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 July 10th, 2023 (send these in right away before we max out of submissions).
Update: June 29, 2023 at 2:24pm EST. Submissions are now closed! Check back for the answers!
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Q&A:
Donte asked:
Will there be a Luigi and Wario figures without their hat on like the Mario Odysseus figure?
At this point there are no plans to do that. It is a good thought, as we do look for new variants wherever we can. We aren’t doing as many Odyssey specific figures as we did when the game first came out, although we know it remains a top selling game.
Will there be different colors variants of Birdo like yoshi and the koopas?
As I have mentioned, we are always looking for different variants to have additional versions of popular characters. There isn’t anything planned for Birdo at this time. What would be your next suggested colors?
Now that World of Nintendo is back, will we see new figures of characters from the Star Fox and Donkey Kong series?
It is correct that we have released (and in some cases re-released) figures which were previously branded with the World of Nintendo logos. When we made the change several years ago, it was to highlight better the specific brand on the packaging which was largely Super Mario. So, going forward when you see new Legend of Zelda or Metroid figures or a re-release like the 2.5” Pikmin pack or 6” Donkey Kong, we will create branded packaging specifically for that property. We feel like it highlights the product better, is more colorful and representative of the personality of the property, and looks better for those who don’t remove the product from the packaging.
knuclear 200x asked:
The Mario and Sonic lines have been very fruitful these past few years. I have also noticed that you have returned to the Metroid and Legend of Zelda franchises again, with 3 new figures. Are there still plans to continue that line? Specifically hoping you’re close to making Ganondorf, Dark Samus and other possible characters of similar scale
We have had a lot of success with the Super Mario specific product and what has been missing from the offering are some of the other games. Our packaging strategy is noted above as to how we want to highlight each game. We have had a lot of requests for more in addition to Super Mario and are working for ways to deliver that in the future.
Are there plans for a 2nd Eggmobile set with a new set of parts?
There are a lot of really fun and exciting Sonic playsets in the very near term which I think will make you very happy. Be on the lookout for announcements in the coming weeks and months.
Are there plans to update the 6” Donkey Kong with articulation closer to the 4” toys and/or 6” Bowser?
Currently the 6” Donkey Kong and the 6” Bowser continue to be available, but there are no immediate plans to update them. I’m really hoping you are enjoying the 7” Fire Breathing Bowser from the Super Mario Movie line. Maybe it doesn’t address the greater articulation, however we really like the added feature and life that it brings to the toy.
Mario G. asked:
Hello! So I have been wondering for a while on when we hope to get a Jakks Super Mario “4 Princess Daisy and Rosalina. I know I speak for many as a lot of collectors have been impatiently waiting news to complete they’re “Main” character collections. I don’t understand what could possibly be the reason holding them from being made as they’re “2.5 scale have sold everytime they’re restock at local Walmarts & Targets. Only the Princess set keeps getting restocked but that makes sense. Seeing how Wendy & Boom Boom have already gotten “4 figures while these highly anticipated princesses still haven’t gotten any news to be made. Wendy didn’t even sell as well when she was first released individually many stores such as party city and Walmart still have Wendy’s available…. So my question is what is the delay on making a “4 Daisy & Rosalina as they’re highly anticipated characters. If sales is a problem we can even get them in a 3 pack with princess peach hopefully with a ponytail if not I’m positive people will still purchase for Daisy & Rosalina.
Thank you for the feedback and we are always looking for the characters which fans want in both scales. We heard the comments from many fans that they wanted more female characters beyond Peach in the line as a whole and I think we have definitely delivered in that regard. We try to not have characters outside the core in both scales at the same time, so there is usually a lag. We also make more 2.5” figures in a year than 4”, so sometimes we are playing catch up.
Zon asked:
Hello again, I have a couple questions regarding the Jakks Sonic line:
Charmy recently got a new 2.5″ figure release, that scales perfectly with the 2.5″ Modern figures (as fans had assumed he would be like the Classic figures and be made to scale with the 4″ ones, but luckily he wasn’t).
So I was just wondering, can we expect to see a 4″ Charmy (that would scale with 4″ Modern figures) anytime soon? Kind of like how you made Super Sonic & Silver in 2.5″ first and then released them later in 4″.
Considering you’ve completed the Main Classic Cast & have nearly completed the main Modern cast; just Blaze (who’s already confirmed to be coming) and Cream left.
When deciding on which Modern & Classic characters to make next, is it gonna be like a pick and choose situation, going in an order of importance, or is it gonna be moreso based on fan demand for the character?
As for Classic you could always do the Hooligans, Mecha Sonic & Honey. Whereas for Modern, there’s a LOT of characters you could do that have a lot of fans (Sage, Tikal, Gamma, Mephiles, Zavok, Gemerl, etc.).
You bring up a few points and really the answer is yes to all, and this goes really for any property with both a large fandom as Sonic and Mario have and a depth and breadth of characters beyond the core. We of course wanted to address the core characters first and they will always be a part of the assortment which is where the variants come into play. We appreciate that fans such as yourself don’t always like re-releases of the core characters, but there are always new fans young and old coming into a property and they want to have a blue Modern Sonic or red and blue Mario. Then when it comes to the rest of the cast, we do look at a variety of factors including fan interest, maintaining variety, attempting to tie into upcoming games or promotional themes that our licensing partners are developing. We want to do everything but also know that not everything character has the same mass appeal. When we are incorrect, you can see a character backing up on shelf and we never want to see that, as it impacts the ability to keep having fresh mixes arrive.
With Amy & Rouge both selling very well, can we expect more female characters in the Sonic line? As whilst we’ve heard Blaze is coming & Cream is the last Main Modern character left. There’s still a wide variety of amazing female characters you could make like Sage, Tikal, Sticks & Marine to name a few.
I was very late in responding to these questions, so I’m hoping you saw that Cream was announced in 4” at Wondercon in April. As with the above answer, yes, there are a lot of characters that we can do and we do a lot of polling, analysis, and partner discussion to come up with the offerings.
Manuel asked:
We will have 4-inch figures of Birdo, Toadette, Monty mole, Rosalina, Daisy, Spike, Cranky kong and Diddy kong? and 6-inch figure of dry bowser? and a deluxe Link of zelda breath of the wild, with much more accesories?
All of these are excellent suggestions and I will take them back to the team. There will be more announcements of wave releases in the near future.
Will there be a second wave of 5 inch mario bros movie figures, like mario tanooki, cat mario or fire peach? maybe a 7 inch donkey kong, based on the movie?
There will be some exciting announcements for Super Mario Bros. movie wave 2 figures in the very near future. I hope you like the choices. Just know, we also know there could be more that could be done and we can’t get to everything.
Michael asked:
At SDCC 2022 you guys showed 2.5 figures in wave 28 for the Super Mario line. In the image there was a brand new 2.5 Princess Peach figure and now she’s been replaced in stores with the old one you made in 2014. What happened to her? is she coming back? A lot of us really want a new Peach.
I think you are referring to wave 38, but yes, the plan for that wave was to release the new articulation of Peach. Unfortunately, sometimes we run into unforeseen development issues and things get delayed more than we want them to. I can assure you that we did not give up on Peach and that your patience and understanding will be rewarded very soon both in checklane and in blister packaging.
ironpiy epic asked:
Are we ever going to get a specific website to order figures from older waves that will be restocked?
Unfortunately that is not currently in the plans. Jakks doesn’t maintain a direct web site and the catalog of characters and tools is very deep, as we are now 10+ years into making Nintendo figures and Sonic is over 5 years. To maintain that inventory would be very challenging.
Are we ever going to get any accessory packs for things other than classic games? Like big the cats fishing rod, froggy, vectors radio, a duel checkpoint (as seen in sonic 06 and stuff) or maybe those pods that hold rings
Those are excellent suggestion and things we can look at for the future. We don’t have accessory packs per se, but do have the diorama packs which do have added pieces that fit into a theme, at least for the 2.5” figures. We have also looked at deluxe packs for 4” figures, but haven’t moved forward to date. The 4” scale Big was a challenge given the size of the figure to also include an accessory.