You also have to know that the larger the run the smaller the price. If you paid for your custom figure at a premium sold to you as less than 50 in the world and now the company is selling thousands for same price, it defeats the purpose of you crowdfunding it essentially. It’s not as limited and price doesn’t justify it. Look at the 47. They made so little it shot up to over $1K in the secondary. People were paying because they would never think HT would make it again only to be made some years later which is now being sold for less than retail. When you come off as a Limited Edition/limited run type collectible company, reissues shouldn’t be made. Now if you missed out and want it that bad, there should absolutely be a premium to pay. Not just rely on said company to remake it. Which is what many are expecting now. That’s now how it should be looked at. Best way I can describe is the sneaker industry. We know the same types of sneakers will be made but in different colors and styles. Yet they sell for a huge premium over retail because that particular shoe won’t be made in that fashion. HT should have the same model. These price points offer a rarer price point that your average person would never buy. Just a bad way to lose your original fanbase to keep making the same figure, but better every few years or so.
DX12 then Armory, now DX19. In a couple years they’ll make another DX Batman and it’ll keep happening. No thanks.
Except those upgraded versions (DX12/DX19 etc etc) are exactly the equivalent of same sneaker in different colour you mention.... double standard right there.
as for the first part, If I paid 1,000 for a mk47 then a year later it goes up for order as re-release I would feel a little bitter but not much. I got to own and enjoy the figure for a whole year earlier.
If in 2017 I paid a stupid amount of money for the 2014 SDCC exclusive 1000toys synthetic human test body then in 2023 the company re-releases the figure for original RRP I would be absolutely fine with it despite that initial "dang, I should have waited" reaction because I know just how happy I would be as someone who missed out to have the opportunity to get one.
HT has never been a "limited run" company, they almost never say "ltd edition of 500", that has happened maybe 5 or so times in their history. If you mistakenly thought they were some sort of boutique ltd run company then I can understand your annoyance but the fact is HT is the equivalent of Coca Cola or Microsoft, they are the THE big brand in 1:6, they have the figures sold everywhere. I could (as of last time I went in 2018/2019) walk into 1 of a dozen or so stores in Changchun city (not exactly collector central) and find all sorts of HT figures including long sold out exclusives brand new in box. Same goes for HK of course, Osaka, Tokyo, etc etc in Asia, the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain etc etc etc.
Now, if the example you gave (a custom) was a Scaletta figure produced to only 100 units and he charged 300 USD for it, then 3 years later he decides to mass produce it in the tens of thousands then perhaps I could see your point as such customs are sold are highly limited, custom made figures where once the production run is complete that is it. But even in that case I would just enjoy the joy of those who missed out getting their grail figure.
I do think though that companies should differentiate production runs to keep original runs unique. 1000toys had lines on the back of the Synthetic human neck base to distinguish (making a sub group of collectors who set out to collect 1 from every production run, funnily enough) but I think doing the classic sideshow exclusive method of different colour display stand and/or different packaging would be more than enough.
If the new MK5 comes with different box art that is enough to set it apart but HT could do something like alter the battle damage at a specific point so collectors know which edition they are looking at. That could satisfy both parties (those who want their originals to be unique and rare vs those who want a figure they missed out on)
Edit: as for the bit where you wrote: "You also have to know that the larger the run the smaller the price. If you paid for your custom figure at a premium sold to you as less than 50 in the world and now the company is selling thousands for same price, it defeats the purpose of you crowdfunding it essentially" I agree that larger production runs should mean reduced prices (something I always complain about regarding HT especially) because economies of scale. Unfortunately there are two other big factors that play into it: Elasticity of demand (basically collectors are willing to pay so price stays high) and then the fact that if they did sell the re-releases cheaper the original buyers would feel cheated. every re-release has been more expensive than the original so that is an incentive for folk to buy the first version at release. Secondary market prices I am sorry to say are not (in principle) and should not be considered when pricing re-releases (though in practice they likely do feel confident re-releasing a figure at 50 dollars higher than original price knowing that people were paying 700 more on secondary)
