How to Re-Launch Marvel Universe and Not Fail
 

How to Re-Launch Marvel Universe and Not Fail. I'd like to hear what everyone who wants more 4" Marvel figures actually wants if the line were to kick off again.

The top two most successful action figure lines have to be Kenner Star Wars and GIJoe ARAH. So, 4" (I'm too lazy to type 3.75") has history and strong nostalgia to lean on. Let's discuss what made those lines and current lines successful.

I'd argue that 4" has always been (and should be) FOR vehicles and playsets. SW and JOE had great vehicles that you could fly around and carry a lot of your figures. That doesn't translate well to super heroes but there are ways to make it work. Kids need more than blister-carded figures in the aisle, they need Hell-cycles to zoom around (think land-speeders), Quinjets to carry the Avengers in (think Joe APC), and The Raft to have their villains break out of (think Joe HQ).

There were a lot of things that MU got wrong up front that made it an uphill battle for the line. They had quality issues with factories. They had too many sculptors doing different bucks and scales (including movie lines). Their sculptors were okay but clearly not what they are hiring for 6". The line rode comic-packs and singles too hard. There wasn't enough variety in the line. The SHIELD cards were a nice try but it seems people aren't really going to bother with the online aspect (unless it unlocks some characters in a MMORPG?).

It did do some things right. The packaging was awsome. Figures were scaled up from 1/18 to improve the fragility and paint applications. There were supporting movie lines and an overall huge amount of variety. It increased articulation and produced amazing figures. It created some obscure figures that were obviously for collectors (though that may have actually been a mistake). It had some accessories (for a while).

I know we'd be all over the place. Maybe we should have votes on blisters v boxes; $8 v $16; how to mix A v B v C+ listers in the first year and onwards; keeping the "Legends" branding or back to "Universe", etc.

For now, let me hear what you must have and absolutely don't want.

They failed to complete teams. Banshee for Xmen, Moondragon for Avengers and many others.

Playsets as pieces with the figures, and don't fail in the execution like Playmates and Mattel did.

Better background art in the boxes. The early Supreme Intelligence was a face on a giant viewscreen, MAJOR missed opportunity.

Avengers skycycles would be cool.


CCC.

For a relaunch, I would want to see an immediate mixed shelf presence.

$13 single-carded figures with Cyclops/Hercules standard articulation, ML-quality paint, extra hands (head, or accessory), and stand. Cards with vibrant comic art and a whole series of "also collect" head-shots.

$20 deluxe boxes for Skycycle/Hawkeye, Hellcycle/Ghost Rider, Deadpool/Sheep-cannon, and Red Skull and some HYDRA vehicle. Etc.

$35+ Vehicles. Fantasticar. Quinjet. HYDRA tank. Needs to be able to hold multiple figures.

Vehicles should come with exclusive "drivers" that aren't single-carded.

$50/100+ Playset. The Raft prison. Or Kang's Damocles ship, or a Helicarrier split into upper/lower half purchases.

But the first year should be a theme, like Avengers v HYDRA. Or maybe Masters of Evil and have the big set be Avengers mansion.

Don't ever ever ever point out that Kenner Star Wars is the most successful action figure line in this scale, as Hasbro will take it to mean we want 5POA and continue releasing the same shit they've been making for the last couple of years.

The figures should be no more than $10 each and have decent articulation. Anything above that and you lose the casual/impulse buyer like parents buying stuff for their kids. Don't know what cuts they need to make to get the figure back down to that price though.

You talking about a series like Guardians' cartoon like. Are you buying it?
http://marveltoynews.com/wp-content/...0066841955.jpg

Marvel Universe is a collector-first, oriented line. I would cost a bunch more.

Would $12 with full articulation and accessories(like SA Star Wars)work too? That's my minimum.

Here's my idea:

Stick to a 3 wave a year thing for the first 2 years. 6 figures a wave, all in minimalist packaging(I'm talking Star Wars Vintage collection minimal). Card art must be bright and colorful, ditch black all together, as it makes your product blend in on the shelf. You need to grab people's attention with this line, and thus you need it to pop.

Now, 18 figures a year might seem a bit small, but as a trade, you make the figures fully articulated and can focus your efforts. Don't forget to mix in a two pack or exclusive in there, too. If the line works after that 2 year period, then go ahead and expand as you see fit.

I am actually fine with price as long as you get what you pay for!

At $13 you should get a fully articulated figure, swappable heads or hands, accessory, and a generic stand. No need to jock Legends with a BAF or Build-a-Scene piece save those for premium releases like the Masterworks/Gigantic battles and play sets.

Additionally they should capitalize on the different scales they already produce, much like many MU fans picked up Giantman in Legends, and I'm sure some Legends folks picked up Antman and Wasp. They should honestly think about those things since they are somewhat easy to pull off due to Hasbro already having the retail space in stores.

For me yah, but we are talking about viability as retail brand and at the same time competing against the 6" scale. I mean at 14/15 dollars a pop... you can get a bigger and better product of the same character with Legends for only 5 dollars more... don't know how you can overcome that logic by any potential customer deciding which to buy unless you make the 3.75" scale fig cheaper. The current 3.75" movie 2 packs at $19.99 are good though IMO.

I'm down with $13 being my limit on a better articulated mold with appropriate accessories, not oversized dart-shooting fodder or useless such.
While some can compare that price point to a $20 ML, a $7 difference is quite a significant gap given the range. And certainly enough spare change, imo, to be contempt with the scale.

That's been my current pitch on keeping the 3.75 MU afloat without a relaunch. The two-packs are the best value at $20 even with some limited articulation, the new sculpt & molds make up for it along with having 2 figures.

A proper Helicarrier should be done like the Flagg. It will never be but that is how it should be. Point is, if you did a proper Flagg size Helicarrier for 6", ignoring how much space it would take up, how many people would actually be able to afford it?


CCC.

I can see raf buying six of those. two to open and four to keep moc.

I'm ok at 15 if it has all that 6" offers. I prefer the smaller scale versus the larger. 13-15 sounds fair.

Articulation. 19 points minimim

Watch the sizes! The end of Marvel 3.75" was getting about 1/15 scale as some were HUGE.

Please don't relaunch and create all the original versions first.

No more movie lines, we learned a lot from Avengers films and Rogue ONe, we are now implementing that into Marvel 6" and Star Wars force link stuff, just have a single generic line.

Bright packaging as everything is sort of drab now. I personally rip them open and chuck the packaging.

I have many vehicles and playsets, so please play off that. We love THIS scale for THAT reason

3.75" collectors are shy. We don't complain to HASBRO, we don't go to conventions and complain, that does not mean we don't exist.

We understand there is more profit at 6" we get it. Please don't forget us though. We will Lahore if that is what it takes.

Big boxed exclusives sound awesome!!!!

Love the idea of some HYDRA themed stuff. I am a bit partial to my boys in green and yellow.

3 waves sound great. If you need a repack... try an army builder from the past. AIM, S.H.I.E.L.D.,HYDRA goons, Hand Ninjas, Kree, Skrulls. You have them in your back catalogue, use them. They will not NOT go unloved. Not new ones, but a simple pre-release. One per wave, sorted.

Please don't release peg warmers. You know what won't sell by now.

Moondragon, Banshee, Hellcat, Morph, he l.p. us finish teams out started.

Ask us...the fans

It's quite a difficult question.

IMHO what did not work:
- while comic 2-packs looked like a great idea on paper, it did not work. Often the figures had nothing to do with attached comic, very often the story in comic was difficult to follow if people did not know what happened in earlier in the series etc. So drop the comicbook from the pack.
- incompetence in characters selection - not completing some of the most iconic teams is such a shame. The same goes for movie lines - I will never understand how it is possible that we did not get major movie villains like Malekith, Ronan, Kaecilius, Yellowjacket...? What was Hasbro thinking? How the kids should have played with their figures when they had noone to fight against?
- distribution - thousands words were already written about it. Use your e-shop fully. For the love of god please permit shipping to Europe. Learn from LEGO company.

IMHO what could work:
- 2-packs - they are smaller, 20USD price is fantastic - kids can play their stories just with one box purchased. 2-packs offer lots of possibilities - hero vs. villain themes (Thor/Loki), thematical packs (Iceman/Blizzard), different forms pack (Hulk/Banner, Emma Frost normal/diamond), generations pack (Captain Marvel/Kamala, Hawkeye/Hawkeye) etc...
- vehicles - motorcycles, Kang's chair, Deadpool's chimichanga van, Punisher's van, S.H.I.E.L.D. cars, Lola car, Fantasticar, Milano spaceship, Quinjet, X-Men Blackbird
- giant figures - usable both for ML and MU collectors - Kree sentry, Goliath, Giant Man, Titan, Stature, Devil Dinosaur, Venom T-rex...

Not doing villains from the movies is a consistent problem Hasbro has. I have no idea what the deal is, though they are getting a bit better with it.

I always see 4 inch guys complaining about the price.

Even whe the figures were still good in the MU days and the early infinite days.

Honestly if we want the line back, we'd all have to show that we we are willing to put our money where our mouths are.

I'll say it right now, I'd GLADLY pay the same price as legends for a legit MU Scale figure.

Many of you know already, but for those of you that don't I own some of the greatest MU customs that have ever been made ive paid anywhere from 50 dollars, to 300 dollars.

Which wasn't bad when I was buying customs just to supplement the official releases. But now that I'm basically exclusively commissioning customs to keep building my collection
since the official release figures suck fat sweaty dongs, it's gotten pretty damn expensive.


But I do it, because I love MU, and I'll NEVER collect legends, that's just my personal choice.


And so I think all of us as MU fans, need to commit to paying the cost to be the boss.


Bitch ass stall is always dodging questions by saying, well we're always trying to keep costs down to stay at that price point. Well, fuck that shit, make them 20 dollars a piece, run the line exactly like legends with awesome character selection and all the articulation we want, and let people choose what scale they want to buy.


As someone who spends well above whatever the retail price of the 4 inch craptacular figures are right now, I'd pay 20 bucks all day, every day, and twice on Sunday

If only it were that simple, but nobody has that figured out least of all Hasbro.


Case in point, those really are four figures just waiting to hang out on the pegs at Target for a couple years.

Hell, I can think of several fairly recent incidents of people being outraged at certain figure announcements (usually for modern characters) and insisting nobody would buy that crap, only for them to become hotly in demand and being impossible to find at retail.

Aside from Marvel's big fun characters like the X-Men, Spider-Man and cinematic Avengers, I don't think there's anything people know is gonna be a surefire sales hit.

Perhaps the more obscure characters should be in two packs with more guaranteed sells. Sure, a lot of those obscurities end up on Ebay, but you've made your money by then.


Also, swap-proof your packaging as much as possible. Go with a card design, NOT an easy to reseal box, have pictures of the figures on the back, and a picture of the characters upfront. Place a VERY easy to see warning that all variants not pictured on the back are not legitimate, and work with the retailers as much as you can. I sincerely doubt they LIKE losing money.

I would not mind if they cross marketed the figures with a playmation or amiibo style base. Use the old, more articulated bucks, like they just did with Skurge form the Thor line. Or if the price point really is that sensitive just add torso articulation (diapragm swivel like the new hydra cap) and have the chip give you a DLC character kind of like those playmation ones only better toys.

I can't say I'm a big amiibo fan but this would be a way of adding value.

I guess the biggest thing I want are new characters on the older, more articulated bucks. I also wish they would replace the kids line with a collector friendly kids line, kind of like the avengers assemble line that came with the Leader.

As for some of the more obscure characters, they could do store exclusives like they've been doing with Walgreens on the 6" line.

I guess basically , treat the 3.75" line with at least half the respect and care of the 6" line lol

I don't know how long you have been around so this may be before your time. The very first 3.75 inch, Mego superheroes were $3 each at retail. Now we talk about $15 each. That is a 500% mark up, or about a 1% increase annually. Granted there have been improvements, but that alone does not justify that much of a mark up. Most of that is time, and speaking of time, 6" scale did not even exist yet back then.


CCC.

I mean, what does that have to do with anything?



We're talking about how we can possibly get MU to come back to its former glory.

I'm saying that one way would be to be prepared to pay the same price as legends.

What does how much stuff used to cost have to do with that?

I was fine with the $9-10 I was paying when I first got into the line. But now we're up to $13-15 for less product. I'd be more acclimating to this price if we got Legends support but why am I supposed to pay (in some places) like two bucks less for something that is over two inches smaller with almost never having accessories anymore, and no goodies to boot? And if I remember right (it's been a while since I've looked at a Legend) way less articulation?

I want to make sure I'm getting my money's worth. This is why the last two waves, I've gotten in small lots on eBay for like 75% of what they're going for, retail.

This....this right here!!!