2008 NYCC - Marvel
Okay, the first bit of news from NYCC has trickled in, and it’s Marvel related. Guess what?! Marvel Legends is NOT canceled! Guess what else? The Nemesis wave - wave 4 - is now a Wal-Mart exclusive and won’t be available until December (Bah?!). In even less understandable news, HML5 will consist of Red Hulk, Spiral, Adam Warlock, Union Jack, Silver Savage Silver Surfer, Black Spider-Man, and Wolverine Black. And it will be a… Target exclusive! And available in September. So, in summary: Wave 4 - Wal-Mart, December. Wave 5 - Target, September. Nice work, Hasbro! WT-everloving-F?!
Moving along. Hasbro is going buck-wild with the Marvel Legends 2packs. They are releasing 8 different 2packs this fall, three of which haven’t been revealed. The other five are: Wolverine and Forge, Thing and Mr. Fantastic, Elektra and Ronin, Ultimate Cap and Ultimate Nick Fury, and Shield Agent with Red Hand Ninja. Pretty cool, actually. MarvelousNews has the latest pics, and the others can be seen in the image to the right.
Other news - The Hulk waves are still coming. One in August, the next in September/October. And no, they’re not exclusive to any particular retailer. Yay! But wait… look closely at the pics at MarvelousNews. The little placards under the Hulk figs list the retail price… 19.99! Bafawaahwuh?!! Is Hasbro loony?! We all flipped out at the proposed 15 dollar price tag, and now they’re gonna charge us 20 bucks a piece for these? Is anyone really gonna pay that?! Also, in the packaged Wendigo shot it looks like Foom’s arm is assembled incorrectly. Shouldn’t the light green scales be on the inside of the arm, not the outside? C’mon, Hasbro! Seriously!
Hasbro also made a point to debunk rumors that Jesse Falcon and Marvel Toys are working with them in a greater capacity. Apparently that isn’t the case.
Well, that’s the rub so far. I’m sure there will be more to add as the con progresses, so I’ll keep updating this post with new Marvel info as it rolls in.
Tags: Marvel Legends, NYCC
Hasbrotoyshop.com has some nice new listings in their Marvel SuperHero Squad, including Silver Savage Silver Surfer, King Hulk, FinFangFoom, and Ares. I think these are a heads up to what’s coming down the ML pike, no? I went and ordered FinFangFoom already–my 5 year old has been jonesing for that one for some time now. Anyway, I thought the ToyBiz Giant Man Walmart exclusive ML-wave was a disaster for U.S. fans because of poor distribution and especially for overseas fans who were shut out completely. I can tolerate checking Target weekly for exclusives but get stomach cramps marching into my (not so) local Walmart. Way to go Hasbro. On another note, deluxe series Bumblebee is only just starting to show up in good numbers on store shelves…what, 10 months after the blockbuster Transformers movie hit the theaters!?! So, yeah, Marvel stuff will get here but it’s a 10 months sail across the Paciific from China I suppose.
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of store exclusives. In fact, I really dislike them. But, I’ve gotten into the habit of just preordering cases or sets of the figs I collect these days online anyway, so it shouldn’t be that big a deal.
It is very encouraging to see that hasbro is moving away from the swivel knees and elbows and giving us true double joints on most of these. in fact, i think spiral and elektra are the only figs shown that still use the single swivels.
it’s like a multi-step recovery process for hasbro.
step 1 - articulation. Check!
step 2 - paint. um…
step 3 - distribution. um…
step 4 - character selection. Check! (they’ve always been good on this one)
I think they are probably using the exclusives to gauge whether or not this line will be be profitable. they’re like, okay let’s give them the articulation they want and see if sales actually improve. but to hedge our bets, let’s do store exclusives to guarantee a certain amount of product moves.
the two-packs, however, are looking really promising. if hasbro just did away with numbered series’ altogether and gave us nothing but ML 2packs, I’d be okay with that. It’s the best product they’ve put out so far.
I can’t comprehend this, so I’m gonna comment more about it here.
19.99 for the Hulk figs? What are they thinking?! That’s sheer insanity. Does Hasbro even have market research people? We’re in a freakin’ recession! Do they really think there are consumers out there who will spend 20 bucks each on these crappy toys? I’m completely baffled.
I bet you that $19.99 is a typo on the card. No way fans are gonna shell out $20 a pop for a 6″ figure. Icons were $15-$20 and even now Hasbro’s larger Unleashed series figures are $20. I gotta tip my hat to Hasbro because I think they generally price things right at the sweet spot across all their toy lines. If its not a type then I’ll eat my hat when these show up in stores.
$20????? WTF Totally expensive!!! But… I think FFF is worth it…the store exclusives drive me crazy, but that is what the internet and comicons are for, i guess. Union Jack is awesome. As is Adam Warlock. As is the shield Agent/ Hand Nija set…army builder? Yes. I will need many.
Still 20 dollars??? ugh…:( Still gonna have to get them though. As usual i will play right into their plans. But who is the real fool?
SAG….lol….my thoughts exactly….
“19.99 for the Hulk figs? What are they thinking?! That’s sheer insanity. Does Hasbro even have market research people? We’re in a freakin’ recession! Do they really think there are consumers out there who will spend 20 bucks each on these crappy toys? I’m completely baffled.”
Y’know aside from that, nothings changed from my hatred towards Hasbro. They’re really way down the IQ meter. What’s even pathetic is them using old Toy Biz sculpts. DID YOU SEE they reused the MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES 1 HULK body! WOW! lol I’m betting that’s $20 bucks or more!
Hasbro is funny. In my opinion, they’re the most laughable company now AND to top it off the punchline is…….they’ve sky-rocketed their prices!
A part of me actually is amused at all this….their stupidity is pretty darn amusing.
MATTEL’s DCUC ALL the WAY for ME!!!!!!!!!
Then again…I think Hasbro just tryin to be a comedian by going from $15 to $20 a Hulk figure! lol
Some are good looking, some are bad. I’ll take Daredevil and AXM Beast for sure. Black Bolt and Ronin are pretty cool. How come no one mentioned the Skrull/Kree two pack? I’d buy that. Also I noticed they reused the TBML Brown Costume Wolverine Figure for their Wolverine Black. I guess this is supposed to be the new X-Force costume, but it’s totally inacurate.
wwOOwww, i left for a week and there are tons of news, and even super articulated guy got a new name… well first, you are doing a great job with this page, is the only toy´s web i write in a regular way, second, i the hell with hasbro, two series goign exclusives? i live oversea so thats pretty much alike they were cancelled for me, and those hulks costs????? well, im sure those are not making their way here either…. so is pretty much the same the line is cancelled for me and a lot of collectors overseas at least they have tons of money to pay the ridiculous high prices from retailers on line….
in other subject…. i saw a picture of a new nick fury…. is the alternate head of the shield soldier that comes along with the hand hencheman???? because that will sucks too (by the way the shield guy is reusing the pusniher wave 4 body too)
I don’t know who half of these characters are, but I’m definitely salivating over a few of them! Classic Venom, Red Hulk, Black Wolvie, Spiral, Daredevil, whoever that skeleton dude is in the translucent yellow mech, the Cheetah wannabe chick… the list goes on. And some of those Iron Man repaints look sweet, though I can’t help but be amused by how shamelessly Hasbro overplays the repaint card. At this rate, they’ll probably release a purple and green IM repaint and save me the trouble of doing it myself!
P.D. is not “i the hell” is “what the hell”… anyway ill saved the space to say: I HATE YOU HASBRO…
After seeing this news, I’m neither excited or unhappy. On the positive side, I am happy to see that the ML line will continue in some venue (whether that be as store exclusives or two packs). I’m happy to see we’ll still get Black Bolt, Nova, and Tigra, and now get Forge, Union Jack, Adam Warlock, Doc Samson, Ronin (with a Clint Barton head nonetheless!), etc. It’s also nice to see a secondary character like Spiral make the cut, though I don’t understand why both Toy Biz and now Hasbro will make Spiral before Dazzler. I mean, we’ve got Longshot and Mojo, wouldn’t Dazzler be the next obvious choice? But, I digress. It’s good to see the line will still be around.
On the non excited front, aside from the characters I listed above, I’m feeling pretty lukewarm about the other characters shown. How many Hulks, Iron Mans, Wolverines, and Spidermans do we need? As I said in another post, there are SOOOOOO many characters that have not yet been made, some of which have NEVER seen the light of day as an action figure. I get the marketing scheme that a line will sell if you package one of the core Marvel characters in each line. So, I do get putting a Hulk, Cap America, Iron Man, Wolverine, etc in each line. But do we need new Mr. Fantastics, Things, and Wolverines in the SAME line? Wouldn’t it have been nicer to just see a new Thing with 4 or 5 other characters never made? Then another line with a new Wolverine, with another 4 or 5 characters we’ve never seen? A lot of the figures coming out in the second half of the year have already been made. She Hulk, Hulk, Mr. Fantastic, Thing, Nick Fury, Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, Elektra (though I’m happy she’s getting a better figure), Absorbing Man, Daredevil, Silver Surfer, Punisher, etc.
So, hopefully, 2009 will bring on the never before seen Marvel Legends characters. Bring me a comic styled Mary Jane, Polaris, Ares, Warpath, Madrox, Strong Guy, Citizen V, Songbird, Atlas, Dazzler, Moonstone, Medusa, Speedball, Justice, Firestar, Namorita, Night Thrasher, Sunspot, Rictor, Siryn, Jean Grey (not Phoenix - I really like this idea!) J. Jonah Jameson, and retooled Scarlet Witch and Emma Frost!
While I will buy many of the Marvel Legends this year (and yes, I agree, I believe the 19.99 price tag on the Hulk Legends is a typo), most of my moola will be going to the DCU figures from Mattel. They’re actually pumping out characters that are out of the norm (ie: not just Superman and Batman OVER and OVER) such as Lightray, Orion, Cyborg, etc. And not only are they pumping out a great array of characters, but they’re also adding fantastic paing applications, awesome accessories (when they make sense) AND BAFs! All for the same price point as a Marvel Legends figure.
Just my opinion(s).
yep, like Rich and Shadowcat said, Hasbro is claiming that 19.99 is inaccurate. they said they will be more like 15. maybe hasbro did that intentionally, so we’d all be like “20 bucks? that’s crazy! oh wait, they’re just 15? what a bargain!” heh.
i think the stuff hasbro has shown, for the most part, is far better than what they’ve put out previously. so there is improvement happening. i think this long lull between waves has actually been spent working on the product. some of it still isn’t great, but it’s getting better.
mr. cooltoy - the shield agent comes with two heads, one is nick and the other is just a generic red-head dude.
SAG…LOL. I agree just a bait and switch strategy…ha. ha. Jokes on the collectors. Where are the rest of the Inhumans? (Crystal, Medusa, Lockjaw, Karnak, Gorgon, & Triton)???? Am I the only one who likes those characters? Hasbro seems to be making the characters that i have always wanted (i.e. Black Knight, Ronin, Black Bolt, Nova Fin Fang Foom) so if they do have an Inhumas Set…Blame it on me people who don’t like them… LOL
By the way Shadowcat, nice wish list…
I knew back when ToyBiz turned Marvel Legends over to Hasbro that this was going to be the end of Marvel Legends. Just as I feared, Hasbro completely ruined this line… less articulation, poor sculpts, and the choice of figures they’ve been putting out has been, to say the least, awful (I mean, how many more Wolverines and Fantastic Four figures do we need???). It’s just a matter of time until they announce the end of Marvel Legends forever. What a shame!
I’m impressed with the line up of figures/characters Hasbro is churning out, although I’m sadden by the fact we won’t see any until the end of 2009 over here in Australia : (