Ask Jakks Pacific Q&A With Craig Drobis – March 2017

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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] by March 28th.

1. Sad to know that there are currently no plans to continue the Colossal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If there is enough demand, perhaps it can be a retailer exclusive or online retailer would be interested in doing so?

Believe me, we are trying every angle.  I love the product line and scale as a whole so we are trying, but we are just not there unfortunately.

2. Jakks have been making Power Rangers big figs for a few years. The reason I never considered buying any is knowing that there will not be a complete team. It’s so important to have a complete team of the 5 core power rangers and the often additional 6th rangers. Will Jakks consider to release a complete team for Power Rangers seasons instead of only 2-3 male members of the team?

I understand what you are saying and in a best case scenario, we would have the complete team.  The cost to tool a figure is very expensive, so we need to know there is a broad, mass audience for everything we make.  For some of the TV series Rangers, there is a way for us to share certain body parts in tooling and make it easier to make them all.  However, when it comes to things like the movie product, we want to be a precise as we can, meaning unique tooling for each character.   The detail and intricacy of the costumes makes it difficult for us to share very much and thus we weren’t able to put out all 5 Rangers for the movie timeframe.  Hopefully you will appreciate and enjoy the detail of the Red and Blue Big Figs which are on shelf now.  We feel our sculpts and detail are as good or better than anything else in our price range.

3. Really liking the DC Tribute series so far. It’s a bit more expensive and collectors aimed. Perhaps there is room for more accessories in the Tribute series or for a higher priced deluxe series. For example, Batman can include a batarang and other accessories?

Yes, we have been paying attention to the feedback and are looking for ways to deliver the value for the price point.  We have put a lot more into the product with regard to the decoration and the packaging.  Hopefully fans will see things like the soft goods suit on the Superman recently revealed as delivering that value.  We really wanted to pay homage to the 12″ figures from the 1970’s when a superhero’s suit was fabric instead of painted on.  It will take us some time to deliver as we are already working on the 6th character in the series, but the feedback is absolutely being taken to heart as we want this series to live on successfully.

4. With the news of a new Indiana Jones movie on the horizon would it be possible well see a character or 2 from that new or older movie? Also would it be possible to get old luke?

The focus for Big Figs for the immediate future remains Star Wars, DC, and Power Rangers.  Beyond that, we are not ready to announce anything.  As always, ideas are welcome.

5. Hello, as a collector of the 31 inch Star Wars figures, I’d love to know what’s coming down the pipe, and if there are going to be any more 31″ troopers, like ATAT or TIE pilots, or any massive fig versions of the rogue one 18″ figures like the hover tank pilot or scarif trooper.  Also, does Jakk’s have any distribution challenges they can share with us. I’m trying to find out why i cant seem to get my hands on a 31″ death trooper in St. Louis in retail. I asked by FB messenger but i seem to get canned replies that dont answer the question.

The challenge with Massive is that most stores aren’t equipped to have product this size in the toy aisle.  Thus we need to find temporary space through either an end cap or out of aisle merchandiser like a pallet.  We are always pushing for it, but it is why most stores don’t have the Massive line every day except for Toys R Us.  As far as the Death Trooper, I know where we shipped product, but I don’t know what inventory remains out there.  Kmart, Aldi, Entertainment Earth, and Amazon all had product in the movie window.  It quickly became one of my personal favorites because it is so big and awesome looking.  I would like to see it on more shelves as well.

As a final note, details will be announced, but for those attending Wondercon in Anaheim at the end of the month, there will be a Jakks Pacific panel where we will discuss all things Big Figs, Nintendo, and more.  I think we may even be some reveals and announcements.  We look forward to the direct, real time feedback.