[Super Joe]

As discussed herein Toy Ark three years ago, Reuters elaborated on Disney's buyout of Marvel and how it may affect Hasbro and Mattel. Hasbro may end up the biggest loser after Disney agreed to buy Marvel, losing out on a rich source of content for its new TV channel and faces much tougher licensing negotiations in the long term. Hasbro's agreement with Marvel to make toys with the latter's characters (ext)ends 2017.

Given that Disney likes licensing its toys to Mattel, we may see 4+ years from now, Marvel figures made by Mattel's own Four Horsemen. Furthermore, Dave Vonner just got fired. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, enabling Mattel to hire the man, who brought us MU. A man who likewise may fix Mattel's other struggling superhero DC 3.75" lines. It takes 2 years MINIMUM to plan toys. Till then, what would you like to see (4+ years from now) in Marvel toy lines very POSSIBLY made by Mattel?

[CLASSIFIED]

Yeah, and they might not...

[NoodleChow]

this would have made a fantastic april fools.

[CLASSIFIED]

April Fools was the 1st! This is real!

[NoodleChow]

yay marvel subs and "sold out" figures! i too wish to pay shipping for each and every item.

honestly, if mattel ever does get the license, i prolly won't be buying much of their stuff if they continue to make the smaller scale stuff with old kenner or secret wars articulation. unless they come with lenticular shields. i will buy those.

[Marvel Kid]

Hmmm....... and we were always complaining about Hasbro. Let's see if Mattel is going to do a better job than Hasbro at making us better Marvel toys without hundreds and thousands of repaints...

[SH0CKWAVE]

What would I like to see? More Marvel Universe 3.75" scale from here to eternity. I really don't care who makes them. Marvel Universe is a well oiled machine. There is always a young upstart waiting on the wings. The franchise will carry on.

[Jason Abbadon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CLASSIFIED

April Fools was the 1st! This is real!

Real bullshit- we know of nothing to suggest any desire to move the liscnce from a succesful company that has done well with their characters to a company that was a utter failure with theirs on all fronts and scales.

Hasbro has made the best 3.75" figures for more than thirty years and mattel brought us...Infinite Heroes.

Disney's not dumb guys- they may or may not re-negotiate with Hasbro, but there's nothing to suggest the line wont go on.
Hell, they coud just as easily demand more accesories for MU like Hasbro gives to it's other toy lines.

The truth is, we dont know and such speculation is just hot air.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marvel Kid

Hmmm....... and we were always complaining about Hasbro. Let's see if Mattel is going to do a better job than Hasbro at making us better Marvel toys without hundreds and thousands of repaints...

HA! If you collected any of Mattel's DC figs, you'd know just how hilarious that is-
sure we complain about repaints, but Mattel is the KING or repaints- useing the exact same buck for everyone from Superman to Flash to the golden age Atom- which is like if MU used the Cyclops buck for Puck!

A more cheap-ass company than Mattel is hard to imagine- and their figs are only $20!

[Starscream99]

God I hope not. Especially if they are like DCUC and Infinite Heroes.

[Jason Abbadon]

On th other hand, in four years, MU will have mae most everyone worth making and if Mattel gets the line, I can stop collecting, having everyone I wanted anyway!

I just cant imagine anyone at Disney looking at anything from the two companies and deciding Mattel is superior in any way.

[Saint Phe]

That would be the biggest disaster in toy history. Mattel would absolutely destroy the 3.75" lines. And I'm sure they would even pull articulation out of the 6" figures. Disney has made some questionable decisions, but I don't think they would be straight up stupid enough to hand the license to a company with a track record like Mattel's. Or at least I hope they wouldn't.

[perrych]

I think some of you didn't read the whole post. His point was that Mattel could hire Vonner who might improve articulation for the Mattel 4" line. He would also be well positioned to continue a MU line within Mattel instead of starting it over, which would likely lose more collectors than they gain.

As to the articulation/quality argument, that doesn't play a role in this at all. As far as Disney would care, it is who would pay them the most money for the license. If you take Hasbro's recent movie argument and extend it, people will buy toys regardless of articulation - it's the characters they are buying. (I don't buy that at all.)

I would drop out unless the change was seamless, and I don't see that happening.

[Saint Phe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by perrych

I think some of you didn't read the whole post. His point was that Mattel could hire Vonner who might improve articulation for the Mattel 4" line. He would also be well positioned to continue a MU line within Mattel instead of starting it over, which would likely lose more collectors than they gain.

As to the articulation/quality argument, that doesn't play a role in this at all. As far as Disney would care, it is who would pay them the most money for the license. If you take Hasbro's recent movie argument and extend it, people will buy toys regardless of articulation - it's the characters they are buying. (I don't buy that at all.)

I would drop out unless the change was seamless, and I don't see that happening.

Oh I read it. But I just don't see Vonner singlehandedly changing Mattel's philosophy on 3.75" figures. They've proven they're unwilling to produce high quality 1:18 scale figures. They'd rather sell cheap crap to kids, and slightly less cheap, but still subpar 6" figures to adults for $20 a pop. Disney execs are smart enough to know that you'll sell more product if you're aiming for collectors AND kids with the same line. You have to find a balance, and Hasbro has done a pretty swell job at finding it.

[proteus]

Jesus you only have look at Mattels 3.75inch toyline/success ratio to decide that one, Vonner or not, one man does not a successful brand make,though it would be interesting to see if he could give Mattels bosses the kick up the ass they obviously need......

[MeLikeJinx]

Doesn't Mattel make all the Disney's Cars stuff? I don't doubt that this could happen.

[Jason Abbadon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by perrych

I think some of you didn't read the whole post. His point was that Mattel could hire Vonner who might improve articulation for the Mattel 4" line. He would also be well positioned to continue a MU line within Mattel instead of starting it over, which would likely lose more collectors than they gain.

Sure, and they could also hire McFarlane to run things- or Rush Limbaugh for that matter...and really, a Red Skull that happens to look like Obama would be kinda funny.

Vonner's firing from MU may have been less than amicible and that follows a person. And him selling (if that's really him) the next wave of MU figs on ebay for $900 months before they are released sure looks bad.
As in "never work in the industry again" kinda bad.
Possibly Lawsuit Bad....I cant imagine Hsbro is happy with that noise.

Quote:

As to the articulation/quality argument, that doesn't play a role in this at all. As far as Disney would care, it is who would pay them the most money for the license. If you take Hasbro's recent movie argument and extend it, people will buy toys regardless of articulation - it's the characters they are buying. (I don't buy that at all.)

I would drop out unless the change was seamless, and I don't see that happening.

Not so!
Disney, for all their flaws, is crazy about quality- they want their stuff to only be top quality since it represents them- if people think 'cheap crap" from a Disney product, they think that of Disney itself.
Crappy quality is a messy (and public) lawsuit waiting to happen too...recalls and such being a PR nightmare for a company like Disney.

It's the small silver lining in their having bought Marvel.
Following that line of thought, Hasbro is where Lucasfilm chooses to keep it's Star Wars liscence- that says a lot about quality to non-collectors.

Besides, we know nothing of Mattel's agreements with Warner Brothers- there are likely prohibitions from Mattel handling other superhero properties next to theirs- after all, how would WB know they were getting the top quality and marketing if their competition was being made by the same people?
WB are not the people to piss off either.

[Crazy Jetty]

First off, all the butthurt on pure speculation is completely hilarious.
That aside, on a more serious note, Mattel is a toy company, and as a toy company would run it like hasbro.
It's not one or two guys that handle everything a toy company makes. Each franchise, GI Joe, Transformers, Marvel, Star Wars, all has a completely separate team of people running those franchise lisences.
Each team has a different way of doing things.
Mattel is no different. *IF*, and this is the biggest "if" ever, Mattel aquired the Marvel Lisence, they would set up a completely different team of people from the DCU team to run it.
And because of that, there's absolutely no way to predict with the 100% certainty that everyone is, that everything would go to absolute shit.
Mattel was all too willing to steal the Four Horsemen away, they may very will steal the MU people, too. They may not. There may be lisencing restrictions put in place by WB against Mattel having both (Just like Jason Abbadon said). It's a complicated matter that we don't know.

Secondly, just like there's no reason to believe everything will be ruined forever if Mattel got the lisnece, there's no reason to believe Disney will take it away from Hasbro in the first place.
Disney is all about money money money. They want that more than anything.And they'll sacrifice principals in order to get it. (They own a porn company for crissakes)
And leaving Marvel with Hasbro is not sacrificing anything to anyone. They have animation all over the place, even on the Hub. They played Warner Bros animations on Disney XD (And WB is a much bigger "rival" for them than Hasbro).
And Disney gets money no matter who makes the toys. Right now, Hasbro is successful with Marvel, and makes them money. if that doesn't change by 2017, I can't see them walking away from that.

Third, something no one's considered. I don't know exactly how copyright laws work over issues like this, but Hasbro may very well have some sort of copyright over the bodytype/style of articulation they use on Joe and MU, that protects them, and keeps Mattel from aping it. So even if they brought over every single MU dude, they may not legally be able to make something as sophisticated as MU was.

Fourth, 2017 is a *long* way away. Toy trends change really fast, and if a franchise doesn't keep up, the flounder (transformers), and die (DCUC, MotU). And a toyline can only handle continually releasing new variations of the exact same characters for so long before it starts bleeding (Star Wars). We may well be out of the 3.3/4" trend by then and onto something we can't even imagine at this time.

Fifth, and more importantly, THIS IS 2012! This is the year of the apocalypse! Who cares what happens in 2017?

Anyway, I love my DCUC, and have no love for Marvel Legends. So I would kill to have a DCUC styled Captain America, to stand next to my Superman.
And if Mattel did reinvent they're 3.3/4" lines and produced Marvel and DC figures that were on par with MU, then this would be a win/win senario for everyone. 6" Marvel figures as great as DCUC, and 3.3/4" DC figures as great as MU. That's my dream.

[DogFashionDisco]

So are you this Dave Vonner guy? If so, just speak your mind dude.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Super Joe

As discussed herein Toy Ark three years ago, Reuters elaborated on Disney's buyout of Marvel and how it may affect Hasbro and Mattel. Hasbro may end up the biggest loser after Disney agreed to buy Marvel, losing out on a rich source of content for its new TV channel and faces much tougher licensing negotiations in the long term. Hasbro's agreement with Marvel to make toys with the latter's characters (ext)ends 2017.

Given that Disney likes licensing its toys to Mattel, we may see 4+ years from now, Marvel figures made by Mattel's own Four Horsemen. Furthermore, Dave Vonner just got fired. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise, enabling Mattel to hire the man, who brought us MU. A man who likewise may fix Mattel's other struggling superhero DC 3.75" lines. It takes 2 years MINIMUM to plan toys. Till then, what would you like to see (4+ years from now) in Marvel toy lines very POSSIBLY made by Mattel?

[CLASSIFIED]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Abbadon

Real bullshit- we know of nothing to suggest any desire to move the liscnce from a succesful company that has done well with their characters to a company that was a utter failure with theirs on all fronts and scales!

Just read the first post of this thread!

Everything is explained in there.

It is the death of the line!

[Tiberius]

Lol maaaaaan.


Mavel vs Hasbro deathmatch is what I got from all this.

I laugh, LAUGH at this thread.

Thank you for this.

HAPPY EASTER!

[Jmacq1]

Funny. 2017 may herald the death of the action figure as a mass-retail product. Not only is that when Hasbro could potentially lose the Marvel license, but they could potentially lose the Star Wars license, as well (and it's the year the last of the 3D Star Wars conversions will hit if they go that far). This past year even the "heavy hitter" action figure lines have started floundering (Star Wars and Transformers), DCUC is effectively dead, and action figures as a whole seem to be doing more and more poorly with each passing year (certainly Marvel's movie lines aren't setting the world on fire).

Kids just keep moving away from action figures as the preferred method of play. Even now its' highly questionable if a parent feels they're getting a better value with 5 or 6 action figures at $10 a pop or a video game for the same amount of money ($60). If the patterns keep continuing as they have...we may be witnessing action figures going the way of monthly comic books: Becoming a specialized niche market only for die-hard collectors. Of course there's always the chance something will come along that just really grabs kids' imaginations...but even then those lines tend to last no longer than one or two years these days. It would be a reprieve, but not a solution to the general trend. Kids would rather have fancy electronic gadgets than action figures.

[DogFashionDisco]

Interesting. I definitely think kids are less creative, and that is a damn shame. Hopefully we aren't looking at the end of imagination as we know it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

Funny. 2017 may herald the death of the action figure as a mass-retail product. Not only is that when Hasbro could potentially lose the Marvel license, but they could potentially lose the Star Wars license, as well (and it's the year the last of the 3D Star Wars conversions will hit if they go that far). This past year even the "heavy hitter" action figure lines have started floundering (Star Wars and Transformers), DCUC is effectively dead, and action figures as a whole seem to be doing more and more poorly with each passing year (certainly Marvel's movie lines aren't setting the world on fire).

Kids just keep moving away from action figures as the preferred method of play. Even now its' highly questionable if a parent feels they're getting a better value with 5 or 6 action figures at $10 a pop or a video game for the same amount of money ($60). If the patterns keep continuing as they have...we may be witnessing action figures going the way of monthly comic books: Becoming a specialized niche market only for die-hard collectors. Of course there's always the chance something will come along that just really grabs kids' imaginations...but even then those lines tend to last no longer than one or two years these days. It would be a reprieve, but not a solution to the general trend. Kids would rather have fancy electronic gadgets than action figures.

[Iceman]

I keep hearing this everywhere and I guess it makes sense. That is why figure makes keep trying new gimmicks to make them more playable. Maybe the kids these days just don't have good I imaginations from having way too many TV shows to watch and video games to play but who is to say? I can say that I still see kids in the toy aisles but more more I hear parents saying "no that's too expensive" or some variation of that. The prices have risen too much too fact just like gasoline has.

On the bright side, if something like MU became a more specialized adult-focused line then you would expect better figures for a higher price. At least, one would hope.

Also, I will say that I've been a huge gamer since I was like 5 years old and I've always maintain my interest in toys to some degree.

[NoodleChow]

yeah i don't see the action figure market really lasting much longer as is. once personal 3d printers get more affordable, i can imagine 3d toy model piracy being an issue. since 3d printers can already print colors and moving parts, only a matter of time before you only need to purchase files and resin. then just make figures at your leisure.

[mikefavata]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoodleChow

yeah i don't see the action figure market really lasting much longer as is. once personal 3d printers get more affordable, i can imagine 3d toy model piracy being an issue. since 3d printers can already print colors and moving parts, only a matter of time before you only need to purchase files and resin. then just make figures at your leisure.

I already downloaded Wave 18.