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Ask Jakks Pacific Q&A With Craig Drobis – May 2020

 

Craig Drobis is the SVP of Marketing for boys action figures and collectors for Jakks Pacific. Craig will be answering your questions for all Ask Jakks submissions. ToyHypeUSA will be sending him monthly questions and we will have your answers back on or around the beginning of each month. Send us your questions to [email protected]. Send in your questions by May 15th.

Jakks Pacific products can be ordered on Entertainment EarthBigBadToyStoreMegalopolis: City Of Collectibles, Hobby Link Japan, and Amazon.com.

1. This question is about the bendable Sonic line. Will a Neo Metal Sonic ever be made? It’s one of my favorite designs. Also it would be a dream come true if a Whisper and Tangle 2 came out. However I don’t know if the comic characters are off limits for the line. Thanks for answering!

The Sonic line has been a lot of fun to work on and we really appreciate the reception to the bendable figures we launched with.  There are 3 waves in total of the bendable figures which will take us through the Spring.  In the Fall, we will be evolving the line to have fully articulated figures.  There will be an articulated Modern Metal Sonic out by the end of this year.  We have not gotten to the Neo Metal Sonic version yet, as we have focused on Classic and Modern Sonic characters to this point.  Attached are photos of the first articulated figures for Fall 2020 which you will find at Target, Meijer, Amazon, and elsewhere.

 

2. As a collector of Jakks Pacific Nintendo figures, I’ve been collecting a lot of the 4″ figures in hopes that certain figures get released.  I’d love to see in 4″:
-Daisy
-Birdo
-Koopalings (Roy, Morton, Larry, Lemmy, Wendy)
-Toadette
-Frog Mario
-Hammer Bro Mario
-Donkey Kong Jr. (classic version)
-Dixie Kong
-Wart (Super Mario 2)
-Geno (Mario RPG)
-Yoshi variants (Dark Blue, White, Black, Brown, Orange, Purple)
-Rerelease of Green Hammer Bro

I want to also thank you for the recent additions of Yellow Yoshi and Magikoopa.  I’m sure to get those soon!

We are very happy you enjoy the line and these are all great choices we can consider for the future.  We have released at least 6 colors of Yoshi in the 4”, although haven’t gotten to the ones you note.  Some of the colors you note were released in a 2.5” five pack at GameStop in particular the white and black Yoshi.  Orange and purple have also appeared in that scale.

3. This question is about the bendable Sonic line. Will a Neo Metal Sonic ever be made? It’s one of my favorite designs. Also it would be a dream come true if a Whisper and Tangle 2 came out. However I don’t know if the comic characters are off limits for the line. Thanks for answering!

I believe this was question 1.

4. A while back a Splatoon Blue Inkling Squid Figure was announced and was shown a picture with the Glowing Baby Yoshi wave. However when the wave came out he wasn’t there but websites had his picture up, he was also shown in the Splatoon Multi Pack at SDCC and in the packaging for it but instead only the Turquoise Inkling figure was packed in instead of him, we will ever see this figure release similar to the Gravity Suit Samus Figure in the 2019 Metroid 3 Pack?

Last year the Turf War Battle Set was released at GameStop which I believe is the Blue Inkling Boy you are referring to, but yes a Turquoise Squid was included in the package.  I don’t remember if or why a change was made between what was shown and what was produced.  It does sometimes happen and is why we have not been unveiling figures too far in advance of production to avoid any confusion.

5. Blue Baby Yoshi and Glowing Baby Yoshi 2.5 Figures came out. Will we ever see a 2.5 Balloon Baby Yoshi figure? The last figure to complete the Baby Yoshi Set!

Balloon Baby Yoshi is one for us to consider.  We do try to keep the figures in at least a relative scale to how they are in the game.  A proper Balloon Baby Yoshi would be much bigger than a traditional 2.5” figure and may even be too large for our 4” packaging given his girth.  These are additional challenges that some figures present.  We had to get creative with the 2.5” Bowser and only release it in sets because we couldn’t execute him to the level of detail and proportions we expect and have it fit in the package.

6. Will we be seeing the 2.5″ Fire Toad in the US?

Fire Toad was last released in 2018 in wave 15 of the 2.5″ figures.  I’m not sure why it wouldn’t have been shipped globally, but I can look into it.  I recognize in the past that the waves have been less consistently spread across the market and am hopeful that has improved as we have had more consistent retail placement particularly at Walmart and Target.

7.  Rosalina and Daisy… I understand you guys may not think these would sell very well, maybe consider them as Gamestop exclusives or something along the lines? I see these guys come up a lot on r/worldofnintendo, the members on there really want to see these figures made! (including me!) I think they’d sell very well!

We do hear the requests and we are addressing them in time as we can.  I promise you that.  I recognize they aren’t always as fast as some would like.