uncleduke
The scalpers will be nowheres near as mad as the people who are paying the big money for these. They will be (to qoute Ken) Explative Deleted
I can't do anything about that. If there is one thing I have learned from this board and others, you can't please everybody. I stopped trying long ago. People may be miffed, but what can you do? I don't feel bad at all about the way things have gone down with the exclusives or anything else. Overall it's been handled very well. Industry give aways are industry giveaways. In my opinion, they are not part of a line. Neither are errors.
Many have stated opinions that there are too many exclusives. Are there really? Maybe. Who can say? Does it matter? Those of you who bought the regular line-up, are you happy with your figures? Do you feel you got ripped off by the man because there are figures out there you did not get or had to pay a little more for? Would you like the exclusives to be dropped entirely from the line? A personally like the VC Beaker in my collection...looks cool. And I guarantee you there was no other way to put him out than as an exclusive. We put that out in the playset and people would be like...HUH? What is this thing? Where's my real Beaker?
You know, we made the EB Piggy available at mass market in a fat quantity. Not a fat FIGURE, but a fat quantity! LOL...and you know what? You can still EASILY walk in and get that one, and the bottom line is that they won't sell out and more likely than not it means that EB will want to talk to us about doing clearance money on it or something. Same with TRU/ToyFare Kermit...still plenty to be had. You offer a lower number and sell them all out, you suck because you are screwing the collector/completist. You offer too many so that everyone has a slightly easier time of it? You eat "buy back", make no money on the figure and go home trying to figure out why a really cool figure in your biggest selling line is losing money.
So was it smart to limit VC Beaker or the upcoming Fozzie? You better believe it. Both Kermit in a lunchbox and the Invisible Beaker are not part of the line...they are so much so NOT, again in my opinion, that they are not in the group shot on the back of the package I was talking about earlier. It's like the silver Vader...not part of the line, very small number. You don't see the silver Vader on the back of the Saga cards.
If you, the end consumer, as a whole, tells us to stop making exclusives, we'll know. When they stop selling. You speak with your wallets....every time. Do you want the exlcusives to cease? Let us know and we'll just take the financial risk of putting out four figures in a wave and leave it at that.
The only thing I will ever say we made a real mistake on is Dr. Teeth, and that was due to the fact that NO figure had been sold yet and we came back with 300 of the 500 exclusives we sold at the show the year before...500 seemed like a safe bet, and boom, suddenly you have everybody and Grandma coming out of the closet to get one. So we responded with a collector's club, and that's that. Other adjustments have been made, like not putting out Vacation Fozzie or CH Gonzo until the line has been out for a few weeks on Series 2. I will never, ever, apologize for the give aways. Not only do all companies do it, but all INDUSTRIES do it too. If you have a party for people in your industry that talk about figures on their website or magazine, or buy figures from you wholesale...wouldn't you WANT to give them someting special to walk away from the party with? Have you seen some of the cool stuff that critics get when they go to a premiere? Heck, they probably give out golden toilets at the local Roto Rooter convention. Keep your customers happy. That's good business. That includes you, and that includes the customers that get those figures TO you or talk about them or show you the figures early or review the figures so you know what to buy and what not to buy.
Heck people even suggest that the whole club thing is a scam...that we planned it all along and that we are like drug dealers. We get you hooked in and then start fleecing the masses for every nickel you got. And here I was thinking we had just listened to the consumer and responded to their needs! Silly Rabbit...Trix are for kids...
I'm rambling. I guess what I should conclude with is yeah, some will be cheesed if suddenly we start offering the Invisible Beaker or something like that to folks as a thank you for joining a new collector's club venture. Way it goes I guess...to me at the end of the day, the issue is and will always be are you happy with collecting the line? If you are, great, I can punch out, go home and know that we did our jobs. If not, I'll know when the Muppets line is dead and gone like all the other action figure lines that offer exclusives or repaints. Oh, they're still here you say? Well THAT'S good news...
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