January 22nd, 2003

Finances meet fandom

Well, it happens every day– Mammon always trumps the Muse. But as Marvel asks for– and gets– judicial recognition that the X-Men are not human, the fans are in an uproar. This WSJ article has the details. In sum, Marvel asked for the ruling because “non-human figures” have a cheaper duty rate from China than dolls– dolls being, ipso facto, “human figures.” Almost every time some bean-counter pulls a number out of his ass to justify a “cost-saving move,” the cost of pissing off your most loyal fans ends up being much higher.

All that being said, I find it hard to put a price on any action figure styled after Hugh Jackman.

posted by jay in popcult 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2003 at 1:54 pm and is filed under popcult. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Finances meet fandom”

  1. Peter says:

    Now that’s a funny story. I don’t know which is more pathetic, the toy company’s greed in trying to squeeze a little more money out of the (undoubtedly already profitable) figures or the fans’ major emotional reaction to this minor legal matter. I must say, I love the image of the judge disrobing each and every figure to better determine its human or non-human nature. (I’d take Gambit in a heartbeat!)

    January 23rd, 2003 at 12:31 pm