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Marvel Legends Black Panther - wave & BAF update


RoboSnuf

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ID Toys have posted some shots on their Facebook page of the new Marvel Legends Black Panther wave Marvel Legends, boxed, revealing the BAF and two other figures. Looks like we're getting another Okoye (Danai Gurira's character in the movie) as the BAF, along with Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) as individual figures in the wave. Those who were hoping for Man Ape BAF (me included) are set for disappointment! Hopefully Okoye will be good enough in both movie and toy form to help relieve some of that disappointment.


These figures are on display (not for sale) at MCM London.


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OMG, I would say "Meh", but Meh isn't even descriptive enough. If anyone is aware of a word more Meh than Meh, please insert here. I was wondering what characters were gonna make it into the assortment as I didn't see anything in any of the movie associated media that really stuck out to me, but the final reality is worse, many times over, than I ever thought it could be. It's not that they are poorly executed figures it's just that they are extremely uninterestingly designed characters. Call me crazy, but I guess I was just expecting more superhero type characters in a superhero movie. Not to make the assumption that it's going to be a terrible movie, especially because I had high hopes for it from its announcement, but I must say I am drastically less interested in it today than I was yesterday based solely on the strength of this ML assortment. On the bright side, the Dr. Strange movie wave is no longer ML's most boring effort. At least they managed to use the wave to work in one of the more obscure characters like Nico. This wave coulda been used to possibly work in one of his teammates from the Ultimates that have little possibility of being made like Blue Marvel or Ms. America, both of which could have been made using 90 percent reused parts.

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I agree with what you said, especially when you consider the opportunity to include some Ultimates characters. The problem (and I ranted about this on another forum) is MCU characters have essentially taken over these waves! We've gone from 1 or 2 movie characters to BAF's being movie characters to (at least) half the assortment AND the BAF are MCU based. The MCU crowd in all their outcries for movie villains and more movie figs in general never took the time to think about all the recycling(Downey, Evans, Hemsworth over and over and over), or how plain a lot of the villain characters are ( Batroc, Zemo, Alexander Pierce etc), but they've continued to campaign and this is what is now shown for it. People see the Invincible Iron Man and they go "oh great. Another IM" but that isn't fair because the multitude of Iron Man figs we've gotten are MOVIE VERSIONS because he or his influence is in damn near every movie! The waves are getting weaker and less "colorful" because the MCU has begun the take over. Think about it; that new "true print" technology doesn't benefit comic based figures. Gotta justify the expense. The MCU figures were supposed to "help" the waves sell, not take friggin over. I dunno. 1st it was the collectors that wanted Hasbro to make the same characters in the same costumes over and over again, and now we have the MCU fans who essentially want the same ! Talk about not caring how your $20 is spent!

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Wow...meh is the only reaction I can give this wave. On the one hand I'm happy after all the amazing waves this year that this is either the last one for this year or the first one for next year, because I could use a break (financially speaking) from ML, but wow the drought is going to be rough. I guess I might pick up Iron Man, and maybe Killmonger, but the rest are an easy pass thankfully.

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We are now also getting a new black knight figure!!!!!!!!! In one of the infinity war waves. Confirmed at mcm London

That's awesome! Are there pics out there somewhere or was this something Hasbro just said.

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That's 4 comic figs revealed. Expect the rest of the wave to be filled out with another dose of MCU Captain America/Iron Man/Spider-Man/Starland force fed garbage. All bets are on that they still fail to give us the only MCU character that most of us are interested in, Vision. At least they managed to create a pretty decent line up of villians.

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That's 4 comic figs revealed. Expect the rest of the wave to be filled out with another dose of MCU Captain America/Iron Man/Spider-Man/Starland force fed garbage. All bets are on that they still fail to give us the only MCU character that most of us are interested in, Vision. At least they managed to create a pretty decent line up of villians.

They will come out with the Vision (MCU). He's the only Avenger left that hasn't been done. Keep in mind, this will be the Avengers franchise wave. That alone almost guarantees 2 waves (Like Captain America). Plus the added benefit of there being 2 movies back to back so we're talking probably 4 Avengers waves (which will be more than enough to accommodate the "mandatory Evans, Hemsworth and Downey in his MK 49 & 50 same mold/different paint app armor figures that's sure to come).

 

As for your (justified) sarcasm, we can blame it on the MCU, the movie fig collectors who on this very forum complain there isn't enough MCU figures produced, and of course Hasbro for giving in to that nonsense (I call it "nonsense" because these waves now boast at least half the wave being MCU as well as the damn BAF...and the MCU collectors STILL don't think that's enough). It's real difficult getting new characters in when we continue to get actors recycled and the fans of these actors continuing to demand to spend their $20 on the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again. My words are harsh, yes, but reality is harsh, and this our reality now.

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Eric Killmonger? KILLMONGER!?! At once the stupidest, and yet coolest, villain name I've ever heard (Killmonger).

 

Jessica Jones begs to differ... "Kilgrave? Was Murdercorpse already taken?" :smile:

 

As far as the wave is concerned I agree with the general sentiment of 'meh'. I never read the Black Panther comics but I would think there must be someone who has visited Wakanda who would qualify as a real BAF - not someone who could easily have been the 7th retail figure in the wave.

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Eric Killmonger? KILLMONGER!?! At once the stupidest, and yet coolest, villain name I've ever heard (Killmonger).

 

Jessica Jones begs to differ... "Kilgrave? Was Murdercorpse already taken?" :smile:

 

As far as the wave is concerned I agree with the general sentiment of 'meh'. I never read the Black Panther comics but I would think there must be someone who has visited Wakanda who would qualify as a real BAF - not someone who could easily have been the 7th retail figure in the wave.

 

 

Man-Ape was the BAF that everyone pretty much expected. Even though they've been releasing larger figures as standard figs as of late, he would have required enough new parts to make it happen.

 

The more I think about it, this wave is pretty much a waste because they are getting out damn near all of his supporting cast in 1 year. I guess the next BP wave will have 2 more BP figs, a TChalla fig, a movie Klaw...basically turn into a Strange-type wave

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Everyone's assumption about Man-Ape was well founded. He coulda been easily done with some slight alteration to the Man-Thing sculpt as it was mostly an overlay on a smaller buck. This BAF was the ultimate copout. Hopefully the creative team realized this was bound to be the weakest wave and saved budget for other assortments throughout the year. It's horrible but I'll buy it cuz I'm a pathetic completist & I can't help myself but.....dayamm!

 

Don't expect more than 1 BP wave cuz this one is far reaching as it is. I'm cool with the current Infinity War wave & I hope the second will be even better so maybe we'll have a half decent year. I still believe firmly that Iron Man, away from the MCU, is the next logical step, similar to the Spider-Man line. There are so many comic based armors & so many villains available that I just can't see being done in the Avengers line. There's characters like Melter, Living Laser, Mandarin, Blacklash, Crimson Dynamo, Guardsman, Mauler, Man Killer & any number of allies all ready for the take, not to mention characers like Titanium Man, Detroit Steel, Arsenal & Firepower that can all be done as the BAF. I swear, put me in charge of the line & I will kill it. I just do not understand the thinking of the creative team sometimes. There is so much untapped potential here. I know the MCU has to be pushed to a certain extent by contract but they just don't sell. There's MCU Thor, Loki, Starlord & Drax just littering the shelves in my area. It just doesn't work, man. It just don't. Put it to test. In a world where the are literally 1000's of characters to chose from, characters like Vanguard & Stingray & Firebrand outsell the same old MCU retreads 10 to 1. We just want a wide range of characters & new blood will win over the same old same old every time.

 

Things don't seem to be changing anytime soon so I'll hold faith that we'll be getting characters like Tigra, Hercules & Quicksilver sometime soon. I'm through trying to predict what the creative team's rationale is at this point.

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hasbro never, never, puts their A-game into a first wave of a new movie franchise. This is because they are playing it safe in case the movie flops.Now people may think this is unlikely but it is actually a smart move. We see all the trailer get hype and (not likely) the movie sucks. Why would people buy the toys of a #$@# movie. So hasbro decides just to do a okay wave.

 

They did it for GOTG 1, Ant-man, Doc Strange, Thor:Ragnarok, Amazing Spider-man 2 (they were right with that one), Captain America: winter soldier. Hell I'd even include the first wave of X-men in that.

 

Then when the movie proves a success and gets a sequel, that when they pour their money into it. Gotg got 2 waves with some of the most wanted Cosmics to date. Spider-man has proven that the Webslinger will always have his own subline in ML. Cap got 3 waves of figure for Civil wars and the X-men is getting a new wave every year even though Hasbro can't connect them to the movie.

 

TLDR: Basically, First movie play it safe. Sequel go all out.

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hasbro never, never, puts their A-game into a first wave of a new movie franchise. This is because they are playing it safe in case the movie flops.Now people may think this is unlikely but it is actually a smart move. We see all the trailer get hype and (not likely) the movie sucks. Why would people buy the toys of a #$@# movie. So hasbro decides just to do a okay wave.

 

They did it for GOTG 1, Ant-man, Doc Strange, Thor:Ragnarok, Amazing Spider-man 2 (they were right with that one), Captain America: winter soldier. Hell I'd even include the first wave of X-men in that.

 

Then when the movie proves a success and gets a sequel, that when they pour their money into it. Gotg got 2 waves with some of the most wanted Cosmics to date. Spider-man has proven that the Webslinger will always have his own subline in ML. Cap got 3 waves of figure for Civil wars and the X-men is getting a new wave every year even though Hasbro can't connect them to the movie.

 

TLDR: Basically, First movie play it safe. Sequel go all out.

I understand your meaning but how do you figure half the wave, plus BAF (and even though the size of the figure doesn't mean anything to me, for argument's sake I'll say "undersized") is "playing it safe"? They "played it safe" with Ant-Man, but that's about it. Maybe it's just a matter of opinion, but (minimum) half the wave plus BAF being MCU isn't playing it safe. To me, that IS going all out. They could've given us the Man-Ape as the BAF, and/or they could've given us the comic version of Erik Killmonger (the "bigger is better" posse would've loved that since he's a taller character) but instead, they gave us two Black Panther figs with different names on the same buck! Believing half the wave (at least) plus the BAF isn't going all out is MCU collector thinking from where I'm sitting.

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Agreed, I don't see Hasbro ever "playing it safe" when it comes to MCU based figs. They pretty much force the issue usually to the detriment of the line. We've seen time & again the real safe bet is on the comic based figs. It's 100 percent verifiable by the fact that MCU figures are almost always the ones that linger on the shelves long after a waves cycle has passed.

 

This BP wave is lame but even though it immediately seems like a minimal effort wave it actually is potentially one of the more costly waves of next year. Sure, Namor & Blackbolt are recycles & the BAF uses the exact same sculpt as one of the single card figs but the rest of the line is 100 percent original. The Killmonger & BP figures are very similar but they are clearly different sculpt's based on the different detailing on the sculpts and IM and Nakia are also new sculpts. Pair that with the fact that half the line uses actor's likenesses and it would seem that Hasbro expended a large part of the yearly budget for what's surely to be one of the worst waves of the year.

 

Would it not have made more sense to put the characters from the Klaw/Shuri 2 pack in this wave and put out Killmonger and Okoye in a movie 2 pack? Also in doing so, it would have cleared the path for a more inspired BAF. I don't think anyone will argue that we are in need of more characters from the Black Panther corner of the Marvel Comics Universe and Man-Ape woulda fit that bill. Hasbro has been able to improve on most everything Toybiz ever did but the one part where Toybiz did do it better was in the strategy to keep movie figs to a minimum of 2 per wave.

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according to some one who was at the MCM, Black Knight will come with 2 heads. One is the one pictured and the other is........................a brand new character in the Villain Black Knight. That right 2 will need to get 2 figure to 2 separate characters.!!!!!!!

So if this is true, here's what up; we now know that at least half the wave will be composed of comic characters. If the 2 heads report is fact, then we also know we're technically getting 4 villains. I'm thinking that's all the reveals for the Avengers until we get about 2 months out from movie release. Any reveals art Toyfair will more than likely be Spider-Man based and/or Avengers wave 2 comic based as well as some X-Men reveals. Here's hoping my "half the wave" line comes to pass because that means an 8 figure assortment (not counting the BAF).

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BOTTOM LINE!!!!! We wouldn't even be having this discussion if the waves weren't overloaded with MCU figs!!!! This line is supposed to represent COMIC characters. The movie versions of these characters wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for them originating on paper and ink. But because peeps have love ins with actors and actresses, we've had the number of characters (comic) we get vastly reduced to the point we don't even get Build-A-Figures anymore, unless it's a Spider-Man or X-Men wave, and with Spider-Man, it's only in non movie years! MCU collectors don't care about the characters or even truly know about them except for what they see on the big screen, and what's more, don't CARE to know, but they've nagged for "more More, MORE MCU that they've gotten their wish at the expense of the characters that made this line possible. We're at the point that next year, the MCU Avengers will be complete with the addition of the Vison (and yes he is coming). Can any comic collectors on these forums tell me if they've completed any Avengers roster? Or any team roster outside of the Fantastic Four (and I don't mean kitbashing squads like having Silver Centurion Iron Man in the ANAD Avengers)? I'll say it again; MCU characters were incorporated into the line to A-save it and B- move it along, NOT take friggin' over!

 

Dammit, I just can't stop myself from turning my posts into rants! Very sorry (again) people.

 

UPDATE: OK, I was wrong! The only complete Avengers roster was the original squad consisting of Thor, 1st appearance Iron Man, 1st appearance Hulk, and the two miniature Ant-Man & Wasp figures that came with the Goliath variant, or the original 4 Defenders (Doctor Strange, the Hulk, Sub-Mariner and the Silver Surfer). All from the Toybiz days (except Subby. We had to wait for Hasbro to release him in just his trunks in the Fantastic Four wave).

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