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Originally Posted by Byrnes

I think this is why Hasbro fails in the eyes of the collectors. The 90's was a huge boom with X-titles. New X-Men teams, X-Factor, X-Force, Age of Apoc, Gambit and the Externals, X-Man, you name it.

Yup, the 90's were definitely the epicenter of the X-boom. Now the Avengers are the in-thing. Popularity is very circular and what was once the big thing may become ignored and/or derided. But if you wait long enough it usually comes back around in some form to be popular again.

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Now the guys from the 90's are the ones spending the money. We buy what they put out, cause it's all we got. It's good stuff just not everything we want.

Yes, a lot of kids who grew up in the 90's are now financially independent enough to really get into collecting. But you have to understand that that generation is just joining the existing collecting community, already in progress.

Back when I was a kid, it was common to stop buying and playing with toys around a certain age. Now it's more common to never stop, so you have people like me who've been collecting for 30 years now and are still going strong.

Because of that, I firmly believe that 70's and 80's kids are still the dominant force within the toy collecting community (guess who runs a lot of the fan sites like Toyark ). There's probably even a good chunk of Baby Boomers still active, though I don't know of any personally who are still into it.

You also have to consider that we collectors are not the target audience for most of these toys. Hasbro's current two-pronged strategy is encouraging, but even the collector-oriented lines still have to appeal to kids (and parents) on some level if Hasbro wants to continue selling them at retail.

We probably make up about 15-20% of Hasbro's consumer base. I do see that number continuing to increase as geek culture becomes the norm, but it's a slow change. Maybe one day the geeks shall inherit the Earth.

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I'm not sure why they can't add these items into the mix along with all the new movie related stuff at some point even if it's just an exclusive. Give us more comic characters!

Havok, Polaris, Shatterstar, Strong Guy, Boom Boom, Wolfsbane, Blue/Yellow Banshee, updated Cannonball, Sunspot, Siryn and from original X-Factor a correct uniform and head Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Beast. They could easily repaint some of the box set they just did. Most everybody wants these figures I would guess. I do anyway so here's my rant.

I'm sure if some of those characters were featured more prominently in films or the current comics, Hasbro would probably be much more inclined to incorporate them. But based on what they have produced, it looks like a lot of it is geared towards "current" media (within the last couple of years), tent-pole characters and/or first appearances.