With the cost of oil dropping to record lows will it also lower the cost of plastics?

Hey all! Back from the dead and ready to party!
It's been a couple of years since I penned anything here. Prices. Have they gone up or down? In my area they've stayed about the same, and on a very rare occasion you can find them on sale if you know where to look. I have been able to sneak in an action figure occasionally if the wife isn't paying attention. ML's on the shelf at Walmart and Target are between 18-24, while Walgreens has a more consistent selection for a constant 19.99.

Toys R Us existed the last time I posted a response here. A moment of silence for our dearly departed.

I'm really excited to see MEGO back in the mix at a price point that makes me almost nostalgic! I'm going to try and pick up all the Star Trek related figures. Maybe the DC ones...I draw the line at Charlie's Angels.

Okay, I'm calling Hasbro to ask. Their number for 'all other hasbro products' is 800-255-5516. I'm encouraging anyone that's fed up to call them and just keep asking the same question - 'Now that the cost of oil is at record lows, will you be setting a price point on action figures that is affordable to all consumers?'
I'm going to call now, I'll let you all know what I find out.

10 minutes later...

Okay, so that was rather pointless, as I expected it might be. I spoke with CS rep named Stephanie, who was very nice, diplomatic, and ultimately ineffective at providing any real helpful information. I did however voice my grievance with her, and she ensured me it would be passed along to the appropriate parties. 'Hasbro cares deeply about it's fans and collectors, and does all they can to keep their product affordable.' Marvel Legends have a suggested retail value of $19.99. It's up to the distributor to determine the cost they mark it at, or which stores carry them, so while TRU typically sells theirs for 21.99 at one of their stores, a Walgreens can sell them for $25.00, or whatever they decide.

Most of the questions I asked her remained out of her ability to answer. Would they improve distribution? Would they produce more figures to satisfy the market that is interested in purchasing them? Would the price be dropping because raw material costs have dropped? Stephanie didn't have the answers to my burning questions, nor did I actually expect her to. But the questions are out there now, and if we could encourage other customizers and collectors to inundate their phone lines with similar questions, perhaps we could initiate the change we'd like to see.

TRU does currently haves eleven figures on their website that are marked down to $14.99, in their defense.

Call 800-255-5516 to speak to a live Hasbro customer service rep.

Nice article! BTW I dug the addiction one- never got that bad but my wife stares @ me whenever I take Tony Montana sized whiffs of PVC- especially capes when they've been stored 4 a while and mmmmmmmmm Okay. What was I saying? Yeah. Figures are expensive.

The price of this hobby(collecting) forced me further into the part of the hobby I enjoy most which is customizing. Many a times I've created a fig b/c I know I'll never afford it *Cough!* Mezco Batman! Cough!*
At the end of the day these prices, & lack of availability might be what we need 2 corral us back into a moderate realm where we can collect but it is under control & not hindering our relationships or living space.

This reminds me of KayBee n how cheap they would sell figs 4. I blame greed . Hasbro addressed their lameass 1st attempts n gave us a superior product- they know that their clientele are adults who tend 2 be hardcore collectors. I get stoked when I se a ML for $10! I agree w/u that they should increase their volume...but it must conflict w/their evil plans smh :{

I miss KayBee. I wonder now where all the unwanted/over-produced toys end up? Or maybe toys aren't over-produced now, simply because they know that they'll pegwarm the TRU shelves.. I miss KB. They were the true Island of Misfit Toys.

You have a point about the living space. I, like the writer of the article, was one who kept many of my toys in the original packaging. Boxes upon boxes of toys that had very little resale value, as I'm now discovering. Eventually I needed a small storage space or huge closet to keep them in. After moving them around year after year, one day I just got fed up and opened probably 80% of them. What had initially been stored in 20 boxes now fit into 3. It was very liberating, much like hacking into your first figure as a customizer - remember that? 'How can I destroy this mint figure?? (ten minutes later plastic fumes filling my head, shavings covering my body, I'm hooked) of course, I have now totally forgot which weapon goes with what figure.

I think there's a catharsis to this hobby of customizing. You have to take something that you initially held as valuable in itself, and destroy it to create something you feel is better and more valuable than the sum of it's parts. There was probably a point in history where canvas was prohibitively expensive, or oil paint was when it was when it was still raw materials taken from the earth, yet artists are most resourceful, and will always find a way to make art if they're passionate enough about it. I wonder if bitching about material costs is all just part of the creative process...

That said, I was lucky enough to stumble across a small collectors toy store here in Portland, OR, that has a $10 bin of loose Marvel Legends figures, and found one of the newer Scarlet Witch figures and immediately snatched it up...without having to beat up a nine year old or anything!

I definitely don't see figures as "valuable" since I started customizing, at least not when they're straight from the factory. I'm not comfortable spending over $10 for a figure because I'm just gonna hack it apart and repaint it. Would you pay retail price for a bike or a shirt if you were just gonna "wreck" it?

I'm sure complaining about the cost of things is something artists have always done, the problem comes when there's no cheaper alternative and they move on to other artforms, killing the previous artform. Although, in true artistic vision, having something die to give birth to something else isn't a "problem", it's just part of the artistic process.

The only reason I can customize now is because I take commissions, so the customers pay for parts. If I didn't have any customers popping up, that would be it, no more customizing for me.

I found this four year old article in regards to my query. Oh, how I long for the days of only paying $12 for an action figure! Article makes some good points, but others I could argue with. But why because it gives me a headache.

http://www.battlegrip.com/five-reasons- ... ore-today/

and a good one about toy addiction from io9
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5963592/the-dizz ... fying-lows

It really does feel like an addiction, when you're really into it. I have that same story, getting to TRU before they opened, waiting, shoving a 9 year old aside so I can score the first mint figure I see, okay, never really did that, but came close a few times. I miss those days like a junkie misses his fix. But I realize it was ultimately harmful, and like Tom Waits said, 'I wish I had all the money I used to spend on dope.'

It's been a long time since I got high on off-gassing plastic fresh outta the package. sigh.

I've been trying to sell a bunch of Star Wars figures, but nobody wanted them! Granted, they're from episodes 1, 2, and 3. Still. Yeah, it's lame that it seems that there's only a collector's market for toys now instead of making the toys and letting the market decide which ones are going to be valuable. I miss the days of them making movie tie-in figures, for movies that ended up sucking, then the toys would be marked down dramatically, allowing me to stock up my fodder bins. Last time that happened I recall was for the first Fantastic Four movie. I think I still have a couple Ieon Gruffeoled Mr. Fantastics kicking around somewhere...
What I'd like to do is make a documentary about the toy biz, pun intended. The decline of the 12" G.I. Joe, which they always said died because of rising production costs, and the rise of the 3" action figure. Maybe I should Kickstarter that....

I remember asking this years ago, the jist of it is that prices arent immediately affected. It takes "a while" for prices in stores to reflect whats going on behind the scenes.

However, I think its total bullshit because prices always go up and never down, despite the fluxuating price of plastic/oil. Im absolutely sure toy companies want to see just how much they can charge before people tell them to funk off and stop buying. It takes a certain kind of mindset to run a company, you have to screw your customers to keep making higher profits to keep your investors happy.

If I had millions of dollars I would invest it in creating a new durable paint formula, and of course a few original toy lines. As a single person, I want to say I would set prices low, but enough that I can make my investment money back and just break even. I like seeing good toys out there, profits arent important to me.

However, I don't live in a void, the government notices millionaires and says hey mother funker, youre too rich, give us half your money in taxes or else we throw you in jail for life and take it ALL. If all you do is break even and the goverment is constantly stealing 30 to 50 percent of your money every year, youre gonna be broke real quick. You need to consistently turn a big profit to keep your business alive, which means raising prices.

Im sure im grossly oversimplifying, but thats the impression I get.

I know exactly how you feel and have asked the same questions. I was priced out years ago. The hay day of buying every wave is long over. I may buy a nice figure or complete BAF once in a while but that's very rare these days.

And yeah, I havent actively collected anything in years. I recently sold some Street Fighter figs for a big chunk of change and had no desire to spend it on more toys, its game over man. The upside is I have a stockpile of cash now haha