ShadowGuardian
Super Freak
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2015
- Messages
- 2,311
- Reaction score
- 230
I wanted to make a general thread for this to hear what the freaks community as a whole has to say on the matter. I know it has been discussed in a few of the sub-forums a bit, but when a property like DC gets put on the back burner, of course people in the DC forum are going to be more peeved.
As of January 2021, Hot Toys is arguably the biggest they've ever been as a company. They're releasing on average ~56 figures a year now (stat pulled from Justin's Collection). More and more of your average nerds are becoming aware of Hot Toys. I know the freaks forum is on a downwards trend for activity compared to the old days, but groups on other platforms like Facebook (bleh ) and Reddit have grown exponentially in the past year. Hot Toys has some of the biggest licenses in the game, and from a financial position they are still going strong.
However, I can't help but notice that some collectors (specifically those who have been with Hot Toys for longer) are less than satisfied. There are complaints that Hot Toys is half-assing more releases (less accessories, poor head sculpts, etc) and yet still raising prices. There has also been a strong trend of just Marvel and Star Wars releases, 2 massive properties expected to get many figures but now apparently at the expense of figures from smaller or more classic brands. Even juggernauts like DC seem to be getting sidelined, never mind any other smaller franchises. I have also noticed a trend of Hot Toys releasing/announcing many many masked and armored characters (whether it be troopers or Spider-Man, Iron Man or Mandos, etc), thus avoiding the need to do more complex tailored outfits or realistic portraits that originally drew many to Hot Toys. Not to mention we are slowly seeing more weird variants, like the venomized stuff or now Marvel zombie stuff I guess.
Reissues or slightly modified re-releases are becoming the norm; there has been an uptick in those especially as of late. As of this morning the Shoretrooper has been put up again, and in the past year ~20% of the announcements fall into this category (~10/52 if I counted correctly). I feel like even this is a bit generous because I didn't count things like the regular 1984 Wonder Woman which is basically an updated recolored version of the other ones. Of the past 7 announcements, 3 have been re-releases (Dark Knight Batman, Iron Man Mark 5, Shoretrooper).
I have never had the luxury of owning detolfs upon detolfs of Hot Toys, both for financial reasons and because I've become more and more picky in what I display, but I have picked up a handful of Hot Toys in the past 5 years (I think like 15? Most have come and gone though). So I haven't owned every release under the sun like a select few, but I have been following the company for a while and have looked back at older releases, and I just can't help but feel that Hot Toys used to put out so many pieces that I would marvel at and only dream of owning, versus now where I rarely feel that with every passing announcement or release.
What do the freaks have to say on the matter? Would be interesting to hear how long you have been collecting Hot Toys as well.
As of January 2021, Hot Toys is arguably the biggest they've ever been as a company. They're releasing on average ~56 figures a year now (stat pulled from Justin's Collection). More and more of your average nerds are becoming aware of Hot Toys. I know the freaks forum is on a downwards trend for activity compared to the old days, but groups on other platforms like Facebook (bleh ) and Reddit have grown exponentially in the past year. Hot Toys has some of the biggest licenses in the game, and from a financial position they are still going strong.
However, I can't help but notice that some collectors (specifically those who have been with Hot Toys for longer) are less than satisfied. There are complaints that Hot Toys is half-assing more releases (less accessories, poor head sculpts, etc) and yet still raising prices. There has also been a strong trend of just Marvel and Star Wars releases, 2 massive properties expected to get many figures but now apparently at the expense of figures from smaller or more classic brands. Even juggernauts like DC seem to be getting sidelined, never mind any other smaller franchises. I have also noticed a trend of Hot Toys releasing/announcing many many masked and armored characters (whether it be troopers or Spider-Man, Iron Man or Mandos, etc), thus avoiding the need to do more complex tailored outfits or realistic portraits that originally drew many to Hot Toys. Not to mention we are slowly seeing more weird variants, like the venomized stuff or now Marvel zombie stuff I guess.
Reissues or slightly modified re-releases are becoming the norm; there has been an uptick in those especially as of late. As of this morning the Shoretrooper has been put up again, and in the past year ~20% of the announcements fall into this category (~10/52 if I counted correctly). I feel like even this is a bit generous because I didn't count things like the regular 1984 Wonder Woman which is basically an updated recolored version of the other ones. Of the past 7 announcements, 3 have been re-releases (Dark Knight Batman, Iron Man Mark 5, Shoretrooper).
I have never had the luxury of owning detolfs upon detolfs of Hot Toys, both for financial reasons and because I've become more and more picky in what I display, but I have picked up a handful of Hot Toys in the past 5 years (I think like 15? Most have come and gone though). So I haven't owned every release under the sun like a select few, but I have been following the company for a while and have looked back at older releases, and I just can't help but feel that Hot Toys used to put out so many pieces that I would marvel at and only dream of owning, versus now where I rarely feel that with every passing announcement or release.
What do the freaks have to say on the matter? Would be interesting to hear how long you have been collecting Hot Toys as well.