This feels like taking a break from a relationship .
You’ve invested time, energy, money (yup the green stuff!) growing a part of your relationship … but it turns out, they never really liked you all too much.
(Insert Flashback montage here)
Back when COVID-19 hit, we were looking for something interesting to get into – on a personal level. One thing I had a need for was to dive into my childhood – and buy some action figures.
So off to Toys R Us I went.
.. and naturally ran into a (very) empty wall where the Star Wars figures usually were kept. Ah well, onto other things – I’ll be back in a couple weeks time. Turns out, this was a recurring task. No figures, no love.
So… we started carrying action figures! Times were good – but one thing we really started noticing as a small business:
– We were typically 3-4 months behind the Big Guys (Toys R Us, Walmart, GameStop, etc.). Meh, is what it is… we don’t have billion dollar buying power to BEND companies to our will power (though wouldn’t that be darn cool!!). We’ll have it at some point folks … usually with better pricing, just hang in there!
– Exclusives…. oh the exclusives! Trend in 2022 it seems… if something can be repainted, repackaged (don’t get me started with the new blind box packaging where you can’t actually SEE what you’re buying… yikes!). Majority of what’s new lately all seems to be in this category… while Hasbro casually cancels preorders and backorders for retailers.
– Prices. Good golly, the prices! Anyone who buys Black Series (or Vintage) Star Wars figures will DEFINITELY attest lately that pricing has gone through the roof! Vintage figures (that once retailed for around $20 now range from $30-45??) and Black Series… get ready to for your wallet to sigh once you pass the $50+ level. We’ve moved from kids toys, adult buyers to serious collector modes at this point… and even that is painful folks!
So what's next?
Like all developing relationships, we’re going to take a break for a while and see where life takes us with Hasbro. Will we return to Hasbro? Maybe the odd product here and there as our fancy takes us. Maybe we dive more into NECA and the horror themed lines. Sky’s the limit, so we’ll be taking some collectible changes starting in January 2023.
In the meanwhile, we’re likely to have some (ahem!) SALES happening at the Edmonton Collector Con on November 6th. Any open preorders needing to be shipped we’ll be reaching out to coordinate refunds OR ensure we have a way of getting you your preorder through our network of cool vendor friends!
Hasbro – its been a slice. But sorry… its not me, its you.
