General Marvel Legends

Oh, Bobby did jump in to share a story about the Guardians Yondu and Quill two pack and how the product met cost to the suits, but he wanted to deliver more still in their budget, but the suits ruined it.

That's the kind of banter I wanted the whole thing to be.

And it is interesting that Bobby is all passion and emotion, and Ryan is cold objective rationale. That would be a good podcast recipe.

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Gambit and Rogue 97 set was pitched as the Kitchen Scene and outfits.
 
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altcunningham said:
This is very much an autistic me thing, but even trying to keep it straight and cordial, there is like a smug meanness to everything. It just rubs me wrong. It's like even if they invited me over for beers and wanted to include me in their poker game, and they were nice to me, there's cynical and fake veneer going on that just makes me actively recoil and not want to be around it.

Ryan even came out defensive about their reputation for shit talking Hasbro, which they leaned into as "jokes".

Bobby is just sitting there, choosing to be quiet and enjoy this as a viewer. But the way he said he's just enjoying watching Ryan and he could chime in but he won't, clearly he's got some sort of contrary opinions he'd love to jump in on, but for whatever reason decides to act like he's above it. While still letting us know. Things like that.
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I watched the EOV clip and it just had a vibe I didn't like. Like, dude knows he's being interviewed on hostile ground, and they know it's hostile ground, whether anyone wants to admit it. Felt tense.
altcunningham said:
Like talker art towards the end, which is when that above video links to, paid for a super chat to ask about why Ryan keeps talking about taking things up the chain, who is up the chain? Do you not know that man? Do you not know how businesses work? It was not some revelatory gotcha.
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It stuns me constantly, but yeah, a lot of fans of... well many things, assume the faces they see on their screens are the final decision makers when they basically never are. Those are the folks executing within a budget and guidelines someone you'll never be within 100 miles of dictates.
 
It was kinda fun watching a subdued Bobby. You could see plenty of times where he wanted to jump in, but he was oddly restrained.

Besides the Yondu arrow situation, he commented on having all heads be removable/swappable and how "easy" is would be to do design-wise. To set the stage, at the top of the interview Ryan stated he would not be discussing Dwight or Dan at all, either as a question from the mods or from viewers submitting questions. You could see Bobby just wanted to rake Dwight over the coals regarding removable heads. He never mentioned his name, but we all know he was talking about Dwight. It was uncomfortable.

Most of the questions were so pointed and lame. They discussed the EOV a lot. Viewer questions kept going back to it. I thought Ryan was actually pretty candid as he could be, while still being as cautious as possible.

I thought Ryan was more jovial and lighter than usual. He handled himself very well with some odd and repetitive questions. A few times he brought the silent Bobby into the conversation and asked his opinion or for comments. He did say he hasn't made any decisions regarding future endeavors. He's "laying low" for a bit. It was suggested he join Bobby's company, and that may have been the most uncomfortable part of the interview.
 
Yeah, after watching it in full (listening while working), you can tell Ryan had a genuine interest in the topics and was coming at it as a willing consumer. When Bobby did chime in, the insight and stories were great and you could see the passion he has for the characters and his ideas as a creator.

It was really the viewer questions, which as you said are pointed and some people really just could not let some things go. Having been formerly entrenched in the YouTube scene I recognized a couple names from other channels, and some of those people are just people that are really bitter about Hasbro while still being first in line to buy everything and grinding the ax.

Like I've said in the past with a lot of this content, I need an authority, not a hobbyist, and since Bobby was reserved and Ryan just kept getting dragged back to things like build the figures or engine of vengeance, I don't really think there was 3 hours of meat here.

It's a lot like the scary door from Futurama. Something you don't like is happening to your toys? It turns out it's profit margins.

I was half expecting them to announce that he was joining them at the end. There's a bit in skateboard history when World Industries had a bunch of talent come out wearing their merch to announce the defection. The interview started mentioning that Ryan had visited Bobby in their headquarters, so I I was waiting for that announcement and Ryan to hold up a shirt.
 
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I think I've only watched one or two 3POA podcasts and found them insufferable, so I think I'll pass. Reading these write-ups (thanks altcunningham!) just leads me to believe this was probably something Ryan wanted to do while employed just to defend himself/the brand, but probably wasn't allowed to do. Ryan comes across like the consummate company man, all the more mind-boggling that they let him go.
 
Beamish said:
It was suggested he join Bobby's company
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*shudder*. Ryan is so much better than that. It would be cool to see an "Image" version of an action figure company; big names from across different lines getting together and putting out their own stuff. I know it's happened on a smaller scale, but I'd be really interested to see what a supergroup could do in this space.
 
Thanks all for the takeaways! I'm not at all surprised by the dynamics described.
 
akajomiha said:
*shudder*. Ryan is so much better than that. It would be cool to see an "Image" version of an action figure company; big names from across different lines getting together and putting out their own stuff. I know it's happened on a smaller scale, but I'd be really interested to see what a supergroup could do in this space.
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So you're saying Ryan should team up with Geoff Beckett Jr.?
 
I'm only mildly aware of Bobby's time at Hasbro. I do remember him at SDCC, but I never chatted with him. He didn't really hit my radar until after he was fired and he started ranting. I have no idea how often him and Ryan encountered each other at Hasbro, but I'd assume it was a lot. You could just feel through the screen that there is some unfortunate history between them, more than just Bobby critiquing Dwight.

If I actually knew the podcast was happening in real time, I would have submitted a question about the "film vs. comic IP confusion" thing, asking from his marketing standpoint for film promotion and making Hasbro more money, why there isn't a devoted comic wave to support major MCU releases, like a dedicated comic Cap wave a month or two in advance of the MCU debut, while also offering the MCU product directly from the film. The guys always dance around that topic, but now maybe he would have actually addressed it and given a clear answer.
 
Beamish said:
It was suggested he join Bobby's company, and that may have been the most uncomfortable part of the interview.
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I try not to read malice into people's actions (try being the operative word here), but that almost feels malicious.
 
Beamish said:
If I actually knew the podcast was happening in real time, I would have submitted a question about the "film vs. comic IP confusion" thing, asking from his marketing standpoint for film promotion and making Hasbro more money, why there isn't a devoted comic wave to support major MCU releases, like a dedicated comic Cap wave a month or two in advance of the MCU debut, while also offering the MCU product directly from the film. The guys always dance around that topic, but now maybe he would have actually addressed it and given a clear answer.
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I listened to most of this yesterday while getting things ready to ship and simultaneously dealing with Ebay and this was brought up via Namorita. Ryan said because the Atlanteans were blue in Wakanda Forever, they thought it would be confusing for them not to be blue. So they picked a Namorita look where she was blue. Maybe someone else paid better attention.

Even though Namor is never blue, nor is that ever explained - my insight, not theirs. And Namorita isn't even in the movie. And her figure wasn't available at retail. Very few follow-up questions are ever made in influencer interviews, so I should stop being surprised at non-journalists not being able to deviate from their talking points to actually follow an information trail.

The ads on this video are INSUFFERABLE, BTW - every five minutes. I despise how much money my view probably earned them and also - what are viewers thinking giving this guy $10, $20, even $50?!? to ask a question?

I agree with everyone - I have never listened to this duo before and felt dirty doing it, but I was curious to hear Ryan's take at this point. I'm glad he's doing pretty well after getting hit by corporate sideswipe. That is a terrible feeling.

Also, he mentioned that he may not have been interested in moving to Hasbro's new HQ and how the old building was falling apart, but he doesn't know how many employees want to make the move or the commute. So he may have escaped early.

I haven't seen talk on this forum about Hasbro spending so much money on moving their HQ. For a company that only wants profit, it seems a weird way to spend it.
 
There's often some kind of tax incentive or other monetary reason for a move. Or simply the cost of rent. Hard to imagine how MA would be cheaper than RI, but they probably wouldn't bother unless that were the case. Not sure exactly where the new HQ is, but I've worked with a lot of people who commute from Providence to Boston via the rail. There are worse commutes to have to deal with and I used to do NH to Boston on a daily basis.
 
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