Yea I agree... that's assuming I ever get my S7 Turtle set. Super7 really need to have a release schedule for their preorders, I have numerous different prorders for them that are just lost in the ether.
Sometimes it seems like they might be biting off more than they can chew. It seems like their offerings exploded over the past year…while manufacturing and distribution have gone the opposite direction. I haven’t followed them for long, though, so maybe this is typical of them. Plus, world events are fucking everything up.
I'm not really sure what value Super 7 really adds to this process honestly, when they took over the MOTU license they had the same issue with delays and quality control. I get that they're a smaller company and managing a lot of different lines so they need to shave costs where they can, but you figure that just about anyone else could contract the Horsemen to design these figures and end up with a better result. It is a bit of a catch 22 though, because these smaller independent toy makers are really the only ones who are willing to take the risk on these collector focused lines, but without the resources of a bigger parent company to back them up they have a hard time following through on all their promises.
That’s the main reason I give them a pass on a lot of this stuff. They’re trying to give us stuff nobody else is going to, and they can only move so quickly. Still…hopefully they aren’t making promises they can’t keep…eventually. It just seems like every time I turn around they’re making figures for a completely different franchise. TMNT, Disney, Simpsons, Joes, Silverhawks, Thundercats, TFs, Voltron…etc. It’s impressive, really. And I wish them the best.
Scored a Party Wagon today. Saw last night that one was available for pick up. Took a chance on it even though there was a possibility that the item was already purchased, stolen or hidden. Now I just need the turtles. I hope they reissue the blimp and especially the Footcruiser one day.
its not really the “risk” of taking on collectors lines, it’s more the small return. TMNT has obviously done really well for S7, but their other ultimate IPs only sell around 5000 units per figure. Even at $55, that’s only $275K revenue. Add in $35k for tooling, $15k for design, and $25/unit in plastic, paint, and assembly ($125k). And then another $5/unit for packaging and shipping to the US ($25k). That really only leaves $75k to pay for all the salaries/costs at S7 to get this done, including legal fees, licensing fees, packaging design, project management, QC / factory production support, website costs, building overhead, etc etc. I’m sure my numbers are off here and there, but for the most part, these are the economies of scale that S7 is able to pull off. Honestly I don’t know how they do it, and I think they bring a lot to the game, especially since no one else was touching thundercats, Silverhawks, etc.
Awesome score. I've been hunting for one for a while. How do you see if one is available for pick up at all?
So does anyone else find it funny that they packed Leo with Miguel who's from the Cobra Kai show, but Johnny, Daniel, and Kreese look like their younger selves from the first Karate Kid film? Fucking weird ass choice Playmates. Especially seeing as the boxes have the Cobra Kai branding.
Just a weird crossover. I doubt any of the KK would last a minute against a ninja. With the exception of maybe Kreese, none of the KK guys are villains. Even Johnny in the film wasn't a bad guy.
It's really unfortunate when you lay out the numbers like that too, because it just makes it all the more clear that the cost of designing and producing high quality figures is really chump change for a big company like Playmates or Hasbro, and that given their better bargaining power with suppliers they could probably manage to do this all even cheaper and earn a much better margin than what S7 is able to pull off. So the issue is not so much that collector lines are not profitable for big companies but that they simply aren't profitable ENOUGH, and that the pencil pushers have calculated that this money is better invested just churning out the same cheap disposable junk year after year, totally ignoring the long term benefits of cultivating a loyal fanbase and building up a brand image. Back when MOTUC was still under Mattycollector, it was honestly infuriating that they were seemingly operating out of a garage on a shoestring budget all while being attached to the largest toy company in the world. And while I'm sure a lot of this was just Toyguru bending the truth to try and push sales for the line, the fact that a company like Mattel had to resort to such tactics at all was just really grating. Now this isn't to say that that designers should just be given a blank check to create the wildest and most impractical figures they can imagine, but it is kind of a sad commentary that those with the most resources available to them seem to be doing the least with it, while all the real creativity and innovation is occurring on the margins of the industry.
