Dandy and Beano secret

[stevezodiac]

Agreed - who wants figurines? We collect comics. They'd sell a lot more copies at say £3.99 without the dumbass toy. Still at least they are trying to help us comic fans - the content looks quite good.

[Digifiend]

True, if people want figurines they'll buy the Robert Harrop figures. These figurines will surely be inferior quality if they're releasing it fortnightly (the website neglects to mention the frequency). The partwork would've been better off giving notable classic issues (for example, the issue with the debut appearance of the featured character) as the bundled gift instead, and yes, charging less (£5.99 would be fair for such a deal, considering the price of the modern comics). That I would definitely buy, but as it is, I'm concerned about storage space.

£7.99 a pop and probably be discontinued halfway through its run like the rest of the crap in this genre like the build your own battleship over 10,000 weeks etc etc

My mum knows all about that. She once started collecting a partwork called Let's Dance, which included video tutorials. It only lasted half a dozen issues.

[WizzKid97]

Slighty off-topic but something's telling me whilst the printed Dandy ends this December - the comic will continue but not fully-reprinted online.

The reason I say this is based on one thing - Stu Munro announced he was drawing a Tom Paterson classic for The Dandy as he announced on Twitter. The series was meant to begin in September - except it didn't and still hasn't.

After asking Stu myself on the whereabouts of his classic Paterson reboot, he said this:

The Paterson thing is coming soon

With six weeks left to go - surely it's too late to do a reboot series?

*fingers-crossed*

[starscape]

Agreed - who wants figurines? We collect comics. They'd sell a lot more copies at say £3.99 without the dumbass toy. Still at least they are trying to help us comic fans - the content looks quite good.

It's got more in common with the Marvel/DC figurines than the Beano/Dandy comic. None of these are published by the comic companies. The magazine is slim but fun in those. Definitely not worth £3.99. It's a figurine with a magazine. Saying it shouldn't have a figurine with it is a bit like saying the Justice League of America would be better without US superheroes. That's what it is. A comic isn't what is intended here - and the company isn't a comics publisher.

[Digifiend]

Like I said, there's already another company doing figurines. These won't be as good quality, and the niche is already filled.

WizzKid97, that's not off topic at all, as it may be what Nigel was talking about in the blog post I quoted at the start of this thread. He confirmed that while he is involved in the figurine collection, it's not what he was referring to.

Yes, I drew the plans for these figurines (and others) some time ago, nice to see them coming soon. But there's more in store. Just wait and see.

[Digifiend]

UPDATE 24/10/12: The publishers have informed me that The Beano and Dandy Collection was launched on September 5th but is only available in Newcastle at present, as a test launch.

Looks like we were too slow with this news.

[Gilly]

We can't be good at everything

[stevezodiac]

Sounds like Vulcan all over again where it was launched in Scotland first and by the time it got to England each story began with a vast "story so far" text box. I presume if this partwork is launched in the rest of the UK it will start from the beginning which will be very confusing for the distributors.

[Digifiend]

It's normal for partworks to do this. I can't help thinking they should've done the trial run in Dundee though.

[meherenow]

Just received my first and, er, last delivery by the looks of it.

Dear Mr meherenow

Thank you for subscribing to The Beano & Dandy figurine collection, however we regret to inform you that due to production difficulties, the publication of this title has had to close.

As we are unable to complete the series at this time, we would like to apologise by enclosing issues 2 and 3 free of charge. We would also like to offer you a bonus gift, a metal torch key ring. We hope that this is to your satisfaction and please look out for future exciting titles coming soon from Hachette Partworks.

Thank you and once again apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards,

Hachette Partworks.


So for metal torch key ring read cheap tat that was lying around by the thousands.

Strange, I never received issue 1, I wonder if they will still send that through?

The quality of the figurines is excellent, although I have to admit at £7.99 a pop for that and a 16 page pamphlet I was probably only going to subscribe to the first few issues to get the free gifts, and so it would probably seem did most of the folks in the test area.

[Digifiend]

So the figurine collection failed. Can't say I'm surprised, I'm sorry to say.

[stevezodiac]

It just confirms that there isn't much of a market for comics any more. I still think DC Thomson should have a go at a Punch style humour magazine - they have thousands of cartoons from the Weekly News archive and it would be aimed at adults - perhaps a Titbits type mag with some dolly birds. Putting funny captions on old film stills isn't expensive so that could be included - maybe a funny text story each week from one of the boys' papers.