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 September 10th.
Jakks Pacific products can be ordered on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore, Megalopolis: City Of Collectibles, Hobby Link Japan, and Amazon.com.
Make sure to check out their San Diego Comic-Con reveals from the panel.
1. While the bendy Sonic figures look great, I do have to wonder is there any plans for more standard 4” action figures for World of Nintendo? Thank you.
We are very happy with how the bendy figures turned out and we hope that everyone is enjoying them. We wanted to do something a little different which would be a new addition to people’s collections. Also, as you know, Sonic’s arm width can be difficult to have be articulated and to look right. It is not something that we wanted to rush to market and execute poorly. I can say that if and when we release articulated figures, we will get them right. We do have a few waves of bendy figures in progress with lots of great characters to come in the meantime.
2. The Last Kids on Earth announcement from Comic-Con sounds interesting, and I have to ask about some of the monsters that are coming out. Are these monsters articulated and what scale are these/how tall are they?
We are really excited about this line as well as the next book and the Netflix series which both comes out on September 17. Yes, the figures are articulated, but some of it is limited as there is a defeat mechanism in each of them. So, if you use the included Quint launcher and hit the sweet spot, the monster will collapse. The size is a bit relative and they all have a wide mass. The Winged Wretch is a flying monster with a large wingspan. Dozer and the Winged Wretch are about 6 inches tall. Blarg is gloriously large in mass and stands about 10 inches tall with tremendous girth.
3. Last month, I was so happy to hear that you liked my idea about Bower’s Clown Car from the Super Mario game on Super Ninteno. I was curious, if Jakks could offer this, would repainting Bowser with 8-bit deco rather than a reissue be something worth considering? Could this be made in the 2.5” scale line to be compatible with Bowser’s Castle?
I do like the idea, but it is not in the line plan for the near future. If it was to be done, I would expect that the best representation would be in the 2.5″ scale. Then we would get into what is the best version of Bowser to include which would lead to the figure answer. This is still all theoretical in this specific example.
4. It was revealed at the SDCC panel that a number of figure box sets are coming such as Yoshi Mult-Pack to GameStop and Mario and Peach set to Walgreens, among others. When are these expected to be released?
It is always tough to give exact dates for these types of items, as the retailers don’t have traditional hard set dates and the set date can vary on a store by store basis. That said, they are all for this Fall and are shipping to the retailers as we speak. I would expect them to start arriving to retail shelves in mid-October.
5. If there is an opportunity, do you think that a Koopa figure pack is possible, such as an army builder for Bower’s Castle?
I really like that idea. That could be a good one for a multi pack. Let me see what we can do with that thought starter and which characters we are missing which could fill the set. It may take some time to build up to it.
