So this is an idea I got the other day after hearing that the MSRP for the Platinum Edition Unicron. To do a basic run down of it, are the reason PE figures are so costly is that the profits from their sales are actually used to help increase the budget of other lines? I know it may sound crazy, but it's actually a sound strategy movie companies will do from time to time, like releasing an okay movie with decent budget and using the earnings towards the budget of a much larger and better movie, which will in term make even more. We all know, or should know that any figure obviously is sold for nowhere near the cost to produce it, A safe bet of a modern deluxe would be $10 to make, and is sold to a retailer for a price and they use the MSRP for $17. With this in mind, even older molds such as Unicron which were designed during a time when budgets were different, obviously cost nowhere near the MSRP of $170 to produce. All of the PE figures seem extremely jacked up in price. A lot of people just either blame that on Hasbro trying to milk the collector market and even as a pretty lenient guy I have to admit the prices are too much. So my theory is whether or not Hasbro is purposely churning out repaints of old molds at inflated prices not just for sole profit, but to help fluff out the budget of Titans Return and RID2015, which can in-turn bring a steady and decent profit themselves. In a world where we have a line with a six-changing Sixshot, a Headmaster Optimus Prime with a Diaclone TM, an F-ing Leader class Overlord and a whole slew of figures who are getting figures for the second time in over 30 years I find it hard to believe that PE exclusives are the true "collector" themed figures, not when I can get a new Sixshot at retail with a HM designed after some dude he murdered back in japanese cartoon, even if some of the PE figures are of G1 molds. A lot of the boxsets don't ever seem to be a high demand or keep their MSRP prices for long, so maybe the demand isn't really that high for them either. Filler. Call me crazy or whatever, I just thought about it. I'm not always the best at writing out my ideas either.
Seeing how European e-tailers can barelymove any PE set at reduced price i wonder why they still buy them in and why they are still produced. Offcourse the european market is nothinglike the US one but i dont see many Americans hungry for these things either.
i'm fairly certain the PE sets are actually intended for the newly developing Chinese market. and they're being sold elsewhere as a courtesy (remember the shitstorm that occurred when people thought the GDO figures were going to be exclusive to southeast asian markets?)
This. The Chinese market that these are primarily catering to likes all of the gaudy color schemes and have the disposable income to throw away at them. The fact that some of these are sold elsewhere is of little consequence.
