3rd party industry bubble? Dinobots may burst it?

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by Convotron, Aug 25, 2014.

  1. Convotron

    Convotron Well-Known Member

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    There has been talk for some time that with the flood of 3rd party Dinobot toys coming into the market...well, that the 3rd party industry's bubble will burst. I don't think that will be the case.

    Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but most 3rd party companies don't deal directly or at least solely with the individual customer. They deal with retailers such as BBTS. They sell their product to the retailer. They get their money. Done deal.

    Now whether or not the inventory that these retailers bought from the 3rd party producer sell out or languish in the warehouse, well, that's the retailer's problem. The 3rd party producers already have their money.

    In the instance of Dinobot toys, if they sell poorly, sure, there will not be much demand for 3rd party Dinobots afterwards for some time but, for example, I doubt retailers will refuse to deal with Fansproject again if their Dinobot toys don't sell out.

    Am I wrong? Am I overly optimistic about not feeling concerned about the many 3rd party Dinobot offerings?
     
  2. Ribieconvoy

    Ribieconvoy Well-Known Member

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    I don't think they'll make the bubble burst, but they will all definitely have an effect. I think it'll definitely be harder on the smaller companies that don't have a track record of successful products built up yet.
     
  3. Convotron

    Convotron Well-Known Member

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    Oh, there will definitely be some impact if the 3rd party Dinobots flunk but it seems to me that it would be more of a case in the future where retailers will be less eager to buy up as much stock of redundant 3rd party toy concepts.

    So the onus is on the 3rd party companies in that if they want to thrive, not just survive, in the future, they need to be more innovative in terms of the concepts they want to bring to the market.
     
  4. Gauntlet101010

    Gauntlet101010 Well-Known Member

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    Eh, we'll see. I once heard that Hasbro would take legal action "eventually" and that the $100 dollar price point would be the breaking point.

    I dunno, maybe. I'm pretty sure these toys are cheaper in China. Maybe the exact opposite will happen and it'll prove a boon to all.
     
  5. OptionZero

    OptionZero Well-Known Member

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    There will be a market correction, where companies that are late to the market with a product that overlaps with other companies will suffer, and companies that have garbage will die.

    Impossible toys was crap and died.
    KFC had to change its name, as did Cubex.

    Even MMC reportedly wasn't too well after the Knight Morpher series and had to shift gears to the Reformatted line, which is focused on G1 and IDW stuff.

    a project like Gauntlet died and Mech6 disappeared, it took Mech Ideas to resurrect it

    Basically, if you're FP-MT and you have history and quality and Capitol, as well as a strong tie to retailers, you are golden. If you're TFC with deep pockets full of Mainland China money and RobotKingdom ties, you are golden. MMC is probably ok now with good customer service and fan service product choices like the DJD.

    I think Perfect Effect is fine since they are owned by RobotKingdom and have capitol, plus a recent smash hit in Warden.

    Fanstoys apparent has money and a following but not as much money as Dacatoys, which IMO put out garbage. But it's ok since daca is not for profit according to its owner.

    The rest of the field is small time or up and coming, so well see. The dinobot situation is ridiculous though. At least one of those companies should have adjusted and done Dinoking.
     
  6. divinecomedy

    divinecomedy Board Certified Fans Trollar

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    Not when Dinobots are 100 plus a piece. Someday though, you can't give them away.
     
  7. archieboy

    archieboy Well-Known Member

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    I hope so. It's high time for a "cleansing."
     
  8. dwong1207

    dwong1207 Well-Known Member

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    I can see retailers having overstock which will lead to these dinobots going on sale. Retailers may be more cautious when different companies produce the same product. Most likely the smaller company will end up taking it in the rear because the retailer will usually go with the more popular companies. Omnigonix is smart in doing Sunstreaker because he is the only one doing it while all the big companies are in a dino war.
     
  9. LazyAza

    LazyAza MMC color go brrrr

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    I don't think the dinobots will be what causes it but yeah the market crash is inevitable at the rate things are progressing. I'd say the sheer number of companies is already above what the consumer base can support. Too many have seen an opportunity with this market and tried to jump in and only the biggest and most successful will be around in the next few years; your mmcs n fps n tfcs etc. And I'm ok with that. I'd honestly rather have far fewer things I feel like I "need to buy" but for those that exist to be absolute must haves.
     
  10. motorthing

    motorthing Too old for this $hit

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    $100/£70+ per chunk of Dino is going to ensure failure part of the way into a project for at least one of the Outfits currently entering the War. Who can afford 4 Generations Teams and Two MP teams right now?

    Quality is also going to count. Impossible took it in the neck because of the lack of it. I'm not sure Suraking looks that great on this count so far. Fansproject's Clompy-oh looks fine, feels well built but mine is already flopping over from poorly designed hips, if Toyworld's Snarl impresses like their Swamper did then I may switch horses there.

    One way or another while the Market gets saturated with "this years theme" and prices keep going up not all of them can make it. Still the Market hasn't killed the likes of KFC/KTC yet so who knows........maybe they are all run by independently wealthy benefactors that just want to make the TF world a better place and thus eat their losses.

    Yeah......right.
     
  11. Dek

    Dek Y R U Reading This?

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    The Dinobots are split into three crowds from what I can tell; Masterpiece, Classics, and Combiners, with some overlap between them.

    The Masterpiece companies should whether the dino bubble with minimal losses, probably only Bullsfire, because there are so few companies involved.

    Classics are gonna be hit hard. And some companies are going to hurt after it is done. Fansproject seems like the lead contender to do well, and I attribute it to the target master gimmick. Some more bang for your buck. Those without a gimmick may not find themselves financially solvent enough to finish their intended runs if they are only doing Dinobots. They will need at least one more, two would be better, lines going on to take some of the financial burden off. Classics is where I predict our biggest casualties, and the disappearance of two companies at the least. Especially if Paddles is the guy you're using to hook everyone.

    The combiner are going to be a war, and the most interest to watch for me. You alienate some of the fan base who believe Dinos shouldn't combine to begin with, and then you have the same price? If GCreations can guarantee quality and good engineering along with a decently scaled Grimlock (Like Leo Dux is to the boys) I think they might win the combiner wars.

    But no one will get rich here. You've carved a niche market in a niche market up three ways, and now with the money from the slice of the pie you get you have to wonder as a company will that be enough? Will it be enough to justify the costs? Will it be enough to justify a second line of products?

    I'm tuning in to find out, and hoping not to get screwed in the process because I liked FP's Dinos and preordered.
     
  12. Harleytron

    Harleytron Decepticon

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    i dont think theres anything to worry about. many people are buying dinobots from more than one company.
     
  13. Dek

    Dek Y R U Reading This?

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    Are they though? I hear of people cherry picking from lines, and a person here or there saying they're double dipping. Maybe I'm not in the right threads, I hang out in the Predaking threads mostly, but I think we need more than a few people buying more than one full line for every company to be alright.
     
  14. dwong1207

    dwong1207 Well-Known Member

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    I'm only getting fp and ft...i am not going near mf and I'm tired of waiting for px. Yw looks interesting but i don't care for dino combiner, i want them to finish their throttlebots for goodness sakes.
     
  15. bellpeppers

    bellpeppers A Meat Popsicle

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    I see a lot of dinobots, and I also see a lot of "shut up and take my money" memes as well.

    As far as a 3p bubble bursting, I don't see it happening.
    In the future tho, with more tech savvy fans and 3d printers getting better and cheaper I see 3p being hurt more by the fan community than an abundance of dinobots
     
  16. koonfasa

    koonfasa Well-Known Member

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    Why is it a bubble?
     
  17. LazyAza

    LazyAza MMC color go brrrr

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    Because every market has its limits. Their are only so many adult tf collectors with the finances to purchase expensive collector toys. Once their are more companies putting out more figures than we the consumers can possibly afford (or even want to buy) the market will crash in some form.

    It remains to be seen if it will indeed get that bloated and over-populated but this current tidal wave of dinobots is an early indicator this is a very likely outcome within the next few years. So best to enjoy it as much as possible while we can. :) 

    You'll know the end times are upon us if sometime around late 2016-earl 2017 we're looking at like 10 omega supremes; all of them huge and costing more than 300 bucks each. :lol 
     
  18. unicronic

    unicronic Well-Known Member

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    I think some of your thinking is incorrect.

    In many B2B transactions like this the entity taking 'all the risk' e.g. BBTS has some kind of safety net. What this means is if a product turns out to a be a lead balloon to consumers and no-one picks it up that they can either return unsold inventory for a refund or return inventory for a credit on future lines/figures.

    If the third party reneges on this arrangement then that's it, game over for that third party. Only the bravest of fools would do business with a company that can't be trusted.

    So for third parties, if a product is not well received or if it loses out to market saturation, that they have a rolling loss on their books. Stack a few of those on top of each other and you can get into a bad spot quick.

    If it turns out that BBTS et al are just buying with no recourse then they're playing a very dangerous game.
     
  19. koonfasa

    koonfasa Well-Known Member

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    Trolled for the wrong answer there.;) 
    Like most of you, I want more than I can afford. As prices go up, we get less of what we want. One Hot Toy is almost a statue, or 3 MP's or 12 classics or 5 Figma's, 3 games, 6 BluRays, 8 albums... whatever it is, we may be spending more, but we are getting much much less. This is going to take it's toll. And it seems everything is on the up, partially inflated by a percieved "eBay value", so I think we are through the bubble wall and already extended into that extracellular matrix.

    I'm hoping there's enough toy collectors out there to eat all the world's plastic up. And metal, the molds used for all these, are they smelted for new molds or is there a big mold warehouse hidden deep in China?

    Hot Toys have yet to pop...
     
  20. koonfasa

    koonfasa Well-Known Member

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    I almost think BBTS are starting to do that, as they put up preorders before anyone else, almost as if to see what demand is based on a guess price. In fact it's only been last few years where everyone is aware of how much people are willing to pay for a Hot Toy or Figma (Zelda & Link) or sold out 3P TF or any vinyl collectible after market (and no thanks to everyone chasing the asian markets, local stores don't get a proper mark-up and then we demand perfect collectibles).

    More like we'll kill the stores and leave very few outlets that have control over what is produced. Then HasTak steps in...