[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.

[AFU]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steevy Maximus

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.

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…


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.

C’mon! Hasbro has those old molds…But, maybe they can use those old molds (save money) for limited runs for certain characters…X-Men, Fantastic Four, Ironman, and Spiderman box sets could be a good starting point, considering these are top sellers .That why they would not have to launch a complete and different line at the same time saving money because they already have the molds! Detailing the figure is all they would need to do, one less step out of the manufacturing process.

[Autobot_Goldbug]

I'm afraid they do not anymore since my Epic were made in Vietnam
Hasbro did destroy molds when they were moving some operations to there from China. Apparently it is too expensive to store the old molds.

[Steevy Maximus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Autobot_Goldbug

I'm afraid they do not anymore since my Epic were made in Vietnam
Hasbro did destroy molds when they were moving some operations to there from China. Apparently it is too expensive to store the old molds.

To be more accurate, storing the molds have to make sense from a cost/usage angle. Hasbro DOES actually store quite a bit (especially for Transformers) because they usually have a perceived value in keeping those molds for later use. If you’re not going to use a mold in a reasonable amount of time, there isn’t a financial benefit to keeping the molds around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AFU

C’mon! Hasbro has those old molds…But, maybe they can use those old molds (save money) for limited runs for certain characters…X-Men, Fantastic Four, Ironman, and Spiderman box sets could be a good starting point, considering these are top sellers .That why they would not have to launch a complete and different line at the same time saving money because they already have the molds! Detailing the figure is all they would need to do, one less step out of the manufacturing process.

Just “having the molds” isn’t the biggest cost factor. LABOR costs have actually increased substantially since the late 2000s/early 2010s. That’s been an HUGE reason for the shift away from China to Vietnam for a large number of products. And in an assembly line system, the more complex a product is, the greater number of persons are needed. The average MU figure is significantly more complex, with more articulation and deco, than the given Epic figure.
These figures aren’t all made by machines or pop out the molds assembled and ready to go

Just from my limited experience and knowledge, the “cost” to produce a given 4” Epic Universe figure and an ActionVerse figure are probably close to the same, given the same articulation and comparable deco (ActionVerse probably costing a few cents more due to increased size and the accessory tree). So this comes back to a prior statement I made:
Hasbro has some 4 years of sales to draw from. If sales aren’t growing (adjusting for the typical spike seen with a movie buy in), they don’t have a strong incentive to NOT try a different approach. Especially when they can goose things with potential film support (though, it would NOT surprise me if some of the movie stuff ended up Epic World scale just due to production lead times).

Character selections will probably still suck, though I’m HOPING that this style is used for the upcoming films to bolster the selections.

[VicTurd]

Yeah I don't really have hope for Hasbro in anything in 3.75 scale. Even their Star Wars stuff feels smaller in scope compared to a few years ago. They clearly don't care for this scale and after the Tron set failed I don't think this Hasbro375 is going very far.

[Steevy Maximus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VicTurd

Yeah I don't really have hope for Hasbro in anything in 3.75 scale. Even their Star Wars stuff feels smaller in scope compared to a few years ago. They clearly don't care for this scale and after the Tron set failed I don't think this Hasbro375 is going very far.

I think a sad truth is that much of the justifications for 3.75/4” lines have been whittled away over the past 15 years.

This scale worked in the past due to several key elements:
1. Smaller, “cheaper” figures that didn’t take up much retail space.
2. Be small enough that vehicles/playsets were a practical component of the brand experience.
3. Because the figures were smaller, a company could, theoretically, add more figures with more variety in the same case volume as larger scale figures.

These days?
-Toy sections have shrunk, and general product design has shrunk with it. A carded figure is not DRASTICALLY smaller than 6” figure in a boxed format.
-Kids aren’t buying as many toys and the collector market is splintered off into other scales/products. Much of the big sales of the mid-late 2000s was the result of the entire “buying market” for lines like Marvel, Star Wars, and GI Joe all funneled into a single product expression.
-Because the kid market has shrunk, companies have reduced variety in favor of proven sellers.
-Costs have increased (with the reduced buying market) that makes vehicles less viable for many lines.
-Those last two issues are further exasperated by an increasing and vocal collector representation which demands greater detail, greater articulation, greater accuracy…all of which push UP the price of the final product…and potentially drive away more casual consumers unwilling to spend the money on those products.

A superb example is last year’s Star Wars Epic X-Wing w/ Luke Skywalker and the Vintage Collection version:
The Epic Version had a built in R2, a firing missile, sculpted on “laser blasts”, a 9 POA Luke Skywalker with one accessory, pretty basic deco with many details left blank, and is undersized relative to “proper scale”. But it cost $30

Vintage Collection? Proper scale, extreme deco and fine details looking like it came off the screen. Extensive deco in the cockpit, and droid socket for any astromech droid you want. It costs $100..and that’s before getting an X-Wing pilot (let’s say $16.99) and an Astromech (also $16.99). That’s assuming either of those figures are actually available at the same time as the vehicle (the fact Epic never got an R2 figure is baffling), which is NEVER a given in that product range.

Despite scale change, my initial impression of ActionVerse is that we’ll see about the same number of figures over the same given period as Epic World of Action. Vehicles might not be as impressive…but it’s not like this market segment is seeing that many vehicles to begin with. The fact Hasbro can so easily overhaul the scale without impacting release volume I think says a LOT about the market and “scale’s place” within it.

[Kernel]

The new actionverse venom isn't bad, kinda reminds me of the tom Hardy venom with the symbol:

[Kernel]

We are venom

[snake5289]

Aren't there holes all over these new figures for the useless plastic crap they come with?

[Kernel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by snake5289

Aren't there holes all over these new figures for the useless plastic crap they come with?

Unfortunately yeah. I was excited for those accessories at first thinking one was his trademark green drool but instead it's a green sword, big hands and tentacles which would have been cool if they were black instead of green. The holes don't detract too much from the nice sculpt:

[snake5289]

*sigh* I already thought the Epic Heroes stuff was kinda half-assing it but these are even more of a disappointment. Why can't Marvel stuff get their own Vintage Collection line?

[Autobot_Goldbug]

action figure feature fail!
my nephews would have lost all those little plug-in pieces already

[redfox]

Picked up the new Spider-Gwen figure:

[snake5289]

So they're a downgrade AND too tall. Way to go Hasbro.

[Autobot_Goldbug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by snake5289

So they're a downgrade AND too tall. Way to go Hasbro.

I guess trying to compete with TMNT & MOTU

[AFU]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kernel

We are venom

Sweet!

[Kernel]

^ don't sleep on this venom figure lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by snake5289

So they're a downgrade AND too tall. Way to go Hasbro.

Yeah agreed, i skipped the rest of the line