Diamond Select Toys is Shutting Down

Looking back over their past work there is no way any company ever tops the sheer insanity that was the Ghostbusters rooftop and firehouse dioramas. Those things are massive and came piece by piece with figures and looking at mine it is just crazy to think that all costed out at a fairly cheap price point.
 
Misfit said:
From Ad Populum's perspective, there was some crossover with NECA as far as competition goes with Diamond. Both were doing approximately 1:10 scale Nightmare Before Christmas and maybe some other stuff.
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Don't know why DST's NBX line slipped my mind- I have it on display year-round- but now I'm extra bummed. There was supposedly another wave coming with the super background characters we've never gotten before, and will probably never get again. They went pretty deep into the roster, granted, and gave some really cool diorama pieces, but I was really looking forward to those last couple releases.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
So...according to ActionFigureInsider, Gentle Giant is indeed shuttered.

EDIT: Adam Van Wickler aka Industrial has clarified. GG Ltd is shuttered, GG Studios is separate and remains in tact.
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Do you know the difference between GG Ltd and GG Studio? I just learned they were two separate companies, and GG Studio was not under DST. The product description for the Muppet figures says sculpted by GG Studio. If the figures were sculpted by GG Studio (and not GG Ltd), I think that gives a sliver of hope that they could be eventually released. Maybe just a tiny sliver.
 
Bills all day said:
Do you know the difference between GG Ltd and GG Studio? I just learned they were two separate companies, and GG Studio was not under DST. The product description for the Muppet figures says sculpted by GG Studio. If the figures were sculpted by GG Studio (and not GG Ltd), I think that gives a sliver of hope that they could be eventually released. Maybe just a tiny sliver.
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So, as I understand it, Studios are the creators and sculptors and scanners and all that.

Ltd are the ones who, under the DST umbrella, produce statues and busts as a sister company to DST. Not as a work for hire sculpting and design entity.

Not sure if I'm explaining that correctly, just woke up. Lol
 
RicksNerdLife said:
So...according to ActionFigureInsider, Gentle Giant is indeed shuttered.

EDIT: Adam Van Wickler aka Industrial has clarified. GG Ltd is shuttered, GG Studios is separate and remains in tact.
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So no more Skottie Young animated statues? Looks you can still buy existing stuff on their website for now.
 
jkpopculture said:
My biggest sense of loss regarding the toys themselves is that I am concerned that some of diamond's licenses are the type of thing that may not get action figures again . It took so long after Palisades closed for another company to get to Muppets action figures. And random stuff like the various 80's Disney movies might not get many other toy opportunities. It's just sad. I was especially looking forward to the Pepe and uncle deadly 2 pack given that Pepe is my favorite Muppet.
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With how many companies are jumping on Sesame Street right now, it would not shock me if it creates some renewed interest in Muppets.
 
I really wonder why DST was in financial troubles in the first place. Were the figures not selling well enough, or did they invest too much in molds or production, or what?

It's all quite a shame.
 
Their output wasn't that much, for sure. Look at what Neca puts out a month vs what DST put out. I didn't buy all that much from DST, not because I didn't think their stuff was worth it, but mostly because I wasn't a fan of many of the properties they made figures of. Muppets and Ghostbusters are the only two I really dove into deeply and I supplemented my Legends with a few of their Marvel Select figures from time to time. How much cash flow could they have had coming in with the few and far between releases they seemed to do?
 
DST wasn't the big problem, it was Diamond Distribution, the parent company, who was apparently losing money hand over fist. From my understanding, with Marvel & DC basically dropping them as their distribution channel for comics, they lost a chunk of their business.
 
Sorry to see them go, but they have had "opaque" issues in the past that didn't engender a lot of fandom love.

My most recent memory was with their Star Trek Starship line. They had clearly either stopped making new ships, or were in limbo over what they were doing, but they kept stringing along fans on the forums about models that had prototypes (Enterprise C was a big one). Instead of coming clean and saying it was done, they kept fans hoping for new releases for months, if not years. In the end it really soured that fandom on the company. Now of course that is just one incident, but I can see how they may have had more issues than we would know and the tariff era just was the last straw.

Not to mention the whole deal being pretty shady with how it went down.
 
Yeah. I didn't know a bankrupt company could somehow say "no" to the company who bought them at auction. That all felt very shady.

But if this means there might be prototypes that now need new loving homes, I am in for ANY Buffy, BSG, Stargate or Trek figure - the golden era. Hit me up! I have (some) money. :/
 

On this show, one of the hosts, Jesse James, based on his experience in the corporate world and as a comic shop owner, guesses that the closing of DST is just a renaming process to put everything under Ad Populum's control. He makes his brief comments at 5-10 minutes into the show. Since I so badly want the solicited DST products to get release, I really want this to be the case. That would also mean some lines could actually continue. Does Jesse's guess make sense, or is he off the mark?

I'm still having trouble understanding why Ad Populum would spend so much money on this purchase just to close all the companies. I assume there has to be some return value on DST products, especially for products that have already had some level of investment in design and initial manufacturing and have been historically good sellers or have high pre-orders. Maybe it's just not worth the additional investment to get any DST products out? Someone on Reddit, who seemed to be very familiar with how the layoffs at DST went down, was adamant that Ad Populum had no interest in DST products, since they didn't do anything to retain access to any information from DST including knowing the building access codes.

I know it's been pointed out that licenses probably did not transfer in the sale, although there was a list of like 50 licenses that were included when Alliance Entertainment was supposed to be the buyer. I guess Ad Populum/NECA could have determined it's not worth it to renegotiate any of them. Or, as others here have hoped, and Jesse speculates, many DST products are going to be released under a different name, likely NECA. Hearing Jesse's take has given me a little more hope. I guess I'll just keep waiting until we learn more or someone sets me straight.
 
Bills all day said:
Someone on Reddit, who seemed to be very familiar with how the layoffs at DST went down, was adamant that Ad Populum had no interest in DST products, since they didn't do anything to retain access to any information from DST including knowing the building access codes.
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Can never understand this attitude. Would you mind linking to this thread, please? I looked but there are multiple.
 
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