Spinmaster Shapes Collection PlayStation Figures

altcunningham said:
I'm usually surprised by this, but whenever I do engage with hardcore gamers, action figures just never make the Venn diagram.

Yeah, you'll get the anime weeb dudes who want their statues and jar material from franchises that are way too niche or frankly off-putting to me, but that's where the overlap ends.
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I've made this argument probably a dozen times at the least by now. I think on this very forum (maybe this very thread?) that action figure collectors tend to view everything in terms of it just being about creating action figures for the thing, and then all fans of the thing will buy the figures. So they're just not prepared for the idea that other people do not care about action figures EVEN if it's an action figure of a character they like.
 
I liken it to sneaker people. Like, if some guy came up to me and was like 'Nike is making an exclusive Conan the Barbarian sneaker!' I'd be like 'why are you telling me this?'
 
When Kith did the X-Men sneakers and street wear it did get me looking at them. And I did get a sweater, but that was a friend who is already into that scene and knows Rogue is a formative interest.

So I get it
 
A bummer to hear, but not surprising. The video game figure curse continues.

Oddly enough, my local Barnes and Noble- their flagship store, just got a bunch of the Joel and Ellie 2 packs in. The last place I'd think to look for Playstation figures, but there they were.
 
joshsquash729 said:
A bummer to hear, but not surprising. The video game figure curse continues.

Oddly enough, my local Barnes and Noble- their flagship store, just got a bunch of the Joel and Ellie 2 packs in. The last place I'd think to look for Playstation figures, but there they were.
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There's a few at my EB and I kind of do want to get one more Joel and Ellie just because I don't think we will see another Ellie, and I'd like to think at some point maybe I could customize that ab out. Cuz otherwise, I think it's a great figure. If you flip through them and find a great face print, I think that figure came out well.
 
Yeah, the listed reasons as to why the line shit the bed all check out. I'm curious as to how this would have panned out had these gotten an advertisement on the Playstation Store-- that's the primary place most of the target audience would be checking.

As much as I want the weirdos and older characters (I couldn't care less about any of the games that were actually in the line), and as much as I think the line needed the variety, that is a miniscule issue compared to an inexperienced team and no support from the parent company.
 
As per the above, I'd probably argue that the Playstation Store is precisely not the place the target audience would be checking. Because the target audience for any toyline is toy collectors. But then, I sort've categorically reject the idea that any part of the failure of the line is that people didn't know about it. You had people looking at overseas websites like Ali to find Jin when he first turned up in hand but people couldn't find him in stores (this line had HORRIBLE distribution, which is definitely a key issue with its failure, as is often the case with action figures more generally). Toy collectors knew the line existed and wanted to buy them.
 
I get why, most people playing these games are certainly more prone to buying knick-knacks like funko pops than typically more expensive action figures. But if someone who worked on the line is saying ad support was part of its failure, I'm fine believing that. The distribution is likely the most major culprit.
 
I don't think awareness had anything to do with it. Action figure enthusiasts follow action figure news obsessively through toy news sites, social media, YouTube, etc. Collectors knew about this line, they just didn't buy it.

There's always been a disconnect between video games and video game toys. For the most part, gamers are looking to buy games. They might own a Funko Pop or game statue, but they won't support a line of Call of Duty figures. Gamers who are also toy collectors will do that. Or a toy collector who thinks the toys look cool.

I think it's possible to squeeze a few years out of a video game line, but that's about all you're going to get. I can't really think of any examples with sustained success outside of Halo. Square's in-house Final Fantasy figures are doing well, but those are niche. And expensive.

Spinmaster's failure was with people like me. I'm a gamer who loves toys. I played—and enjoyed—every game featured in the line. I didn't buy a single figure. For me, they whiffed on scale, character selection, and articulation.
 
I personally can't see video games as overall being disconnected from action figures, but a lot of games just aren't the right kinds of things to justify toys. They have to either be family friendly household names, or they have to have a very defined niche and a dedicated (ideally international) fanbase that LOVE that thing and its characters.

For video games of the latter, this only really broadly applies to JRPGs and fighting games, and only fighting games really have large enough rosters for full lines. The huge overlap those IPs tend to have with anime collectors also helps. In contrast, Call of Duty and first party Sony titles are designed around extremely broad appeal for adults only. This just doesn't lend itself to the incredibly hardcore, plastic-addicted, nerdy audiences of things like Street Fighter and Final Fantasy. Maybe a figure of the main character, but nothing else.

And I think these statements can apply to almost any medium. The ways fans of Bridgerton and Riverdale interact with their shows are incredibly different from how people interested in The Boys and Stranger Things interact with theirs, for example.

Thinking about it, I'd be curious to see what Western IPs would have the door opened to them if we had a higher end domestic 1/12 line like Figma that covered a lot of the nicher pop culture stuff. The closest we have in general scope is BST AXN, but their figures suck, and their line-up of IPs isn't QUITE as nutty as Figma's can be.
 
I wonder what the overlap was with something like Moore Action Buffy.

Those figures didn't pose for shit after the first wave. They had the cuts, but were clearly going for the McFarlane era Sculpt over Play. And that line went wide and deep. I have to imagine it was Buffy over Action Figures (and I was complete on it).

And I also think figures were still kind of a novelty back then. I knew a lot of casual people that wanted to pick up Spike and Drusilla or Oz and didn't even care about Buffy herself, mostly because it was just "new" to get your little fan favorite character on your desk.

And then you consider how something like Funko pops probably just obliterated novelty and standards. How many people just want to drop $12 on Funko "Kratos" and call it done?
 
I'd argue there's probably more overlap than we'd think with gamers and buying figures. Gamers tend to be more loyal to a property than a brand, if that makes sense- a Halo lover will buy all/most things Halo, a God of War lover will buy all/most things God of War, etc. I have a few friends who would consider themselves gamers over anything else, while being more passive collectors. Some even continue to buy physical media, making semi-regular stops into GameStop. If they see a collectible that catches their eye, they'll probably buy it, but they don't actively seek them out.

But not a single one of them knew about these figures. One said they remember hearing something about it a while back, but had forgotten all about it because they never saw them advertised anywhere. He said he remembers seeing a Varl figure once, but figured it was either a one-off, or from a dedicated Horizon line, not an overall Playstation line.

So I'd argue that advertising certainly was a fault. Distribution too, to an extent. Personally, I saw the odd Kratos and Atreus, but that was about it. Don't know if I ever saw Jin or Aloy in stores. Joel and Ellie maybe once or twice until the other day. GameStop is obviously a no-brainer store, but these really needed to be in at least one of the big box stores- WalMart, Target, Best Buy, etc, especially as more and more of those stores have dedicated "collector" sections next to/near the video games. My local Target has a little section toward the front of the video games that have video game focused collectibles- currently a lot of Fallout, some Mario, etc. I think if these had been there, they'd have sold pretty well. I think this is a line that you could arguably sustain on just passive pick-ups. If a God of War fan sees a Kratos that looks cool, they'll probably pick him up. Same with a Nathan Drake, or Sam Fisher, Jak and Daxter, etc.

Say what you want about Funko Pops- they deserve a lot of the criticism- but if there's one thing they've taught us, it's that folks do have love and nostalgia for some of these older properties, and are willing to pick up even a one-off collectible here and there if they're priced well and- perhaps most importantly- they're put in a place where most folks can find them.
 
You're not wrong about the super fandoms. I know two people who live and breathe Destiny and they've bought random ass figures, including monster high, to make customs of their characters over the life of the game.

Their distribution was screwed from the get-go because the narrative was that these were Amazon exclusive. And at least in Canada, that was true for 2 months and then they just showed up all over EB.
 
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