[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madame Warlock

Okay i'm new and have been looking for a community that's good with this stuff, so I have a ton of questions.

1) When are the rest of the 2015 MUs out? Do we have any pictures of Rogue? I've desperately wanted her but it wasn't worth paying for the pack. If it's redeco'd to be like the modern version I'm really interesting.

2) I noticed someone posting Emma Frost and others on Taobao - is it worth getting those versions? What's the difference? Does the final Emma Frost have a cloak?

3) Could someone recommend a good base body for a Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan figure? One that's a bit smaller than the others. I had to use a Microsister figure before and those are hard to get(and not the best looking). I'm also looking to make Pixie, America Chavez(probs. going to use a Psylocke I ordered).

4) Are there any people to actually get in contact with with regards these lines? Marvel Toys used to talk to us. I'm particularly upset with the lack of X-men & female Guardians(only Armoured Gamora, no Mantis, no Phyla Vell, no Moondragon). And the reduced articulation... even a waist cut would make these figs so much better, with little interruption to the sculpt.

5) How likely is there to be a 4" line for Civil War? Will it be any good?

6) Where's the best place to pick up cheap MUs? I've been getting them off Chinese eBay sellers. They tend to come without weapons. Missing a Sword for my Valkyrie in particular. Would really appreciate finding some general MU accessories - swords, guns, etc. even just to have a surplus.

1. Anytime between now and December. Possibly January. There were factors in the distribution chain that caused a back up of stock.

2. Wait for the finals. Many of those are factory versions missing much if not all of the accessories. Mostly those are only good for kitbashers and custom makers.

3. The original MU female buck. Like the original Ms. Marvel. If you want to remove some more height, try swapping out limbs with Infinite Heroes figures. You can shorten the legs a little bit by using a female figure from that line's lower legs to replace MU lower legs. The arms would be the tricky part though. IH female figures didn't have elbows.

4. Hasbro has kind of ceased QnA's for now. Part of the torso cut problem is assembly, amount of parts, and plastic usage. A typical no waist cut figure is actually two pieces. A T-bar for the legs, and the rest of the body. A waist cut figure is lower body and upper body, a T-bar, and more. The original Ms. Marvel buck for example is a waist piece that's two pieces plus a t-bar. Then the abodomen is two pieces and a connecting piece, and then the torso piece. So assembly-wise compared to say black cat where it's one body and a t-bar is much more complicated and can be a pain in the rump. (I've done several kitbashes where I took the original ms. marvel figure apart. And it was a mild pain to try and get the middle torso pieces to line up right with the connecting piece and waist piece.) This no waist cut approach does seem cumbersome, but in some cases it does let them cut down on assembly and other costs. So it's a trade off per wave. Some budget of each wave is divided up. Where we might get a slimmed down on articulation figure but more unique sculpt, we're also seeing that budget saved used in good effect elsewhere. It's a cost balance to also keep the MSRP lower too. So it's a balancing act. The X-23 buck also removed some of the Ms. Marvel issues. So it's a matter of juggling the parts between both for best effect potentially on future molds. The X-23 torso and arm system is perfect while the older standard legs without the thigh cut had better leg range of motion. It also depends on the character too and how much sculpting they may need. Black Cat for example isn't a figure that could be done with additional gear, she needed new tooling. But someone like Kamala Khan could probably be done using a mixture of the X-23 buck and original ms. marvel buck's legs while having an accessory styled done on top outfit like Emma Frost and other's use. Depends on the needs of the character design to best approach it for character accuracy and budgetary constraints.

5. It's likely, but unknown if it'll be 5 POA, MU standard like we saw with Cap's first movie, or the avengers standard we saw that introduced us to the no ankle articulation and no waist articulation. Again budget constraints on balancing new molds, old molds, and parts. Thankfully with Civil war using a lot of previous costumes or slightly tweaked costumes, a lot can be done between using the 5 POA heads and older molds. So outside of a select few like Vision, Panther, and Hope Van Dyne, much can be done tweaking older already made figures or single packing previously released ones like Ant-man. Hasbro might also be curtailing the budget on purpose to better push Infinity war as a line across two movie cycles by bringing back the characters in this scale in all their new attires and previously skipped villains. That's going to be a movie year where the toy marketing is going to need to have a presence for a long duration. This induced raised demand cycle might be intentional because of that so they can supply it then. Which would also explain the little bit of trolling they are doing now since they know what'll be coming later. This also explains the lack of QnA's so they don't slip up and ruin the later on surprise of why they've been curtailing and micromanaging the movie figures budgets so much and trying to maximize profits for better investing later to create even more profits. It's a game of balance. If you come out with the best figure possible now for a character that's going to be in several movies with minimal to no costume changes, there's no emphasis for collectors or kids to buy a figure they already have. Like for me, I bought one MCU Thor figure back during his first movie's line, and haven't needed to buy a new one since. This works in their favor on repacks for those that missed it the first go around, but it also hinders them in not having the sales from making people rebuy a figure they already own. So inducing a resell point by creating a gap in releases or even waiting until a film with more diverse costume changes is available sometimes works better for the market. So they cost save by getting material out that still sells, and then later will probably come back and do more in the scale they started with. We're getting minor teases so far of them doing this per each movie like the Hall of Armor set for IM3, and the exclusive two packs for AOU. So Civil war and Infinity War might be where we'll see this coming back more in force. Same to GOTG 2 since it did prove itself as a property now and GOTG comic history characters are now more open for sales because of better market recognition. The problem with GOTG 2 though is that almost all of them will be in Infinity War too. So expect more comic figures of them in the coming MI waves that have yet to be announced. We're going to see a surge of MI in the coming years between comic packs and single packs. The market presence of MI is coming back strong between All-New Marvel and Marvel Cosmic. (On the QnA's it also didn't help that they repeatedly gave outlines of what they can't talk about that were ignored by various outlets.)

6. Ebay is your friend there. You can sometimes find loose parts in lots. Also there are other sites that do excess accessories and parts too. I can't think of the names of them off the top of my head right now.