[Lionheart]

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6" has a MUCH greater profit margin for manufacturers. Talking pennies more to make and package and almost double the wholesale cost.

I'd like to see some evidence for that. There's almost 5 times as much plastic in the box (and better quality). The main figure has better tooling, better paints, accessories with unique sculpts / paints, and a BAF part with different tooling and paints, all in a better larger box, which will cost more to ship out.

You may be 100% correct, but I'd need to see some accurate stats on costs, etc, or to hear an insider explain how it works. Because right now I believe Dwight has reduced the budget for MU while increasing the price - thus increasing the margins, but seems to be able to do almost anything with Legends while keeping the price the same. Something stinks.

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5. Dwight Stall is getting most of us to defect. He is a Smurf that lies with barn animals. But he is winning.

This.

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you only need to go back through the old 3.75" thread to see where the problem lies,even back before universe was conceived legends was getting pretty much the same standard as they get today,the only thing that has changed is packaging,

The price has barely changed - that's my point. Now look at what MU was getting when it started and how much it cost. It doesn't add up.

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now you assume our line is doing well regardless,i disagree because if our line was making the money you think it does then the quality would be retained, we would have seen proper waves for recent marvel movies but instead the 6" line gets them,we have gone through several rebrands,now we are attached to "legends".again if our line was as popular it would retain its own name.you dont need to be a fly on the wall to see what is going on.

I'm not saying the line is doing well, I'm saying someone who doesn't care for the line has squeezed maximum profit from it without a care as to whether the line tanks. That profit can then offset the costs (or reduced profits) on his favoured Legends line. It all comes under the Marvel banner and he can allocate resources as he sees fit.

As for the Marvel movie lines: I think they (starting with Iron Man 2) tended to overproduce figures which then didn't sell - nobody outside of a small collectors community wanted 15 different Iron Man's or 8 different Captain America's. With Legends they tend to have scaled the numbers back considerably which is a wise marketing decision that came after lessons learned on the 4 inch scale. The re-branding was meant to prevent retailer confusion, remember? Then they re-branded again attaching the Legends name which is even more confusing. But not when you consider that it now makes it a subsidiary of the main Legends line, which justifies Dwight saying "Those are just Legends for kids and a few 4 inch collectors. They don't need artic or accessories - that should be with the main line."

You don't really need to be a fly on the wall to realise that when someone who doesn't like 4 inch takes over the Marvel division then immediatlely cuts most accessories from the box, cuts back on artic, cheapens the plastic, and hikes the price, while not doing that to the line he likes, that this is not an 'economic' decision at all. It's possible that Hasbro has made this a general decision across the board - focus on 6 inch, but who knows.

I bet, I *bet*, that to make a Legends figure all-in the box and get them on store shelves costs something like between $10-14. But the same cost for MU would be between $3-5. That would give legends something like 100% profit (max), but MU would have between 200-300% profit. Now my costs numbers may be off, but I guarantee that the difference in cost between MU and Legends isn't, and nor are the profit margins. Dwight took over and then said "The average budget for a 4 inch fig has to be X and you need to work within that".

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Wow, so much doom and gloom.

You're right. Blind optimism is so much better. Especially when discussing a toyline that has had it quality lowered significantly and it's price raised. If the line continues this way we'll be paying $50 for an unarticulated low-grade chunk of plastic in a white box. Ok, that's an exaggeration.

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Keep in mind that hasbro reads feedback occasionally. So getting all pissy and angry and insulting is only likely to make them care less what you think and not want to bother listening. Constructive criticism.

"Pissy and angry and insulting"? You know that using shaming language to discredit the people speaking isn't actually an argument, right? Especially when there isn't any anger being displayed.

Oh, and Hasbro's decision making has very little to do with what people say on collectors forums (like this).

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Act like a spoiled manbaby, they'll treat you like one.

They are not parents who make decisions based on people's behaviour. "Be nice and Hasbro will give you what you want. Complain and you won't get anything." Fans forum comments literally have *nothing* to do with it. Hasbro is a business - not a daycare deciding who gets ice cream.

And the idea that complaints (mostly legitimate) from collectors who have invested time and money into Hasbro products automatically means they are "acting like a spoiled manbaby" is an exaggeration at best, and at worst yet another farcical attempt at shaming language. People have opinions. People are entitled to express them. If you disagree with them feel free to express your own opinion. But to constantly imply some kind of inherent wrongness in what people are saying by framing it all with shaming language doesn't actually make their point less valid, or yours more valid.

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Deathlok and Quake definitely need figures too.

Deathlok had a MU figure.