Spotted Online – Newton Gimmick Talks Toy Collecting in 2011

See A Toy for Your Thoughts, a discussion of today’s online toy collecting world, at Infinite Hollywood for thoughts on the difficulty — and expense — of finding some of the various toys available in today’s market. In the post Newton writes:

From pre-orders to minimum subscription plans to collector’s clubs and even good ol’ fashioned importing, the computer is now the main marketplace for action figures. It seems like every other day we hear about some new property that’s either about to get off the ground or needs a certain number of pre-orders to do so. Retail is largely non-existent for the collector and while there are a few lines that do manage to flourish under the big box outlets, if they ever should falter, we know that they’ll like end up as high priced online collectibles. Every time a line like the WWE Legends even loses the slightest support at retail, it’s quickly shifted to an online store where prices and availability will vary greatly.

The focus on online exclusives — with Mattel’s Matty Collector website the highest profile of the bunch — has, in my opinion, more to do with keeping brands alive while earning a small profit than it does a shift away from retail. Despite the noise of hardcore collectors of lines like Masters of the Universe Classics Mattel would be making a lot more money on the series if it was in stores than they are with the online model.

But I’m distracting you from Newton’s post, so jump over to Infinite Hollywood and weigh in on the issue. There are already some excellent comments and my own post here veers dangerously off of the discussion there so ignore me and check out the site.