danfdan
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Post by danfdan on May 10, 2022 16:44:53 GMT -5
On WO board there is a grab of a podcast from journalist Billi Bhati (not always mega reliable so take this with a pinch of salt) who among other AEW news broke down the contract and sales for their figure line.
- Claims AEW profit share with Jazwres, and that paid Jazwres to produce the figures not the other way round. - That a main figure in each set gets 30,000 made, and 15,000 for less popular wrestlers.
- That it's a massive money loser, and they are banking on the upcoming CM Punk figure to turn fortunes around - they are set to make 75,000 of him the most they've made of one person.
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Warrior82
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Post by Warrior82 on May 10, 2022 17:32:21 GMT -5
I can't imagine that's accurate. I of course have NO idea, but it feels wrong.
For one, I think this line sells pretty well. And it's getting easier to find at retail at places like Wal-Mart, Target, and Gamestop. Then you take into account that those same retailers sell these online, as well as Ringside, AEW themselves, Amazon, EE, and others. They seem to move, sell out, and even have pre orders sell out throughout all those options mentioned. So, I think the line is probably doing pretty decent.
Again, I don't know that.
Another thing. Only 30,000 made of a popular character per wave, and only 15,000 of a less popular star? Those numbers seem way to low.
So, let's use Unmatched Series 1 as a for instance. This guy is saying there were only 30,000 Darby's and 30,000 Kenny Omega's made?
Is it me, or does that just seem impossibly low? These are at retail in at least Wal-Mart, Target, and Gamestop, in 50 states, and those 3 retailers also sell on their website. Then Ringside Collectibles sells them online, as well some other online retailers including Amazon and AEW themselves.
I feel like there would have to be more than 30,000 each of Darby and Omega in this country alone. Then you take into account other countries who get these. I don't know.
It seems like that dude is wrong, but I have NO IDEA.
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Post by WCWThunderRosa on May 10, 2022 17:42:07 GMT -5
I can tell you right now that’s all BS because nobody has done more to make this line a money pit than Jeremy Padawer himself and his chases. It costs a lot of money to make figures on runs that small and they leave a lot of money on the table by doing it.
They also would not be launching the Supreme line if that was true because those figures cost a ton to produce, even more for us to buy, and making an item that expensive is a big risk.
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Post by Deep Figure Value on May 10, 2022 21:47:10 GMT -5
LOL Billy Bhatti
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marklud
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Post by marklud on May 10, 2022 22:31:37 GMT -5
On WO board there is a grab of a podcast from journalist Billi Bhati (not always mega reliable so take this with a pinch of salt) who among other AEW news broke down the contract and sales for their figure line. - Claims AEW profit share with Jazwres, and that paid Jazwres to produce the figures not the other way round. - That a main figure in each set gets 30,000 made, and 15,000 for less popular wrestlers. - That it's a massive money loser, and they are banking on the upcoming CM Punk figure to turn fortunes around - they are set to make 75,000 of him the most they've made of one person. Bill Bhatti is the opposite of a reliable source. All he does is make up crap. He's been banned from being referenced on Reddit, etc., because he's never had anything right in his life. If anything, him saying that the action figure line isn't doing well makes me think it's the complete opposite and that we have absolutely nothing to worry about. That's how wrong that dude always is lol
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mrh
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Post by mrh on May 11, 2022 0:35:01 GMT -5
I gotta say, the below part makes no sense. They are shipped in cases that usually have 1 of each figure. 2 at the most.
So how could they produce double of some figures and not the others? Just through RSC and online -- but that doesn't really make sense either, since they clearly get cases and big figures like Sting are still sold out like the rest sometimes...
Another thing. Only 30,000 made of a popular character per wave, and only 15,000 of a less popular star? Those numbers seem way to low.
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Post by WCWThunderRosa on May 11, 2022 1:46:28 GMT -5
I’ve seen 15,000 of Frankie Kazarian in just one Target
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2022 2:20:25 GMT -5
From a personal view, in terms of people on here/general sales in stores and online, the AEW line seems to be doing fairly well - IMO.
Maybe that was the starting point, as we saw the numbers for overall development increase hugely due to series one being so hard to find [which is still sometimes the case for others].
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Post by Da Handsome 1 on May 11, 2022 16:58:38 GMT -5
I’ve seen 15,000 of Frankie Kazarian in just one Target 🤣🤣🤣
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Post by qdogg on May 12, 2022 2:54:47 GMT -5
He also said in the same podcast that Reigns elite 88 is highest selling Mattel figure ever and said you can't find it anywhere and I happily pointed out RSC had him for 19.99 lol
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wrestlingfan0815
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Post by wrestlingfan0815 on May 12, 2022 4:37:18 GMT -5
This cannot be accurate because there’s no way they only make 30,000 max of a wrestler because the 1 of 5,000 and 1 of 3,000 would be in a lot more cases and easier to find if that were the case
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Post by stc13 on May 12, 2022 7:33:06 GMT -5
Honestly nothing sounds too crazy here, but probably pretty outdated info.
The production numbers sound way low for current volume - that would put chases at one every 2.5 cases or so, assuming chases are produced and distributed at the quantity stated. But that sounds pretty accurate for the early waves that were basically just in Walmart and RSC.
The revenue model and AEW paying a company to take the license isn't as crazy as it sounds. It was literally an unknown brand, and toys are a great marketing opportunity to build visibility for your product. It also adds a level of credibility. Same idea with the video game, where they've invested a ton of money. AEW very quickly had licenses for trading cards, multiple video games, toys, etc at a time when the brand was literally an unknown quantity. That doesn't happen without cutting some sweetheart deals.
As far as profit goes, that part doesn't seem clear to me. Who's losing money? AEW? Jazwares? There's zero context, and losing money early on was pretty much a given. You're taking on insane tooling costs to start a line, and they were paying to get their product in stores at Walmart. But as they build a parts library, the margins are going to increase significantly.
I don't think it's worth dismissing as fake news - nothing sounds too wild. But there's also nothing here that I would consider all that important.
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Post by newgenandy on May 12, 2022 13:05:02 GMT -5
Just to show how off this is:
The uk has smyths and entertainer. They have 200 and 170 stores respectively
Let’s say they each have 10 of each wrestler. That’s 3,700. Considering they have 10+ in stores of many wrestlers snd 15+ of some 10 isn’t an unrealistic number, in fact if anything is very low. I’m also not counting any in warehouse for online delivery which smyths ain’t include in their store stock checker
That means they have 11,300 or 26,500 for the usa and rest of the world? Considering how small a country we are and the fact we probably really take between 5-7k per wrestler because my above estimation is as stated on the low side it shows that number must be much higher
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secondwhiteline
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Post by secondwhiteline on May 12, 2022 14:17:58 GMT -5
He also said in the same podcast that Reigns elite 88 is highest selling Mattel figure ever and said you can't find it anywhere and I happily pointed out RSC had him for 19.99 lol I'd really be curious what the highest selling Mattel WWE figure ever is, but just based on production numbers it's probably something boring like a basic series Cena.
But yeah, this is stupid. Licensors don't usually pay companies to make their figures, that's not how anything works. And a chase of a popular character with only 30,000 units produced would be like a 1 in 6 chance of finding them.
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secondwhiteline
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Post by secondwhiteline on May 12, 2022 14:21:23 GMT -5
Honestly nothing sounds too crazy here, but probably pretty outdated info. The production numbers sound way low for current volume - that would put chases at one every 2.5 cases or so, assuming chases are produced and distributed at the quantity stated. But that sounds pretty accurate for the early waves that were basically just in Walmart and RSC. The revenue model and AEW paying a company to take the license isn't as crazy as it sounds. It was literally an unknown brand, and toys are a great marketing opportunity to build visibility for your product. It also adds a level of credibility. Same idea with the video game, where they've invested a ton of money. AEW very quickly had licenses for trading cards, multiple video games, toys, etc at a time when the brand was literally an unknown quantity. That doesn't happen without cutting some sweetheart deals. As far as profit goes, that part doesn't seem clear to me. Who's losing money? AEW? Jazwares? There's zero context, and losing money early on was pretty much a given. You're taking on insane tooling costs to start a line, and they were paying to get their product in stores at Walmart. But as they build a parts library, the margins are going to increase significantly. I don't think it's worth dismissing as fake news - nothing sounds too wild. But there's also nothing here that I would consider all that important.
Yeah, the profitability of wrestling lines is built on reuse. Tooling is a massive cost sink, but wrestling has even more reuse potential than a superhero line, which is why there's always wrestlers on the pegs even when the product is cold. I could see this being old data, especially if the 15,000/30,000 numbers reflect individual production runs rather than the total -- so if this accounts for something like the first run of the first wave, but not the additional runs they did to meet demand and address paint & plastic issues, that could make sense.
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Post by Odafin Tutuola on May 12, 2022 16:38:50 GMT -5
I listen to his podcast and his appearances on Keepin it 100 with Konnan. Everything he said on his podcast is 100% truth, he talks to people within WWE and sometimes AEW. AEW is paying Jazewares to produce action figures is a red flag cause shouldn't Jazewares pay AEW for the license.
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Post by screech on May 12, 2022 18:02:54 GMT -5
he probably made all of that up
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2022 21:36:28 GMT -5
I listen to his podcast and his appearances on Keepin it 100 with Konnan. Everything he said on his podcast is 100% truth, he talks to people within WWE and sometimes AEW. AEW is paying Jazewares to produce action figures is a red flag cause shouldn't Jazewares pay AEW for the license. I know this might fall under "source: trust me, bro"...but ALL of this, is unequivocally false. 100% made up by Billi Bhatti. Everything, from the units produced, to the falsehood that the line is being paid for by AEW (that's simply not how it works)...to even the sales. I don't need to have inside information to tell you to think about the fact that they JUST introduced a new SKU in the Supreme line...and no toy company in their right mind would do that for a failing toyline. Disregard this entire story for what it is: completely fabricated baloney. Source: trust me, bro. But seriously--trust me. The line is doing great.
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newworldoz
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Post by newworldoz on May 13, 2022 2:40:36 GMT -5
I think the idea that any of the sets after Unrivaled 2 to have those ratios is absurd. I'm skeptical that only 30,000 of the early series were made (with 15,000 Brandis made) but whatever.
In Australia we're not fortunate enough to go into a Target and just buy an AEW figure. Most of us have had to buy them from a specialty store. A friend picked up a case of Unrivaled 4 and 5. They were perfect sets of one of each figure. So either they were lucky 1 in 15,000 cases or all the figures are main wrestlers. Even then, 1 in 30,000 is kind of rare.
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Post by newgenandy on May 13, 2022 3:25:18 GMT -5
I listen to his podcast and his appearances on Keepin it 100 with Konnan. Everything he said on his podcast is 100% truth, he talks to people within WWE and sometimes AEW. AEW is paying Jazewares to produce action figures is a red flag cause shouldn't Jazewares pay AEW for the license. I know this might fall under "source: trust me, bro"...but ALL of this, is unequivocally false. 100% made up by Billi Bhatti. Everything, from the units produced, to the falsehood that the line is being paid for by AEW (that's simply not how it works)...to even the sales. I don't need to have inside information to tell you to think about the fact that they JUST introduced a new SKU in the Supreme line...and no toy company in their right mind would do that for a failing toyline. Disregard this entire story for what it is: completely fabricated baloney. Source: trust me, bro. But seriously--trust me. The line is doing great. The paying for the figures might be true. As has previously been said it’s a great way of advertising. I can speak from personal experience seeing luchasaurus on pegs was what got my son into watching dynamite. Plus there’s no track history yet for AEW, their viewership points to an older audience so figures for them is somewhat of an unknown. They might have signed a sweeter deal to get on the pegs, should they be successful they can then negotiate a better deal moving forward. Jazzwares has huge brands: Pokemon, fortnight, marvel spidey, nerf, roblox, halo etc. They can afford to speculate and take a hit on a line like this with the cash they will get from those other huge lines
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