12 inch have doubled in price?

[niennumb1]

Simple answer to a simple question... Because they can.

Drop in sales = lower prices
Increase in sales = raise prices

In testing the waters to see how much people would be willing to fork over for the Speeder Bike it was a tremendous success. To see they they could sell out of Exclusive Stormtroopers and Vaders in 3 minutes charging what they did now ups the bar for what they can get away with charging in the future.

As long as people keep buying from them they can set whatever price they want, and people will keep buying. I do think the costs were quite hefty for these pieces. Yeah Vader is pretty intricately detailed but the cost seems a bit high to me. And if you think about how much more work and precision that must go into making clothing for 12" figures that for something like the Stormtrooper's plastic mold that gets plastered on a figure colored simply in white with barely any paint used would make you wonder why those cost more than the clothed ones like Boushh for example. I think once you get the mold right the rest is machine work and less labor costs. I think the Stormtrooper should have been a lot less in cost by $20.

I bought Vader and Stormies. Yeah the price really sucks bad and I'm going to find it a bit hard shelling that out when the time comes seeing how much other figures have cost me in the past. These are way more expensive. It's possible I may ditch the 12" stormie and wait it out for a premium format one to make it more feeling worthy of the money being spend to produce something of bigger size and magnificence in my collection.

 

[Wor-Gar]

To see they they could sell out of Exclusive Stormtroopers and Vaders in 3 minutes charging what they did now ups the bar for what they can get away with charging in the future.

As much as they deny it, the new pricing does seem to make a 1/6th Chewbacca more feasible. $159.99 should be more than enough to make a profitable Chewbacca for us. And with $90 being the new $50, there's no more reason why we shouldn't have some machined droids coming soon. Next SDCC perhaps.

 

[customizerwannabe]

Wait and buy them off ebay. Most non exclusives go for waaaay less than retail.

 

[niennumb1]

Quite amazing for such a bad economy we have huh?

People spending bucks to go see movies this year.... Cars still on the freeway despite all the high gas costs.... people buying up all kinds of stuff at Nordstrom sales... Vader and Stormtrooper sell out as one of the fastest and most expensive Sideshow 12 inch exclusives yet.... Yeah everyone's hurting so bad.

 

[RJMacReady16]

Quite amazing for such a bad economy we have huh?

People spending bucks to go see movies this year.... Cars still on the freeway despite all the high gas costs.... people buying up all kinds of stuff at Nordstrom sales... Vader and Stormtrooper sell out as one of the fastest and most expensive Sideshow 12 inch exclusives yet.... Yeah everyone's hurting so bad.

A lot of people really are. And I imagine that a lot of those people buying Vaders and Stormtroopers are hurting as well.

....And that's how most of them got into that situation to begin with.

There are families in my town living in $400k homes that can't afford to put furniture in most of their rooms.

Strange days have found us.

 

[niennumb1]

Well then they should try living in a $300k home and use the extra 100k they were going to use in house and use that toward nice furniture! It's like buying a big storage space, but not putting anything in it.

I'm sure times are very trying right now for many people, but our priorities as people are pretty messed up. Can't get that $200 couch right now.... WHAT? PREMIUM FORMAT TUSKEN RAIDER?! I'm all on top of that!

 

[FQRizzo]

Well then they should try living in a $300k home and use the extra 100k they were going to use in house and use that toward nice furniture! It's like buying a big storage space, but not putting anything in it.

I'm sure times are very trying right now for many people, but our priorities as people are pretty messed up. Can't get that $200 couch right now.... WHAT? PREMIUM FORMAT TUSKEN RAIDER?! I'm all on top of that!

Have you shopped for furniture recently!?

 

[teemu]

the 12 inch figures are pretty much doubled the price now! why is that?

dollar de-valuation

 

[RJMacReady16]

Well then they should try living in a $300k home and use the extra 100k they were going to use in house and use that toward nice furniture! It's like buying a big storage space, but not putting anything in it.

I'm sure times are very trying right now for many people, but our priorities as people are pretty messed up. Can't get that $200 couch right now.... WHAT? PREMIUM FORMAT TUSKEN RAIDER?! I'm all on top of that!

Or better yet, try living in a $100k home (cost of living in my area is among the lowest in the country so you probably think this would put you in the ghetto when in fact you're living pretty good in a 3br brick) and using the absent $300k to keep your ass outta' fickle debt.

 

[tomandshell]

Vader and Stormtrooper sell out as one of the fastest and most expensive Sideshow 12 inch exclusives yet.... Yeah everyone's hurting so bad.

Doesn't cost a penny to preorder.

 

[barbelith]

Doesn't cost a penny to preorder.

Not to mention how many of these are probably going on credit cards...

 

[niennumb1]

Probably won't be long before they start offering the Sideshow Visa card

 

[jkno]

Probably won't be long before they start offering the Sideshow Visa card

LOL. Who knows what future will bring us

 

[ProgMatinee]

I can go on and on about this.

The reason they charge more is because SOME people pay it.

The sad thing is that in "limited edition land", its actually better to cut production from 2500 to 1977 and pretend you're being cute with the number when in reality you are fine with saying "toodles" to 20% of the customer base. Who cares if you lose 20% of your collectors when you can just bump prices by 50% AND you get to claim being more limited?

They're making more money by producing less! What a win win don't ya think?

Well, the thing is I personally am on a major turning point. I want to buy about 12 figures a year. Thats keeps me really interested by always having a figure to expect soon and enjoying the multi-figure dioramas and set ups I like to do.

What used to be a $600-$800 hobby in 2006 is now a $1200-$1500 hobby in 2008.

I'm at the point where to keep 12 figs a year I'd have to spend half my cost of living raise just on TOY BUYING.

SSC is probably doing great now, but they need to walk a fine line on being a limited edition company AND affordable or that 1977 limited edition is going to go to 500. Or they'll just drop the line like LOTR.

 

[barbelith]

Vote with your feet and vote with your wallet, it's the only voices these brands will hear.

People are voting with their wallets. Just look at the edition sizes on these things compared to the early days and do the math. The price hikes are the result of many things, but this is certainly one of them. Smaller customer base = increased individual cost, especially since the fixed costs of licensing and manufacture don't change.

Fans are voting with their wallets pretty much across the board. This is the first time in recent memory I've seen full waves of Hasbro clogging the pegs. And has GG ever failed to sell out of a convention exclusive before?

Not a great time to be starting a luxury retail business. I suppose a few can keep their heads in the sand and pretend there's not a recession just because CEO pay is still high.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Like I said above, as long as the elite are willing to eat the price hikes to have limited editions when the normal bloke ditches the line then there's not much incentive to keep prices low.

1977x$70=$138,390
2500x$50=125,000

 

[JustinLuck]

What is scary are people thinking Sideshow is justified at hiking the price by at least $20 just because of the Prometheus body even though they've had a free ride with the Buck (reproduced in the hundreds of thousands) for all these years. Not to mention the Buck is made of higher quality plastic than the newer bodies like the Hot Toys True Type.

 

[EVILFACE]

lol, free ride.

Ok.

 

[ProgMatinee]

I'd say they'd been milking the cow on the Buck for a long time. Still got to pay variable costs but the R&D and the molds were recouped LONG LONG ago.

Fuel, plastics, wages, etc, yeah I see costs going up, but in the end the prices are going up because they can, not because they "have to".

 

[JustinLuck]

lol, free ride.

Ok.

Remember that the Buck was designed and molded in the 1990's. Think of how many times they have been able to reuse the same molds. Isn't it about time they made an update without cutting into loyal customer wallets? Another point I'm trying to make is, aside from start up costs, I don't think the Prometheus is any more costly to reproduce than the Buck. Have you cut a Buck open and examined its workings? It is actually more complicated than a Hot Toys True Type on the inside. Just because a design is an inferior doesn't make it easier to manufacture. And a better design doesn't mean it's more costly.