Quote:
Originally Posted by RaphaelinSTL
I do appreciate what they're offering.
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I like your word choice here. It made me consider the modern "buyer role" in the hobby, which is something that I think about often. The wording you chose is about as perfect as could be - "I do appreciate what they're
offering", which is of course a fine position for the consumer without "losing consumer power".
It's become part of the hobby for fans to cheer and show appreciation for a company when pieces they might like show up. And I understand that feeling. But man-oh-man, there has been the rise of some pretty manipulative cultural-marketing specific to these hobbies. Marketing where it's become the norm for fandoms to have the ownership put
on them before on these companies. A positing sometimes adopted by fans as if they are at the service of the manufacturer.
We appreciate
them. And I suppose there are valid reasons for us, as fans to appreciate a company from time-to-time. But nowadays there are a lot of instances where the power structure has been cleverly inverted. As if we are serving the companies and should appreciate them when in fact, they should be earning our business through the appropriate practices and offerings.
A big, big example of problematic power structure is Hasbro's Marvel Legends line.
That is all out of whack. For example, Hasbro pounds out yet another Wolverine figure that offers nothing, yet people buy them and then "thank" Hasbro for something completely mundane as if it benefited them. "Hasbro finally changed that should pad- yay they finally got it right" or some other nonsense. Another example is the phony "fan voting". Hasbro "gives fans a voice in voting for the next Legends figure". But it's a lie. They didn't take fan requests, they just show you three figures in a shadow that were already invested in and then give you the illusion of choice. Now maybe someone here will feel compelled to point out some overtly specific, singular example as an inaccuracy or misstep in this conversation, but that's not the point when on a holistic level this is all very clearly happening.
What it boils down to is that we truly vote with our wallets. So when NECA finally starts dipping into re-releases that each come "with a pizza" or some nonsense,
just don't buy 'em. Then when they start the marketing manipulating stating that fans need to be "supporting the line so that it can continue"? Well there's
some truth to that, but the real truth is that you can let the people who missed out on earlier waves of Turtles buy the re-releases to support the line. The same goes for Super7. They are releasing boutique action figures that are, regardless of their justification, outrageously priced and sculpted for no true value beyond an appeal to nostalgia. If someone really likes them, that's fine but at least ask yourself "why". I used NECA as a "what if" example above, but at least they are offering value with "screen accuracy" in a line where we basically never had that before.
These companies point the finger at fandom and then ask that we "appreciate their offerings" but that's the worlds most clever role-reversal in marketing. Vote with your wallets. A lot of these toy companies are actually taking a drug dealer approach to the fans. So man up, resist your addictions, and vote with your dollars in the appropriate moments.
Just some conversation about that culture in the hobby based on what RaphaelinSTL said above.
