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Tarrifs. Prices on them jumped from ~$12 each to ~$16. They’ve scrambled to shift their production to other countries and that costs money. It’s the same thing that killed several board game producers and contributed to a lot of CCG shortages.

 LunarSol wrote:
I wouldn't read too far into whether its an issue of management or anything like that. The most likely explanation for something like this going under is just that the well has run dry. The fad has run its course and something else will take its place. It will return in 10-20 years or so with a nostalgia wave.

That and big firms are like oil-tankers. They have huge reserves and momentum when they get going but because of their size whilst they can change direction it often takes a lot of time for them to adjust course.
Some firms just run-a-ground because they can't turn fast enough, esp since turning suddenly basically requires burning through huge reserves of their cash to do so.

Sometimes those at the top are happier to just run the firm until its death and take their pay and leave rather than invest that money into changing course - accepting that it doesn't guarantee success in the new course.

I don’t think we can ignore tariffs having an impact. But this being Dakka? Let’s just not get into those weeds.

My concern is that a quarter of $250m ish in sales lead to a reported $1m loss.

Sure, it also reported a 14% L4L drop in sales, which is pretty disastrous whichever way we butter it.

But when you rake in that much, and still make a loss? Surely that has to be more than just Market Forces at play?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Oh they got it back, sure. But on much less favourable terms!

Apparently, the original deal was Lucasfilm gets a Nickel (that’s 5 cents, I think?) for every dollar, or a minimum of $10k a year. Provided that was met? They retained the rights with no renegotiating.

Sir Alec Guinness got a percentage of the gross for Star Wars. There's an interview where he says he had done that before on interesting, low-budget films, but never made money. He made it there!

As for Hasbro, Lucas owned a crap ton of their stock, and when Decipher's license came up, refused to even discuss renewing it, killing the CCG. WotC was tasked with making a replacement that utterly tanked.

So much for bringing the design "in house" for greater profit! I believe the same move wrecked West End Games, which had the RPG license and had done a huge amount of work building out the universe, expanded universe, etc.

I had the WEG one!

Turns out one of the maybe five books I had in the end was rare. Galladiniums or similar. Basically a gear and guns volume, compiled with fan submissions.

Absolutely no idea what happened to it in the end.

I'm starting to worry that I might be the only person here without a Funko


Am I the only one the cult hasn't got too!

One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One Of Us! One of Us! One of Us!

Just need to find the right one? I was gifted a Blood Angels and thought that'd be that, until at some point I randomly came across this one and just had to have it:



As someone also mentioned earlier, I am also more into Ku-poche, Nendroids and Figuarts when looking for collectibles for franchises I like.

Oh no! H-how terrible! How could this happen, oh no?! My condolences, how horrible! Who will make gakky vinyl desk-decorations now? Help!

 Overread wrote:
I'm starting to worry that I might be the only person here without a Funko


Am I the only one the cult hasn't got too!

Yeah. Just say to yourself... "I'd rather have another Primaris Lieutenant."

It's working for me. That and the knowledge that they don't sell Gundam Mazinger Z toys.

 Overread wrote:
I'm starting to worry that I might be the only person here without a Funko


Am I the only one the cult hasn't got too!

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Overread wrote:
I'm starting to worry that I might be the only person here without a Funko


Am I the only one the cult hasn't got too!

Yeah. Just say to yourself... "I'd rather have another Primaris Lieutenant."

It's working for me. That and the knowledge that they don't sell Gundam Mazinger Z toys.

I'd own a funko before I bought a Space Marine* voluntarily that wasn't part of a promotion/giveaway or such



*in 40/30K scale

 Overread wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Overread wrote:
I'm starting to worry that I might be the only person here without a Funko


Am I the only one the cult hasn't got too!

Yeah. Just say to yourself... "I'd rather have another Primaris Lieutenant."

It's working for me. That and the knowledge that they don't sell Gundam Mazinger Z toys.

I'd own a funko before I bought a Space Marine* voluntarily that wasn't part of a promotion/giveaway or such



*in 40/30K scale

How do you involuntarily buy a Space Marine?

Is this a bondage thing? Are there 'safe words' involved?

There are many ways to involuntary end up with space marines; eg

1) Paint sets with a good discount on the paints and a free marine model

2) Promotional give-aways

3) Duel army bundles/new edition launch sets where one half is Space Marines. Granted you can normally off-load these to other members of the Marine Cult fairly easily (in exchange for their half of the true value of the set - XENOS)

4) Space Marine Press-Gangs - shady groups of cult members pressing you into service as one of their own!

 Overread wrote:
There are many ways to involuntary end up with space marines; eg

3) Duel army bundles/new edition launch sets where one half is Space Marines. Granted you can normally off-load these to other members of the Marine Cult fairly easily (in exchange for their half of the true value of the set - XENOS)

Yeah, Space Marines are very easy to get rid of. When the various boxed sets come out, the Marines go for a premium while the Gretchin/Dark Eldar/etc. end up being forced on people.

I have no Funko and no fear of getting one.

 Overread wrote:
There are many ways to involuntary end up with space marines; eg

1) Paint sets with a good discount on the paints and a free marine model

2) Promotional give-aways

3) Duel army bundles/new edition launch sets where one half is Space Marines. Granted you can normally off-load these to other members of the Marine Cult fairly easily (in exchange for their half of the true value of the set - XENOS)

4) Space Marine Press-Gangs - shady groups of cult members pressing you into service as one of their own!

I was handed a marine with a flame thrower the other day... and now I'm reading Salamander’s novels.

Is this how it starts?

Soon you’ll be torching Eldar children.

 AduroT wrote:
Soon you’ll be torching Eldar children.

Why would you not set foul xenos on fire?

I was trying to figure out my irrational dislike of Funko and I think I figured it: they’re slop!

Obviously not AI (yet) but they’re formulaic, appeal to the most basic “this looks familiar “ impulse, and is cheap and voluminous.

Kinda depends. There are Supernatural ones coming up, and I kinda want Crowley on his throne.

Otherwise I agree, especially when they’re “human from this show”, as they don’t always really look the part.

Honestly I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did as a trend. I doubt they'll disappear altogether, you can still find Beanie Babies, but they rode the crest for more time then I would have expected.

Considering their output it isn't a surprise that many of them are kind of "slop", but there are a few that stand out, much like the Gelatinous Cube.

Collectors plates, beanie babies, funkos, Pogs, etc... a LOT of collectible hobbies don't outright die when they end their profitable hype period.

They just downsize dramatically from what they once were. This can cause firms to drastically resize to smaller; sell off assets or even get sold out to other firms and such. All of which can mean that the mega-profit firm remains around in name, just way smaller and serving a smaller dedicated fanbase.

 Polonius wrote:
I was trying to figure out my irrational dislike of Funko and I think I figured it: they’re slop!

Obviously not AI (yet) but they’re formulaic, appeal to the most basic “this looks familiar “ impulse, and is cheap and voluminous.

I think the key to its success was that it legitimized otherwise obscure fandoms. Toys are the ultimate validation of a creative enterprise, so lots of people were thrilled to see a representation of a character they liked.

But the thrill is gone. Everyone gets a Funko. Collecting them all requires a warehouse.

Fandom itself is dying, having been commodified to the point where it's pure marketing. How many Star Wars movies/shows do my grandkids have to watch to "catch up" on it? My kids had three movies. Then there were three more (which were awful) and three more after that (which were somehow worse). Plus TV streaming, sidebar films, comics, etc. I was once very much a hard-core Star Wars fan, and still have the Stormtrooper armor to prove it. But it is completely dead to me because I've no interest in doing the homework to even make sense of the latest offerings.

The same is true of everything, which has been sequeled and prequeled to death. Since Funko trades on the familiar, those IPs being wrecked also wrecks the collectible market.

Again, when a fandom was somewhat exclusive and niche, having a toy on your desk was like a little code to connect with other nerds. Now it's all tiresomely mainstream.

Well in case anyone is actually interested in Funkos, Wayland Games has a big stack of Sci-fi, superhero and anime themed ones for £5 each in their black friday deals at the moment.

Good, it's low-quality plastic crap that represents the lowest forms of crass consumerism.

trexmeyer wrote:
Good, it's low-quality plastic crap that represents the lowest forms of crass consumerism.

At one point they were the lowest form of crass consumerism, after the previous lowest form of crass consumerism, but now Lababu's are lowest form of crass consumerism.

 Ahtman wrote:

trexmeyer wrote:
Good, it's low-quality plastic crap that represents the lowest forms of crass consumerism.

At one point they were the lowest form of crass consumerism, after the previous lowest form of crass consumerism, but now Lababu's are lowest form of crass consumerism.

Those things creep me out...

I seem to dodge pop culture like Neo dodges bullets.

Lababus have demonic energy.

Labubus are straight up a scam.

 AduroT wrote:
Labubus are straight up a scam.

How so?