4″ Hellboy 2 Figs? Interesting…
Okay, this is interesting. And I think it’s a trend we’re going to start seeing a lot of. A couple months ago, Mezco unveiled the first series of Hellboy 2 movie figs. They were six inch scale and superarticulated, as we’ve come to expect from the “standard” action figure these days. Now, Mezco is showing off a secondary, 4″ line that is essentially just a scaled-down version of the bigger figs. TNI has the pics of all the figures in the new, smaller line.
I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. Mezco is a specialty market company, and specialty market action figures, traditionally, are either 1:12 scale or bigger. I can’t think of a lot of lines off the top of my head that come out of the specialty market at 1:18 scale (except Microman and some of the other Japanese stuff). With oil prices being what they are, it’s probably really tough for these smaller specialty companies to keep their prices down, since their production runs are nowhere near as large as the major toy companies and it’s tougher to “spread out” the difference over many figs. So, a transition to a smaller scale seems like the logical way to go.
I bet Mezco is hedging these two scales against each to see which sells better. If Mezco’s experiment works and the smaller figs sell well, we could start to see other companies (like NECA or Diamond Select) offering 1:18 product. I’m a big fan of the 6″ figure, but I realize that the future of the action figure is going to have to be the 4″ scale. We’re not going to all be able to pay the “premium” price for larger figs anymore.
Tags: hellboy, mezco
I just saw these today on CornerStore and thought they were cool until I saw the price. Man is this really the state of things and prices are going up while the size is going down? I dunno… I like the small scale to a degree. The price needs to be relative to the size or I cannot do anything but yell at people for buying them! Plus I thought that these figures had a little less articulation than the Hellboy figs from the first movie.
Like I said I do like the small scale to a degree. I have many microman toys, Revoltech figs. and the WWE Bulid N Brawlers are fun and the Marvel Showdowns were cool and they all go together and that way little toys can face bigger toys like the Showdown figures face off against the BAF Sentinel and its almost actual size(or scale)! (I do play with toys by the way, sorry) Also the Gundam action figures (NOT MODELS) that Bandai was pumping out a few years ago. I would have bought those everyday for the rest of my life. They had a little less articulation than they could have but they were awesome…especially if you love Gundam like I do. They were only 3.5″ or so.
Yeah andrew I agree. I’ll put up with the smaller scale because of many of the reasons you mentioned (especially the old Bandai Gundams!) but I really think the prices should reflect the size. I mean, sure, it’s becoming a little more expensive to make them nowadays, but do that really merit these price tags we’e seeing?
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Hmmm… I’m not really getting the price argument here. The box set of 4″ figs is 18 bucks for all four. That’s less than five dollars per fig. Hasbro is charging 7 bucks a piece for GI Joes now. I think these Hellboy figs are a steal.
I’m pretty sure the 13-15 dollar figures you see listed at CSC are still the 6″ ones that were announced a couple months ago. Maybe that’s where the confusion is.
I remember all the way back to the good ‘ol days - two years ago- when 6″ MLs with awesome display bases, a BAF piece, and a comic book were $6.99. Now we’re lucky to get a half decent 6″ alone in the clamshell for $10-$11. The past year I’ve seen my love affair with 3 3/4″ figures- Star Wars and GIJoe- grow immensely on the basis of value. I didn’t collect either line one year ago. I get all tickled to get 2 figures and a comic book for $10. Woowee. It feels like 1984 all over again. So, yeah, 4 Hellboy figures for under $20 sounds good to me. Although I never collected Mezco Hellboy movie figures- got all the comic figures (Kriegaffe and Abe included)- but not any movie figures…yet.
OH, 20 bucks for all of them that is a horse of a different color! Thank you S.A. Guy I will have to tell my brother.
i too am a big fan of mezco’s comic hellboy line, and would gladly pay any price tage for those figures. its simple to see why; sculpt, finish, right amount of articulation. but the moive line never floated my boat. if these new figures were comic versions, i’d pay whatever price.
but looking at these offerings, they almost look like something hasbro would offer with a higher price. its bad enough halo 3 stuff doesn’t fit in, now this? i don’t get it. revoltech that size, sure, but hellboy figures? doesn’t appeal.