Do we know that Super7 is actively doing this? With factory production, I would assume there are barriers to operating this way since they must have to pay the factory upfront some amount to begin production. What that amount is I don't know, but I would assume when they closed preorders on that last wave of turtles I assume a chunk of that immediately went to the factory to begin production and upon completion they probably have a remaining balance to pay out.
I don't have a particularly high opinion of how that company is run so nothing would surprise me. I do think there is some element of risk aversion to a lot of what they do which makes me skeptical they would open preorders on one product explicitly to fund another, but people do stupid things when they get desperate. I'm largely left to assume nothing particularly shady is going on with the company and that this is a pretty conventional case of "bad times." Their cashflow has likely been going down as business doesn't appear to be very good from the outside looking in while expenses are rising pretty much across the board. And while it's easy to look at the company as this poorly run entity (which I think it is), few companies budgeted for 145% tariffs on their products. Now, if in light of all of this the company suddenly declares bankruptcy and we find out their most recent closed preorders never went into production then I would certainly be willing to jump to the conclusion that they never intended to go into production and those last few rounds of preorders were done just to generate revenue and then protect themselves from having to pay out via bankruptcy protection. And if that were to happen the individual consumer who preordered product direct would almost surely be boned as bankruptcy court is going to take of those with the largest outstanding balance first likely leaving nothing for the guy who is owed $250.
That Hasbro news is interesting, but probably not good for our hobby. I'm curious if the plan was to raise prices across the board to offset some of the losses to tariffs on products coming out of China, but with the reduction in the tariff amount, maybe they think they can just shift all of the burden specifically to the Chinese products? The article mentions price increases are still likely to happen, just not at the scale previously thought. Obviously, not enough to keep their old plan, but maybe instead of a Legends increase to $35 they think they can do a softer one of just a few bucks. I guess we'll see, but a 30% tariff rate isn't exactly a win just because it's better than 145%. I personally still expect to see a bit of a pause on new production as this thing plays out. Companies are going to rush to get product out of China that was already finished or nearly finished, but may still be hesitant to greenlight a wave of action figures that won't ship until the end of the summer.
