[Jason Abbadon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by therealjondoe

Check Walmart.
I found a deluxe frost giant clearanced to 6.50 today.

Perfect time to build up that army of Loki's henchmen then!

For a second, I thought you meant the Gigantic Battles version- damn, I'd have sent you some money for that deal!

[Jason Abbadon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by behindthemask

In my area I have a Zellers and Walmart that have the Thor line in stock... I snagged a light up hammer thor, loki, odin and frost giant, I want the price drop to match the IM2 figures which Zellers has on sale for $4.99, then I would buy 5-10 more frost giants, esepcially the deluxe ones! I want the warriors 3, Sif, a destroyer in 3 3/4'' and 8'' scale, and then the upgraded king loki, and Hemidrill, for the love of God I want that figure, the gold paint apps looks sick, not pumped about the lightning bolt blasters in front but not the worst looking projectile. I really want a king odin with helmet, I wonder if you buy the loki king figure if you could tool out the head sculpt to fit an odin figure! would be amazing as then the helmet would be removable.

I think you could tool out the helmet if you really went nuts with the Dremmel...but it's a lotta work.

I'm skipping Heimdall after that youtube review showing it's suckness but I preordered the case with all of the Warrior's Three in it.

Man...I HAVE to find me two Destroyer figures!
One to keep standard and one to add hammer, cape and wings to the head fora Thor version (I'll have to scratch up a belt). In the comics, Thor once posessed the Destroyer and it was a crazy beatdown for bad guys!

If I can find a thord Destroyer, it'll become a Dreadnaught to go with the Iron Man baddies.

[Good Stuff]

Agreed, I really hope Thor wave 2 hits retail in masses - I've been dreaming about the Destroyer figs for far too long now....lol

Yo Hasbro product/marketing, haul @ss on this already geez...

[Jason Abbadon]

What's weird is that the 10" figure is readily available for $12 on Amazon but not the 3.75" version!

[Ash from Carolina]

I think Thor has the same problem that so many of the Marvel lines have had of too much of the main character. After people picked out all the Odin, Loki, and Frost Giant figures all stores had left was a wall of Thor. It just fits right in there with the nothing but Spiderman and Iron Man figures because people picked out all the figures that were not Spiderman or Iron Man.

I'm not really sure what fans or even retailers can do to get it across to Hasbro that action figures are fairly cheap so people are likely to buy more than just one figure.

I also agree that the lack of comic book figures isn't really helping the line. The costumes looked great in the movie, but for some reason they really haven't translated very well into action figures. Some Thor comic book figures though would be a must have to go with all my other comic book figures. Kind of like I just had to get the Giant Battles pack to get a comic book Loki to go with my comic book Thor from the Marvel Universe line.

[nomad1632]

yeah its very frustrating not seeing the figures yet but I have to think will see wave 2 soon I really love the figures the sculpts are amazing out of the box. Ive been checkn my local stores weekly and nothing new is out plus they dont have much of the wave 1 figures left...

[Jmacq1]

Retailers were reportedly not super-confident in this line to begin with (which is part of the reason no comic series has been forthcoming...let's face it, comic-book versions of the Warriors Three and Beta Ray Bill would look silly as hell to most retail buyers.).

Still, I'd say wait another two weeks before we start hitting the panic button on Wave 2.

[Jason Abbadon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

Retailers were reportedly not super-confident in this line to begin with (which is part of the reason no comic series has been forthcoming...let's face it, comic-book versions of the Warriors Three and Beta Ray Bill would look silly as hell to most retail buyers.).

Still, I'd say wait another two weeks before we start hitting the panic button on Wave 2.

I think a big part of that is the muted colors of the line- yes, they're faithful to the movie, but very toned down compared to Iron Man- and consider that retailers were buying the Tron line around the same time as Thor (which they got hosed on).

[Redlantern161]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

Retailers were reportedly not super-confident in this line to begin with (which is part of the reason no comic series has been forthcoming...let's face it, comic-book versions of the Warriors Three and Beta Ray Bill would look silly as hell to most retail buyers.).

Still, I'd say wait another two weeks before we start hitting the panic button on Wave 2.

Oh please, if they can carry bullshit things like bakugan gormiti & stupid saturday morning cartoons then they can carry Thor

[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ash from Carolina

I think Thor has the same problem that so many of the Marvel lines have had of too much of the main character. After people picked out all the Odin, Loki, and Frost Giant figures all stores had left was a wall of Thor. It just fits right in there with the nothing but Spiderman and Iron Man figures because people picked out all the figures that were not Spiderman or Iron Man.

I'm not really sure what fans or even retailers can do to get it across to Hasbro that action figures are fairly cheap so people are likely to buy more than just one figure.

I also agree that the lack of comic book figures isn't really helping the line. The costumes looked great in the movie, but for some reason they really haven't translated very well into action figures. Some Thor comic book figures though would be a must have to go with all my other comic book figures. Kind of like I just had to get the Giant Battles pack to get a comic book Loki to go with my comic book Thor from the Marvel Universe line.

The multiple spideys, thors, caps, and wolverines are because of retailers. So telling hasbro to stop isn't going to matter. The retailers are the ones that want those for the recognizability to patrons. It's also retailers who don't like female figures in a boys toyline because they feel what little boy wants girls to play with. When in reality it's the female figures that fly off shelves, just like it's the robust characters that fly off shelves.

The problem is in the part of retailers not knowing their customer base, and Hasbro trying to please both the customer base and retailers.
It's a complicated issue when the gate keepers to the figures you want know nothing about the market.

As for comic series. Most of thor's comic line wouldn't have sold well at all outside of the collector or fan market besides a few.
Beta Ray Bill? Sold.
Female Loki? Sold.
Comic Volstagg? Peg Warmer.

The comic series would have had issues like that. Only the coolest of the cool would have sold, whereas the majority more campy costumes and characters would have peg warmed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redlantern161

Oh please, if they can carry bullshit things like bakugan gormiti & stupid saturday morning cartoons then they can carry Thor

Bakugan sells in bucket loads to kids. It surprised me too, but it's a powerhouse line whether we like it or not.
Gormitti no clue on. Never bothered to pay attention to them. Others like Phineas and Ferb and similiar lines sell extremely well too.
Thor on the other hand is unproven. Whereas captain america has that patriotism draw.

[Jason Abbadon]

It's always a gamble to retaliors what will sell and what will suck- just like the Pharma industry, the toy companies send reps to pitch their new products and stuff like a new movie blockbuster or TV show will get them to spend more than something like the Mu line- though the MU stuff has all the weight of the comics fans behind it.

As we've seen with stuff like Terminator 3 and Tron, sometimes the retailors get burned. Hell, none of the (amazing looking) Halo toys have moved from their pegs at my local targets- very few of the other video game stuff has either (cant recall the name but thee is one in 3.75" scale with an amazing soldier fig in it!).

[Theta Rock]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redlantern161

Oh please, if they can carry bullshit things like bakugan gormiti & stupid saturday morning cartoons then they can carry Thor

THIS!!

Thor would be a better line if we had more choices than what we have now. I noticed in the Iron Man and Cap lines that I buy more of the Comic Series than the normal movie figures. They are a bigger draw and the retailers need to understand that.

[Jason Abbadon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theta Rock

THIS!!

Thor would be a better line if we had more choices than what we have now. I noticed in the Iron Man and Cap lines that I buy more of the Comic Series than the normal movie figures. They are a bigger draw and the retailers need to understand that.

I'd say that Hasbro needs to undestand that more than retailors!
NO Comic line for Thor?!? Really? They could have made the comic line an exclusive to comics shops or online buyers or even, dare I say it, us fans that send in UPC prof of purchase cupons.

I'm making my custom Hela because they broke my heart.
She'll be awesome abut have minimal articulation (6" Firestar body).
They broke my heart with no Comic Series...fredo.

[nomad1632]

I think its a good Idea not panicking yet I'm giving it a few more weeks to hopefully find the wave 2 figures in stores.

I can see them not doing a comic wave since there are plenty of mu Thor based figures including comic 2 packs and what not. I really just like the movie wave.

[Jmacq1]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the amount of "ARRRGH I'm an adult collector and they need to always cater to ME instead of trying to do what they think is best for their business!" going on in the thread.

Hasbro can't just "make a comic series." They have to sell that product to retailers before it can get to us. If retailers don't want it, there isn't diddly Hasbro can do to meet their own internal profit goals (because just shoveling it off online somewhere usually doesn't). Retailers got burned with Iron Man 2 leftovers, to say nothing of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra the year before. So this year they said, "You know what Hasbro? Throttle back some on this Thor and Captain America stuff. We don't want as much of it."

Yeah, adult collectors prefer the comic line. That's all well and good. Most kids (you know, the target audience that Hasbro and retailers actually would prefer buy their toys?) wouldn't know a comic book these days if it reached up and bit them in the butt. But they might see that shiny new movie that's coming out...which is why the Thor product tends to skew heavily towards the movies. He wasn't even as well known as Iron Man or (especially) Captain America before their respective movies hit. Even Marvel Studios themselves were concerned that the movie might bomb (thankfully it didn't).

We can rage against the heavens all we want about the Thor line not having comic-based figures (Yet don't be surprised if we see a few familiar faces in the Marvel Universe line later this year) but if they'd made a comic series for Thor and shipped it in equal numbers, it'd be pegwarming just as bad as the stuff that's already out there.

[nomad1632]

I agree that there really isn't the drive for comic figures in the movie line I'm an adult collector as well and I really love these movie figures I think the detail, colors and likenesses are spot on I just wish we could get the waves a bit sooner and not left hanging for so long with uncertainty.

[Colder Soldier]

The Thor toys are boring.

Though if they had a comic series subset, they would fly off the shelves and become one of Hasbro's best lines. I'd have hours of fun on the floor just impersonating asgardian venacular.

[Jmacq1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colder Soldier

The Thor toys are boring.

Though if they had a comic series subset, they would fly off the shelves and become one of Hasbro's best lines. I'd have hours of fun on the floor just impersonating asgardian venacular.

No, they'd rot on the shelves because they look like the medieval Village People, unless they were very careful about which costume and character selections they make and generally ignored Hasbro and the retailers standard ways of doing business (IE Loaded with core character(s), two villains per wave at absolute maximum, etc...)

That, and the first wave of Comic Series figures would be:

Thor
Another Thor
A Third Thor
A Fourth Thor
Odin
One shortpacked Loki

Don't get me wrong. Me personally? I'd buy the heck out of a Thor comic line, but then again I've bought the movie figures, too. It's just not hard to understand why retailers would not exactly be hot-to-trot to stock 'em on the shelves. One look at this guy is probably enough to give retailers traumatic flashbacks of Jabba's Fat Dancer from Star Wars' Legacy Collection, and while their memory probably doesn't reach back that far, Beta Ray Bill wasn't exactly a hot seller in Toy Biz' Marvel Legends line, lingering on pegs for well over a year after his release.

[Tarquinius]

Gotta agree with Jmacq1 concerning retailers concern over this.

Furthermore, I think a lot of us were uncertain about how the Thor movie was going to turn out. This really doesn't mean anything, but I think its just symbolic of how much everyone was investing into this movie.

[Jason Abbadon]

Thankfully the movie rocked super hard and was awesome...but I think they should have had wave two on the shelves when it hit theatres!
It's almost out of the theater and wave two is still no where to be had!

Bad Hasbor! No cookie!

[Jmacq1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason Abbadon

Thankfully the movie rocked super hard and was awesome...but I think they should have had wave two on the shelves when it hit theatres!
It's almost out of the theater and wave two is still no where to be had!

Bad Hasbor! No cookie!

Ideally that should have been the case. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't popped up somewhere at retail. As I said, I'd give it a couple more weeks before the real panic sets in, but if this pattern continues, don't be at all surprised if waves 3 and 4 get held back to coincide with the DVD release this fall, and then that'll be it for the Thor line.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Captain America seems to either be doing pretty well or to have been severely under-ordered.

[Redlantern161]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmacq1

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the amount of "ARRRGH I'm an adult collector and they need to always cater to ME instead of trying to do what they think is best for their business!" going on in the thread.

Hasbro can't just "make a comic series." They have to sell that product to retailers before it can get to us. If retailers don't want it, there isn't diddly Hasbro can do to meet their own internal profit goals (because just shoveling it off online somewhere usually doesn't). Retailers got burned with Iron Man 2 leftovers, to say nothing of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra the year before. So this year they said, "You know what Hasbro? Throttle back some on this Thor and Captain America stuff. We don't want as much of it."

Yeah, adult collectors prefer the comic line. That's all well and good. Most kids (you know, the target audience that Hasbro and retailers actually would prefer buy their toys?) wouldn't know a comic book these days if it reached up and bit them in the butt. But they might see that shiny new movie that's coming out...which is why the Thor product tends to skew heavily towards the movies. He wasn't even as well known as Iron Man or (especially) Captain America before their respective movies hit. Even Marvel Studios themselves were concerned that the movie might bomb (thankfully it didn't).

We can rage against the heavens all we want about the Thor line not having comic-based figures (Yet don't be surprised if we see a few familiar faces in the Marvel Universe line later this year) but if they'd made a comic series for Thor and shipped it in equal numbers, it'd be pegwarming just as bad as the stuff that's already out there.

Well from what I've seen on the IM 2 line is the fact that the comic series aren't really peg warmers at all, only the classic armor would stick around. The reason is just from the lack of good paint apps to the point where their eyes are more to their left & the paint is so sloppily done to the point where kids would know how botched it is. Who would wanna buy a figure that doesn't look anything like the ones on the box?

[Jmacq1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redlantern161

Well from what I've seen on the IM 2 line is the fact that the comic series aren't really peg warmers at all, only the classic armor would stick around. The reason is just from the lack of good paint apps to the point where their eyes are more to their left & the paint is so sloppily done to the point where kids would know how botched it is. Who would wanna buy a figure that doesn't look anything like the ones on the box?

I've seen PLENTY of the IM2 comic series (barring the Mandarin Wave) on pegs. While it doesn't stick around as long as the multitude of Red and Gold Iron Men (across both Comic and Movie series and multiple figures that come in that paint scheme), I've seen a Crimson Dynamo, Guardsman, and a Titanium Man this very week. There were relatively few items from either the comic or movie series that didn't warm pegs to some degree around here.

And paint apps have very little to do with pegwarming, I assure you. More like so many freaking red and gold Iron Men that every parent looks at them and says "You already have that one."

Even then, the Iron Man comic series selling better than movie product (debatable, given that there were plenty of movie figures that DID sell well) isn't "proof" that a Thor comic series would sell better than the movie series.

[AndyCR75]

Quote:

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Captain America seems to either be doing pretty well or to have been severely under-ordered.

I'd say a bit of both.

[AndyCR75]