Author Topic: Marvel Universe (Read 284046 times)

Brian · « **Reply #270 on:** July 30, 2009, 10:41 PM »

I was reading through this recap of SDCC over at the Fwoosh, and thought it sort of fit a lot of people's feelings about the whole scale switch with the Marvel figures. Things like classic Ultron, Enchantress, and the Wrecking Crew all look great - but would have been quite welcome in the Legends line. I often wonder if there has been a lot of switch over to the DCUC line because of the scale switch, or more than there would have been had Legends continued on full force. Granted, Mattel/DC has the advantage of still getting to make the big guns right now, while Marvel in many cases would have been scraping the bottom of the barrel, but anyways - the article seemed to fit some of our comments here lately. It will really start to sting when they start making all those ancillary characters from Spidey's world (MJ, Aunt May, JJJ, Gwen, etc.) in Marvel Universe, but never making a comic accurate, Legends-scale Mary Jane.

Dressel Rebel · « **Reply #271 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:37 PM »

Found the TRU exclusive 3 packs today.

I wound up passing on both of them. First of all, in the Spidey pack with the Iceman, while Iceman looked cool, getting another Spider Man and paying $24 for the pack didn't appeal to me.

In the Hydra, Hand, SHIELD agent pack, I didn't want the ninja repaint, the Hydra agent looked cool but isn't that the Union Jack just repainted? And the SHIELD agent looked bad, particularly from the neck up.

I basically would have paid $50 for the Hydra agent I wanted which apparently looks like Union Jack, and Iceman.

And that doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.

Diddly · « **Reply #272 on:** July 30, 2009, 11:55 PM »

I saw a variant of the Thing today at Target, in the negative zone costume. Looked pretty cool but I passed. I also spotted the Secret Wars comic packs and they pack the figures so tight in there that it looks like the joints are about to pop off.

Morgbug · « **Reply #273 on:** July 31, 2009, 01:22 AM »

Quote from: Brian on July 30, 2009, 10:41 PM

I was reading through this recap of SDCC over at the Fwoosh, and thought it sort of fit a lot of people's feelings about the whole scale switch with the Marvel figures. Things like classic Ultron, Enchantress, and the Wrecking Crew all look great - but would have been quite welcome in the Legends line. I often wonder if there has been a lot of switch over to the DCUC line because of the scale switch, or more than there would have been had Legends continued on full force. Granted, Mattel/DC has the advantage of still getting to make the big guns right now, while Marvel in many cases would have been scraping the bottom of the barrel, but anyways - the article seemed to fit some of our comments here lately. It will really start to sting when they start making all those ancillary characters from Spidey's world (MJ, Aunt May, JJJ, Gwen, etc.) in Marvel Universe, but never making a comic accurate, Legends-scale Mary Jane.

I think in many respects DC has managed it better, by limiting the heavy hitters and having better mixes of villains and minor characters plus enticing with the BAF part. In Hasbro's defense they inherited the line from ToyBiz who put out many of the major characters. But that's where my sympathy for Hasbro ends. All those characters you mentioned are legitimate releases from a collector's standpoint and would sell reasonably well, as minor SW characters do. Hasbro could have easily re-released many of the characters previously available in the 6" scale, particularly given the constant statements about kids driving the lines. Ok, cool, kids drive it. So release another wave with a Spidey, a venom, a classic Ultron, an Enchantress and Mary Jane. Follow it up with a Wolverine, a Sabretooth, a member of the wrecking crew, Dragonman and Gwen Stacey. Or theme the waves more consistently, whatever. But if the kids are driving the line, there should be absolutely zero issue with re-releasing Spiderman, Cap, Thor, Wolverine, etc. and sliding in some more rare stuff at a ratio of one or two per dozen to satisfy the small collector base.

The problem is the inconsistency in the logic. I think Hasbro's missing the point that collector's are somewhat loyal, but only to a point. They're also ignoring that collectors do have limited budgets, sometimes a diverse focus and the point that all things run a pattern and eventually lose major interest. Action figure interest is dwindling, period. So I agree with them that targeting kids as a future market is a great idea, but wholesale switches like this are silly. Kids don't care about scale (supposedly) - they play with the toys. So re-release what the kiddies want but don't alienate the 20-30% of collectors by doing other stuff. If the switch was because of economics, lay it out there plain as day as widely as you can. Don't play coy, it just pisses people off. If you were looking at selling the six inch scale at $12+ USD then tell collectors and other folks and gauge response.

And really, it's not like they made superb efforts following the takeover from ToyBiz. The distribution sucked, some of the figures absolutely sucked, some of the waves sucked and they altered the packaging pretty dramatically to something less displayable for the MOC crowd. That's a lot to screw with coming out of the shoot.

Yeah, I know, I'm a schmuck dweeb on a board in cyber space, but they used to get thousands of dollars from me and now they're down to probably looking at $1000 over the next ten years. In the grand scheme I don't matter a whit, but what about the rest like me? My opinion seems hardly rare or out of the norm. Mattel is getting more money from me lately and would get more still if the distribution was better. But overall I'm happy, my money is staying around here and in my pocket rather than feeding retailers and the manufacturer. That's ok for me.

Brian · « **Reply #274 on:** July 31, 2009, 01:37 PM »

Great points Brent. I think Mattel/DC did have the advantage of seeing what worked and didn't work with the Legends line (both under Toybiz and Hasbro), and like you said, their wave mixes have been pretty well done overall. You didn't see even Toybiz "spreading out" the big names quite as much as Mattel has been able to do. In the initial waves of Legends, you could get Iron Man and Cap in the same wave - today they would be in seperate waves as the "big draw", at least the way Mattel runs the DCUC line.

I think you make an excellent point about the continuation of Legends as well. Aside from a little bit of online complaining, I don't think there would be a problem with re-releasing (or even re-doing) the big guns from Legends (whether its for the kids or collectors, or both) and sprinkling them into "DCUC styled" waves with minor/supporting characters (like the mixes you mentioned). Heck, some figures (the Black Spidey from the Target exclusive wave) was an improvement over the previous Toybiz version I thought - so we might even get some better figures out of the deal. The quality of Hasbro's Legends has been iffy though, but I thought it was getting better (although sometimes tougher to find) with some of the later waves. I especially like the aforementioned Black Spidey, their Dr. Doom, the WM exclusive Torch, She Hulk, and the movie Iron Man off the top of my head.

One thing I have noticed too, even when comparing to ToyBiz's stuff, is that the DCUC figures seem much sturdier to me. They may not have quite the articulation that we saw with Legends, but I sure don't have as many troubles with loose joints and/or falling down with these guys. Not only do they look very nice on a shelf, I suspect they would be great toys for kids too. Anyways, like I've said before, I really like the 3 3/4" scale and it would have been great had they started this way in the first place - but it is getting tougher for me to keep buying them when I already have 6" versions on the shelf. I'll keep up with the Spidey stuff, the Secret Wars packs, and possibly a few others - but I don't think I can keep up with the MU in its entirety anymore (I do want that "Amazing Friends" 3 pack though, loved that show as a kid as cheezy as it might have been).

JohnH · « **Reply #275 on:** August 1, 2009, 10:53 AM »

I found the Daredevil/Iron Man/Silver Surfer TRU set the other day. I'd take the DD, maybe the IM, but the SS made it in easy pass at $30.

Also found the Nemesis Legends wave on a mini late-night toy run after having a few beers last night. Probably rip 'em open this afternoon.

John

Morgbug · « **Reply #276 on:** August 1, 2009, 03:13 PM »

Quote from: JohnH on August 1, 2009, 10:53 AM

Also found the Nemesis Legends wave on a mini late-night toy run after having a few beers last night. Probably rip 'em open this afternoon.

John

Really? Wow, so they're actually hitting retail?

Got an extra Tigra?

Brian · « **Reply #277 on:** August 1, 2009, 09:35 PM »

I went to the "across town" Wal-Mart today searching for the Droid Factory sets (didn't see any) and found the Nemesis wave there as well. There was one each of the entire wave on the pegs, aside from the Daredevil (although there was a Spidey/Iron Man from the Ares wave with them, for some reason). I didn't have a lot to spend, so I only picked up Black Bolt. I sort of wish I had gotten Tigra as well, but maybe I'll check back again next week and see.

JediJman · « **Reply #278 on:** August 2, 2009, 12:12 AM »

Wow - nice finds on the nemesis figs. I really want a Tigra - time to start hitting up wally world again!

JohnH · « **Reply #279 on:** August 2, 2009, 11:35 AM »

Tigra seems to be the popular one here.

Pretty cool figure - more sturdy than some of Hasbro's other female Legends. I'll see if I can track one down for you guys.

And thanks for mentioning the Ares wave, Brian...I forgot to say that they were packing Spidey, Heroes Reborn Iron Man and War Machine with these cases as well. I'm assuming those were the "leftovers" from when the Ares wave was out on the shelves (that was the case in my area) and that they probably won't re-release the other figures from that wave.

John

evenflow · « **Reply #280 on:** August 2, 2009, 06:32 PM »

Picked up the nemesis wave and the Spidey and Amazing Friends set the other day. I hear the ML 2-packs are out as well, but didnt see those.

JohnH · « **Reply #281 on:** August 2, 2009, 08:23 PM »

I put up some detailed pics here if anyone's interested.

John

JediJman · « **Reply #282 on:** August 2, 2009, 08:30 PM »

Very nice John! I may have to give some of those other characters another chance - the Daredevil & Blackbolt look pretty sweet.

In other Marvel News, I saw wave 2 of the Secret Wars comic packs while browsing on EE.

Check them out right here...

- Black Spiderman & Magneto is a maybe for me.
- Iron Man and Spiderwoman - holy crap I want that bad. $:-\$
- Hulk and Cyclops - yuck and what an awful pairing. I don't know a lot of X-Men & Hulk fans.

JohnH · « **Reply #283 on:** August 2, 2009, 08:38 PM »

Love the Spider-Woman, don't care about another Iron Man. Love the Magneto, already have a black Spidey. Missing Cyclops so I'll take it, but don't care about another Hulk.

And this is why I hate those damn 2-packs. You end up spending $13 on a single figure.

That's why I haven't bought the first wave yet (well, that and I've only seen them once).

John

Diddly · « **Reply #284 on:** August 3, 2009, 12:53 AM »

I'll get all those. The Spidey is cool because it doesn't have the blue tint that the basic figure does. The Hulk headsculpt is 1000x better than the basic figure so I'll be happy to finally get a Hulk.