Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: American International Toy Fair, Biff Bang Pow, collectibles, Comics, dark horse, Diamond Select Toys, entertainment, Entertainment Earth, funko, Kid Robot, Toki Doki, toys

Comparing Company Strategies At The International Toy Fair – Funko, Diamond, Dark Horse, Titan, And More

My first time attending the American International Toy Fair in New York this week was a big introduction to the trade side of collectibles, having only encountered vending and big toy announcements at cons like San Diego and New York previously, and it was certainly a very different way of viewing the use of the large space of the Javits Center versus the New York Comic Con.

Walking in, I was aware that I was one of the minority of attendees not wearing suits or business casual (I somewhat expected this), but I was also somewhat wooed by the fact that things were calm, well-organized, and the staff were very helpful and a generally professional tone prevailed. The massive two floors of show space were impressive, however, for someone of my comics and pop culture ilk, the events held by companies and a fairly specific area of the show floor were much more relevant than otherwise vast spaces committed to new cuddly toys or puzzles and games, or even sports equipment. Video gaming, on the third floor, was of interest, but most of the area specific to us Bleeding Coolers was located on the lower level in a high-density area including booths from  Funko, Diamond Select Toys, Dark Horse, Entertainment Earth, Toki Doki, Kid Robot, Underground Toys, and Titan. Within that zone, it was like a mini-con, with booths that resembled closely those you'll see at the big cons from these companies.

Funko was the exception, who had taken advantage of the space to branch out into a wide, runway-like set up set off by rows and rows of small intense green lights marking out their glass cases and a Times Square worthy illuminated company sign for "Funko" that could be seen from quite a distance. This is an indication of the attitudes of Funko—taking full advantage of the trade show to bring in retailer interest on a high level—and a more wary approach from other companies, taking smaller spaces while bringing as much product as possible for display.

On a side note, I recently heard some disturbing information about the way in which Funko are relating to retailers, many of whom have had long standing relationships with Funko to the point of ordering store exclusive POP vinyls. The rumor goes that having previously allowed shops to order exclusives if they purchased around $30,000 of Funko products a year for their shop, the ceiling has been suddenly raised in 2014 to more than double this required amount. While it's understandable to try to put more of a reign on the fairly explosive spread of the POP vinyl exclusive market, not allowing shops with long standing relationships to be grandfathered in to the new order ceiling means that mid-sized retailers are suddenly left out in the cold and feel rather disgruntled with Funko. Loyalty doesn't seem to have affected this decision. The dominant Funko booth at the Toy Fair plays into this, since it seems that they were hoping to attract big spenders through a display of affluence on their part, and many of the meetings they seemed to be holding were with bigger sales platforms than your average local comic shop.

Naturally, the collectible toy-curious were going to be drawn to this beacon of a booth with its wide couches and tables for discussions. And Funko had brought plenty of products, using glass cases in a museum-like way and setting off some of the more hyped items for the coming year such as the Back to the Future line including DeLorean, as well as a much-expanding smaller figure lines in blind-boxes, with more from Marvel properties, and also the new plush, poseable line marketed as "Fabrikations: Soft Sculptures" ranging from Batman to Harley Quinn and Yoda. I have to say, the booth worked on me. I was drawn in by the clean design of the displays, the mass of products, and seeing in person the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy vinyls, for instance. As a POP collector, this was an alluring experience, and contrasted strongly with the overcrowded, well, madhouse-like experience of visiting their also dominating booth at San Diego Comic Con. There's something to be said for the calm atmosphere of the Toy Fair to really get a close look at products and appreciate the process of design and release for consumers. Let's hope those consumers continue to include large companies and small, though. As Funko grows in popularity, there's a danger that they move further away from their geek roots.

The Diamond Select Toys booth was also relatively small, but they seem to have traded off size for a prominent front-place position on the floor. The size of the booth was comparable to their space at SDCC, but the products were more heavily loaded with quite a range of properties. There was a little bit of a danger of making sure that each line received enough space to be appreciated properly, and it became immediately apparent that missing out any small corner of the book might mean you overlooked something significant.

Prominent were DC figures focused on the Arkham Asylum games, and there was consistently a great deal of interest on this wall facing an aisle. Marvel had received a less superior position on small displays near the front of the booth that might have been overlooked without close study. Walking Dead and Doctor Who products were a little more emphatically displayed both on high shelves near the aisles and also in a back show area given a little more space for consideration. Previews was constantly busy from the beginning of the show to the end, with appointments fully booked, and from what I could see, those visiting and asking questions were from a very wide range of interests from large retailers to smaller entities as well as journalists. Previews felt a little more egalitarian in that way, I have to say, and the staff were very helpful and efficient, eager to communicate and accommodate the interest they were receiving.

Nearby Dark Horse (and all of these booths were clearly clustered in a mutually-beneficial area), resembled the open area typical of the front display and meeting area that they present at cons, minus the shop, and had opted for a space further from the main drag in order to have a more spread-out and curated feel. Having said that, there were not exactly a wealth of displays, and looking through their catalog to double-check reveals that there were not many announcements from Dark Horse at this Toy Fair. My speculative conclusions about this call to mind the fact that Dark Horse takes massive pains to release a fairly explosive line-up of new products at San Diego, to equally big fan response, and observation at the Fair revealed that DH was using their space for some very serious, quiet meetings that moved like clockwork throughout the day. DH seems interested in using Toy Fair for establishing new retail opportunities, answering questions, and perhaps even touching base with New York contingents face-to-face, aware that their presence at comic cons will result in greater buzz for their new products at a time when sales can be immediate. Still, in comparison to other booths, Dark Horse maintained a reassuringly professional demeanor and clearly had their own specific goals for being present at the Fair, reminding retailers that Dark Horse has a major presence in collectibles, and is content to roll out announcements year-round, assured in their ability to reach buyers.

Bif Bang Pow! from Entertainment Earth admitted openly that, as primarily an online company, there was simply no way they could display all their most recent products, however, they had brought some of their selected favorites to the show with an eclectic range of properties from the Mego-style Big Bang Theory figures to the Venture Bros. figures.

The staff were upbeat and willing to chat, and seemed happy to be at the Fair, in an environment celebrating collectibles. Their booth design, elongated and aisle-parallel made it seem more like a runway for passing through a few of their meeting tables. Business was brisk for them and they clearly had a handle on how to use the Fair to their advantage. Without a whiff of desperation from a company that relies and thrives on the internet, they were more able to simply remind people of the scope of their products and seemed optimistic about the distinctive rise in the collectibles market in the past three years.

The Kid Robot booth was tucked away a little further from the main entrance, with a mid-sized space, but a wealth of products that focused on Labbits, Labbits, Labbits. They'll be building on the popularity of their Marvel line of mini-Labbits by releasing still more variations, and their catalogue reveals some special collectors boxes that will not be blind, with a slightly higher price. Not all new releases will be comics-related, also expanding on the slightly gritty line of irreverent humor, like the "S&M" Labbit that certainly caught my attention.

But beyond the Labbits, there's also the already-available new Product Red figures in multiple sizes to benefit the distribution of AIDS medications in Africa, and the new "erasable" design your own large figures.

Toki Doki presented their booth in boutique style with a mass of colorful products and a confident branching out that suggests they're in a period of growth. With their wide-spread presence (like Kid Robot and Dark Horse's Domos, and Funko's Pop Vinyls) in Barnes and Nobles these days, they are attracting a wider consumer base that's only bound to expand, but I was relieved to see that there's still quite a diversity in their product line of bags and accessories rather than making a decision to limit themselves to the select items that are becoming massive in public consumption. The movement towards only a few products that can happen when a company becomes more "mainstream" is somewhat at odds, let's be honest, from the true roots of geek, which is in many ways about providing for as many niche markets as possible rather than trying to homogenize fandom and corral toward only a few characters or items per year.

Underground Toys dominated Doctor Who products at the Toy Fair in terms of quantity and that would have been hard to ignore since their particularly large booth near a through-way hall to another floor area had taken full advantage of a display-wall design to present a legion of items, some of which were genuinely new or recent releases, though some were also recognizable. This is, in some ways, the shopping mall experience of Doctor Who fandom, with some products attempting to reach the high quality of collectibles with longevity, like Doctor and companion figures to meet different fan obsessions, but also with plush figures that seemed a little more immediate and perhaps less focused on quality.

An even wide range of sonic screwdrivers are bound to turn heads on the market, as well as an expansion on plush Daleks in a wider color range. One of the more surprising Doctor Who lines in terms of number and breadth of display were pocket and wrist watches. It may well be that there were more models available than there were Doctor Who figures on offer. This accessory focus wasn't matched in other products like t-shirts, though they had a number of canvas bags on display, and left me pondering this eruption in Doctor Who time-pieces. Maybe the next con I go to will be entirely clocked in Doctor Who style.

But I'll contrast that experience by relating my final observations about the floor of the show, seeking out the understated but quite specifically confident Titan booth. All of the products at Titan were Doctor Who focused, and they had taken up a smaller space than any of the other booths I have previously mentioned, as well as holding a position in the more "mainstream" area of the show floor, though not all that far from the pop culture collectible area. What exactly motivated Titan to present themselves so differently?

Speaking to staff clued me in on some of their history, having set in motion the line of collectibles specifically relating to the Doctor three years ago, and as of two years ago, began to make a strong mark at cons. At both NYCC and SDCC, the collectibles from Titan have gradually crept down the table, expanding con by con, and to some extent crowding out the books on offer, but that has prompted more amusement than perplexity. There is absolutely no question that Titan's Doctor Who products are much higher quality in material and execution than many of the licensed products rising on the tide of fandom right now (and I speak as a consumer on this), and that is part of why Titan at the Toy Fair could afford to take a less ostentatious position and let their products sell themselves. Titan products are moderately more expensive than other licensed products you might see at a local shopping mall, but there's a distinctively different feel to their t-shirts in terms of quality material and their collectible figures are near-statue-like in their solid construction and attention to detail.

There's something to be said for developing a sought-after reputation, and those who sought out Titan at the fair would have seen sneak-peeks of many of the new blind-box collectible vinyls coming out this year, a spread of upcoming t-shirts, and some close-up observation of some of their larger vinyls for the two most recent Doctors, a weeping angel, and a Tardis. Speaking to Titan made it clear that they are growing enormously and very quickly, and yet they are not overwhelmed by this development, especially happy with their expansive Hot Topic market. The news that Titan comics has acquired the license to Doctor Who comics, of course, makes them smiles with even more of an eye-twinkle, since though the two branches of the company have independent life, there's bound to be a mutual support network for promoting Titan as the home of all things Doctor Who.

There were some startlingly different approaches to the use and function of the show floor at the Toy Fair, all characterizing some divergence in the kinds of selling strategies these companies are employing. All of these companies take on a very different face at major comic cons, but they are aware that maintaining a presence at Toy Fair makes them more accessible to retailers and keeps geek products visible as a distinctive aspect of the wider toy market. As these companies shift more and more heavily to online sales, which is bound to happen, the importance of Toy Fair may decrease, but that could be offset by the growing importance of face-to-face meetings in response to the dominance of the internet, and all of the companies I observed seemed to be aware of the need to maintain a platform for real human interaction to give their products greater reach.

You can also see our 100 photos of the Toy Fair here and Christopher Smith's take on the 10 Best Nostalgia-driven products at Toy Fair here.

Hannah Means-Shannon is EIC at Bleeding Cool and @hannahmenzies on Twitter.

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