[Jmacq1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Nash

I get what you're saying. they certainly can only make so many characters every year. But when the same characters top various online fan polls annually, for several years, it's pretty clear there's a desire to see these made over someone who ends up way down the list in general. I know they are constrained by molds as well but I would think at some point they have to take into consideration what their fans want to, to some degree. Maybe they are finally listening.

The people taking the online fan polls are not the entire buying audience, but generally speaking Hasbro ALWAYS listens. It's just that it often takes them a few years to getting around to putting out those slightly more niche characters that many fans demand, and in the internet age the "But I want it NOOOOOOW!" mentality rules.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SymbiSpidey

I was just thinking about something. There's a lot of collectors (like me) who prefer to collect characters from the comic books as opposed to the movies, yet we often find ourselves collecting movie-related figures to complete comic-related BAFs. On the flipside, there's a lot of collectors who love the movie figures and designs and collect those primarily. On top of that, there's probably a lot of pressure from retailers to have at least one of the heavy hitters in every wave to guarantee their sales, which is why there's almost guaranteed to be an Iron-Man, Captain America or Spider-Man in every wave, and from that, I'd imagine there's probably a lot of pressure for Hasbro to capitalize on the newest movies.

However, I do find it a bit weird that a collector has to collect a wave of mostly movie figures (if you take into account that one of the comic book figures is an optional purchase) to complete a comic book Thanos, and that you have to collect a wave of mostly comic book figures to complete both Movie Ultron and Movie Hulkbuster. Has anybody else felt like this? I see why Hasbro does it this way, but I'm wondering if there could possibly be a better way of doing this.

I suspect the reason for this is because both Hasbro and the Retailers don't have high hopes that the line would do as well without the mix of Movie and Comic interpretations (outside of Spider-Man, who's probably the #3 most recognized/popular Superhero in the world after Batman and Superman). It's generally far, FAR better to put out an assortment that has "something for everyone" than an assortment that's entirely targeted at one segment of the market or another. Remember, it only takes one or two assortments of heavy pegwarming to kill a line for retailers.

Basically...no, there isn't a "better" way because Hasbro and retailers want comic fans to buy movie figures and movie fans to buy comic figures. I'm quite sure their BAF choices are at least somewhat calculated in that regard.

IE Don't expect the movie/comic mix-up to go away anytime soon.