They have really dropped the ball making Indy figures

I was looking through my Indy figures and noticed again how poorly thought out they are as far as what was released and what wasn't that should go with what was. In other words German on motorcycle but no Indy/Henry motorcycle. Truck and jeep but no staff car. Belloq only came with ceremonial robes and orginally no Toht and still no Dietrich to set up opening the Ark. Why did we need a Mutt without a jacket? He doesn't even take the jacket off through out film. Essentially they gave us a piece or two per scene but not enough to recreate much. Why the jungle cutter? Its probably the most unimportant pieces in the scene that got maybe 30 seconds sceen time yet they give us those instead of the vehicles used for the main action of the scene. This also goes back to the Kenner line. We got the truck (that is totally screen inaccurate), Indy and horse but no jeep, staff car and more important, no german soldiers to drive the truck. Whoever was in charge of Indy toys really has dropped the ball. SW characters no matter how small a role get a figure. Look at Pruneface. Why make him? Not a great character in any way. He has no real part in the movie and is a pretty lame figure but was made regardless. Too bad Indy doesn't get that type of treatment.

I agree with you. Whoever handled the merchandising / marketing for Indy did real bad. Either that or the toy makers are cutting costs due to the high price they have to pay Lucasfilm for the license.

Let's face it, Star Wars has more ooomph! when it comes to sales as compared to the Indy license. They know that there are more SW fans than Indy fans hence they can beef up the number of toys they produce fo SW.

Kids are the primary target of toy makers... And SW still has a following because of the Clone Wars series.

I think Indy is more for the real die hard fans and collectors, not kids.

I agree with Ferris. Obviously Hasbro aims it's toys mainly at kids and collectors second. IMO Indy really isn't currently as marketable to younger kids as hasbro's other lines.

I don't think I need to labor the point that Indy 4 wasn't the success it was hoped and SW has a big fan base of serious collectors new and old.

The line "failed" well, it wasn't completed whilst SW continues with various lines, make of that what you will.

Lucas and hasbro keep flogging the SW horse, but that horse is far from dead and keeps running. Easy money.

Indy 4, possibly didn't draw enough fans to sell to for the market mens liking, Hasbro tipped a toe in the water then went back to the tried and trusted.

Spreading their bets on SW where both fans/nerds/collectors and kids lap it up seems like sense.

Sure a few Indy fans are disappointed but commercially weak doesn't make Hasbro money.

In conclusion am not sure what else they could have done to make the Indy line more successful. It will never match SW sales.

Maybe Hasbro could have tried handling Indy in a different way, making it a compainion piece to the SW line.

In other words, Indy toys would be right next to the SW stuff in the stores and have a different kind of focus with only figures and vehicles, as opposed to the ungodly onslaught of SW everywhere.

HJTHX1138 said:

Maybe Hasbro could have tried handling Indy in a different way, making it a compainion piece to the SW line.

In other words, Indy toys would be right next to the SW stuff in the stores and have a different kind of focus with only figures and vehicles, as opposed to the ungodly onslaught of SW everywhere.

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Almost every store I went to had them falling off the pegs right next to SW stuff. And as a kid of the 80's I would have been all over some extra figures so that only explains Hasbro who actually produced more figures.

I don't see how shelf space/design in store which is dictated by the store itself is within Hasbro's control.

The line died as general consumer interest in an old 80's franchise limped along with a new movie.

Indy is child number 2 to Lucas and child number 1 (SW) will always have the attention.

Star Wars practically created massive wholesale movie merchandising, so companies like Hasbro and the market research show it's a safe bet for mass production.

Hasbro don't seem interested in collectibles and leave that to the likes of Sideshow etc.

Hasbro are about mass production toys and making money from this.

I have 2 nephew's who love SW and have their own SW toys and love my collection, but whilst they have heard of Indy, they are simply not as interested. Hasbro learned this was probably the case with most pocket money spenders and ended the line due to their lack of confidence?

Like I said, us few fans might be disappointed but the majority of kids or people buying toys simply didn't care for the line and just us fans are not enough to balance the books for Hasbro obviously.

A more collectible based company might have done a better job with the actual product, but I feel we still would have seen similar if not less sales as they wouldn't have been aimed at kids or have as cheap a price tag.

I think the difference in collectibles and toys (that some may collect) is important as is the company making them. I doubt Sideshow et al have shifted as many units as Hasbro, but that's their nature and market.

I wholeheartedly agree from a fan's pov the line should have had some different characters including a few that were never released, but even if Hasbro had done my dream Indy line, the result would likely have been the same.

To a kid, Indy is just an old adventurer. All he does cool is use his whip.

He doesn't have blasters or lightsabers. He cannot move things with his mind. He doesn't have cool alien / robot sidekicks.

Kids just do not idolize him anymore. Even if my nephew was totally fascinated watching ToD and thought it was cool, he'd still choose his cartoon heroes when it comes to buying toys.

If Indy had a cartoon series, maybe things would be different. But still, Indy was never targeted for a younger audience (well maybe before. we wouldn't be here if we didn't find Indy cool when we were young, right?). If ever Indy did cater to "cartoon-watching-kids", would we even like it? I'll bet we'd feel insulted that the plot of the cartoon is so shallow or something.

Let's face it... Indy's for BIG kids like us. At least we still get new officially licensed merchandise from time to time. Every year there's something new for Indy collectors... problem is they're usually so expensive (Hot Toys, Sideshow, etc).

Well, to be fair, I wouldn't place all the blame on the franchise, and kids' interest in it. I believe Hasbro (and perhaps Lucasfilm) are at least partly at fault. The first two waves of Hasbro's Indy figures were characterized by some odd choices in figure design (Mutt sans jacket, or an even greater head-scratcher, Indy sans hat - I mean, Indy sans hat!), compounded by what I understand to have been annoying case assortments that shorted the army-builders while overflowing with the "odd" figures like the ones above, and topped off by paint issues that made only some copies of the total run of a given figure "good" - probably not only collectors but even at least a few kids were likely turned off by figures with bad paint apps, and may have waited until they could find "good" copies of those figures. Most of those issues got better with each successive wave, but then the whole waves became harder to find - I saw the Last Crusade wave only in one particular Target, I think, and I never saw the Temple of Doom wave anywhere at retail - I still have yet to see a single figure from that wave in person at all, in fact, even at a convention (where I did see the "lost," Raiders 30th anniversary set - that was actually easier for me to find than the supposedly mass-market fourth retail wave).

Could Indy action figures and vehicles have sold well if the companies hadn't dropped the ball? I suspect so - LEGO certainly didn't seem to have too much trouble. They produced sixteen retail sets (one a vendor semi-exclusive, the other fifteen sold everywhere), plus a Brickmaster exclusive and an ultra-limited convention exclusive, as well as accessory items like keychains and magnets, plus a couple videogames. The core sets came out in four waves across two years, and were one of the more successful licensed LEGO themes. Their sets didn't have the quality or availability issues of Hasbro's figures, and sold well all through 2008 (all year, not just beginning in April when most other lines launched; the first LEGO sets actually began leaking out onto store shelves in late '07), and continued selling through 2009 and into the early part of 2010, when the line was finally discontinued or put on hiatus.

Star Wars toys are the exception not the rule - the longevity of that line is in no way a measure of what could have been achieved by Hasbro's Indy offerings.

Take a look at some of the other figure lines from comparable movies/franchises of recent years - Thor, Captain America, Pirates of the Caribbean, The A-Team, Green Lantern - few made it past two waves - NONE made it past four.

Our perception is skewed here - we're all heavily into Indy - but we're a minority when it comes to consumer demand and that's what drives the popularity of a toyline and the investment devoted to it.

Even Hasbro seem to be admitting that the golden age of toy "collecting" is now over. It was a bubble that couldn't be sustained - higher price-point, better articulation, accessory-packed, minor characters - the global economy has put pay to that (check your history books - rising oil prices killed GI Joe in the 70s). It's cheaper, kid orientated, reduced wave, bright and gaudy all the way now...

I was not so much referring to the popularity as I was the inability to make complete scenes. Why make a german motorcycle but not Indy and Henrys. I understand that kids in 2008 don't really care about Indy but even one that does wants both motorcycles from Crusade.

Henry W Jones said:

I was not so much referring to the popularity as I was the inability to make complete scenes. Why make a german motorcycle but not Indy and Henrys. I understand that kids in 2008 don't really care about Indy but even one that does wants both motorcycles from Crusade.

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I accept that the line didn't support movie accurate play patterns - the lack of a hero vehicle from LC was one of the more obvious omissions (especially when they only needed to tool a sidecar for the existing bike), together with key villians from LC and (initially) Raiders. We got the hero in each wave together with at least one sidekick - if not always the heroine. And to be honest, if balancing between kids and collectors, Vogel will always beat out Donovan (although that still doesn't explain why we got Belloq and Monkey Man over Toht and The Mechanic in Wave 2)...

inky_skin said:

I accept that the line didn't support movie accurate play patterns - the lack of a hero vehicle from LC was one of the more obvious omissions (especially when they only needed to tool a sidecar for the existing bike), together with key villians from LC and (initially) Raiders. We got the hero in each wave together with at least one sidekick - if not always the heroine. And to be honest, if balancing between kids and collectors, Vogel will always beat out Donovan (although that still doesn't explain why we got Belloq and Monkey Man over Toht and The Mechanic in Wave 2)...

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I believe Hasbro said that, at least in the case of Toht and possibly mechanic, that he was definitely created first and was going to be released in the initial waves, but was "held back" to help anchor future waves....that never materialized (except for SDCC.)

Given how brief and uneven the toy's run was, it clearly would have been better for them to have put their best foot forward.

Let's face it, no one was clamoring for Monkey Man or Ceremonial Belloq.

Lance Quazar said:

I believe Hasbro said that, at least in the case of Toht and possibly mechanic, that he was definitely created first and was going to be released in the initial waves, but was "held back" to help anchor future waves....that never materialized (except for SDCC.)

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Illuminating the darkness once again

inky_skin said:

Illuminating the darkness once again

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As far as this line was concerned, it was unfortunate that the light at the end of the tunnel was only an oncoming train...

They need to stop making three inch figures and start making six inch figures like everyone else does. It will appeal to more people and allow for better sculpts and more detail because you're working with a bigger canvas.
Remember the Star Wars Unleashed figures? Those things were AMAZING!

Supernatural said:

They need to stop making three inch figures and start making six inch figures like everyone else does. It will appeal to more people and allow for better sculpts and more detail because you're working with a bigger canvas.
Remember the Star Wars Unleashed figures? Those things were AMAZING!

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Why not just keep making both. I for one only have interest in 3 3/4" figures because they remind me of my childhood. I think the six inch figures are very cool but they are normally very expensive, take up tons of shelf space, hard to make vehicles and play sets for (due to size) and lastly my girlfriend thinks they are creepy. She says the 3 3/4" figures don't bother her (besides the fact I buy them) at all. I don't dislike the 6" figures but they just aren't my thing and definitely would not go over well with the woman of the house.

P.S. What do you mean by "start making six inch figures like everyone else does"? Did Star War stop making 3 3/4" figures? No more G.I. Joe? Did I miss something?

What i should have said was like most companies do. Hasbro is still sticking to the small ones as far as Star Wars and G.I. Joe.

Mattel is making both sizes for the DC Universe figures.
You can choose what size heroes you want to collect.
But they usually stick to the larger size for WWE and He-Man figures.

Marvel seems to be sticking to the smaller size for their hero collection.
I think the new Thundercats are small too.

I take it back. It seems to be about 50/50.

I believe it was Les who addressed the Indy figure toy line's decline in a thread previously.
If I remember correctly (to sum it up,) They waaaaaaaay over produced the first couple of waves of Indy figures. When it was time for the Temple of Doom and Last Crusade waves to come out, the retailers didnt want them as they still had shelves full of the over produced first waves leftover. And that pretty much ended the run.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who still regrets the early demise of the Indy line, and wishes it had turned out differently. At least I know I'm not alone. My mind thinks on the missed opps, probably more than it should. I'm still very happy and grateful we got as much as we did. I have more deep thoughts on the subject, but those will have to wait as I'm falling asleep at the keyboard.