[Shin Densetsu]

So today I decided to start rearranging my figures and came across my Marvel Legends figures. I wasn't a completist back when this line was under Toy Biz nor am I one now under Hasbro. Nonetheless, I have a good amount of figures.

Is it just me, or did Toy Biz suffer a drastic drop in quality towards their later waves? I mean, some of my figures from later waves have atrocious quality. Some look cheap, some have horrid paint apps. I get the feeling that since they knew the license was going to go to Hasbro, they tried to rush everything they could out there while they still had a chance.

Some of the paint washes are sloppily applied. Some of the paint itself is sloppily applied. My Face Off Wolverine had 2 right shoulders, and just today it BROKE! Shoulder peg snapped right off while I swiveled the bicep. WTF?! Paint on it was bad, did you know most of the figure was molded in blue? I mean that's a figure that should mostly be yellow. It also had too many damn joints and some were loose.

Either way that POS is broken now and also, it couldn't bring it's arms close to it's body! LOL the most neutral stance it had made it look like it was going to hug somebody!

IT's FUC$%&ING WOLVERINE!

WTF!

The Face Off Sabretooth he came with was BAD ASS. Whomever sculpted that was brilliant. However, mine had one loose arm and I'm pretty sure it had 2 of the same finger. WTF? Not only that, it feels cheap. Not just the paint. Shame, as it's one of Toy Biz' best sculpts ever.

So aside from today with the random anomaly of seeing my FO Wolverine break, I had other previous issues with the lines. The Spiderman 2 super articulated figure was too damn articulated. All those joints made the sculpt unsightly. For example, the best Spiderman figures by Toy Biz imho are that Spider Sense Spidey that had clear "pupils" and lit up when plugged into a base(Spiderman figure series), and a few of their early super articulated ones. The Black Spiderman that Hasbro made from the RULK BAF wave and the upcoming Future Foundation/Big Time one seem to get it right. There's definitely a balance between good articulation and sculpt, too much of a good thing is bad.

Daredevil from Spiderman Classics is awesome, my favorite 6" Daredevil figure but them shoulders were HUGE! Wave 5 Sabretooth had the same problem. Same with ML8 Iceman and the Xmen Classics Iceman. Then XMC Archangel which was a retooled Daredevil buck.

Towards the later half of their run, it seems like Toy Biz got too ambitious. The use of ratchet like detents was cool but inconsistent at times. Sometimes they just didn't work since the joints were too loose. This over ambition lead to excessive articulation which killed some sculpts and sometimes resulted in redundant joints. ML5 Sabretooth could bend at the halfway point of his foot but range of motion was minimal at best.

Then of course the random breaks. 1st appearance Iron Man? Arm broke off on mine. Beta Ray Bill? Not so bad ass once his freaking upper body SNAPS OFF. Deathlok witnesses death....the legs on mine snapped off. My Moon Knight has a broken pioece within his back somewhere, as I hear something rattling. Mcfarlane Spidey? Left ankle snapped off.

ML4 Gambit? Mine has 2 of the same pectoral parts, I'm pretty sure.

I hated how ML8 Ultimate Cap and it's retool as the bad ass FO Cap had limited outwards shoulder articulation. The pectoral part hinders the shoulders. Talking about hindered articulation, FO Mandarin can barely move. I hated how PVC soft parts killed articulation!

The FO Modular Iron Man that came with Mandarin was weird. Looked forward to it as that's my favorite armor but nooooooOoOooOOO, Toy Biz used that blinding bright yellow paint and laid it on thick. It looks 80's in a bad way. Also the body looked too small, or the face did(you can take the faceplate off).

Now not everything Toy Biz was bad. Their character selection was good. Their intricate details were good. Just see the jump fro.m ML1 Captain America to the FO version. Huge jump.

Hasbro trumped them when it came to quality control, overall build quality and construction. However Hasbro had several issues of their own, I mean it seemed like they only started to "get it" with the 2 packs and the 2012 line. Toy Biz is a bad case of excessiveness, Hasbro is a bad case of minimalism. Hasbro seems to finally see the balance now.

[deadpool]

Pics please?

[Jason Abbadon]

Dude...that's awesome- you need to make crutches, a wheelchair and get gauze bandages to make dressings over their assorted stumps and amputated limbs.
Just add liberal dabs of red paint for the blood seeping through the bandages...

"The harsh realities of superhero life brought home- next on FRONTLINE."

[Haloid1177]

Go look at the Wave 3 Movie Daredevil. That figure was godawful. Makes the late Yeats of ToyBiz amazing.

[Crazy Jetty]

Poor paint applications is the reason I don't own an ML Psylocke. I simply could *not* find one worth a crap.
Also, almost every woman they did looked like they were wearing Diapers, the way their hips were designed. Psylocke did, and so did White Queen (Even though that was Hasbro)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shin Densetsu

Hasbro trumped them when it came to quality control, overall build quality and construction. However Hasbro had several issues of their own, I mean it seemed like they only started to "get it" with the 2 packs and the 2012 line. Toy Biz is a bad case of excessiveness, Hasbro is a bad case of minimalism. Hasbro seems to finally see the balance now.

Maybe Hasbro finally realized they needed to get with the program. Mattel really raised the bar on 6" figures. Hasbro's previous attempt at ML were far from impressive, and weren't as good as Toybiz had been (Who also were no longer at the peak of their game).
Mattel really changed the field with their easily reused molds (I would prefer every character get a unique sculpt like ML, but who wouldn't? But even I see the financial gain in this that Hasbro now exploits with their MU line), standardized articulation that's not as over the top as some legends were, as well as better quality and solid builds. (At least until they switched to this painfully soft plastic)

I miss those early days of Toybiz' ML... I miss looking at a 6" action figure with complete comic and an absolutely MASSIVE piece of Sentinel, seeing that it costs $8, and thinking to myself ... "Damn these things have gotten pricey."

[Tiberius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Jetty

Poor paint applications is the reason I don't own an ML Psylocke. I simply could *not* find one worth a crap.
Also, almost every woman they did looked like they were wearing Diapers, the way their hips were designed. Psylocke did, and so did White Queen (Even though that was Hasbro)



Maybe Hasbro finally realized they needed to get with the program. Mattel really raised the bar on 6" figures. Hasbro's previous attempt at ML were far from impressive, and weren't as good as Toybiz had been (Who also were no longer at the peak of their game).
Mattel really changed the field with their easily reused molds (I would prefer every character get a unique sculpt like ML, but who wouldn't? But even I see the financial gain in this that Hasbro now exploits with their MU line), standardized articulation that's not as over the top as some legends were, as well as better quality and solid builds. (At least until they switched to this painfully soft plastic)

I miss those early days of Toybiz' ML... I miss looking at a 6" action figure with complete comic and an absolutely MASSIVE piece of Sentinel, seeing that it costs $8, and thinking to myself ... "Damn these things have gotten pricey."

Man, that brought back memories. Maaaaan oh Maaaaan

[Haloid1177]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Jetty

Poor paint applications is the reason I don't own an ML Psylocke. I simply could *not* find one worth a crap.
Also, almost every woman they did looked like they were wearing Diapers, the way their hips were designed. Psylocke did, and so did White Queen (Even though that was Hasbro)



Maybe Hasbro finally realized they needed to get with the program. Mattel really raised the bar on 6" figures. Hasbro's previous attempt at ML were far from impressive, and weren't as good as Toybiz had been (Who also were no longer at the peak of their game).
Mattel really changed the field with their easily reused molds (I would prefer every character get a unique sculpt like ML, but who wouldn't? But even I see the financial gain in this that Hasbro now exploits with their MU line), standardized articulation that's not as over the top as some legends were, as well as better quality and solid builds. (At least until they switched to this painfully soft plastic)

I miss those early days of Toybiz' ML... I miss looking at a 6" action figure with complete comic and an absolutely MASSIVE piece of Sentinel, seeing that it costs $8, and thinking to myself ... "Damn these things have gotten pricey."

The ToyBiz Rogue figure had the diaper problem too. And I just started getting back into the ToyBiz Legends, and remembering they cost $8 makes me think that these figures remain one of the best values of any toyline ever.

[Jason Abbadon]

Is that the Daredevil with the completely round shoulders?
They used that body on the Silver Surfer and it's so laughably bad that I cant use it even for a custom!
What is in essense a blank buck of a figure is so unsuitable- so completely funhouse-mirror disproportionant that you wonder if the sculptors have ever seen other humans or are they possibly estimating by looking down at themselves...

And then there's the over-articulation- I have recenty aquired a Captain America to customize into a MU Super adaptoid...and EVERY JOINT I had to use super-glue on to get them anything close to tight- even the foot-tips! That fig needs a flight stand just to pose upright.

[Tiberius]

You can fix anything with super glue! My brother got a 2 dollar, series 1 Captain America at toyfair. Looser than a....whatever you like and BAHM, with my epic skills he is better than new!

[Jason Abbadon]

Your brother or the figure?

Now I just need a 6" black-costume Spidey for his head.

[bmorr]

the worst fig of that line ive ever seen was Ultron. The design was terrible.

[T16skyhopp]

I like my 'Astonishing' Wolverine with claws that could barely fit into his ENTIRE arms, let alone just his forearms.

[warmachine6]

i have always done this since i got my first proper marvel legend figure which is when i got my daredevil series 3 mint condition , was to go on youtube and watch reviews i have saved a far amount of cash just by watching them, but some of the figures you seem to mentioned broken to me sounds like you have played with alot or have fallen down now and then, i had a slight chaos with my shield agent yesterday one of the lower arms (start of white glove) seemed some super glue got stuck :S but was an easy fix. but i argee with detail and articulation they seem good i prefer toybiz rathar than hasbro but slightly growing out of it cause movie figures etc and might get furture one but most of my collection is just hasbro.

[trebleshot]

I remember seeing the first wave of Toy Biz ML and being blown away by the size, sculpt and articulation. It was leaps and bounds beyond the crap they had been putting out at the time.

But by the time they started winding down, I had already jumped ship for many of the reasons you've all sited here. Over-articulation, bad QC, odd sculpts and so on. On top of that, I was also dealing with space/storage issues, the character selection was as appealing to me and being forced to buy an entire wave just to complete a BAF got to be too much. Towards the end the only figure I actually wanted in the wave WAS the BAF. Same thing happened with the first run of Hasbro ML figures.

Don't really care about any of the figures in the Hulk wave, but damn I want that Foom. The upcoming Masterworks version may be a better alternate, though.