Oh man, that totally slipped my mind! Christ, sorry, I’ve had a rough week. Thanks again for that, man.

No doubt Galactus is being produced.

I could see Nova going either way. Other HasLab projects have had high numbers in their final week, but then, most of those were fully funded by this point (Razor Crest & Sentinel are what I’m thinking of here). I won’t beat the dead horse of why Galactus is having a harder time.

It’s feasible that they extend it. There’s kinda precedent with Unicron, but that was extended to fund the base project, not a stretch goal.

That would be the easier option. I feel like this has generated some ill-will among the collecting community. I’m wondering if the other, unseen stretch goal heralds are also part of their ultimatum.

No worries, man. It's been one helluva week for many weeks on end. SMDH Just when you think you've seen all you possibly can of humanity's disfigured, pockmarked, louse-ridden, hairy ass...the inhumanity gets dialed up another notch.

But, yes, I agree that Hasbro will likely go for broke and add something significant in the eleventh hour to make me order a couple more. We'll see on Thursday.

Edit: Hopefully, if they are smart, they will at least add Firelord.

Oh, I'm sure it will make the first goal at the minimum. It will probably hit at least 14K on the last day without an extenstion, but I have no doubts they will extend it if they have to. I'm also sure the team is worried because Galactus isn't moving as fast as the Sentinel to meet the goals. I feel like they are pushing Galactus at least twice as hard as they pushed the Sentinel. I'm definitely getting a lot more emails about it.

Funny, I've only gotten one email. But that may have to do with having a standing order already.

Yes.

No.

And no because they'll make the 16000.

Well they didn't have to push as hard for the Sentinel since it was fully funded in under a week.

WEEEELLLL, I like your brand of positive thinking my friend! :D

It has been a testing few days. Well, weeks. Well, months. Well, years really.

But hey, at least we’re getting Starjammers figures. That & Gunn’s Suicide Squad are literally the highlight of my year.

Starjammers figures? Did I miss something?

That doesn't make sense though. They just upped them to $23 like two months ago. In fact, have any of the $23 figures even been released in stores yet?

Sounds like Hasbro is getting as greedy as Mattel.

I may be misremembering, but I recall that they originally hit the $20 point when petroleum prices had jumped, and then justified keeping it there when petroleum product prices dropped by (on average) including more accessories and higher quality plastic than they had before

Surely production and shipping will be back to normal years before inflation catches up with the new price, so when that happens: do ya'll think the prices will drop back down (ha!) or they'll bump up the value with more new tooling/more accessories/more paint ops?

I know a lot of us have to have our plastic crack, but a 25% price jump almost overnight is going to have a sizable impact and has to be justified... right?

I'm glad Gunn is back with super-flicks. People deserve a chance to redeem themselves and get their shit together. Disney overreacted in my opinion.

You haven't recalled incorrectly and I believe the reasoning is the same now as crude prices started spiking again when populations (worldwide) started emerging from Covid sequestration. That said, the Delta surge could threaten to stymie travel again in the very near future. However, the most likely driver of the price increase is the record high shipping costs; in particular, sea bound container freight. Large manufactures sign annual deals with carriers and get locked in at whatever they negotiate.

As far as prices dropping back down after they've been inflated? ...excuse me, but...AHHAHAHAHAHA! Once any company acclimates its patrons to a new price point, I cannot think of an example in which there has been a readjustment. These entities aren't founded on altruism; their goal is to rule over we serfs.

EDIT:...I didn't fully respond to your general inquiry. Supposing that inflation doesn't catch up, the best case scenario (still a stretch) is Hasbro delivers more for the price point along the lines of what you've mentioned - texturing and accessories. However, I'd be gobsmacked if they issued a price correction that featured them seeing less money per figure. Were that to happen, which I seriously doubt it will, I can almost guarantee the figs would be inferior in quality. And that's saying something because some collectors of the more expensive toylines (Storm, Figuarts, Mezco, even NECA, etc) already consider MLs to be cheaply designed and not worth the money.

Maybe it's time Hasbro move production of their toys to America then.

We're getting Starjammers figures? Is that referring to Binary?

That's rich. No offense, but that comment implies that you may not be very familiar with what low-skill American laborers' expectations are for wage compensation. Nor does there seem to be an acknowledgement of the direct relationship those expectations have on the overall cost of manufacturing and subsequent price to the consumer.

There's a reason why companies seek impoverished low-wage havens like China to create cheap consumer products; the average non-skilled worker in fully industrialized nations like the US has a disproportionate understanding of the value of their work commensurate with the level of training/education/experience they've received. If Hasbro made their figs here, they'd be $100 each, at least. Only high ticket/luxury items can provide compensation that approaches American sensibilities. Even skilled American machinists, as in the automotive industry, have inflated expectations for the work they do, which has played a role in the outsourcing and automation that has plagued the industry.

I'm not creating excuses for corporate greed and chicanery, their avarice disgusts me deeply. However, as an adult, IMO, we should strive to understand enough of the world and how it works to recognize where the conundrums exist. It just ain't as simple as, "made in 'Merica!"

Now, if we were to jumpstart massive amounts of manufacturing of a slew of high ticket items, like say...wind turbines, solar technology (which was started here anyway) in the form of solar-walls to store the power, and electric vehicles of all sorts...well, that type of revolutionary thinking applied to American know how might be transformative on a number of fronts.

Pretty sure that's what he meant. It was discussed on the thread after the reveal. Personally, I think it's a safe assumption.

Yeah, how dare people expect to be paid a livable wage!

Wait, are you saying it's okay for Chinese children to not be paid livable wages for the work they do in Hasbro's factories?

Clearly it's not cheap to produce if Hasbro has to raise the price of their figures TWICE in a six month period.

Wrong, well, you're not wrong, but you are wrong, if that makes sense. You only think it will be that because that is what people have been programmed to think. People have been taught to expect domestically produced goods will be higher so they allow companies to get away with doing such. If the consumer actually held companies accountable, they wouldn't get away with it. Maybe it's time we stop allowing CEOs to make millions upon millions of dollars by exploiting coustomers? We force companies to put a salary cap on their owners like they do to their lowest ranked employees. We force companies to meet us halfway instead of us having to go the full length. You want our money, you've got to earn it.

And I'm not just referring to Hasbro, but ALL companies be it in the toy industry, the medical industry (like the bullshit for EMS), movie one, video game one, etc.

Also, by having factories in the US, they could take better care of quality control because the employees will care about the quality of the products they produce since they are being paid right.

Just look at the cocoa and chocolate harvesting process. I watched that on some Netflix show and was shocked and how that works. It made me feel pretty shitty about eating chocolate.

Once ML figs hit the $24.99, I'll be close to dropping the line. I only collect comic based figs, so don't have to worry bout MCU figs. I'll just continue cherry picking only the must have comic based figs I want & still need. My classic Avengers list is down to around 7, my classic X-Men list is down to 3. Only teams I still have on my want /must have list are the Starjammers, Excaliber, Imperial Guard core members , Squadron Supreme core members, More classic members of the Zemo Jr led Masters of evil including classic Wrecking crew redone on scale accurate bucks! Only FF related villains I care for are Wizard & Trapster. Spidey villains are down to Tarantula, Black Tarantula, scale accurate classic Lizard. Spidey ally, classic White Tiger. Classic Ironfist & Powerman 2 pack. Count Nefaria powered up version is a must for my classic Avengers to do battle with. I've given up on Hasbro ever re-doing Sasquatch on a scale accurate 10' inch scale. They'll also never make the Thing scale accurate either.

I remember when Disney CEO Michael Ovitz was paid $140 million after being fired after 14 months... that sort of thing really stinks. You can justify someone like Kevin Feige’s salary but when someone runs a company to the ground and empties the cash register on the way out that is just a travesty.

Hopefully hasbro can find a way to keep prices down. I usually cherry pick or buy legends on discount if I want them

I knew going into this that a dialogue was going to be challenging because there seem to be a wide variety of discrepancies in our views and experiences. Generally I prefer not to respond this way because it's forces the conversation into myopic concepts making any larger understandings and connections more difficult. However, when in Rome...maybe it's easier to understand things in bitesize helpings.

If you truly believe in the liberal argument regarding a 'living wage', beyond its seeming use in this case as a largely empty rhetorical declaration, then you actively think about how that plays out in real-time and seek logical next steps for making this a reality.

This world is becoming more competitive by the minute and thinking that you can raise a family and buy a home while working a low-skill job is complete and utter folly. I am a huge proponent of a 'living wage', as I tink it's criminal for people to work full-time and still fall below the poverty line. But I also acknowledge that "living" is highly subjective and most "live" beyond their means. If someone wants to improve their income/career options, then they need to either seek training, education, or secure a great deal of hands on experience in order to increase the value of the work they perform. Unfortunately, many people aren't willing to put in that effort, or they lack access in some capacity.

Let's use substitute teaching as an operative example. The average teacher in NYC makes $54K, a laughably low amount in my estimation, given the fact that becoming a sound teacher requires a least a master's degree in education following a bachelor's. Most substitute teachers in NYC who don't have advanced degrees get $12/hr. Should those individuals get an hourly rate of $25-$26/hr equivalent to that of a master's level teacher who has put in time and has more training/skill? No, that isn't equitable. The solution isn't to start paying low-skill wage earners at high-skill rates just because you think it's right based on the fickle trends of populism. The solution IMO is to make education, training and apprenticeship more readily available to the masses, so that people can continue to achieve personal milestones and increase their skillsets. If we do it the other way, Marvel Legends and Whoppers will be $100 and $45 respectively, which is just stupid.

The work being done to create the figs we enjoy does not require complex skills, and, quite frankly, it might be better left to automation, especially considering the chronic health ailments of people that work on assembly/production lines long-term.

About your...I'm sorry...simply absurd comment about children being paid livable wages...LOL WTF?...I think children should be in school learning, NOT being used as child labor in any capacity anywhere. Are you ok with Chinese (or any nation's) children making your anything??? Which brings up another point: Chinese laborers need to fight for their labor related rights as the labor movement did here in the states via unionizing - a task made more difficult by living in an authoritarian nation, for sure. However, when that happens (it's actually already happening) expect to be paying more for everything. This is the natural cost of equity.

There seems to be a hiccup in comprehension here. I was refencing the cost to the consumer being cheap, not the cost of construction to Hasbro. The reason why low ticket items ($10, $20, $30 etc) are shipped abroad for construction is because no one here is going to accept the low pay needed to turn a profit at the point of sale. It is for this reason that some of the only manufacturing left here in the states is that which involves the construction a $12,000-$60,000 automobile.

Again, I apologize, but, no, what you are saying doesn't make sense to me at all. I'm far from programmed and I know that there are REAL costs attributed to manufacturing. It is not something they are making up to trick you, dude. Yes, CEOs do get overly exorbitant salaries and I agree that most could use a significant haircut. However, if you don't understand the process and cost of manufacturing, then, the only thing I can tell you is do some research and review American history, as the info is out there. You generally want to gain an understanding of things before you simply pick an ideological viewpoint and start spouting off stuff.

About the healthcare industry and other things you are lumping in here, which also have their own individual problems and nuances, just as above, I think you'd be better served trying to understand the dynamics at play with some sort of sophistication before just randomly throwing stuff out there. The fact of the matter is I agree with much of what I think - you think - you are touching on, but the way you are presenting it has many gaps and feels very superficial.

I hear you. I believe you said you work in produce-retail, so I assume you have some sense of the market dynamics revolving around the trail of produce from the farm to the plate. We rely heavily on migrant workers from South America to harvest our crops, keep America fed, and keep prices manageable for families. That particular eco-system and how it dovetails with the politics revolving around undocumented immigrants is one of particular frustration to me. When people disparage immigrant and, more severely, undocumented populations I always wonder how much they know about the food on their damn plate...

Good lord ya’ll some novel writin’ mofos’. Keep it simple and paraghraphy. Feels like im reading war and peace here haha. :p

Would Hasbro consider making the Retro Rhino figure as big as the Build-A-Figure Juggernaut, because first and for most, Rhino is a brute, and brutes in comic books are suppose to be bigger and stronger and taller.

I'm not sure Rhino is as big as Juggernaut in the comics. I like the Rhino from the box Set best of all. He looks spot on to me.

In the end there's always something to collect. Personally I would just shift my focus to other things. Mythic legions are tremendously incredible and so worth the prices they sell for. NECA has been going super great with their horror figures and other properties like Gargoyles. McFarlane's DC figures have actually had me more interested than I ever was before. There may be a lot of Batmen but they're incredibly well made. I've got no Masterverse figures yet but I plan to. Mezco's Doc Nocturnal was a slippery slope and I'm waiting on some more of those Rumble Society characters. So the sky's the limit. It's been a while since I've been able to afford to complete a BaF anyway. Plus it's pretty doubtful to me that Hasbro has plans for Slapstick or the Great Lakes Avengers so I'm not going to have to worry for a good while.

Okay, now Hasbro really needs to release Wolfsbane so I can recreate this cover:

https://i.imgur.com/0kMETvX.jpg

It's cool, I like hearing your opinion on the matter.

I don't believe any company deserves to be in business if they can't afford to pay their employees wages that match the cost of living and give them health benefits that aren't going to put them in debt just for getting sick.


I get what you are saying, but let me give you my personal experience, as...

...because this is exactly what I am.

I have a Maseter's degree, which now made me overqualified for full time teaching positions in Colorado because they won't hire people with a Master's anymore due to the notion they have to pay those with the degree higher. However, some districts will hirer those with a Master's degree under the agreement you will not demand a higher rate for having one.

As a sub, I make $120 a day, and only on the days I actually work. I don't get paid weekends, I don't get paid holidays, and I don't get paid in the summer.

A regular teacher here in Colorado is paid between $34-41K a year depending on the school district and the location of the school district. Like Denver Public Schools will pay 40K because you're dealing with poor neighborhoods. The district I'm in pays teachers $34K a year because they're in the richer areas of Colorado. A teacher may be given a .05% raise after three years IF they meet the requirements set by the district during those initial three years.

That's my point though. We know fully well China's factories are not fully staffed with adults.

Then what difference does it make if they are outsourcing to China or manufacturering them here in the states?

Hell, manufacturering them in the states also means they no longer have to have them shipped from overseas. They don't have to pay their employees to fly halfway around the world to do inspections. Those alone would save money.

Dude. you're talking about someone who went to a business high school and took business classes in college. I know what the reality has been for decades, but we're no longer in the 20th century, it's time to move away from the boomer mentality and come up with newer options.

That's because I'm just spouting off ideas and concepts. If this were a college classroom, I would go into better detail with more info. It's just a message board though, so there is no point in doing such.