eFX Collectibles to produce Muppet Replicas

[MuppetCaper]

The Muppet brand is not like Star Wars or traditional Disney fare. The Muppet fan and collector is a fickle one. A very fickle one. It will be interesting to see what happens.

This is definaltey not true. If you go over to the Rebel Scum forum and see how fickle about these props you would be going crazy. We are just as fickle than any other fourm as a fan when it comes to EXACTLY what it should be like. If something is off, they will know. They are that good and diehard fans just like Muppet fans are about there collectibles.


....and WOE, you are not a jerk, I think you explained it right.

 

[frogboy4]

This is definaltey not true. If you go over to the Rebel Scum forum and see how fickle about these props you would be going crazy. We are just as fickle than any other fourm as a fan when it comes to EXACTLY what it should be like. If something is off, they will know. They are that good and diehard fans just like Muppet fans are about there collectibles.


....and WOE, you are not a jerk, I think you explained it right.

Even bad Star Wars always sells pretty quickly. They might be fickle, but far less than us Muppet fans. I've personally sold thousands of dollars of high and low end Star Wars collectibles in the shop of different quality. There are some stellar Muppet items out there that just sit on the shelf and collect dust. It's always been different for the Muppet fan and that's been mentioned by Henson over the years and even Disney when licensing the brand to toy companies. I don't always understand why, but yeah...it be true.

I finally brought my posers into the shop. I'm always tweaking with the poses. Hehe. But now that they're up I get real world comments the days I work and man are those a tough sell for every imaginable market at a price point in the $200s. We get all sorts of people who drop insane amounts of money on things. Some Muppet fans too. I don't know why they're a hard sell. I always thought MR dropped the ball, but high end posers are tough to move. People don't remember that even the Palisades Muppets started losing chunks of retail support. It's a fragile market for Muppets. Let's hope that changes soon!

 

[Andibcool]

I completely get that. In fact, that's a lot of what I hear in the shop all day. People like the MR posers but are uninterested in purchasing them even the much lower price they are now than the initial SRP. We get some really wealthy collectors in the store and tourists from all over the world that just pass on them even after seeing them dynamically posed in the shop. I have a feeling that Rizzo is going to suffer from sluggish sales, however the Reporter Kermit could really reboot the line over at EFX once all the Muppet projects start popping up.

So far i got all muppet posers, i payed full retail for Kermit, because he did become rare when i was buying him but much less for Gonzo and Animal.
If i had seen Animal in person before i would never bought him at the asking 400$ price. Since there was a big blowout of em i got em for much less then that.
Gonzo i would have bought at full retail price too but i didnt had to.
I really think there is not a big market for most of the things efx offer lately. The high prices do not help them even better.
But its not my problem, i have a personal limit i want to spend on stuff if its in that limit i will get it else i will pass on it.

 

[muppetguy]

i have a personal limit i want to spend on stuff if its in that limit i will get it else i will pass on it.

THAT'S IT! That is exactly what everyone is trying to say. Every collector, in their own head, has an idea of how much they are willing to spend for any 1 single item. Remember, in the collecting world, some people forget that an item is only worth what the collectors are willing to pay (most of the time). For an example, not sure if any of you know about the She-ra Princess of Power figures, but there is one figure that was only released in foreign countries. She is extremly rare and the gem for the she-ra collector and usually the last piece to get in one's collection. She can go anywhere from loose - $800.00 complete or MOC - $1000.00. Now some people would say, why you are paying $1000.00 for a plastic toy, others see it more than that. I hope I didn't confuse anyone and made my points clear. That's what a collector's world is all about.

 

[Andibcool]

Yes thats what i was trying to explain with the two types of high priced items.

Most replicas go with type 2 they already made to be rare therefore the price is higher because if serveral reasons.

What i dont really understand is the fact why replica companys only make so few pieces after they did all the hard work.
Wouldnt it be smarter to produce a lot more items and make even more money with them ? They could still run limited runs of this item.
The whole problem is mostly the price of the replicas and that most items are only for very few custumers.

I mean look at the Palisades Muppet line. I think they are the best Muppet figures ever made and they are high detailed and close to the original. They also didnt cost a fortune.

 

[Barber]

Honestly, I just hope they don't overindulge on the quantities. The real problem with the Muppets posers is there aren't that many people who want to OWN one, so making so many left too many on shelves, bringing down the value.

If there are only 500 Rizzos, I guarantee they'll sell and people will wish they hadn't hummed and hawed over the $350 when they'd had the chance to own him.

No offense to those who can't afford him. When I was a homeless teen, I wanted a lot of things I couldn't have, so much in fact that now that I can afford certain things (since I don't have kids or any other dependants) I go a little overboard on my toys...

Just my two cents. Y'all can go back to your debate. I just wanted to drop in and say I can't wait for Rizzo, and I have no problem with the price.

 

[frogboy4]

Honestly, I just hope they don't overindulge on the quantities. The real problem with the Muppets posers is there aren't that many people who want to OWN one, so making so many left too many on shelves, bringing down the value.

If there are only 500 Rizzos, I guarantee they'll sell and people will wish they hadn't hummed and hawed over the $350 when they'd had the chance to own him.

No offense to those who can't afford him. When I was a homeless teen, I wanted a lot of things I couldn't have, so much in fact that now that I can afford certain things (since I don't have kids or any other dependants) I go a little overboard on my toys...

Just my two cents. Y'all can go back to your debate. I just wanted to drop in and say I can't wait for Rizzo, and I have no problem with the price.

EFX is reportedly only making enough Rizzos to fill their pre-orders up to 1,000 units so they're not flooding the market like what's happened before. They've apparently done so with other products.

The discussion on pricing here hasn't really about members being broke and wanting Rizzo to be released at a buck'o-five SRP. From Rizzo to Fozzie - it has been my hope that the price range will fall between $299 and 599. Rizzo is quite a bit higher than many of us expected and he's not the particular character we wanted, but some of us are completists. The difference between $399 and $479 is a lot to some of us and that’s the difference I’m talking about. There’s been some confusion about that.

Many of us longtime supporters want a complete collection of these and have seen the prices become significantly higher, especially with Rizzo. I'm not one of those who poached the posers later on at significantly reduced prices. I bought them right at release so I'm willing to pay a little bit extra. I just hope that EFX can find a way to get these to us somewhere near the MR pricing.

To use a cliché - I believe you dance with the one that brought you. Without MR’s alpha consumers there would be no EFX Rizzo. There’s no doubt in my mind that they’d like to get these to us at the best possible price they can. I’m still hoping they shave a little off the asking price or that other retailers will have better deals than the EFX SRP. It happened before. I’m not sure how that fits into their business model of made-to-order.

It’s amazing these are being made in the first place at any price. It just makes me wonder how much Kermit, Piggy and other heavy-hitters will cost. You're right that there are few people who want to *own* a Muppet poser. MR's Kermit sales took much longer than expected. Maybe with the resurgence of the Muppets in actual projects will increase their popularity enough for such really cool items to continue.

 

[Was Once Ernie]

What i dont really understand is the fact why replica companys only make so few pieces after they did all the hard work.
Wouldnt it be smarter to produce a lot more items and make even more money with them ? They could still run limited runs of this item.
The whole problem is mostly the price of the replicas and that most items are only for very few custumers.

I mean look at the Palisades Muppet line. I think they are the best Muppet figures ever made and they are high detailed and close to the original. They also didnt cost a fortune.

The reason they don't produce more and keep a backlog is because in the long run, it costs them more to store the items than it's worth. It's true that if they made more, they could be made cheaper, but then they get stuck storing what doesn't sell.

I agree that the Palisades Muppets were very nice, but I only own two. That's because I don't collect toys any more.

But here's a theory as to why the Posers don't sell better, even among die-hard Muppet fans. They're not puppets. I've heard that from many people. If they had made these as workable puppets, they could have sold thousands. Now, before anyone jumps on me, I know Disney will never license them as puppets (although I think their logic is flawed), but I really believe they could have sold out almost immediately had they been making puppets instead of posers.

 

[Barber]

EFX is reportedly only making enough Rizzos to fill their pre-orders up to 1,000 units .

They didn't start preorder yet, did they? I stay on top of this thread, but I could've missed something.

1,000 is a decent number to make. They'd probably be better off making fewer of them, but that's coming from a collector, not a marketer. I could be so wrong.

ETA: Rizzo is priced at a little under what I expected. The MR posers were inexpensive because of the quality difference, IMO. I love them and am not complaining. I just think Rizzo will be a better quality.

I won't even tell you what I expect Piggy and Fozzie will cost!... But I still intend to buy them should they ever appear.

 

[frogboy4]

They didn't start preorder yet, did they? I stay on top of this thread, but I could've missed something.

1,000 is a decent number to make. They'd probably be better off making fewer of them, but that's coming from a collector, not a marketer. I could be so wrong.

ETA: Rizzo is priced at a little under what I expected. The MR posers were inexpensive because of the quality difference, IMO. I love them and am not complaining. I just think Rizzo will be a better quality.

I won't even tell you what I expect Piggy and Fozzie will cost!... But I still intend to buy them should they ever appear.

I'd expect Piggy to be the most expensive. The wig, the clothes...

There are no pre-orders yet. We're still waiting on that. Rizzo's prototype is definitely higher quality than the MR posers. They were really flying blind with how to get them made. I really would like to see an actual factory sample before ordering. I expect the actual number of Rizzos made will be in the mid-hundreds. I doubt they'll get to 1,000 orders.

But here's a theory as to why the Posers don't sell better, even among die-hard Muppet fans. They're not puppets.

I agree. That's the main comment I've heard. However, I agree with Disney's decision not to make authentic puppets of the characters. That has the potential of weakening the brand they purchased for millions. The Whatnots are a good middle-ground that inspires creativity.