Pegasus End of Year Review: #7.

Toys.

This category has been a continuing evolution since the beginning. I began, as you might expect, getting the mainstream Marvel and D.C. toys, as well as the biggest pop-culture licenses, such as Star Wars and Star Trek.

I found out fairly quickly that the mass market simply dominated that part of the world. I'd get the toys at prices higher than I saw at Target, and I'd get them MONTHS after Target, and so on.

So then, I tried to get the slightly off the beaten track licenses, but these had all the above problems as well as being even less popular.

The final straw, I remember, was getting a case of Planet of the Apes toys in with a retail price on the box itself which was lower than the price I was charged!

Finally, I decided that if it was Hasbro or Toybiz or Mattel, I'd pass. With the big exception of Star Wars, but even here I just order one case of each release.

So I have this bizarro world where the public expects me to have Spider-man or Batman toys, of the mass market type, and I don't. (I do have the 'direct' market toys, which are usually much more detailed but also twice the price.) DC offers some great looking toys, but...they just don't seem to sell.

Statues I got into because I figured out a way to carry them without breaking the budget, but they sell very, very slowly. These figures, as well as the very expensive toys such as my R2D2 trashcan, are almost advertising.

I think, in fact, I drew the wrong lessons from mass market toys -- that I couldn't compete in any sideline that the mass market was doing. I'm finding with new books, that isn't true. Maybe cause I can order exactly the books I want, and they have a retail price that makes sense, unlike toys where I get what selection they chose and have a minimal markup.

The only 'big' boy I still carry consistently is MacFarlane toys, and there I stick mostly to the fantasy toys, or the Spawn toys.

But as all this was happening, the toy selection got bigger and bigger, to the point where now I'm often offered a single boxed toy, instead of a case of random toys, and that's what I get. Gives me a wide variety of product without a bunch of shelf hugger singles.

The Japanese toys are still a dilemma. There is a huge demand, but there is also a huge variety of licenses. If I take a scattershot approach, it's so diffuse as to be meaningless. If I pick a license to carry, almost invariably I get the question, "I see you have Naruto, but do you have THIS Naruto." Not workable. I chose to get the small boxes or blister packs, that sell in the 5.99 range, but those aren't really moving. And I chose to get the 'bad girl' toys, which at least are kind of cool and attractive, and which sell occasionally.

If I had more room, I might try a shattershot approach with really, really cheap Japanese toys if I could get them. The problem, like mass market toys, is that if they aren't attached to a big name license, people just look at them puzzled. If they are attached to a current big name license (whatever is currently popular on the Cartoon Network) then the mass market carries them.

Meanwhile, the designer toys started to sell a little this year. I'm probably still ahead of the curve, here, but not as far ahead as I was a year or two ago. I'd like to beef up this section, and I can do so on a steady basis. Plus, they are just so cool to look at. I just try to ignore all the people who ask, "What does this belong to?" Hey, it exists for its own reason. Get over it.

I forget to mention that toys are another one of those products that sell from people off the sidewalk, like books and games. So another area to maybe look to increase.

The sales were up 6.3% last year, so I see that as 'steady as she goes.'