have PNSO prices become too high?

[GojiraGuy1954]

It truly pains me to see PNSO sell out like this. They made amazing sculpts, but right now they are just testing how unreasonably expensive they can make the figures and still have people buy them. I wouldn't be surprised if they go the same way as a brand such as S.H. MonsterArts.

[Creature]

"Too high" is a relative term that can't be quantified, because everyone's budget and value judgments are going to vary. That said, PNSO isn't the only collectibles company that's had to raise prices recently. There have been massive resin shortages in the US lately, and I know that Breyer specifically just raised all their costs at the start of July due to increased production and freight costs. We're seeing it start to creep into domestic action figure lines like Marvel Legends, and I'd be shocked if it's not happening with other companies too, so it's not necessarily a matter of PNSO "selling out." The US resin shortage may not apply to PNSO, but increased production/freight costs probably do. We're still in the middle of a pandemic, and I'm sure that factories aren't running full-steam yet. Add to that the extra amount of time shipping has been taking, and then also the shipping expenses/delays caused by the canal backup, etc. etc.

[GojiraGuy1954]

"Too high" is a relative term that can't be quantified, because everyone's budget and value judgments are going to vary. That said, PNSO isn't the only collectibles company that's had to raise prices recently. There have been massive resin shortages in the US lately, and I know that Breyer specifically just raised all their costs at the start of July due to increased production and freight costs. We're seeing it start to creep into domestic action figure lines like Marvel Legends, and I'd be shocked if it's not happening with other companies too, so it's not necessarily a matter of PNSO "selling out." The US resin shortage may not apply to PNSO, but increased production/freight costs probably do. We're still in the middle of a pandemic, and I'm sure that factories aren't running full-steam yet. Add to that the extra amount of time shipping has been taking, and then also the shipping expenses/delays caused by the canal backup, etc. etc.

Papo's Blue Whale costs £17.99

[Leyster]

Just to compare: GR Carcharodontosaurus and PNSO Amargasaurus v2

The old Amargasaurus is 58 euros on Aliexpress with box (probably the price of the newer version too), the Carcharodontosaurus is 51 euros with box (source: My Online Toy Store). The Carcharodontosaurus is cleary better painted, in addition to looking bigger (not sure of this, can someone who own both compare?). I think PNSO's becoming too greedy. The same can be said of pricing 30 euros the "Nanotyrannus", which looks as big as a standard Collecta like the Neovenator. I'm not saying the quality is the same, but the Collecta model is also 6 times cheaper. 20 euros was a fair price for the "standard sized" PNSOs.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Just to compare: GR Carcharodontosaurus and PNSO Amargasaurus v2

The old Amargasaurus is 58 euros on Aliexpress with box (probably the price of the newer version too), the Carcharodontosaurus is 51 euros with box (source: My Online Toy Store). The Carcharodontosaurus is cleary better painted, in addition to looking bigger (not sure of this, can someone who own both compare?). I think PNSO's becoming too greedy. The same can be said of pricing 30 euros the "Nanotyrannus", which looks as big as a standard Collecta like the Neovenator. I'm not saying the quality is the same, but the Collecta model is also 6 times cheaper. 20 euros was a fair price for the "standard sized" PNSOs.

Yeah.

[Dusty Wren]

This "PNSO is getting greedy" narrative is unnecessarily hostile, especially since none of us has the full picture of PNSO's financial situation.

For instance, if PNSO raised their prices so that they could pay their factory workers a decent living wage, that's a good thing. I'd rather pay extra for figures, even if it means that I could buy fewer of them, if it means that the people who make them don't have to survive on poverty wages while they produce dinosaur toys for collectors.

Look, it's possible that PNSO is just testing how much people will pay for their figures, but that's not the only possible explanation. The relative size of a figure or the complexity of the paint job aren't the only factors involved in the costs of large-scale manufacturing operations.

[Carnoking]

Plus with the amount of stuff they're releasing, you gotta consider diminishing returns. The more stuff PNSO chooses to produce back to back, the less opportunity they have for those products to generate profit for the next project.

[Bokisaurus]

This "PNSO is getting greedy" narrative is unnecessarily hostile, especially since none of us has the full picture of PNSO's financial situation.

For instance, if PNSO raised their prices so that they could pay their factory workers a decent living wage, that's a good thing. I'd rather pay extra for figures, even if it means that I could buy fewer of them, if it means that the people who make them don't have to survive on poverty wages while they produce dinosaur toys for collectors.

Look, it's possible that PNSO is just testing how much people will pay for their figures, but that's not the only possible explanation. The relative size of a figure or the complexity of the paint job aren't the only factors involved in the costs of large-scale manufacturing operations.

I agree! People keep on complaining about the price increase without or refusing to even think about what could be behind that.
Greedy is unnecessary and hostile word to use unless you are absolutely sure of the reason.

I for one believe PNSO is creating a mew market for their figures that right now has really no direct competition.

While their original low priced figures competed directly with the existing toy brands like Safari, CollectA, Papo, Schleich, etc. this price point market of figures priced $5-30 is already so crowded .
Then you have the opposite side of more high end pvc figures like Itoy, Nanmu, W dragon, GR, etc. whole figures price point starts at $70 and up to $100+ all competing for that market.

So I think PNSO is testing to see if they could create a middle market where there really isn't anyone consistent with the price point.

Lastly, shipping cost worldwide is really impacting prices of pretty much everything.

[GojiraGuy1954]

This "PNSO is getting greedy" narrative is unnecessarily hostile, especially since none of us has the full picture of PNSO's financial situation.

For instance, if PNSO raised their prices so that they could pay their factory workers a decent living wage, that's a good thing. I'd rather pay extra for figures, even if it means that I could buy fewer of them, if it means that the people who make them don't have to survive on poverty wages while they produce dinosaur toys for collectors.

Look, it's possible that PNSO is just testing how much people will pay for their figures, but that's not the only possible explanation. The relative size of a figure or the complexity of the paint job aren't the only factors involved in the costs of large-scale manufacturing operations.

I agree! People keep on complaining about the price increase without or refusing to even think about what could be behind that.
Greedy is unnecessary and hostile word to use unless you are absolutely sure of the reason.

I for one believe PNSO is creating a mew market for their figures that right now has really no direct competition.

While their original low priced figures competed directly with the existing toy brands like Safari, CollectA, Papo, Schleich, etc. this price point market of figures priced $5-30 is already so crowded .
Then you have the opposite side of more high end pvc figures like Itoy, Nanmu, W dragon, GR, etc. whole figures price point starts at $70 and up to $100+ all competing for that market.

So I think PNSO is testing to see if they could create a middle market where there really isn't anyone consistent with the price point.

Lastly, shipping cost worldwide is really impacting prices of pretty much everything.

The thing is, if you want to exploit a new price range, the quality of your products has to reflect that. PNSO quality has been getting worse as the prices have been going up.

[Bread]

The thing is, if you want to exploit a new price range, the quality of your products has to reflect that. PNSO quality has been getting worse as the prices have been going up.

I strongly disagree with this. If anything their quality and accuracy on skin textures has improved for most of their newer models. Now you can say some of their newer models, like the Nano, reflect some of their late 2020, early 2021 models skin textures which neither a good or bad thing, really depends on the customers' opinion.

It would be fair to say their quality has stayed the same as their prices have slightly gone up, but where do you see their quality going down?

[GojiraGuy1954]

The thing is, if you want to exploit a new price range, the quality of your products has to reflect that. PNSO quality has been getting worse as the prices have been going up.

I strongly disagree with this. If anything their quality and accuracy on skin textures has improved for most of their newer models. Now you can say some of their newer models, like the Nano, reflect some of their late 2020, early 2021 models skin textures which neither a good or bad thing, really depends on the customers' opinion.

It would be fair to say their quality has stayed the same as their prices have slightly gone up, but where do you see their quality going down?

Mostly the paint

[stargatedalek]

The thing is, if you want to exploit a new price range, the quality of your products has to reflect that. PNSO quality has been getting worse as the prices have been going up.

I strongly disagree with this. If anything their quality and accuracy on skin textures has improved for most of their newer models. Now you can say some of their newer models, like the Nano, reflect some of their late 2020, early 2021 models skin textures which neither a good or bad thing, really depends on the customers' opinion.

It would be fair to say their quality has stayed the same as their prices have slightly gone up, but where do you see their quality going down?

More detail =/= accuracy. You can argue back and forth whether you think it's better, but objectively it's less accurate. PNSO has been on a downward trend with accuracy of their products in the past two years.

[Bread]

The thing is, if you want to exploit a new price range, the quality of your products has to reflect that. PNSO quality has been getting worse as the prices have been going up.

I strongly disagree with this. If anything their quality and accuracy on skin textures has improved for most of their newer models. Now you can say some of their newer models, like the Nano, reflect some of their late 2020, early 2021 models skin textures which neither a good or bad thing, really depends on the customers' opinion.

It would be fair to say their quality has stayed the same as their prices have slightly gone up, but where do you see their quality going down?

More detail =/= accuracy. You can argue back and forth whether you think it's better, but objectively it's less accurate. PNSO has been on a downward trend with accuracy of their products in the past two years.

Have to disagree with you there. The last two years? I think they have improved compared to their old museum line figures which were heavily shrink wrapped. I will say that they have minor errors which are unappealing to some. Still though, my opinion on their quality vs. price is still well balanced, maybe a little high on some of their small figures.

@GojiraGuy1954 Understandable, especially seeing promo vs final product images. I will say that they are pretty consistent with their applications though, but some of their older museum line figures have gone down hill. Still their newer figures have definitely improved application wise, but then again to each their own opinion as one paint application/color scheme may be not as appealing to another person's eyes as to mine.

[stargatedalek]

The thing is, if you want to exploit a new price range, the quality of your products has to reflect that. PNSO quality has been getting worse as the prices have been going up.

I strongly disagree with this. If anything their quality and accuracy on skin textures has improved for most of their newer models. Now you can say some of their newer models, like the Nano, reflect some of their late 2020, early 2021 models skin textures which neither a good or bad thing, really depends on the customers' opinion.

It would be fair to say their quality has stayed the same as their prices have slightly gone up, but where do you see their quality going down?

More detail =/= accuracy. You can argue back and forth whether you think it's better, but objectively it's less accurate. PNSO has been on a downward trend with accuracy of their products in the past two years.

Have to disagree with you there. The last two years? I think they have improved compared to their old museum line figures which were heavily shrink wrapped. I will say that they have minor errors which are unappealing to some. Still though, my opinion on their quality vs. price is still well balanced, maybe a little high on some of their small figures.

@GojiraGuy1954 Understandable, especially seeing promo vs final product images. I will say that they are pretty consistent with their applications though, but some of their older museum line figures have gone down hill. Still their newer figures have definitely improved application wise, but then again to each their own opinion as one paint application/color scheme may be not as appealing to another person's eyes as to mine.

I think the museum line figures are awful, what concerns me is the gradual trend back towards those following the initially very good "third wave" of PNSO figures starting with the larger set of minis. The pricing and focus on detail over accuracy are both trending back towards those museum line figures which bothers me greatly.

[Bread]

The thing is, if you want to exploit a new price range, the quality of your products has to reflect that. PNSO quality has been getting worse as the prices have been going up.

I strongly disagree with this. If anything their quality and accuracy on skin textures has improved for most of their newer models. Now you can say some of their newer models, like the Nano, reflect some of their late 2020, early 2021 models skin textures which neither a good or bad thing, really depends on the customers' opinion.

It would be fair to say their quality has stayed the same as their prices have slightly gone up, but where do you see their quality going down?

More detail =/= accuracy. You can argue back and forth whether you think it's better, but objectively it's less accurate. PNSO has been on a downward trend with accuracy of their products in the past two years.

Have to disagree with you there. The last two years? I think they have improved compared to their old museum line figures which were heavily shrink wrapped. I will say that they have minor errors which are unappealing to some. Still though, my opinion on their quality vs. price is still well balanced, maybe a little high on some of their small figures.

@GojiraGuy1954 Understandable, especially seeing promo vs final product images. I will say that they are pretty consistent with their applications though, but some of their older museum line figures have gone down hill. Still their newer figures have definitely improved application wise, but then again to each their own opinion as one paint application/color scheme may be not as appealing to another person's eyes as to mine.

I think the museum line figures are awful, what concerns me is the gradual trend back towards those following the initially very good "third wave" of PNSO figures starting with the larger set of minis. The pricing and focus on detail over accuracy are both trending back towards those museum line figures which bothers me greatly.

Yeah I have that same fear too, although it would be cheaper on my end so I would avoid those figures. I don't see PNSO reverting back to heavy shrink wrapping, but they are indeed focusing on heavy details rather than accuracy. Again, this is based on a person's taste.

Another thing to mention, I still don't see the issue of accuracy affecting price. Maybe someone can influence me on that, but so far as long as PNSO are consistent and producing high quality products, I am fine with their price point, except for their smaller now $30 figures.

[Leyster]

@Dusty Wren  B @Bokisaurus ok sorry for the use of the "greedy" term, as I said multiple times English is not my mother language so at times my message may sound harsher than I intended them.

Anyway, I'm less prone than you to give them the benefit of the doubt: if you check the prices of their middle line, you'll note a trend on which figures started at $15 ca. (ie. Spinops, Stegosaurus) till PNSO's disappearance for a few months. Then PNSO was back, with $20 figures (Tuojiangosaurus, Borealopelta, Lambeosaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus etc.) and few larger $40 figures (Corythosaurus, Spinosaurus). Then with Sinoceratops they raised the price to $30 even for figures actually smaller than the $20 ones (Pinacosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus). At the same time they started with bigger, $70 figures (Wilson v2). Then the $30 wave ended and began the $40 one. One can't help but think that PNSO is experimenting, yes, but on how much they can ask buyers to spend until (as we say in Italy) the stretched rubber band snaps.

The problem is that they have little competion in their price range: the only figures around that price are Jurassic Park & Co inspired figures by Rebor and Nanmu, which have a different market. I actually wouldn't mind another company entering the field and giving PNSO some competition, I think it will force them to lower the prices once again. I think it's what happened to Papo: you can actually find the very big Giganotosaurus cheaper than the Acrocanthosaurus or the Baryonyx (both sightly smaller) from just a couple of years earlier, and I think that's because Papo realized the "higher end" tier figures market was gettin crowded and it was timeto move to another niche to survive.

[SRF]

I wouldn't say PNSO is focussing more on heavy details compared to accuracy right now. Just compare the skin textures of Wilson and Andrea to see what I mean.

Also, the skin detail on the Nanotyrannus is nowhere near the oversized scales that we see on Wilson. It's more detailed than the Pachycephalosaurus, but not to the level of models from last year.

[GojiraGuy1954]

@Dusty Wren  B @Bokisaurus ok sorry for the use of the "greedy" term, as I said multiple times English is not my mother language so at times my message may sound harsher than I intended them.

Anyway, I'm less prone than you to give them the benefit of the doubt: if you check the prices of their middle line, you'll note a trend on which figures started at $15 ca. (ie. Spinops, Stegosaurus) till PNSO's disappearance for a few months. Then PNSO was back, with $20 figures (Tuojiangosaurus, Borealopelta, Lambeosaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus etc.) and few larger $40 figures (Corythosaurus, Spinosaurus). Then with Sinoceratops they raised the price to $30 even for figures actually smaller than the $20 ones (Pinacosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus). At the same time they started with bigger, $70 figures (Wilson v2). Then the $30 wave ended and began the $40 one. One can't help but think that PNSO is experimenting, yes, but on how much they can ask buyers to spend until (as we say in Italy) the stretched rubber band snaps.

The problem is that they have little competion in their price range: the only figures around that price are Jurassic Park & Co inspired figures by Rebor and Nanmu, which have a different market. I actually wouldn't mind another company entering the field and giving PNSO some competition, I think it will force them to lower the prices once again. I think it's what happened to Papo: you can actually find the very big Giganotosaurus cheaper than the Acrocanthosaurus or the Baryonyx (both sightly smaller) from just a couple of years earlier, and I think that's because Papo realized the "higher end" tier figures market was gettin crowded and it was timeto move to another niche to survive.

Yeah this is generally my view of the situation as well

[stargatedalek]

I think discontinuing the minis is the biggest evidence they're increasing prices deliberately. Frankly they've been testing the waters for a long time, and getting rid of the minis and the vinyl line and replacing them with $30 figures barely bigger than the minis and "standard sized" (IE, similar size to Safari) figures that are rising to the same cost as the giant vinyl figures.

[Dinoguy2]

Has anyone looked into how much these cost in China? A lot of people seem to be assuming that the prices we see here are decided by PNSO and not the importers, which doesn't really make sense to me.