Hot Toys Quality Control: Whats Goin On?

[Deak Starkiller]

I'm sorry the Captain America Defense™ doesn't hold up in the court of dolls. Sorry guys, toys have molds, they require mold lines.

 

[Monger]

My problem with Hot Toys is their "Never Look Back" policy. Essentially, if the license isn't up to their liking and they release a figure of it, they have no problem abandoning the license and leaving the fans completely in the dark without saying a word. It makes it very hard to be a completionist or try to finish any lineup with them. Because of that I am actually afraid when Hot Toys picks up licenses for anything that had more than two memorable characters in it.

This isn't just about the amount of releases either, the policy applies to their quality control. Half their figures are melting and completely obsolete and undisplayable now? Guess who doesn't care. Hot Toys. They won't apologize or send redesigned bodies or anything along those lines. Hell they might not even make a new version of the figure. If there is mass quality control problems on a figure release they just throw that into their history and continue on as if nothing happened.

Excellent example is the Kevin release from Tron. It is completely inaccurate to the movie and Hot Toys couldn't care less. They tossed it into the market and ran as fast as they could to the bank.

I also despise the lack of communication between them and the fans. Why is everything a surprise with them now? Can't they keep us better informed?

Finally, taking up the 1/4 thing just killed it for me. They are trying so hard to compete with every company for absolutely no reason (you don't need to compete with companies that do not share your licenses...it makes no sense) and all that competition does is raise their prices and make their releases worse.

 

[cr0w]

Hot Toys is apparently following the Todd McFarlane method of toy-making, now that I think about it. Everything Monger just said could have been applied to McFarlane Toys a few years ago.

 

[Rorywan]

I'm sorry the Captain America Defense™ doesn't hold up in the court of dolls. Sorry guys, toys have molds, they require mold lines.

Well Superman doesn't have one on his neck?

 

[EVILFACE]

Damn, half my HT figures are melting and completely obsolete and undisplayable now.

 

[Deak Starkiller]

Well Superman doesn't have one on his neck?

Well, I don't have it yet but I find one! I swear, by the moon and the stars in the sky.

Damn, half my HT figures are melting and completely obsolete and undisplayable now.

See avatar quote.

 

[Leonidas]

Damn, half my HT figures are melting and completely obsolete and undisplayable now.

New to this thread and not a big fan of HT..was curious as to why HT figures are "melting"??

 

[Rorywan]

Damn, half my HT figures are melting and completely obsolete and undisplayable now.

That's terrible man. But at least their stands look great!

 

[Rorywan]

New to this thread and not a big fan of HT..was curious as to why HT figures are "melting"??

Melting/rotting rubber.. Latest casualty being Watchmen:Comedian, I believe.

And just ignore Evilface, he's just being Evilface.

 

[Leonidas]

Melting/rotting rubber.. Latest casualty being Watchmen:Comedian, I believe.

And just ignore Evilface, he's just being Evilface.

Wow the rubber is actually rotting after a few years of exposure to air??

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

My problem with Hot Toys is their "Never Look Back" policy. Essentially, if the license isn't up to their liking and they release a figure of it, they have no problem abandoning the license and leaving the fans completely in the dark without saying a word. It makes it very hard to be a completionist or try to finish any lineup with them. Because of that I am actually afraid when Hot Toys picks up licenses for anything that had more than two memorable characters in it.

This isn't just about the amount of releases either, the policy applies to their quality control. Half their figures are melting and completely obsolete and undisplayable now? Guess who doesn't care. Hot Toys. They won't apologize or send redesigned bodies or anything along those lines. Hell they might not even make a new version of the figure. If there is mass quality control problems on a figure release they just throw that into their history and continue on as if nothing happened.

Excellent example is the Kevin release from Tron. It is completely inaccurate to the movie and Hot Toys couldn't care less. They tossed it into the market and ran as fast as they could to the bank.

I also despise the lack of communication between them and the fans. Why is everything a surprise with them now? Can't they keep us better informed?

Finally, taking up the 1/4 thing just killed it for me. They are trying so hard to compete with every company for absolutely no reason (you don't need to compete with companies that do not share your licenses...it makes no sense) and all that competition does is raise their prices and make their releases worse.

Great post Monger, i completely agree, they even put the Tron license on hold before Kevin hit the market, and delayed the Lichtcycle forever.

Line completiong doesn't have to mean every character or version just more attention.

Doing Tron should mean you get the main characters, same with the 5 sucker punch girls, the main cast of Platoon, they start and then abandon them before finishing, with that attitude they might as well not have bothered and not build up potential customers only to let them down.

Rather than being fully excited for X-Men and MGS (the 2 lines i want HT to do at least 5 from each this next year) i'm more concerned they'll do two characters max and leave it to die.

 

[Darkseed]

Uh....I produce an item which doesn't sale, I won't continue making that item or anything related. It suxs more often than not we deal with incomplete licenses but I cannot fault HT.

 

[transhi100]

My problem with Hot Toys is their "Never Look Back" policy. Essentially, if the license isn't up to their liking and they release a figure of it, they have no problem abandoning the license and leaving the fans completely in the dark without saying a word. It makes it very hard to be a completionist or try to finish any lineup with them. Because of that I am actually afraid when Hot Toys picks up licenses for anything that had more than two memorable characters in it.

I never really understood this line of thinking. Why is Hot Toys obligated to finish a license? It's not as if they have stated they will be releasing a complete lineup of figures from a certain license. Given what we know, I'd just assume their initial figure(s) release from a given license is all they're gonna release and make my purchasing decision from there.

 

[a-dev]

If memory serves I saw people posting in the Platoon threads that they liked the figures but weren't going to buy because they believed HT would not follow through and complete the lineup (they announced 4 characters - Taylor, Barnes, Elias and Lerner). I don't know how many people felt this way at the outset of that line but I believe at least one person said as much and I wouldn't be surprised if that line lost a lot of potential buyers simply because of HT reputation for not 'finishing' lines. For that film in particular the only announced figure that is not essential is Lerner - just having Barnes and Taylor though does not satisfyingly represent that film - you NEED Elias too. Predictions that he wouldn't be made are possibly the reason that line didn't sell well in the first place and why people who did buy them are now selling them.

 

[Damien]

Hot Toys are not obligated to do anything
but no way do they not lose sales by only doing a couple figures a line
can we even call 2 figures a line
they aquire many licenses but then don't do characters
that people want from them
they do 1 or 2 then move along
very annoying

 

[Damien]

you should tell Gentle Giant that Sucker Punch doesn't sell

 

[a-dev]

That sounds pretty elitist. Platoon is not exactly a household name and would have a fairly narrow fanbase. It certainly is no "Rocky" with an iconic face r outfit. I'm not sure what the fans were thinking - "I'll pass on these incredible figures because I can't have obscure characters X and Y"? So stick with those Sideshow POC?

Well I would hardly call Elias, Willem Dafoe - the guy on the movie poster, an obscure character. The point is that film was centred around 3 guys - Taylor, Barnes and Elias. No one was crying out for Lerner - HT for some reason indicated they were planning to make him - presumably just because he was played by Johnny Depp. The point is the HT Platoon collection by any standards is currently incomplete without one of the core characters. I know its not the most 'toyetic' license so it may not be the best analogy but its sorta like HT making a clean T-800 from Terminator and then not making a BD version.........oh wait....

 

[Deak Starkiller]

Is anyone else just kind of "over" Hot Toys or Not?

 

[Damien]

ha
It looks like I'm convincing myself to stop
will get the Sucker Punch girls at least

 

[a-dev]

I love the movie and it's an Oscar winner, but it is pretty obscure as a toy line.

I think HT was maybe thinking Charlie Sheen = hero, Berenger = villian, we're done!

And "Guy in uniform being shot" is the character on the poster - Elias/Willem Dafoe is nowhere to be seen.

C'mon you get the point. Elias was a core character, vital to the story. Really no less deserving of a figure than Taylor and Barnes. Yeah you may be right about HT thinking on this....but people don't have to like it and I do believe it damaged sales of these figures even just a little bit.