Pandemic Impact on Toy Collecting

[MacrossMania]

Curious to see what all of you think of the pandemic and its impact on toy collecting.  Definitely not soliciting your political opinions on the pandemic generally, so please keep that to yourself.  What I am interested in is how you think the impact on manufacturing and supply lines will/has impact[ed] toy collecting in general. 

At first I was thinking that the general renaissance in toy-making we've enjoyed over the last decade or two would slow to a trickle, and the toys of yore would become gems in our collection as they would no longer be producing them anymore, at least anywhere near the rate we were seeing before the pandemic started.  I think you definitely see this with the much higher end toys like Metal Structure (RX-93 discontinued, prices now through the roof), and you also begin to question whether some of the lower end toy lines like Hi-Metal R would be affected.  A series of planned releases never materialized (I'm thinking of the Destroids that were never completed).  Even the YF-21 was never released this year.  But then Bandai is notorious for teasers that never materialize (1/35 YF-1 anyone?), so I'm guessing that some of these never came to fruition this year is just "part of the game."  The thing is though that there were so many at once that just disappeared (the YF-21 is a particularly glaring omission considering its presence in the DX 1/60 line), but then again the 1/48 still seems to be going strong with the VF-1S, the flagship of the franchise, and the soon-to-be-released 1/48 VF-1D early next year.

All in all, I was initially impressed with the idea that toy manufacturing would suddenly come to a standstill and we would be left with our collections, as it were Mad-Max style, drifting in the desert wind and clinging to our hopes.  In such a posture, it is easy to imagine the value of these once prevalent items skyrocketing (like the Metal Structure), but after some thought, I'm not so sure.  We may just end up seeing a temporary hiccup, with production once again resuming unabated.

The other thought that occurred to me is that the toy renaissance is like any other - it builds on a steady stream of accumulated knowledge that, much like the 1/60 line of valkyries by Bandai, improves year over year.  If production is halted for a time, or even stopped altogether and resumed years later, it seems that that institutional knowledge could be lost to the deserts of time.  Although I think that's a bit more fanciful.  Something like that would take decades to lose (although perhaps a trick or two could be lost on the factory room floor).

[jvmacross]

The pandemic has done nothing to diminish how much I usually spend in a year on my Macross addiction.....it has, however, limited my need to get everything shipped to me ASAP.....if shipping prices drop down closer to pre-pandemic rates at some point in 2021....I will have an epic amount of stuff finally delivered....the only items I have delivered now are from Amazon Japan due to their low DHL shipping rates to the US....so glad they had a good arrangement with them even before the pandemic

[MacrossMania]

1 minute ago, jvmacross said:

The pandemic has done nothing to diminish how much I usually spend in a year on my Macross addiction.....it has, however, limited my need to get everything shipped to me ASAP.....if shipping prices drop down closer to pre-pandemic rates at some point in 2021....I will have an epic amount of stuff finally delivered....the only items I have delivered now are from Amazon Japan due to their low DHL shipping rates to the US....so glad they had a good arrangement with them even before the pandemic

I'll be honest, I've actually bought more this year than previous years, but I'm also a vintage collector and a lot of those have come up recently at great prices, which is not surprising given the state of the economy.

[seti88]

So far the only impact of the pandamic seems to be on the number of macross toy lines/scales and on the delivery chain.

Demand wise, a bit hard to judge as macross releases werent produced in large numbers anyway.

Time will tell if demand really sees a significant slippage.

[frankell05]

I think the demographic of people with enough expendable income to spend on these types of expensive collectables isn't the most adversely affected by the pandemic., So I  think demand won't be affected unless the the economic effects reach such bad levels that at that point i don't think many people will really think about buying toys anymore.  Since it's a world pandemic then the economic effects would reach everywhere so demand would just plummet. It's quite a possibility.  Would have to see how the world rebounds from the latest harshest wave of infections and it's effects. If business rebounds quickly i think things will be as they are now.

On the production side, china seems to have largely controlled the epidemic enough to maintain production.  I think the delays we see now are miraculously small, i honestly expected things to be more severely delayed, but apparently china is furiously exporting products now to full fill the addiction of bored americans and other plastic addicts around the world.  

As for my personal experience , i have bought more crap than regular as delays caused me to become curious about other toy lines and now I'm addicted to hasbro figures, hot toys and macross. In all three fronts i have seen demand go up, not down at all. I simply don't spend money on anything else, so i have more money for toys, ( and i buy opened and used items for the cheapest price ) but I have  definitely taken a severe beating on my income this year, but nothing compared to people who are really suffering through this situation. 

 

[frankell05]

Oh and regarding technology, goddamn it's an exciting time to be into toys , i have never seen so much amazing stuff being made!!! The storm collectibles street fighter figures and king of fighter figures are the highlight of the year for me.