[MUfan97]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kernel

Sorry to be so negative... It's not my intent but I feel like if we don't voice our concerns and offer constructive criticism it will only get worse.

Rant over lol

How, though? All the fan interaction we have with Hasbro is an occasional interview done by people that have a 6 inch bias. I seriously doubt Dwight even glances at the 3 3/4 inch discussions.

Really, I think that designers of lines with fanbases should have social media accounts to interact with fans. Granted, you'd get some jerks that will heckle you, but as the people who buy their products, we deserve some kind of a proper voice.

[En Sabah Nerd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MUfan97

Really, I think that designers of lines with fanbases should have social media accounts to interact with fans. Granted, you'd get some jerks that will heckle you, but as the people who buy their products, we deserve some kind of a proper voice.

NECA does this on Twitter where Randy Falk (NECA's head of product development) addresses the fans, gets feedback, and teases what's ahead. This system has worked out well so far at gauging levels of fan interest and seeing what fans do and don't like in the lines. Of course there are hecklers and people who are overly aggressive but they're far outnumbered by the actual fans. Compared to Hasbro though NECA is tiny so they do rely on feedback and interaction. Hasbro is a giant toy company so without anybody working at Hasbro directly pushing for something like that Hasbro itself isn't going to feel inclined to open up new channels for feedback.

[LordMudd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by En Sabah Nerd

NECA does this on Twitter where Randy Falk (NECA's head of product development) addresses the fans, gets feedback, and teases what's ahead. This system has worked out well so far at gauging levels of fan interest and seeing what fans do and don't like in the lines. Of course there are hecklers and people who are overly aggressive but they're far outnumbered by the actual fans. Compared to Hasbro though NECA is tiny so they do rely on feedback and interaction. Hasbro is a giant toy company so without anybody working at Hasbro directly pushing for something like that Hasbro itself isn't going to feel inclined to open up new channels for feedback.

Funko does this on Facebook as well, but could do a better job of it. This was also Scott's job at Mattel but I don't think he was allowed to do it by the higher ups, which may be why he finally quit. I know I called him out more than once on stuff he should have been able to tell us and would not or could not. Hasbro has a Q&A on AFI that has not been serviced in at least 3 years, maybe more.


CCC.

[Autobot_Goldbug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordMudd

Funko does this on Facebook as well, but could do a better job of it. This was also Scott's job at Mattel but I don't think he was allowed to do it by the higher ups, which may be why he finally quit. I know I called him out more than once on stuff he should have been able to tell us and would not or could not. Hasbro has a Q&A on AFI that has not been serviced in at least 3 years, maybe more.


CCC.

I miss the Hasbro Q&A's.

[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordMudd

Funko does this on Facebook as well, but could do a better job of it. This was also Scott's job at Mattel but I don't think he was allowed to do it by the higher ups, which may be why he finally quit. I know I called him out more than once on stuff he should have been able to tell us and would not or could not. Hasbro has a Q&A on AFI that has not been serviced in at least 3 years, maybe more.


CCC.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Autobot_Goldbug

I miss the Hasbro Q&A's.

The heckler's and disregard for what they said was allowed to be asked about seemingly is why Hasbro stopped those.

Fans had a lot of entitlement issues in the past, and in many ways still do, so I don't disagree with them stopping that, but I'm sure they still listen in other ways.

Looking at some of what we've gotten, that seems to be from fan interactions at a different kind of level. The problem is in implementing stuff like that, they get complaints from others. Pleasing some fans causes others to whine non-stop about how "shitty" hasbro is.

Fans say they want more individualized sculpts, Hasbro does it. Fans start saying the line is in decline.

Fans say they want more obscures, Hasbro does it, and the fans start saying they're being ignored.

Fans say they want more modern figures and certain classic figures, Hasbro does this, fans start whining.

It's like everything Hasbro does to give fans what they want ends up with constant online whining when many of those choices look like they were directly listening to fans.

Looking over at transformers you see this true too. The entire Headmaster/Titan Masters line looks like a fan's dream, yet still it gets complaints. Combiner Wars itself is everything fans were asking for pre-power core combiners, and still there were complaints.

Even look at the machinima series. Where they released a motion comic prequel story. OMG the whining was bad and the hate they got for that. It's a motion comic, with a little bit more budget than the TF movie prequel one got, it's not the final show, yet people were already swearing off the show like this was the end of the world.

Dealing with fans can be fun, but other times, I'm not sure the budget has the room for the amount of aspirin needed to wade through that muck.

Sometimes it seems like all the Fan interactions do, is give the fans a name to insult.

[K Dubious]

Snow you sure do look through rose colored lenses when talking/thinking about Hasbro.

I collect a lot of Hasbro stuff, but I'm not foolishly loving every step they take along the way.

"Fans say they want more individualized sculpts, Hasbro does it. Fans start saying the line is in decline."

When Vulture and Spiderman are on the same buck (With less articulation) we have a problem...

"Fans say they want more obscures, Hasbro does it, and the fans start saying they're being ignored."

Yeah we finally get obscures in costumes we don't even recognize...

I know we all have opinions, but to act like Hasbro has done nothing wrong in the past 3 years is crazy!

[K Dubious]

The last year of MU we got 25 different figures

In the past 2 years we have only gotten 34 and that includes the recent Gamora wave that I have yet to see at retail.

Also the fan polls make absolutely zero sense lets have everyone vote on what figure they want, then release all the "Losers" first before releasing the figure that actually won.

I hope I am not the only person to realize that our voice is completely fabricated by their marketing...

[MUfan97]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K Dubious

I hope I am not the only person to realize that our voice is completely fabricated by their marketing...

That's exactly what I was pointing out originally.

There'd have to be some rules on what you can tell fans or ask fans, but I'm still seeing more positives than negatives to this. Plus, if you also use it for personal experiences and fandoms, you might humanize yourself to fans, which would give us some more assurance that you aren't just some faceless company robot pumping out figures.

I remember Aliastair Dewar from Character Options used to have one, and I liked seeing the 3.75 Doctor Who figures early, but considering how salty DW fans are to the 3.75 line(a bit unfairly so, in my opinion), he probably got tired of it.

[K Dubious]

I hear you MUFan, but the community voice is always more negative than positive. It is just like Amazon reviews, you are much more likely to post a negative review if you are unhappy with something than you are to leave a mediocre review if you are perfectly content with a product.

I always think back to the Matty Collector message that went out a couple years ago. Basically it said that the Matty Collector lines are more of a passion of the crew that works on that stuff (Four Horsemen), and when there is so much backlash over this and that (Though a lot of complaints were valid) it can burn out the passion quickly. The message was that every time something new is released it is met with so much negativity that the people feel like their work is not only under appreciated that it is unwanted.

I actually belong to a Facebook group for The Loyal Subjects (Currently my favorite collectables to collect) and the owner of the company is very active and it is really cool to see the passion he has for his licenses as well as his company. He is constantly trying to do right by his fans, it is really cool and to me unique.

That being said I have seen so much fan entitlement, due to his openness and desire to do right in his Fans eyes. I personally feel like if I have a questions about a line I collect or would like to know why certain business choices were made, asking owners or the heads of who is in charge is not the proper chain of command, but if they created some way for us to be heard and some sort of community outreach it could be productive for Hasbro.

I know I feel very negative about the current state of the line and it would be hard for me to bite my tongue over some of the changes, but I think I would be able to eloquently put my concerns out there so it would be less bashing and more constructive criticism.

Also to bring it back to 3.75 fun I saw the 3 new comic packs this weekend at a con and they are all terrible...lol. The Hyperion one looks best to me only because the articulation is still there, I just don't need 2 more of the same character regardless if they are from different universes or whatever their story may be.

[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K Dubious

Snow you sure do look through rose colored lenses when talking/thinking about Hasbro.

"Fans say they want more individualized sculpts, Hasbro does it. Fans start saying the line is in decline."

When Vulture and Spiderman are on the same buck (With less articulation) we have a problem...

"Fans say they want more obscures, Hasbro does it, and the fans start saying they're being ignored."

Yeah we finally get obscures in costumes we don't even recognize...

If you look at the Marvel Infinite and Legends 3.75'' they did increase individualized sculpts. Look at how many of those are outright new figures with minimal parts re-usage, we had to sacrifice a little bit of articulation to get that, but fans awhile back said that'd be okay with more detailed sculpts. Black Cat, Gamora, and more are all new sculpts. Most of the Legends 3.75'' have been completely new sculpts outside of a few repacks and a few old parts usage like Hydroman that still has new lower arms.

Now that they did that, fans are complaining about no wrist articulation.

Fans wanted 80s Rogue. They got 80s Rogue. 90s Rogue was made too. Morbius is his classic costume like people asked for. I'm a fan of the newer Quasar costume so that's what I personally wanted. Ditto to Gamora's armored look. So yeah, I have no complaints there.

Vulture isn't a character I'd buy or care about, so his not getting a full on new sculpt isn't something that bothers me. Even so, they made him and fans said they wanted him. And that's one spider-man villain out of how many new sculpts this year alone?

So yeah, not rose colored glasses. The line seems perfectly fine to me if a bit on the short end of distribution but that's on retailers not Hasbro. Still can't find that Jane Foster Thor comic pack, but that's because it's selling extremely fast in my area and the stores aren't restocking it fast enough.

In fact, we even have comic packs back again. So how the "line is in decline" when it's bringing back more options to get figures and providing ways to get MCU characters still in the MCU articulation for some new additions like Black Panther, and even made an Agent 13 figure, and that massive new sculpt MCU deluxe Falcon in his new costume...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[K Dubious]

Not knocking you or your opinion Snow, you are just able to see bad and spin it in a way that still looks good to you (Rose Colored Glasses), that's a great trait and I hope my disdain for the current state of the line does not alter your position.

I just can't look at Hasbro and their 3.75 offerings from the past few years and see any good.

Prices went up, Plastic got cheaper (looking and feeling), No longer doing paint washes, making cuts to articulation, and no longer packing accessories (unless they can re-use ones already made), Re-using a "new" mold that is terrible compared to the perfect Daredevil mold that they only use sporadically? And some of the character specific molds you mentioned are hardly noticeable, a collar on Morbius and they called it a day, fur on 4 spots for black cat done...

I think that you are bit happier with things you wanted and are ok with what you were given, but as someone that collects every figure in the line I can tell you more are bad than good.If I only cherry picked my favorites it would be different, but collecting everything feels more like a chore than a desire.

I hope you looked at my dio video and saw what could be done with our line, but if you noticed all the new figures with lack of torso and wrist articulation all look static. I can't put them in an action pose that looks right and have them aim and look at their intended targets, which is really sad for an "Action Figure".

[K Dubious]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowflakian

Black Panther, and even made an Agent 13 figure, and that massive new sculpt MCU deluxe Falcon in his new costume...

Personally I'm really looking forward to 3.75 MCU and I agree that they are doing some cool stuff and there are most definitely things to get excited about.

BUT...If we turn back the pages to older MCU Movies each movie had it's own dedicated line, full on lines with multiple waves, with a mix of comic and Movie related characters. Now we are getting excited to get 3 different figures from characters that have been in multiple movies at this point (other than Black Panther).

Now take it back again what killed this? In my opinion it was the Iron Man 3 Assemblers, they cut out articulation and paint apps (In favor of unique molds) and what do you know they didn't sell and we no longer get MCU lines. How is that any different from what is happening to our core line?

And if you need that Thor Comic pack my targets are flooded with all 3 comic packs. I bet we don't see the new ones for a couple more months even though they are already being distributed to Comic Shops.

I promise I'm not trying to pick on you or call you out Snow I just read your opinion on here a lot and it seems like you could be the official Hasbro PR rep sometimes, lol

[MUfan97]

Legit though, wrist articulation needs to come back. I can deal with the rest of the lowered articulation if used on characters that don't necessarily NEED all that articulation, but wrists are a very necessary posing point.

As for the passion thing, I get that having a passion project being complained about can be a bit of a downer, but we gladly criticize parts of movies that we like, so should directors not see the criticism because they put passion into the movie? No, that'd be stupid, and wouldn't allow the problems to be fixed in the future. I think that as long as they take a non-skewed look at their work and the criticism it receives, and tries to see where the criticism comes from, criticism is a good thing. ESPECIALLY when your market requires people to buy these things for increasingly high prices, listening to fans is a good thing.

Pros and cons to this situation, really, but the balance of those depends on your perspective, I guess.

Edit: Would it really hurt for us to get a Spidey on that Daredevil mold? We've got the mold, we've got Doctor Strange's hands. Just make a new head, and we're good to go. We need a better Spidey than the Ultra Poseable Amazing Spider-man. Sorry, thought just came to me.

[K Dubious]

OK enough of my Negative Nancy'ing lets get some good vibes going and start some discussion.

What was the last Marvel figure you picked up and when was it?

A month ago while I was in Indianapolis I found the entire Gamora wave at a LCS and picked up Gamora and Living Laser (Both at $15) paid a bit more than I like, but I had a feeling Gamora would be tough to find. I did see a Legends Antman at TRU but since I have picked up a couple extra Infinite Antmen at a five below I passed.

[Harbinger]

Last mu i got was a loose ronin and red n white hyperion i got for the head to use on Ronin as ineeded a nameless warrior to finish out my marvel fantasy adventure squad. ( basically fantasy styled figures to make a 6 character adventuring team. )

[MUfan97]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K Dubious

OK enough of my Negative Nancy'ing lets get some good vibes going and start some discussion.

What was the last Marvel figure you picked up and when was it?

A month ago while I was in Indianapolis I found the entire Gamora wave at a LCS and picked up Gamora and Living Laser (Both at $15) paid a bit more than I like, but I had a feeling Gamora would be tough to find. I did see a Legends Antman at TRU but since I have picked up a couple extra Infinite Antmen at a five below I passed.

...I should note that I try to space out my figure purchases by at least a month for now since I don't have a job and everything. I graduated from high school last month, and thus got plenty of money from relatives, but I'm still gonna do it since I want to be responsible with my money.

Anyway, my family went to TGI Friday's to celebrate last month(need them fried green beans, yo), and afterwards we went to Pet Smart(where I adopted a poop emoji)and Wal-Mart. They had literally NOTHING 3 3/4 inch Marvel related, same on Bionicles, and their 3 3/4 inch Black series assortment was very disappointing.

So, what'd I grab?

A Rhino from the Ultimate Spider-man cartoon...And some other stuff, but that's related to other things. It was only about $9, so I figured it was worth it for the bulk, and I am trying to add some more villains to my Heroes vs Villains display, so I figured why not?

Speaking of villains, I think I might pick up that Iron Man Silver Centurion and Mandarian 2-pack for my next purchase. It's been cheap on Amazon for a while.

[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K Dubious

Personally I'm really looking forward to 3.75 MCU and I agree that they are doing some cool stuff and there are most definitely things to get excited about.

BUT...If we turn back the pages to older MCU Movies each movie had it's own dedicated line, full on lines with multiple waves, with a mix of comic and Movie related characters. Now we are getting excited to get 3 different figures from characters that have been in multiple movies at this point (other than Black Panther).

Now take it back again what killed this? In my opinion it was the Iron Man 3 Assemblers, they cut out articulation and paint apps (In favor of unique molds) and what do you know they didn't sell and we no longer get MCU lines. How is that any different from what is happening to our core line?

And if you need that Thor Comic pack my targets are flooded with all 3 comic packs. I bet we don't see the new ones for a couple more months even though they are already being distributed to Comic Shops.

I promise I'm not trying to pick on you or call you out Snow I just read your opinion on here a lot and it seems like you could be the official Hasbro PR rep sometimes, lol

See, I view IM3 and the lack of MCU lines as a way to avoid oversaturating the market. IM2's line did exceptionally well, but then it flooded the market into IM3, so they had to change it up for a bit. So I see it as giving the market something different for a bit to give the market a chance to refresh before going back into full MCU stuff.

Those Assemblers are what led to Superhero mashers too. So the testing done on the IM3 line gave way to a whole new line that kids seem to enjoy and fosters their creativity. So much so that even Bandai had to try it out on Power Rangers.

So given time, I expect we'll see lines like the first captain america movie, Avengers movie, and ironman 2 again, even XMO: Wolverine's line, it's only a matter of when. Which I'd lean on personally infinity war as since it's a two year toy cycle with back to back movies to keep retailers interested. It's a matter of budgeting the time, recouping costs, and then going full swing later when market demand is high again.

For the comic figures, that's part of the problem. The assembly of the commander rogers/jim lee cyclops buck is extremely high. Though it does still get used sporadically, it's a heck of a lot of extra parts and redundancies. Though those redundancies made it easier on part swapping for sculpts too. The same can be said of the original Ms. Marvel sculpt. In the torso alone, it had 3 rotation articulation points that could have been reduced to two. The same can be said of the X-23 sculpts legs, though again that redundancy was for ease of part swapping on new molds.

It's a matter of finding the right balance, but the amount of articulation is increasing costs right now because of the assembly. So finding a middle ground on that would be nice.

Personally, I'd love it if we could get both, the high articulation and the high detailed sculpts but that'd raise the cost considerably. Hasbro looked like they were going that direction at one point between the neck tilt and GI Joe's testing of the wrist tilts+swivel.

We also have to look at resale potential too. Once they cover every character in the marvel roster, they will need a reason to do them again, and make customers buy the new one outside of new costumes. So increasing articulation again later is a great way to do that.

I may already have Black Cat, but I'd buy a new black cat in a heartbeat if they add the wrist tilt and wrist swivel to it. For now though, the one they gave us with an all new sculpt is pretty awesome and does have decent play value with the arm rotation elbows.

[K Dubious]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowflakian

The assembly of the commander rogers/jim lee cyclops buck is extremely high.

I don't buy it Homie.

The line lasted 3 years at $8 - $10 getting better each year with better detail and articulation with no jump in price. You take out articulation and quality of parts used and the price goes up? Do you really think designing new molds justifies a price increase? Every toy line produces new stuff as they go and grow and with the popularity of MU at the time they pulled the rug out from under us there is no way they were operating at a loss.

I mean the prices went up by over 25% of the original asking price...

[Kamatayan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jedirulz123

You don't want it for Bullseye, you want it to see how much you can make on the secondary market if it's as rare as we think. Go for it, make a buck or two.

It's because I want to sell it. I don't particularly like the figure on its own, but the fact that it's considered rare from what I've heard just appeals to me.

[Kamatayan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by UrsaMagnus

The day I never thought would come has indeed arrived. I've sold my entire Marvel Universe collection.

For those of you who enjoyed seeing my stuff, I'm most appreciative for all the kind words you've expressed in the past. But in the future, if you want to see 'my' figures you'll have to talk to their new owners, a couple of our very own members here whom I will leave to identify themselves if they so choose.

The reasons for doing this are varied, and include a financial need as well as a dimming enjoyment of the line given the lackluster support Hasbro is giving it.

But I'll still be hanging around, just not posting pics (of MU figures) anymore.

Damn, that sucks man. You've been part of the MU family for a while now and it sucks that you're leaving. A lot of people are dropping out now and it sucks. It was fun while it lasted, though!

It especially sucks that you're leaving now since the line is slowly coming out of the dark times. Farewell, Ursa!

[K Dubious]

Hey I forgot to mention this and can't wait to hear everyones opinion, but at that same con I saw the new comic packs I found a Solid MU Vision on card for $40!! The card was more or less destroyed, and I have no need for another vision so I passed, but that was really cool to see a grail for an affordable cost.

[Kamatayan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K Dubious

OK enough of my Negative Nancy'ing lets get some good vibes going and start some discussion.

What was the last Marvel figure you picked up and when was it?

The last few were the Black Panther vs Agent 13 2 pack, Yondu, the comic Iron Monger, Old Man Logan, and the Machine Man vs Iron Man 2 pack. I've had some of these figures loose for a while but I only recently got my room cleaned up and my figures organized so that I could finally take a good look at them.

Yondu is decent, but nothing special. The Iron Monger is a really nice figure and very underrated. Old Man Logan is amazing, except for the stuff in between the claws. They look like adamantium flippers. The Machine Man/Iron Man pack was pretty solid. I love that we finally got a Superior Iron Man and Machine Man has a weird appeal to me. And finally, the Black Panther vs Agent Carter 2 pack was absolutely amazing. I'm really glad that I got a pack with amazing paint apps. Black Panther is so much fun to play around with.

[Kamatayan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K Dubious

Hey I forgot to mention this and can't wait to hear everyones opinion, but at that same con I saw the new comic packs I found a Solid MU Vision on card for $40!! The card was more or less destroyed, and I have no need for another vision so I passed, but that was really cool to see a grail for an affordable cost.

That's amazing! I would have cracked that thing open as soon as possible anyway. I'm happy for the lucky person who gets to buy that.

[Kamatayan]

Just a heads up for all of you guys, the upcoming Wolverine movie is looking like it's going to be based off of the Old Man Logan comic books. From my understanding, it hasn't been officially confirmed, but as I'm sure all of you know, a lot of people working on the project, including Jackman, have been heavily hinting at it. It's kind of obvious imo at this point.

I just mentioned this to give you guys a heads up to pick up the Old Man Logan MU before it gets more expensive.

[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K Dubious

I don't buy it Homie.

The line lasted 3 years at $8 - $10 getting better each year with better detail and articulation with no jump in price. You take out articulation and quality of parts used and the price goes up? Do you really think designing new molds justifies a price increase? Every toy line produces new stuff as they go and grow and with the popularity of MU at the time they pulled the rug out from under us there is no way they were operating at a loss.

I mean the prices went up by over 25% of the original asking price...

No, I'm also looking at what's going on over where the factories are as to why costs increased across the board. It wasn't only the Marvel lines that hit price hikes. It happened across the board on a lot of lines, not even only Hasbro. Cost of production itself has been fluctuating as different areas have been hitting different issues.

I wasn't saying they were operating at a loss. That's not smart business if they were. Though that also gets into other complicated details that aren't public.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamatayan

Just a heads up for all of you guys, the upcoming Wolverine movie is looking like it's going to be based off of the Old Man Logan comic books. From my understanding, it hasn't been officially confirmed, but as I'm sure all of you know, a lot of people working on the project, including Jackman, have been heavily hinting at it. It's kind of obvious imo at this point.

I just mentioned this to give you guys a heads up to pick up the Old Man Logan MU before it gets more expensive.

Yeah, and it'll potentially have either X-23 or Gabby in it too. Seems to be AU though, more towards what Deadpool was like and will have a lot of changes from the original story. Potentially some of what'll be in the movie is going to be in the July issue of All-New Wolverine. Issue 10 I think.