stock within a few days, Cornerstorecomics sold what they had on ebay yet never showed anything on their website whilst Luke was shortchanged on his custom cases . There are other online Minimate sellers ,I'm just telling you what I know . I know that I have never seen such a scarcity of a new wave of Marvel Minimates on ebay , even Menagerie seems to have lucked out with custom cases ....what he has & what he's sold tells that story . I bought a custom case from a UK seller , the first purchase of a new wave of Minimates since 2007 & undoubtedly my most expensive ever .

Who knows ?

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See - i assumed the opposite.

Fan-boyism aside, X-Men seem to be one of those ever-green properties. There's a huge amount of good will towards what little product gets made featuring them these days. I think the 90's cartoon (the sort of era represented in this wave) was a huge 'in' for a lot of people. That, combined with the mix'n'match nature emphasized in w60, makes me think they didin't make this a smaller run - it was just hugely popular.

Perhaps Zach can shed some light whether the original production of these was higher or lower than normal?

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If X-Men's popularity is indeed waning (by Marvel's design thanks to the Fox films) then the decision to add extra parts to Series 60 may have been a reaction to that. Knowing that an X-Men assortment won't sell as well others, maybe that's why AA and DST developed it the way they did.

I have no problem believing the X-Men property is trending down. Marvel Licensing isn't promoting it. Fox isn't pushing merchandising. The films are risky at best.

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  • 1 month later...

From the latest Q&A:

"Brian M.

After seeing the reveals at SDCC I was saddened to see the lack of Marvel comic-based boxsets. There were 7 Marvel comic-based boxsets in 2013, 4 in 2014 and now only 2 in 2015. What is the cause of the decreasing amount of Marvel comic-based boxsets? Do they not sell well? Is production of other lines limiting the amount that can be released in a year? Or some other reason? I’ve always been a big fan of the boxsets since they are a great way to team build and get some lesser known characters.

DSTChuck: Brian, sorry you are disappointed. We did have the Iron Man and Ant Man movie sets at SDCC – they could have just as easily been two comic sets, it just worked out that movie ones made the most sense. I guess the Minimates box sets cost a little more, but it’s not a huge difference. While I do think we’ve made an effort to streamline our output, to make the most we can out of every release, I do not recall us settling a goal of two sets. It just kind of worked out that we did less."

So full disclosure this was my question and I'm gonna bitch. I give you data/trend analysis and the response is the written equivalent of "a shoulder shrug and I don't know, we just did"? Is DST planning of releases subject to whatever Chuck's whims and fancies are on the day(s) they do planning? Is there no method/reasoning? I want my Marvel comic boxsets back.

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It seems like the answers tend to vary widely on how much insight Chuck wants to give into the decision making process at any particular time. I guess I don't blame him given the amount of questions answered over the years though it is a little frustrating when someone goes to the trouble of asking a real question instead of sending a wishlist and there's not much response. However, I do think "streamline our output" is sort of interesting, if not encouraging.

Edited by stack32
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From the latest Q&A:

"Brian M.

After seeing the reveals at SDCC I was saddened to see the lack of Marvel comic-based boxsets. There were 7 Marvel comic-based boxsets in 2013, 4 in 2014 and now only 2 in 2015. What is the cause of the decreasing amount of Marvel comic-based boxsets? Do they not sell well? Is production of other lines limiting the amount that can be released in a year? Or some other reason? I’ve always been a big fan of the boxsets since they are a great way to team build and get some lesser known characters.

DSTChuck: Brian, sorry you are disappointed. We did have the Iron Man and Ant Man movie sets at SDCC – they could have just as easily been two comic sets, it just worked out that movie ones made the most sense. I guess the Minimates box sets cost a little more, but it’s not a huge difference. While I do think we’ve made an effort to streamline our output, to make the most we can out of every release, I do not recall us settling a goal of two sets. It just kind of worked out that we did less."

So full disclosure this was my question and I'm gonna bitch. I give you data/trend analysis and the response is the written equivalent of "a shoulder shrug and I don't know, we just did"? Is DST planning of releases subject to whatever Chuck's whims and fancies are on the day(s) they do planning? Is there no method/reasoning? I want my Marvel comic boxsets back.

We adapt our releases to the year's requirements, which requires both method and reasoning. We try to release the same amount of product each year, but not necessarily based on any set ratio of source material. To make the same amount of each media category each year (without taking into account tie-ins and fan excitement) might not make the most sense.

If a film is better suited to box sets (like Ant-Man) or is bigger than two assortments (like AoU) and needs a box set or two, then we make fewer comic-based box sets. There will be five Marvel box sets this year, like last year, it's just that three of them are movie-based. If the DOFP set had blown the doors off at SDCC, maybe we wouldn't have tried a movie set this year. I think Ant-Man did well.

Keep in mind, there will also be three comic-based figure assortments at specialty, plus a couple at TRU, assuming 64/21 hits by holiday as planned.

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I said what Chuck said, just in more words. Chuck said it made more sense to make movie sets this year than comic sets, and so did I. I just gave examples of why.

Chuck actually touched on some additional factors that I didn't, but I suppose I could have edited his response slightly for clarity's sake.

And I don't know if three years out of 13 is even a comprehensive "trend analysis." How many box sets we do in 2003-2012?

Edited by DSTZach
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Marvel comic-boxsets only. (thank you minimatedatabase.com, you are so well organized)

2015 - 2

2014 - 4

2013 - 7

2012 - 9

2011 - 9

2010 - 10

2009 - 13

2008 - 4

2007 - 3

2006 - 3

2005 - 0

2004 - 2

2003 - 9 (if you count the TRU repack boxsets, 12 if you count the package style difference as a new boxset)

Definitely a trend. (by the way data analysis/trends/charts/etc is one of the core parts of my job, so I can make you some fancy charts as well biggrin.png).

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  • 2 weeks later...

huh - i got my question answered. It's sounding more and more like a 'no' for X-Men: Apocalypse minimates, which is a bummer.

This is cool though:

Kotis, we did try and do a comic-based series around the time of the movie, and Marvel asked us not to so they could emphasize the movie look. Which makes sense. Down the road a little now, we’ll have to see.

I wonder if 'try and do' included actually designing the minimates?
I'd be very keen to see what the designs were like for non-movie GotG minimates.

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huh - i got my question answered. It's sounding more and more like a 'no' for X-Men: Apocalypse minimates, which is a bummer.

This is cool though:

Kotis, we did try and do a comic-based series around the time of the movie, and Marvel asked us not to so they could emphasize the movie look. Which makes sense. Down the road a little now, well have to see.

I wonder if 'try and do' included actually designing the minimates?

I'd be very keen to see what the designs were like for non-movie GotG minimates.

Chuck mentioned at the C2E2 party in 2014 that he was trying to get a Classic GOTG boxset released, and that was what Marvel didn't approve due to the movie.

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