Super 7 Turtle figures shown at Power Con

[Dask]

Originally Posted by Y2Josh

Having had time to watch the whole thing now... I really don't understand how to reconcile Brian's claim that pre-orders are down 75%, they had to cancel the G.I. Joe repaint wave, they lost the license with Disney, but also... things are selling better than they ever have.

I know he can't (without losing access), but Veebs should have pressed him on that dichotomy.

He probably slipped, meaning preorders are down 75% because obviously you can no longer preorder new G.I Joe, Simpsons, Disney and Star Trek waves (those waves probably constituted a decent amount of sales but still never met their overall sales expectations and goals while it's questionable how well stuff like "the Worst" sells).

TMNT, ThunderCats and SilverHawks are probably selling at a healthy level but may have dipped somewhat over the years.

[RaphaelinSTL]

Originally Posted by Dask

He probably slipped, meaning preorders are down 75% because obviously you can no longer preorder new G.I Joe, Simpsons, Disney and Star Trek waves (those waves probably constituted a decent amount of sales but still never met their overall sales expectations and goals while it's questionable how well stuff like "the Worst" sells).

TMNT, ThunderCats and SilverHawks are probably selling at a healthy level but may have dipped somewhat over the years.

Actually I think Brian was saying that pre-orders are down industry-wide 75% as a whole... which again, I don't buy when you look at how other companies are doing. Feels like something he kind of pulled out a hat after talking about how a DIC G.I. Joe line had to be canceled.

Originally Posted by Y2Josh

I know he can't (without losing access), but Veebs should have pressed him on that dichotomy.

I totally agree.

[teemu]

Brian's idiot move to make 3 GI Joe DIC variants hopefully taught him a lesson to stop wasting time on variants, period. People want our classic characters yet, like Shipwreck, Quick Kick, Spirit, Snow job, Mutt & Junkyard etc. Brian keeps making the junk that he wants will only continue to hurt his business.

[mikey see]

I actually totally buy that preorders are down across the whole industry. Collectors went absolutely CRAZY for preorders from like 2020-2022 because the supply chain was so jacked that preorders were about the only way to be sure you'd actually get a toy. Now that things have returned to normal(ish) we're all settling down and realizing that almost everything is back to being readily available, often for a little less with patience. So preorders are likely back in 2019 territory, which I can 100% see being only a fraction of what they were during the pandemic. I'm sure massive inflation has played into that as well.

*obviously just basing this off of my own experience and what I've seen others mention across a few different forums and social media. But I know I had to start a friggin spreadsheet to track my preorders at one point, there were so many. Now I pretty much only need to advance-order exclusives or crowdfunds.

[EddieNES]

Do only the full waves come in the cardboard covers? I just received one without and it bothers me a lot.

I need symmetry.

[RaphaelinSTL]

No, I think they stopped doing those across with everything.

[teemu]

Originally Posted by RaphaelinSTL

No, I think they stopped doing those across with everything.

yeah, after we pre-ordered expecting a uniformed line. Cut costs even after the customers paid for the sleeve and mailer.

[jestergoblin]

Originally Posted by mikey see

I actually totally buy that preorders are down across the whole industry. Collectors went absolutely CRAZY for preorders from like 2020-2022 because the supply chain was so jacked that preorders were about the only way to be sure you'd actually get a toy. Now that things have returned to normal(ish) we're all settling down and realizing that almost everything is back to being readily available, often for a little less with patience. So preorders are likely back in 2019 territory, which I can 100% see being only a fraction of what they were during the pandemic. I'm sure massive inflation has played into that as well.

*obviously just basing this off of my own experience and what I've seen others mention across a few different forums and social media. But I know I had to start a friggin spreadsheet to track my preorders at one point, there were so many. Now I pretty much only need to advance-order exclusives or crowdfunds.

I did a preorder purge at the beginning of the year on BBTS - went from 130 items preordered down to 8.

[jestergoblin]

SDCC exclusive leak - Pizza Chef Mikey
https://x.com/preterniadotcom/status/1780809944553423249?s=46&t=eV5zqTgMySHN3w9RDOY7yg

[DonnieLaForge]

Originally Posted by teemu

Brian's idiot move to make 3 GI Joe DIC variants hopefully taught him a lesson to stop wasting time on variants, period.

And now, heeeeeeeere's Pizza Chef Mikey! Lol

[teemu]

Originally Posted by DonnieLaForge

And now, heeeeeeeere's Pizza Chef Mikey! Lol

and Zartan too, while charging a premium for it..

[mikey see]

To be fair, this is what exclusives SHOULD be - variants. If they're hard to get they won't be a giant hole in your collection.

I'll admit I still had a bit of an angry chuckle when I saw these though. They're so lazy, even by Super7 standards.

[DonnieLaForge]

Exclusives were once upon a time "harder" to get. I don't feel that way lately, though.

[teemu]

Originally Posted by mikey see

To be fair, this is what exclusives SHOULD be - variants. If they're hard to get they won't be a giant hole in your collection.

I'll admit I still had a bit of an angry chuckle when I saw these though. They're so lazy, even by Super7 standards.

That's my point. Variants are lazy and take away from getting New characters that we keep asking for, making us wait longer for them. It's annoying cash grab and Super7 is king of it!

[Dask]

Originally Posted by jestergoblin

SDCC exclusive leak - Pizza Chef Mikey
https://x.com/preterniadotcom/status...ySHN3w9RDOY7yg

My favorite turtle in the laziest variant to date....

They should have tossed in a Grybyx or Ice Cream Kitty (like Mondo does with their buddy pack-ins) to add value to the release. Not these lame pizza boxes (albeit appropriate here) that everyone has from Super7 and NECA.

[Otter]

See... that Mikey makes total sense to me. I want it. And that Sheila. These are great!

[Tuxedo Moroboshi]

Originally Posted by teemu

That's my point. Variants are lazy and take away from getting New characters that we keep asking for, making us wait longer for them. It's annoying cash grab and Super7 is king of it!

I don't think this is taking anything away from anything, since it's not actually part of a main wave, and just an exclusive. Though as Mikey See says, this really is what exclusives should be. Something that isn't going to feel like a hole in your collection if you miss it.

Though even as far as that goes, this IS pretty lazy. Undercover Raph had more effort put in than this. But... at least this makes this that much of an easier skip for me. More power to those that want this, though.

[teemu]

Originally Posted by Tuxedo Moroboshi

I don't think this is taking anything away from anything, since it's not actually part of a main wave, and just an exclusive. Though as Mikey See says, this really is what exclusives should be. Something that isn't going to feel like a hole in your collection if you miss it.

Though even as far as that goes, this IS pretty lazy. Undercover Raph had more effort put in than this. But... at least this makes this that much of an easier skip for me. More power to those that want this, though.

but it does. It's takes longer to get new characters and makes the wait longer to get them. They didn't put up a new wave to replace the variants crap wave (which was called wave 6, it wasn't exclusive) did they? nope! So now we wait! The next wave after wave 5 won't be in hand till mid next year or later.

[jestergoblin]

Originally Posted by Tuxedo Moroboshi

I don't think this is taking anything away from anything, since it's not actually part of a main wave, and just an exclusive. Though as Mikey See says, this really is what exclusives should be. Something that isn't going to feel like a hole in your collection if you miss it.

Though even as far as that goes, this IS pretty lazy. Undercover Raph had more effort put in than this. But... at least this makes this that much of an easier skip for me. More power to those that want this, though.

Oh, that makes me wonder what Mikey has for a belt - this might be a Wacky Action redux like Undercover Raph also was (which would make the tongue head make more sense for re-use). Undercover Raph was still a genius pre-paint/repaint hybrid since almost all of his accessories were taken from other upcoming figures in theory.

And yeah, this kind of exclusive doesn't take away from anything. There's basically no new tooling budget for a figure like this. Maybe the chef's hat is new, but nothing else from the looks of it.

[Y2Josh]

I don't know how much effort goes into a repaint wave like the DIC wave, but I can't imagine it would be enough to take away from an actual new wave (I could certainly be wrong on that). Super7's bigger problem (ignoring poor QC for this point) is that they just have way too many licenses and, so far as it seems, are spread too thin across them. So I think all the lazy repaints are like a stopgap measure for them, keeping the line going while they try to play catch-up. If you look at the Ultimates line when they started TMNT, they had way fewer licenses than they do now... and they were still struggling to keep up. That problem has only been exacerbated with the flood of new licenses (the Triceraton will have been something like a two-and-a-half year wait by the time we get it - and their target is supposed to be... six months?).