[Jmacq1]

Funny. 2017 may herald the death of the action figure as a mass-retail product. Not only is that when Hasbro could potentially lose the Marvel license, but they could potentially lose the Star Wars license, as well (and it's the year the last of the 3D Star Wars conversions will hit if they go that far). This past year even the "heavy hitter" action figure lines have started floundering (Star Wars and Transformers), DCUC is effectively dead, and action figures as a whole seem to be doing more and more poorly with each passing year (certainly Marvel's movie lines aren't setting the world on fire).

Kids just keep moving away from action figures as the preferred method of play. Even now its' highly questionable if a parent feels they're getting a better value with 5 or 6 action figures at $10 a pop or a video game for the same amount of money ($60). If the patterns keep continuing as they have...we may be witnessing action figures going the way of monthly comic books: Becoming a specialized niche market only for die-hard collectors. Of course there's always the chance something will come along that just really grabs kids' imaginations...but even then those lines tend to last no longer than one or two years these days. It would be a reprieve, but not a solution to the general trend. Kids would rather have fancy electronic gadgets than action figures.