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Build-A-Figure Concept Extrapolations...


DSmith

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I was reading a convo in another thread (I think it was between Rukkdeez and Monron), talking about the virtues (or not) of the BAF Vulture Wings concept.

 

It got me thinking... How would you take the BAF concept in a different direction, or further?

 

I remembered an idea I had for a BAF concept where there was a BAF Stepford Cuckoos. Each figure in the wave included the same part (like a left arm), but had five left arms, all with a different "highlight color" on each to differentiate between all five of the sisters. The torso could be a standard paintjob (no highlight color), and packed with an individual character that is meant to army-build on its own (Multiple Man?) which would make sense to own five of, in order to acquire five torso pieces.

 

The smallest figure in the wave would be packed with all the Cuckoos heads with different facial expressions. It would only take 6 figure purchases to acquire a total of 11 characters, unless they wanted to distribute all the BAF parts in a different way across 8 figure purchases. Or if they kept it to 6 characters in the wave (plus 5 Stepford Cuckoos), they could triple pack Multiple Man in the case assortment, allowing more ease to locate a natural army builder. And importantly, no spare parts leftover.

 

 

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Taking this idea one step further, what about BUILD-A-TEAM?!

 

For example, New Mutants, who, at different times, have worn uniforms that are nearly identical, with minor differences.

 

Each main character could include multiple limbs, but each would be a different body type (lean male, muscular male, lean female, curvy female), but all painted in same uniform type.

 

This technically is 8 character purchases, which would gain us 12 full characters. Let's say that the Build-A-Team characters are Karma (lean), Cypher (lean), Sunspot (muscular), and Moonstar (curvy).

 

Within the character purchases, we receive Cannonball (with blast effect lower body, and the lean lower body pieces included elsewhere in the wave, are interchangeable to make a non-blasting Cannonball), and Magma (who, powered-up, is not visibly in a uniform, and thus a unique addition to the team.

 

If we want to consider Wolfsbane, we could included a transformed Wolfsbane as the main character purchase, with an alternate, standard Rahne Sinclair head to swap onto the Karma lean body, for a depowered option. Could also include a powered-down Magma head that works on the curvy body, if desired. Let's add Sunspot powered-down head to that list as well.

 

Potential for a 7-member team, and powered-down versions of 3 single-packed characters as alternate swappable part options. The 7-member team still doesn't account for 5 other characters that would be single-packed to distribute all these limbs and torsos.

 

Character 1 - 4 left arms, plus powered-down Magma head

Character 2 - 4 right arms, plus powered-down Sunspot head

Character 3 - 4 left legs, plus wolf pack-in

Character 4 - 4 right legs, plus powered-down Rahne head

Character 5 - includes lean male torso (Cypher), with head

Wolfsbane - includes muscular male torso (Sunspot), with (powered-up) head

Magma - includes lean female torso (Karma), with head

Cannonball - includes curvy female torso (Moonstar), with head

 

This wave, if you buy all 8, can give you 12 unique characters, as well as powered-up and powered-down versions of 4 of the characters (Cannonball, Magma, Wolfsbane, Sunspot), providing 16 display options from this wave. 17, if you count the full-wolf Wolfsbane pack-in. AND IT GIVES YOU A WHOLE TEAM AT ONCE!!!!

 

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What are your BAF concept extrapolations for something new?!

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Bro, that is awesome. That's thinking outta the box, yet addressing the team builder concept that stays pretty relevent. At this point the amount of large, yet not huge, characters eligible for BAF treatment is getting smaller so eventually there will have to be some sort of adjustment to the BAF formula and this could work on so many levels. Teams like X-Men, SHIELD, AIM & Hydra could all be qualify for this treatment. The only problem I think would be the appeal to the general public who may not have much exposure to the source material. On the other hand though, we know the fans drive the line and maybe the appeal of building an army could be more attractive to pedestrian fans than we realize. It's one of those things I personally think is worth a shot and if it's well received that's another valid direction for future waves.

 

My idea is one I put out there a while back and that is a bit of an extension to existing figures but themselves can stand ad it's own figure. I think it's a smart idea to produce multiple figures of characters that have alternate forms. The easiest way for me to explain is with Wolfsbane. In an eight character wave one of the figures would be Wolfsbane in her hybrid form (just cuz it looks cooler than her human form) with a complete wolf form accessory and the other figures in the wave could have various BAF pieces to create her human and complete Lupin forms. They would all be their own figures but they would also be representative of the character however one may chose to display her. There's a few other characters I can think could be done this way, like Snowbird or Beast in his continuously changing looks. It's a bit of a stretch but its just one of the ways I was thinking of what a future for the BAF could be, assuming the concept is kept throughout the life of the line.

 

And to be clear, the only thing that made said discussion any convoy is me fighting back a comment that I felt like I was entitled for expressing my opinion that the Vulture figure was incomplete. The base defenition of entitlement is getting something for nothing which does not apply because I've been collecting ML from its inception and I have yet to receive anything for free, nor do I ever expect to. I'll leave it there.

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Agree! And you'll see I squeezed three forms of Wolfsbane into that New Mutants wave. LOL.

 

I think Build-A-Team concept could be sold to the consumer based on the sheer value of how many characters you can build at the same price point, AND for the completists, knock a whole era of a team in one fell swoop. New Mutants particularly, could work, considering the movie that's in the works based on this team.

 

Of course there's been such a mutant slow-down in ML that it's easier for me to think of this in terms of X-Men Blue/Gold teams, Liefield X-Force, the 90s X-Factor Havok/Polaris team, classic Excalibur, Generation X... but as a theme wave, it works for nearly anything, like Alpha Flight, Inhumans, or splinter concepts like Morlocks (in an X-Men wave), Hellfire Club Inner Circle (also in X-Men wave), Shi'ar Imperial Guard, Starjammers, Reavers, New Warriors....

 

It's also like splicing a boxed set concept into a Build-A-Figure idea, and it gets more figures/characters to market in one wave release than ever before. One could also use this for costume alternates for main characters in a wave, like the original 5 X-Men in their X-Factor uniforms, or Future Foundation versions of the Fantastic Four.

 

Build-A-Team concept might have some legs! (and Arms!... couldn't resist)

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I think all the above are fabulous ideas! They should be passed on to Dwight Stal and the design team. Trust me when I say they listen. Several years back at SDCC, I suggested to Dwight they should think about an Odin Build-A-Figure. Well the following year passed and at SDCC that year I never mentioned it again. Fast forward to the next year and that Thursday at SDCC, Dwight came up to me as said "yo're gonna be happy with tomorrow's reveal". That reveal was Odin. He remembered my suggestion 2 years after I made it. I'm quite sure others made the same suggestion, but he remembered I was one of them. My point is they do listen.

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That's an awesome story Rukk. Will you be in attendance for Toy Fair?

I wish! The sad thing is I'm from New York, but Have never attended Toy Fair or NYCC (not that NYCC is anything special), but living in San Diego now has allowed me to go to SDCC over 5 years running (It's almost nervous time again when pre-registration goes down).

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Nice! I live in FL and have never made it a priority to attend Toy Fair, NYCC or SDCC (one of these days!)

 

Hit me up before SDCC as I would love to pass on 2-3 questions for you to ask Dwight, assuming you get the chance to talk to him and even want to entertain my request in the first place lol but I can say this, based on every interview I've read/watched with the Legends team, my questions/inquires have definitely not been presented to him or the team before.

 

If you accept this great honor, you could become my personal envoy to the galactic senate of Legends Design. It would kind of be like receiving a knighthood-great honor that ultimately means nothing. Win win if I say so myself!

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  • 3 weeks later...

My original ideas for Franklin & Valeria were as a double single-carded figure, then a combo BAF.

 

I think your idea is awesome and would definitely work if they kept it as 2-3 figures and those without any accessories. It would be an excellent way to get Northstar & Aurora, or Puck and Sasquatch and a Snowbird bird form.

 

Build-A-Team is an even better concept. Would it have a negative or positive effect on collectors with regards to scalpers?

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