I couldn’t upload the video on my control panel so i just post a link here:
Here u’ll see my complete series 1 neca 2004 figures including Gozer SlimerZuulVinz Clortho and the Big Guy
This is me just talking about these figures and asking two very important questions about the whole GB line from Neca and Mattel at the end. Caus i live in Belgium its not always that easy to get these figures but i managed to get most of them.
I’m also working on a custom kenner firehouse and ecto.
**Why did Neca stop their GB line after these series 1 figures?
And a similar question for Mattel why they stopped their 6" GB line?**
I’ve already red some explanations about Mattel caus of financial reason they couldn’t afford to make more figures caus the demand was high but people didn’t buy it caus of the high price (20-25USD for one 6" > i believe is reasonable caus over here they ask 40-50 EURO= 50-60USD)(I know > shipping cost) and people waited for the pricetag to drop to about 5-10USD. Also quality of the figures wasnt always consistent although i have a different opionion about that. I do believe the quality was very good.
And then maybe a third smaller question. **Does Mattel still own the rights for GB3 and if so what will they give us in the meanwhile. **
Could Neca claim these rights again? Caus also Diamond Select still releases new stuff so why couldn’t Neca?
Ok thats already 5 questions I would be delighted if you or someone else could answer these.
Neca only did that one series. mattel still holds the license through at least 2014. only sony can decide who gets the license when and if a company can lose it before the agreed time is up. The mattel figures stopped not so much because of the quality or even the figure price, but because of awful shipping, poor customer service, false “sell outs” only to have the figures return at deep discount, and threats made by the company over constructive crticisms of the above practices. in short mattel killed the 6" line when they breached fan trust and confidence in the product, leading many of us to refuse to buy product and deal with their lies and ■■■■. i think that covers all your questions.
Just a little more. neca only did series 1 because they couldnt secure the likeness rights for the actors who played the ghostbusters. many of us have been filling in our mattel figure sets the last couple of months shopping at clearance stores where mattel dumped warehouses full of supposedly “sold out” figures. most have been $10 at these locations. this has made alot of us even less trusting of mattel and confirms that their business dealings are just this side of pond scum.
Neca also was hoping that robust enough sales of series 1 would give them some investment indicator in securing likeness rights for series II.. and they just didn’t see enough demand to justify the high cost (at that point) of likeness rights.
I recall a lengthy apology letter from them to fans back in the day,
Licenses are very diverse and sometimes overlap as well… someone else could make 6" figures if sold at a model “kit” even if you just had to pop the limbs and heads in. Banks, models, figures everything is considered a different license available for anyone to buy into.
The problem is the high cost of the licenses, and the percent risk of not making that money back in a bad ecnomy, when toy sales are in a decline because of changing kid’s play habits.
good call on the “kit” variance in the license Gareee. I think that’s how hot toys gets around the 1/6 scale action figure license with properties already licensed out for action figures. Too bad they won’t give Ghostbusters a shot, would seal the deal for Mattel.
Never say never… Hot Toys operates under diferent licensing agreements, since they are Japanese based. They’ve bought license no one ever expected them to ever pick up, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they pick up GB at some point.
They already know they can rerelease gb1, courtroom, and GB2 variants in advance of the 4 main characters, and at least 3 of Dana. Add more diversity like a 1:6 slimer with their piers eye feature, and more fun things like Vigo or the Scolari Brothers, and they could easily keep the license alive with fresh new releases for years.
My quibble with them though is proce, and like matty, double triple and quadruple dipping rereleasing improved versions of prereleased very expensive figures.
Even Square Enix with the Play Arts Kai Line could do an amazing job, one only needs to look at their Man of Steel or DKR line versus the Mattel Movie Masters versions to tell how much they care about figure design, although again, its going to be a highly priced piece
We can only hope for the best…while I am happy with how Mattel’s gear and how the Egon and Winston likenesses turned out, I was disappointed with the flight suits detail and Peter and Ray likenesses. At this point I feel Hot Toys is probably our best bet for a quality sculpt of Bill and Dan as Mattel went the slightly cartoony route with them. Hot Toys has a rep for only doing 2-3 characters in a license, which would leave a lot of unexplored potential by picking up the GB license but the greatest chance of those getting done to be Pete and Ray.
I’d love to see Ray and Pete get a proper release. Hot Toys cost doesn’t bother me if the quality is there. Hot toys brings that quality, and I wouldn’t mind paying for it in these two. They’ve also done 1/6 scale cars and the potential for a 1/6 scale Ecto and containment grid would get me at the table.
They have said that the lack of sales by Mattel and license cost has kept them away from GB but who knows, hope springs eternal.
First of all thanks for all your great comments, this has definitely answered most of my questions.
Let me start by replying to the Mattel 6"line. I didn’t know it was this bad. Apparently there went more wrong then i expected. Fans and especially “first buyers” (dont know the exact word, people buying when released at MSRP) soon lost trust and confidence in Mattel caus of these false sell outs. This i could understand caus this is not how you treat your buyers.
Secondly these licenses i didn’t know were so expensive and you had to have a new license for every figure variation; model, statue, bank, kit … this explains why e.g. only Tsukuda made a model kit terror dog. 1/6 i believe unpainted.
So like you guys have already said this could give a lot of manufacturers the opportunity to give us new, more detailed stuff. With Hot Toys this could get quite expensive and some of you may say you’re willing to pay extra but i think this would be less accessible for most of the fans worldwide. Could McFarlane or Sideshow do it?
Also i see Hot toys could only make 2 or 3 figures (is that correct caus i see a lot of predators or isnt that just one license)(one license for one movie, three licenses for a trilogy?) then fans would be dissapointed of not having at least all 4GB. Or maybe they’ll do Vigo and Gozer then. THAT would be appreciated.
A slightly different story for Neca its seems, the demand wasn’t high enough like you say in 2004. Now everybody wants these figures. Incredible but apparently the timing was wrong and so they couldn’t pay for the actor rights. But if i’m right then the rights for Gozer and Teror dogs were a lot cheaper? Why could Mattel/Neca not remake/rerelease these? Or someone else? Like we have seen with Gremlins Stripe, Gizmo and Poker Player that was rereleased by Neca in 08.
But now the gap was too big and Mattel jumped onto it in 09 and i still believe they gave us great figures but i didn’t went trough all the mess they made. Thanks for clearing that up for me, i now understand more that this is a tough (collector)business where all of these manufacturers want to have a piece of the cake. Only the fans and “first buyers” shouldnt be the victim.
Still i believe we’ll get some very cool and refreshing new figures, models, .. Hopefully before 2020??
Hot toys could make as many or as few as they want. Ive just noticed that they only focus on 2-3 characters in a license. like you state the predator line is huge as is iron man but they dont have to pay for an actors face to do them. its possible other companies mentioned could step up too but we might need a new movie for that type of revival. mattel got into gb because they thought a movie was coming then it didnt. yes i would pay for a hot toys ray and peter but im happy with mattels egon and winston and would pass on those two if it happened and they made all four. we will see, the important thing will be that new license holders treat customers/collectors/fans better than Mattel has.
The main issue with the Ghostbusters license is that the likeness costs are ridiculous compared to the demand for toys from a 30 year old movie. Mattel did hurt themselves by mishandling their lines too.
Don’t expect Mattel to lose the license anytime soon, though. They don’t generally give up their licenses. They’ll crank out dorky Hot Wheels for the next 30 years and keep that license on hand.
Neca would probably like to have it again, as 2013 Neca is a huge money making company compared to 2004..But again, Mattel won’t budge. If Neca got ahold of them, you’d still end up with a stock body with a head variation. That’s generally how they approach old licenses(Jason Vorhees, Evil Dead figures, Freddy, etc). They’d still be great, though.
That is negotiated with the actor’s agents. Bill Murray is incredibly hard to deal with, having no agent. He basically ignored NECA’s requests.
With Mattel, he trolled them for months and almost refused to release the rights(sound familiar?). Part of his demands were a slimed variant, a remold with gloves on, and also having his pants molded OVER the boots. Mattel fulfilled all requests and Murray finally signed off on it. I think it had a lot to do with the video game at the time, which Murray was pretty high on at one point before sulking back into his anti-Ghostbusters mindset.
The original prototype for Peter was odd. It used the same body as Ray and the others, but with a smiling head.
I used to know some guys ‘inside’ Mattel. There was a point that Matty was preparing damage control over the fear that they weren’t going to release Peter at all.
Thanks for the clarification on the likeness rights TexasBuster. I thought it was something like that. Doesn’t surprise me on Murray, I’ve heard he is very flippant to what he agrees to do. No doubt the majority of the license and likeness fees go to Murray and Sony; I can’t see Aykroyd, Ramis, or Hudson holding out for a huge payday.
RE: Mattel, I guess that explains why we got Peck and RTBY Ray before Venkman. Did your “insiders” have anymore info on the inner workings of the GB line? Ya got me curious.
I would be delighted if you or someone else could answer these.