Get 'Em While They're Hot!

Paul Lazo knows a good figure when he sees one. As the owner of Amok Time, a 5,000-square-foot shop in Levittown, N.Y., that's packed with action figures and collectibles, Lazo has a keen sense of which products will sell immediately, and which ones will collect quite a bit of dust before they are finally claimed. Since 1993, Amok Time has catered to all kinds of fans and collectors, from old-time Marvel and DC readers to horror movie fanatics to Neal Adams-obsessed collectors.

What will sell best this year, according to Lazo, are any products related to Superman Returns, including the high-end collectibles. At the moment, some of the hottest sellers at Amok Time are DC Direct exclusive statues of Batman and Superman, Sideshow Collectibles' Predator and Alien figures and Star Wars 12-inch figures, Lazo says.

The action figure category, which encompasses everything from mass-priced plastic toys to high-end resin models and even metal statues, accounted for a significant jump in overall sales in the traditional toy category last year. According to a recent study by the NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based marketing research company, sales of action figures moved up 4 percent from 2004, accounting for $1.3 billion in total sales.

Retailers looking to cash in on this phenomenon should plan on stocking some exclusive collectible models as well as a balanced variation of well-known and not-so-common action figures. The right promotions are also key as they can help determine how different kinds of pieces will sell in one's particular market.

Comics are no joke

Several manufacturers who spoke with Playthings agree that comic book characters like Superman, Batman and Spider-Man are still ubiquitous best-sellers in most action figure-friendly toy stores.

But while some fans will always seek out classic characters or the lower-priced figures, other collectors are looking for more original works by artists and sculptors like Tony Cipriani, Frank Frazetta or Edgar Rice Burrows. That's the focus for ReelArt Studios, St. Petersburg, Fla. This year, ReelArt will release a 3-D Three Stooges wall plaque, a Going Ape statue sculpted by Jason Adams (son of Neal Adams) and William Stout's Cutey Pie (a pixie-like girl with her pet beast). ReelArt also recently nabbed licenses for Buck Rodgers, The Spider, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Products for each of these franchises will launch later this year and in 2007.

“There's no Marvel. There's no DC,” says Michael Hudson, president, ReelArt Studios, of the characters his company recreates. “We specialize in Golden Age illustrated art. We generally do licensing with noted artists who are well-known, or someone like King Features who we're doing a Prince Valiant for. We use a lot of works that go back in time. There's not a lot of contemporary stuff. The market is so full of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man statues that the market has to move in another direction, because it has become so saturated. Eventually, the market will explode unless manufacturers don't move in another direction.”

“Absolutely, there's an overload,” agrees Lazo, though he attributes the glut of certain characters in the market primarily to fans' continued demand for them. “People like these characters—you can sell anything from action figures to soap dishes, and it works.”

The National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA), Clark, N.J., aims to satiate its fans with 12- and 18-inch figures from Dawn of the Dead, The Crow, Friday the 13th, Gremlins and other cult classics. NECA's goal, says marketing manager Rene Rossa, is to find more famous characters and people that have yet to be put to plastic. “There are many beloved characters that have never been given a decent merchandise front, and action figures are usually the last place you might think to look to find some of these great icons,” Rossa says. “However, as we have learned with most of the figures we make, the demand for many of the fan favorites and cult classic characters is heavily there.”

To pique collector interest, NECA sends retailers signs and fliers for display as well as exclusive variant models, which, according to Rossa, sell-out in most small, retail stores. He adds that variant statues are something manufacturers can produce exclusively for retailers that agree to buy out a numbered set or who have a proven track record of selling-out sets.

This year, NECA releases include Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack in Snowmobile set and Series 5 figures (October), plus an 18-inch Cannibal Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest next month.

For Amok Time's Lazo, some variants just don't make the cut. Fans want their money's worth, particularly when shopping for something to add to their collections that may cost hundreds of dollars. “Sometimes manufacturers will offer a variant with a blood splattered stain on the figure, but it's really not enough to sell 3,000 figures,” he tells Playthings.

Toynami president George Sohn believes variants can double or even triple sales. “Every customer wants an exclusive—it's a guarantee,” he says. “It's like winning the lottery. You're going to sell out whether you have 1,000 or 5,000 pieces. For our company, it's the retailer that contributes the most, giving us the most retail real estate. It's mostly specialty retailers that get our exclusives. There's a lot of driving force behind it.”

The newly-relocated Van Nuys, Calif.-based company is continuing to focus on anime licenses this year, with new resin models of Naruto, Bleach and Inuyasha, which was their number one seller last year. Anime classics Voltron and Macrosse will also be out this year, including a 1000-count, 6-inch diaroma Naruto statue and a first series of Macrosse 1/100 scale transformable action figures. “We're mainly concentrated on Japanese anime,” he says. “It's made it to the forefront of American culture, determining what shows will be successful in coming years. There's going to be a lot of shift in terms of more anime.

According to Sohn, anime fans have come to rely on Toynami for quality collectibles. Becoming a major resource like this in a specific toy category can give a manufacturer like Toynami an edge over its competitors by offering something completely different to retailers—and, ultimately, to the fans.

Additional companies have entered the high-end collectible market recently. One notable newcomer is Chicago-based die-cast collectibles manufacturer Corgi, whose new, 1:12 scale, Marvel statues of characters like The Thing, Captain America and Wolverine are made of metal—yes, metal!

The company plans on releasing eight figures a year with two-figure exclusive sets, all limited to 2,500 pieces. Each comes with a biographical card and a certificate of authentication. This August, Corgi will release X-Men characters Storm and Colossus. In October, Thor and Phoenix will debut. A two-figure set of Daredevil/Electra is due in December. In 2007, look for Ghost Rider, Punisher and Green Goblin.

Pearson says that the models will speak for themselves once people get their hands on them in person. The company is also working to produce exclusives for Diamond Comics. One idea: Colossus in a high chrome finish.

“There are no figures in this scale and of this material,” Pearson says. “Die-cast and metal are the core of what we do. I think collectors will appreciate these figures and the work we put into them with detail. There are lots of exceptional statues out there, but we don't want to do what everyone else is doing. Collectors don't want the same thing.”

Meanwhile, Hard Hero also has a line of high-end collectible statues due out later this year. The Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based company will be offering Iron Fist, Ironman and Hercules via online pre-orders, says Hard Hero president Rob Potts. Potts started reading comics in the late 1960s and collecting back issues in the late 1970s. He says most collectors are in the 30- to 40-year-old bracket. He also noted that keeping product quantities limited in number will almost guarantee a sell-out since fans rely on their local retailers to have the exclusives or pre-ordered statues.

“Our stuff is limited to 1000 pieces or less,” he says. “When they're gone, they're gone. That's the whole point of having a collectible.”