[Jmacq1]

So by now most of us have seen what looks to be the 3.75" offerings for Iron Man 3. Despite hopes that the "assemblers" line was an outlier and that the "main" line would be better articulated/detailed/etc... it appears that the "main" line is down to 5 points of articulation as well.

They are, however, putting out a nice line of Marvel Legends figures for Iron Man 3. Admittedly two repaints and one new figure, but there's a nice BAF (Comic Iron Monger!) and the repaints at least offer either a new character (Iron Patriot) or a revamp of an old ("Hornhead" armor with the option for "classic red and gold"), and we dont' even know who's in wave 2 yet.

Meanwhile, Marvel Universe seems to be on the verge of disappearing.

Is Hasbro going the Mattel route from here on? 3.75" offerings "for the kids" with the larger, more expensive, better-detailed and articulated line "for the collectors?" Has Mattel's model been more successful than it appears to get Hasbro to emulate it so closely?

Is the era of the adult collector slowly being brought to a close as the rising cost of toy production makes highly detailed and articulated figures a more expensive proposition?