Toys to Retirement Weekly Wrap-Up #24
Hope you made some money this week...
Talk about a week full of sales! Amazon’s spring sale, Walmart’s spring clearance, Target’s massive toy discounts — there has been something for everyone, flippers and long term holders alike.
Speaking of mainstream sales, did you see my “Tips for Navigating Mainstream Sales” article?
In the article I cover some important tips and tricks so you can take advantage of sales like the ones this week, and not fall for common ‘traps’ that end up losing you money. Check it out here:
Avengers: Doomsday begins production…
Marvel had a livestream with a “big” announcement the other day. Pretty much revealing most of the cast of the upcoming 2026 Avengers film.
Personally — this does nothing for me as a toy investor. The most exciting thing about this is that we’re slowly entering into the ‘mutant era’ of Marvel, which will have opportunities for Disney to make some mutant characters household names. With that being said, character design is a huge part of toy investing. We want cool looking characters - not civilians dressed in superhero clothing. So who on this list really stands out, with that in mind? Probably just RDJ as Doctor Doom. Maybe Beast. Possibly Channing Tatum as Gambit for the meme.
But the lack of Daredevil, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Deadpool, and others could be a red flag for the merch potential of this movie. Unless they’re purposely keeping their all stars hidden…
Speaking of character design being important…
Marvel Legends Fantastic Four figures are starting to appear for pre-order for the upcoming movie. It’s very early, in fact the figures are still being kept under wraps via code names so the specifics of some figures are still to be determined. With that being said, it’s exactly who you’d expect — Sue Storm, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm — all in their human form and possibly their alternate forms of Invisible Woman, The Thing, Human Torch, etc. I think personally I’m passing on this wave… I think the movie will be successful but that doesn’t necessarily always translate to great toy sales. The ‘cool-ness’ of the characters just isn’t their for me, unless they really deliver an incredible movie. The upside potential just doesn’t outweigh the risk. I may consider them if they go on sale.
Pokemon Hype reaching unreal heights…
Did you hear how many people were in queue for the new Destined Rivals product release on Pokemon Center? The semi-unannounced drop allegedly had as high as 400,000 people in queue at one time. The site was down all day. I was refreshing the site about thirty minutes before the launch and still was in about a twenty minute queue. Ended up getting one which I’m super excited about, but the booster box sold out before I got one. Also managed to snag the booster bundles and blisters on Best Buy.
Pokemon issued a statement yesterday in regards to the increased demand:
Is the bull run going to come to an end soon? Or will it continue well into next year for the 30 year anniversary?
Cute LEGO GWP…
A nice $75 threshold for LEGO’s current GWP, lasting until 4/2/25. Not expecting a ‘botanical-like’ performance out of this one, but combining it with VIP points for micro-Ninjago sets is just free money — may as well stack some exclusives you’re interested in! Don’t tie up all of your capital though, still several months to go until the end of the year.
More Gatings…
It really is seeming like the recent gatings are ‘use it or lose it’ for the toy category. Myself along with many others were gated in Masters of the Universe this week. But I suppose it makes sense… I haven’t sold the brand in years. But the brands I’m selling a lot of have been completely safe. So if you’re still un-gated in LEGO, Marvel, Monster High, etc. make sure you sprinkle some sales in every month leading up to Q4. It’s unknown what sort of gating shenanigans Amazon has on the horizon and it’s best to play it safe. At least it’s just gatings, not restrictions.
Alright folks, wrapping it up there. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and see you in Q2!
