1/6 Hot Toys - MMS 249 - The Joker (Bank Robber Version 2.0) - 1/6 - TF Exclusive 2014

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

The price should have been $200 not a cent above.
I don't see why it should be more expensive than MOS for which they developed a whole new body.
MMS figures are now the same price as DX ones, that's BS.

A lot has to do with the character. Joker is one of their best sellers and they know people will pay whatever they ask. Look at the Groot figure from GOTG, it's $200 and it's a whole new body and sculpt and the figure is huge. However, if the film is a big hit and the character becomes popular, when they make figures from the sequel, get ready to pay 270 or more for Groot.

 

[DiFabio]

A lot has to do with the character. Joker is one of their best sellers and they know people will pay whatever they ask. Look at the Groot figure from GOTG, it's $200 and it's a whole new body and sculpt and the figure is huge. However, if the film is a big hit and the character becomes popular, when they make figures from the sequel, get ready to pay 270 or more for Groot.

This.

It doesn't matter what they come with or what edition they are, they're charging on perceived popularity, nothing more. The only one I'd say is justifiable is the Predator. Regular Celtic was/is $260 so the $15 up charge on the exclusive is nothing.

 

[DVD1]

That wasn't the case with the 2011, 2012 and 2013 TF exclusives. In fact, each year they were progressively less.

Very true. Also, I can't agree that the cost hike is due to it being Joker.
When Mine Joker was released he retailed at around 1000rmb ($150). Last years TFX, Superman was only 900rmb. As stated above, following a progressively lessening price point.
I asked my toy store what the reason for this price was. His answer was that it was down to it being an exclusive. It might be possible that these are quite limited, but I would find that hard to believe. I don't think though, that is indicative of a general price increase from HT.

 

[jra81984]

Very true. Also, I can't agree that the cost hike is due to it being Joker.
When Mine Joker was released he retailed at around 1000rmb ($150). Last years TFX, Superman was only 900rmb. As stated above, following a progressively lessening price point.
I asked my toy store what the reason for this price was. His answer was that it was down to it being an exclusive. It might be possible that these are quite limited, but I would find that hard to believe. I don't think though, that is indicative of a general price increase from HT.

The cheapest tf exclusive was Angelica.... She came free as packing material for my medicom Gizmo lol

 

[DiFabio]

And she was limited and exclusive too.

 

[Jeff12burq]

This.

It doesn't matter what they come with or what edition they are, they're charging on perceived popularity, nothing more. The only one I'd say is justifiable is the Predator. Regular Celtic was/is $260 so the $15 up charge on the exclusive is nothing.

Of course popularity is going to come into play when pricing is determined for a figure.

Warner Bros and DC Comics sees they own the rights to one of the top characters Hot Toys does and they are going to charge Hot Toys more. Why wouldn't they?

And yes, edition size also comes into play when you factor in production costs.

 

[juanca33]

TDK and Iron Man are Hot Toys main cash flowers. Anything they put out from those lines are gonna bought no matter what price. Not offense nor disrespect to fellow Asian collectors but everthing HT put out of Iron man are bought there and they make lines and camp out. IMO HT have gotten a lot of mainstream attention these past years, so there are a lot of new collectors like myself who missed out, but even I passed on this one because of the price and the timing.

 

[Ropen]

I hope my plan works, what I will do to get this fig for the price they ask for is to talk to a friend I met buying stuff from hong kong, he would go to the convention and pick it up for me, and then ship it back with other things I want, we will see, this is one of those who will be hard to find and might fetch high on the aftermarket, I don't have the first version so this one should work for me.

 

[DiFabio]

Of course popularity is going to come into play when pricing is determined for a figure.

Warner Bros and DC Comics sees they own the rights to one of the top characters Hot Toys does and they are going to charge Hot Toys more. Why wouldn't they?

And yes, edition size also comes into play when you factor in production costs.

STFU pls


Thank you.

 

[Jeff12burq]

STFU pls

It's just that you don't realize what you are saying...you are contradicting yourself and don't even know it.

 

[DiFabio]

It's just that you don't realize what you are saying...you are contradicting yourself and don't even know it.

Not really.

You go into every thread acting like you know how everything works when you don't even have the slightest clue. What are the edition numbers for all these figures Jeff my boy? How much is the licensing? What does it cost Hot Toys to manufacture these? You don't know, yet you continue to keep justifying the decisions that are being made like it's obviously this or that (I love the facepalm smiley in particular). It's not just with me, but with other members. You got yourself quite the reputation on here.

Point is, the price is jacked up. You can go all about your conjecture or even agree that "of course it's increased because it's popular (that makes it right?) but you're not going to convince anyone that disagrees with you that Sideshow's MSRP for this isn't needlessly inflated. Unless you can prove to me that you're a Sideshow or Hot Toys employee and can give me exact numbers about what's going on behind the scenes, I'd say you're full of it.

 

[Jeff12burq]

If anyone on here owned the licensing rights to the Joker from The Dark Knight, I'm pretty sure they would sell it at top dollar due it's high demand. And by doing so, would raise production costs to make sure Hot Toys runs a profitable business.

Why doesn't anyone understand that?

It's really simple.

 

[DiFabio]

And the price reflects that desire for maximum profit by upcharging and putting it on the buyer, which reflects it's inflated price tag, thank you.

I bet when the next Hot Toys Heath Ledger Joker doll is $310, there will be no qualms about it. We'll all just shrug "well, the price is justified because he's a popular guy and Hot Toys (or Sideshow) is upcharging because they want all dat $$$ . . . ordered".

That's all I've been saying all along. That's all. So who's contradicting what? You were the same goy the other day that was trying to lay claim that the price increase was because of that stupid, chintzy base that's been reused several times already.

 

[Jeff12burq]

What do you think costs Hot Toys more to acquire-

The license to "Alien vs. Predator"?

or

The license to The "Dark Knight"?

Oh and btw I don't appreciate the condescending tone.

 

[Jeff12burq]

And the price reflects that desire for maximum profit by upcharging and putting it on the buyer, which reflects it's inflated price tag, thank you.

I bet when the next Hot Toys Heath Ledger Joker doll is $310, there will be no qualms about it. We'll all just shrug "well, the price is justified because he's a popular guy and Hot Toys (or Sideshow) is upcharging because they want all dat $$$ . . . ordered".

That's all I've been saying all along. That's all. So who's contradicting what? You were the same goy the other day that was trying to lay claim that the price increase was because of that stupid, chintzy base that's been reused several times already.

I'm saying that is a part of the price increase but not all of it. And everyone on here, you included, is acting like demand and popularity shoudn't have anything to do with the price and don't think it's right. Which I'm saying, of course it should. And I don't understand why anyone would think it shouldn't come into determining the price.

That base does cost more to produce than the Version 1 standard base.

And I'm sure the material used to produce the accessories is better quality and I'm sure minimum wage in Hong Kong has risen since 2008 and I'm sure there is a thing called inflation. All these factors and costs come into play when price is determined.

 

[DiFabio]

You're going to be in for a huge surprise when that base is just a standard base we've seen a thousand times (you know, the one everyone leaves in the box) with a card stock "marble Bank floor" printout.

Or the quality of that backdrop is a shoddy, pixelated POS that could be bettered by artists on here (like Pirates nicely done rendering). Or those lovely repainted glove hands, the switchblade, the WSS money notes and cards we've seen with every Joker for the past 6 years, not to mention pulling out an old headsculpt from the prototype archive drawer and giving it a repaint. Hey, I don't think I've seen that glock pistol before!

I bet it's super costly to just keep reproducing the same crap we've seen before. In fact, I wish I was one of Hot Toys sweatshop workers! I'd have it made! I bet they offer health care benefits and have me covered after handling all that ED-209 rubber and the cheap ass glue that never holds!

 

[Ropen]

It's called inflation, not popularity nor licensing that causes the figure prices to go up. Perfect example, Saint seiya myth cloth figures back in dec 2003 were 40.00usd, almost every year they went up in price by a couple of dollars, then they threw in original color editions, and super limited editions of the figures and after a while since no restock happened in some most wanted figs, they used that excuse to drive the prices of the myth cloth figs by nearly 65%, now brand new a regular myth cloth will run you 90usd, a myth ex which is the equivalent of the movie masterpiece edition of figs is 95usd

They just profit on the market based on the figure they are releasing and since it's an asian culture based company they release what they like, they don't listen to what customers want, and it's obvious marvel is paying them good money to release their figs, and the figs that they know won't sell that much are marketed is fair exclusives. It's the toy business, hasbro is king at doing it, and bandai is the worst company known to mankind, the thing that sucks is that if you like something you have to get it now or never, none of that "oh I like but I want to wait later on" simply because you can't predict if the price will go up or it the fig won't sell.

 

[Jeff12burq]

Licensing fees very well could cause figures to rise. I can't say it's a fact but no one can say it isn't either. It's a logical explanation for a dramatic price increase compared to a figure that was released 5 or 6 years ago.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

What do you think costs Hot Toys more to acquire-

The license to "Alien vs. Predator"?

or

The license to The "Dark Knight"?

The reality of the situation is, you don't know. You, like most people are assuming that the license is extremely expensive or more expensive than other licences, and it's a logical assumption, I'll give you that, but at the end of the day, you don't work for HT or WB, and you really don't know what kind of deal they have with them. Remember, it's not just TDK, HT has multiple deals with WB, so who knows? Also, it's true that HT needs WB/DC more than WB needs HT, but do not underestimate HT's power, because they also have deals with WB main competition, Disney/Marvel, and you can bet HT is using that as leverage. WB is very competitive, and they won't let Disney/Marvel be the only game in town.

 

[Ropen]

licensing is only paid once, hot toys surely paid for the IM3 fees for every character back in 2013 for a specific time, they just rise the price of the figure to make their money back, you can see this example in Lego, Marvel and Dc superheroes and pretty much every licensed set, the sets costs higher than just regular lego sets, because they know that it will sell well and make more money. Who knows really, its like everything, what hurts my wallet mosts is actually model cars, I collect 1:18 scale and them damn things keep going up in price like crazy, ten years ago an exoto model car would have been like 159.99, now it's 499.99 but you can't complain about the detail because it's there, we will see, i really missed out on the first bank robber joker and want this one for sure, but i hate fair exclusives, especially sdcc ones.