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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjinister

I always hate the "we flood shelves with the primary hero because he sells more" answer.

Well, considering that's all that is available, it's a self fulfilling statement. Series 1 Batman has 6 different Batman in different costumes toys.
Series 1 Spider-Man 6 different Spideys in different costumes.
Series 1 Ironman has 9 different colors of Ironman armor.

Kinda makes the hero figure top seller by default, ya know? I think a better assortment would be ONE style of the Hero (which ever is featured) 4 to a box, ONE style of the main villain 4 to a box, and then the collector chaser figures in another assortment 2 per chaser per box. That way stores can keep the main characters on the shelf for the kid who just wants Batman, but the collector can find his toys without having to pay ebay prices.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Jetty

But this mindset also comes to a detrement to the kids, as well. Sure, the one off kid who just wants a cool toy will only want spiderman and not give two shakes about anything else. But the kid who truly loves Spiderman will not only want Spiderman, but he's also going to want Peter parker (Preferably just parker, with no odd costume change gimmick, or Spidey unmasked), J. Jonah Jameson, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Eddie Brock, Flash Tompson, Norman and Harry Osborn... and every single villain in his rogues gallery. Because he can never really play out his own spiderman adventures without all those important supporting characters.
It's even worse for Superman, as Supes doesn't really have many memorable rogues, and 85% of who and what he is revolves around Clark Kent, and the men and women in his life.

I agree. One of my biggest peeves is for long lasting lines like Transformers Classics/Generations or Marvel Legends, if you weren't in it from the start, it's very hard to get some of the core characters. When I was a kid, I loved TMNT toys. Every year they had a new wave of toys, but they also still made the first wave of "core" figures. Mattel does that with it's MOTUC line too. You get new figures every month, but newbies can still get Skeletor and He-Man.

More toy companies should do that. Keep the standard bearers in constant production (Megatron, Prime, "normal" Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Ironman, etc) and keep the limited productions to each wave for the more obscure characters. If I can't find Bludgeon or Paste-Pot-Pete for my kid, that's no biggie, but if I can't find Megatron, Doc Octopus, or the Joker, that's ridiculous. Or better yet, Release the characters in the obscenely limited way they do now, but then AFTER that wave leaves store shelves, sell it online via the website for completists or latecomers.

Case in point... My oldest son LOVES Spider-Man toys... all we could find was Spider-man in various costumes (most appearing ONCE in the comics) as well as costumes that never existed. NEVER could find Venom. NEVER could find Carnage. Not unless I wanted to pay $25 to $35 on eBay before shipping. Sorry, Hasbro, but Spider-Man should only have two costumes: Red/blue and black/white... MAYBE the Ironspider costume for a chaser. So guess who Spider-Man had to fight, since his bad guys weren't around? The only other figure clogging the shelves... one of the 300 variants of Wolverine.