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Post by The Hegemon on Apr 24, 2022 1:04:27 GMT
Ordinarily I don't care for "wish list" posts because they tend to degrade into a chaos of either redundant or wildly implausible product ideas, but I'm going to tempt fate here because we're a small group and none of us seems particularly inclined to frenzied excesses!
Big-name stuff is, of course, largely tied up, so there's no point wishing for MEGA to regain the Minions license or any Marvel stuff.
What about the Universal monsters? Of course, they failed mightily with their attempt to revive The Mummy, but the underlying products have decades of history. I think MEGA could do great things with a Dracula's castle or a Dr. Frankenstein's lab, etc. They dabbled a little with their Plasma Kreaps stuff years ago, but it was a largely a standalone product line with little support at the time or after.
And of course there are always a number of untapped mech licenses. The big names might be out of reach, but we recall their Gundam line a while back in the Asia market, so maybe it's worth another look? Or Battletech? We know that other brick brands sell similar licenses outside of North America, so why not here? It's a niche market, sure, but then again isn't handful of one-off figures kind of niche too?
Heck, what about Warhammer? The vehicles alone could fill MEGA's shelves for years!
Just dreaming...
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Post by inedibleman on Apr 24, 2022 12:43:46 GMT
Oooo Oooo Oooo I vote Battletech/Mechwarrior. We need more awesome huge mechs!
Warhammer vehicles a close second.
I would be in no way offended is MEGA started to release modern or historic military vehicles ala Cobi or Panlos. Who needs a COD license to make a tank set?
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Post by Gramps on Apr 24, 2022 12:50:29 GMT
Well, I'm still an endorser of historical stuff that doesn't require licenses. Military with no COD, Medieval and D&D with no GoT, Sci-Fi without HALO, American Revolution without Assassin's Creed, American Old West, etc, etc. Also, how about all that everyday city/civilian stuff we were teased with a few years back? Not sure about the market, but I would like to see sets like castles and old west forts with more than 4-5 figures. Do it more like the old Marx playsets. I also wonder if they might be able to benefit from a razors/blades approach on stuff, like the 60s GI Joe marketing. Give people something as a base, then produce accessory items to use with that/those items.
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Post by turricanster on Apr 24, 2022 18:58:48 GMT
I want the yootz/world stuff back! Not a joke, those sets are fun and appeal to me in some weird way.
If they still have the Aliens license, I think they should run with that, love to have a Nostromo, powerloader, APC, and figures in the space suits from Alien.
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Post by The Hegemon on Apr 25, 2022 2:41:15 GMT
Well, I'm still an endorser of historical stuff that doesn't require licenses. Military with no COD, Medieval and D&D with no GoT, Sci-Fi without HALO, American Revolution without Assassin's Creed, American Old West, etc, etc. Also, how about all that everyday city/civilian stuff we were teased with a few years back? Yes indeed! I've been dreaming of a "civilian pack" for years, with the same style of super-articulated figures seen in CoD and Halo, rather than the charming but too simple figures that tend to pop up in the "softer" product lines. |
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Post by The Hegemon on Apr 25, 2022 20:40:47 GMT
Something else occurred to me today while I was killing time at a local Dollar Tree: the racks are full of little figurines from a wide range of underlying licenses, such as Barbie, MotU, Disney and the like. This seems an area that MEGA could explore with relatively little risk. I have no idea of the production costs of older figures, but those with simpler basic designs (Barbie, Monster High) have almost certainly repaid their initial investment, so why not reissue them directly to dollar retailers at $2.49 or $2.99? They could even reuse the original packaging or simplify the original boxes in favor of blister packs. What's the down side? If they don't sell, no big loss. If they do, it's increased brand visibility and some kind of cost return.
They could even extend this to some of their very basic sets from decades ago, long out of print but still nice little blok builds using only basic elements. Again, very little down side, and the production costs for their already mass-produced elements would be minimal.
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Post by Russell844 on Apr 26, 2022 5:22:04 GMT
I miss things like their polybag sets for Christmas, etc. There is a huge collector market for the LEGO ones with people trying to complete their collections with every single one. Cheap at $5 each and a variety of themes. MEGA can do the same thing.
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Post by inedibleman on Apr 28, 2022 14:14:58 GMT
I always wondered why we got minifigs of Bender and Fry from Futurama from Mega but they never gave us sets of the Planet Express ship or the office, this was a huge missed opportunity if you ask me. Why get the license to only make figures from the show and not the limitless other sets that could have been made. It seemed at first that Mega was going to use the Terminator license to full effect with sets of all the different Terminator models but then they dropped the ball on that one too. So much potential lost to make just a few minifigs in the end.
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Post by Gramps on Apr 28, 2022 15:46:23 GMT
Something else occurred to me today while I was killing time at a local Dollar Tree: the racks are full of little figurines from a wide range of underlying licenses, such as Barbie, MotU, Disney and the like. This seems an area that MEGA could explore with relatively little risk. I have no idea of the production costs of older figures, but those with simpler basic designs (Barbie, Monster High) have almost certainly repaid their initial investment, so why not reissue them directly to dollar retailers at $2.49 or $2.99? They could even reuse the original packaging or simplify the original boxes in favor of blister packs. What's the down side? If they don't sell, no big loss. If they do, it's increased brand visibility and some kind of cost return. They could even extend this to some of their very basic sets from decades ago, long out of print but still nice little blok builds using only basic elements. Again, very little down side, and the production costs for their already mass-produced elements would be minimal. That could easily work, now that they are Dollar Tree+. They have a Jurassic Park egg with a small dino in it that is selling for $5! Heck, I have started to see Halo blind bags in Dollar General for @ $5. |
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Post by Gramps on Apr 28, 2022 15:58:05 GMT
I always wondered why we got minifigs of Bender and Fry from Futurama from Mega but they never gave us sets of the Planet Express ship or the office, this was a huge missed opportunity if you ask me. Why get the license to only make figures from the show and not the limitless other sets that could have been made. It seemed at first that Mega was going to use the Terminator license to full effect with sets of all the different Terminator models but then they dropped the ball on that one too. So much potential lost to make just a few minifigs in the end. I was also anxiously awaiting more Futurama stuff, not sure what they were thinking.  On the Terminator stuff, I think they were too late to the dance. They had the big Prisoner Transport Truck set, a couple smaller sets and figures. Most ended up with slashed prices fairly quickly, too many years having passed since the original movies. Just don't think the newer flicks had the same draw. I liked the Spider Tank thing though!  |
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Post by The Hegemon on Apr 29, 2022 4:16:29 GMT
That could easily work, now that they are Dollar Tree+. They have a Jurassic Park egg with a small dino in it that is selling for $5! Heck, I have started to see Halo blind bags in Dollar General for @ $5. Spotted these blind bags yesterday. Granted, these are figurines rather than poseable figures, but it shows us a few things:  1. Mattel sees Dollar Tree as a viable market for low-price products 2. Mattel has licensed Barbie to another manufacturer/distributor--why? 3. MEGA really failed to explore the potential range of their Barbie sets--why? and MEGA has incidentally made a preposterously bad choice with their ridiculous "stubby" Barbie line. WTF are they thinking? The 16 figurines shown on that pack cover a range of careers, including doctor, coach, veterinarian, chemist, artist, skater, and more. Why did MEGA focus on vacations, parties, mermaids, princesses and salons for their original run? This could have been a fantastic product for empowered outreach to girls, but instead they leaned into lazy stereotypes with really questionable figure design. While "boy" sets had figures with 12 points of articulation, "girl" sets had figures whose legs were fused to a useless base. Of course, the line had some great accessories, so there's that. I really hate to keep harping on this same theme, but holy moley it seems like they have no real plan for most of their licenses or the overall band. Even Halo is kind of repetitive, with a hundred variations on the Mongoose and half as many Warthogs. I just can't comprehend it. |
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Post by inedibleman on Apr 29, 2022 5:01:43 GMT
I always wondered why we got minifigs of Bender and Fry from Futurama from Mega but they never gave us sets of the Planet Express ship or the office, this was a huge missed opportunity if you ask me. Why get the license to only make figures from the show and not the limitless other sets that could have been made. It seemed at first that Mega was going to use the Terminator license to full effect with sets of all the different Terminator models but then they dropped the ball on that one too. So much potential lost to make just a few minifigs in the end. I was also anxiously awaiting more Futurama stuff, not sure what they were thinking.  On the Terminator stuff, I think they were too late to the dance. They had the big Prisoner Transport Truck set, a couple smaller sets and figures. Most ended up with slashed prices fairly quickly, too many years having passed since the original movies. Just don't think the newer flicks had the same draw. I liked the Spider Tank thing though!  Your probably right about the Terminator timing, but still I would have loved for them to have released the HK's and the other huge Terminators from the movies and the TV show, and yeah the Spider Tank is cool. What a wasted license. As for Futurama yeah another wasted license, Mega could have gone all out an made a large version of the ship and it would have sold like mad so many fans of Futurama would eat that up. Mega should probably look at Anime and license some of the more popular series, I know I would buy a version of Akira's motorcycle or the Gundams or even the vehicles from Ghost in the Shell. Just spit balling. |
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Post by inedibleman on Apr 29, 2022 5:18:55 GMT
That could easily work, now that they are Dollar Tree+. They have a Jurassic Park egg with a small dino in it that is selling for $5! Heck, I have started to see Halo blind bags in Dollar General for @ $5. Spotted these blind bags yesterday. Granted, these are figurines rather than poseable figures, but it shows us a few things: <button disabled="" class="c-attachment-insert--linked o-btn--sm">Attachment Deleted</button> 1. Mattel sees Dollar Tree as a viable market for low-price products 2. Mattel has licensed Barbie to another manufacturer/distributor--why? 3. MEGA really failed to explore the potential range of their Barbie sets--why? and MEGA has incidentally made a preposterously bad choice with their ridiculous "stubby" Barbie line. WTF are they thinking? The 16 figurines shown on that pack cover a range of careers, including doctor, coach, veterinarian, chemist, artist, skater, and more. Why did MEGA focus on vacations, parties, mermaids, princesses and salons for their original run? This could have been a fantastic product for empowered outreach to girls, but instead they leaned into lazy stereotypes with really questionable figure design. While "boy" sets had figures with 12 points of articulation, "girl" sets had figures whose legs were fused to a useless base. Of course, the line had some great accessories, so there's that. I really hate to keep harping on this same theme, but holy moley it seems like they have no real plan for most of their licenses or the overall band. Even Halo is kind of repetitive, with a hundred variations on the Mongoose and half as many Warthogs. I just can't comprehend it. Your point about the repetitiveness of MEGA's use of the Halo line has been a bit of a pin in my side for sometime, I have yet to understand why MEGA keeps releasing the same vehicles over an over with just slight variations in color, design or elements. Seems like a crappy way to milk the Halo license. While I like the Warthog who needs 15 different versions of the same one. |
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Post by lokisveil on Apr 29, 2022 20:02:47 GMT
And yet... there are those that have to have 2 of each halo warthog they make, and why? Because its HALO!. So they are definitely making money off the zealots. Definitely an exploit of the fan base.
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Post by The Hegemon on Apr 29, 2022 20:57:30 GMT
Years back I made a good-natured joke to one of our then-active members who actually worked @ MEGA. I observed (exaggerated) that every Marvel Mega Bloks set included Spider-Man, while Marvel as a whole has a stable of 10,000 characters. And I don't recall Spidey piloting a mech in any of the recent films!
The MEGA guy answered in the same light-hearted spirit, noting that Spidey appears in (almost) every set because Spidey out-sells (almost) every other Marvel character combined. By the same token, vehicle sets tend to sell better to the target kid market better than buildings or scene sets, so they make vehicles for Spidey to drive.
The same is probably true with the approach to the Halo line. Lots of Warthogs (the signature vehicle, I'd say) and lots of Master Chiefs.
Back on the Barbie subject, though: I stopped by Walmart today and happened to peruse the Barbie aisle. I didn't see a single stubby Barbie anywhere, so I still can't figure what MEGA is after with that. It's not like they're evoking a beloved stubby line that's already strong in the market. They're taking a property that's been iconic for decades and doing a 180 on everything that's made the property iconic!
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On the Terminator stuff, I think they were too late to the dance. They had the big Prisoner Transport Truck set, a couple smaller sets and figures. Most ended up with slashed prices fairly quickly, too many years having passed since the original movies. Just don't think the newer flicks had the same draw. I liked the Spider Tank thing though! 
On the Terminator stuff, I think they were too late to the dance. They had the big Prisoner Transport Truck set, a couple smaller sets and figures. Most ended up with slashed prices fairly quickly, too many years having passed since the original movies. Just don't think the newer flicks had the same draw. I liked the Spider Tank thing though! 
