SDCC is just round the corner and of course I’m very excited of it. SDCC is the second biggest con in the figure collecting community with NY Toy Fair coming first. Unlike Toy Fair, SDCC have exclusives. Of course it has it’s share of lovers and haters with many of the big name brands releasing a slew of exclusives only available at the con or around the con.

As I’m in the UK it’s near nigh impossible to get these figures. As some of them are only available at the convention and our toy stores don’t stock them. Though some of them do reach the UK market to an extent a few months after they have been released in the US. On EBay I have seen NECA’s Dream Child Freddy B/W Freddy, NECA Retro Dream Child Super Freddy, NECA Freedom Force Rambo and NECA Glow In The Dark T-800 Endoskeleton.

I have NECA’s Retro Pamela and Young Jason set from Friday the 13th, Freedom Force Rambo and Hero From The Sky Ash which was an SDCC exclusive a few years ago. So I have high hopes that some of them will make them to UK shores later this year.

What I really like about companies now is that they’ll re-release their exclusive figures to the retail market a few months down the line. With different packaging and accessories. People have been rather angry at NECA with them releasing Newt from Aliens as a SDCC exclusive. Though NECA have time and time again have said they’ll find a way to release Newt so that the fans who missed out will be able to get her which is great. I know she’ll come with different accessories and I honestly don’t mind that.

Also Hasbro will be releasing Old Ben Kenobi from A New Hope at long last which I can’t wait for.

Recently NECA have collaborated with Shout Factory/Scream Factory in the USA to release exclusive figures with their releases of The Bill and Ted Most Excellent Collection and Child’s Play in their deluxe editions. With B&T we’ll be getting a retro Rufus figure played by George Carlin in the films and a retro Good Guy Chucky Doll figure with Child’s Play. As those labels only operate in the States it makes it very hard for collectors overseas to get these figures. NECA have said that we’ll be getting a Retro Chucky figure in different packaging and accessories with a different which is great for me.

Some exclusive figures like NECA’s 7″ DC film offerings never make it overseas as no one wants to distribute the figures over here in the UK so it’s impossible to get them. As the saying goes don’t hate the player hate the game. the production companies are not at fault here it’s the distributors, they don’t believe they’ll sell which is a real shame.

As you can probably guess i’m in favor of exclusives, there’s positives and negatives to them. Which I think I’ve discussed very well in this article. So which sides do you fall on ?