The loyal subjects vinyl figures. I got one! Anyone else seen them?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Don't think we ever got any in Canada, and if we did, I'll just laugh hysterically at the prices that would have been charged. 

[northstar3184]

I blame distribution and price as well. As far as distribution, these were not at my local Hot Topic. Yet, they had the MOTU and GI Joe lines. The state of NY doesn't have any Books-A-Million or Second & Charles stores. I tried calling the 3 closest BAM stores in PA (back in November) and none of the reps had heard of these figures or had any in stock. The nearest Second & Charles store in PA (3 hours from me) had them but had a store policy of not shipping items. These were never made available on BAM's website either, and when I emailed BAM in November I was advised there were no plans to make them available on the site. So I bought my figures on Ebay, as I could not find any retailers that had them or that would ship them.

In terms of price, I agree $15.00 for a blind box is excessive. As others have said, it'd have been better to sell them in such a way that buyers knew what they were getting and make all figures available in equal quantities.

Then, you have lack of advertising. If you look at Loyal Subjects' Facebook MOTU, TMNT, G.I. Joe, Street Fighters, etc... are each posted about multiple times. Yet, I couldn't find a single Facebook post showing the MLP figures. If you look at their Instagram page, the MLP figures are only featured a couple times, while most of their other lines are each featured many times.

It's like they sort of neglected this line in favor of their other lines.

[Baby Sugarberry]

I imagine the MSRP was a definite factor in many retailers going 'uh maybe pass on this one' - MLP is still a kid's brand (to most retailers, that is the target market), and kids don't stand a good chance of convincing their Parental Unit™ to pick up such an expensive chance item.  Insult on injury is that 15$ double (and with the small selection, you stand a good chance of getting doubles even with only a few boxes) is almost certainly one of the 'commons' so you can't even trade it with anyone. 

[prancingstag]

Agreed that the mismatched business model probably tanked it. The retailers and customers probably both had the same thought - $15+ for a blind item? No thanks, retailers not stocking and customers not buying. Most blind bag items are small, cheap and simply made. TLS figures in comparison are large, sturdy, highly detailed, articulated, collector quality figures. I think they definitely command the price point that they are listed at - but not when you don't know what you're getting. To put another company as example, Funko. Their POP and other figure lines that appeal to collectors/adults are large, detailed, and put in visible packaging, even the chases. The blind packaged items that they do are much smaller, simpler figures or something like buttons/keychains/etc, a cheaply made item that can be sold at only a couple of dollars to the consumer.

Blind items should be marketed to kids as they are typically $2 pocket money items and have a "collect em all!" style marketing that the price range allows to be feasible, and kids are way more likely to collect with school friends and physically trade their doubles away. If TLS were just in visible packaging, I think they would have done a helluva lot better. They were appealing to the right market (collectors) but using the wrong packaging and advertising strategy.

In regards to doubles, the case assortments definitely need work on top of that. A pop culture collector channel that I enjoy watching (maxmoefoepokemon, warning that he's not exactly family friendly) recently opened an entire case of TLS Dragon Ball Z figures, and there was much angry screaming. He got both the 1/48 and the 1/96 chases from the same case, but was missing one of the "commons", and got 4 of one character, and 2 each of five others. And there was an additional build-a-figure of Shenron, but the pieces of him were seemingly ALSO randomly assorted, so he only ended up with half a dragon and a bunch of doubles of the minor accessories too! It's so frustrating that TLS as a company would produce such worthwhile products but allow themselves to be kneecapped by their own packaging decisions.

[ponycake]

I'm happy they existed at least. Shame, I'd like to get less remade characters from SOME line, whether it have been in that form or the Bridge Direct ponies. Can we please have more than the collectors ponies and rainbow ponies? I hope the BD ones don't go the way of these ones where they scrap their other ideas due to low sales.

[Wardah]

Agreed that the mismatched business model probably tanked it. The retailers and customers probably both had the same thought - $15+ for a blind item? No thanks, retailers not stocking and customers not buying. Most blind bag items are small, cheap and simply made. TLS figures in comparison are large, sturdy, highly detailed, articulated, collector quality figures. I think they definitely command the price point that they are listed at - but not when you don't know what you're getting. To put another company as example, Funko. Their POP and other figure lines that appeal to collectors/adults are large, detailed, and put in visible packaging, even the chases. The blind packaged items that they do are much smaller, simpler figures or something like buttons/keychains/etc, a cheaply made item that can be sold at only a couple of dollars to the consumer.

Blind items should be marketed to kids as they are typically $2 pocket money items and have a "collect em all!" style marketing that the price range allows to be feasible, and kids are way more likely to collect with school friends and physically trade their doubles away. If TLS were just in visible packaging, I think they would have done a helluva lot better. They were appealing to the right market (collectors) but using the wrong packaging and advertising strategy.

In regards to doubles, the case assortments definitely need work on top of that. A pop culture collector channel that I enjoy watching (maxmoefoepokemon, warning that he's not exactly family friendly) recently opened an entire case of TLS Dragon Ball Z figures, and there was much angry screaming. He got both the 1/48 and the 1/96 chases from the same case, but was missing one of the "commons", and got 4 of one character, and 2 each of five others. And there was an additional build-a-figure of Shenron, but the pieces of him were seemingly ALSO randomly assorted, so he only ended up with half a dragon and a bunch of doubles of the minor accessories too! It's so frustrating that TLS as a company would produce such worthwhile products but allow themselves to be kneecapped by their own packaging decisions.

LOL Surprise Confetti Pop are $14 each, entirely blind packed, and yet super popular. That said they first built up a loyal fan base with cheaper, simpler products before making the ones with more bells and whistles. Funko could release something similar and because they have that brand loyalty they probably would do OK. But TLS haven't built their brand up yet.

Tho I wonder if visible packaging would drive up costs a little since it's more complicated than a box of identical boxes with bags inside. The packaging would need to look good as there will be some collectors who will keep them NRFB as they aren't forced to open them to know what they got. Each character would have to have an individual package design with that character's name on there. There would need to be something to hold the character in place so they don't rattle around the box. They would need hang tags in case retailers want to put them on a peg. All that probably ads up.

[Baby Sugarberry]

The promotional figures for this line were already in 'display' packaging, so they already had the manufacturing, box and insert production lines to draw on.  Slapping a sticker with the character's name is pretty trivial on top of that - packaging costs would have been a minimal increase in the per unit expense.

[toyjunky]

I have bought 4 of them so far, but I have managed to get them at a slight discount when Hot Topic was doing their various sale events. I got Minty, Applejack and 2 Glories. Downside of blind box is the risk of duplicates, which I ended up getting both Glory in the first 2 boxes I purchased.

[Leave a Whisper]

I'm happy they existed at least. Shame, I'd like to get less remade characters from SOME line, whether it have been in that form or the Bridge Direct ponies. Can we please have more than the collectors ponies and rainbow ponies? I hope the BD ones don't go the way of these ones where they scrap their other ideas due to low sales.

Same here. Although Bridge Direct seems to have a better grasp and distribution for its retro properties.

[Kiwichi]

I really hate the fact that TLS company marketed the rarity of their chasers being worth "hundreds to thousands" (as stated at their website).   So very exclusive and "rare" that now they complain of losing money.  Poor distribution and poor marketing strategy that obviously didn't entice enough buyers.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I really hate the fact that TLS company marketed the rarity of their chasers being worth "hundreds to thousands" (as stated at their website).   So very exclusive and "rare" that now they complain of losing money.  Poor distribution and poor marketing strategy that obviously didn't entice enough buyers.

There is no worth unless there is a market for them. I seriously doubt there were many pony collectors who are that involved with this set that they would shell out that much money for one (1) plastic posable horse.

LOL Surprise Confetti Pop are $14 each, entirely blind packed, and yet super popular. That said they first built up a loyal fan base with cheaper, simpler products before making the ones with more bells and whistles. Funko could release something similar and because they have that brand loyalty they probably would do OK. But TLS haven't built their brand up yet.

This, this, this. The standard LOL surprises are around $10, and while that's a bit much, they do have the added novelty of the 8-10 layers of surprises (and trash to throw away!). The gig for this set was that they're posable but feel like they're going to fall apart? Wasn't enough to justify the price at all. At least maybe now I'll be able to nab them for clearance prices if they just rot at my HT.

[Kiwichi]

I have to agree.  Some of the flyer ponies out of the box had one wing detached and others ponies had one leg detached   Lol.  Nonetheless it was shocking looking at the figure like it's already broken..... ???  Of course all you had to do was pop the ball joint of the leg/wing back into thehole   But cmon could've done better.

[Leave a Whisper]

Agreed that the mismatched business model probably tanked it. The retailers and customers probably both had the same thought - $15+ for a blind item? No thanks, retailers not stocking and customers not buying. Most blind bag items are small, cheap and simply made. TLS figures in comparison are large, sturdy, highly detailed, articulated, collector quality figures. I think they definitely command the price point that they are listed at - but not when you don't know what you're getting. To put another company as example, Funko. Their POP and other figure lines that appeal to collectors/adults are large, detailed, and put in visible packaging, even the chases. The blind packaged items that they do are much smaller, simpler figures or something like buttons/keychains/etc, a cheaply made item that can be sold at only a couple of dollars to the consumer.

Blind items should be marketed to kids as they are typically $2 pocket money items and have a "collect em all!" style marketing that the price range allows to be feasible, and kids are way more likely to collect with school friends and physically trade their doubles away. If TLS were just in visible packaging, I think they would have done a helluva lot better. They were appealing to the right market (collectors) but using the wrong packaging and advertising strategy.

In regards to doubles, the case assortments definitely need work on top of that. A pop culture collector channel that I enjoy watching (maxmoefoepokemon, warning that he's not exactly family friendly) recently opened an entire case of TLS Dragon Ball Z figures, and there was much angry screaming. He got both the 1/48 and the 1/96 chases from the same case, but was missing one of the "commons", and got 4 of one character, and 2 each of five others. And there was an additional build-a-figure of Shenron, but the pieces of him were seemingly ALSO randomly assorted, so he only ended up with half a dragon and a bunch of doubles of the minor accessories too! It's so frustrating that TLS as a company would produce such worthwhile products but allow themselves to be kneecapped by their own packaging decisions.

I thought you were sposed to throw a fit by getting commons and not rares?    Well unless you don't like the rares I guess.

[Ponyfan]

Out of all the boxes I bought I never got a Glory or Princess Sparkle even though they were common. I bought a friend two boxes and both boxes were Firefly.


Ponyfan

[Khoufu]

I got 3, 2 Minty and 1 Applejack. Hoping to trade the Minty double for Firefly or maybe another common (not Snuzzle or Princess Sparkle).