The Black Series 6" - General Discussion Thread (2024)

Rogue1969 said:

dthstr1977 said:

this tells us that action figures are a dying market. this is probably based on over produced, not getting the right figures out there, covid years, & people aging out.

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Saturation is definitely a problem. You can see some Mission Fleet in there, but I'm not even showing the 'Young Jedi' toys that are piled up.

I think most of it has to do with competing lines within an IP. Marvel has at least 3 - 6", 5" limited POA, and 12" shampoo bottles, and I'm guessing those 'action feature' figures make up a 4th. Star Wars has 6", 3.75", Mission Fleet, Retro, Young Jedi, 5" Hero series, and who knows what else. I think they're killing their own sales with competing product.

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Yes, it's literally death by a thousand cuts basically. The one reason for their business model in keeping prices low was overproduction, trouble is that there just isn't enough consumers to pick up any slack today. For whatever reasons fewer people are buying toys, now it doesn't help when said IP puts out junk for movies that almost no one sees. The lack of kids buying action figures in our new era in general is a big enough demographist on its own to make a serious dent. With Marvel and TBS there is an inherent built in profit margin at that price point to offset some reduction in production, which also allows some leeway for retailer's profit margins when having to mark them down at store level. However, not in the amounts we've been seeing. If Hasbro is forced to lower production to accommodate the new market it blows a hole in their model which then requires a price increase for them to even bother, which then trickles down to retail and then you have another issue at play on whether consumers can pay it over and over on each figure.

Bobby from Valaverse made an interesting this morning video on Licenses expiring soon, and among them were Mervel and DC. I'm curious to see how this plays out for Star Wars in the future because I don't feel either side has bargaining power that they think they do. That said, Hasbro and Disney feel like they are locked in with each other for better or worse. I don't think any other company can afford the fee, and Disney isn't about to lose out on any Money.

Marvel I don't really expect to change hands either, Hasbro has been on a roll with that line. And Disney owns Marvel who has good relations with Hasbro. But if another Company were to have a better offer, that's really all that matters, Money. I think the real question is does Hasbro have the liquidity to secure both Marvel and Star Wars license in their current state? We've heard from some that Hasbro is looking to bolster their own IP, meaning Joes and Transformers etc. and have already licensed out some they don't want to "risk" themselves such as M.A.S.K. and a few others. I guess it comes down to revenue versus loss on fees for those two IP's and whether they stand to make more money with or without them. The timing does seem interesting with recent comments from Hasbro about doubling down on their "owned" brands, looking more into gaming, in addition to licensing out their IP's.

I personally wouldn't mind if another Company got DC because I despise 7", and would like to see it return to 6" scale. I am looking forward to seeing how the landscape unfolds in the next five years. The only thing I see saving it are lower production costs, we may not see a benefit as in price decrease, but it will enable the companies to continue with said lines at current operations. And can always hope for better movies to help drive sales.

Part of why I think the D+ figure do not perform well is because of low overall viewership, not everyone has D+ and not everyone who does watched every single show on the platform. It's totally different with a Movie as they typically have a much wider audience. If movie is bad, it doesn't promote the figures in a good light at all, if movie is good there's at least some positiveness. If it's great, and the character appeal then you're grabbing attention from people.