[Iceman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cidman911

People like corporate owned stores because it's easy to get an exchange or refund on something like $3,000 tv. Pretty much no questions asked if want to return a tv I had 2 days from wal-mart. If I try return a $20 toy that came factory damaged to a comic shop...well...we already know what most of them will say.

Yeah, it just isn't in line with today's market. The local scalp shop that overcharges for absolutely everything (doesn't sell comic books) has signs up for a lot of things saying they will not accept returns of any kind. Like "we cannot accept returns on NECA figures because they are fragile and break too often". It's a wonder anyone buys with an endorsement like that.


I think the issue with comic books shops is that they haven't tried to do anything in a long time and that is why the fail. The initiative ones that diversify and find what is profitable survive. It's just like small books stores. There is only so much of a market for a place that people can go in person to buy things for 20%-30% more than they would get them anywhere else.

[kylactus]

I don't own a comic shop so I don't know all the ins and outs but if the problem, as described above, is that they have to deal with diamond because of volume issues related with direct manufacturer purchase, why not contact say every LCS in your area, go in together and buy large volume from Hasbro, Marvel, DC, and the like. just set up a LLC in witch all the LCS's are partners (this is just for the sake of large purchases) contribute funds accordingly and split the order up once you receive it. then you could even sell cheaper than a chain store, this would also help in the case of international items as you would only pay one bulk lot import tax and you could divide the order however you want. I know that traditionally competition is the back bone of retail, but with the Wal-Mart's of the world dominating maybe the "little fish" need to band together to eat the shark. To quote "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"- the art of war.

[Nymesys Prime]

OK...I am really liking this rant and rave thread... therefore let me get started.
For whatever the reason that is Hasbro..do we really need another freakin Wolverine/Ironman figure in the Legends waves? if the story is true why the hell would your BAF be Jubilee?? I have heard of cutting corners and cost blah blah but damn..you went from Sentinels and Apacolypse to hitmonkey, puck and Jubil freekin Lee! not only is that insulting it degrade the Legends line in my book. I already own the MU Jubs and she coulda been a figure that comes with a BAF part but not BE the BAF. Don't get me started on what is my first disappointment on the AoE Transformers...Purple and RED??? Really??

End rant for now...

[kylactus]

yeah the new BAFs look more like pack ins. look at the Apoc wave, his head/upper torso is more plastic than the x-23 it's packed with.

[ultraman zoffy]

Funny thing is if you're familiar at all with the Spider-Girl figure, then you know Jubilee is going to be nothing but an SG figure with new arms, a head, and a coat. SG's legs and whole upper body from the torso up (arms included) all come right off with only slight heating to pull the torso and arms (from the shoulders down) off. It's the main reason I love working with the figure for customs, and it just screams BAF. lol

[Nymesys Prime]

The one BAF or CnC I really would like to see would be Doomsday
for the life of me I cant find a decent 6in scale version of him.
I sorta like the prison version that's coming soon but I really want the Bone protruding DD. As for SG I been toying with putting BW head on her...just to see how it would look..

Wouldn't the mandroid armor make a great Hulkbuster suit??

reposted from tfw rant
WOW...cant believe one of the biggest movies of the year will have such $#1tty toys.
Rippersnapper as Grimlock? really?? looks like Hasbro is unloading the unsold cyberverses as AOE store exclusives. Common theme is the splitting dino heads as shoulder pads and the obvious tail as swords. That blue pterodactyl repaint from BW series 1 is the ultimate insult. I truly was hoping for better then I read that the designers this time around aren't really toy designers...guess you get what you pay for

[Serious Lee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kylactus

yeah the new BAFs look more like pack ins. look at the Apoc wave, his head/upper torso is more plastic than the x-23 it's packed with.

I wish I'd been collecting ML when the prices were ToyBiz, it was definitely a different time. What we have now as far as quality of sculpt IMO is better, not in every case of course because some TB figures stand the test of time, no doubt - especially BAF's!

We did get Terrax, Arnim Zola and the new Goblin, so if we're comparing size, we did get a few decent BAF's. I'm not sure we'll get a new Sentinel or Giant Man, but there are other large figure possibilities out there and I hope we'll see them (Hello Blastaar! Lol)

My pseudo rant here might be the actual retail cost of the figures today (no, this isn't a complaint about Puck or Hit Monkey), but any and all BAF's. I pay more than the average retail shopper at my LCS (whom I am 100% loyal before any retail shopping), however, if I was big store shopping here and paying $25 per figure after tax, at the very least possible barring a sale, I'd be concerned to know if that money being spent for each figure was 1% mark up or 71% mark up, from cost of production, not retail mark up. It wasn't the distant past that to buy a figure was less than half the current price.

I think it's obvious that ML, MI and MS are all popular lines, and the goal of a company like Hasbro or Diamond Select etc, is to extract the maximum amount from we the buyer, but where is the line? I look at Diamond Select and say to myself, ' $30 is an acceptable amount to pay for Abomination, Colossus, movie Wolverine and the new Venom figure, after tax of course, but is $25 for an ML figure (again, after tax), an acceptable amount for what we're getting? Hasbro recently bumped the price of a figure at retail by $5 per, many of us scoffed, but the line is probably more popular than it has been in years.

Even with the current popularity of said lines, and no toy company owes its supporters anything at all, but are we being gouged by toy companies? I've read comments here and there about what it really costs to make a mould, produce volume, package and ship, but I have no solid answer with conclusive proof. If there are some Arker's in the know, please share your experience and knowledge with the rest of us. Having an independent store owner speak up was very enlightening, in regards to how an LCS operates and needs to have a wide range of selection to make it all work out, I'm grateful to know these things, and it gives me more appreciation for my local store.

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but I'm curious about all the in's and out's of this business and it's culture. Really, I'm just a 41 year old rookie trying to see the whole picture. There won't be an answer the makes me stop collecting, because I absolutely love this stuff!

[Nymesys Prime]

[QUOTE=Serious Lee;522880]I wish I'd been collecting ML when the prices were ToyBiz, it was definitely a different time. What we have now as far as quality of sculpt IMO is better, not in every case of course ....QUOTE]

MAKES ME WONDER WHAT THE MARVEL SELECTS WILL START TO COST....I don't think any of us will have issues with pricing if its a decent figure I have watched DCU figures go from 8.99 this year to 14.99 for a 3.75 figures and 8.99 to 16.99 for the total heroes
while SW black started at 19.99 and continues to be at the moment
how can some lines hold their price whereas others shoot up nearly monthly? Same manufacturer {mattel/Hasbro} mass produced figures even with marketing and packaging shouldn't shoot up by pricepoint in one off moments. you would think all figures would shoot up if it was truly the cost of plastic

[kylactus]

the nuts and bolts of toy pricing comes down to the economy, weather anyone chooses to recognize it or not were in a minor depression. If the minimum wage goes up, it won't improve anything, prices will adjust to reflect the new value of the dollar. in short were really not paying any more for figures than we ever did, your dollar is just worth less. the 11 dollars you pay for a MI figure has the same purchase power on the market as the 8 you paid in 09, its the same as your grandpa talking about how a nickel would buy him a pocket full of candy and a funny book back in 1948. That and I'm sure Hasbro makes more off of well selling items to compensate for items that don't move as quickly. Marketing 101: if your product sells out quickly it's under priced. you want to hit that sweet spot where the consumer will buy your product, but they would not pay one cent more, and in the current economic climate it might take a company a wile to figure out where that sweet spot is.

[trebleshot]

Also that money you fork over for your Marvel toys doesn't go directly into Hasbro's pockets. Most of the retail markup is from the resellers, be they LCS or retail chains. Some of it is also due to the rising cost of materials.

[MeLikeJinx]

Speaking of Marvel Select... I love how comparably easy it is to find Marvel Select figures at my LCS ... plus the mark-up on them is almost non-existent even with the more popular characters. A lot of times at my LCS a single HTF current MU will be priced higher than the Marvel Select figs right next to it... which on a purely intellectually level is insane to me.

And by the time I get to my LCS all the good MU and ML figs are almost always gone even at mark-up... but this is never the case with Marvel Select... even the variants sit there for a good while. I was just wondering why this is the case? Even scalpers tend to avoid Marvel Select for some reason.

[kylactus]

low articulation, MS has no playability or pose ability, there pretty much plastic statues, they look cool as hell but I think a lot of "action figure" fans classify them as "inaction figures".

[cidman911]

I can only think of like 6 or 7 decent Marvel Selects in the entire existence of them.

Various interviewers have asked that Zach Oats guy from Diamond Select what's up with the wildly inconsistent articulation but he said it's up to the sculpture how they want a figure to look. I think that sucks and they should all have some more consistency in the line. Some with ab crunch, some with ball joint legs, some with double jointed knees...its terrible. I've only bought 2 Marvel Selects and ended up selling them.

The best ones to me have been Juggernaut, Gambit, Hugh Jackman Wolverine, Venom, most Hulks, Thanos, & Rhino...haven't seen Abomination in person. But they always ace the bigger figures and kind of fall flat with most others.

[behindthemask]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cidman911

I can only think of like 6 or 7 decent Marvel Selects in the entire existence of them.

Various interviewers have asked that Zach Oats guy from Diamond Select what's up with the wildly inconsistent articulation but he said it's up to the sculpture how they want a figure to look. I think that sucks and they should all have some more consistency in the line. Some with ab crunch, some with ball joint legs, some with double jointed knees...its terrible. I've only bought 2 Marvel Selects and ended up selling them.

The best ones to me have been Juggernaut, Gambit, Hugh Jackman Wolverine, Venom, most Hulks, Thanos, & Rhino...haven't seen Abomination in person. But they always ace the bigger figures and kind of fall flat with most others.

I got Abomb he's decent, actually rebought him that's how much I liked him. Heavy figures, lots of plastic for your $$. Juggernaut is sick, Hulks are awesome. The 1 main figure you forgot is Thw Watcher, he still commands like $70-80 loose and works well with ML and MU. I think they're similiar to Mcfarlane figures, great paint and sculpt, just limited poseability.

[ultraman zoffy]

Marvel Select figures can be a lot of fun if you're willing to cut them up and mod them a bit. I never liked the classic Thor options in the Legends line (first one had an ugly sculpt, second one was diet Thor), so I went this route instead:
Modded Size Appropriate Classic Thor for Legends Displays Custom Action Figure

[Serious Lee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ultraman zoffy

Marvel Select figures can be a lot of fun if you're willing to cut them up and mod them a bit. I never liked the classic Thor options in the Legends line (first one had an ugly sculpt, second one was diet Thor), so I went this route instead:
Modded Size Appropriate Classic Thor for Legends Displays Custom Action Figure

That's looks incredible! Awesome vision of Thor!

Ever since that ML Thor figure came out (the head of your custom), I have been wondering where it came from and who drew him that way. I read a lot of Thor from the mid 80's to the late 90's, and his look hadn't changed much if at all over that time. I got used to it I guess, but your figure incorporates old and new almost seamlessly. I check out FigureRealm now and then, and I've never seen anyone with your take on the character. Very nice work!

[ultraman zoffy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serious Lee

That's looks incredible! Awesome vision of Thor!

Ever since that ML Thor figure came out (the head of your custom), I have been wondering where it came from and who drew him that way. I read a lot of Thor from the mid 80's to the late 90's, and his look hadn't changed much if at all over that time. I got used to it I guess, but your figure incorporates old and new almost seamlessly. I check out FigureRealm now and then, and I've never seen anyone with your take on the character. Very nice work!

Thanks Lee... the head sculpt is based on Olivier Coipel's art, probably my favorite Marvel artist at the moment. He did the art for House of M, most of AvX, and other titles you'd easily recognize.

[VashTS]

I am very upset, they charge us a lot. Someone will try to say its cost of raw materials but legends are tripe the price in a 5 year span.

Hasbro had no plans on a baf sentinel our any baf above 9 inches. Movie sentinels, nope, Nimrod, nope; where is my movie Storm, young Magneto and Xavier? Charge me SRP $20 dollars but no movie merch. They are finally releasing some promised figures, but nothing short of disappointment, a baf jubilee? How can a regular figure be a baf? The 20 bucks price increase was to insure my big baf? I get it, no Mattel = no competition = take this or else?

No wonder those Hasbro guys were quiet when we are so close to the xmen movie. I wish someone would all them what is up?

[cidman911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by behindthemask

I got Abomb he's decent, actually rebought him that's how much I liked him. Heavy figures, lots of plastic for your $$. Juggernaut is sick, Hulks are awesome. The 1 main figure you forgot is Thw Watcher, he still commands like $70-80 loose and works well with ML and MU. I think they're similiar to Mcfarlane figures, great paint and sculpt, just limited poseability.

Yeah totally forgot about The Watcher. Very cool figure just based on his appearance. Pretty much any Marvel Select that stands in scale to Marvel Legends is a fun addition to the collection.

[Serious Lee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cidman911

Yeah totally forgot about The Watcher. Very cool figure just based on his appearance. Pretty much any Marvel Select that stands in scale to Marvel Legends is a fun addition to the collection.

I'd be really surprised if the Watcher didn't see a rerelease. A highly sought after figure for sure, just like Flash Venom and movie Wolverine are now. Abomination is killer, a must have IMO and others like Colossus, Ultron and Rhino need to be in ML and MS collections alike!

I know Flash Venom will see a ML release, but it's awesome, I wish I collected MS for other than ML collaboration, because Diamond makes awesome plastic!

[redx24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kylactus

now here's some ridiculous mark ups...

Marvel Universe Wolverine and Silver Samurai Figure Comic Pack 4 inches New | eBay

Hasbro Marvel Avengers Comic Collection 4 in Action Figure 4pack Captain 653569738558 | eBay

New Marvel Universe Comic Packs Dark Wolverine and Dark Spider Man | eBay

Marvel Universe Wonder Man and Quicksilver Figure Comic Pack 4 inches New | eBay

after seeing this I realize I have owned and sold all these sets only to find out I totally screwed myself by selling them for what I paid plus shipping. lol. seriously the prices on these set are outrageous but I'm sure there a buyer somewhere for them

[cidman911]

Truer words have never been written.

[Iceman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by redx24

after seeing this I realize I have owned and sold all these sets only to find out I totally screwed myself by selling them for what I paid plus shipping. lol. seriously the prices on these set are outrageous but I'm sure there a buyer somewhere for them

Usually high priced stuff like that only sells because it goes to some random country no one ships to. This guys doesn't even ship outside the US lol.

[warmachine6]

Just seen a marvel legends movie black widow at £80.00 !!!!
Thank god for the free postage

[SoBeeIt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cidman911

Truer words have never been written.

I agree totally, because come on ladies and gentlemen, both collectors and scalpers alike invest some sort of time, endless trips to retail stores, and also the every changing cost of gas...so I do not mind a "reasonable" price for figures such as ML 6 inch Black Widow, Emma Frost and a few other...but, what makes me makes me spit venom, as a collector mind you, is when you do make it to your local retail store and you walk down the toy isle of that store and you see the figures on the peg...then you see an employee of that store take the most valuable figures on the peg and run to the back of the store with them in front of your face...And, yes I did tell the store manger about the issue, but he did not seem like he cared...moral of the rant...collectors are under attack.