Author Topic: The Playset Thread  (Read 84714 times)

Offline Darth_Anton

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #75 on: September 17, 2007, 09:21 AM »
It just occurred to me that while I'd love to have playsets, and would pay a few dollars more for them, if sideshow's offerings are going to be excessively expensive I might pass with not felling completists guilt since sideshow isn't Hasbro.
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Offline Nicklab

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #76 on: September 17, 2007, 09:10 PM »
The possibility of Sideshow doing a playset line is very interesting.  I think we would definitely get something impressive.  The Sideshow Star Wars offerings have been extremely well thought out so far.  I don't think they're going to offer anything as elaborate as Attakus's Falcon/Death Star or Dagobah environments.  But it would have to be quite a bit better than some of the Hasbro offerings, like the EPISODE I Naboo Hangar or the ROTS Mustafar set.

I think the tipping point for a number of people is going to be price.  If Sideshow can offer something cool for under $80 - $100, then they might have something going in this product range.  But they'll also have to take a serious look at how much of the market can support a product like this.
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Offline CHEWIE

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #77 on: September 25, 2007, 10:45 AM »
It just occurred to me that while I'd love to have playsets, and would pay a few dollars more for them, if sideshow's offerings are going to be excessively expensive I might pass with not felling completists guilt since sideshow isn't Hasbro.

Actually I'm thrilled that a company other than Hasbro might be taking these on.  And when it comes down to it, I've got no loyalty to Hasbro at all - if another company picked up the license for the basic figures, and they were good, then I'd be fine with that too.

Can the market support Sideshow playsets?  My gut feeling is yes.  They produce a lot of high end items that seem to do fine for them, so I see no reason why branching into this niche would be a failure as long as the prices are reasonable - as in the $100.00 range.  But what would really be the safest way to do these, in my opinion, would be to make their sets modular.  I always like to look back at the old micro sets for reference -



I think something kind of like that, but in the 3-3/4" line could really do well.  They'd need to break it up into several sections though; perhaps the structure on the left would be three separate pieces that you can buy one at a time, then the main section on the right could be three sections too - the base, the second level, and the elevator.

In a way though that micro set seems more along the Hasbro style of a playset than what we'd see from Sideshow, which I would gander would be more like a film set.

Here's another idea just for the fun of it -





If Sideshow could make something that looks like that in the $150 range even, I think they'd sell just fine.  Maybe some people would balk at it, but there's people out there really craving something like this.


Offline Jeff

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #78 on: September 25, 2007, 11:12 AM »
Can the market support Sideshow playsets?  My gut feeling is yes

If there are 1250 collectors out there willing to drop $50 on a 12" scale Dejarik Holochess Set, then there are definitely 1250 collectors out there willing to pay $100 for a really nice, really detailed playset.
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Offline Brian

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #79 on: September 25, 2007, 11:41 AM »
I think that's a good point Jeff.  It really depends how these are priced.  I think we all want the detail, but there is a limit for many of us on how much we can/will pay for these.  I know for some that isn't an object, but I know for me - just collecting the "cheap" stuff is tough enough these days.  If we get several $200 or more playsets a year, I just wouldn't be able to keep up.  Hopefully there will be a medium between detail/price, so that everyone can be somewhat happy.

Heck, there's a part of me that looks back pretty fondly on the vintage sets - and those really weren't all that detailed, just fun.  If they would have re-issued the Death Star playset, I know I would have picked it up.  It will be interesting to see how this news turns out - and if the deal is done, what kind of playsets we'll see.

Offline Jesse James

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #80 on: September 25, 2007, 02:45 PM »
The question is, will it be $100...  or $200...  Or $300...

And will it catch people's attention as being worth that kind of money when they see it?  Will it have opening doors?  A functioning elevator?  A detailed multi-piece bar?  A working jacuzzi?  A massage parlor?

It's easy to say "I'd drop $100 on a set Sideshow made!" without having seen it, but if it's $100 for a 10"x10" thing with basically 2 walls, a floor, and very little moving/separate parts otherwise...  I bet the number of people willing to plunk that kinda scratch down is going to begin dwindling quickly.

I cannot imagine SS getting into it and not knowing what they'd be "expected" to deliver, and knowing their customers are primarily 3.75" collectors too now, not people who necessarilly buy busts and 12" figures and whatnot. 

And that's to say they're even going to get the license because this is still on-going I guess, but it's fun speculating anyway.  I think they could do cool ****, but I don't have a good feeling (or a bad one really) that they can deliver really cool at really low pricing.  I think that's yet to be determined really.
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Offline Adam_Pawlus

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #81 on: September 26, 2007, 08:05 PM »
I seriously doubt most fans who say they'll drop a bunch of money on something will-- in Transformers, I remember fans saying they'd pay $250 or $500 for a half-decent Unicron.  A very decent one came out for $50 in, I believe, 2003 and a lot of people decided to hang on to their money.  Fans not putting their money where their mouths are could be the subject of a great book or, failing that, a magazine article.   (I count myself in this number for some things.  Just because I asked for it doesn't mean I'll buy it if I don't like it.   I'm looking at you, G.I. Joe from 2001-2003.)

I have no doubt there's a market for 1,500 or so of it, because it seems that it isn't much of a challenge to sell 1,500 units of anything if it's Star Wars and more or less decent as far as value.

Some people are saying anything is better than nothing, but I don't know about that.   If my options are to let someone do high-end stuff that's extremely limited and permanently turns Hasbro off from considering "toy" playsets, I don't like that option.  I'd rather wait it out and see if Hasbro changes their minds to revisit this kind of product five, even ten years down the road.  I'll still be here, I've been here this long, I'm patient in my old age.

Plus let's not forget it's not this OR the Hasbro line, for most of us it would be this AND the Hasbro line.   Seriously, just Target's Q4 3 3/4-inch exclusives will set you back $110, plus those two Ultimate Battle Packs-- assuming there are two-- makes it $210.  Plus there's Wal-Mart's stuff, the recently released Toys "R" Us stuff, the Kmart tins, EE's Mandalorians, Diamond's Battlefront sets, and that's not even looking at the regular line.

Limited edition items are their own beast, but I really hope that what we end up seeing are things that at least vaguely resemble toys and not $1,400 monuments to a hallway.
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Offline CHEWIE

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #82 on: September 26, 2007, 11:04 PM »
Well, a lot of the exclusive stuff that different retailers get in, to me, are pure junk.  Stuff like the Lava figures, repacks of figures in tin sets, Battlefront sets, Mandalorian sets, etc.  To me, for the most part, they are a complete waste of my money.  Not being a completist or loyal to Hasbro saves me a lot of money (but buying multiples and tons of extras for customs is also my downfall financially in this hobby).

Anyways, the thing about some well done playsets is we haven't ever even gotten any in the modern era.  They'd be something truly special for the collectors that have been craving them for so many years. 

I'll be one to go ahead and say that I'll put my money where my mouth is, as long as these things look nice and aren't priced over a few hundred bucks a piece.  I can afford maybe $500.00 a year extra for playsets - if that means two per year, count me in as a happy camper.  If they are priced higher than that, but are still nice, I'll find a way to get them, whether it be scaling back on Hasbro stuff or selling some customs.  Doesn't matter, I want good environments for my collection rather than putting them on plain old shelves or spending weeks or months making my own dioramas (which is fun, but I don't have that kind of time anymore).

Offline Nicklab

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #83 on: September 26, 2007, 11:36 PM »
I think cost is going to be the breaking point for any potential Sideshow offerings in the playset arena.  I look back to this year's Toy Fair and the pricing that was revealed for the Anakin VS Obi-Wan diorama.  It clocks in at $280.  The $200 + price tag priced me out of getting that piece.  I like it a lot, but when I saw that price I had to say "no thanks".  Where am I going with this?  Well, size wise I think that piece is in the ballpark of what Sideshow *COULD* offer collectors of Hasbro's 3-3/4" line.  So will the price follow suit?  I certainly hope not.

And if you look at the high end collecting market, that $200 price plateau is a considerable milestone.  $50 is acceptable for a lot of people.  $100?  You weed out some people, but there's still a good deal of product out there that's close to $100.  $200?  There's not much above that.  Most of Gentle Giant and Sideshow's offerings fall below that point, as do Master Replicas popular series of Force FX sabers.  There are far fewer $200+ products on the collecting market, most being offered by Sideshow, Attakus and Master Replicas.  And those $200+ items are not quite as widespread.  I REALLY think that Sideshow needs to try to stay below $200 for any kind of playset offerings.
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Offline CHEWIE

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #84 on: September 27, 2007, 01:06 AM »
I agree completely - anything over $200.00 is going to be very hard for most people to digest.  I'm hoping they go modular... please go modular Sideshow... (assuming these even happen).


Offline Darth_Anton

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #85 on: September 27, 2007, 09:10 AM »
Chewie, is that an Owen's custom pictured above?
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Offline CHEWIE

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #86 on: September 27, 2007, 10:43 AM »
Chewie, is that an Owen's custom pictured above?

Yes sir - here's a link to a page with more images of it:

http://www.owenscustoms.com/palmerdeathstar.html

Apparently he's stopping most of his commission work, which I hate to see - but it's very understandable.  I never understood how he's able to sell the playsets he's made for the price he asks - for the amount of time he puts into them, I could see him charging at least double.  But then again, not many collectors are going to be able to afford that.

Offline jedi_master_sal

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #87 on: October 2, 2007, 01:25 PM »
I agree completely - anything over $200.00 is going to be very hard for most people to digest.  I'm hoping they go modular... please go modular Sideshow... (assuming these even happen).



I've been a big proponent of modular playsets for years now.

I've posted this on a few other sites before, so I'll add my thoughts here too.

Going with the Death Star playset as it's probably the easiest to do as modular sets. Here is what I have in mind.
First off, each piece will have a way to connect to ALL other pieces in some manner, so we are not forced to buy one set or another to make everything fit together. Doing this also makes it easy for us to fit into whatever space we have available for modular playsets instead of having to make room for them that we might not have otherwise and would have to pass on buying them at all.
Also, these pieces can stack on top of each other. Which is important as there will be an elevator set. Besides, the ability to stack these also saves us room as we can go high instead of wide which most of us have more room for anyway.
 
There needs to be a few different pricepoints depending on the size of the modular piece.
For this example there are three different pricepoints.
At the $15 pricepoint:
• Short hallway: with floor, wall and curved wall (the "bump" that protrudes on some of the walls in the Death Star) accessory.
• Long Hallway: floor and hallway and some packing crates as accessories
• Curved hallway-floor and inner AND outer walls-either of which can be removed per your needs depending on how you wish to set them up. Comes with a packing crate and mouse droid.
• blast door: is same length as long hallway but with a blast door that is half the length and two short wall pieces, plus a floor of course. By having the short walls, you can place your blast door on the left with the two short walls on the right, vice-versa for the right, OR have a wall on each side with the blast door in the middle. Truly modular, plus the blast door actually opens and closes.

At the $30 pricepoint-small rooms:
• Red control room. Who among us who likes playets doesn't want this set? Working blast door, walls on three sides (as you see it in the movie), corner "closet" area where the droids hid, with working sliding circular door. package crates as seen in the movie (different from the hallway though), workstations and chairs. Good set with plenty of accessories, that are repeated for cost reduction.
• Garbage masher- okay yes we've seen this a few times in various ways, but this one would have a working crank to "mash" the garbage (and figures) together to a point. Walled on four sides, however you can remove one of the end opposite the door, OR one of the mashing walls to view it from a different direction. plenty of soft plastic or foam "garbage" pieces. Cheap stuff mind you, not something terribly accurate, except maybe the pipe that Han holds up.
• Detention Area-includes security stations, wall "cameras" or whatever they were supposed to be, hexagon cell block hallway with four cell blocks-two on each side. ...The hallway can be expanded to be longer by purchasing the "exclusive" hexagon hallway expansion set. Heck, we've got to have at least one exclusive right, besides, it's not really neccessary to complete the set, just adds more to it.
• Elevator area-includes three elevators that go 3-4 levels high. Good for connecting to the detention area...

At the $60 pricepoint-large rooms:
•Falcon Hangar room-great for connecting hallways to, walled on four sides with the wall opposite the hangar opening to be removable. Red control room can be attached on that wall (so long as you have a hallway underneath of that to stack it on, so tht the opening from the red control room can peer out on to the Hangar room-just like in the movie! Cargo crates, throw in a proper scanning crew (2 figs-NEW SA molds-hey, Hasbro has even said they want to remake this fig, so it's the right place to put it into!)
•Emperors throne room-okay this one is not so modular in that it doesn't really connect to any of the others, still the set does include, Throne, security stations, viewscreens, steps, overhead walkways. Basically as you see it in the movie. No need for any moving parts, save the throne which just rotates.


Now these don't all get released at once as that would flood the market and stores and e-tailers both would be stuck with them.
Instead, stagger the different sizes. At first coming out with a $15 set AND a $30 set, then in 3 months a new $15 set, then in another 3 months a $60 set. Repeat the process until all sets are done, keeping the $15 sets a little more readily available as we'd need more hallways to connect sets together more than anything else.

This example is not meant to be all inclusive as there are more ideas for Death Star sets. Rather it's just an example of a working idea with some of the sets presented for examples of pricepoints, size, accessories, and "modularity."

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Offline JACKOFTRADZE

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #88 on: October 2, 2007, 03:27 PM »
If its really cool I would buy it and I always put my money where my mouth is. I agree with the overall price points $50-$150 is the way to go. $200+ needs to be amazing. I would love to display my figures in realistic sets. I do not have the time, tools or desire to make them.
Lets not forget Sideshow usually works with polystone & thats affect the price greatly. These sets would have to be more durable, at least I would think so if I were designing it.  If the enviornments are made mostly of plastic then we can get a lot more bang for our buck. I am sure they will want to add several other materials to make them realistic and kee the sideshow tradition but for $150 it has the potential to be killer.

I like modular but on a larger room/scenes cale. I do not want to buy just a Hallway I would want more of the overall scene. EX: If its a Bespin Freeze Chamber and connects to the prison/dining hall that works better in my opinion.

I would love to see:

- Jabba's Throne room
- Cantina Bar
- Falcon interior/cockpit
- Star Destroyer Bridge
- Death Star 2 Throne Room
- Palpatines office
« Last Edit: October 2, 2007, 03:28 PM by JACKOFTRADZE »
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Offline ruiner

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The Playset Thread
« Reply #89 on: October 2, 2007, 03:39 PM »
You guys are nuts if you think these things will be affordable.

Refresh my memory - how much was that 12" Jabba throne?

Originally.  Not clearance.