I think it would be more like McDonald's deciding that they could reduce the quality of the chicken and bread to save money but still sell enough McChickens to be profitable. Although that might be a bad example since McDonald's is probably some of the lowest quality stuff you can get. Maybe a restaurant that uses better ingredients like Chipotle or In-N-Out would be a better example. Either way, companies do this all the time without much notice but on some products is obvious.

I don't think anyone was saying they will cancel the stuff. Hasbro is just putting out an inferior product compared to what it was before.

IM now buying the distribution line anymore. Its coming from a single source and isn't supported by the data. If I walk into tru walmart and traget I see the same waves from 2011 freshly stocked at all three.
That means either the big retailers are conspiring to keep new product off shelves or tjis is what is shipping from Hasbro.
Look at the professor x wave. The day I read its availabke in CA I go out and find it in Eastern MA. I.m nit sure hiw that indicates distribution problems on the part of th e retailer.

The evidence shows that hasbro is pushing the older product out . Either by choice or due to overpoduction. We have walmart distribution saying that each store would get one case. They ship it and alk stores have it wirhin the week.
Unless we have evidence from hasbro I say there is no distribution problem and they are not shipping rhe product.
Think about this. The legends figures have had no problem moving through the same distribution system and making it to shelves.
I call shenanigans

But you see the whole "argument" contradicts itself,complaining about the dumbing down of certain lines for a younger audience,whilst in hindsight we know Thor 2 is getting a higher quality of figure,we know more MU figures were unveiled at the start of the year,more movies to be announced which i am sure ironman is going to be involved in,just because they cheaped out on this lot of IM3 & spidey figures,does not mean a thing,these figures from IM3 may well yet be released under a different movie franchise.like i said before MU has a better run in to 2013 than ML.it just seems pointless to me to fuel the fires of speculation,when we know upcoming cons have the prospect of more unveilings.

Actually I think Avengers is not peg-warming as much as Iron Man 2 and Thor. Captain America didn't seem to do too bad mainly because it was a smaller line overall. Meanwhile Iron Man 2 and Thor had waves stretched out with several repaints of the main characters(Iron Man and Thor).

The bad thing is that Hasbro's reaction to all this seems to have been to cut articulation, to save money while charging similar prices in the event that should the line fall, some profit is still being made. IMO, the problem with Iron Man 2 and Thor wasn't the articulation it was the lack of variety! If you saturate your market with figures of the same title character and not much of anyone else...I mean of COURSE the line will stagnate!

I'm not saying that Batman, Iron man, Wolverine, et al, don't sell. Yes they're popular but from a kid's perspective, it's boring if Iron man or so doesn't have anyone to fight.

Maybe companies should focus on making more figures of different non-title hero characters and less waves. Instead of 5 waves of 4-6 figures, make 2-3 waves of 8-12 figures. If repaints must be done, save them for later waves. The newer stuff usually sells the quickest.

Hasbro's message has been clear to me since last year though; for collectors, we get 6", kids get 4". Sucks that Hasbro won't give both but oh well.

i wonder what hasbro will do if all of us on the forum and people reading didn't buy a single figure for that year
a terrible idea but if we get a really really bad wave i think we should try mu or ml
although once avengers 2 is over then what ?

The durability argument makes sense to me as well but I think they can still alternate between the collectible & durable figures. It is only rational to nail multiple markets all at once

I'd assume that every figure that wasn't picked up by a community like this would likely end up in the hands of scalpers, which would still be an issue because sales wouldn't change much.

lets direct our attention to the actual problem here people, I want my Moonstar.

That could be the problem, or at least part of it. However, if it was the problem, then wouldn't Hasbro be selling tons of Professor X wave figures and Nova wave figures on HasbroToyShop.com as a means of moving the product?

As long as I'm paying MSRP, I really don't care who's doing the selling.

I'm hoping to get that MU antman two pack with MoonKnight when they come out, although mainly ant-man

I wasn't making the point the that the whole menu had been downgraded, just the one dish (IM3 toys). I hope it fails and they don't try it again but I don't think it will effect their sales much because most people don't notice or care, especially with small price hikes.

Off topic, I remember when Subway first started their "$5 footlong" thing. It portrayed value but two of their top sellers (and some others) were actually under $5 at the time. Sure, you saved some money on the premium subs but when the $5 thing went away every had a higher price and no one noticed. Maybe they think adding gimmicks or selling those $6 IM3 figures trick people into thinking they are getting a deal.

I think I was a weird kid, because back then I cared just as much about articulation then as I do now.

I had a vivid imagination, but I don't think I wanted to imagine my toys doing neat poses and flying kicks, I wanted to make it actually happen. So, I was picky. I'd have likely been just as disappointed with the new Iron Man 3.75 figures.

At least we had gi joes, cause they are by far the most articulated figs we had growing up. Star Wars took 20 years to finally develop knees and elbows.

Agreed one-hundred and ten percent

Hasbro is interested in pleasing retailers and what they want, not you or little Timmy for that matter.

One is connected to the other. You have to please your target demographic to make sales. Retailers want one thing, stuff that will sell. If your product sells fast they don't care what it is. Therefore retailers want products to please their customers.

companys dont really spend alot of money on things that dont make them even more money so as long as enough people are buying crap their gonna keep pumping out crap product. Thank u kids parents grandparents and obsessive collectors that buy crap product that makes this company feel that these figures are good enough.

Can't blame most parents or even the kids. If they like a toy and it's fun then the toy is doing it's job. I think toys that break easily are the biggest turn off for parents.

The collector who just has to buy everything really makes me doubt my collecting sometimes. I've seen and heard such crazy stories, especially from the Star Wars collectors. I mean, when you are collecting stickers and cereal toys just to get it all something isn't right.

To a lesser degree I don't get the people that have to have every single figure from a large line. I mean, I understand it might make your collection more valuable if you one day sell but by how much? Maybe they just don't want to ever miss out on that one figure that sells for a ton of money one day. I have probably 75% +/- of the MU and related line figures but I have no desire to hunt down the other 25%. I passed on them for a reason. I'd rather spend my money on other things or the few missing figures I actually want.

well i blame everyone but myself and i demand only the highest quality at the cheapest price's. do this or face my typed words

Rage of the toy collectors!

The backward slide in quality really stinks for collectors like me. I only collect the figs from the MCU lines. So I'm stuck either buying lower quality figs, or skipping a movie entirely. The 3 3/4" scale initially appealed to me because I can get all the main characters from all the films at a much cheaper cost point than the other scales, and have a more fleshed out collection. Movie versions of characters like Abomination, Black Widow, the Hammer Drones, and Frost Giants haven't shown up in other scales, but I have them all in 3.75" scale.

So imagine my surprise when the IM3 figs were announced. They've really left a dirty taste in my mouth. I've bought them, as I really want representation, but I got them on sale, and they don't look super great next to the other MCU figures (save for maybe the Bruce Banner figure from Incredible Hulk :D). I'm really glad that the quality is going back up at least somewhat for Thor, and I really hope this line's slip has more to do with a gimmick than Hasbro's overall strategy. But this line has left me feeling very grim about the possibility of a Mandarin figure, save for maybe a SDCC exclusive. And I'm definitely a lot warier of what we'll be getting for the rest of MCU Phase 2.

MCU stands for... Marvel Cinematic Universe? So you only buy movie figs? Man that's tough... don't think I could handle that. LOL.

I wonder what Hasbro will do for Avengers 2 though... maybe the Thor 2 figs are an anomaly since it will be a small scale release as compared to something like IM3 or Avengers... so Hasbro can afford to bump up the quality.

Hasbro Toy Shop is not designed to handle the sheer volume that is covered by brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart, et. al., or even online retailers like BBTS.

speaking about that, TRU.com and HTS still haven't updated their listings aside from the three packs.

Yep, Marvel Cinematic Universe. I don't really read the books with any sort of regularity, but I love the films and the universe they're building. So while the MU line has some cool stuff, I wanted to focus my cash on just the movie stuff. And up until now, the lines have been pretty good quality. Even with the loss of articulation in the Avengers line, the figs still, for the most part, looked pretty good. And there were a couple exceptional stand outs, like Black Widow.

I really hope that the IM3 figs are the anomaly, and were just an attempt to try something different. The new Thor figs look good, and hopefully that will continue with the rest of the Phase 2 lines. I'd like to keep adding to the collection, as it does look pretty awesome to see them all intermingled.