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 January 31st.
Jakks Pacific products can be ordered on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore, Megalopolis: City Of Collectibles, Hobby Link Japan, and Amazon.com.
1. The recent play sets that have been released have been amazing. Bowser Castle (my personal favorite) was so essential to all the Mario fans out there who play the games and play with the toys. My request is that you bring more characters that have still not been released. More specifically all the Koopalings in both the 2.5” and 4” figure line. I believe I speak for so many fans when I say we need boss versions from the games to add to the imagination of living out these adventures with the toys. I would love to see a boss line set of figures that would be bigger of coarse say maybe 6” or 7”. In this collection you could have King Bob-Omb, King Boo, Spike, the new rabbit bosses from Mario Odyssey, and even a new Bowser. Just to name a few.
These ideas may be on your drawing board now for future release or maybe not. I just wanted to suggest a path to make your toy line even more awesome than it already is. Keep doing what your doing. Love you guys.
Regarding the playsets, we are really happy how well they have been received. We really wanted to have a home for the 2.5″ scale line and great places from the games to play and display the figures. Bowser’s Castle turned out great and again the responses to the product are much appreciated. There are more playsets coming and one in particular will be unveiled at New York Toy Fair which I think will keep everyone excited. There will be some other surprises as well.
Yes, there have been many requests for more of the Koopalings and we definitely hear you. There are some on the way which you will see soon. We won’t get them all out at the same time in both scales and I am sure as they enter the line that some fans will suggest that their favorite missing one should be out first. We always strive for a mix of characters in every mix and Mario remains the best seller in the line which is why we have tried to provide as much variety of him as we can. As far as more boss figures in a larger scale, as we did with Bowser, that is not in the immediate plans but is a good idea for us to consider.
2. Do you ever plan to release a Princess Daisy Figure for the Super Mario Line in 2.5” or 4” scale? As she is one of the last main characters for the series and has appeared in the main series games before?
Princess Daisy is another character who is requested and is always under consideration. There are no immediate plans for her to announce and we will try to keep everyone updated as we go through the list of characters which haven’t been introduced to date.
3. Any chances for more Koopalings figures in both scales next year?
Per the above, more is on the way.
4. Following up on my question from last month about the articulation for the 2.5” figures, would changing how Jakks design the figures be a solution for more articulation? The Imaginext figures from Fisher-Price have swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel wrists, a swivel neck in the designs for the 2” figures, and the legs can swivel up. Could looking at something like this be a solution? I’m not suggesting to completely re-design the figures, but areas like that and to see how Fisher-Price does it might be a way to go?
Using more ball joints for the articulation is something we have done with other brands at this scale, in particular for the Incredibles 2 precool line. There are some significant changes to the figure design needed to achieve this and there is a cost impact. Maintaining the quality and near replica look of the characters in the product at the price we have is a primary goal.
5. How have sales been going for the Sonic the Hedgehog bendable figures, and do you think that we could potentially see more waves of this line next year?
Sales for Sonic have been tremendous and we really appreciate the very positive response we have received to the product line as a whole and to the bendable figures in particular. Wave 2 with Super Sonic, Metal Sonic, and Dr. Eggman is on shelf now or very soon if not at your favorite store already. Target, Amazon and Meijer have been strong supports of the line. Yes, there will be more coming in the Spring and we have a bunch of exciting surprises coming for the Fall. Stay tuned as it will be a fun year for Sonic, including the movie of course. Look for Baby Sonic, Talking Sonic plush, and Spin Dash Sonic on Amazon and elsewhere from Jakks.