Is Jakks Pacific Spreading Itself Too Thin?

[Failinhearts]

So, all these leaks recently from Jakks Pacific has me thinking... is this company making too much Sonic merchandise for us to handle?

I know, that's a weird thing to say. You know what they say, the more the merrier, right? More Sonic on more shelves, what could be better? But... is that REALLY what we're getting?

With what we know now, courtesy of the Sonic News Merch Twitter account, Jakks basically has four basic ranges of Sonic figures:

Mainline 2.5 inch.

Mainline 4 Inch.

The newly leaked Mainline 5 Inch.

And the 1:64 Scale diecast cars.

...Now let's add in the sub-series!

Prime 2.5 Inch.

Prime 5 inch.

Movie 2.5 inch.

Movie 4 inch.

That's a lot. And I mean a lot. And you know, congrats to those with the disposable income, I'm not complaining about the price collecting all these are. That's not the problem. The problem is, well...

Where do you stock all this?

Think about it. If the Prime line still has figures to release by the time Sonic Movie 3 comes out, that means your local teeny-tiny mall Gamestop, or the one shelf your local Target can afford to hold Sonic figures has to accommodate eight completely different sub-series and scales of Sonic figures!

And that's not even counting playsets, Ultimate figures, plushes, etc.

What's troubling is Jakks with just mainline is terrible as is with maintaining stock to keep up with demand. Every shipment of a wave has its share of characters that are ridiculously common, usually Sonic or Knuckles. And then each shipment has like, one or two of a more niche character the fans want. Like Chaos 0, or Mephiles. So when those characters sell out, which they will, there's a chance as well that the store won't order buying new stock. Why?

Cause there's still a ton of unsold Sonic and Knuckles' from their last shipment they need to get rid of first.

So imagine that limited of a chance to get the figures you want, made even more limited cause of the many different waves Jakks has to budget for, accommodate shipments for, and also employ the same tactic of putting that rare character once per box.

Will we even get the chance to get the characters we want when Jakks is going to oversaturate the already small shelves with completely new figure lines?

It doesn't help when Jakks doesn't give release dates either for these figures. They just spontaneously materialize on shelves on random days for different countries, and we're off to fend for ourselves like savages scrounging for food.

"Oh, just get them all online!" I hear you say.

Gamestop only sells the Prime figures individually online in the US, Wal-Mart already marks up the prices thanks to its site serving as a secondhand market, Entertainment Earth requires you to buy the whole assortment, repeat figures and all, hell, Jakks has their own online store and THEY mark up the price!

16 dollars for a 2.5 inch Silver is not at all MSRP, I'll tell you that much.

Here in Canada? It's all assortment based, I can only buy a random figure of a specific wave online... and it's probably just Sonic when it arrives.

Unless you live in the UK, where you have The Entertainer, which sells everything individually with great stock, our hands are tied. And the hunt's only going to get worse.

Online or retail, things are only going to get harder for us collectors to get what we want, without having to give the scalpers our cash. It will eventually get to the point where we have to rely on proxy services to buy stuff FROM the UK.

In the end, I want to be excited for all these toys. With the rough hand Tomy had with the Sonic line, it's great to see Jakks give the brand this much love. The figures are great, and we are seeing characters we never thought would ever get merch receive a spotlight.

But it's also hard to get truly ecstatic when there's a strong chance we won't be able to get what we even want when they release...

Is anyone else worried, or having these issues? Or is this just the angered ramblings of a neglected Canadian?

[MetalSkulkBane]

Interesting question.

Despite my love for Sonic, I don't own any merch of him. No toys, shirts or even posters. I'm not that kind of fan (read: I'm stingy).

I just enjoy knowing those things exist and Sonic is popular. But if I have too much money and decided to buy, I would want a 1 single toy of every character. I don't want 7 types of Eggman, I want all Babylon Rouges and Marine.

[castell-neath]

This is a very good question and you raise some very interrsting points.

Being UK based, I tend to go between Smyths, Entertainer and B&M to get these figures. B&M sell them cheaper and they sometimes get the newer waves sooner than the others. But, yes, its been pretty hard to get what I need at times - Blaze was hard going, and I have still NOT been able to get a Buzz Bomber or chopper.  Not even sure if Jet The Hawk hit uk shleves as I got a super silver but never saw Jet in any of them...including online.

UK supermarkets Asda and Tesco also stock some jakks and there does seem to be a glutton of merch on the shelves between then all... but yeh, its mostly Sonic, or variations of Sonic in the 2inch set - sonic with a chilli dog, sonic with his hand out etc. 

I am thinking between mainline and prime,there is a load of toys available and they could be cancelling each other out slightly in terms of sales. The solution....i'm not so sure tbh

 

 

[Gruffin]

I would say no, but they are approaching that with the 5 inch figures. It will depend on if they are stocked alongside the Prime and later Movie figures (too many 5 inch lines competing for space) and if they are mainline versions of the characters (we already have the 4 inch line filling that niche).

The problem so far has been accessing the merch that exists, not there being too much imo. The more expensive stuff is easier to get since they are available online, but the 2.5 and 4 inch figures as well as the die-cast vehicles are just not listed, which makes them harder to hunt for in the sea of Sonics.

[Vlad the Vampire]

As far as I'm concerned, I'm very disappointed with the 5" PRIME figures : they should have been 4" to go with the rest of the collection!!...
Moreover, the new articulations for the 5" characters are not very beautiful!!...
I was so happy to be able to gather all my JAKKS figures to create the SONIC multiverse at home, but the 5" characters ruined it all...

So, I started to colelct 2.5" figures to try to have every character at the same scale, even if they are less beautiful!!...

I would love JAKKS Pacific to remake the PRIME figures as 4" toys!!...
And I would love JAKKS Pacific start creating 4" and 2.5" figures of all HARDlight's doppëlgangers to strenghen the SONIC multiverse even more (Slugger Sonic, Mummy Knuckles, Spring Cream, Warlock Infinite, Vampire Shadow, Lunar Blaze, Treasure Hunter Knuckles and so many more) and SECRET RINGS and BLACK KNIGHT doppëlgangers too!!...
And why not IDW characters since they're now part of the canon (but 4" and not 5", please)?!...

Edited January 7 by Vlad the Vampire