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Jmacq1

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Everything posted by Jmacq1

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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).
  7. 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....
  8. 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).
  9. Prime Sentinel Purifier Dire Wraith Brood Drone Nova Corpsman (Multiple Heads) SHIELD Cape-Killer Americop BAF: The Right "Smiley Armor"
  10. 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).
  11. The thing is that those characters didn't have those flaws become their defining characteristics to the point that it significantly and permanently hampered their heroic careers AND their popularity as characters. It's not really what they're remembered for by fans. Hank Pym, on the other hand, is the guy that created Ultron, hit his wife, had a nervous breakdown that he seems to drop in and out of on a semi-regular basis, hasn't been able to stick to any single superheroic identity for longer than a couple years (even if Giant-Man seems to be his most common go-to), and continues to be portrayed as something of a weirdo-creep and sad-sack with a massive inferiority complex. I make no argument that it makes Hank Pym a worse character. Just that it doesn't make him a very popular one, and I think that bears out by the general lack of say, Giant Man solo series and the like. He is probably without question the least popular founding Avenger, and has been for pretty much his whole existence. There is a genuine HATE-dom for Hank Pym because of the domestic abuse, which was partially perpetuated by Jim Shooter during his tenure, and when Hank started to show signs of finally and truly pulling out of that pit after years of rehabilitiation from various writers, the Ultimate Universe happened (and while it was an alternate Universe, its' depiction of Hank was utterly abhorrent to the point that it spilled over onto the classic version of the character). Again, I'm not saying Hank isn't a good character or this isn't a good product. I'm just pointing out my observations of how Hank Pym is generally received over my 40ish years of comic fandom. He's not popular, and never really has been.
  12. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The reason this HasLab is likely to fail is because it's Giant-Man. A character best known for being a mentally ill domestic abuser and something of a perpetual loser within the comics (I may be wrong but I believe Ultron is currently wearing him as a skinsuit in the comics these days), and as a crochety old semi-retired superhero in the MCU. It's a great version of the character but if not enough people want the character that much to begin with it doesn't matter how cool a version you've created. Thing is, I'm not even sure what they could do at this point that would fund easily short of deliberately losing money on projects by underpricing them. They've already picked the low-hanging fruit. The rest gets more difficult.
  13. I think the Danger Room and the Labs are good calls. Maybe an Iron Man Workshop or a Doctor Strange Sanctum. Doctor Doom's Throne Room might be fun too. Meeting Rooms and Quinjets maybe not so much. Outside of Toy photographers I don't see a lot of appeal there but the others feel like they have more "play value" if that makes sense. But part of the problem is getting these projects approved by Hasbro higher-ups. Maybe the door is open for something a little more outside the box now that both a vehicle and (likely) a "big figure" HasLab for Marvel Legends will have failed to fund. I think they could do entire waves of normal to normal-BAF sized figures that "wouldn't get made any other way" as HasLabs and they'd probably fund at least a few. Though they'd probably want the waves to have some kind of loose "theme" which might make it more difficult or mandate the inclusion of an oft-rehashed character. I thought the Hell Rider was cool but you know what I think would have had no problem funding? Danny Ketch Ghost Rider, Vengeance, and Johnny Blaze (Human/Midnight Sons) all on their respective bikes. Basically maybe less "One big thing with add ons" and more "A lot of small-medium things."
  14. We have to bear in mind that this website seems to skew hard towards both very hardcore comic fans and an older audience. So for a lot of folks here this figure really hits the sweet spot. But as far as a broader audience is concerned Hank is not a character that's ever been super popular. He's never really carried a solo series, has been through a multitude of identities and has been in and out of the Avengers for decades but outside of the founding he's rarely presented as a "core" member. He's got some baggage due to the domestic violence and mental illness issues and overall there's a reason they went with Scott Lang instead of Hank Pym for the MCU. For younger folks he's best known as a crochety old Michael Douglas in the MCU. Their Giant-Man is Scott Lang. I think this is an awesome version of the character, but that's not enough if the character itself isn't all that appealing to enough people. I honestly wonder if an MCU Scott Lang at this size would have sold better. I'm not saying I would have preferred it and I'm not sure it would fund either, but I'd be curious to see the comparison.
  15. 39 days to be precise. If you were making 100 a day (not "just under") you'll get 3900 more backers. Add that to what we already have (4575 as of this post) and you get...8,475. Or about 1500 backers short of basic funding. I'm not counting this out completely yet...we've seen big late-stage surges in Marvel HasLabs before, but it's not looking great. Especially as if this follows normal crowdfunding trends that "just under a hundred a day" is going to get lower through the middle weeks, which would mean a bigger gap that it would have to overcome later in the campaign.
  16. I mean in my mind "funding easily" is reaching your base goal in the first 72 hours or so. Right now it's not even halfway there after 48 and has already reached the "slow roll" phase. At this point if this thing funds at all, it's probably going to squeeze under the wire in the last 48 hours. If you're talking about the Scott Lang MCU Giant-Man then that's the only way this statement makes sense. Giant-Man may be an older character than Galactus or the Sentinels but he has never been particularly popular, especially when the main thing he was known for for much of his existence was being a mentally ill abusive husband (to the point that it became his defining characterization in the Ultimate Universe). He has very slowly started to shed that characterization in the last couple decades, but there's a reason that the main MCU Ant/Giant-Man was Scott Lang and not Hank Pym. I'd argue he's not really more "well known" than the Sentinels or Galactus either. Mostly due to the fact that Hank Pym has had a multitude of costumed identities over the years so for folks that aren't pretty deep in the comic lore Giant Man looks like a character that disappeared pretty early on, briefly reappeared (The Avengers Academy era), and then disappeared again. None of this is a knock on the figure itself or the people that want it. I think it's a great version of the character (easily the best yet designed), but bluntly I don't care enough about this particular character to drop $200 for an upgrade to my Toy Biz version, no matter how much taller or how many more finger joints or faceplates it has. It just doesn't have the "cool factor" for me personally and I already have two giant-sized HasLab figures (and some large-sized vehicles on the way from other HasLabs for other lines) in a home where space is definitely getting to be at a premium. A 12-inch Giant Man in an Avengers display gets the point across just fine for me. I'm not gonna be mad if I'm proven wrong and suddenly this thing takes off later in the campaign, but it's still not going to be something I'm interested in unless somehow they find "that perfect character" for a tier add-on that I absolutely HAVE to have, which seems unlikely as I don't think that character (for me) would be someone particularly associated with Hank Pym or even the Avengers in general (I'm not even sure who it would be, honestly, but I'd know it when I see it).
  17. It's a long way to funded, and generally speaking if you don't make it to at least 50% funded in the first 24 hours it's far from guaranteed that you make it over the line (much less into stretch goals/tiers). This is really the litmus test for where the ML market is at. They've done almost everything a lot of folks here on this very site have claimed they wanted: Lower pricepoint, classic comic character (indeed a character mentioned by name as a possibility several times), minimal bells and whistles. It's interesting that most of the reception here seems to be practically glowing and yet it's not taking off in early funding.
  18. Well this will be the first ML Haslab I have no real interest in backing. Toy Biz is good enough for me, but this is great for folks that don't have an alternative. Be curious to see how this does in the long run: Not exactly a "fan favorite" character, no real troop builder potential, and at least IMO one of the dorkier classic costumes. As well as (again, IMO) some underwhelming tier goals.
  19. Probably the Classified offerings will be Python Patrol Copperhead and Python Patrol Trooper, though maybe they could surprise us with a new Tiger Force Joe beyond Flint (Roadblock, maybe?). No idea on anything else. Though I'd be surprised if there was NO Marvel Legends offering (Or Black Series, or Transformers).
  20. That must have been your area, in mine Surtur went on clearance at pretty much all the Targets around here.
  21. That would be more than mildly infuriating, and I would expect a crapton of returned product missing the unmasked headsculpts in stores.
  22. Man, I deffo did not see Crystar coming, but will gladly snap him up. Mad bonus points if they at least do a Moltar as well, but in all seriousness I'd totally buy a wave or two of Crystar Marvel Legends. I loved that weird series when I was a kid (and had almost all the toys). Also that Mindless One wave is possibly the most random wave I've seen in years in terms of character selection. Not that they're BAD selections, just weird seeing them all in the same wave together. Clea is the only absolute MUST buy for me, but the rest of the wave doesn't look bad.
  23. I hope they keep some of the things they were doing with the plastic-less packaging, like bracing long/skinny accessories with cardboard and such. Had a lot less warping issues with things like swords and rifles and such since the changeover to no-plastic packaging, it was one of the things I enjoyed about it.
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