G.I. Joe Minimates!

[thereasonsy]

Look, I’m for anything that makes this happen. I’d even do a proof of purchase old school mail in thing if I had to for an exclusive. 

[DSTZach]

2 hours ago, Navaan said:

Direct to consumer. Hasbro did this with Joe (on card backs, but still). 

Sell some to stores with boxes, but sell others, DTC, but in bags?

To clarify, I doubt we ourselves would sell Joe MM direct to consumer, unless we're talking non-exclusive inventory that was also offered to retailers, like Sets 1 and 2. If we had confidence in an exclusive Joe set just for OUR website, we would have done it already; the new-ish DST store is still building its customer base. No, this would only work if we had a retail partner with a dedicated, invested customer base, be it Pulse or Luke or someone else. And I doubt Pulse would sell clear bagged Minimates, I don't even know if WE would. In fact, the more I think about it, the more problematic bags get. An inexpensive blister card might be the best way to go. 

[nandoninny]

i'm reading that the new Image/skybound reboot of GI JOE and Transformers is getting lotsa orders.

anyway to cash in on that?

Robert Kirkman once published some free pages for Terry Moore's Rachel Rising (great book) for free just because he was a fan.  i love that kind of enthusiasm.

if i need to write him a letter to suggest this to his team just let me know.

 

 

[DSTZach]

6 hours ago, nandoninny said:

i'm reading that the new Image/skybound reboot of GI JOE and Transformers is getting lotsa orders.

anyway to cash in on that?

Robert Kirkman once published some free pages for Terry Moore's Rachel Rising (great book) for free just because he was a fan.  i love that kind of enthusiasm.

if i need to write him a letter to suggest this to his team just let me know.

We actually talk to Robert (or his team) all the time, we are currently making Invincible AND Walking Dead action figures for them.

And a high-selling comic book is great -- unfortunately, the company that distributes the comic is the same one that distributes our toys. So if they can't get the stores that are ordering the comics to also order the toys, then I don't know how else to take advantage of that. I guess advertise in it? 

[nandoninny]

Advertising in it was kinda where I was going.  

Or mail away offers in the book.  Something.  If I had to buy 4 issues to get a mailaway army builder i’d buy at least 20 issues.  Something like that.   Probably obvious i’m not a marketing guy and typically buzzed when I’m on the boards at this hour   

Have kirkman mention the toys in the letters column.  

[cylonchaney]

More Invincible Mates would be great!

[Chooch]

Yes, more Invincible Mates!  Such a deep roster.

[buttheadsmate]

I seem to remember squealing out when Invincible Minimates appeared in the Walking Dead .

 

[NerdyTrev]

I'd definitely be down for more Invincible minimates. Tie it in with the Amazon show. It would be great since, other than the DST Figures, there's no toy merchandise for the brand and people are really starting to connect with it. 

[thereasonsy]

12 hours ago, nandoninny said:

Advertising in it was kinda where I was going.  

Or mail away offers in the book.  Something.  If I had to buy 4 issues to get a mailaway army builder i’d buy at least 20 issues.  Something like that.   Probably obvious i’m not a marketing guy and typically buzzed when I’m on the boards at this hour   

Have kirkman mention the toys in the letters column.  

Hi marketing guy that is also usually buzzed  when on here. Without reopening the door that leads to fights and blocks, I am not opposed to print media on principle but I would actually do a buy around digital that hyper focuses on fans of the property themselves. You are never going to convince me Wave 1 and 2 with that packaging and that price were going to be a kids toy and you sadly do need kids to buy toys.
 

Again not knowing the full map or budget because I’m not paid to I would think this is a collectors piece for fans of the show— not the movies. That on principle would mean a hyper targeted buy be aimed at men aged 40+ with an interest group of the 80s. 

 

[cylonchaney]

1 hour ago, thereasonsy said:

 I would think this is a collectors piece for fans of the show— not the movies. That on principle would mean a hyper targeted buy be aimed at men aged 40+ with an interest group of the 80s. 

This strikes me as a bang on assessment of the market for GI Joe Mates.

[DSTZach]

I don't think anyone ever said these particular Minimates were for kids, the price and characters are not in their wheelhouse. Kids do not know who Snake Eyes is, let alone Duke. Nobody watched the Snake Eyes movie, the two Joe movies were virtually unrecognizable, and none were seemingly made with kids in mind. I'm not entirely sure how well the last Joe cartoon did, but IIRC, it was also not made for kids. 

That said, Minimates ARE fun, so if we'd made the sets more affordable at $30 a pop, MAYBE dads would have bought them FOR their kids. 

I didn't come up with the packaging style, and it's very cool, but I had an opportunity at one point to veto it, and I regret not doing it. Even if we lost the few people who bought two sets to keep one in package, I think they would have sold better. Maybe not THAT much better, but we'll never know. 

Print advertising is not something we do lightly, it's expensive and you never know who sees it, even if you give a coupon code. (We advertise in Archie via an ad swap, and use a code there.) Online advertising is handled by our social team, but I don't know how high a priority the Joe Mates are at the moment.  Maybe when we solicit the Adventure Team, we can do something. 

[Smashmaster12]

I’ve always considered Minimates to be in the realm of kids toys - they were sold at Toys R Us for years and always were bright, colorful characters. I wonder how the sales figures on kids-focused and adult-focused IPs have been.

There’s definitely more Joe fans than just men in their 50’s, I’m a 28-year-old woman and the classified line is one of my favorites. It’s one of those lines that ascends needing an attachment to the IP just because each release is so cool. Hasbro provided an extremely quality product at a budget price point. You buy a Snake Eyes, you got *the* Snake Eyes to end all Snake Eyes. $22 for a single 6” figure versus $40 for four 2” figures is a lot harder for people to justify. I think the entire industry is moving to a 6” preference, it’s a uniform scale so everyone can compete in the same arena.  I had both my TMNT and D&D sets drop in my pile of loot last week and I just couldn’t do it, it’s so much money for so little. I think I’ve officially moved on after what, like 15? Years of collecting. There’s just nothing to care about and what is there is so expensive. I got bills to pay, a wedding coming up, i can get a half a tank of gas or 4-5 Minimates

I’ll be entirely honest, I never see the DST socials promote Minimates at all. Just a single post of the stock product art going “this exists!” And that’s it. A 360 video of some statues isn’t going to make me want to run out and buy them. Minimate solicitation images are *ROUGH* and always make the product look inferior, most people expect what they see is what they get. 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Smashmaster12

[DSTZach]

I wasn't saying ALL Minimates were for adults, they're definitely great for kids, I just didn't think kids got GI Joe nowadays. I assume you have SOME attachment to the IP -- you don't make that clear, exactly -- because I can't see someone who has NO attachment to the IP buying $22 figures of the characters when there are so many other lines to choose from. But either way, I'm glad you like the Hasbro stuff! I have a lot of them, and I grew up on the cartoon and original toy line, and I think they're great. 

And Hasbro has certainly been upgrading all of their licenses to 6 inches to match Marvel Legends (Joe, D&D, Power Rangers, Indy), which leads every independent toy maker out there to try and ride that bandwagon with a 6-inch line, because they're the industry leader. (There are still some 4-inch holdouts, of course, but I always assume that's because of the investment level, and not a scale preference.) But all of OUR action figures, and most of McFarlane's and NECA's and Super 7's Ultimates, are 7-inch scale. So hopefully no one decides to nuke the 7-inch scale entirely, because that would suck.

But yeah, I do think the Joe Box Set price is a problem, if it's stopping a Minimate collector from buying a Minimate property they actually like. I wish we'd aimed for $30 per 4-pack (assuming we could match the FCBD set's price) and walked away from the individual blister cards for that reason, and all the reasons I named above. But it's too late now. Hopefully we can salvage something.

(FYI, Toys R Us used to sell a LOT of adult stuff, including a lot of pretty gruesome McFarlane Toys and -- for a hot minute -- Breaking Bad figures. Those got pulled after a bunch of moms started a petition.)

[Onyx_6]

Zach definitely needs to get the production samples early and do some of his famous toy photography to make them stand out. Then those photos go out the week-ish before release to help generate interest. 

Unfortunately for this line, the week before release is often far too late to be generating interest. We have lost too many (one is too many, but there have been multiple) releases to "lack of interest" in the presale phase of the "release."

What really stood out with TRU, and Walgreens to some extent, was the almost guarantee that there would be at least a pack of Minimates on the shelf at the store. Argument for "peg warmer" selections is a different argument. At least we knew they would be there. It was a sure release to market - a retailer had already invested in the product to push out to consumers. The current model relies (strongly, solely?) on the consumers to show retailers enough interest to generate enough mass interest to make it too production, all shortly after an offering is announced - often 6 months before they make it into hands. Trends change, interests change, finances change.

Having done a total of two Kickstarter funds (we shall not speak of one of them) and 2 HasLab campaigns (one that failed), the current Minimate model seems more like these than a traditional retail model. Especially if you support Luke, who charges upfront for any pre-orders.

While I understand the model, and I can appreciate the need to endure there is enough interest in a product, I don't feel like Minimates are a retail product anymore. At this point, I wonder if DST should fully embrace the crowdfunding model. Offer up a HasLab (DSToYou) style offering for a product; make a retailer only incentive tier with "bulk" discounts on the product, or "exclusive" rights to complimentary characters; have incentives for more orders/supporters, like alternate looks/accessories, additional character offerings, retro cardback packaging, etc..

I will still support Minimates. And Luke. At least until I am priced out of the hobby. I honestly wasn't sure where I was going with this post until I reread what I wrote. I stand by it.

[DSTZach]

Thanks, Onyx, I don't control the socials anymore, so I can only post my pics on my own channel, but I try to send the best fan MM images to the social managers.

I don't know if Minimates can go online-only. Luckily, there are still brick-and-mortar buyers. Someday we'll hit on the right license to get them into Walmart -- it almost happened very recently, we'll show off the new license at NYTF.

Oh, and we have been trying to improve our Minimates solicitation images. The last batch of images for SDCC TF Minimates and Marvel 84 were pretty solid, I think, but sorry if past images were not up to snuff. 

 

[cylonchaney]

4 hours ago, DSTZach said:

Thanks, Onyx, I don't control the socials anymore, so I can only post my pics on my own channel, but I try to send the best fan MM images to the social managers.

I don't know if Minimates can go online-only. Luckily, there are still brick-and-mortar buyers. Someday we'll hit on the right license to get them into Walmart -- it almost happened very recently, we'll show off the new license at NYTF.

Oh, and we have been trying to improve our Minimates solicitation images. The last batch of images for SDCC TF Minimates and Marvel 84 were pretty solid, I think, but sorry if past images were not up to snuff. 

 

I'm no photo critic. But those Mates are gorgeous!

 

[elhonez]

I may be buying a second set of those DD mates.

[ApexPredator]

7 hours ago, DSTZach said:

we'll show off the new license at NYTF

New license?? Not sure I heard this anywhere else. Are minimates included with this?

[DSTZach]

You heard it here first! And yes, it is a license for Minimates. That's why I brought it up. Unfortunately, the reveal just got pushed to NYCC, but that's only a week or so later. 

[nandoninny]

Well since you’re teasing (and up early)- any hints?

[elhonez]

So you're finally doing Murder She Wrote??

[Strider]

Could it be the license for the Lego movie? I always thought they would make great minimates.

[cylonchaney]

8 minutes ago, Strider said:

Could it be the license for the Lego movie? I always thought they would make great minimates.

The salesperson who could cut that deal would be wasting their talent at DST. 

[Navaan]

11 hours ago, DSTZach said:

You heard it here first! And yes, it is a license for Minimates. That's why I brought it up. Unfortunately, the reveal just got pushed to NYCC, but that's only a week or so later. 

Pie in the sky, Resident Evil or Cyberpunk 2077...