Action Figure Resource Magazine August 2016 | Page 2

ACTION FIGURE RESOURCE MAGAZINE TODAY’S TOYS, TOMORROW’S TREASURES Hi, This month I want to talk about of my pet peeves, and that is Exclusives, and in particular show Exclusives (such as San Diego Comic Con), or rather should I say non-exclusives. First lets take a look at the so cold show exclusives. For weeks, even months, before the San Diego Comic-Con fans and collectibles are teased with licensees and manufacturer’s exclusive’s and SHOW ONLY products. Often these are only available on a preorderwebsite and sold out BEFORE the show, often at 2 or 3 times their usual RRP or MRP and as a result skyrocket in price on the secondary market. However, this is not my main “complaint” or frustration, but the fact that these are often sold AFTER the event by the manufacturers or licensees is. To my mind an SDCC Exclusive should mean exactly that. So, how is it that no sooner have the exhibitors packed up and returned home than these same exclusives appear on the manufacturers websites, sometimes at a discounted rate! Produced & published by: Colin Dorman Articles by: Colin Dorman, Alex Shaw Reviews supplied by: Michael Crawford http://www.mwctoys.com Action Figure Resource Website: http://action-figure-resource.com Email: [email protected] Advertising enquiries, please send to the above email address. If you have any question, queries or remarks about any of the articles please contact me. If you are interested in advertising in the AFR magazine or website please contact me for a rate card. Hasbro, although not alone, are one of the main culprits of this practice. Surely this is a case of false advertising, or misrepresentation at the least to then sell these show exclusives AFTER the event, even as giveaways or prizes. I’m sure that most of these companies will point out that it is expensive to produce these short runs and sometimes they are left with stock after the show or comic-con. Well, my answer to them would be to price them more effectively in the beginning, produce shorter runs or advertise them well in advance so they can be almost made to order, however what happens in reality is that because the profits on these are higher the manufacturers get greedy wanting to get a bigger piece of the pie and end up over producing them! A Show Exclusive should be a Show Exclusive, and that should be it. If manufacturers want to sell their excess stock afterwards, fine, but don’t market them as Show Exclusives but as general limited runs or productions. Which brings me to another pet peeve on this subject, which is the general lack of information on exactly how exclusive they are, by which I mean how many are actually produced. It seems that very few manufacturers are willing to reveal this information and in fact are often secretive about it, but as collectors isn’t it our right to know? And I’m not talking about the mass produced high street toys but the higher end collectible figures from such companies as Sideshow Collectibles, Hot Toys, ThreeA, Ace Toys, DID, Rise Collectibles etc. Lastly there is the cost. When the price of oil was skyrocketing action figures also saw a sharp rise in the cost and a diminished size. After all, this is often the reason given as to why many manufacturers switched to 3.5 inch figures. But in recent years we’ve seen the price of oil plummet to record lows, not only that but the overall cost of making this figures has decreased as wastage etc. has been cut out and product runs tend to be lower and more accurate. Yet has there been a drop on the price at retail? Colin [email protected]