1 per person limit lifted for hobbits! Go get them!

[Darklord Dave]

All SSC needs to do to secure the future of this line, is to rethink the price of the figures. It's as simple as that.

There's already too much work in these figures to justify the LOW cost. If they rethink them and continue to do them, they'll have to raise the cost. The amount of research and development that goes into a LotR figure is twice as much in time and resources than any other figure.

But you may be right, the demand may not be there from LotR fans. I wouldn't want them to cheap them out and SSC certainly wouldn't want to do that - so that means not doing them anymore.

 

[Darth Cruel]

As much as I hate to say it, I would also rather see them not made than to see them done cheap.

 

[The Craw]

i think they are priced just right for the amount of detail in the costumes and accessories. some of the detail is insane. boromir's red shirt. aragorns leather tunic. legolas's green tunic and the detail etched on his belts. sam's entire backpack set up. and faramir's entire costume from head to toe. makes me proud to own the complete set. cant wait for gandalf.

 

[Bodie The Cursed]

To me the solution is simple..

They are starting w/ humans.. Thats boring.. Throw a frew Uruk, RingWrath, WK and some Orc and this line will be on fire..

Human= snore

 

[Alice Adrenochrome]

There's already too much work in these figures to justify the LOW cost. If they rethink them and continue to do them, they'll have to raise the cost. The amount of research and development that goes into a LotR figure is twice as much in time and resources than any other figure.

But you may be right, the demand may not be there from LotR fans. I wouldn't want them to cheap them out and SSC certainly wouldn't want to do that - so that means not doing them anymore.

The price of these figures is not entirely determinated by R&D, material costs and license costs, ... . Perhaps SSC should be a bit creative with the profit margin of these figures? Face it, scores of retailers offer SSC products at a lower price. So, if they can do it, why can't SSC? I don't know if it's true, but I once read here on the board that retailers have to guarantee that they will not offer SSC products below a certain price. That tells me, that these items could be sold at an even lower price, and still be profitable. Less profitable, but still. I don't think that this automatically means that the quality of the product will suffer.
I said it before, and I say it again: let somebody publish the netto price of a 12" figure versus the retail price, and then, let's talk again. It'll be very interesting to see, which amount of the $70 we payed for Frodo goes where. In the end, it's all about profit, and not about doing collectors favors. So, what with the future of the LotR line? If SSC manages to keep this line attractive to collectors (or should I say, make this line attractive again...), there's a future. I just don't belive that continuously raising prices is a convincing way to do it. A price drop on the other hand...
What ever. They don't have to fear bankruptcy, since exclusives collectors will continue to buy straight from SSC, because of the exclusives. So, their method of binding a certain kind of collector to a certain kind of product works. At least, until the next price hike... .

 

[Darklord Dave]

The price of these figures is not entirely determinated by R&D, material costs and license costs, ... . Perhaps SSC should be a bit creative with the profit margin of these figures? Face it, scores of retailers offer SSC products at a lower price. So, if they can do it, why can't SSC? I don't know if it's true, but I once read here on the board that retailers have to guarantee that they will not offer SSC products below a certain price. That tells me, that these items could be sold at an even lower price, and still be profitable. Less profitable, but still. I don't think that this automatically means that the quality of the product will suffer.
.

But why should they continue to produce something that returns less to the bottom line? Why spend the resources on a single 1/6th LotR that sells 1500 units when the same resources could have gone to 4 SW figures that sell 3-5000 units each? They are a business after all, it has to make economic sense.

 

[LOTRFan]

But why should they continue to produce something that returns less to the bottom line? Why spend the resources on a single 1/6th LotR that sells 1500 units when the same resources could have gone to 4 SW figures that sell 3-5000 units each? They are a business after all, it has to make economic sense.

Not to mention the assumed costs of a new Hobbit body, that has to be a significant hit to Sideshow.

 

[customizerwannabe]

I'd pay 100.00 for a fig that had HT quality. The Frodo head sucks. They should have fixed it before production. I still bought 2 but they weren't worth the money. I felt Sam was a much better value. If they want to sell more, make them right.

Sometimes you need to make a little less money to make fans happy that support the other lines as well. LOTR fans don't live in a vacuum. They buy marvel, hellboy, SW, etc. There aren't many more figures to make to at least have the fellowship. They started this and they should finish it...at least to that point.

 

[Darklord Dave]

I'd pay 100.00 for a fig that had HT quality. The Frodo head sucks. They should have fixed it before production. I still bought 2 but they weren't worth the money. I felt Sam was a much better value. If they want to sell more, make them right.

I think that the vast majority of fans would disagree with you about Frodo.

 

[Shai]

Yeah, I think this line is in danger.

 

[customizerwannabe]

I think that the vast majority of fans would disagree with you about Frodo.

C'mon Dave. Look at that melon. It's huge and sorry, but...sloppy. Could've been much better. My opinion of course. Look at Aragorn and Legolas. Great after someone here resculpted them. I can't believe they can honestly look at a lot of these and think "that's the best we can do". I love SS stuff in general, but their 1/6 line is hit and MISS.

 

[icruise]

To me the solution is simple..

They are starting w/ humans.. Thats boring.. Throw a frew Uruk, RingWrath, WK and some Orc and this line will be on fire..

Human= snore

I actually agree with you. All you need is some cool looking orcs/Uruk Hai and this line would be back on top again, at least for a while. But humans are easier and cheaper than those options. They would probably require extensive sculpting of body parts, if not entirely new bodies. Sideshow generally doesn't seem to like to go very far out of its comfort zone, which is humans (or humanoids who are very close to human) wearing cloth clothing. Armor? Figures that can't use their base body? You don't see so many of those.

They're working on it with the Sideshow armored figures and the hobbits, but it does seem to be taking quite a while. And the problem is that the longer it takes, the less likely it is that they will be able to reinvigorate the line. It may already be to the point where it isn't work the money it would cost to engineer something like an Uruk Hai, given the lackluster sales. I don't know.

C'mon Dave. Look at that melon. It's huge and sorry, but...sloppy. Could've been much better. My opinion of course. Look at Aragorn and Legolas. Great after someone here resculpted them. I can't believe they can honestly look at a lot of these and think "that's the best we can do". I love SS stuff in general, but their 1/6 line is hit and MISS.

You're not actually saying that you prefer the other Frodo, are you? Even in terms of head size, it looks totally wrong.

 

[The Craw]

C'mon Dave. Look at that melon. It's huge and sorry, but...sloppy. Could've been much better. My opinion of course. Look at Aragorn and Legolas. Great after someone here resculpted them. I can't believe they can honestly look at a lot of these and think "that's the best we can do". I love SS stuff in general, but their 1/6 line is hit and MISS.

it looks huge if you're gonna compare it to that pile o' crap next to it. i havent once looked at frodo or sam and thought that their heads are too big. i think SS frodo is great. sorry you dont feel the same.

 

[customizerwannabe]

I actually agree with you. All you need is some cool looking orcs/Uruk Hai and this line would be back on top again, at least for a while. But humans are easier and cheaper than those options. They would probably require extensive sculpting of body parts, if not entirely new bodies. Sideshow generally doesn't seem to like to go very far out of its comfort zone, which is humans (or humanoids who are very close to human) wearing cloth clothing. Armor? Figures that can't use their base body? You don't see so many of those.

They're working on it with the Sideshow armored figures and the hobbits, but it does seem to be taking quite a while. And the problem is that the longer it takes, the less likely it is that they will be able to reinvigorate the line. It may already be to the point where it isn't work the money it would cost to engineer something like an Uruk Hai, given the lackluster sales. I don't know.



You're not actually saying that you prefer the other Frodo, are you? Even in terms of head size, it looks totally wrong.

No no. The other Frodo sucks Ringwraith nuts(Edit: I'm not sure if they still have nuts). I'm saying 70.00 should have bought me a great Frodo sculpt. It didn't.

 

[Gruff Old Bear]

I think that if SS were to stop the 12" LOTR line without producing at least the remaining Fellowship, they'd have a tough time getting buyers on board with another series. There's the issue of their credibility and thus their brand equity. Also, the costs of developing the smaller body need to be amortized over subsequent releases, or Frodo and Sam will truly be their most costly endeavor ever.

And as for the ToyBiz piece o' crap, the body and hands are a nice contrast to the Sideshow body, and the jury's still out on likeness until repaints of both show up in the Customs forum...I may yet wind up slapping a Sideshow Frodo wig-hat on one of these:

 

[FlyAndFight]

I think that if SS were to stop the 12" LOTR line without producing at least the remaining Fellowship, they'd have a tough time getting buyers on board with another series. There's the issue of their credibility and thus their brand equity. Also, the costs of developing the smaller body need to be amortized over subsequent releases, or Frodo and Sam will truly be their most costly endeavor ever.

Excellent point.

There's no denying that everyone that has jumped on this line has expected that at the very least, they would be able to display the "Fellowship Nine" in 1/6th scale. I know that I've been a broken record regarding this since the line was initially announced.

"IF" this line is in danger of being dropped without the Fellowship Nine being released, I feel that it would be due to issues outside of Sideshow's realm of control. I honestly feel that SS would have released the F9 at the very least.

(Now I'm not sure if I should pick up an extra pair of hobbits just in case I have to make my own custom Merry & Pippen...)

 

[Darklord Dave]

I think that if SS were to stop the 12" LOTR line without producing at least the remaining Fellowship, they'd have a tough time getting buyers on board with another series. There's the issue of their credibility and thus their brand equity. ]

I don't really see that as a problem. Buffy and Angel collectors might, Planet of the Apes collectors might, Python collectors got no complaints though.

It makes no sense economically to continue a line that isn't as profitable as other lines. People continue to buy what few figures are released whether they have expectations of all the major characters being released.

 

[icruise]

I agree that there may come a time when it doesn't make sense to continue with the line (although the fault for that lies squarely with how Sideshow has handled it, IMHO). But I do think that they could be negatively impacting their own future sales by killing it too early. I think everyone who bought into the line expected to get at least the fellowship, if not a much wider range of figures, and they may be more reluctant to start a new line in the future if there is no guarantee that they'll get the major figures in a particular series.

 

[customizerwannabe]

With another movie coming out they should think twice about stopping. You know they'll want to cash in on "The Hobbit". If they d/c the current line, maybe we just won't let them.

 

[toystales]

SS has slowed this line considerably but IMHO, I believe they will still keep the line. But I must admit that with Frodo and Sam being still available, SS may not be so keen to bring on the other Hobbits like Merry and Pippin anytime soon.

SS may also be waiting to see how GTG does in terms of sales and whether the eventual shipment of GTG will see a corresponding increase in sales of Frodo and Sam before they take a decision.

All said, I don't think SS will be announcing any LOTR 1/6 Figures at the coming SDCC.