Play Imaginative - RIP in peace?

Not sure if this is the right section for this, but...

Been seeing their 1/12 Mk 42 and War Machine Mk 2 hitting figure exchanges and auction sites in Asia for ever cheaper prices, and the last update on their Facebook page is from two months ago:



Time to start preparing a casket? I remember when they first burst onto the scene with their travelling circus of Iron Man prototypes I actually had high hopes they'd do well as a company and give Hot Toys some desperately-needed competition. So much for that

Rest in peace in peace?

Cap'n Cook said:

Rest in peace in peace?

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Indeed. Glad I didn't blindly preorder anything with them back in 2013/2014, as tempting as some of their prototypes looked. Their Facebook page is mostly angry replies to their posts from people who paid up front for preorders and haven't seen any sign of a finished product for up to two years.

It's a shame because what little feedback there is from the handful of people who got their 1/4 War Machine Mk II and their 1/12 figures seems to be mostly positive. Guess it was too little, too late.

42 Iron Man prototypes and two releases? Not a good business strategy I guess.

My buddy still not receive anything from them and their support is not even exist.

Competing against a market dominated by Hot Toys Iron Men, not a good business strategy.

Cap'n Cook said:

Rest in peace in peace?

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^
This

Cap'n Cook said:

Rest in peace in peace?

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He probably meant "rip in pieces"

You can't attempt to deliver a product at a higher price that most people already have a decent stake in with another company, especially when the products are very similar. Its not going to work out for em. I said this a long time ago, and I'm not particularly surprised. They should have launched with different licenses.

Ironman franchise really crowded, Play imaginative actually do 1/12 and 1/4, not quite competing with 1/6 Hot toys. But shfiguart comes with much cheaper price and then HT just get into 1/4. The competition become harder and they are so slow about everything. Its no wonder they will disquilified from competition with such slow pace. People starting lose trust over PI, awful customer service, no clear release date .

Also they are still around IM3 franchise which already outdated. Everyone already looking forward AoU. And yeah 1/4 mark 43 HT punching PI in the face, much cheaper with better hs and everything than their WM mk 2. Good luck try to survive PI

I was disappointed they never did anything with RoboCop. I'd love a 6 inch scale die-cast metal Robo to go up against my NECA ED 209. Oh well. Guess it wasn't meant to be.

Are you sure they are done yeah they are horrible about updates but they had so many protoypes show and that a not including the iron man stuff they also had DC figures and they had announced that they would be making Pacific Rim figures hard to belive all that is gone.

There is that other company coming into the game as well with 1/9 scale iron man figures King Arts but nothing beyond the prototypes show at the toy show rooms.

moose said:

Are you sure they are done yeah they are horrible about updates but they had so many protoypes show and that a not including the iron man stuff they also had DC figures and they had announced that they would be making Pacific Rim figures hard to belive all that is gone.

There is that other company coming into the game as well with 1/9 scale iron man figures King Arts but nothing beyond the prototypes show at the toy show rooms.

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I'm really looking forward to seeing how King Arts do. They've shown a sensible amount of really nice-looking prototypes that clearly look ready for production and the items they have released so far have been well-received.

Hopefully they'll build up slowly and steadily instead of pretending they're big enough to compete directly with Hot Toys like PI did.

If PI are indeed out of the game, I think the back story for what happened, would make interesting reading.

Clearly they managed to get taken seriously enough to acquire rights to produce figures for major licenses and make figure prototypes.. then nothing much happened, except very expensive, diecast 1/12 figures.. very strange.

Taibhse said:

If PI are indeed out of the game, I think the back story for what happened, would make interesting reading.

Clearly they managed to get taken seriously enough to acquire rights to produce figures for major licenses and make figure prototypes.. then nothing much happened, except very expensive, diecast 1/12 figures.. very strange.

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That's basically why I started the thread, I'm fascinated by this company's example of how not to run a collectibles business and would love to know the full history behind it.

Play Imaginative - 'because ''imagining them'' is all you'll be able to do with our products'

So, people didn't respond enthusiastically to ridiculously overpriced diecast Superman and Batman figures, eh? Funny that.

YankeesFanboy said:

So, people didn't respond enthusiastically to ridiculously overpriced diecast Superman and Batman figures, eh? Funny that.

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Hmmm.. I kinda take your point, particularly for the diecast 1/12 figures (I questioned whether collectors of that scale, would be prepared to pay PI's prices, at the time, in the PI thread).. however the 1/6 and 1/4 figures had a much higher proportion of diecast components than HT's diecast figures, which I assume would have increased production costs.. as I say, I think the really odd thing was the very extended delay in producing figures, after showing the prototypes.. I know their Batman 1/6 diecast figures did appear to need discounting to help sales.. but imho, the figure was actually pretty impressive, in hand.
Super Alloy Jim Lee Batman sixth scale action figure - Another Pop Culture Collectible Review by Michael Crawford, Captain Toy

a-dev said:

Play Imaginative - 'because ''imagining them'' is all you'll be able to do with our products'

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Very clever

well they did start out as niche designer toy makers, not your typical high end mainstream action figure makers.

i think it's normal for them not to update & give any responds.

they just want to produce & sell & keep the money.

Plastic Bateman said:

That's basically why I started the thread, I'm fascinated by this company's example of how not to run a collectibles business and would love to know the full history behind it.

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