[Lionheart]

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I haven't been saying everything's great, I've been saying I see that Hasbro is trying new things. What you call 'quality drops' I call expanding on the roster of sculpts

What 'new things' are they trying? Expanding the roster of sculpts? Has the number of sculpts or individual tooling gone up, stayed the same, or reduced? And couldn't the cost balancing be due to someone taking over the Marvel division and cutting the budget for 4 inch to increase the budget of 6 inch?

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and yes, cutting corners to balance budgets for bigger pushes later.

Balance budgets for a bigger push for this line, or their favoured line? It's been what, 3 years?, since they dumped MU for Infinite and now Legends brand. When do you think this push will happen, and what form do you hypothetically think it might take?

I agree there has been fluctuating artic, and that some reduced artic for some figures needen't be a bad thing. But I don't think they've balanced this well at all. Vulture, Spidey, Black Cat - all on limited artic bucks? Emma Frost with good artic? Doesn't really make sense.

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Would you call that a decline or would you call that an improvement? I'd say improvement. Sculpting detail has gone up. Variety is better. Durability is top-notch, though QC is still an occasional issue. And they're finding ways to balance the articulation for more dynamic poses.

Considering plastic quality also went down, and accessories have noticeably reduced, all with a concurrent price hike - it's hard just to say 'improvement'.

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Compare the first Ms. Marvel figures to the Captain Marvel figure. Outside of wrist articulation, which power effects from that first one will cover up anyway, the new one is better detailed and has a more vibrant pose capability. Granted at least one form of waist articulation would have been nice, though the original figure had too much articulation in the waist. The original's arms couldn't really do much in the way of vibrant poses either with how limited her arms were.

Well, I like the original Marvel's more, and they also came with accessories and file cards for less money. I didn't mind the new Captain Marvel figure, but there isn't any real reason MU doesn't get the same accessories that Legends get. Why didn't Captain Marvel come with both heads, rather than force people to double dip for another figure?

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Heck, even comparing the two vision figures. The newer one seems superior to me.

I think I've said it here elsewhere, but apart from the 'stumpy' buck that figure was great. Paints were beautiful on it. I much prefer it to the new one. However, if the new one had the old paint scheme I might not feel that way. But again - paints are something they seem to have simplified for MU, and again, the Legends version got better paints.

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But I still don't get how hard it is to say:
"Hey hasbro, please bring back wrist articulation, and ab-crunch or waist swivel and thank you for giving more women characters swivel arms finally." As opposed to saying "Hey hasbro, you're ruining and deliberately killing this line because you hate us! Your employees are smurfs and I'm going to send you obscene and nasty messages until you cave into my demands."

But nobody says "I'm going to send you obscene and nasty messages until you cave into my demands" until you reconstruct their statements.

How about this: "Hey Hasbro, ever since you put a guy in charge of the Marvel division who has openly dismissed the 4 inch line you seem to have redirected all resources into the 6 inch line and left the 4 inch to make do with scraps. Could you not split the budgets for the lines according to each's profit margin?" (which would DESTROY Legends).

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Do you see the difference? Which one will actually get you what you want to buy as a consumer and which one will get you blatantly ignored?

Neither will get you anything. As I said before: Hasbro is a business, not kindergarten teachers picking which kids get ice-cream.

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One points out the problems, and helps them along, the other shows you as a spoiled child throwing a tantrum and trying to harass them or rile up harassment by others to throw insults at them too.

"Spoiled child... tantrum... harass..." you just can't stop with the shaming language can you? I shouldn't be surprised. You're trying to demonise the people in order to dismiss what they say. Nobody is throwing a tantrum, and valid criticisms are not harassment on open platforms or forums where those criticisms are meant to be aired. And no, when someone puts money into a product line, and watches that line begin to cut back in quality white seeing the price jump, and has that decision passed off as an economic one from someone who doesn't like the line, yet the line they do like maintains high quality and high value for money - something stinks. Pointing this out is not acting like a 'spoiled child'. If Legends makes 10% profit on each figure, and MU makes 50% profit on each figure - Dwight can still just claim the Legends line (now an umbrella) is making 30% profit on each figure. He can continue to squeeze MU and push the profits into Legends - which is what he clearly always wanted to do.

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What has Hasbro genuinely done to deserve treatment like that except try to give us figures of characters we love in the scale we love? Even Mattel doesn't get this kind of vitriol and the way they did figures was so 90s it hurt. V-Cut female figures for their legs. No elbows at all for Harley Quinn, and worse.

They became a business that sold products and took people's money, thus opening themselves up to both criticism and praise for whatever products or marketing choices they may make? Mattel also got plenty of flack. The company name is practically a byword for an eyeroll from collectors. I'm glad Hasbro made the line and are continuing to make it. There are a lot of little pleasant suprprises upcoming and more to come I'm sure. But when you look at their output: Legends, Star Wars, MU, Joe - it's becomes pretty clear that the line that has taken the biggest belt-tightening battering is MU, and that (in my opinion) is down to Dwight, not that I will ever 'harass', 'insult', or personally attack him for it - just his motives and or choices. The thing is, you seem to want to make what amounts to gripes and moans and whines about the line into some kind of rage-filled hate-fest a step away from a horrific attack, and it just isn't. I don't know what it is you see, but I just see some - mostly justified - collector grumbles, not the anti Hasbro hate forum you seem to refer to. I'll summarise: "Thank you Hasbro for making a great line, and continuing to make a great line. However, I question putting someone in charge of the Marvel line that has openly dismissed the 4 inch scale as I feel the line has suffered for it." There. That's my feelings.

Thought experiment though: Imagine if Hasbro hired someone next year to take over the Marvel division that openly dismissed the 6 inch line, and openly praised the 4 inch line. Then, as a branding / costs measure, the 6 inch line was to be released with accessories for only one (maybe 2) figures a wave, the number of accessories scaled right back, no BAF parts, less articulation, and a 30% price hike. Meanwhile, the 4 inch line suddenly had between 2 and 4 accessories in every (now resealable) box, better artic, and BAF parts so you could create your own figures - and a price drop to $10. How do you think Legends collectors would react, and do you think the suggestion that maybe one line was being squeezed to pay for improvements in the other might just be a valid one?