Jmacq1

Outback Betsy did not have the Psychic knife and did not use swords. She had no weapon that she normally wielded. There is no real reason for her to have grippy hands and even less to have swords. If we've reached the point where we're complaining that characters aren't coming with accessories that a particular version of a character would have no real reason to have, we're truly, as the kids these days say, cooked.

Mangog would be my top choice and we know the Marvel team has mentioned him a couple times. I don't think he's really that much more obscure than Dragon Man. Atlas would be my second choice, to further fill in the classic Thunderbolts. A Comic-Based Warriors Three set might outweigh both of those but I'd be really surprised if that's what it was. Though now that I think on it they did hint at there being some kind of series of figures with chairs/thrones in one of the live streams. I'd love to see the old comic-style Thanos Chair.

It's very cool but nope. This is the wall that Hasbro is running into with a lot of vehicle Haslabs: To make "good" versions of larger vehicles just gets too dang big for most folks. Quinjet, Blackbird, heck even a Fantasticar is going to be huge if they want to fit anything approaching a "team" (by which I'd say at least 6 figures, not counting the FF of course, though even they would probably want room for Franklin and Valeria). It's a problem for Star Wars Black Series and GI Joe Classified as well. Even an upscaled version of the "big" X-Wing would be huge, and that holds one figure and a droid. TIE Fighters are some of the smaller Starfighters and we've seen how big they are for 6-inch scale. A GI Joe Moray or Skystriker starts running into the same problems. It'll be interesting to see how Hasbro deals with it in the next couple or three years.

Two-Pack with a less exclusive Savage Land Rogue. Maybe do one with Shirtless/"Battle Damaged" Magneto and Shanna as well.

Do people really have that much trouble getting Target exclusives? There's sometimes a quick sellout on preorders but I've generally found that once the items actually hit stores they're usually pretty plentiful after the initial rush passes, sometimes even online. Maybe not flooding the pegs and you have to be a little bit diligent "on the hunt" but I haven't had to go to the secondary market for any Target Exclusives since the early GI Joe Classified Cobra Island exclusives. But in all truth even if you miss these I guarantee there'll be a repack down the line. Betsy and Steve in particular seem almost guaranteed to show up again (And Juggernaut).

Since I've largely cut the MCU figs out of my collection at this point, I won't likely be getting this unless it goes on deep clearance, but it looks nice! I dig how the sweater texture gives a similar visual to the classic comic look for flame-on'ed Johnny.

I do have to wonder if the current trade situation might have changed the calculus on all this. Like maybe Hasbro and/or Disney were considering parting ways, but tariff concerns might have caused other bidders to drop out (because it currently would be very expensive for them to spin up new lines). Probably reading too much into it though. It's likely as simple as "Both companies have had a bumpy road the last few years, but this partnership isn't broken so don't try fixing it until it is." In the case of Marvel in particular, shifting licensees now would likely mean that there wouldn't be (toy) merch on shelves for at least a couple films, as there's usually a "gap" between one license ending and the new one beginning, and I could see Disney not wanting that to happen.

I think there are a lot of reasons the Sequel Trilogy didn't do that well with collectors. Setting aside opinions about the movies themselves, the designs simply weren't that interesting, up to and including the costume variations on the main characters. All three of the heroic leads get outfits that seem to just be variations of the same single outfit. Kylo's outfit barely changes (though that's less of a criticism, as Vader's changed even less between films in the OT). Everything either looks like slight, uninspired tweaks on the OT (with a couple exceptions where those tweaks work out well), or so bland as to be completely unmemorable. I fully admit I'm heavily biased by my own opinions here but basically the sequel trilogy designs were boring, and Hasbro/Lucasfilm didn't do the toys any favors by seeming to focus on less interesting designs. Yeah, the movie didn't do great, but I'd still buy all the Knights of Ren...if they were available (just as an example). It felt very same-old same-old and it's particularly damning to me that the offshoot movies that took place during/near the original trilogy era (Rogue One and Solo) introduced more that felt new and interesting than the entire sequel trilogy. Same with the Mandalorian. Anyway, Star Wars rant over. I'm glad Hasbro's holding onto the license, even though I suspect economic reality is going to force my collecting habit to diminish/get a whole lot more selective over the next few years.

Lots of good stuff today, I think the only hard passes for me are Miles (I'm happy with the versions I have), Electro (Stopped getting MCU stuff for the most part), and maaaaaybe Ultimate Iron Man. Though I do love how "chunky" the figure looks. He seems proportioned like a guy in an armored suit instead of the usual Iron Man problem where he's no bigger than any other guy which means Tony Stark must be using Pym Particles to fit in his suit, or he's an anorexic pinhead. My only observation/speculation is this: I'm usually pretty bullish on Hasbro keeping ahold of their licenses, but this "Maximum" line looks like it's getting about as close to "definitive versions" as Hasbro would ever get, and that makes me seriously wonder if Hasbro is really concerned about losing the Marvel license in a couple years, and the team is trying to go out strong if that comes to pass.

Well, if you've kept up with the more recent X-Men stuff he's certainly not a moral paragon.... Yeah, this is an immediate buy for me. It's an easy swapout in the chair to get "Action Xavier" versus "Schooltime Xavier" and also can somewhat double as "Young Pre-Chair Xavier." Also I think it's hilarious that "Safari Suit!" is the "action feature" for this figure.

Didn't you know Bruce Wayne funded the Weapon X Program? That would certainly be "someone from Wolverine's past that we'll never see coming".

I guess summing up/tacking on to what I said: I think there are at least a few companies that could make perfectly serviceable Marvel figures on par with what Hasbro's giving us (Jada, Jazwares, Mattel just off the top of my head), but I don't think there is any company that's likely to give us something that is demonstrably and consistently superior for the same or lower price point.

Mattel seems like the only real contender that could match the scope and volume of the line. Someone like Jada might be able to put out decent figures but they don't seem to have the capacity to match. McFarlane would McFarlane it up, for good or for ill. So out of scale with old ML, even more focused on "core characters" than ML already is, heavily weighted towards modern versions, and often poor QC. But they would be generally well sculpted and painted. I'm mostly fine with Hasbro sticking with it. I buy less these days but that's more because ML has dropped to my #3 collection priority behind GI Joe Classified and Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron than any problems with Hasbro in general.

Oh good, another bunch of characters that will be forgotten as anything but Wallpaper or crossover-death-fodder after this run is over (unless of course one of them manages to break out).

Can't help but wonder if Target under-ordered Warbird based on the poor reception to the Marvels, figuring she wasn't a very popular character.

This reeks of some kind of impropriety on DeMayo's part that hasn't hit the news yet. Disney's way more diplomatic about firings when it's just "creative differences" or they've gotten what they wanted out of them and are just cutting them loose.

Yeah getting the distinct impression that at least the comic BAF waves are gonna be Fanazon exclusives going forward. MAYBE the MCU BAF waves might still hit stores, or upcoming movie figs may all end up like the refreshes we're getting now: No BAF piece but MAYBE slightly more accessories/paint apps. The good news seems to be that this model is letting them swing a little wider on character choices and wave mixes. There's been some darn good stuff for comic fans in these last few (comic BAF) waves, to say nothing of three newly-sculpted BAFs in a row. They really seem to be trying to cap off wishlists and finish off teams. The bad news is that this kind of thing almost always means a line is on the wane. Not surprising with a line this old. We may only have a couple or three good years left, but it's looking like they might be really good years, though if experience is any indicator whatever the last wave or two end up being are probably going to be very hard to come by.

Armored Psylocke, Shirtless Colossus, Spiky-haired (no headband) blue suit Dazzler, 80's Rogue with the REALLY big hair (and lighter green torso/gloves/boots), and a proper Outback Storm? I'd buy it. But then again the Outback era was pretty much my formative years with the X-Men. Though if they REALLY wanted to swing for the fences drop the minor tweaks (Storm, Dazzler, Rogue) and go with a Madelyne Pryor (Civvie or comic Goblin Queen), Scalphunter, and Malice/Polaris. As while they're not perfect Outback versions we do have "close enough" versions of those three ladies.

The real problem here isn't so much inflation, or kids not playing with toys (that IS a long term factor but not as much in this particular case), or any of that other stuff: It's the nature of corporate culture. Toys BOOMED early in the COVID years because kids were stuck at home and needed distractions. Now the current shareholders are comparing today's sales not to long-term trends, but to the "boom time" during COVID (which has of course fallen off a ton because...kids aren't cooped up at home still). Basically if the number doesn't go up-up-up then the Shareholders are not happy and the CEO has to do things to make them happy (raise profits) if he wants to keep his or her job. There's no denying that Marvel Legends and Star Wars are struggling though. Their shelf space continues to shrink (half the Targets in my area don't even have dedicated space for Marvel Legends right now). Both properties are long in the tooth, and raising prices are definitely a long-term concern as a LOT of collectors are either getting out of the game entirely or (as in my case) drastically scaling back on what they're getting. In the past year I've pretty much stopped getting Black Series, cut my Marvel Legends buying to maybe a quarter of what it was (which was "near completist"), and the only line I'm currently trying to be anything approaching completist on is GI Joe Classified.

Moonstone is another possibility here. Ugh, this is probably exactly what it is. I had wondered why there wasn't a Logan head with Fang because it seemed like such an obvious thing to do...now I suspect it was deliberate. Aside from the Patch/Fixit pack I think the only Logan I would care about at this point is Team X Logan, but then I would want Team X Sabretooth to go with him and Maverick. My bet on the others are armored Psylocke with a repack/repaint of the "Battle Damaged" Logan from the multipack. And classic tiger-stripe Logan with that Jim Lee Sabretooth. MAYBE "Battle Damaged" as well.

I'm gonna bet she comes in a Pulse exclusive 2-pack with somebody else. Maybe Uncanny X-Men #275 Funky Shi'ar Suit Skrull-Xavier (Even if I'd prefer Deathbird I bet we get her somewhere else).

That's the thing, he's not really a core character. He's been a side character relegated to team books for most of his existence. "Core characters" are the guys you get at least one of in virtually every wave: Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc....

Yeah, they floated around I think all the X-Books in the late 80's, but definitely X-Factor and New Mutants (IIRC a few of them ended up trapped in Limbo and...it got worse).

Prime Sentinel Purifier Dire Wraith Brood Drone Nova Corpsman (Multiple Heads) SHIELD Cape-Killer Americop BAF: The Right "Smiley Armor"

It's certainly a salient point that this line is long in the tooth, especially if you go back to the Toy Biz days. It's something of a repeating pattern that the "first time in the line" C and D-List characters that they throw us longtime collectors every couple waves are often pegwarmers. Yes, the decline in interest for the MCU (aided and abetted by the COVID pandemic) has absolutely hurt the line as well. The Totally Awesome Hulk, Quantumania, and Retro Spidey waves went straight to clearance here and several of our local Targets (not all) no longer even have dedicated shelf space for Marvel Legends right now (it will probably come back, but for now...nada). Not a good sign for the health of the line. Most of us old timers have all the "core characters" we want, and most of the B-Listers we want, too. We get that one or two C/D listers every couple waves to keep us hooked (and sometimes the BAFs). There are certainly still things I'd like to see/get from this line, but as it stands right now I've massively throttled back my ML and Star Wars Black Series purchases (and ramped up GI Joe Classified). I was near-completionist for the last few years on ML (even if many items were bought on sale/clearance) but very little of this stuff is particularly exciting to me (Though the Mindless One wave was mostly a pleasant surprise, and the Void wave looks pretty good, too).