[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpmartin414

I think it's got two more years as is before they rebrand it somehow.

Odds are it'll be rebranded again next year. We should see the new packaging at NYCC. Every year they've changed it so far. Fury the first year, osborn the second, rogers the third, no clue for the fourth. Maybe something cosmic or X-Men inspired?

Quote:

Originally Posted by omega145

How do you know this? I find it hard to believe.

They release the quarterly profits every quarter for shareholders and the news picks it up. As stated above, it's a publicly traded company.

Treble covered the rest about cost to R & D to new bucks that then turn around and see the process continue. You can see it in the line too. Compare the first year bucks to the second year, and now the third year. They keep improving because of how well they sell.

DarkHawk for example, uses a first year buck, with new head and additional parts to make him look like the character. He's a mold re-use for a new character.

As for ToyBiz, they would have died out if they hadn't unloaded the license. Marvel Legends sales were down, X-Men sales were down. Toybiz was finding marvel less and less profitable for toys. This is why Toybiz went bankrupt briefly after the surge they had that allowed them to bail marvel out of trouble. Then it happened in reverse and marvel had to bail them out. They are now called Marvel Toys, and no clue if they even still exist. Toybiz tried the scale shift, but it just didn't take off or work that well.

This was starting to be the trend for Hasbro too, until the temp hiatus of Legends. The MU line with it's scale change is what saved the property, especially with it being the same company that had GI Joe. It gave consumers a reason to rebuy all those characters they may have had already, and it gave new customers a reason to be interested as well as hype because again, this is the same company that did GI Joe. The Marvel Legends relaunch can go either way, but I'm not too sure it's going to last. I hope it does for legends collectors, but I have a feeling it'll share the same fate as toy biz and the initial hasbro legends. Legends are just too collector driven, so the sales aren't high enough as opposed to MU which is kid and collector friendly so it just flies off shevles in high volume.

You'll also notice with Hasbro, they keep certain designs and characters in the wings to keep the populars in check for more sales later. They try to balance the waves with these to keep product moving, and obscures on shelves. This is one of the main reasons we haven't seen a real 90s/modular ironman yet. They've gotta keep a few in the catalogue to use to balance waves. The same could be said to some of the engineering. People will buy for the character, but then rebuy for a better version of the character. Take Venom for example. Initial spidey release lacked articulation, but it was one of the few venoms on market at the time so it still sold. Then out comes the better articulated one with gargan venom influences, it sold again. They could do another straight up eddie brock venom, and so long as it had better articulation than the previous, people may buy it again. The same can be said to various versions or costumes of characters. You take the one you're unsure of first, release it. Then you come back around and do the iconic to catch people's attention, then you come back around again later to do the modern take. This makes the same character be resold 3 times. Since Marvel is an ever growing medium, this trend can keep repeating since the characters are always changing.