AndyL

Just eh. Pretty much what I thought they were going to be. Like I've said. The movie looks to be fine and even though I really love the style and design of the world it's set in I really don't like the uniforms. Again I assume they are going to eventually get some kind of glow up when they enter the MCU Proper but there was never really a doubt that I was going to pass on these from the start. Of course I did get Shalla Surfer but only because I love the body model and I really like her look in the movie. Like I said. The rest are just eh.

Re: She-Hulk Retro Card I've always loved the look of She-Hulk with her hair in a ponytail. Hopefully the skin tone at least matches so we can have a proper head swap with the previous figure. But knowing Hasbro they'll probably make it just a few shades off just to mess with us. Honestly this figure as much as it looks like the Byrne art, I really just wish Hasbro would bite the bullet and just do a straight out redo of the She-Hulk from the Blob Wave. In her white and lavender track suit. I really loved that figure and it was amazing as compares to the product that Hasbro was doing at the time. The story I heard is most of that wave was actually Toybiz sculpts that came over to Hasbro once they were awarded the Mavel license. Even the Blob BAF itself was which if done by Toybiz would have most likely been a single card. But of course they still got that crappy Hasbro articulation of the time. Actually quite a few figures from that wave still haven't been updated. We really need a Yellowjacket. An updated Xorn would be cool but I can do without. I really loved that Thor though which I guess is called Lord Thor. Whatever. I really liked the look of it and wish they could redo that one too with modern articulation. I think Love and Thunder MCU Thor was loosely based on that look but I'm not sure. I'm sure someone else might have a little better insight than me on that. Don't think I was reading Thor books around that time so I don't particularly remember that era.

Can't stinking wait for this. Something I've wanted for soooooo long. At one point I was on the verge of pulling the trigger and paying out the keister for the original but I knew Disney/Marvel was about to get the F4 license back and I knew they were going to do a BAF wave with Dragon Man so I decided to wait it out. Unfortunately the BAF wave never came out but I actually prefer this process better. Make it accurate and make it the right size and be up front that this is the only way we can do it right and let the customer decide if they want to partake. This is beautiful and I'm glad they didn't go the BAF route where the almost certainly would have went on the cheap and skimped on plastic and who knows what fate the wings would have suffered. And I guarantee the book and glasses accessories wouldn't even be a consideration. And I'm almost certain even the extra set of hands would not have been likely. I hope to see more of this type program in the future. Actually I think Shuma Gorath should have been done this way and possibly Juggernaut but I understand their desire to continue to push the Gamerverse product with the lack of MCU product projected for the next few years before Doomsday comes out and the waning interest on any product based on anything on Disney+ right now. Now what are the chances that they use and tweak this as the base for the upcoming Abomination figure. Size wise it looks about right and if you paint it green or rather cast it green it does look mighty Abomination like. Even with zero adjustments at this point.

No not at all. They also do Avengers and GOTG figures as well. I haven't seen any X-Men but hopefully they have those licenses too.

I like this better than I thought I would. The Sauron does look better if a bit dated but as far as the ladies go I'm quite impressed. A lot of reuse but not as much as I originally thought. Only thing I would have liked better is if they had actually used the updated Moonstone body model for her. But at this point we've waited so long for this I'll take whatever. Hopefully we all get a legit chance to get our hands on this set.

I too wonder what scale these will be in. Usually the more detailed model kits come in around 5 to 5.5 inches so they aren't compatible with standard 1/12 figures. But the standard blocky looking Blokees come in around the 4 inch mark. I'm interested to see what the 4 inch Venom body would look like with the Pork Grind head sculpt. Currently I have it on my Marvel Mashers Venom but this one seems like it might be an upgrade.

Re: Gamerverse Kingpin Arrrrr! This is a true test of my ability to refrain from pushing down on that finger hovering over the purchase button. I have both previous versions of Kingpin but something about that grinning head sculpt that make him look truly contriving and the bigger fists and head that seem to be more proportionate to his size and of course the black suit make it so tempting. If I wasn't almost certain this thing will go on sale the FOMO would make me buy this thing right now. But in the end if it never does or I miss it when it does I'm perfectly happy with the two that I already have.

Re: Punisher statue Wow. Who knew that so many companies would produce so much product from like 3 minutes of screen time in a 9 episode show? Shows how much the fans want this character to get some exposure I guess. Did he even wear the skull in the show? I honestly can't remember.

Aside from some statements that got some rather unexpected reactions I get where you're coming from. As a producer of a product based on a very popular license you have to give the consumer some semblance of friendliness towards them if only to give them the feeling that you understand what they want and you also want what they want. To me that is what Dan and Ryan and Dwight were. The friendly faces they put out there to put the right angle on everything and try to convince the customer that this is exactly what they were asking for. And aside from some a few glaring missteps they more or less did that. They didn't always convince me that what they were pushing was anything I needed or even asked for but they were good at selling it as "Hey this is still pretty good. And maybe just maybe that thing you really wanted might be in line next time". They were good at their jobs and it was a familiar trio who I actually enjoyed and became accustomed to seeing as the FACE's of ML. That being said I also have been at a few high profile companies where the friends you made on the job and maybe even extended out into your personal life are only friends as long as that friendship doesn't effect one's own job stability. When it's time for the company to part ways with you it feels like you're losing a friend or friends but quickly find out that it was more of just a friendly arrangement rather than a real friendship. I've even been in a situation where myself and a few "friends" left a job at the same time all under the promise that we'd help each other land on our feet in a better situation only to find when the cards were down it was everyone for themselves. I know some things you said don't exactly translate to everyone that read them but I get it. But in this case I really don't see anyone at Hasbro or any other multi-billion dollar company as friends or even friendly to the consumer. At this point the only brand loyalty I have towards Hasbro and their version of ML is that I really don't have the desire nor the time left in my lifetime to start from scratch with a new company and their take on the Marvel action figures. Do I think other smaller hungrier companies like Jada and Jazzwares could do a better job than Hasbro? Most certainly. But there's also the chance that it could go to a company like McFarlane where I feel like the entire lifetime of it's contract with DC was basically held hostage to the desires and likes and dislikes of the company's owner, and also hostage to the companies limitations in regards terrible articulation and design (diapers). I seriously just shiver every time I think of ML in the hands of someone like that. But I digress. In any case if the license ever ended up in the hands of Jada or Jazzwares or McFarlane or anyone else for that matter I would take that as the time to bow out. Unless and it's a big unless they could somehow split the license and let Hasbro keep the movie license which is the one they really covet the most and then another company could get ahold of the comics license and match the scale and basic look of current ML so that they could give us all the figures we need to fill all the major holes without having to start over from scratch. That would be really friendly to the customer. But that would only happen in a perfect world and that is not the one we live in now.

Re: War Machine vs Omega Red Gamerverse set I do like the look of this set. Particularly the colors of War Machine. I guess WM is supposed to be the NEW figure of the set. It does have some pretty noticeable differences but honestly they are little more than a few tweaks on the comic based figure. As far as Omega Red I don't think there's anything new about him other than a few cosmetic changes and new hair do. Not exactly sure but I don't even think they used the upgraded mold with the diaphragm joint like they used on Venom and The new X-Force Warpath. As a matter of fact it looks like they specifically posed him to hide the fact. And in this situation this figure would have benefitted from the added articulation for the more dynamic game style poses. It literally seems like they cracked open the unsold Amazon exclusives box sets and repackaged them for this set. Basically nothing new. I wouldn't even consider this set unless it goes to massive discount. IMO, aside from the Psylocke and Shuma Gorath figures and Cap to a lesser extent this entire Gamerverse wave or whatever they're calling it has been a bust. I know without Capcom on board they had limited options here but this is more or less a bunch of reuse built around a few new massive figures to showcase. TBH I think a better strategy would have been to actually do it as a BAF wave with Shuma as the BAF. And Juggernaut in a 2 pack with Wolverine. I would have bought them all as singles just to build the BAF. And I think the new Wolverine figure alone would have sold the 2 pack. Of course that means they would have had to put a little more love into figures like Omea Red, Silver Samurai, Thanos and Venom beyond a pretty new paint job but since when has Hasbro ever been accused of going above and beyond minimal effort? I mean for anything other than MCU products that is. Got Shuma and the Cap/Venom set on pre-order but if I can't get ahold of the Psylocke set I'll be looking to sell or trade Venom to offset cost of having to track down Betsy on the secondary market. Otherwise a whole lot of nothing but money saved on my part.

Wow. This was unexpected. Many well wishes for Ryan. Maybe Mattel will take advantage and pick him up for the relaunch of their DC line. But knowing Hasbro they probably had him sign a non-compete.

Re: F4 First Steps figures LOL. Looks like this guy (or gal) passed on the regular Johnny Storm. Can't really blame them. That's what I would have done. The face sculpt on Sue is actually really nice. Not my cup of tea but honestly they are better than I expected. Still PASS.

Lol. Gambit's concert shirt that simply says ROCK gives me the rememberries of another iconic image I'm very fond of.

Yeah I'm a stickler for size comparison and I know the sizes of both characters have varied all over the place over the years. And all the databases are constantly changing. I used to use it quite a bit because I used to draw character sheets and do posters and all that stuff when I was much much younger. I use them less and less because they have started changing everything to match the MCU I think. Specifically I remember Daredevil who is one of my favorite characters was listed at 6'2" and 220 lbs at one time to show that he was a taller more muscular guy than say Spider-Man who was around 5'9" and 150 lbs. And also to have that muscular yet lean physique as compared to the bigger bulkier Captain America who was around 6'4" and 250. And great artists like Sal Buscema and Jr, Sr drew them with a noticeable size differences in characters like that. But now Peter and Matt are virtually identical in size and Cap has been nerfed down to Daredevil's original size. To the T. Even Sam Wilson who was at one time 6'4" has been shrunken to 6'2". But somehow his weight stayed the same. There was a time when Hulk was listed at 9'5' in his savage form and most consistently at least at 9'0" in his most common form. But now I think he's been changed to match his MCU incarnation. Which I'll just leave my opinion on what they've done to poor Hulk in the MCU as of late right here at the door as to not cause a riot. But my fondest and most lasting memory is the encounter between Hulk and Juggernaut in a story in the original The Incredible Hulk comic run before they started constantly doing limited runs and reboots to hide how terrible comics are and how badly they're selling these days and it was drawn by the great Gary Frank where they were both these massive giants and virtually the same size. I think Juggs edged him out maybe by a little bit but not much. And Gary Frank is one of those artists who had great attention for detail. They had rarely crossed paths until then even though it made perfect sense that they should have. I guess they figured Hulk had plenty of other villains to deal with. That's about where I want my display to be. For the most part I think Hasbro gets most of the heavy hitters right as far as size comparisons. Their biggest failures to this point I think would be Abomination, which I think and hope they are about to fix, and Sasquatch who should be taller and large than than Hulk. At one time he was listed at 10' tall while Hulk was 9'. Not a big difference but it should be reflected correctly in the figures but the figure is roughly the same height as Hulk and much slimmer. I just keep them far apart in my display. At least until they correct it. If they correct it. Because the Sasquatch figure is otherwise actually really good. It just needed to be upscaled a bit. Actually I don't think Sasquatch's height has been retconned to this point but they haven't done a cinematic version yet so there's no reason for them to change his size to match anything yet. Yes I did play all three and they were great. I wished they'd do something similar on the modern platforms. Though I doubt I'd have much time to spend on them anyway. I thought the designs and models for them in that game were great if not perfect and I may be getting them mixed up because its been a loooo-oooong time since I played it but Jugs and Hulk were more or less interchangeable in the game weren't they? I almost seem to remember an in game joke where during the dialogue parts someone actually said "You can take Hulk. We'll take Juggernaut. He's more stable anyway." I may be mis-remembering but it stands out pretty vividly in my mind. Who knows it might have been a completely different game. But yes those were great looking renderings and they were basically the same size. Perfectly scaled IMO.

Yeah the fact that they can't figure out a way to integrate all the things GI Joe Classified are doing in ML is crazy. I know they are two completely separate lines and there is no "sharing" between the two to prevent leaks or whatever silly excuse they use but you have to think there's some interaction in the engineering department or something. Virtually every character in GIJC has a ball joint. And I know the differences on when it can or can't be used. Literally all Joes wear pants so yes that belt line masks the ball joint pretty well and I know the majority of ML wear skin tight suits so they don't use the ball joint to maintain the traditional look of the character. Which I do appreciate because some of the time when ML does use it it's pretty shoddy as in with the Classic Wasp figure and the X-Men '97 Jean Grey. But things like drop hip pins and calf swivel should just be automatic. Even if there's not a proper boot cut sculpted onto the figure pretty much every character wears some form of boot. Just put a standard cut in it and paint up to the line or cast it in different plastic. And there's always the typical argument of Hasbro owning GI Joe versus leasing Marvel. Believe me I know and I've heard it used as an excuse a thousand times. I see the problem of added cost if they were developing some new technology or technique but all the R&D for these things are already there. Just integrate it. It's crazy. I'm not all in on Joe like I am ML but when I do buy one of those characters I just marvel on how much quality and accessories they put into them. And yes the pun is intended. They even make removable magazines and silencers on their weapons. To me it's just a crazy thought for them to spend all the money to win and retain the Marvel license and then spend the entire lifetime of the contract cutting corners and short changing the product to try to recover costs. I mean the money for the license is already spent. Why not do the best you can with the product to make it a good as possible and sell as many as you can while you have it?