“Hasbro’s global team delivered a tremendous 2016,” said Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s chairman, president and CEO. “We reached the $5 billion revenue mark for the first time in company history"

" We ended the year with $1.28 billion in cash, inventories in line with last year, and we paid out $400 million to shareholders"

Hasbro Posts Strong Q4, Full-Year Profit - TVKIDS


Ok so I'm in denial... so you are saying that a company that made $5 BILLION in revenue and paid $400 million to shareholders is in the business of losing money on a line that's been going technically since 2009? Ok sure Jackieboy, I'm in denial lol get a grip dude. I've read though some of the stock holder reports and earnings publications, to be fair hasbro does not release the specific scale profit margins, but let's be real here come on.

While I don't want to gang up on anyone, Hasbro is not in the charity business. They make 3.75 because they make some money off of them. That being said I think some of the lack of potential is self inflicted. The people who run Marvel toys for Hasbro are human and have preferences. It would hard to convince anyone that they don't prefer 6 inch to 3.75. Does that spill over into the product they offer? That's a question only Hasbro can answer.

and they don't seem to want to. Gee, I wonder why?

and I am not trying to pick on jackieboy, especially when picking on Hasbro is so much more fun and they just make it soooooo easy!


CCC.

Have a couple of part wants for customs:

Morbius - head
Dr Strange - head
Elektra - sais (x2)
Onslaught - any parts except the shoulder armor and the back thing

just home from work and seen this.
the in denial comment was in typed in jest,seeing as it upset you a little.
okay lets get down to it 5 billion in revenue you say?and you believe this 5 billion is directly attributed to MU 3.75"???i think you missed the point i was solely refering to MU 3.75"
do you believe that you are the only one who has access to hasbros profits for 2017 and previous years???do you not think that perhaps an incredibly accurate profit chart was posted on other mediums,highlighting that sales profits generated for hasbro came from lines such as star wars,GI JOE,playskool,transformers,and other lines other than marvel universe 3.75" and that mattel took a large shit on hasbros sales in 2017 making them the most successful toy company of 2017.now if thats a fact? tell me......am i lying???


^^^WHO THE FUCK IS THAT GUY?!?!?!^^^LOL

no ones being ganged up on believe me or at least i dont feel that way.reading my comments you might think im shitting on the line,but i am not,im merely voicing my views based on the current state of our line.if they are contracted to keep the line running till 2017/18 and have the resources there to oblige that contract then why not,again our line is not for everyone but because of JOE,starwars,legends collectors and customisers who actually like the line its enough to see figures released till they decide what to do when the current contract runs out.im just saying that pricing and distribution has hindered the success of the line.

This is going to feel like a pile-on which I don't want - as Jackie is perfectly entitled to his opinion, and we certainly don't have all the facts. He's quite right that we can't tell which line makes what from compounded profits made up of many different lines. He's also right that pricing and distribution has undoubtedly hurt the line (along with cheaping out on what you actually get for the money).

However, as I've previously stated in this thread a long time ago, and I will repeat here:

I think 3.75 is being used to subsidise the 6 inch line by operating under the same umbrella. If a 3.75 inch figure costs $2 to make with low artic, cheap plastic, and few (if any accessories), then they sell them for $10 - that's 500% profit. If that figure then pegwarms and sells for $5 in the end - it's still 150% profit. If a 6 inch figure with better sculpt, more artic, build-a-figure, accessories and opening box costs, say, $7 to make, and they retail for $20 - that's 200% profit (roughly). If it pegwarms and sells for $10 in the end it's a 45% profit. If you add 3.75 and 6 inch together and work out the profits - 3.75 will be artificially inflating the margins, and that's even if they sell less and are discounted more. I think I'm being fairly generous here with costs, and I don't have access to the actual figures, but I believe (and always have) that Dwight is squeezing the profit margins on the line he doesn't care for to artificially inflate the profitability of the line he does. He can say the Legends line has a 400% profitability on costs. But in reality, it would be more accurate to say the 3.75 inch Marvel line has 250% profitability on costs but the 6 inch line has 150% profitability, which would then beg the question - and are the profits going back into the 3.75 inch... or 6 inch? But that won't get asked because the Legends line is one umbrella and Dwight - who is in charge - favours 6 inch, so a chunk of 3.75 inch profitability will be going to 6 inch and not vice-versa.

Those figures above are completely arbitrary, and I cite them more as an example of what I believe is happening than any actual numbers.

perfectly entitled to your opinion mate but then throw in packaging costs on top of reshipping GLOBALLY,its not all plain sailing i dare say.then the number of units generated and distributed globally how many actually get made???
some waves came in abundance others insanely limited.also pegwarmers that dont sell and get sent back to hasbro warehouses.then theres the recent rebrandings,surely a successful standalone venture such as MU would not need such things,would it?

I would really like to know the actual figures. I expect Japan is more into the 6 inch scale stuff than 3.75 - which might affect US manufacturing decisions.

Over here in the UK (Ireland too?) I've only ever seen a few of the movie tie-in Legends in Asda, and never seen any in the other supermarkets. So Legends don't exist in supermarkets at all. However, they do all seem to continue to stock the 3.75 inch figs every other wave (seeming to skip the waves inbetween because the old ones are still lingering?)

I've seen some of the figs discounted so I think they must really have to go down to the wire before companies start sending them back to Hasbro, but the prices vary wildly. For instance, in the Planet in London I saw 3.75 Triton marked down to £6 next to a Legends Wasp for £5! Insane! The Machine Man 2 pack was right down to £4.99, but all the other 2 packs were 'marked down' to £18.99 - right next to a dozen Legends priced between £10-13. I'd love to know all the numbers on these things.

Who me? Nobody special. Just Toyguru's worst nightmare. :D


CCC.

i too would love to see direct numbers linked to MU 3.75".
i know some stores here only "allow" hasbro shelves so if the product does not sell,it gets dropped from the stores inventory and display stands.

Nice to meet you Lordmudd :D was just having some fun there,nothing personal bro.yeah ill all for healthy discussion about our line,and if i could just get my lazy ass to show you guys how much i actually love this line.....its like a wise man once said "im just tooo far in too quit now!"
but this is how im kinda feeling about the whole thing lately
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...pstvte319w.jpg
and ive been onboard the good ship "MU" since late 2010.

Here's the other thing. We are essentially getting 3 waves this year and two crappy box sets. That's a lot of figures by some properties standards. It just pales next to what we used to get and what 6 inch Legends gets. We are getting two waves of singles and at least four MCU 2 packs. That's about 3 waves of stuff. Not a terrible amount of Tigre's. Just not what we are used to getting.

I think the sinister six pack is pretty cool but that's just me

Lionheart hit the nail on the head, my thoughts exactly.

Man, this discussion is hard to scroll by.

The Universe is expanding.... (pics to follow in next post)

No real purchases this time around that weren't custom fodder. Actually, I forgot, I did pick up an old Toybiz Warstar to add to the Imperial Guard, but thankfully I didn't open it once I got it. Not only is it undersized but the articulation sucks - the little mini guy (forget his name) doesn't even have arm articulation. No need to keep this, I'm going to return this and just make a Warstar custom. I did manage to find a complete Onslaught with Red Skull head at a local video game resale store. Like Gamestop, but not that chain. I'd previously bought a cheap ML Kitty Pryde, during an Amazon sale, just to get the Onslaught head so I already had that. At the price I got the complete Onslaught for (cheap!) I couldn't pass it up. Anyway, I don't have it in the pic because it's currently in pieces getting a paint job. Still more 2016 items to get, just no rush to get them. I had also talked about moving on to "Maximum Security" as a cosmic follow up to Galactic Storm. This story is an unmitigated disaster! While Galactic Storm was tightly edited and flowed very smoothly, Maximum Security is all over the place. Half the books don't have anything to do with the event other than having a pretty logo splashed across the cover. I got halfway through and gave up. It was too much of a clusterfuck to continue reading. Now I'm looking for what else I can find. I think I've read all of the top cosmic events so far, but I am well behind on anything recent. Although, from what I keep hearing about the current state of comics I don't think I'm missing all that much. So, anyway, onto the rest...


Destiny - Destiny could have been such a great character but was always more of a role player. Claremont tried to breath some new life into the old gal by having her diaries be part of a big plot that ran through his X-treme X-Men run but that plot ultimately ended up going no where. Which is a shame because while she was often background fodder in fights, she was still a key member of Mystique's Bortherhood teams. Her head had to be heavily modded to get the look I wanted while the cape is soft vinyl. Said it before, but these female bodies need more articulation! I ultimately don't mind Destiny on this under-articulated buck since she isn't a character that's apt to be in an "action pose" anyway. Since I have so many of these figures I want to use them up, so, I think I'll devote these bodies to female characters that are more likely to be static in a display. In that regard it works for Destiny. Besides, it's not many people who can even say that they have a figure of Destiny in their collection.

Bolt (Starbolt) - First off, I don't know if the guy's name is actually Bolt or Starbolt. I've seen it both ways many different times. Whatever you want to call him he's a fire thrower and a member of the Imperial Guard. A long standing character he's been around since the earliest Shi'ar appearances and has long been one of the Guard members that I knew I wanted to make first. He's pretty straight forward with sculpting for his flame burst design. The head was the trickiest part as I wasn't sure how I was going to do his face since it has no detail in the art. Ultimately I just sculpted over the face details and left a mouth gap as the design has. Marvel ultimately killed him in Realm of Kings, but that wasn't going to dissuade me. I need a Imperial Guard team for the Shi'ar cosmic section and that requires a Bolt figure. He's a fine addition to the Imperial Guard as the first completed (non-Gladiator) member. Have more planned but not sure how many I'll get to right away.

Hellcat - Hellcat is completely outside of any Avengers timelines I grew up reading so I don't know anything about the character. In fact, she's so far off my radar I had no clue that the Patsy Walker character from the Jessica Jones show is Hellcat. But, she's an Avenger so I wanted her in the collection. This figure was a nightmare to put together. Not only did I have to sculpt the ears on her mask, but I sculpted over most of the helmet (was a Cap Marvel head) and then had to figure out how to get the hair to not only attach to the head but attach properly. Then the whole thing had to be painted... Just a really annoying pain in the ass process. And then I had to paint yellow on to the figure which everyone knows is a chore all on it's own. Lastly I can't stand static ties or straps that cannot be manipulated so I removed them and replaced them with "straps" that I can adjust based on whatever pose I want her in. I've never seen Hellcat with any weapons in any art pieces that I looked up, but I liked what they did with the ML version giving her two batons, so I painted up an extra set of DD sticks and gave them to her. And with that, Hellcat is done. Another Avenger knocked off the list. Now just need a Tigra for the WCA team.

Smasher - I'll be flat out honest and say I have no idea what Smasher's actual powers are. I guess he hits stuff or something? I have no idea and frankly don't care enough to look anytime soon. Even though I talked about the serious void in Shi'ar figures I wasn't planning to make any right now. Not a one. But once I made Bolt I couldn't just have him and Gladiator, I also wanted to make another Guardsman that is often seen. I opted for Smasher, and really, I only made him now because the ionic Wonder Man base figure is perfect for the character (though I did give him new hands) and was cheap to get. Creating this figure took frustration to a whole new level! Even though I used another IWM figure for the base of Avalanche, this one, for some reason, would barely take paint. I had to layer the blue and white several more times than normal because it wasn't covering the plastic well. Then there was the sculpting! I don't know if the red things on his costume are supposed to serve any sort of function, but sculpting all that crap was tedious and annoying. Added some additional hair sculpt and his exspecs or whatever they are called. He fills a much needed role for my IG, especially since I'm not going to make any of the subsequent Smashers that came after this guy. Yep, there's other Smashers but this particular guy, yeah, dead. So, Smasher is there ready to do some...smashing, I suppose. I think I might make Hussar in the next batch. She's another mainstay for the team and should be easy to make. (Famous last words, I know!) Fortunately for most of the remaining Guard their designs are pretty straight forward and won't require a ton of extra work to get accurate looks.

Avalanche - One of the stories that really got me into comics was the Days of Future Past story that brought forth a dystopian future where not only mutants but heroes and regular humans were slaughtered by the Sentinels. Grim and dark, but it was a great read as a kid and I could never pass on a good Claremont story and this is one of his better ones. But that was only part of the story...the rest centered on Mystique's Brother of Evil Mutants' assassination attempt on Senator Kelly. A very underrated team of bad guys, even if they couldn't do anything right. Making Avalanche was a grueling lesson in sculpting and patience. I sculpted all the armor from scratch. That took a while since it all has to cure and dry before you can sand or paint it and I had to fix a couple of spots which added more time to completing this guy. That said, I think he came out really well. I already have a diorama in mind for this guy and the rest of the Brotherhood. While not the most menacing of villains, the Brotherhood did show in some key storylines in the X-franchise. Avalanche is a necessity for most Brotherhood lineups. Another member down, now just need to make a functional Blob and Mystique's first Brotherhood team will be complete.

Mystique - I had no intention of making Mystique since I already have the Hasbro one, however, as I was putting together her team to see how they flowed visually, I pulled out the Hasbro figure and put it next to the customs and was instantly reminded how horrid the official figure is. So she needed a redo to fit with the rest of the team in the worst way. I will eventually have to replace her hands with ones that can hold a firearm. Since I hadn't intended to make her at all this body was slated for another character that could utilize those hands. I'll swap them out later once I grab another figure that has standard grip hands- for now, these'll do. She's a straight Emma Frost with sculpt additions. I enlarged her chest and customed up her belt with the skulls and dangling things. No idea what that is called since it's not a loin cloth per se, but it took some effort to make. I've almost completed Mystique's Brotherhood team sans Blob who I will get to sooner rather than later.

Drax - I made Drax for two reasons: 1) I needed a last custom to round out the batch and with the parts I have on hand this guy was easiest to make, and 2) since Hasbro decided to cheap out and re-release the Guardians yet again with Drax being the only part of the set that was remotely creative, I wanted one without giving Hasbro an extra penny and rewarding that crap. And all they did was swap the thighs and lower legs! I didn't have any extra of the thighs Hasbro used so I used a left over pair from Thunderstrike instead. Even though I was making this figure to mock Hasbro's latest Drax, I decided to at least go the full 9 and sculpt gauntlets onto his forearms along with the leg swap to complete the look. The Iron Man legs are a little scrawny so I might add some sculpt to them to beef them up a bit. Not sure on that yet. One thing about those thighs is that they're very long making Drax way taller than the original figure. So if you want taller figures, use the thighs from Thunderstrike/Rage/Bishop.

Manta - Manta came about the way a lot of my customs tend to; while assembling parts for a planned custom an idea will pop into my head and the next thing I know I'm halfway through an entirely different custom than the one that I'd started. Manta came about that way. I was actually messing with parts to make Hellcat when I randomly picked up a spare Marvel body and started thinking about who I could make with it and the original cape cutout I made for Destiny but opted not to use. Next thing I know Manta was underway. Which served two purposes in that I got to put another extra Capt. Marvel body to use and knocked off another Imperial Guard member as well. She is pretty straight forward but I had to add sculpt to the head and fiddle with the cape to get the proper shape and to also have it look natural with her arms up or down. That's really not as easy as you'd think. Even though I hadn't planned to make any Imperial Guard members in this batch, the team is off to a good start, especially since I'm only making about a dozen Imperial members to start.

Group shot:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psktq9snxp.jpg

Drax:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psgqfd5qdu.jpg

Mystique:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psjckbtfs7.jpg

Starbolt:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...pstj6dvcar.jpg

Manta:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psgsogceib.jpg

Destiny:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psun5uvt1i.jpg

Hellcat:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psi5dsdq9n.jpg

Avalanche:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psgqppcnyl.jpg

Smasher:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psabnfhd8a.jpg

Mystique's Brotherhood:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...psfyghcqbv.jpg

Imperial Guard:
http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps0wymau27.jpg

I found them at my Target! It is so nice to find stuff at retail again. A few Walmarts are restocking them. Besides the few reveals at Toy Fair things seem to be looking better IMHO.

I've pretty much given up on finding new figures in stores around here. All the previous MCU figures like Ant-Man, Falcon, and Black Panther never showed up once and the wave with Spider-Man Noir is just now starting to pop up.

So yeah I'm not counting on finding the Moon Knight wave or the MCU two-packs but because I love disappointment I still look for them. HOORAY FOR BEING TOO DAMN STUBBORN!

^ that is a SICK hellcat mordiganne!

I never said that the $5 billion was attributed to the 3.75" line, my point was that Hasbro makes these toys to make a profit, business / Econ 101. I also never said I'm the only one that reads these things, UKMU and plenty of others on this forum pay attention to the quarterly reports. Like i said in my previous post, hasbro does not differentiate the profit margins on the reports, they generally lump all the marvel stuff into "boys toys"... unless you have these charts and graphs available, in which case i would like to see them (seriously I'm a numbers nerd when it comes to this stuff and as far as I know they don't report the specifics).
Anyways this is clearly going nowhere, if you want to believe that Hasbro makes these toys and loses money on them, that's ok :confused2

I like that custom Mystique, but Jennifer Lawrence made me not like that character anymore. LOL.

And I found the X-men Origins Astonishing Wolverine and Gimmick Colossus 2 pack at a local collector show for only 5 bucks. I mostly bought it for the unmasked cowl accessory that Wolverine has and for the Gimmick Colossus's headsculpt. I love that headsculpt... I kitbashed it on my MU Colossus and I love my Colossus so much more now with the new head. Also gave Gimmick Colossus's X-belt accessory to my MU Bishop.

Just to chime in here...

HASBRO does NOT sell figures for $10. They sell figures for $5 to retail stores. Said stores then sell them $10.

Also ALL action figures account for just under 10% profit. That is still $500,000,000 number though. It isn't "much" but it is something. That includes the in house lines of Transformers,GI Joe, Mr. Potato Head and even My Little Pony. It also includes licenced properties like Star Wars and Marvel. They do make profit from them, but it isn't much... even smaller when speaking of an individual line (which they don't give those numbers out) and smaller still when referring to said line but dealing with differential scales.

Their bread and butter come from NERF, HotWheels and board games. Toys are not their big money makers. It certainly isn't action figures. Also, their numbers for the Titan series shame both 3.75" and 6" sales. Cheaper to produce, quicker to market, and parents buy them at their price point. So yeah they make money...tons of it. But the percentages aren't on our side.
Jackieboy and Kernal were both right

There are some graphs.... I will find them. It usually DOES just say BOYS and GIRLS. But I have a screen shot somewhere of the "action figure" graph. It also says, Transformers, Mr Potaohead, My Little Pony, Marvel and Star Wars. All as "action figures"...

Just for clarity, I was aware of this. I was using a fictional RRP as a simplification to show how I think the margins played on the figures (because it was easy!)

I'm sure that cross-promotion would also have a direct impact on the sales of related merchandise. So, say NERF is a steady seller overall, when a Star Wars movie comes out, then Star Wars related product - like action figures - would spike in sales. I would imagine action figure sales lines to be a series of spikes related to available media, and other toylines to be more steady. But who knows really...