Why do Toy Companies not replace missing parts and accessories?

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: so I really do love getting suggestions from subscribers either in the comments section or emailed because well that's the best way to know what people are asking about the toy industry and I got a email from Brian B who had bought a product that had a small accessory I think in this case it was a like a small car that came with something and they lost the car I think it wasn't a Hot Wheels set but let's just call it a Hot Wheels set for clarification so he wanted to know if he contacted the toy company how he could get a replacement for that exact car that exact accessory that came with the larger toy and he was a little surprised when I told him yeah you can't do that why don't toy companies replace lost accessories well let's jump into that on Spectra Creative hey guys welcome back I'm Scott Toy Guru Nightlick your host here a longtime toy collector and toy maker which gives this channel a unique voice thank you for being part of it we couldn't have this channel without you it's appreciated and uh thank you to Brian B for writing in with the question how do I get a toy company to replace a lost accessory right I mean we've all had this happen at some point right you either buy a figure that doesn't come with an accessory well that usually doesn't happen I mean there's toy errors but usually it's because like you know the figures blistered upside down or the wrong figure is blistered in or something like that everything except for that Batman Beyond figure that really was upside down but that's an entirely different video for another time so uh the the question Brian B was asking is why don't toy companies replace lost accessories now there have been there are a few companies that that actually include extra accessories to lose like wait what yeah well I mean you know most Lego sets include a few extra pieces sometimes they're random sometimes they're you know pieces that might break while assembling the toy Ikea is notorious for that as well is throwing in a couple extra bolts and uh you know the little turny wiggamajigs should they have a technical name I'm not exactly a handyman myself sorry sports and in construction two things as a as a guy I have little knowledge of but I could tell you everyone who was in the Star Wars Cantina weird skill sets we all have as adults all right so yes outside of you know Lego and Ikea with which are both construction based and it makes sense that you might lose a part while trying to build something the only example I could think of where a toy deliberately included extra pieces for you to lose is this one here the uh toy biz Lord of the Rings Sauron did I pronounce that right with the extra ruling of the R there my my Tolkien is a little weak I haven't read Lord of the Rings in a year or two but um yeah that that figure came with five count them five one ring and you might say well wait a minute there's only one ring to rule them all why are there five well because toy biz rightly knew that kids and maybe some collectors are going to lose this tiny but very vital accessory in order to enjoy the call it maximum coolness of the toy right what's Sauron without his ring it's like Darth Vader without a lightsaber or you know herbie without his engine so yeah it came with extra rings the exact same ring you just got five of them because you were allowed to lose four of them all right so outside of that very very rare example why don't toy companies replace accessories well Brian and where in the world are toy companies going to store them I mean think about how far back do you need to go two years five years ten years twenty thirty years are toy companies responsible and I'm asking in the hypothetical here but you know as part of this video um what are toy companies responsible for you know obviously we're going to lose and break toys toys do not last forever um you know unless we keep them on our shelf in a you know environmentally air contained space with no dust or sunlight or breathing on it but then it you know stops being a toy and starts being a museum piece like the mona lisa which is as they say in fight club even the mona lisa's falling apart so that's really the big reason is you're talking about just the sheer number of accessories so if you think about it let's say a toy company makes a hundred action figures a year and each action figure comes with two accessories all right so now you've got 200 accessories a year now five times five years now you've got a thousand all right where is a toy company going to store a thousand accessories and you'd be like well you know accessories are small right you know let me grab a couple off my desk i have random accessories i always have random accessories right here's a here's a spear gun and here's the autobot matrix of leadership and here's a gun like just a gun and here's a bowl of popcorn okay so let's say you know i'm a toy company and i made this bowl of popcorn i think this is from a uh palisades muppets toy i want to think well where are they going to store all these accessories if you've ever been to a pick and pack facility i'm fortunate enough to have worked for a few companies that had pick and pack like entertainment earth for example i worked for them for about a year designing their pinmates program and that's that that's these little guys here pinmates they're adorable i wish they took off they didn't more is the pity but even even you know a company that just ships out finished goods like entertainment earth or amazon or big bad toy store or any online retailer you have to have a pick and pack facility where you basically have plastic shoe boxes for more better or worse on shelves and each plastic shoe box contains you know items that are and usually there's a barcode on that that that outer box and it will tell you how many units of you know let's say this gun or this popcorn are in that plastic shoe box so if somebody orders a product look you know then when you remove it from that shoe box and you scan it well by scanning it now you've told the system that there's one less so that's how inventory can be tracked i mean that's just one way some people just do it with a pencil and paper some people don't do it at all and go out of business but you know i'm looking at you loot crate all right so that's one of the biggest problems in call it the toy retail industry is is storage space when i was in entertainment earth for example they had a huge palette of rose ticos that just could not be sold and it it just took up space and every day that something is taking up space going unsold that is costing you money because you have to pay rent for that space i was behind that whole you know 12 rose rose rose ticos on valentine's day uh promotion and that was because i had suggested that in a staff meeting as just almost a joke as a way to get rid of all these and they wound up going with it which was really funny um but that's not important right now the point is is storage is extremely expensive so if a toy company is going to pay storage on every accessory they've made just in the past six months you're talking a room you know a year could be you know a warehouse five years could be two warehouses and you know how many units do you need to hold you know if you have this little gun or you know i'll keep using my popcorn bowl because it's you know not violent unless you throw it at someone can you kill someone with popcorn i guess maybe you could find a clever way but it's a lot less violent than the gun or the spear gun so we're going to use that all right so with my non-violent accessory yeah so how many do you keep on hand a hundred two hundred a thousand how many you're expecting to have to replace these are all unknowns let's say you want to keep 200 units of 200 accessories so yeah you know you're talking a lot of these little shoe boxes and in a lot of pledges minds like well that's no big deal just get a bunch of plastic shoe block boxes and put them like in a warehouse do you have any idea how much that costs i mean that's why loot crate went out of business they had 26 million dollars in excess inventory they could not sell even practically giving it away like that that damn han solo episode 7 pop that they ordered you know 900 more than they had subscribers because they thought that was a good idea that's what happens when people aren't collectors try to run a collector business but that's again a whole other youtube video so yeah that's really the big issue is storage it costs so much money to store product that expecting requiring toy companies to keep barrels or plastic shoe boxes or whatever even plastic baggies full of accessories and organized so that if a customer calls and says i lost said accessory i need it back um you know having the facility to be able to pick and pack and mail that accessory to a customer that is really really expensive to do and toy toy companies don't have the money or the facilities to do that and that's basically the the short and long of it i know it's blathering on a little bit there but that's why um you know most action figures come with with something that adds value whether it's a you know a popcorn bucket or a stand or you know here's a here here's a book here's a here's a cat in a sandwich but yeah i mean how many cats in a sandwich you know is uh is neca gonna hold on to to replace people who bought an elf and need this back it's too expensive is really what it is so hold on to your accessories or buy another one i know that's probably not the uh the advice people wanted to hear but that tends to be what you need to do because no company is going to keep just hundreds of units what they'll do is they'll refund you for the entire toy as opposed to getting mailing you an accessory and i know that that becomes a bane for a lot of collectors because toys are hard to find sometimes so if you have a really rare toy or something that was even a struggle to find at retail like it was short packed you lose an accessory and the company says oh well we'll just refund you for the entire toy and you're like but that's not what i want i don't want my money back i want the toy with all its accessories and if you give me say oh i don't know you know the twenty dollars back that i spent what if it cost me a hundred dollars to replace this toy that was hard to find because on the aftermarket he was short packed and that's exactly the problem and there is really no simple solution because it's just too expensive to store accessories and unless companies are going to start packing more double accessories with toys with the intention that you're going to lose one well we're just going to start keeping track of our stuff aren't we all right i know this may not have been the answer people wanted but at least it provides the logistics and it is the answer not necessarily the one you wanted to hear so again thank you brian b for sending in the question it's always appreciated keep those questions coming and keep tuning in for more insights into the toy industry and you know check out all my books on amazon because they're awesome all right thanks for watching i'll see you guys in the next video