Monday, April 06, 2020

Extra at Home? Extra Item Each Week

What to do when there's a surplus of stuff?
Well, and a surplus of people who have to stay inside too...well, add an extra item! Since quarantines are all around and there's lots of stress and badness going on, it doesn't seem like there's a lot to do about it for just some merchandise site. But, all the while this virus thing is going on there will be 7 or MORE items EVERY week on SonicGear to try to help combat the boredom or stress of anyone who's keeping up with it. This should also be nicely helpful in catching it up with the surplus of stuff that is in the image bins as well.

Skip to the bottom for "Gear Content" on this post.

A fan question:
It's come into the inbox a lot lately so it bears blogging too: "Is the virus going to empty out store shelves of Sonic stuff & is it permanent?"

Actual Answer:
SonicGear isn't exactly the best to ask but it's sure not the worst either so here goes: Toys and clothes and accessories & everything aren't essential, so they're probably going to go on hold. BUT, stuff like that also has a really long cycle. That means that it takes a long time to go from license/idea all the way to store shelves. It also means that it takes a long time to clear off as well. Remember how everyone could so easily be tricked by the "Boom Ban Lie"? When they SAID "Oh all Sonic stuff will remain selling the same despite Boom-Style" and then....it kinda did for like 4 to 6 months and then everything and every modern character just disappeared away from merch? THAT delay was the cycle. It made it look like the boom ban wasn't going to happen and it helped to trick people into thinking they weren't lying.

The cycle will be active here during the virus too.
So, items like the cool Jakks Pacific Bendables will probably still be around when the stores open back up. So will everything else if it was there before the whole thing started. Once it all gets bought up / once people are able to buy again...well things could get sparse.

Will it put companies out of business?
Like action figure companies or pin makers etc? I have no idea. Nothing like this has ever happened before so probably nobody knows if non-essentials companies who were making the items in the USA (like pin places do--yes some are Chinese done but lots of pins you'll see are made in the USA as well because they don't require a ton of special stuff/factories) are going to get through it or if they can get help/etc.
China stuff the answer is likely going to be "they'll keep going" but the 'how' will depend upon what the companies here do/request/how they act after the virus is defeated*.

So my guess is that stores will be shaken up but this world wide problem isn't going to cancel cool forever or make everyone never care about toys and fun stuff again. The question will be how long does it take to fix things after it though.

*The virus will absolutely be defeated.
Absolute loads of really smart people are working against the virus every day and when you put everybody together like that nothing can stand up against it for very long. Good will win.

Gear Content

Item of the week:
Mania Chopsticks. Sonic utensils! It's unique enough so it had to get item of the week. But, why aren't there MORE themed chopsticks? They seem like such an obvious choice to make because plastic+branding+inexpensive just seems like such a natural fit. You could do all sorts of cool things with them. It's surprising that there aren't more Sonic theme chopsticks.

Interesting- The 'holo' tee that's actually lenticular. How are you supposed to wash this? As a tee collector I was sorely tempted by it but ultimately passed it up because what do you do with it?

Loot Crate is flying under the radar:
They're slipping Sonic things into the crates and it isn't getting reported. Is it because the loots aren't popular enough? Not many subscribers? They had...what, a Shadow figure or something a while back? It just seems too risky though to pay a  bunch of money for sight-unseen stuff and then maybe it's Sonic and good or maybe it's rubbish...

Next Week:
Japan is going to get into the spotlight with more items.