Another round of Ask Jakks is here, and check out the 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 October 25th, 2022 (send these in right away before we max out of submissions).
Update Oct. 22 – Submissions are now full and have been sent. Check back for your answers.
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Donte Bell asked:
Will there be a floating island diorama set with the master Emerald?
Thank you for the suggestion. We really do listen to the feedback and incorporate it where we can. We don’t have any specific information to share on future products and themes at this time.
Now that Jakks made all the seven chaos Emeralds, will they make the seven Sol Emeralds next?
Another good suggestion we will consider for the future.
Will there be a new 4 inch Amy figure that is the right height and not taller than Sonic in future wave?
We really do try to maintain relative scale of the characters as best we can. It is often not true scale, as there is a balance in executing the figures with the size, detail and value for the price point. I would like to say there is a perfect solution, but we haven’t found it yet. I don’t know if we would go back and re-tool a character who was otherwise so well received, but we can consider it.
Since Jakks made a tornado plane from the 2nd movie, will they make one from the games?
If we go back a couple years to these questions, the Tornado was one of the suggestions that was made. We had long discussions about which to do and what features we could bring to life in the toy. When we read the movie script and saw how the plane was incorporated, we had the “well, we have to do that” moment. There are a lot of exciting things planned for the brand in the future. The Tornado remains on the board of options and we need to find the right execution in order to deliver it. There is currently no date planned.
Throw Away asked:
Hi. I don’t know if you’d be able to answer this but regarding which characters get figures and stuff, how restrictive has SEGA been on who’s allowed and who’s not? I was curious about the creative progress when it comes to the characters selection and approvals regarding it, and I was also curious if there’s been any characters that have been rejected or at least not allowed right now?
As I believe back in the Jazwares days, figures of Mighty and Metal Sonic 3.0 were rejected by SEGA, so I wondered if something like this has happened yet perhaps.
I can give a general answer to that without being specific to Sega. For all of the brands we work on, Sonic, Nintendo, and Apex Legends in particular, we have regular development meetings where we discuss the lines and approvals as a whole, and also the figures and waves specifically. The Jakks design team has lots of thoughts and ideas based on what we hear from fans through discussions like this, postings they read, history of the brand, past character sales performance, etc. and the licensor has their own thoughts which can be driven by future marketing initiatives, past character/product performance, and research they know about character interest and performance. We sit down and discuss how many waves for a season we plan, how many tools we can build, and any themes we can carry across a wave and/or across several products like the diorama packs and playsets. So, at the end of the day, we have our plan of characters to create and we can’t make all of them.
Enzo C asked:
Are there any plans to update the leg/lower body articulation for the 4” Mario and Luigi figures? I ask in reference to Bandai’s SHF Mario and Luigi, which has thigh articulation that has a much fuller range while your Mario’s thighs are obstructed by the torso. I do so enjoy buying the various variants of the brothers, but their legs have always been a concern to me.
Thank you for the note, and we do understand what you are referring to. Jakks believes we make very high quality figures and get as much out of them as possible for the price that we deliver. I also admire Bandai’s line and know Jakks could execute equal to levels of articulation if our retail prices were 3 times or more what they currently are. Believe me, our design team would love to do more and you can see in our Apex Legends figures and the Sonic collector figures that we do execute at that level. We are always looking to improve our product performance so maybe there will be updates in the future. Until then, I hope you enjoy the figures we have and the breadth of characters we deliver at very reasonable prices.
Would the success of the Sonic vehicles (Giant Eggman Battle Set, Eggmobile, Movie 2 Tornado) inspire more vehicles, like another Eggmobile set based on “Sonic 3 and Knuckles”, and even vehicles/rideables for the Mario line? Perhaps in the likes of a Mario Kart, Koopa Clown Car, Goomba’s Shoe and a Yoshi in rideable form, to name a few?
The short answer is that we look at a variety of ways to bring the games to life through toys. The vehicles have been a lot of fun for the team to create. The Eggmobile in particular we are expecting to do very well and has a lot of play value to it. Whether they are game scenes, vehicles, or oversized characters, we look at many options to keep the lines exciting for everyone to play and collect.
Zon asked:
With the 4″ Sonic line now getting two packs (such as the Modern Sonic & Metal Sonic, Modern Amy & Tails, etc), can we expect to see more of those down the line (it would be great if you did two packs of Shadow & Rouge, Vector & Espio, Mighty & Ray, etc. for example), and will these two packs ever feature new or variants exclusive to the packs? Or are they always going to be rereleases?
We do plan to continue with the two pack executions in Nintendo and Sonic in the future for the on line channel. These were really developed as a means to make more characters available through on line channels without having the secondary market prices of figures go up 2 to 3 times. At the moment, the plan is to pair existing characters. As we monitor the feedback and performance, we can evaluate if there should be a change in strategy.
The 2.5″ Mario Line has an upcoming playset featuring a Luigi figure, rather than a common Mario. Which is the first time someone besides the title character is in those playsets I believe. Could we perhaps see something like this happen with the 2.5″ Sonic line perhaps? As there would be loads of great characters that can work with their own playsets (like Knuckles & Angel Island/Master Emerald Shrine, Shadow in Radical Highway, Silver in Crisis City, etc. for example).
Thank you for the suggestion. We are always looking for ways to bring variety to the sets. The title characters often make the most sense, but we will deviate where there are opportunities in both properties.
With Sonic Frontiers releasing this year and new characters & enemies like Surge being revealed, how long do you believe it might be before we might see some Frontiers related figures in the line? I’m thinking it would probably be towards late 2023 at the earliest perhaps?
We are similarly excited about Frontiers and think it is a game that everyone will enjoy for years. We do look for ways to add more figures to the lines. The game development cycle and toy development cycle do not pair very well which makes it challenging to release figures. IF we were to start something at the time a game launched, it would be over a year before it would be available. Of course, that is not to say we have anything Frontiers in development. As usual, we appreciate the suggestions.