Marvel Legends Maximum Series

I like AnthonysCustoms reviews because they're clean and he shows the product off very well. I often disagree with his feelings on figures; he's often a lot more subjective than he thinks. He favors paint way above articulation, for example. The best advice is to completely ignore his number ratings out of 10, they're inconsistent. But he does often show off the best and worst of a figure, which I find very helpful.

Side note, I'd much rather watch reviews from someone who is overly critical than someone who glazes everything and doesn't clue me into any shortcomings of the figure. I do find it annoying that he never reviews GI Joe, but constantly says Hasbro is terrible. Eh, pick up Tiger Force Outback and tell me it's not fantastic.
 
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Misfit said:
The third Maximum release might provide a clearer picture of what the brand is. Spidey out of the gate is basically a brand new figure with a touch more articulation that usual and a bunch of accessories. Hulk is basically a reuse figure with a gimmick and a little more paint than usual. Will a Max Deadpool just be a mostly reused figure that just comes with everything but the kitchen sink? I could see that being the case. I think they said this line is just comic characters, right? If MCU were on the table, I could see a Max Deadpool being the place where a Ryan Reynolds head is finally included as a selling point, but I think it's strictly comics. I do agree there appears to be little need for an ultimate Deadpool release, but the rationale is there for the figure to be a strong performer and that's all the decision makers at Hasbro probably care about. And if it works, the figure could practically be re-released as a Max Punisher with just minor tweaking.
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I think so too. Deadpool needs to be all new. Specific details on costume to either his 2012 look or New Mutants debut for me. The Ultimate Deadpool! That's what I'm expecting. Next year Mr. Fantastic. I love artist specific looks which is why I am thrilled with the line even though Hulk disappoints. I do like the 3 heads and think the torso really pops - great paint and does add size. It's a good figure that could have been great.

We don't really know what goes behind the scenes or their reasoning. I think it's possible they planned a Deluxe Hulk like Odin and Hulkbuster that was retooled to be better then for whatever reason opted to throw it in the Maximum Line to get 3 releases. These programs force their hands in cases. I tend to think Spider-man will be the norm and most of the releases will be normal sized.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
They're supposed to be maximum figures, presumably to compete with MAFEX
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I wouldn't presume this give that Mafex retails at over double what Hasbro is selling this line for, but yes--they're definitely testing the top end of the market to see if they can sell at a higher price point.

Seems to be working so far although it's pretty tough for us to judge that given that we don't know how many of these things they made. I'm guessing it's far more than Medicom or Bandai make for their runs of Mafex and S.H. Figuarts releases.
 
I would absolutely love to see Maximum Series releases of all the classic Fantastic Four. Redos of the blue and white costumes. All of the characters lend themselves to the format with their powers and Ben could have multiple heads to reflect different artist specific looks. Sue needs a couple of different hairstyles and I would love to see them incorporate swappable hair so her facial expressions and hairstyles could be interchanged.
 
vicious said:
I like AnthonysCustoms reviews because they're clean and he shows the product off very well. I often disagree with his feelings on figures; he's often a lot more subjective than he thinks. He favors paint way above articulation, for example. The best advice is to completely ignore his number ratings out of 10, they're inconsistent. But he does often show off the best and worst of a figure, which I find very helpful.

Side note, I'd much rather watch reviews from someone who is overly critical than someone who glazes everything and doesn't clue me into any shortcomings of the figure.
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This used to be me, but he's become so biased against Legends now I never watch him anymore. Take any Legends review he does now and compare it to his Legends reviews from 5 to 10 years ago and it's a completely different person doing the review.

The Legends now are dramatically better than they were 5 to 10 years ago in terms of QC, paint, and sculpt, yet you never ever hear him point that out; just that they're overpriced for what they are. Okay, I got that point when you first started making it 3 or 4 years ago, and I don't need to hear it over and over and over again on every single new release. Yes you hate the line and think it's overpriced - so why do you do the reviews? I already know the answer; it's because more people watch those reviews than other lines so he feels like he has to review those figures.
 
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TheSameIdiot said:
He makes some good points, but they're drowned out by his need to nitpick everything. Half the time, it has no merit.
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The meritless criticisms I see from him are when he says a character design should not be a specific way yet the designer at the company making the figure has used a reference Anthony is unfamiliar with. He doesn't seem to check to see if any given figure matches some reference somewhere before he does reviews.

Other than that he just nitpicks some design mistakes far more than they merit the time he spends on them, and sometimes lets small problems ruin a figure entirely for him. I wish he'd stop doing scoring because he doesn't put much effort into making sure that the number makes any sense. There are plenty of examples of him doing reviews where he gives numerical scores to aesthetics, accessories, and articulation that are all higher or lower than the final score he gives.
 
Meritless criticism is a good way to say it. I remember him giving Retro Beast, a figure loaded with an extra head, hands, glasses, beakers/vials and a great soft goods lab coat a "generous 7" because the "accessories suck." How the **** does that list of accessories suck? That lab coat would be $10+ alone if bought separately, and it's probably the best soft goods I've ever gotten from Hasbro. Meanwhile he points out how Ultimate Iron Man has zero ab crunch, but it doesn't affect his score at all. He dragged the Spartan Collection Master Chief figures for the exact same range of motion.

EnigmaticClarity said:
This used to be me, but he's become so biased against Legends now I never watch him anymore. Take any Legends review he does now and compare it to his Legends reviews from 5 to 10 years ago and it's a completely different person doing the review.
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He gave Ultimate Iron Man and ROM a 9 and 8.5 respectively and seemed to really enjoy them, despite saying the articulation was bad on both of them. Which reinforces my statement that he cares more about paint than articulation (personally I think ROM's articulation is pretty cool, with his crazy ab crunch). Then again, as we both have said, the scores don't really make sense. I 100% understand why someone would not want to watch his reviews for the weird biases and false narrative of being objective.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
Every so often, you run into someone who has made "negative contrarian" their personality. That's Anthony. I find him genuinely unpleasant to listen to. When I'm forced to watch one of his reviews, I cringe in anticipation of the next overly critical line.

He makes some good points, but they're drowned out by his need to nitpick everything. Half the time, it has no merit.

I don't know how he could derive any joy from this hobby.
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I think there's a difference between critique and contrarian. The Maximum line, thus far, is flawed in concept and execution and deserves the criticism it has drawn. I haven't watched this video, but a friend has and summarized a few Anthony's critiques and while I agree with some of his points, it's just hard to take him seriously. I've never seen a review of his where he it feels like he actually likes the product. I know it's easier to be critical in reviews, but he's just so far gone.
 
Aside from Robo because I like his approach, I only watch video reviews if I can skip to the end and they've done a bunch of scale comparisons so I can see how a figure would line up with other figures. I think it's my most significant old man shaking fist at clouds thing, the pivot to video for reviews bored me to tears from day 1.
 
I see on Amazon I could have Max Hulk tomorrow at it's orginal price, but I will fight the impulsive urge and wait for mine from Best Buy since I got the pre-order at the $50 price and I know I won't feel he's worth more than that.
 
TFitz said:
I see on Amazon I could have Max Hulk tomorrow at it's orginal price, but I will fight the impulsive urge and wait for mine from Best Buy since I got the pre-order at the $50 price and I know I won't feel he's worth more than that.
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You can also return things. I see a lot of people worrying about if they will like the figure, but if you order from Amazon and hate it, then return it.
 
I feel like I’m about the only person who’s low key looking forward to getting Hulk. I did find him with about a 20% discount off RRP, which helped.

I didn’t bother with Spidey, and I get the arguments that Hulk offers very little that’s new. But something about a nice bright green Hulk still gets my radar pinging. I’m planning to tweak the grinning head into a Capcom Hulk, and the other 2 into some more classic looks, so maybe it’s the custom challenge I’m anticipating.

I think ultimately though, I needed something to quench the drought. I don’t buy Gamerverse or MCU, and I only pick very sparingly from the mutants, so it’s been a very quiet few months. Guess I just needed that fix…


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vicious said:
I like AnthonysCustoms reviews because they're clean and he shows the product off very well. I often disagree with his feelings on figures; he's often a lot more subjective than he thinks. He favors paint way above articulation, for example. The best advice is to completely ignore his number ratings out of 10, they're inconsistent. But he does often show off the best and worst of a figure, which I find very helpful.

Side note, I'd much rather watch reviews from someone who is overly critical than someone who glazes everything and doesn't clue me into any shortcomings of the figure. I do find it annoying that he never reviews GI Joe, but constantly says Hasbro is terrible. Eh, pick up Tiger Force Outback and tell me it's not fantastic.
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That's how I go about it as well. If I'm watching a review because I genuinely want to learn about the figure and could be swayed into buying it or not, I would much prefer a reviewer who nitpicks the hell out of the product. That way I can decide if a figure's shortcoming is important to me or not. I remember when he added the number ratings he said he did it because people kept asking him too, so I don't put much stock in them (or any numerical rating for any product, really). And there's definitely no shortage of toy-tubers who will tell you everything is great. I do find most of his criticisms valid though. I don't every watch every Legends review he does because there's a lot of figures I don't care about. I did watch the Maximum Hulk review and I don't know that I disagreed with anything he said in that one. It's not a good release and it's very expensive for what it is. That doesn't mean people can't find enjoyment in the figure. I have plenty of stuff on display I think wasn't worth the asking price, but I don't hate the figure being in my collection.

With Anthony, it's not a Legends channel. For people who primarily collect Legends who want to know about a figure in the context of the line then his channel is definitely not for you. Legends is a mediocre action figure line that's a collector-driven line, but it still operates as a mass market, general audience toy line. There's a ceiling on how good a given figure will be, and that's provided you like the general Legends house style. Legends when compared with the wider action figure market are often going to come up short or at best land somewhere in the middle. And since it's the most popular brand from one of the biggest toy producers in the world there's basically no incentive for meaningful change so it's been in the spot for quite some time and likely will remain there for as long as Marvel is king.
 
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