>>11078351>no idea how distribution worksAlmost everything is directly shipped from the docks to their respective distributors. Target and Walmart all have their own distribution centers. Probably the same with Amazon.
The only thing McFarlane Toys has warehouses for is for their own webstore.
If something is delayed, it's almost always because of a shipping problem and out of McFarlane's hands.
Fact is, McFarlane Toys handles announcements when shit is either being shipped out of Chinese factories or actually being loaded onto the ships. This is why their announced toys come out a month or two later, because that's how long it takes to ship stuff from China and for distributors to do their thing. This is how they've been publically announcing products for about 4 years now, while prototypes are first shown in private.
Most other companies make announcements when a prototype is approved and ready to be produced by the factories, if it isn't already in production. This is why it takes almost an entire year to see an announced product from a company like Hasbro or Bandai to come out in store shelves.
Sometimes prototypes are shown with "pending approval" sign right next to it. So if a licensor wants something fixed by Mattel/Hasbro/Kaiyodo/GoodSmile, it takes extra time to make those changes before it even enters production.
Was their Kickstarter Spawn the last time McFarlane showed something off like companies normally do? It took about a year from announcement to shipment.
I haven't been following their DC Direct or their other collector stuff, like Spawn closely, and i imagine they need to generate more public interest for that, since direct market stores need more marketing for orders. So maybe these too?
