Did We All Just Get A Wakeup Call On The Price Of Small Batch Figures?

This subject was brought up in the comments by several of you to include Trooper31 and Blasko. I thought it could use more sunlight as it provides some insight into a common request in the fan community. A company named Factory Entertainment is releasing 3.75" figures and vehicles from another beloved 70's sci-fi franchise, Battlestar Galactica. This is presumed to be a boutique, small-batch item. The first wave went up for preorder on Friday, and the price comes in at $30/figure:


But we need to dig deeper. Take a look at what's being offered:

• It's essentially only two newly tooled figures with massive tooling reuse.
• The figure's do not have face printing technology (i.e. PhotoReal), which is costly.
• The elbow cuts are extremely shallow meaning that bending beyond or even to 90 degrees is highly unlikely.
• The licensing cost is assuredly a fraction of the Star Wars license.

I'm not trying to criticize these Battlestar Galactica figures at all. If I had more display space, I would definitely be a buyer. I'm merely trying to offer a comparison to what Hasbro produces in the Vintage Collection, which is objectively far superior on average.

I take all of this to mean that when we start talking about the idea of any sort of small-batch TVC figures (via HasLab or some other similar expression), $30 probably isn't even the starting point. It's north of that, but hopefully not too much more. Just spitballing, I would guess similar TVC product would come in at $35/figure. So a similar 5-pack would total out at $175. Speaking for myself, if one of my favorite displays (i.e. Jabba's Palace, Sarlacc Battle, Cantina) could get an injection of five 100% newly tooled figures to bolster its ranks, I couldn't send the money Hasbro's way fast enough. Heck, I effectively paid $80/figure to get an extra set of the Cantina figures.

The thing of it is, TVC desperately needs this. It's the "world building scale" in name only. World building doesn't just mean ships, and vehicles, and creatures, and play sets. It also means a wide breath of figures. The latter is the exact opposite of what the 3.75" line is today. In no way is that meant to be a critical statement of anyone at Hasbro. As I've been saying for years now, 3.75" no longer make economic sense. I think that is underscored by the $30 price point of those BSG figures. That's not Hasbro's fault.

Mr. Nomadscout pointed out something privately that I think bears repeating publicly because it's so true. TVC is effectively a smaller version of TBS (both in scale and output) where we can't build any meaningful scenes. All we can do is group like-sourced figures together on a shelf. Any sort of large-scale scene building is only possible for those scenes that can tap into the 30 year history of the modern line. We need something to burst concentrations of tightly-themed figures into our collections if TVC is going to ever be considered the "world building scale". "Spreading the love" is just more of the same.

I think it's becoming critical for Hasbro to explore some sort of HasLab-like figure offering for TVC to retain its soul. But that is going to require fans to step up to the plate financially. I'm not sure any group of figures could sell in sufficient numbers at $30+/figure, but if there is one part of the community with deep pockets, it's the OT fans. I'm confident that is the only source where such a program has even a slim chance. This isn't just "feels". There's empiricism behind my rationale, such as secondary market prices. Remember, this isn't determined by just popularity (i.e. fan poll rankings). It's popularity and the willingness to pay a 150% premium en masse. That is a narrow needle to thread.

If you're offended by my suggestion that only OT fans would provide sufficient support for such a high priced offering, think it through. It would free up main line for other sources at the $20 price point. Seems like a win/win.

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