Men in Black 3- 2012 Standard Issue (CANCELED)
- Thread starter postmortem01
- Start date
I wouldn't count on it. MiB 3, while a really good film, didn't make much of a mark and Factory Entertainment are having to sell their remaining stock of gear from MiB 1 at a discount, which makes you wonder how much market power the IP has today. The organic shapes of the weapons in 3 make them harder to duplicate overall, as well. That SAT, couldn't make it work even with the help of EfX is rather telling. I've been thinking about eventually modeling up one or two of them for my printer but I don't know when (or if) I'll ever get around to it.
dirtyharriet
Well-Known Member
Well it is not a surprise that they are not selling well. Every company keeps producing the same items. The market is already saturated on those items. I think they would find first time offered items from MIB 3 would sell much better. I know I for one would probably buy at least one of everything from MIB 3. If these people want to use their licenses from the first 2 movies... how about making some of the larger weapons no one has brought to the marketplace yet. I don't feel too sorry for these companies... you could see slow sales coming from space on the Factory Entertainment items. Whomever is in charge of their research marketing did not do their homework IMHO.
I have to disagree with you there. Before factory Ent, no one had done readily available productions of the standard issue or the cricket. An all-metal standard issue was almost unheard of and people were very excited about it, which is why it's surprising that they haven't sold out. FE even went the distance and did the super limited screen accurate version... of which they still have stock. MR did the Neuro, sure, but in later years they had become semi-rare. Icons did the cricket but we know how that went... and there are the unobtanium aluminum kits out there.
The larger weapons, fully chromed or vacu-plated... count on them costing upwards of 1000 dollars at least, possibly double that if you want to make them real accurate. There's no way a company could ever move 500-1000 copies of those. YOU may love MiB (I do too) and it would certainly be nice to have more replicas from the films, but there just isn't a solid business case for new licensed MiB replicas any longer, no matter which chapter. (No one has even done an official Orion's Galaxy pendant and that should be an easy sell comparatively since it also crosses into "swag territory".) If there was a case for producing replicas, there would be a lot more discussion of the props here in the RPF but there has barely been any. Someone did a couple of neat Nerf conversions a while back but that is pretty much it. If people aren't raving about the props on the premiere prop site on the internet I certainly wouldn't back it with any investment of note.
dirtyharriet
Well-Known Member
My point exactly... so many options for them to choose from and yet the make the same things the marketplace has already seen. A huge opportunity missed in my opinion.
It definitely would be awesome to have the big MIB guns, the Pulsar Blaster from MIB 2 (the one with the two barrels) was my favorite out of the big guns. I don't feel sorry for these companies either, the way I see it is that these companies just haven't executed these props well enough which is why they're not selling ergo why the demand isn't as high as it should be.
Factory Entertainment, despite being the frontrunner for the MIB props, didn't do as great of a job as they could've. The J2, Neuralyzer, and Noisy Cricket props were the most accurate with how they looked, but how they operated is a whole other story. Granted I've only ever seen the unboxing videos they did (which most of the videos consisted of pointing out how well packaged the props were) so I don't actually own any of the props, however the videos definitely show what some of the reviews I've read have also said. The J2's lights and sounds were completely off, the red light for the laser sight on top of the gun was made to be more like a flashlight than a laser sight in the prop, in the film the light does not look like that. All the sounds are completely inaccurate as well for how the gun actually sounded in the film. The Noisy Cricket also sounds nothing like how it sounds in the film. As for the Neuralyzer, this is a huge letdown. For one, that constant ringing sound is a lot less present in the film and in the prop it actually sounds more like the Noisy Cricket than the Neuralyzer. And for two, the flash for the prop isn't even that bright. And also many of the reviews I've read have stated that the Neuralyzer is very fragile and breaks easily.
The point is that the demand isn't as high as it should be because these companies have done a very poor job of replicating the props. There's no way I'm gonna spend $400 on a prop that isn't as accurate as possible, especially for the Neuralyzer which I really wanna get my hands on one. I mean we can't even get a decent MIB toy gun or Neuralyzer let alone the prop versions (I'd settle for a toy version if it was really good, but there isn't even any decent toy versions out there, the most accurate toy Neuralyzer is the costume one from Disguise that doesn't have any lights or sounds and you have to manually open it and close it). When SAT came in I had hope considering they actually made the props for MIB 3, but they just completely disappeared out of a nowhere. The MIB 3 guns are awesome, but my main concern is the MIB 3 Neuralyzer. Considering the Neuralyzer from MIB 3 has a much simpler design than it's predecessors it shouldn't be that hard to make, and it would be a lot cheaper too than the MIB 1 & 2 Neuralyzers. SAT promised this and many other things but never delivered, and it would've been a very simple task to at least give us the MIB 3 Neuralyzer.
If a company can actually make decent MIB props then the demand for them will increase.
Factory Entertainment, despite being the frontrunner for the MIB props, didn't do as great of a job as they could've. The J2, Neuralyzer, and Noisy Cricket props were the most accurate with how they looked, but how they operated is a whole other story. Granted I've only ever seen the unboxing videos they did (which most of the videos consisted of pointing out how well packaged the props were) so I don't actually own any of the props, however the videos definitely show what some of the reviews I've read have also said. The J2's lights and sounds were completely off, the red light for the laser sight on top of the gun was made to be more like a flashlight than a laser sight in the prop, in the film the light does not look like that. All the sounds are completely inaccurate as well for how the gun actually sounded in the film. The Noisy Cricket also sounds nothing like how it sounds in the film. As for the Neuralyzer, this is a huge letdown. For one, that constant ringing sound is a lot less present in the film and in the prop it actually sounds more like the Noisy Cricket than the Neuralyzer. And for two, the flash for the prop isn't even that bright. And also many of the reviews I've read have stated that the Neuralyzer is very fragile and breaks easily.
The point is that the demand isn't as high as it should be because these companies have done a very poor job of replicating the props. There's no way I'm gonna spend $400 on a prop that isn't as accurate as possible, especially for the Neuralyzer which I really wanna get my hands on one. I mean we can't even get a decent MIB toy gun or Neuralyzer let alone the prop versions (I'd settle for a toy version if it was really good, but there isn't even any decent toy versions out there, the most accurate toy Neuralyzer is the costume one from Disguise that doesn't have any lights or sounds and you have to manually open it and close it). When SAT came in I had hope considering they actually made the props for MIB 3, but they just completely disappeared out of a nowhere. The MIB 3 guns are awesome, but my main concern is the MIB 3 Neuralyzer. Considering the Neuralyzer from MIB 3 has a much simpler design than it's predecessors it shouldn't be that hard to make, and it would be a lot cheaper too than the MIB 1 & 2 Neuralyzers. SAT promised this and many other things but never delivered, and it would've been a very simple task to at least give us the MIB 3 Neuralyzer.
If a company can actually make decent MIB props then the demand for them will increase.
Actually, the FE pieces were higher quality than MR. When I got my FE neuralyzer together with the MR, the MR was falling apart and no longer working. The Sound effects are supplied directly from the production audio tapes. FE cannot use a laser sight because of toy restrictions regarding lasers. The original prop did not have a laser anyway, it was an LED. If anything, they made the lights brighter and more vibrant.
Actually owning FE's pieces makes a difference. They are quite impressive in person. As someone else pointed out already, NO ONE has produced a Standard Issue in metal or a Noisy Cricket with sound so they are not simple rehashes.
Besides, I think you have it all wrong, it has nothing to do with quality. As someone has stated before, the market simply isn't there. WE may love the movies and want all of the props, but the casual collector does not. Casual collectors will buy anything regardless of quality or accuracy and they make up a large percentage of the target demographic.
SAT failed because the replica business is a difficult one and it is not the same thing to produce props for movies as it is for retail. My guess is that they started to learn that through a series of expensive mistakes that turned the run upside down. This means making replicas was now costing them more than they were taking in.
Again, these are all points other members have made already.
Actually owning FE's pieces makes a difference. They are quite impressive in person. As someone else pointed out already, NO ONE has produced a Standard Issue in metal or a Noisy Cricket with sound so they are not simple rehashes.
Besides, I think you have it all wrong, it has nothing to do with quality. As someone has stated before, the market simply isn't there. WE may love the movies and want all of the props, but the casual collector does not. Casual collectors will buy anything regardless of quality or accuracy and they make up a large percentage of the target demographic.
SAT failed because the replica business is a difficult one and it is not the same thing to produce props for movies as it is for retail. My guess is that they started to learn that through a series of expensive mistakes that turned the run upside down. This means making replicas was now costing them more than they were taking in.
Again, these are all points other members have made already.
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I'm sorry, but that simply isn't true. There is no demand for MiB props because they are in fact niche products in a market that is already just about as niche as you can get in nerddom. To restate, I LOVE the MiB films. They are great and also very rare examples of scifi-comedies that are actually good (along with films like Ghostbusters and Galaxy Quest). The MiB films are largely "forgotten" today. A nostalgic memory for the general public, only remembered for Will Smith and that song.
If there was money to be made in making other MiB props you can be sure that someone out there would be doing it.
The FE MiB replicas are fantastic representations of the props. (I have the neuro and standard issue, but not the cricket because I already had one.) They would have been worth the price even without electronics. (Resin-cast standard issue kits have cost upwards of $400 in the past due to their rarity... so the FE is a bargain.)
Lights and sound in replicas like this are really a bonus and there is no way a company can be expected to mass-replicate the electronics on a prop that was made specially for film-use only, especially not at $400. As stated, there are consumer laws in place as well that regulate what you can and can't do. Add a zero (or two even) to the cost and you can get what you want. Rick, who made the originals is a member here... if you send him a PM and offer to pay what it realistically would cost to make an exact replica I wouldn't be surprised if he agreed to it.
Bottom line: if you want something besides what FE is offering, either make it yourself or commission someone to do it.
I see what you guys are saying, but I still think there are ways around this. It all comes down to marketing and merchandising. If the marketing and merchandising teams who marketed and merchandised the MIB films made more MIB stuff, such as a proper MIB video game, higher quality toys, perhaps even another MIB TV series (wouldn't that be great), then they have the chance for MIB to not be considered a niche market anymore. Granted that of course costs them more money, but you have to spend money to make money right? MIB 3 was the perfect way to bring MIB back, and it did it great, but where are all the MIB products now? You can hardly find any of them. The MIB films are great, and it's really unfortunate that they don't get as much recognition as they deserve. The same can be said for Starship Troopers, if they made a bigger budget sequel that actually got released in theaters and made more merchandise than they wouldn't be in a niche market anymore. I see many great opportunities for these franchises to really make a bigger impact, it baffles me that if I can see all the great potential of them why can't the people in charge? Yes there may only be a few of us diehard fans out there now but I guarantee there can be more if the powers at be tried harder, and that would make this not be in a niche market anymore.
Bottom line and it ALWAYS comes down to that is the Studios more than likely DID do research and decided against handing out a license simply because the market research does not support it.
As others has pointed out MIB is dead in the water untill the reboot is out then we may see some props.
As others has pointed out MIB is dead in the water untill the reboot is out then we may see some props.
Do you honestly believe Sony truly did research? We're talking about Sony here, lately they haven't been the best studio. I mean they're rebooting Spider-Man AGAIN, and they came up with the horrible idea to have an MIB/21 Jump Street crossover, so do you truly think that Sony makes the best decisions? MIB isn't dead in the water, there's a possibility for MIB 4 which both Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones said they would consider starring in another one. Let's just hope there's an MIB 4 and not a reboot or crossover.
None of us know if they truly did market research or not. I know how the entertainment industry works. But even if they did research that doesn't mean they made the right decisions, I see many opportunities with films and film franchises that they could do but the fact of the matter is nowadays the general movie-going audience pays to go see bland films with no substance so they keep making those types of films instead of focusing on quality films. All of us are posting here cause we want these props right? So why don't we actually do something about it and try to stir up a large enough following to get these props made.
Of course they did
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I like your passion, get yourself a lawyer draw up a business plan and contact Sony.
You might be the next licensee!
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I like your passion, get yourself a lawyer draw up a business plan and contact Sony.
You might be the next licensee!
I just can't understand all the negativity you guys are having about the situation, I always try to remain positive and hopeful about things, positivity creates positive results. I commented on this topic that hasn't had any activity in about 3 years to try to see if we can get answers from SAT, cause no one has gotten any the past 3 years.
Although I have no experience with any prop making your comment did give me a good idea, I will try to contact SAT myself and see what happens. I also have a good plan that might spark more interest in MIB and it's props.
Although I have no experience with any prop making your comment did give me a good idea, I will try to contact SAT myself and see what happens. I also have a good plan that might spark more interest in MIB and it's props.
There is a huge diference between "negativity", Fan-boy rhetoric, and simply pointing out facts. :unsure
As has been mentioned in this thread some here KNOW EXACTLY what happened, but simply put, cannot talk about.
As has been mentioned in this thread some here KNOW EXACTLY what happened, but simply put, cannot talk about.
If people on here know what happened, than why can't they talk about it? It's not like they're leaking plot details from an upcoming film and they had to sign NDA contracts, unless of course they actually did sign NDA's, if that's the case than that's really odd for a prop business. If anyone on here knows anything please feel free to DM me.
