Let’s just get it out of the way. MSRP of The Vintage Collection (TVC) is holding it back. It’s a hard pill to swallow; a hard truth to accept. In the U.S. the current MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) is $16.99 and how dare I say that’s not high enough. Let’s do some critical thinking and deductive reasoning to land at this answer. When I say holding back, I am specifically speaking to the lack of 20+ 100% newly tooled figures a year giving us a steady amount of new in the line each year and truly helping expand the tooling library. This fosters a decent amount of character depth in the line and gives collectors of different media focuses plenty of figures to help satisfy their insatiable appetites. Remember, we want more, we always want more (Agustin).
It’s well known in the community that the production costs for a The Black Series (TBS) figure and a TVC figure are approximately the same. A TBS figure’s MSRP is $24.99 to TVC $16.99 so that means Hasbro can charge $8 more which is 47% more for TBS than TVC!!! Let’s think about that….Hasbro can charge about 50% more for TBS. So why does Hasbro focus more resources on TBS? As a business that reports to Shareholders they ABSOLUTELY should. Make no mistake 6″ scaled action figures are dominate in the action figure industry right now and there’s probably more interest. I don’t want to get too into this but let’s not forget the 40+ years of 3.75″ Star Wars fandom and how the Star Wars action figure line brought focus to the scale. Now, I’m digressing….
One can say that world-building makes up for this. That playsets, vehicles, and HasLabs are where those needed margins are made and why 3.75″ was originally conceived, but we have to remember that Star Wars world-building items are fewer and far between and more importantly, not found in toy aisles anymore. In my opinion they would need to be at major retailers like Walmart and Target for this to still come into play. Currently, many Targets across the country have reset their Star Wars sections with no TVC SKUs. That alone also tells us that the margins just aren’t there for them to care. It appears that TVC Deluxe offerings selling at $24.99 are also proving this point and it gives them the margin they need to consider the line profitable. I’ll speak more about deluxe down below but again this is just another reason to prove Hasbro needs the MSRP closer to this price point to make the line viable for them.
So if MSRP were to increase what does this mean for the common collector? Some collectors can not get past the $16.99 price-point, so therefore, we have to increase the value without incurring too much additional cost. Some thoughts on that. It’s my understanding that when tooling is cut you can add multiple items to that tooling. For example, tool alternate hands, an additional accessory, or even an alternate head sculpt. Heck put in a minimalistic figure stand to help appease all the collectors who feel the rocker ankles limit peghole depth in the feet. Make deluxe truly deluxe by adding mini world-building items, for example, the Remnant Stormtrooper with e-web cannon was a solid deluxe offering. Another example, of a partially tooled character debut ewok like Brethupp with his imperial trooper helmet drum kit. Also, put them back on Blister cards like the Sith Trooper Armory figure or Mando& Grogu Maldo Kreis figure set.
Many action figures makers are packing in alternate hands, heads, and accessories and Hasbro should follow suit with this as well. It’s the only way they can increase the MSRP without losing more collectors. Yes, lack of 100% newly tooled figures is causing many collectors to lose interest. It’s also creating in-fighting causing collectors with different media interests whose wants are not as consistent to lose their patience and take it out on their fellow collectors whose wants are at the time being met.
In conclusion, the MSRP needs to increase to stop holding TVC back. This will allow Hasbro to focus more so on it since it’ll make a decent profit margin and allow them to expand the budget. BUT, there has to be MORE 100% newly tooled figures if this occurs. It should not result in a bunch more partial tooling and repaints/repacks which occurred in 2022. Also, deluxe offerings should truly be deluxe offerings. The value needs to be there for everyone and not just Hasbro.
