Favorite change that Hasbro has made recently? Least favorite?

[Dabboi]

Hasbro has been doing some pretty neat things as of late (retiring body molds, new bodies, etc.), so which one is your favorite?

 

For me; it's the new head sculpts. Gone are the days of every character looking identical with a different paintjob (well mostly...still room to improve) I think that whoever their new head sculptor is (Paul Harding, I believe), is absolutely killing it lately.

 

What's your least favorite change they've made?

I imagine that price increases are going to top many answers. The prince increases only bother me in the case of figures like Siryn, Darwin, Speedball, and others with no real accessories. $27.99 for a figure that comes with nothing is entirely too steep.

[leokearon]

The best is updating their mold selection, espcially on the mold that and now 10 years old an dare showing signs of degradation.

 

The worst is the Plastic Free Packaging. It is so boring, just a stock render on the front and a photo on the back, Why not give us some nice box art like Transformers?

[Chunkylover]

I only collect X-related figures, and I will say their selection has been really nice. They know their wheelhouse is 90’s stuff, and they are sticking to it.

Additionally, I can’t remember the last underwhelming BAF. Bonebreaker is awesome. Strong Guy, Sauron. AoA Colossus. Just phenomenal.

Accessories have been good, too. Havok and Maggot fit this category.

I haven’t gotten my first plastic-free package yet.

One growth area would be sticky joints. I have a few that are stuck doing pirouettes because I don’t want to snap their ankles.

[ADour]

In addition to the improved headsculpts, a good change has been the use of digital printing on comic figures. It's good that Hasbro realized the potential of the technique besides helping capture a live-action likenesses. Pinless tech is also up there too. Also kind of an overlooked change has been Hasbro's use of overlays. They're like a middle-point between brand-new sculpts and the buck system. Don't get me wrong, I would always prefer a new torso with new sculpt, but a new overlay over an old sculpt helps bring variety within the constrains we know that the design team has to work with.

A change I don't like is the use of different types of plastic, or at least the way they're not properly color-matched. And the following change that I don't like is more about a practise than a technique, but I dislike Hasbro's budgeting for BAF waves. BAF waves no longer feel like every figure costs about the same to make, nowadays it's too noticeable which figures got the short end of the budget stick, and it doesn't help that the BAF pieces sometimes take protagonism over the figure they come with.

What I mean is that BAF pieces were never freebies, I know, but you could lie to yourself and kinda buy into the illusion that they were, and that you would get a brand-new figure for free as a bonus for buying an entire wave. But nowadays it's very noticeable how much of the budget a BAF got in a given wave, and it's gotten to a point with figures like AoA Jean Grey, MCU Ms. Marvel or Speedball, where it feels like the figure itself is an accessory to the BAF piece. And this happens at the cost of the figure's playability, since Kamala came with not even an energy construct fist, and Speedball came with not even a streak of bubbles.

[McHogan]

Pros: character selection. While we still get plenty of Wolverine, Iron Man and Spidey, we are also getting a much wider spectrum of character who have gotten a Legend for the first time. So cool that we are getting Puff Adder, Razorback, and Chod. I'll even concede that Orb is a nice deep dive though I hate he is taking up a slot in a dedicated Avengers wave

Cons: pricing and packaging. I'm still not comfortable paying the process we do and not knowing for sure what's in the box. 

 

[TheArrow]

Pros, I don't really have any definite pros.  I like that a Classic Starlord is coming, and I like the portrait for the new Blob, but those are sparse pros here. 
Any other positives I'm just indifferent to.

Cons--
Hooo boy. 
Price points now
Blind-box packaging.
Not being able to see the figures inside directly, 
Less and less accessories
Less sculpt and paint cheats ( like Multiple Man)
Really random character selection--theming is all over the map
The line feels VERY cheap now, as if Hasbro regrets paying the license fees for it.
 

[Chunkylover]

On 1/22/2023 at 6:25 PM, ADour said:

In addition to the improved headsculpts, a good change has been the use of digital printing on comic figures. It's good that Hasbro realized the potential of the technique besides helping capture a live-action likenesses. Pinless tech is also up there too. Also kind of an overlooked change has been Hasbro's use of overlays. They're like a middle-point between brand-new sculpts and the buck system. Don't get me wrong, I would always prefer a new torso with new sculpt, but a new overlay over an old sculpt helps bring variety within the constrains we know that the design team has to work with.

A change I don't like is the use of different types of plastic, or at least the way they're not properly color-matched. And the following change that I don't like is more about a practise than a technique, but I dislike Hasbro's budgeting for BAF waves. BAF waves no longer feel like every figure costs about the same to make, nowadays it's too noticeable which figures got the short end of the budget stick, and it doesn't help that the BAF pieces sometimes take protagonism over the figure they come with.

What I mean is that BAF pieces were never freebies, I know, but you could lie to yourself and kinda buy into the illusion that they were, and that you would get a brand-new figure for free as a bonus for buying an entire wave. But nowadays it's very noticeable how much of the budget a BAF got in a given wave, and it's gotten to a point with figures like AoA Jean Grey, MCU Ms. Marvel or Speedball, where it feels like the figure itself is an accessory to the BAF piece. And this happens at the cost of the figure's playability, since Kamala came with not even an energy construct fist, and Speedball came with not even a streak of bubbles.

I get what you are saying about the BAF pieces. AoA Jean Grey was tucked away in the side of the blister pack. It would have been nice to get some TK accessories with her, or Nate Grey, or Cyclops, or Vulcan. 

With that said, I am sympathetic to the costs of running a business. Better that they cut some costs if it means they last longer, than that they should put themselves out of business.

[leokearon]

On 1/22/2023 at 11:25 PM, ADour said:

In addition to the improved headsculpts, a good change has been the use of digital printing on comic figures. It's good that Hasbro realized the potential of the technique besides helping capture a live-action likenesses. Pinless tech is also up there too. Also kind of an overlooked change has been Hasbro's use of overlays. They're like a middle-point between brand-new sculpts and the buck system. Don't get me wrong, I would always prefer a new torso with new sculpt, but a new overlay over an old sculpt helps bring variety within the constrains we know that the design team has to work with.

A change I don't like is the use of different types of plastic, or at least the way they're not properly color-matched. And the following change that I don't like is more about a practise than a technique, but I dislike Hasbro's budgeting for BAF waves. BAF waves no longer feel like every figure costs about the same to make, nowadays it's too noticeable which figures got the short end of the budget stick, and it doesn't help that the BAF pieces sometimes take protagonism over the figure they come with.

What I mean is that BAF pieces were never freebies, I know, but you could lie to yourself and kinda buy into the illusion that they were, and that you would get a brand-new figure for free as a bonus for buying an entire wave. But nowadays it's very noticeable how much of the budget a BAF got in a given wave, and it's gotten to a point with figures like AoA Jean Grey, MCU Ms. Marvel or Speedball, where it feels like the figure itself is an accessory to the BAF piece. And this happens at the cost of the figure's playability, since Kamala came with not even an energy construct fist, and Speedball came with not even a streak of bubbles.

Yeah, the BAF distribution is bad with AOA Jean being an accessory to the BAF piece and the gapping void in Speedball's packaging where an effect pice could ahve gone.

[Dabboi]

On 1/22/2023 at 11:58 AM, leokearon said:

The best is updating their mold selection, espcially on the mold that and now 10 years old an dare showing signs of degradation.

 

The worst is the Plastic Free Packaging. It is so boring, just a stock render on the front and a photo on the back, Why not give us some nice box art like Transformers?

I'm inclined to agree, the ML team seems to have adapted the worst to the plastic-free packaging. GI Joe looks great with the artwork. Heck, they could just do comic art, and have the figure render on the back.

____

 

One area that I would like to see Hasbro improve upon is accessories. Figures like Speedball, $27.99 with zero accessories and on a reused body mold, simply should not be happening. They could've just painting the Kirby crackle effect piece a few different colors and called it a day. I'm of the belief that every figure should come with an alt head and one set of alt hands at least. Throw in an effect part or weapon, and I might be able to justify $30 for a fig.

[enzosaurusrex]

On 1/22/2023 at 4:18 PM, McHogan said:

Pros: character selection. While we still get plenty of Wolverine, Iron Man and Spidey, we are also getting a much wider spectrum of character who have gotten a Legend for the first time. So cool that we are getting Puff Adder, Razorback, and Chod. I'll even concede that Orb is a nice deep dive though I hate he is taking up a slot in a dedicated Avengers wave

I do love how both AOA Wave 2 (Colossus BAF) and this year's X-Men Wave (Ch'od BAF) were both Wolverine-less! More of this please.

[leokearon]

On 1/24/2023 at 12:33 AM, Dabboi said:

I'm inclined to agree, the ML team seems to have adapted the worst to the plastic-free packaging. GI Joe looks great with the artwork. Heck, they could just do comic art, and have the figure render on the back.

Like I did a  simple Digibash for the Stealth Suit Spidey packaging and it looked more exciting

[leokearon]

On 1/24/2023 at 7:31 AM, enzosaurusrex said:

I do love how both AOA Wave 2 (Colossus BAF) and this year's X-Men Wave (Ch'od BAF) were both Wolverine-less! More of this please.

Seems that they are alternating between Cyclops and Wolverine for the X-men waves