July 2, 2016

Super7 Doesn't Listen to Stupid Internet Bloggers!

I don't know, guys...

You tell me.  Hit me up with a comment, an email, on Instagram, or wherever.  Am I really the only one in the world that thinks this was straight-up stupid last time?  I mocked it for being anti-consumer and a bloated hype circus, but honestly, I would not be surprised if I was the only one who felt this way.  Of course, I didn't experience the glory and heavenly embrace of Skeletor's Lair last go, but I think I understood the concept of it nevertheless.

Yeah, if you couldn't guess, I'm blabbing at the mouth again about Super7 and their second whack (verb and adjective) at their Masters of the Universe pop-up store coinciding with San Diego Comic Con.  And before I lose you and sound like an insane person, I want to state a couple things that I think will not be controversial at all.  I like Super7's products and I am all about the MOTUSCLE mini-figures.  When it comes to the keshi world, of course it's never necessary, but they get a big warm Keshi Drop hug, and the offerings they have teased this year are no different.  The multi-color trash can series looks very fun and I'm excited to hear about more, because I have gut feeling there are more to come.

The hill I die on is the way customers and fans of their work and products have to get these into their collections.  Not even exclusive to this, just an extra nonsense song and dance between the hand with money and the artist with the toys is just no good in my opinion.  Maybe there's something about SDCC that I don't understand and this is a way to circumvent some sort of issue with selling this product, but a part of me thinks this is just a marketing strategy to artificially inflate the value of these products, because to own these it was more than just the exchange of cash.  This bums me out.

Last time, I jokingly equated Skeletor's Lair to a death trap challenge from the Saw movie series, testing the pain and moral limitations of their customers for their mini-figures.  I don't think I really stand by that same comparison anymore, and really I'm not sure I readily have something to compare it too.  Maybe a shady business strategy from Wall Street or something, but that's it.  Where my brain goes with this is that by doing all this it's creating more imaginary value in MOTUSCLE and I feel that value is unnecessary and harmful to no one but collectors.

Follow me for a second.  It's looking like the new rainbow can series is going to be sold for $20 USD at the pop-up store, and it would hold only that price if it was sitting on a shelf for anyone walking through the doors.  Okay, a quick pause, it would hold that original value of that price if they proved they were a quality product as well.  I don't want to just leave that point there that anything holds their price in value regardless of price.  But back to the original point, they aren't just that price entirely.  You have to go to the convention and get the coin.  The coin is cool, but it only goes to people who can make it to the convention and got to their booth.  Then customers with coins have to leave the convention and travel to the pop-up stores during certain times of certain days.  What you'd pay a third party to do this for you from afar is not something I can accurately guess, but it's a fabricated value that didn't have to be there in the first place.  Imagine you were buying a Keshi Drop t-shirt from the hypothetical web-store I don't have.  The shirt cost is $20 and the shipping to you adds an extra $7.  That's nothing too uncommon, but maybe I had a few limited edition ones that my dog slept on.  Nothing really makes them any better than others.  I especially didn't put any extra effort in them, but the ones with dog fur are $10 more for reasons.  Some customers may want the authentic Keshi drop experience only stinky dog fur can create, but after a wash that $30 shirt is exactly like all the regular priced ones.  That's my point with Skeletor's Lair.  Whatever added value or hype this all creates for the rainbow MOTUSCLEs and all the other products they will sell is great for them, it's a value that's going to dissolve in a wash.  This strategy can only blowout the first wave and bloat out the secondary market until more is manufactured.  Then when things aren't so rare or hard to get and people can buy these online and awesome toy stores, all that added value goes away.  Then a $20 dollar set is just worth $20, and the people who jumped on it early unnecessarily lost out who knows what when Super7 never had to do it to begin with.

Again, I don't know, guys.  Please let me know.  I really want to hear from you, even if you disagree.  But if nothing else, thanks for stopping by and hearing my nonsense!


1 comment:

  1. I think they want the cool-looking token to actually function, but buy doing so, they made a nightmare lol

    ReplyDelete