Official Harry Potter Figure Discussion Thread

[lordnastrond]

Really excited to see someone new get this license - who is everyone rooting for?

I myself hope Asmus go for it - great company. Good quality, good prices, their exclusives and deluxes are usually pretty creative and they go pretty deep into their flagship franchises.

I know a lot of people automatically say HT - but honestly, if HT get the license then they would probably only do 1 or 2 versions of Harry, and at most Hermione and Ron to go with him - AT MOST. If you want a full line of figures then they are not the company to root for. Plus their prices are becoming insane.

 

[The Green Goblin]

I hope it’s not Hot Toys. Figure would be 2-3 years out from day of announcement. Still keeping my fingers crossed for threezero.

 

[Josette]

Definitely interested if another company gets the license. I just couldn't bring myself to support Star Ace. The quality became so bad.

I don't really get why anyone would want HT to bother. I mean, sure, a hypothetical HT Snape is tempting to me, but that's no guarantee. What is almost a CERTAIN guarantee (as others have mentioned) is that you'd be lucky to get 2 to 3 characters at most. No thanks.

I would rather it be a company that can still go into some depth with it.

 

[SigitoSutasmano]

Thanks for the Crawford review. I always enjoy his take (although on a personal note, I wish he’d try harder (or at all) to keep his political views out of his reviews).

And here we are. How often do we get to the point in evaluating a Star Ace figure where the best we can manage is, “Well, that’s not terrible…”

Here are a few of his better shots:

View attachment 552650View attachment 552651View attachment 552652

oof that hair paint looks like it came from the 2008 era of figure

 

[SwedishHeat]

It's highly unlikely that Warner Bros pulled the license because they weren't satisfied with Star Ace's quality. WB have approval rights, they approved the figure before we ever saw the pictures. If they didn't like the quality they wouldn't have approved as many products as they did. Those casual variants and the Santa variants getting approved shows that WB wants money over anything else, and as long as Star Ace is sending in those royalty payments, WB is going to be happy.

On the one hand, I'd be very surprised if someone 'faked' a chat transcript with Star Ace saying they don't have the license anymore, but I'm still equally surprised that anyone at Star Ace would actually state that WB pulled the license. Clearly, we aren't getting the full story here. And considering Star Ace hasn't stated publicly that they don't have the license, and the only thing we have a is a screenshot of someone's chat, I'm not buying into the narrative here.

 

[Llarian]

It's highly unlikely that Warner Bros pulled the license because they weren't satisfied with Star Ace's quality. WB have approval rights, they approved the figure before we ever saw the pictures. If they didn't like the quality they wouldn't have approved as many products as they did. Those casual variants and the Santa variants getting approved shows that WB wants money over anything else, and as long as Star Ace is sending in those royalty payments, WB is going to be happy.

On the one hand, I'd be very surprised if someone 'faked' a chat transcript with Star Ace saying they don't have the license anymore, but I'm still equally surprised that anyone at Star Ace would actually state that WB pulled the license. Clearly, we aren't getting the full story here. And considering Star Ace hasn't stated publicly that they don't have the license, and the only thing we have a is a screenshot of someone's chat, I'm not buying into the narrative here.

In which case... what will happen? Star Ace will announce the next figure? How often do they do that? Cedric was the last one, right? He was half a year ago.

 

[GhostBeard]

I hope it’s not Hot Toys. Figure would be 2-3 years out from day of announcement. Still keeping my fingers crossed for threezero.

I wouldn’t think HT would touch it. And I agree with your comments.

 

[SwedishHeat]

In which case... what will happen? Star Ace will announce the next figure? How often do they do that? Cedric was the last one, right? He was half a year ago.

I'm not saying they're going to announce a new figure. If the chat transcript is legitimate, then I think maybe Star Ace's contract simply ended and they're not going to renew the license. They made a significant number of figures, and paying a large sum to renew the license when they've already produced most of the high-value characters doesn't make sense.

 

[Buttmunch]

Aside from the various Harry, Ron, and Hermione variants, they did cover most of the wanted main cast I think. Neville should have probably happen though. Maybe Fred and George? If they had given us a Quirell or Lockhart, then completing the DAtDA teachers would have been a subcollection to get. Moody, Lupin, and Snape all had bigger roles that just that teaching position so it didn’t create that desire to complete another set some something.

 

[The Green Goblin]

They left money on the table by not even attempting to do Deathly Hallows versions of the main trio.

Which might turn out to be a good thing because now a competent company can tackle those.

 

[Llarian]

They left money on the table by not even attempting to do Deathly Hallows versions of the main trio.

Which might turn out to be a good thing because now a competent company can tackle those.

Yeah, I`d love those! Grown-up Harry is a must. I like my Medicom one, but...

 

[Llarian]

Aside from the various Harry, Ron, and Hermione variants, they did cover most of the wanted main cast I think. Neville should have probably happen though. Maybe Fred and George? If they had given us a Quirell or Lockhart, then completing the DAtDA teachers would have been a subcollection to get. Moody, Lupin, and Snape all had bigger roles that just that teaching position so it didn’t create that desire to complete another set some something.

Neville, Fred and George are my most wanted new characters for now.

 

[QuiGonFishing]

Prisoner Harry while we wait for the jury to come in on McGonagall…

 

[Gipetto0812]

No, however, there were more replies like this from Star Ace so this is not the only source.

If I had to guess why they lost the license, I would say because Star Ace did a pretty horrible job with the license, they were doing below average head sculpts/figures and most likely they were not able to sell many figures. Nowadays almost any 3rd party company does way better job than Star Ace so why should they keep the license. Harry Potter license deserves better for sure.

Idk, I mean their figures usually sell out at most places. The Star Ace figures sold better than the HT Fantastic Beast figures (where the Newt EX is still available at SS). I honestly think the typical 1/6 community weren’t the biggest purchasers, but rather general Harry Potter fans who bought them not being too familiar with companies like Hot Toys, ThreeZero Blitzway etc, so they didn’t really have anything to compare to.

Michael Crawford is relatively generous with his Star Ace reviews, so the fact he rates this one so low is very telling. The sculpt truly ruins this set, I cannot even fathom pity buying this one with a $350 price tag.

Maybe this is the first one he actually had to pay for instead of getting it for free from Star Ace? maybe that caused him to tell us how he really feels

(PS: idk if he does actually get the figures for free or not to review, it’s just a joke)

Thanks for the Crawford review. I always enjoy his take (although on a personal note, I wish he’d try harder (or at all) to keep his political views out of his reviews).

yea didn’t care for that opening of his review. Seemed unnecessary. Put that in podcast, not a toy review.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Hot Toys have the license for Fantastic Beasts 3.

Now that the general HP license is up for grabs I could see them doing it and going full Marvel on it.

 

[Llarian]

Hot Toys have the license for Fantastic Beasts 3.

Now that the general HP license is up for grabs I could see them doing it and going full Marvel on it.

How do you know they have license for FB3..? After no great success of the bare minimum of two FB2 figures, I`m afraid, they won`t be making anything.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Am I the only one that follows them on social media?

They posted this two weeks ago!

 

[Llarian]

Am I the only one that follows them on social media?

They posted this two weeks ago!
View attachment 553497

No, that`s probably just me, and everybody else knows
It`s just this is HP thread, not Fantastic Beasts, so no one mentioned it here.
Dumbledore!!! Yahooooooo!!!!
I hope for the renewed Grindelwald, too!

 

[The Green Goblin]

Surprised they're even bothering, considering how slowly Newt and Grindelwald are selling. Plus there's like no hype for the next FB movie, even I'm not that interested thanks to JK Rowling's twitter antics. The only upcoming Wizarding World project I'm looking forward to is the game that's being worked on.

I hope this doesn't mean they're the current holders of the HP license and they're just sitting on it.

 

[jra81984]

Surprised they're even bothering, considering how slowly Newt and Grindelwald are selling. Plus there's like no hype for the next FB movie, even I'm not that interested thanks to JK Rowling's twitter antics. The only upcoming Wizarding World project I'm looking forward to is the game that's being worked on.

I hope this doesn't mean they're the current holders of the HP license and they're just sitting on it.

I am surprised how weak of a seller those figures were. Especially Grindlewald since Depp figures are always popular.

Hot Toys may do something for the new Film, however there is no chance it would do the old movie characters. They simply would not sell high numbers like they would for Star Wars and Marvel.