Saturday, April 25, 2015

Hero Business

Disney is popular for creating female hero characters unwitting people look up to. Whether or not that company is in the business of empowering women is being questioned with the lack of female characters in their Avengers merchandise. (
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/disney/11552960/Are-Disney-ignoring-Marvels-female-fans.html)




Barbie has also entered the hero business with mask, cape and all. This time Mattel honored real life people who some of us can consider as a hero or shero, as they call it. I was just pleased that, at least, there was an Asian looking doll in the mix.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Razyera, isn't that hoarding?


The Wasp action doll has been a peg warmer that is why it has been offered for  a reduced price of PhP500 locally. Unlike other characters, the Wasp toy sold out after the price reduction. I thought it was normal because it can be used as base for a customized female character since there are few female characters. When I saw an online seller (Razyera) posted a lot of Wasp toys, I figured that it was possible that the toy was hoarded. The ad posted above is only for local buyers who could have bought the toys themselves locally had the toy not been hoarded.

Hoarding is different from reselling as the latter helps in the distribution. We know that toy manufacturers can't reach everybody. Resellers help alleviate the distribution problems. If a well distributed toy is hoarded, it prevents others from accessing what should have been an accessible toy.

Yes, I know a lot of people do it. I don't mean to single out this specific seller but I figured I needed an example. More than hating on possible hoarders, I'm curious on how to deal with them. Sure, ignoring them is an easy thing to do but it feels like a big cop out. It's not something we learn from the superheroes that inspire us.

Is the collecting community a society that allows opportunistic people to propagate? I know we have no right to keep them from doing what they are doing. I guess we can just talk about them and serve as warning to others, make a blacklist of sorts on which people to avoid even if they are offering some good deals. This blog will be my blacklist.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Mattel goes Quirky

...I mean goes to Quirky for help. They probably are looking for the next big thing in toys and I guess it can have nothing to do with the Barbie toy line.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/17/smallbusiness/mattel-toy-inventions/

As for me, I'll pass.