A couple of articles on slashdot about the rising costs of metals and how it might affect US currency caught my eye lately:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/busin ... f=business
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/article ... shtml?s=us

And then there was this recent press release from RC2 (who makes Johnny Lightning cars in addition to other brands), citing the increased cost of zinc as a primary factor in reducing their profit margin:

(pdf) http://www.rc2corp.com/investor/financi ... _Q4_06.pdf
(html) http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2007 ... 33837.html

If prices of zinc, nickel, etc. continue to go up, how is it going to die-cast affect toy collectors? Will companies pass the increased costs on to the consumer, or will they take steps to reduce the die-cast content and include more plastic?

It will be interesting to see if a trend like this causes drastic shifts in the collectible toy industry, echoing the effects of the oil shortages of the 1970s on the toy industry, when companies shifted away from plastic and more towards metal.

I'm also wondering if this affected the delay of several recent toy releases like SOC Walker Galliar. Perhaps Bandai's manufacturers were looking for cheaper sources for raw materials?

Opinions?