Figure Fight

Christopher Eberle, owner of Wildpig Comics in Kenilworth, N.J., had been selling action figures for eight years, but that came to an end in April. Though he wants to give his customers the most choices possible, he had two major problems when it came to action figures—exclusives in the category were hard to come by, and major manufacturers he says, are “over-saturating the market” by releasing two or more series per month.

“The average person doesn't have the money to drop on all these figures,” Eberle explains. “The customers that already bought [figures] in the past year can not give that much money each month.” So instead of stocking more figures, he'll now use the space once devoted to toys to display more comic books.

It's a situation that's affecting other comic and specialty stores who carry similar product. For specialty stores, finding the right balance between product on the shelf and what will actually make it to the register can be a tricky business at the best of times, and doing so in the midst of a near-constant stream of new product only makes matters harder. Other retailers have a different problem: it's tougher than ever getting the exclusives they used to receive—something that in the past was a key point of differentiation from their mass-market competitors.

Dean Phillips, owner of Krypton Comics in Omaha, Neb., believes that business comes and goes in waves when dealing with “hot” comic books, toys and games, particularly those based on comic, film, video game or other pop culture characters. “Essentially, I have to know what the customer wants two months before he or she knows they want it!” he says. “The [worst] part is that nearly every product we order is subject to being available at other stores—Barnes & Noble, Borders, Wal-Mart, Target and so on—before we receive it, and at a lower price than we pay for it.”

Action figures, comics and graphic novels have been a mainstay of Phillips' store for years, but big-box competition has put his store and other comic shops at the bottom of the totem pole, he says. Though he doesn't want to seem sour and says he doesn't blame companies for going to Wal-Mart to try to expand business, he takes issue when they forget where they came from.

“With the promise of more money comes a demand for exclusive items and favoritism,” he tells Playthings. “The distributors and companies are happy to oblige. The little guy is left out in the cold every time. Sounds like a great way to make a living doesn't it? There's not enough to convince the distributor to treat us as equals instead of the weaker industry. We set the trends. We make items popular and then this industry is left behind by the same companies we made rich with the hopes of making even more money.” He cites as an example toys from .

Carmen Bryant, executive director of public relations for McFarlane Toys, Tempe, Ariz., counters that the company does still support the specialty sector by, among its other efforts, continuing to produce exclusives for independent retailers. These include several Simpsons SKUs (such as Presidential Politics, a boxed set featuring characters Itchy and Scratchy in space, and Double, Double Dare, featuring a skateboarding Bart Simpson) and a 12-inch Twisted Land of Oz Dorothy figure from the McFarlane Monsters line, Bryant tells Playthings. Todd McFarlane, president, is also in the process of meeting with several specialty retail accounts to find out how McFarlane Toys can address their product needs, and this information will be used for design programs in the fall.

“We love to do exclusives for specialty. But we also know that a large portion of our business is in mass, so you want to make sure you get it out there for collectors on all levels,” says Bryant.

Krypton's Phillips says that toys are hard to sell, considering their wider availability, so he has reduced the amount he orders to a bare minimum. “Even exclusives are offered to any business that wants to start an account and get into the direct market,” he says. “Wal-Mart, Suncoast or the big booksellers just have to ask and our 'exclusive' toys are theirs for the taking.”

Joe Field, owner of Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff in Concord, Calif., believes it's a matter of careful selection when ordering product, particularly if exclusives are hard to get. When all else fails, narrow down selections. “Having been in this specialty business for about 20 years, I know that 'over-saturation' is really a retailer euphemism for 'just isn't selling as well as it used to' or even 'I wish they wouldn't produce it so I wouldn't feel like I'm required to carry it to maintain my full-line store image,'” he says. “As our culture becomes further immersed in all-things comic-book character related, there are thousands of stocking decisions specialty retailers need to make every month. No [one] can really carry it all and shine a light on each and every product...I think retailers need to look at tightening their store's specialty. For example: if a retailer focuses on being a kid-friendly cartoon-oriented shop, the decision not to sell toys based on horror movies is very easy.”

He adds, “One of my favorite retailer rules of survival is 'those who try to be everything to everyone often wind up being nothing to no one.'”