IS this hobby ramping up???

i'm not sure if its me or not, but things really seem to be ramping up with more and more small companies coming up the ranks with improved [mostly] quality all the time?
not that long ago, say 3 or 4 years ago i would be lucky if i could find one figure to buy in year, but this year has a STACK of things i would like to get. i even have 2 figures on preorder which is unheard of as i mostly just buy loose bits here and there.
if i had the cashola i think i would have about another 7 or 8 on preorder, saying that im not even sure where im gonna stick the incoming figures i have coming. most of mine are just lying flat in boxes anyway. i sometimes wonder why i even bother with new figures hahaha

I think it is rumping up in many directions (but not only this year, started a few years back imo). More companies, more quality in general but also more high end figures. Which is all a plus for collectors.
Only downside is that the base prices seem to be more expensive overall but still with some good deals here and there.

I don`t think a lot of the new figures are made anywhere near the robustness of what they were 10 -15 years ago , so what we gained in quality we are definitely loosing out some on quality that`s for sure . I am scared to play with some of my newer figures , they feel so fragile .

Valiarde wrote:I think it is rumping up in many directions (but not only this year, started a few years back imo). More companies, more quality in general but also more high end figures. Which is all a plus for collectors.
Only downside is that the base prices seem to be more expensive overall but still with some good deals here and there.

yeah thats kind of what i meant tbh, from 3 or 4 years ago, seems to be a post covid phenomenon!


and i also get what your saying about things being more fragile, but thats the balance that you pay for realism is less of a toy and more of a collectible piece. i have a pleather jacket from a figure [i cant quite recall what it was off now? maybe a buck rodgers 12"? or something like that from the 80s?] and thats fine no flaking or peeling. so they can make pleather that more durable, i guess the powers that be just couldnt care less. and why should they if people continue to use and buy it?
and i just bought a damtoys ak47 that feels so fragile i cant even attach the supplied grenade launcher as it feel as though it will snap as soon as i apply any pressure haha. the swings and roundabouts we face

I don’t know. I think we saw a surge of new companies even as far back as 10 years ago. Some have virtually disappeared, and in their wake new companies rose. We lose some, we gain some. The difference being in quality (some things have gotten better, like head sculpts; and some things have gotten worse — depending on the company — like cheaper materials). We’ve certainly seen, imho, more variety of subjects, rather than the same stuff being regurgitated (though that still happens). Companies like LIM Toys and InArt are setting the bar higher and higher, pushing the Reigning Champion (Hot Toys) to get off their butts and start innovating again (though they still use cheap materials, and are giving less and less for more and more expense). Mars Toys, a newcomer, is doing things I’m excited about (‘66 Batman); Exo-6, another newcomer, is FINALLY making Star Trek figures — both long overdue franchises that have been sorely untapped in this hobby.

But, as a whole, I’m not sure the hobby is “ramping up”. I would say that to a certain respect, it’s actually marching towards its inevitable demise. This has always been an extremely niche hobby, with a very VERY small percentage of the world’s population involved, and with the ever rising costs of not just these dolls, but life in general, the number of folks staying in the hobby is dwindling along with the number of newer collectors; it won’t be long and the only people able to afford these things are going to be the top 3%, and how many of them are really going to want to…? Will all these “new” companies just go the way of BCS when the number of buyers of these Over-Priced Barbies (my wife’s term) doesn’t sustain the cost to make…?

Stryker, do you remember way back, in 2008, when the first financial crisis hit and Dragon stopped putting out figures and BBI ceased to exist? People back then also were convinced that this was the end of the Hobby, that it was about to die and that soon we will see a similar crisis as in the 1970s, when Hasbro stopped doing 1:6 figures and instead went for 1:18 scale.

And yet, here we are, almost 2 decades later and its the same talk yet again that soon, the hobby will die, and yet, we see more figures and more stuff done then ever before and the hobby being bigger than ever before. Yes Prices and rising costs are a problem, but all of that is a temporary problem, sooner or later things will stabilize again and besides, that aint a problem for the loaded collectors, the "Whales" that have more money to spend on figures then ever before.

So, I think the hobby is more diverse than ever and as niche as it is, it seems to still turn a profit and from my perspective, more people are in it then back in 2008.

ZeroDelta wrote:Stryker, do you remember way back, in 2008, when the first financial crisis hit and Dragon stopped putting out figures and BBI ceased to exist? People back then also were convinced that this was the end of the Hobby, that it was about to die and that soon we will see a similar crisis as in the 1970s, when Hasbro stopped doing 1:6 figures and instead went for 1:18 scale.

And yet, here we are, almost 2 decades later and its the same talk yet again that soon, the hobby will die, and yet, we see more figures and more stuff done then ever before and the hobby being bigger than ever before. Yes Prices and rising costs are a problem, but all of that is a temporary problem, sooner or later things will stabilize again and besides, that aint a problem for the loaded collectors, the "Whales" that have more money to spend on figures then ever before.

So, I think the hobby is more diverse than ever and as niche as it is, it seems to still turn a profit and from my perspective, more people are in it then back in 2008.

Not sure how you came to all the numbers , but well said ZD .

I wonder and perhaps it`s not so profit making , but with all the range of different sculpts and bodies we are spoilt with now , I would really like to see uniform and accessory sets or at least many more released .

While I do remember that, ZD, figures back then weren’t averaging $300+. The closer we get to $400 -500 on average, I doubt many will be able to keep up.

That is indeed a problem, but lets look at what kind of figures are in that price range of 300 to 400 bucks: these are normally collector items, based on a license and production is deliberately kept small, thats what Hot Toys does, thats what DAM Toys does with Gangster Kingdom line and so on.

When you look at other companies tho, that do mostly military figures, like Easy and Simple, then the prices are around 150 to 180 bucks, and for that you get good quality figures.

I recently ordered 2 figures, the GENERAL'S ARMOURY Secret Operative - Bravo Six (Urban Version)
and the Easy & Simple Private Military Contractor - Urban Operation Sniper

The first figure was 170 Euros, the second was a bit closer to 200 Euros (196 Euros), I spend over 350 Euros on 2 figures, a price tag, that gets you a single Hot Toys or DAM Toys figure.

Are those 2 prices fair? Looking at the expert sculpting on both and all the gear these 2 figures come with and knowing the quality, I think they are okay prices, but it should not be higher.

The real issue and thats something I also said back in the day, is the lack of entry level priced figures, now that there is no Hasbro GI Joe line or a Dragon toys line anymore, you will have to jump right into the more expensive military figures by the other companies and THAT is in my opinion the biggest crime here. People who want to start out in this hobby, have little choice then to go straight for Easy and Simple, because there are no "mid-tier" figure makers anymore

Yeah, the military figures, while more expensive than they used to be, also seem to be the one area where you get a ton of accessories and decent head sculpts still. Everything else, sadly, unless it’s another one of these bootleg companies, continues to rise in price (CooModel, for example, has pretty much priced me out of most of their stuff); with the bootleg companies, there’s always the trade-off of getting junk bodies, or cheap-looking accessories.

Yeah, the problem is often the license fees. Everything Disney will cost a lot for any licensee, so that is reflected in the prices, same with Video Game figures from very popular games, like Street Fighter and so on. Its all about making the most money.

I think overall the companies have really pushed the development of the 1/6 figure into mass production in the last few years. A lot of the actual innovations were around before, rolling eyeballs, rooted hair, silicone/seamless bodies in the custom arena. Inart and other companies have pushed hot toys to implement these as well where I fell like they gave up a few years ago on really innovating. They just sat back on the licenses that they had. I do feel Hot toys have really focused on paint apps in the last several years since I started collecting, so the sculpts look way better.

Of course one exception would be star ace. Star ace just seems to move in the opposite direction.

That said, there are figures I'm looking forward to, but haven't been officially announced, but like Stryker said, space and price point is more of an issue for me nowadays so I'm more selective on where I spend my money. With the artisan collections and inart prices, it's one of those issues where I really really need to love the character to pull the trigger on them. Even at that, the limited quantities of the artisan line at the moment makes it a more if I can get it, i get it, if not, can't really worry about it. I'm not paying aftermarket scalper prices for them.

ZeroDelta wrote:
The real issue and thats something I also said back in the day, is the lack of entry level priced figures, now that there is no Hasbro GI Joe line or a Dragon toys line anymore, you will have to jump right into the more expensive military figures by the other companies and THAT is in my opinion the biggest crime here. People who want to start out in this hobby, have little choice then to go straight for Easy and Simple, because there are no "mid-tier" figure makers anymore

With Phicen starting to produce 1/12 a few years ago, those become the entry level figures.

maybe i described it wrong, in what i was trying to say?
there does seem to be more companies upping their game, like as mentioned coomodels. not that long ago they were a pretty crappy company knocking out cheap military sets and now look at what they make! some stunning detail in the figures they make. so i do think there are more companies trying to push the standard forward.
as well as those companies there does seem to be more smaller companies to me that are going for very niche figures and doing small runs of obscure things, which is why i have more on preorder than i usually do haha.
i think mars/saturn will go legit quite soonish and the quality will be great as they really seem to care about what the finished product look like. or maybe just do what dam do and do both haha. if they cant get the license or think its too expensive VTS put it out. its hardly a secret they are the same it is

As 3D printing technology keeps growing mature and cost-friendly, you would see anything related starts to ramp up

Prices are ramping up ;P

ukshaun wrote:Prices are ramping up ;P

That is certainly true.

IS this hobby ramping up??? Yes!? I mean I started like last year collecting Star Wars Hot Toys. Alot of guys at collectible stores or booths would not let me purchase these figures because [i]"I wouldn't understand the value"[/i] ,So I didn't know where to start. I think those creepy gatekeepers are to blame. I hate asking permission to some worthless phuk-kup just so I can buy a figure or be allowed in the hobby.