Part of Wizkids' blockbuster year is the Captain America set and it's going to be presented in an interesting way. The set will be in two parts. One will be the standard set with five piece boosters, just like any other set. The other will be a set of single piece boosters with figures that won't be available in the other part of the series.
Now, if this works for them, this could be one of the most ingenious marketing ploys ever. It could seriously rake in some extra revenue for the company. On one side you might think this spreads manufacturing a bit thin to make a two part set like this. But consider this; the standard booster with five figures in it is set for 11.99. This doesn't take into consideration the cost of packaging because I don't know how much that is, but (for sake of discussion) let's say you're paying about a 1.25 for each figure in the box. Now, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the single piece boosters will be at least 2.99 but I think more realistically they'll be 3.99 for just one figure. That's with less packaging than a large booster, no way it costs more than the larger booster. It would be a bad business move otherwise.
Is it a marketing experiment? Probably. If it comes out right, I wouldn't be surprised if you see sets like that again. But will you really want to put money into two sets of boosters to get your set of figures? Will you be able to afford it in the current economy? That's another angle that could hurt this idea, bad timing. With the current economy, trying to get people to pay for two sets of figures may not work out so well. At the very least, it may sell very slowly, putting a dampener on it's profits.
I'm not saying that people won't want to buy, I know they will and I'm only speculating on intentions from a marketing point of view. I have no statement of intentions from anyone. Just my thoughts on the matter. As for me, I don't know if I will be able to buy two sets of boosters or if I do, it will take me a lot longer, putting me out of the running compared to people who can buy it all out. That leaves me in the trade bracket and good luck there when I couldn't buy enough to trade with in the first place. But that's another story.
As promised, I now give you the answers to the last blog's picture puzzle. I know it was kind of hard to see, any done in the future will be on less space so easier to contain. I still hope someone enjoyed it, anyway:
-There are 10 custom figures (sorry if I listed that wrong): Doctor Who, The Unknown Soldier, the Beyonder, Super Skrull, Madcap, and Superskrull Sinister Six, Dr Strange and Clea, Yellow Jacket and Wasp, Colossus and Shadowcat, and Thor and Sif. Robin is altered, but not technically all "custom". Just altered.
-The four custom duos are all of dating couples (what they have in common).
-There are 8 tiny red dice
-3 Multiple mans
-the figure without a dial is Juggernaut.
-6 Assassin's league members
-2 Wolverines
-5 spider type characters: Spider Girl, Ghost Widow, Spider Woman, Arachne and Tarantula
-5 Archers: Green Arrow (with Batman), Red Arrow, Bullseye, Hawkeye, and the alternate Green Arrow.
-3 sentinel fists lying around
-Shadowcat is moving through a wall
-Robin is mopping the floor
Did I miss anything?
in regards to the micro set for heroclix. I think it's a perfeft way to release future sets. Take a 60 fig. set and release it in 3 parts bi monthly. I think this will address the economic issues for the consumer and the production group alike. But, I agree that unless the price is right, people won't spend the extra cash. I>E. The microset has exclosive content, or the microset is a set extender that includes chases and/or LE's from the set, or previous sets as a random insertion. For instance, 500 e2 superman chase figures randomly inserted into the microset. Something like that will definatley drive sales for a microset.
ReplyDeleteI think there might be a problem with your description of the set vs. the microset. A simple glance at the flyers for both will shoe that they do share figs. The Bucky Cap and Green Smoke Red Skull are on both. The BIBTB for the full set is a repaint of the Nick Fury from the microset. It won't be an extension to the set but an alternative to it. In tough economic times, that is a brilliant marketing approach and a respectable customer service move. They are realizing that many players can't afford the 12 buck boosters (let alone bricks and cases). Therefore, they are releasing a more fiscally friendly way to get some of the figs from the set if you can't afford to invest in a bigger way. I think they are actually doing players a favor this way, especially if they released some of the rarer figs in the microboosters so that you could try to pull one for cheaper and then buy your commons and uncommons as singles from your local brick and mortar shop. If anything, I think NECA is taking a bath with this strategy in order to make some of their customers happy. They could be saving tons by only releasing it as the standard set, but this approach is actually much more expensive to produce than I think you are giving them credit for, but that's just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAs for putting in SRs from this set (let alone earlier sets) or chases, I think that's a pipe dream, Dianier2.
~Fox
Hi Amy, well, it's been explained that the sculpts are the same but the stats on the dials are different.
ReplyDeleteAnd I may or may not be off in detail on costs, as I noted in the article, I can't say for sure so it's really just my observations from my own sources of working in business and marketing.
Thanks both of your for your comments.