[Steevy Maximus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay West

Saw some pics of the new 4 inch line over at Hisstank. New sculpts but a bit softer like the early Spinmaster DC. Miles is kind of cool. Looks like he may have a hoodie sculpted on him. It’s not pulled up but resting in his shoulders. Hard to tell. Gwen looks pretty similar might be the same sculpt.

I’d argue they aren’t “softer sculpts”, but more “stylized”. If you look at decent res shots, the actual sculpt work is actually VERY good. There is actual texture to the spider-suits, and despite being bulk sprue molds for accessories, they DO have nice detail across the board.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Autobot_Goldbug

they are 4.5 inches so not compatible with anything really
looks like the interns are in charge over there

Which is neither new, nor novel.

The sad reality is that NOTHING. NOT A THING. Hasbro could do at this price point is EVER going to completely satisfy large swaths of collectors. They’ll be too big, too small, not detailed enough, not enough articulation, not enough deco, just main characters, etc, etc, etc…

Quote:

Originally Posted by AFU

Your really telling me they could not restart Old School MU 3.75 again?

Note: It would be so cool if they revamped the old MU 3.75 line and made them pinless! One can dream, I guess….

Given the time and production shifts…Hasbro likely does NOT still have much, if any, of the old MU figure molds. More importantly, though, is that the average MU figure sported more articulation (ie, more parts and more labor) and more deco (more labor) than any of the kids stuff from the past 5 years or so. The entire POINT of stuff like Epic and ActionVerse is to make stuff affordable to kids/parents as the cost to maintain “collector grade” products has pushed Star Wars TVC figures to $20 and 6” figures to $30.


Here’s my vibe on this line:
Hasbro’s been doing various scales for years. We’ve been getting 4” kids stuff in Marvel for almost, what, 4 years now? In that time, I’m assuming Hasbro has been tracking sales numbers and have seen that the 4” scale doesn’t seem to be doing much to “move the needle” in sales. It hasn’t brought back droves of collectors, those have largely stuck to the 6” scale. If the sales between the 5-6” figures and 4” figures were fairly consistent, then that says that scale isn’t a deciding factor as much as price. As costs are still a big pressure on margins for both manufacturers and retailers, there is a balance between factors Hasbro seems to be trying to walk.
In general, kids don’t stick around for more than a couple years on a toy line (or toys in general) so “legacy” isn’t much a factor. In addition, even Spinmaster (who seemed to be the impetus for the Epic Scale to begin with!) dumped 4” figures this year with Superman25 and Batman Ninja. I think that goes back to the old issue of: if a figure of comparable complexity cost similarly across most scaling…what is going to attract consumers? Could Hasbro have continued 4” figures? Sure. But will a larger figure with more accessories attract more buyers? Maybe, certainly enough of a maybe to try. Especially with both Star Wars and Marvel seeing major mainstream film releases.

The actual toys? I’m a softy for more stylized stuff, but disregarding that…they don’t look like bad TOYS. They are well articulated, well sculpted, and seem to have a better “product vision” than I’ve seen from Hasbro in some time. Does that vision evoke Playmates’ handling of TMNT? Sure, but TMNT is one of the FEW lines out there that actually still seem to be kid focused where as Hasbro’s stuff skews REALLY heavy on collector product.
The sprue/racks are a novel means of getting accessories to these figures in a cost effective form (AND be able to store said accessories!). I mean, shit, when was the last time you got a Spider-Man with more than a webbing piece or a web shorty thing for less than $10? While I would have preferred a grey coloring to better match things, Spider-Man’s sprue gets you: a shooting web shooter (with sculpted web shooter element), spider-tracer, “web cape” (Ditko callback?), web gauntlet, and a god-dang camera. Among Miles’ sprue, you get headphones and a skateboard.
That’s more “world building” in those fucking sprues than we’ve seen over the past 4 years of this “Epic World of Action”.

And if you’re going to launch a new scale/style…can’t do worse when Marvel has TWO major films and Star Wars is seeing it’s first new film in 7 years.