Biggest flops in Marvel Legends

[Hogun]

What are some of the biggest flops in all of Marvel Legends? What business decisions by Hasbro flopped like a fish? These are not decisions that were bad for business but it still worked! I am looking at how the No Way Home Spider-Men figures are handled. These are Marvel Legends decisions Hasbro made that show abysmal results.

Here are some of mine in no particular order:

1. The Eternals wave. Alright, first thing first, this is not my 'Who asked for this crap?' moment. I am guilty of buying every figure minus Ajak. We knew Hasbro would make an Eternals wave, as they have done with almost every new MCU movie since 2013. I still see these figures on store shelves. I would say it is the handling of those figures. On paper, they all have unique body molds. At a closer look, it is just a bunch of dudes in robes with different geometric shapes on their costumes. The faceprints were off.  In my honest opinion, if they had better representations of their powers. These figures could have sold better. Only Kingo had a somewhat good representation of his powers. Ikaris literally has glowing eyes. Hasbro couldn't shell out some budget to create an eyebeam effect. Thena had weapons but the handles were painted black instead of translucent. Druig could have included a mind-control head. For Phastos and Sprite, I used Studio Series Lockdown. That was a bad figure. So, I turned him into an illusion cast by Sprite and I gave his hook to Phastos for his techie powers. Kro should have been the BAF instead of Gilgamesh. Kro, by the way, is an excellent figure.

2. The double-packing of certain figures. Some of these made sense from a general popularity. Hasbro flopped hard when it came time to decide which figures would be double-packed. Most of what I am about to name ended up shelf warming and went on discount. Here are some of mine: Ant-Man and Wasp from the Cull Obsidian Wave. See why I included 'almost every new MCU movie'? Ant-Man and the Wasp did not get their own wave and were included in the second wave of Infinity War figures. Hasbro double-packed them over the likes of Thor and Black Widow and it is made clear almost nobody cared for them. Superior Iron Man over Cable in the Zabu wave. This might be my personal frustration over Gamestop screwing me over on my pre-order and every e-tailer having him on back pre-order. He is sold out everywhere and I live in Canada. But why would Hasbro double-pack Superior Iron Man over Cable when his previous comic-based Legend was also in hot demand (that one was excusable since he was part of a Deadpool wave), sold out, and is coming in hot from his appearance in X-Men '97. Why is it so hard to get him?

 

[Lord_Scareglow]

Isn't the greatest Marvel Legends Flop of all time obviously Engines of Vengeance HasLab?

I mean Eternals are right behind that, but the Car couldn't even get into production, at least Eternals figures hit shelves.

Another big flop IMO was the Exclusive Cowboy hat wolverine, that never was a thing anybody cared about, and it came out costing 40 bucks, literally still can buy it now for 10, one of the biggest flops.

Also Avengers Gamerverse figures, instant pegwarmer status at least from what I saw, most importantly the second wave having two of the same figures in it re-painted and nobody wanted the first ones.

Captain Marvel's wave was a pretty big dud, that was a huge flopper, outside of the "this is new" factor they hardly sold,

MCU Wasp def gets a prize for biggest peg warmer of all time, hands down no figure warmed those pegs like that one. If you are unlucky you can still find her corroding on a peg near you.

 

[Chunkylover]

Does the recent emergence of the X-Men Villains five-pack at Ross mean it was sort of a flop? I imagine it sold well for a time, but if the extras are being sold for the price of one figure...?

Maybe it isn't a flop as far as an idea, but ended up being an economic flop?

[Hogun]

On 6/11/2024 at 12:41 AM, Lord_Scareglow said:

Isn't the greatest Marvel Legends Flop of all time obviously Engines of Vengeance HasLab?

I mean Eternals are right behind that, but the Car couldn't even get into production, at least Eternals figures hit shelves.

Another big flop IMO was the Exclusive Cowboy hat wolverine, that never was a thing anybody cared about, and it came out costing 40 bucks, literally still can buy it now for 10, one of the biggest flops.

Also Avengers Gamerverse figures, instant pegwarmer status at least from what I saw, most importantly the second wave having two of the same figures in it re-painted and nobody wanted the first ones.

Captain Marvel's wave was a pretty big dud, that was a huge flopper, outside of the "this is new" factor they hardly sold,

MCU Wasp def gets a prize for biggest peg warmer of all time, hands down no figure warmed those pegs like that one. If you are unlucky you can still find her corroding on a peg near you.

 

Yo, how could I forget Cowboy hat Wolverine? That figure made me realize Hasbro is finding the most obscure Wolverine costume for a quick cash grab.

I believe everybody wanted the tier rewards that came with The Haslab Engine of Vengeance rather than the engine itself! Also, why didn't Hasbro include a Gabe Reyes figure to compliment Robbie? He plays a key role in Robbie's origin.

The Avengers Gamerverse figures just had ugly face sculpts. The unmasked Tony Stark head looked more like Shartimus Prime than Tony Stark. Captain America looked stupid. Ms. Marvel was just a straight-up repaint.

[TheArrow]

The first Toybiz Scarlet Witch
First Toybiz Lady Deathstrike
First Hasbro Age of Apocalypse Wolverine
First Hasbro Namor the Submariner
Hasbro "Power Ranger" Beetle
Hasbro Retro Sue Storm Invisible Woman
Toybiz movie Daredevil
First Toybiz Red Skull.
Toybiz "dog face" Ultron

[leokearon]

Let's see:

• The Hellcharger is the biggest flop.
• I would also go with the Eternals Wave, even at a fiver, they are still hanging around.
• The  Rage of Ultron - Ultron from the Cassie Lang wave. Re-release a figure from about a year agon, but make it worse.
• Bomber Jacket Carol from the Captain Marvel wave - A figure based on a one minute scene.
• Any figure like Spider-Ham and Howard the Duck - Tiny figures for the same price as a regular figure.
• Plastic Free Packing - A publicity stunt with a very boring design

 

[frozentenderloin]

Definitely the Eternals wave. I still sometimes see them lingering at Walmart on occasion which is insane. Ollie’s can’t even manage to get rid of them. The baf is just as disinteresting as the wave itself, and they don’t even make great fodder figures. There was no real incentive for these figures, especially for non-MCU collectors. 
 

Ghost Rider haslab flopped for sure, but at least in that case it didn’t actually move into production. I’m sure Hasbro still had to eat the advertising and development costs of the whole initiative, but at least they didn’t mass produce it only to fail after the fact. I’m sure if they tried to sell it in a similar fashion to the Classified VAMP, without the extra bells and whistles, at a similar price point as the VAMP, it would have lured more interest.

[Satam]

On 6/11/2024 at 12:42 PM, leokearon said:

Let's see:

• The Hellcharger is the biggest flop.

 

Did you notice that at no point did Hasbro ever refer to the "Engine of Vengeance" as the Hell Charger? They created a legally distinct generic muscle car toy and changed the name, so they wouldn't have to pay Chrysler for the right to make something that actually looked like a Dodge Charger. The price would have surely been higher if they had, but I also have to wonder if that thing might have also done better had it actually resembled the source material.

[Hogun]

On 6/11/2024 at 3:55 PM, Satam said:

Did you notice that at no point did Hasbro ever refer to the "Engine of Vengeance" as the Hell Charger? They created a legally distinct generic muscle car toy and changed the name, so they wouldn't have to pay Chrysler for the right to make something that actually looked like a Dodge Charger. The price would have surely been higher if they had, but I also have to wonder if that thing might have also done better had it actually resembled the source material.

Transformers can get a car license for most of their live-action figures and it still costs the same price as a regular figure from that size class. I can get a Studio Series Deluxe class Jolt with the Chevy Volt license for the same price as Studio Series Deluxe class Dino or Gamer Edition Sideswipe which both turn into generic cars. Dino is a movie character who transformed into a Ferrari. But Mattel owns the Ferrari license. 

[Chunkylover]

On 6/11/2024 at 12:03 PM, TheArrow said:

The first Toybiz Scarlet Witch
First Toybiz Lady Deathstrike
First Hasbro Age of Apocalypse Wolverine

“Leave Scarlet Witch alone!”

The hair on mine fell off and doesn’t fit properly anymore. Imagine how much worse it now looks….

I think Deathstrike and Weapon X are fine.

[SpiderS]

Hasbro making all Eternals right away was weirdest decision, it was unknown and risky property and even for hotter properties it took us years to get other MCU figures like Quicksilver and we still don’t have Scarlet Witch in her Age of Ultron costume, from the start the most movie waves were half comics and if eternals wave ended up half comics with interesting baf it would have been far better seller.  

ToyBiz and their female figures are whole other can of worms, everyone agrees that they could never make a normal looking female figures even if their livelihoods dependent on it, this trend continued into dark days of Hasbro but they slowly managed to improve. 

But I do believe there was considerable and somewhat irreversible damage done by ToyBiz; ugly female figures pegwarming in mass created notion that female figures don’t sell in general, especially among retailers, which totally ignored the reason why they didn’t sell, I really  wanted Scarlet Witch figure but I just couldn’t justify buying her ToyBiz figure that was this ugly and I’m sure this way the case with other collectors. 

[leokearon]

On 6/11/2024 at 8:55 PM, Satam said:

Did you notice that at no point did Hasbro ever refer to the "Engine of Vengeance" as the Hell Charger? They created a legally distinct generic muscle car toy and changed the name, so they wouldn't have to pay Chrysler for the right to make something that actually looked like a Dodge Charger. The price would have surely been higher if they had, but I also have to wonder if that thing might have also done better had it actually resembled the source material.

 

That's true, though I doubt a licence would have helped

[tarot]

On 6/12/2024 at 4:07 AM, SpiderS said:

Hasbro making all Eternals right away was weirdest decision, it was unknown and risky property and even for hotter properties it took us years to get other MCU figures like Quicksilver and we still don’t have Scarlet Witch in her Age of Ultron costume, from the start the most movie waves were half comics and if eternals wave ended up half comics with interesting baf it would have been far better seller. 

Hasbro has very, very little choice in releasing the Eternals right away. They were mandated by Marvel themselves to make figures for the movie during or before the time of release.

[leokearon]

On 6/12/2024 at 10:48 AM, tarot said:

Hasbro has very, very little choice in releasing the Eternals right away. They were mandated by Marvel themselves to make figures for the movie during or before the time of release.

Yeah, their best shot was are the time of movie. I doubt many of have been interested in getting them once the movie had been shown.

[Lord_Scareglow]

On 6/12/2024 at 12:53 PM, leokearon said:

Yeah, their best shot was are the time of movie. I doubt many of have been interested in getting them once the movie had been shown.

LoL I actually liked Eternals, it was a good movie IMO (I watched it more then once), I don't think it was the movie's fault the figures sold so poorly and more so nobody knew who the eternals were, at least from a regular joe stance, and to make a wave that was just solely movie figures, and not very remarkable looking at that just sealed their fate, Eternals was a pretty poor choice for Marvel Studios, should not have even bothered making a movie because nobody cared who they were, they attempted to pull a Guardians move but lightning don't strike twice often, in Eternals case it didn't.

if the wave had some comic figures sprinkled in and a cool BAF it would have sold some units, but it was a done deal since it was just MCU, making the comic figure buyers out instantly and the MCU folks likely saying.."don't need em" a few maybe did if they feel like completists but thats it.

I do think that Kro was an awesome design, and a cool figure (I bought it), but he really was hardly a thing in the movie in the end, I did buy Sersi and Makkari though (edit oops I also got Thena and Ajak, see I forgot about those, that says alot), so I supported, i Played my part.

[Hogun]

On 6/12/2024 at 1:23 PM, Lord_Scareglow said:

LoL I actually liked Eternals, it was a good movie IMO (I watched it more then once), I don't think it was the movie's fault the figures sold so poorly and more so nobody knew who the eternals were, at least from a regular joe stance, and to make a wave that was just solely movie figures, and not very remarkable looking at that just sealed their fate, Eternals was a pretty poor choice for Marvel Studios, should not have even bothered making a movie because nobody cared who they were, they attempted to pull a Guardians move but lightning don't strike twice often, in Eternals case it didn't.

if the wave had some comic figures sprinkled in and a cool BAF it would have sold some units, but it was a done deal since it was just MCU, making the comic figure buyers out instantly and the MCU folks likely saying.."don't need em" a few maybe did if they feel like completists but thats it.

I do think that Kro was an awesome design, and a cool figure (I bought it), but he really was hardly a thing in the movie in the end, I did buy Sersi and Makkari though, so I supported, i Played my part.

I also liked the Eternals movie and I am not afraid to admit it is one of the very few Phase 4 movies I regularly revisit. I only disliked Ikaris and Druig switching adaptations. 

[Satam]

On 6/12/2024 at 4:07 AM, leokearon said:

 

That's true, though I doubt a licence would have helped

I know that I wouldn't have dismissed the thing outright if the car actually looked like a Dodge Charger.

[SpiderS]

On 6/12/2024 at 9:23 PM, Lord_Scareglow said:

LoL I actually liked Eternals, it was a good movie IMO (I watched it more then once)

There's a lot of good about that movie but it has way too many characters, which makes it just too cluttered, I don't think there ever was a comic book movie with 10 new main characters without prior movies, it was an overkill.  They should have cut the half and focus on ones who were integral to the plot and leave others for possible future sequels.

[Atlantis]

On 6/11/2024 at 8:42 AM, leokearon said:

Let's see:

• The Hellcharger is the biggest flop.
• I would also go with the Eternals Wave, even at a fiver, they are still hanging around.
• The  Rage of Ultron - Ultron from the Cassie Lang wave. Re-release a figure from about a year agon, but make it worse.
• Bomber Jacket Carol from the Captain Marvel wave - A figure based on a one minute scene.
• Any figure like Spider-Ham and Howard the Duck - Tiny figures for the same price as a regular figure.
• Plastic Free Packing - A publicity stunt with a very boring design

I agree with just about all of your choices. I'd throw in Luke Cage Armpit for Hire too.

I liked the premise behind plastic free, but what they actually did was indeed a publicity stunt; they were never fully behind it and you have to wonder just what all that was for. I

[leokearon]

On 6/20/2024 at 7:58 AM, Atlantis said:

I agree with just about all of your choices. I'd throw in Luke Cage Armpit for Hire too.

I liked the premise behind plastic free, but what they actually did was indeed a publicity stunt; they were never fully behind it and you have to wonder just what all that was for. I

Yeah, I forgot Armpit for hire. I liked the idea of PFP but it was so badly done. They couldn't even give it some nice box art.

[Lord_Scareglow]

On 6/20/2024 at 3:01 AM, leokearon said:

Yeah, I forgot Armpit for hire. I liked the idea of PFP but it was so badly done. They couldn't even give it some nice box art.

Yeah consider the Plastic Free packaging just a flop for Hasbro, that wasn't even an exclusive to Legends flop, it was 100% a publicity stunt because they backpeddled on that one within a Year, now we have more plastic then ever with this new packaging, really is laughable.

and yeah really at least they could have made those plastic free packages really great to look at, but they were just awful and even lacked imagery, they even cut the character blurbs? it's no plastic, not no effort.

what a way to make thousands of in-box collectors and scared of swaps and QC issue folk, just stop giving you money, and they wondered why profits started tanking, I could have advised you financially Hasbro

Glad that's over.

[Emnems80]

Engine of Vengeance is tops followed closely by the Eternals wave. I think another flub was not producing enough of the army builders such as the Hellfire Club Guard and Skrull trooper.

[Atlantis]

On 6/29/2024 at 12:00 PM, Emnems80 said:

Engine of Vengeance is tops followed closely by the Eternals wave. I think another flub was not producing enough of the army builders such as the Hellfire Club Guard and Skrull trooper.

While it may not be the "flop" in the same sense @Hogun meant, I'd count any army-builder or army builder type (like Multiple Man) not being sold in at least a 3pack, in this as well. Why would you make a Mindless One a BAF? 

[SpiderS]

On 6/30/2024 at 3:04 AM, Atlantis said:

Why would you make a Mindless One a BAF? 

I think they wanted to recoup tooling investment by making it BAF so they can re release it down the line as single release or in two pack. But considering how limited Mindless One wave was I don't think they made too much money, so this could be another reason why new Mindless One release in two years time is inevitable.

[Emnems80]

On 6/30/2024 at 4:08 AM, SpiderS said:

I think they wanted to recoup tooling investment by making it BAF so they can re release it down the line as single release or in two pack. But considering how limited Mindless One wave was I don't think they made too much money, so this could be another reason why new Mindless One release in two years time is inevitable.

Especially the way Hasbro has been rereleasing previous BAFs.

 

On 6/29/2024 at 7:04 PM, Atlantis said:

While it may not be the "flop" in the same sense @Hogun meant, I'd count any army-builder or army builder type (like Multiple Man) not being sold in at least a 3pack, in this as well. Why would you make a Mindless One a BAF? 

I can understand why someone like multiple man wasn't in a multi pack, because if he was some people would complain about spending $75 for a three pack when they only wanted one. But definitely agree about the mindless one.