Another Year, Another Figure Price Increase Coming From Hasbro

[Dabboi]

A price increase seems obvious, however, we keep getting less and less with the figures.

If McFarlane and NECA can stay at their price points, then so can Hasbro.

I've already been losing my love of collecting lately, scalpers and availability being some of the main reasons, a price increase certainly won't help matters.

Heck, most of these body molds are years old. Some of the accessories are nearing that decade mark. If I'm paying $25 for a figure, it better come with more than just some extra hands.

Paying $5 more for less plastic just doesn't sit right with me.

[RoMe00150]

I might forcuse more on Batman figures from MacFarlane. Lower price 

[Goldbug]

On 1/27/2022 at 12:56 AM, RoMe00150 said:

I might forcuse more on Batman figures from MacFarlane. Lower price 

I bet they will increase their prices too.

It's been a long time coming for 6 inch figures to get to this point. The 3.75 inch collectors had to suffer through many price increases. Now the current 3.75 inchers are a downgrade & higher price than Universe.

[RyanDaly]

I canceled five pre-orders from Hasbro Pulse yesterday in anticipation of the new price hike. Even though the figures I had pre-ordered weren't at the $24.99 point, that's a threshold for me where I'm going to be way more selective about getting the figures I really want vs. the ones that look cool. Translation: adios, Sleepwalker! And I very much doubt I'll get Havoc and Sabretooth from the upcoming X-Men wave like I had planned. 

[tarot]

On 1/27/2022 at 1:56 PM, RyanDaly said:

I canceled five pre-orders from Hasbro Pulse yesterday in anticipation of the new price hike. Even though the figures I had pre-ordered weren't at the $24.99 point, that's a threshold for me where I'm going to be way more selective about getting the figures I really want vs. the ones that look cool. Translation: adios, Sleepwalker! And I very much doubt I'll get Havoc and Sabretooth from the upcoming X-Men wave like I had planned. 

The five figures you cancelled would have remained the price you paid for them. They wouldn't have increased. It's future figures that have yet to be announced that are being hit with the price increase.

[bungi43]

Let's take a quick look back at where we were just as little as 10 years ago. 

Most figures were in the 15 dollar range.  Meaning you could get a full wave (normally 6 figures) for around 100 bucks after tax.  So 12 figures would run you 200 bucks.

At 25 a figure (before tax), you are getting less than 4 figures per 100, but we'll say 4 just to make it easy.  That means that the same 12 figures now will cost you 300 dollars. 

100 dollars more for a set of action figures seems steep. 

But let's say you are willing to accept that, what I'm not willing to accept is the horrid QC that has jumped up on a lot of figures.  The Star Wars black figures routinely have issues.  Marvel legends have loose limbs.  While not necessarily Hasbro, the new Halo figures have terrible QC issues.  

I think pay 20 dollars is steep.  25 is crazy.  But it's absolutely irresponsible to ask the regular consumer to pay 25+ bucks for a 6 inch action figure that has piss poor quality control.  

[RyanDaly]

On 1/27/2022 at 9:26 AM, tarot said:

The five figures you cancelled would have remained the price you paid for them. They wouldn't have increased. It's future figures that have yet to be announced that are being hit with the price increase.

Oh, I know. But the anticipation of the future price increases bummed me out enough to tweak my financial projections.

[Psychosomatic]

On 1/26/2022 at 3:54 PM, Atlantis said:

Well, well, well.....now where have I heard that before? 

LOL

Seriously though, this is what I've been saying to those that don't like to hear me complaining or what not. You just can't continue to over charge and under deliver your product, whatever it may be, and expect customers to stay with you. Regardless of the apologists and excuse makers you may have in your corner, its not a sustainable business model. There are a thousand things out there that might be out of your hands, but there are a thousand that are totally up to you.

I 100% agree with you - they can't over charge and under deliver, I think it just comes down to when we believe they under delivered. We are collectors though, so we have particular tastes, but does the average customer? I have seen super average product that I would never touch get snapped up, so I wonder.   BUT, this is about price, and this will eventually drive me away on principle. Sure, I bought a Sentinel and a Galactus, but they added value to my collection, and my collection is nearly complete. They can't produce that many more characters that I MUST have (unique to the line, or improved versions).  Outside of some figures slated for this year (like Doctor Strange), the only figures I could not say no to - Retro versions of Powerman, Iron Fist, Ronan, Yondu, Drax, Nebula, Gamora, Beta Ray Bill, Valkyrie, Blackheart, Blob, Jean Grey, Banshee, Angel, Adam Warlock, Lizard, Dum Dum Dugan, Wolfsbane, Feral, Frost Giant.  How 'bout you?

[MonsterChris]

On 1/26/2022 at 10:03 PM, Benn said:

This feels like a slight misunderstanding of the concept of supply and demand. When demand for an item drops, one way of preserving equilibrium is to lower the price and keep the supply the same. Another (more sustainable) way is to lower supply, which is rarely feasible without also increasing the price. If fewer people want plastic, then factories will simply produce less plastic and ask higher prices of those who do still want it. We're not looking at a truly competitive market here, either, because the reason plastic use is on the decline isn't economic, it's environmental. Lowering the prices isn't going to convince people to buy more plastic if the reason they stopped buying it wasn't its price.

Thanks for that.  Makes a little more sense.  I was playing around on the Bureau of Labor Statistic's website yesterday and I'm still not convinced that the price increase for Marvel Legends from 2002 to 2022 is commensurate with that of most other commodities, but I also admit I'm not on the front lines the way someone like you is.

Either way, I'm going to be dialing back along with most of the other posters in here.  Twenty-five dollars is really starting to push it for a lot of the what Hasbro is putting out.  They're definitely wowing me with a lot of figures recently (Bonebreaker, Hammerhead, the new Spider-Man buck, etc.), but they've also been either fumbling the ball or phoning it in on too many other things.  I'm thinking here of that Invisible Woman face, Mr. Fantastic's wierd stretchy fingers (when they've already invested in the much better stretchy arms!) and painting on details that really need to be sculpted, e.g., Loki's scale mail.  They've gone to the well way to often on most of their energy effect pieces.  Introducing just a few more into the rotation would have gone a long, long way to making that less egregious.  The lack of diversity in the female bucks is actually getting worse than it already was.  Too many women don't feel substantial enough and they look horribly uniform when they're next to each other on the shelf.  And now Hasbro's backpedaling on the few that were on the larger end of the scale!  Age of Apocalypse Rogue and Binary are now much smaller/thinner than previous iterations of those same characters!?  I don't get it.

I used to buy everything up until the dark days, circa 2007-2013 or so. And I've been buying just about every comic-based figure as a matter of course since the Mandroid wave revival 8 years ago, but they're going to have to make a better case for most of their figures going forward.  I'm looking at the Legion that I just put on my shelf as I type this and he's a cool-ass figure.  But he's not worth $25.  Not today.

[MODADDYDODOK]

On 1/27/2022 at 8:23 PM, Psychosomatic said:

… They can't produce that many more characters that I MUST have (unique to the line, or improved versions).  Outside of some figures slated for this year (like Doctor Strange), the only figures I could not say no to - Retro versions of Powerman, Iron Fist, Ronan, Yondu, Drax, Nebula, Gamora, Beta Ray Bill, Valkyrie, Blackheart, Blob, Jean Grey, Banshee, Angel, Adam Warlock, Lizard, Dum Dum Dugan, Wolfsbane, Feral, Frost Giant…

but could you say no if they got any of these figures wrong enough for you to wonder why or how they could’ve messed the [whatever] up?

The blatancy if my beef. Like dude, just put in the effort to get these figures right and awesome the first time and stop playing us with these near misses. That’s it 🤷‍♂️.  I can adapt to the prices as I’ve always done, but enough with the cheap tricks already.

 

[EvilHayato]

On 1/28/2022 at 10:59 AM, MODADDYDODOK said:

The blatancy if my beef. Like dude, just put in the effort to get these figures right and awesome the first time and stop playing us with these near misses. That’s it 🤷‍♂️.  I can adapt to the prices as I’ve always done, but enough with the cheap tricks already.

I feel like they do that on purpose. Theyve done so many random missteps with some characters to later bring out a better product a second or third time around for us to buy yet again. And now with these price hikes, for more money. There are just so many glaring omissions to characters they make that its like how tf did they miss that and not be on purpose when they later do it again but correctly. I get when they do an MCU character, they dont always have the final design so they later make another one thats correct but that happens so often that Id hate being an MCU collector to get so many mistakes to later buy what I wanted in the first place. Thankfully Im just a comic collector but weve had just as many. 

[Emnems80]

If not for the pandemic causing supply chain issues I wonder if this price hike could have been put off at least another year or two. I was already starting to be selective in my Legends purchases, may have to be even more so. I also may start preordering less and picking up figs once they are on reduced clearance prices.

 

[EraserMachine]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this yet but it looks like the Hasbro Pulse website is no longer offering a free shipping option for non-premium members. 

[K9-K1N6]

On 1/29/2022 at 11:31 AM, EraserMachine said:

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this yet but it looks like the Hasbro Pulse website is no longer offering a free shipping option for non-premium members. 

i thought that was always the case, happens everywhere, no free shipping for non-premium members of any site

[EraserMachine]

On 1/29/2022 at 3:12 PM, K9-K1N6 said:

i thought that was always the case, happens everywhere, no free shipping for non-premium members of any site

No for Pulse it used to be orders over $50 got free shipping, and that was for everyone. I made an order on Jan 14th for over $50 and got free shipping and I don't have premium. (US)

 

[Marvel0805]

Any time a company provides its rationale for a price increase, it reminds me of 2008-2009, when the price of oil went way up, and everything from Hot Wheels to action figures shot way up in price, because of the higher oil prices. However, once those oil prices dropped WAY back down to around the same point they had been previously, not a single company reversed any of the price increases they had made.

Funny how that works, isn't it?

[leokearon]

On 1/30/2022 at 2:17 AM, Marvel0805 said:

Any time a company provides its rationale for a price increase, it reminds me of 2008-2009, when the price of oil went way up, and everything from Hot Wheels to action figures shot way up in price, because of the higher oil prices. However, once those oil prices dropped WAY back down to around the same point they had been previously, not a single company reversed any of the price increases they had made.

Funny how that works, isn't it?

Yeah, companies are quick to raise prices but a lot slower to reverse them.

[enzosaurusrex]

On 1/29/2022 at 9:31 AM, EraserMachine said:

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this yet but it looks like the Hasbro Pulse website is no longer offering a free shipping option for non-premium members. 

Damnit I waited too long to order the Excalibur set lol