Saw the new Lightning go up for pre-order at BBTS and got interested in possibly upgrading the old one. Then I saw the price. Holy mother of god.
The last Play Arts Kai figures I got were the Arkham Origins Batman and AC4 Edward Kenway and I thought, at $90 a pop, those were about ten dollars too high. I think $70 to $100 is the sweet spot, depending on the figure and what it comes with and how much work goes into making select characters.
However, this $150 nonsense is just insane. I got curious and decided to check the stock on slightly older releases, as well as newer releases, and virtually all of them can still be picked up, lol. This is laughable. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason for this huge price hike. At least with Hot Toys it's a marginal creep here and there. For petes sake, it was only five years ago that they still offered some figures around $160?
You've always had to be selective with Hot Toys releases and sometimes forego getting an entire line, but for lower-end figures, the whole point is to collect the full lineup of awesome characters in a series. You just cannot do that at this absurd price point now. And Square Enix doesn't have the quality to back up these kinds of prices.
I don't see the Play Arts Kai toyline surviving past a few more years, unless they right the ship. Personally, I live comfortably enough that I could actually go ahead and put down the pre-order for Lightning, but at $150 without free shipping and a potentially derpy face? No thanks. The old one serves me well enough as it stands.
