We're all familiar with that "Hasbro can't sell military themed toys because the country is bitch made and have swung that far to the left," argument. How about this as a solution, just sell the parts, you know kinda like a what Lego finally wised up and started doing. You can go to the store or order online a bag of pieces. Such as heads, legs, torsos, arms, put the parts would have different things on them, such as pouches, holsters, grenades, etc. Or is the customizing market to small of niche for Hasbro or any other company to make a profit?
What It Be Practical for Hasbro, (or Another Company,) to Just Sell the Parts?
- Thread starter Fred Broca
- Start date
Considering the unfortunate paint apps on the retaliation figures, I'd say that's what they are already doing. The recent joe stuff is mostly fodder in my opinion. Dudes that make custom figures are a decent portion of the collectors out there and they know it. Seems to me that they get half their ideas from the Hisstank creative section anyway.
They wouldn't have to make sh!tty figures!
But I'd be all over this idea if all parts and joint pieces were available in mutable colors...flesh pieces molding in mutable skin tones...weapons would be fine in black or tan(?)
But I'd be all over this idea if all parts and joint pieces were available in mutable colors...flesh pieces molding in mutable skin tones...weapons would be fine in black or tan(?)
From what I've heard people say over the years, its not practical for Hasbro to do. However I've been saying they should do some kind of dio set
walls, (see Death star project walls)
modual sets:
command center,
bunks
prision
vehicle garage (basically break up the orginal base.)
make it so it can be stacked like blocks & you could build your own fort.
walls, (see Death star project walls)
modual sets:
command center,
bunks
prision
vehicle garage (basically break up the orginal base.)
make it so it can be stacked like blocks & you could build your own fort.
......a store that sells just parts...........
Exactly!
There's plenty of guys out there doing this service for the community, but these smaller shops don't have the production capabilities to bring prices down.
A Joe fig I would use for fodder sets me back $10.00. Say I just want the hands and arms. I'd pay that much going to a third party vendor for a cast pair of hands and arms, without the benefit of having all the extra stuff from the figure.
I've got a bunch of those 4 pack RockBlocks from the Amazon packs with the shitty hand. One of those hands from TofuJesse is $1.50. I'm not trying to knock his price - because of the time and material and how many he can make at one time, he has to charge the amount he needs to make money. To me, that's a .25 or .50 part. Until a third party vendor figures out a way to mass produce items and get the costs down, we'd never see someone like Hasbro jump into a business model like that.
This is the reason you will not see any big company selling just parts: A .25 to .50 cent part is only a .25 to .50 cent part if it is mass produced with a guarantee of major support with retailers and consumers. You can only achieve recouping your initial investment costs with lots of interest in the product(even for a small part like a hand you will have to pay a sculptor and have the mold made). The current market, retailer lack of interest, habits of consumers, etc. will not support this. In the glory days of the 80's this might have worked. A repo store can get around a lot of the industrial costs as their own molds are far less and do they not have to pay a sculptor, but the investment in time is enormous. As a casting store that retains professional artists...we have the initial costs of the big guys and the limitations of the cast it yourself set-up. We can tell you with certainty, there is not enough interest or support to make the big guys try this. At best, 1 in 10 sculpts make a profit past the initial costs. To be honest there is no incentive to even take the risk and have an artist commissioned for any new pieces. Unless you have a passion for the hobby and want the piece yourself, there no way this makes sense to even try. I really do not see the big companies doing this.
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