Trick Dudes: The End of the Toy Line (2009)

Here is a screenshot of the one and only Trick Dudes wave:

Trick Dudes had one figure exclusive to the line.

Metal Man: An Iron Man parody fittingly released following the first RDJ Iron Man film in 2008. 

The Unreleased Trick Dude 

This is a Trick Dude version of Hunter (#127) - who was released as a regular dude in 2006 with a Zood and re-released in G4 reprints.

G4 & Trick Dudes: The End of TDD

Spin Master acquired the rights to Tech Deck and its sub-themes from X-Concepts in late 2006.

Simply put, it seems dudes were put on the back burner and Spin Master cared more about Tech Deck and Tech Bike. The latter was absorbed into Spin Master's Trick Flix, which had previously competed with Tech Bike. 

The dude lines were more of an added bonus. Spin Master even began including promo material for misc boys toys in the dude boxes (ex: packs for Zoods Crew 3 reprints and Zoods Crew 4-6 contained promo cards for Spin Master's SWYPE OUT toy car line). 

Moreover, Spin Master cut the number of dudes in all the lines, going from 6 Toys R Us six-packs per wave and 12 dudes per single-pack wave to just 3 Toys R Us six-packs per wave and 8 unique dudes per single-pack wave.

G4 dude sub-themes were added in 2008-2009 to take the line in a new direction and to make up for the removal of the line's key features, including: 

- Zoods "Releashed": Reimagined the small Zoods into giant pull toys that dragged dudes along. 

- Ripboards: Giant version of Blastboards 

- Trick Dudes: A line with hard plastic dudes with no bendy arms or detachable boards that did one trick. 

I appreciate what the designers tried to do with these lines, going bigger and branching outside of the core gimmicks given the loss of the magnets. But, I wonder if Spin Master felt these lines didn't sell "enough" since each consisted of just one wave?

A larger company like Spin Master does not have the patience to let lines grow slowly. Unlike the experimental and bold X-Concepts, Spin Master was (and still is) a public company with shareholders and greater production costs. 

So, Why Do I Think Popularity Slumped Slightly? 

Alright, this is just one man's take trying to perform an analysis on the cancellation of a toy line from 15 years ago, so take it with a grain of salt.

I think G4 and Trick Dudes did not get the chance to revamp the line because cost-cutting and/or safety steps taken by Spin Master veered off the course of "Evolution" stamped on every box from 2003-2006 in the X-Concepts days. This was coupled with lower interest in extreme sports by the late 2000s compared to the mid-90s to early- 2000s. 

Let's objectively examine the "Evolution" from 2000-2008 and how Spin Master cutting costs may have broken it:

G1 (2000-2003): Introduced the dude toy line, added magnetic feet within a year, then added tons of lines: Playsets, light-up Hot Feet boards, the Deluxe series with barrels, and so much more. 

Now, G1 was a little more chaotic because the TDD brand was a new one. They did everything and anything - shirts, shoes, school supplies, signs, posters, cut-out cards in magazines, vending machine stickers, Talking Boards with a free dude, keychains- lots of random collabs). So, G2 sought to grow the core line and cut the misc and less profitable partnership outsourcing.

G2 (2003-2004): Streamlined the lines to single or multi-packs, Hot Feet packs, and playsets. It evolved the line with a trading card game, added arms, and improved paint jobs and mold quality for each dude.

Okay, the line has found its footing (or hand-ing?), so they chose to experiment with a now more successful line with innovative and new ideas, so cue the peak of sales in G3! 

G3 (2004-2008): Added fun play features while maintaining the established magnetic feet and boards and free pack of "collect them all" trading cards. 

Those new features include Bendable arms (with "MY ARMS BEND" word bubbles next to the dudes on the bubble, in case you couldn't tell). Similarly, these new bendy-armed G3 dudes had new kid-friendly, play-feature-centered, and marketable sub-themes. These ranged from pull-back blast boards, magnetic accessories, magnetic pets, and a new clash cube dice game. You could even buy some 2-packs with clash cubes and packs of trading cards. Dudes would have different paint deco variants, or even molds, across multiple pack types and sub-themes. G3 also made non-ramp playsets and vehicles, thus experimenting with scale and going beyond G1 and G2's skate ramp/rail sets. G3 is really when the line peaked because it was no longer JUST a skateboarding toy, there was something for any kid. 

Then, post-acquisition, the cycle of growth broke. 

G4 (2008-2009): Removed the standard magnetic feet and boards, nixed different color boards for uniform red smaller ones, removed bios on trading cards, removed the plastic protection on NIP card backs, removed clash cubes, new dudes had one variant as opposed to 2-3 across multiple themes when they dropped, and decos for previously released dudes had fewer details/accents on them to save money in production. 

In short, that evolution/innovation that made the line sell at its peak was removed. So, interest and sales likely decreased. 

A BIG caveat here: It's never the fault of the designers. They really did a great job G4 and tried to find any new way to find unique play features with a more limited toolbox. It's a shame because the designers in G4 created some of the line's best parody dudes, as well as awesome playsets. They really gave it their all!

Tech Decks and Tech Bikes remain a Spin Master mainstay, as their sales were and continue to be more sustainable since the acquisition of X-Concepts by Spin Master in 2007. After all, those two lines are the extreme sports equivalent of Mattel's Hotwheels or Matchbox for car toy collectors. 

 

The Trick Dudes, one set of eight single packs, and three six-pack reprints in 2009. Those were the final dudes on shelves for 9 years until the 2018-2019 relaunch. Unfortunately, this G5 blind bag revamped line in 2018 also seemingly didn't sell well, so the line ended within a year. 

Will we ever see dudes again? I honestly don't know, but that's okay. They are a wonderful product of their time and a massive source of nostalgia to anyone born in the 90s and early 2000s. Toy lines like this, Homies, NAK NAKs, and others are so unique and may never be made again, at least not in large retailers. Knowing this makes the original eight-year-long Tech Deck Dude line unique and pure. We may never have it again. Lastly, the elimination of or near elimination of Tech Deck's most common store partners (Toys R Us, KB Toys, JCPenney, KMART, and KOHLs) solidifies these dudes may not see a sudden revamp post-2018 blind bag line failure.

What a dream team of designers. If you're reading this, well, thanks for the dudes, dudes!