arnim zola

Ebay and Amazon stores are secondary market and don't count, and when they do have them they are expensive which is what aftermarket turns into. So yeah, by being aftermarket, it counts as being sold out. 

11 hours ago, Dio said:

Then why bother making two additional waves with the same characters? I think it would have been better to just release one wave, and make new figures after the first wave sells. If this line dies it will be because DST made the first three waves like this.

Lots of lines have died because of this.

On 3/12/2018 at 10:43 AM, DSTZach said:

a:) Luke is not the only Minimates retailer. Diamond sells to a couple of thousand retailers worldwide, and customers may use an online retailer or a brick and mortar retailer if they have no Walgreens or MM-carrying TRU near them. The blind TMNT, the Nightmare 2-packs and the movie box sets all have exclusive characters, but obviously it depends on how bad you want them. NBX only had ONE shared two-pack in each series last year. 

b:) I think a Turtle in every TRU pack was a no-brainer, especially as different as we made each release, and I've explained how blind bags were meant to work -- an experiment that is pretty much dead. I'm not thrilled with how we handled them, and regret not pushing for a different formula. The Age of Ultron blind boxes had to have their lineup changed midway through, and c:) I think there was a miscalculation somewhere, but I think it was also influenced by how we thought casual customers would approach the product. 

d:) Watchmen and Beetlejuice are the only two sets I know that released the exact same characters as were in the 2-packs, and again, there are those who do not have an MM-stocking TRU near them. But box sets were how we decided to go, and I think there was concern about not putting four all-stars at either location.

e:) We made a lot of characters. And there was a general decline in TMNT sales across the board that probably kick-started Nick revamping the series. 

f:) We're trying to cater more to independent retailers with exclusive Marvel comic waves, more NBX exclusives and the numerous MM sets we've made that were not even available at mass retailers, but if the orders are not there, it is difficult to make the production budgets work. With mass market orders, the production numbers work, and that actually makes a lot of specialty-exclusive items possible. We semi-regularly cancel specialty-exclusive items -- not just Minimates -- that, without mass support, are not ordered in sufficient quantities to produce. But we are looking at new licenses that may speak more to specialty retailers.

g:) And I'm sure our sales team tells comic shops that they should be carrying product for three of the best-received/most highly anticipated Marvel movies of all time, and we always hype the exclusive characters in press and on socials, but your store clearly decided not to carry the Thor set before Walgreens had ANY Movie Minimates in their stores. And everyone should keep in mind, since comic shops only get box sets now, you should be able to order a box set for yourself through them, as should any customer. 

h:) The key word there is comic art. Interpreting a CGI raccoon leaves some room for interpretation. And that is a sculpted head, not a tampo'd cylinder, so the placement of two tiny dots is prone to some inaccuracy. Cylinders are problematic enough -- think about how people feel when a Spider-Man eye is off-center, and remember we stopped making double-sided heads due to the problems making those. Thor's eyepatch, I don't know what to say. I don't know how long he has it in the film. Obviously it would have been a cool inclusion. 

Some may be mad I chose to respond to individual points with quotes, but I want people to see my responses to specific concerns. 

a:) Bullshit Argument. No one said or implied this, but if that's where you want to start then it could be said that as a neutral voice in the community whose business' primary product is your product, he has (and please correct me if I'm remembering this wrong) acknowledged that blind bags and sharing packs with TRU have loaded him up with product he cant sell. Mates are his store, BBTS and Entertainment earth can afford to have items sit on a warehouse after ordering in bulk then jettison stock that doesn't work out, because they can function like a micro online version of a bulk purchase "toys R us." Specialty sites like Luke or others without supportive communities like this, or word of mouth, or advertising, cant afford that and take a financial hit. The minute DST/specialty knew that TRU was going to charge way less than specialty,  I'm surprised more retailers didn't drop the line here and there. That's the trend Iv'e seen with anything shared. 

b:) These two comments to me at least seem to immediately contradict each other. With all the characters turtles have had to offer over the last 30 years, you start with four turtles and some human shapes, then, repeat the exact same formula? With the exact same looking turtles? Parents and casual buyers dont rebuy what looks like the same figure to them a few months after the first. That's why hasbro makes changes to optimus prime every couple of months, so billy can justify his explanation for why he wants the new one. I saw the technical differences, and the new heads and accessories should have been standard practice in every wave after, maybe every line in which repeats were that necessary (necessary by DST hunches, not sales data) The same basic Jack Skellington through 5 sets of blind bags and two carded waves across 3 retailers. No alt heads or anything different. I had (didnt have to) to buy doubles of the other costumes just to throw the different  heads on all the extra bodies I had. 

c:) I guess this shouldn't be too overblown, its reasonable to think that a customer might take the chance to grab an Iron Man figure from a hype movie that everyone and their mother is about to see. I'd like the ratios to have been different, and I don't remember the specifics of the adjustment but yeah that's reasonable.

d:) Spongebob too. Some peeps don't have MM carry shops, and some don't have TRU's, and some don't have either.  So this is fairly reasonable in terms of the boxsets, but its unreasonable to pick that out of my comment as this has been a problem for a long time aside from boxsets that are more recent. Secret wars leftovers, civil war leftovers, jack and sally, turtles, turtles, turtles. If it was shared with TRU it stayed on a shelf until it was clearanced out, or its still warming that cold dead peg.

e:) No, DST made a lot of civilians and ignored the wild characters that have always been the exciting parts of TMNT and the reason kids have bought those crazy toys for so long. You guys (possibly Zach) said once for the walking dead that Shiva couldn't happen because when the budget plan was set up during licensing that Shiva was left out, so no budget to do her (tell me I'm wrong please because business plans can always change as far as I'm concerned, unless its part of the license agreement?). So reading that and seeing all the civilians in the first two waves, I told my wife, I bet they cancel this line after only making a few mutants. and what happened? You made history by being the only toy company to ever make a TMNT line with more humans than mutants. So is that what happened there? A license agreement signed and it was known in advance "we can only afford to make turtles and a few mutants but we can do humans so it will work out." 

And, there is always a drop in product sales on licensed merchandise of any media for the longer it goes on regardless of what it is, and with kid cartoons they reboot every couple of years to reinvigorate those sales, ex: Transformers.

f:) That's good news, and I really hope it goes well. The NBX waves most definitely swung around in a positive way and gave me confidence that DST had some confidence and was willing to take risks with this property, which the first 3 waves suggested otherwise. I want to see more confidence in DST products. Kids and parents do not want a toyline loaded with civilians. In today's market with how people have their money in a kung-fu grip, they want that excitement and detachment from reality they get from going to a movie. A wave of civilian toys, suits and dresses is boring and we have beaten that to death here. They want exciting toys to catch their eyes and fuel imaginations because reality sucks. The max carnage wave is nice and fits this exactly, I hope I'm right and it sells well.

g:) Hmmm, thats all true though.

h:) Even painting larger that 2 white dots on a cylinder that small is hard AF. controlling that across those numbers of figures would be very difficult so Ill backpedal on this quite a bit. I wish I had the tampo tech or at least a video of how it works because I only have half an understanding of what happens there. But the friends and foes boxset is the worst example of tampo QC still. My guess on Thor is like Thanos' armor, he's just not going to have it long enough for them to have pushed in as something to include with the control art.

The quotes do help respond to specific points here. They almost always do. 

On 3/12/2018 at 10:52 AM, DSTZach said:

At MM quantities, Sales gets involved, and previous MM exclusives, including Homecoming and Scarlet Witch/Vision, were not strong sellers. 

Not a fair statement. Con exclusive civilians and slightly dirty heroes are not any more enticing than civilians warming the pegs at a store. The age of ultron movie con box set did have civilians but that box sold out. It was a good box and a good example to follow. A 2 pack of a guy in a suit that had just had 3 identical minimates releases over a very short period (4 including the animated one) where the only new part is the suit and a side character that didn't do well in her own tru 2 pack for he first release, not a good example. Spidey and civilian Michael keaton, awesome to me but its just a home made spidey outfit with dirt on it and nothing new. No awesome new vulture stuff. The hall of armors 10 pack was catered to what, Iron Man fans that only wanted a shit ton of almost the same iron man in a row?

The Ultron Box tried new things. The comic related box sets tried new things and except for alpha flight (niche fandom) they did well. The all villains thunderbolts sets did well. Its not con exclusives, its character and content selection. An infinity war box could do really well, especially with new characters, or characters that might not make it into the store they should make it into.

On 3/12/2018 at 1:29 PM, Roccothegreat said:

zach in this thread 

 

More like 

16 hours ago, DSTZach said:

We made the figure that best represents him in the film.

Damn. Maybe he'll go back to armor in next years armor

I've heard square is usually a bunch of squares with licensing and figures for this property, maybe that's why we aren't seeing those characters. I love the Disney characters and haven't played all through the games yet, and these mates aren't even out yet, but this is already looking like the first several waves if ninja turtles. Am I happy to get Disney mates? Yes of course and I preordered instead of waiting for in hand quality pics, but there's a ton a Disney characters in the games, including long loved baddies like maleficent and these waves are repeats upon repeats of anchor characters and by the time, they get around to secondary characters the interest by retailers may already be fading.

Another often repeated mistake we can add to the list in the other thread 

Yup that's what it was!

Maybe I've been too hard on Zach with my last couple of comments across the verse.  Still like you Zach, still a fan of your work and that won't change, and I always enjoy adding to my industry knowledge with the tidbits I get from you about my favorite collectible.

Posted this in another thread, better served here:

Now for everyone that's mentioned wishing thanos had his armor in this movie, if you look around at some of the toys from other companies, it looks there's at least one figure out now with an armor in info to war packaging.

Since thanos/brolin is all CGI here, let's guess that thanos is either in armor a limited amount or late enough in the movie that day didn't get reference, so it's the same boat as usual where the final version of a villain gets left out due to studio reference material/product turnaround time differences.

Now for everyone that's mentioned wishing thanos had his armor in this movie, if you look around at some of the toys from other companies, it looks there's at least one figure out now with an armor in info to war packaging.

Since thanos/brolin is all CGI here, let's guess that thanos is either in armor a limited amount or late enough in the movie that day didn't get reference, so it's the same boat as usual where the final version of a villain gets left out due to studio reference material/product turnaround time differences.

Mistakes. Let's see, character selection and placement gets lazy sometimes, even super retarded. 5 iron legion in a movie but a blind box full of them versus an unending army of Ultron drones with 6 out of 18 blind box characters helping build those characters and no one was dying for two war machines of an already used mold for a new design with two navy seals. 4 turtles per wave, every wave, blind and more expensive at specialty shops than Tru. Same with a few other lines. Nightmare, Beetlejuice, watchmen, movie waves, who's going to buy a more expensive box plus shipping from Luke when Tru will get them the exclusive set and the box set for the same price or lower? Plus all those waves of turtles prevented more core characters, unlike playmates approach which was successful and got to stay in stores. By the time dst learn their lesson and split the 4 turtles over two waves all retailers were sick of the loss in sales and wrote it off.

The constant shared characters costing specialty to lose customers to Tru and now walgreens is causing specialty in my area to straight up write off minimates. The last shop I had locally that carried mates just told me this week they aren't ordering anymore when I asked about Thor and black panther, a billion dollar movie. So no avengers product either, a 10 year hype train that going to do insane merchandise business. 

For fwoosheyman's comments, yeah it's a small cylinder, and it's a small dot, but this is your art style. Comic art in 3d surface. No one does block figures like this. There's going to be quality issues just like bigger companies but across the board issues aren't acceptable for your specialty product.

Every time something like this is brought up I try to be positive too and defend dst because some stuff is business and you just can't get around how it works, but sometimes it IS a mistake or something your customers don't want. 

However, I get a TON of what I do want from DST from a little e if rots that unfortunately is just not as popular and loved as I love it. My frustration lies in seeing areas where it could be more successful, where lines could last longer, more creative ideas could be pulled off, and more interest/truest could be created with retailers to help bring longevity to the line.

Those are great points fwoosheyman. But these are staple DST decisions that they consistently make and pay for. Rarely do they try a new idea and let it stick. I sure do love seeing failed tactics on REPEAT.

You know Zach usually makes me smile too. I'm a fan of Zach's. I'm also a big fan of Oscar Wilde.

Let's pretend I've been buying minimates since they started and I've kept up with every bit of info we've gotten about the business and how every retailer works with minimates. OK, then let's say I don't need a bunch of your responses to your own quotes. A single sentence response would suffice in place of your quote sandwiched in your sentences.

I don't, and doubt most anyone here expects any sort of incredible revelations about anything. Your job is separate from other departments, you've said you aren't even in the same office right? OK, so at the very least I expect that you might do what you often do which is provide interesting and useful insight into what you do know behind the scenes, neutrally, and without being 100% a dick.

Okay, I meant more in a looking for some answers that we can make sense of.

So for the first question, I saw your post but I really liked reading it again. Can you shed some light on what happened and how Tru ended up in the mix and GameStop out or if there are any other retailers that may be jumping on at some point? Was walgreens not interested in these?

The second question was more rhetorical than literal, like why would they do that? If someone asked me I might give a reason about why a retailer backed out or some details behind their decisions, some interesting knowledge about the business.

Or I could tell another adult that people write other people checks for goods and services.

Literally 2 pages ago you said they would be at GameStop. How many retailers are these going to be at now, and how is GameStop carrying the vini's and not these?

Mammomax

I do remember from early interviews Chuck saying they were going to focus on select figures first and he still hasn't decided how they were going to do the minimates yet. In terms of all the ideas that have been expressed there are a lot of routes to take.

Walgreens just used this same recall to not sell me any black panther mates.

I dislike silver sable so much, every mention of her name is such a huge downer on my day. The wave she showed up in was right before the drought too, so that didn't help my feelings with her much lol.

And you know why that is? Disney isn't F@#$!ng around with Mickey and his entourage.

It is not commonly used in the states. Our media more mistakenly refers the them as ski masks, like they are just a designer variant.

On 2/19/2018 at 4:36 PM, Kostisfire said:

Short version is that Bendis wanted to shill his daughterfu, and messed up with Spencer's plans. Tony was supposed to be in Secret Empire, in flesh and blood, but due to BMB being BENIS and ruining everything to appease his own continuity, Tony got turned into AI Tony. Spencer was so mad at Bendis, he didn't even change the script, so everyone treats AI Tony as regular Tony and never points out the fact that he's a hologram. Spencer just added Ree-Ree to some scenes. Hell, the whole event was meant to be a small crossover between his titles, but Marvel wanted their summer event...

As for the armor, the only explaination we got was a comment by HYDRACap that Tony was so drunk, that he could not function the newer models anymore, and had to work with older Armors. Yes, the official explaination is "the AI got drunk"...

Just goes to show how much Bendis pissed everyone off, and how poorly thought out the whole thing was. 

PS: That issue was the best of SE, but while it really laid down the smackdown on Pym-haters (Hank is Best Boy and gets too much hate), I feel it portrayed Tony kinda OOC. He'd be the last guy to double down on Hank for such a thing. But I guess either "AI" or "wanted to get him riled up" work as excuses.

So no one forgets about wife beater Pym, but as a scientist it was important that he use his Pym particles to get drunk and beat his wife. So yeah he is the best boy. BOOM REJECTED!

Firestar, deathlok, nightwatch (not gonna happen), Morbius, captain America, Mr Fantastic.

There's a lot of big names that could carry a max carnage Tru wave with the remaining supporting characters. I want that Morbius costume more than any of the rest of these guys (after the wave 76 lineup) but that firestar would be great too and this would be the opportune time to both of them into the line. Especially with the lack of supernatural mate love going on in this list line. Yeah I said it.

Keep in mind that unlike other big conventions throughout the year where we see the good stuff that's on the way, toyfair isn't going to show us items that are ready and exclusive to other retailers, just new items they are trying to get retailers interested in ordering.

We saw the new marvel Tru wave online but not at the show, no Walgreens waves on display, no GameStop or best buy waves of kingdom hearts on display so we can get hyped. I really would like to see those already though so I can get hyped.

Forgot to mention, before the end of the movie anyone ever notice there's actually a fifth vampire?

We still need/a few more unique things can be made as mates:

The snake finger/spider hair guy (neca made one)

The hanging tree (Kubrick made one, dst is making select)

The gargoyle boy (neca made one)

Vampire jack (neca made one, dst is making select)

Pirate jack (neca made one)

Playing card robot (Kubrick made one)

Cowboy skeleton bot (no one has made)

One of the floating ghosts (no one has made)

Shadow silhouettes from the beginning (no one has made)

The gate keeper (Raven in yellow suit and bowler, no one has made)

The Frankenstein Monster (in the movie once, no one has made)

Monster under the bed (just a black head with a tampo and a cardboard bed, it's what my planned custom would be)

Reaper (no one has made)

Apple witch (no one has made)

Plenty of elf color variants (neca made one)

Mrs. Claus (no one has made)

I think the Ghosts would make a nice set of exclusives, one or two new sculpts, no legs just floating on flight stands. The gate keeper and Frankenstein have never had representation, Frankenstein has a full puppet, so disney has the reference material for it. these would both be cool wins. The silhouettes could be exclusives, all translucent black, or dst could let the team get creative and design it themselves within the theme. Is that not how the vampire and pirate jack figures from neca came about?

The top 3 on this list and the Harlequin demon were the last three big contributing characters that I think would be deserving of filling the line out, so stopping short 3 of a complete lineup wouldn't be a real loss for dst.

I'm seeing a lot of parts getting reappropriated for Dragonball z customs.