Once upon a time, Modern Joes were running 6.99ish.. Once they hit 9.99 I had to slow down a lot on my buying.. I remember the debate of why such a price increase basically over night. The reason given (I believe at a JoeCon) was the price of oil makes the price of plastic go up...

Well my question, for anyone that wants to speculate, Is not that oil prices have dropped, will we be seeing a price drop on action figures? Or do you think they will keep the price the same and just gain a higher profit margin per figure?

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It's more than just the price of oil. There are increased labor costs in China, transportation costs are rising as well plus a general increase in the level of detail going into the figures themselves that makes production more costly. You also have to figure in the licensing costs for the movie figures. I may be wrong about this but from what I understand the movie designs (i.e. the character looks, movie logos, etc) are owned by Paramount. Hasbro has to pay Paramount a licensing fee to produce those toys just like all other licensed toys. Yes Hasbro owns the G.I. Joe IP but Paramount owns the films. Its a wicked circle of complexity but that's the way it works in Hollywood.

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Which will be mercilessly and tidily be sorted out once Disney buys Hasbro.

As the drop in oil prices seem to be global power play to put Putin in his place, who knows how long they'll continue to be 'artificially' low? The toy companies would be smart to keep to their high oil cost plans and pocket the difference. Assuming sales justify it, of course.

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once people become accustomed to higher prices, if things shift, unless the item is the commodity itself that shifted, they tend to stay high. Oil goes up, plastic goes up.... Oil goes down, direct oil products (like gasoline) come down, but other items do not.

Oil goes up, gas goes up, food goes up. Oil goes down, gas goes down, food stays at same level. Other associated costs have already risen, such as wages, and honestly, do you want a wage decrease just cause oil went down? Nope, so prices have to stay high on other items to keep it market-correct.

Once they found out people would pay this much, they would have decided to keep the prices high, even if the cost of production went down.

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I am not positive about how it all works but I doubt that Paramount has any stake in the movies. They did not produce them they were Produced by Hasbro, I think that means that Hasbro owns the movies. Paramount was simply brought in for distribution. Paramount is a Production company and a Distribution company but I do not think they own anything unless they actually produce it. But I am just a layman on the subject.



I think the drop in oil price WAS a global power play but I think that ended around $2.50 or $3 a gallon. I think we started it (convincing Saudia Arabia to lower their price) to get Putin but that led to a free market race to the bottom. Once one player lowered price to where we asked them too then all other competitors jumped in to get lower to stay relevant in the marketplace and keep from losing sales. From there it snowballed.
The high oil price was largely supported by a stock market bubble this bubble was kept alive by the fear caused by 911. The problem is now the stock market is scared of oil futures. such a rapid freefall makes it appear to be a much riskier gamble then it was thought of 2 months ago. I do not think it will climb back up to $3 a gallon for at least a couple of years maybe more.

Some are predicting that oil will keep plummeting and will wind up at $15 a barrel before the fall stabilizes. I personally do not expect it to drop more below $30 a barrel if it even gets that low but I do not think it will climb back above $60 a barrel very quickly

Paramount was the lead production company. They have the biggest stake in the movies' success or failure, solely the movie. Hasbro's biggest profit is from license of the characters for the movie and the sale of the merchandise related to the movie. When the writers of Rise of Cobra sued for laying the foundation for what became Retaliation, Paramount was listed first, not Hasbro. Hasbro didn't hire Jon Chu to direct. Paramount did.

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I doubt toy prices will drop. Even if it was the oil thing. The price of oil could be back at record highs in a week with the right global scenario, so toy makers will probably be sluggish to respond. Just use that money you save at the pump to pay for the more expensive joes.

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I see. I should have researched deeper. Wikipedia had incomplete information but after looking closer I see what you are talking about.

The writers of ROC should have been sued for raping the story line. I almost didnt want to watch Retaliation because ROC sucked so bad. Retaliation returned the story to its roots.

I cut my left hand thumb twice this weekend. THAT is the price of the craft.

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"I cut my left hand thumb twice this weekend. THAT is the price of the craft."


LIKE!

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that's actually what I thought this thread was going to be about.

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Man you guys are downers. I think your right but not a single person was all "Yeah hasbro like people, they will drop prices right away, just to make people feel fuzzy inside."

Well maybe comic books will drop in price cause ink is cheaper? 3 bucks for 32 pages of half hearted story with little depth.. Well at least my car will be happy I can put more gas in it for the same budget.

And to be honest, It doesn't matter if Paramount gets a cut of the movie toy sales.. Its like getting a slice of sh!t pie..

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Trademarks, unlike copyrights, aren't as long lived. They are quite expensive. Hasbro owns and renews quite a lot of them.

Of course we will see lower prices for figures. It is just that we have to accept that the lower priced figures will be the ones that their maddeningly myopic market research authorities will deem "most wanted" and saturate the market with them even if we practically inundate their email boxes with the ones that we really wanted in abundance. The chains will get them...then they will sit...and sit, then right on cue, they will be red stickered, green dotted, or bargin bin'd.

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