Over the weekend, the Four Horsemen announced the second assortment of Outer Space Men figures – The Beta Phase Wave. These four exclusive colorways will be available as New York Comic Con Exclusives, from a few different booths, along with limited online availability.
We are happy to announce our exclusive figure sets for the New York Comic Con (October 8th, 9th & 10th) – The Outer Space Men: Beta Phase waves 1 & 2!
You’ve read rumors and speculation that we were going to be bringing the Outer Space Men to the New York Comic Con and may have even heard that two of these figures were going to be being carried by another retailer besides the Four Horsemen. Well, now you know it’s all true, but we’ll also be partnering up with a second retailer to bring you these new OSM waves!
Online mega retailers Action Figure Xpress and Toy Tokyo will be bringing you their very own retailer requested color ways of the Outer Space Men by the Four Horsemen!
Each exclusive retailer will be carrying one figure from each of the two waves, and their allotted number of figures will be strictly limited to only 300 of each character! Pricing, retailer booth numbers and other details coming soon.
We just got the first samples of the OSM: Beta Phase figures in the other day and they are simply awesome! We can’t wait for you guys to see them! You’re going to be blown away! We’ll be revealing them right here, one at a time over the next few days!
Comment from Onell Design’s Matt Doughty:
“I like the contrast on these, really cool vibe on this round. That yellow is phenomenal and the blue looks like it’s a dead on match to our clear blue Buildman. I can’t wait to build some stuff! The green is very cool in hand, as we have done this color in clear a couple of times. The opacity is slightly higher, but it has an almost day glow look, kind of like a Slimer Ectoplasm version. The pink is a clear version of a neon pink, so that’s a first for any of us! Great assortment!”Now, you know we wouldn’t leave our stable of fans completely out in the cold. Have we ever?
After talking to Action Figure Xpress and Toy Tokyo, they’ve agreed to allow us to sell an EXTREMELY limited amount of the complete OSM: BP wave sets through Store Horsemen just to make sure that all of you FANtastic FANatics that can’t make it to the New York Comic Con at least have some chance at getting your hands on these bad boys.
When we say extremely limited, we mean it… There will be only 30 sets available through Store Horsemen, and it will be a “one set per person”, “first come, first served” deal.
You don’t need to be a member of the FANtastic Exclusive message boards this time around, but you should probably keep an eye on the “Outer Space Men” portion of that website just to make sure you don’t miss out on anything.
We’ll probably take pre-orders in the next week or two, but we’ll be sure to give you a few days notice before we do. The sets will be $40.00 each, plus shipping.
The only other thing we have to say about these for now is GOOD LUCK!!
-FOUR HORSEMEN-
Update!
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| METAMORPHO: The Man from Alpha Centauri!:
Shown here in his “Beta Phase” incarnation, he’s the first of a pair of Outer Space Men characters to be sold exclusively by Toy Tokyo at the 2010 New York Comic Con! The Metamorpho figures being sold along with Xodiac at Toy Tokyo’s booth (#2871) will be strictly limited to only 300 pieces! $24.00 per pair. |
ZODIAC: The Man from Saturn!
Seen here in his “Beta Phase” incarnation, Xodiac joins fellow Outer Space Men character, Metamorpho, to be sold exclusively by Toy Tokyo at the 2010 New York Comic Con! The Xodiac & Metamorpho figures will be sold as a pair at Toy Tokyo’s booth (#2871), and will be strictly limited to only 300 pieces! $24.00 per pair. |
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| INFERNO: The Flame Man from Mercury!
Appearing here in his “Beta Phase” incarnation, he’s the first of a pair of Outer Space Men characters to be sold exclusively by Action figure Xpress at the 2010 New York Comic Con! The Inferno figures being sold along with Astro-Nautilus at Action Figure Xpress’s booth (#1977) will be strictly limited to only 300 pieces! $24.00 per pair. |
ASTRO-NAUTILUS: The Man from Neptune!
Seen here in his “Beta Phase” incarnation, Astro-Nautilus joins fellow Outer Space Men character, Inferno, to be sold exclusively by Action Figure Xpress at the 2010 New York Comic Con! The Astro-Nautilus & Inferno figures will be sold as a pair at AFX’s booth (#1977), and will be strictly limited to only 300 pieces! $24.00 per pair. |
For more Four Horsemen news, check out the newly renovated FourHorsemen.Biz!
30 sets? I might cry…
I might cry with you… 🙁
see, this is what I think is wrong with the whole ‘culture’, the SOOPER LIMITED X-CLUSIVE!!!! nonsense.
Sure, it gets 100% sell-thru as the ‘edition’ numbers get smaller and smaller, so there’s no real risk to the maker, hooray, you’ve managed to sell 300 pieces.
All that does is keep the MSRP high, feeds the scalpers, boosts the egos of some. It doesn’t result in TOYS that can be beloved. It’s only a fetish item to be carefully kept in a mylar case in C9.5 condition lest the ‘value’ be harmed.
“but but but, actions like this create buzz within the collecting community! That way, when we go ‘wide’ the heat will make it a HUGE best seller!!”
No it won’t. After an entire year of cons and ‘super rare collectible exclusive!!’ the general base will be burned out on hearing about the things they can’t have and will move their Dollars to something they CAN buy just by walking into a store (which is a massive effort by itself in this day and age) or clicking a button online. And the wide launch of Outer Space Men falls flat on its face.
There’s no incentive to stop doing the 300 piece runs, it’s the easy thing to do. Good lord, it’s not even a paint app thing, all it is is running a different color plastic thru the machine!
Everybody is afraid of ‘sitting on inventory’. Everyone is so focused on short-term instead of the long haul. So you do a 5000 piece run and only sell 1500 in your one-month window to comic shops. So what? Keep pimping it on the web, keep sending samples to various pop-culture retailers like Thinkgeek and Archie McPhee. Make the next wave and re-solicit the first wave 8 months later. It’ll sell.
Arrggggh.
I agree with your position when it comes to big companies like Mattel and Hasbro, or even some of the bigger small companies like Neca & Mezco – but with Four Horsemen Design Studios and the Outer Space Men, I don’t think it’s applicable.
With the 4H & the OSM, it’s not really a matter of super limited runs for limited sake or even for no risk. There’s a lot of risk involved in bringing back a forty year-old toyline and while the Outer Space Men have old fans and gained news fans alike, there surely doesn’t need to be 5k units at this point in the franchise.
As for the limited run of 1200 (remember there’s four figures that have to be produced at one time) being a ‘safe’ amount? Well, i’m sure it is a safe amount, but we have to remember they’re still in the “humble beginnings” phase of selling licensed product. They should be playing it safe. The 4H on track with what they’re trying to do – which I assume is building up excitement and capital for the actual release.
The full-color releases are the bread-and-butter here. Even folks that were wishing on a star for more OSM a year or decade ago weren’t asking for a blue Nautilus or an orange Xodiac. These releases are just fun little extras for the smaller, fledging fanbase to pick up while waiting for the figures proper. To be used to tide us over or as pieces for Glyos.
As for keeping them sealed in their cases, well you might not have picked up any OSM yet (due to their rarity, ironically) – it’s gotta be nearly impossible to keep these guys sealed in their little bags! They’re just too much fun…
Anyway, I hear what you’re saying, but you might reserve that thought for some bigger companies that are keeping items out of the hands of large fanbases. With a smaller company and a smaller fanbase, it’s not as outrageous a practice.
I see your point. I’m just thinking, it’s the overall mentality that concerns me. See, if 4H can make a profit with artificially limited exclusives, what incentive is there to risk going ‘wide’ and the higher upfront cost of paint apps?
And not to be a horrible person, the ‘wide’ release figs better be dirt cheap, because it seems to me the tooling costs are already taken care of with these early waves, yes?
See, I’ve seen this before, with both large and small companies. “we have to do this because we have to grow the concept, but if you just stick with us we promise you’ll be blown away!”
Remember when Playmates screwed around with the size of the figures for the release of ST:Generations? “The reason for this change will be made clear when the movie come out!” I never heard anything further, I assumed the reason for the change was retailers demanded the line get ‘refreshed’ because the ST license was starting to dog out…boy, that movie sure lit the fire and, oh, wait. 🙂
I just think there’s too much ‘old’ thinking going on at all levels of Toy, people have to stop it or it’s just going to spiral worse and worse, we’ll get to the point where the NEW! HOT! thing is 5 pieces sold online only and $1000 for a 3 inch tall action figure. Bleah.
I guess I just don’t see the OSM as “artificially” limited. Gleek was artificially limited. I think the OSM are economically limited. The 1200 units for the Alpha Phase was chosen before I knew what the Outer Space Men were, so I think conservative was the way to go.
A small run means small profits, so I think the incentive to sell more is always there. I really think that we have to throw all conventional wisdom out the window when it comes toy lines like Glyos or the Outer Space Men. The Four Horsemen would surely love to blow through 10,000 units of each Outer Space Man – but first they have to be able to afford to manufacture 10,000 units too. It’s not the same thing as Mattel making Gleek or Hasbro making a 25th Slaughter a convention exclusive. Those *rewards* (cough, cough) are done solely to create publicity. Mattel and Hasbro could afford tens of thousands of those products. The 4H have to be conservative with their capital. While the lower number has the benefit of rarity, I doubt it’s chosen without financial matters in mind.
I’m still a big fan of Playmates Trek line and they make for a good example about the sizes of fanbase and limited exclusives. The 1701 Picard was a big controversy in that line. There simply wasn’t nearly enough to meet demand in a line where most people had been able to get them all. Today, fifteen or so years later, DST is limiting some Trek figures to 1701 and it seems that no one cares (other than it evoking some bad memories of last time). Now DST may be making them limited for limited sake, but clearly that number isn’t so egregiously low to cause massive irritation. I think the same is true for the OSM.
I’m going to have to join the Forum to rant about DST and their handling of the Trek license, aren’t I? 🙂
Here’s what I see. The market, at retail,no longer exists for all practical purposes. We’re down to one, ONE national toy retailer and brother, TRU isn’t exactly on firm footing. The remaining national retailers that carry toys year round (Walmart, Target, K-Mart) keep shrinking the Boys toys section and pretty much only want licensed toys and evergreens, product with constant turns and high margins or substantial return allowances.
(yet a remote control Bigfoot gets favored endcap status? How fast will that hit red ticket status I wonder?)
Comic shops, that number is down (I think about 2,400 nationwide is the last number I saw), the open-to-buy available is shrinking every week as Marvel and DC pump out more and more titles with higher prices making the available money for toys shrink, and Diamond’s current structure actually discourages companies from offering anything due to the ‘one strike and you’re out’ policy concerning order minimums. That means only the Majors and Diamond’s own product pretty much get that path.
Online? Well, it gets sales, but clearly not anywhere NEAR enough compared to the old days when there used to be LOTS and LOTS of stores that carried toys.
So what do I see? I see The 4H using these various things to try and build enough ‘face buzz’ to convince Diamond to take the project on, front the costs and push OSM to comic shops and TRU. It’s not going to happen, because if Diamond can’t sell their OWN stuff, they’re not going to take something ‘not invented here’ under their wing. All Diamond will think of is how the previous 4H original product ‘underperformed’.
::deep breath:: and yes, sometimes I DO overthink things, why do you ask? 🙂
I don’t mean to sound like Total Bummer Man, I really don’t. I just think the best thing they can do is simply start making them and selling them online. Just do it. sell a 4-pack of unpainted dudes for about $15 and crank them out. if they’re that fun to have, get away from the ‘collector urban vinyl’ mentality and just turrrrn the muthas out. ANYTHING else is just creating a wall of limitations for the product that will eventually kill it.
This I spake. 🙂
if i can toss this out too steve, the costs for creating new steel molds intended to be reused for production of something like an action figure is huge. the steel involved in the OSM thusfar quite likely ranges upwards of 10,000 dollars. then there’s the cost of the castilene for the initial protos, the cost of business overheard while you’re conducting the phone calls/emails, etc… to acquire the license, and licensor fees, then the cost of the production run. these initial waves are eating literally thousands of dollars of spent-before-it’s made money. as for warehousing, are you personally sitting on an extra 300 square feet you’d like to donate to the horsemen to warehouse several pallettes of product? i think you’re disregarding how small a small operation the boys are. they get a good rep cuz they work for mattel, which churns out their work in the tens of thousands of units, and because they’re prolific, but this is a five man operation working out of an industrial park studio. there’s no warehouse, there’s no significant source of investment capital, when the horsemen want to do stuff like the OSM or fan ex, that comes out their own wages.
i get that things like this bother collectors, but to be honest, doesn’t the inverse thinking bear any merit either? that being, how many of the same figure does one fan need? if the small run exclusives aren’t your bag, don’t buy them. wait and buy in for the big release you really want, and if that doesn’t come to pass, it’s there an element there of “if i was suppossed to get it, it’d get made?” where is it written that we get everything we want in life? if you miss out on a toy release you really wanted, there’s ebay or you could just say “que sera sera.” i’ve missed stuff, everyone has, do you really let it ruin your life?
Oh, DR, if only you knew how much I’ve had to let ‘get by’ me over the past 15 years. 🙂
Believe me, I have a pretty good handle on the tree of manufacturing. And not everything uses those expensive tool steel molds, there’s more and more use of aluminum and aluminum-filled resin blanks on limited run items, as computer tool cutting can duplicate the tooling from a blank if needed.
As to warehousing product, it IS a huge issue in NYC. So, don’t be in NYC. Cost-of-living in NYC is insane now.
Not getting a toy doesn’t ruin my life, I’m not tearing my shirt to shreds over any of this, I’m just one of those people who get frustrated when he sees things that should be wonderful and cool turn into failure because of short-term thinking and such like. When I saw certain events take place at Children’s Palace, events that could possibly have no other effect than hurt the company and make matters worse, I wanted to kill. ARRGGGH that’s my ‘Nam, baby, and I’m having flashbacks! 🙂
I am glad they are putting them on the store. I hope I will be one of the lucky 30!
I hope you’re one of the other 29… is that fair? 😀
Um, hate to stir the pot but I’ve not seen anyone discuss this…
Isn’t Metamorpho a DC character? (yes he is, I know 🙂 ) While not used much lately that I know of, it’s still a trademarked and copyrighted name.
Doesn’t matter what DC would do, it’s Big Daddy Warner Bros.they have to worry about with this.
Just sayin’.
It’s the other way around!
At mass retail, DC has to release Metamorpho as Rex Mason because this Metamorpho holds the rights to the name. 😉
wow, you’re kidding me! huh! I could have sworn the creation of the comic was early ’60s. Memory playing tricks with me I guess. My pre-comic shop days (when comics were bought at the drug store) do tend to blur together.
Then I stand corrected, sir! 🙂
AFAIK the serial of novels this is founded on is still incomplete (on suspension?), so when the anime stopped short, it was rumoured that if and when the novels get done, there might be more. Of course quite a act of time has occurred since then, so it might be wishful thinking at this point… I would enjoy it, though.