We’re back with another Ask Jakks Q&A with Craig Drobis, and you can check out this months Q&A below. Craig Drobis is the SVP of Marketing for boys action figures and collectors for Jakks Pacific. 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 November 25th, 2021 (send these in right away before we max out of submissions).
Update: November 21st – Submissions for the next round are now closed as we have maxed out early. You can still submit questions, and those will be considered for the next round.
Jakks Pacific products can be ordered on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore, Hobby Link Japan, and Amazon.
San Diego Comic-Con 2021 – November Panel news:
First, I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported the toys and collectibles industry over the last couple years. In some ways, being separated has allowed the fandom for many properties to flourish and people have found new ways to interact and share their passion for their favorite properties, stories, and lifestyles. We at Jakks are partial to those we work on every day, but we are fans of all pop culture. We love bringing our slice of fandom to the world and helping people to think about the positives, the potentials, and the magic that being a part of a community of fans allows. As the curtains open up, Jakks and Disguise will be participating in the Comic Con Special Edition in San Deigo on Thanksgiving weekend with a panel on Friday November 26th at 2:00 in Room 7AB. We hope people can join us and share their stories, give input, and hear about what new is on the horizon for 2022 and beyond. And if you can’t make it this time, I’m sure there will be more opportunities in the future.
Q&A:
1. My question is regarding the accessories for the 4″ figures in the Sonic toyline. As so far almost all of the accessories have been made with the intention to go on the 2.5″ playsets, with the only accessories that are meant to be held by the 4″ figures being the Snowboard from the Wave 2 Sonic and the Piko Piko Hammer with the upcoming Amy figure.
So I just wanted to ask, is there a chance we could maybe get more hand-held accessories that are made to go with the 4″ figure in the future perhaps?
Like maybe a Miles Electric for Tails, to-scale Chaos Emeralds that can fit in the 4″ figures hands, Kunai or Shurikens for Espio (if you get to making him, which I REALLY hope you do), swords like Caliburn, etc.?
You are correct that many of the accessories to date have been scaled to work with the 2.5” world while also being relevant to the 4” character they come with. We do look for opportunities where the accessories are specifically scaled to the 4” figure. You noted a couple which have already been released and you have some great suggestions as well. More to come on that, but I think it is safe to say there will always be a blend as we want the accessory to be an added value for the purchase and to also have a connection to the figure with which is it paired.
2. Hi, this might be the wrong type of question to ask, but I just wanted to ask about the distribution of the Sonic Jakks Toys to countries outside of America. As I live in the United Kingdom, where the distribution of waves has ranged from arriving within a few weeks, to arriving 6+ months after America (Waves 1 and 4 for example).
And now that there’s starting to be more US store exclusives to shops like Target or Walmart. Is there perhaps any way there could be better distribution of waves, so other countries don’t have to wait months after America. And with that, could figures that are seen as Target or Walmart exclusives be exclusive to other shops in different countries (like Smyths or The Entertainer for example)?
There are a variety of factors that play into how the waves flow out, where and when. From a practical production standpoint, we do our global production runs at the same time. The runs can be 2-3 months long and of course there are different transit times to varying countries. No account or country necessarily gets the first or the last part of the production run; it just depends on when the orders are received. Due to those points, when we are talking about waves, there is some natural variance by market to when they arrive to retail shelves. And on top of that, throw in the overall global supply chain challenges and we are really just trying to get as much product out there as we can and there have been hiccups all along the way this past year. The consumer interest and demand has been phenomenal and we are really proud of the line and how well it has been received. The short answer is that we want the wave distribution to be more on the weeks rather than months that you noted and that is the goal. Regarding your question about exclusives, we often make them available to other markets. Some international customers were more conservative in their orders for Sonic in 2020 and early 2021 and the results are encouraging them to buy deeper into the range.
3. Will we see any of the Sonic characters wearing clothes from the official artworks on Sonic Channel website, and maybe the alternate outfits from Sonic Adventure 2?
Thank you as always for the suggestions. We have not gone into the Sonic Channel executions to date and that is something for us to consider. As far as Sonic Adventure 2 outfits, Sonic’s red suit is my favorite. Which others would you recommend?
4. Will there be a 3 pack of Mario,Peach, and Bowser in wedding outfit from Odysseus?
That is a good idea. We did do an Odyssey Wedding Outfit Mario with Cappy two pack in 2019 which was a fun one. We do not have any immediate plans for this combination, but I like the idea.
5. Will there be a figure of Pauline from Super Mario Odyssey?
There are a lot of opportunities in the Odyssey universe to explore and frankly we only scratched the surface. Some of this is intentional, as we try to balance the overall offering of evergreen and game specific characters. Everyone has their favorites and I wish we could do them all.
6. Will there be a Tornado plane that could transform like in Sonic Adventures?
We have been looking at a lot of options for things we can do in our playset slots. This is a really good idea. The transformation might be a little difficult to execute in toy and have it look correct. It is the wing split and movement to the X which has some engineering hurdles to clear, but I like the challenge. We hope everyone likes the Giant Eggman Battle Robot Playset. As you can see, our designers try to get as many of the details into the product to make both a great toy that’s fun to play with while also being true to characters’ representation in the game. To tackle something like the Tornado transformation, we would want it to be on model and playable.