BAF Waves - Themed or Mixed?

I like themed waves and would argue they could go further than doing say an X-Men theme by doing a X-Men as they appeared in issue #XXX and knock out a whole team/roster with consistent engineering. Too often we get a Wolverine or an Iron Man without the rest of the crew from a specific era.

I'm indifferent to the BAF concept at this point. I get that the economics don't work as well at higher prices.
 
I like BAFs, but many of the characters could now be "deluxe" figures, and the bigger ones made good fodder, for a Haslab, when that was around, but now those seem to be semi MtOs, or in some cases, figures that retail wouldn't sell. :)
 
I thought the BAF concept should have been killed years ago. Once they stopped shipping full cases so that places like Target, Amazon etc. could buy solid cases to make it easier to fulfill online shopping orders. Once that happened, I hate to think about how much excess plastic was used for BAF parts that could never contribute to a completed BAF.

Themed BAF waves in the early days of the line made sense when almost all characters were newly made - and at worst B listers - and the characters were connected. Un-themed waves never made sense to me. The mixed comic and film waves never made sense to me. Too many times Hasbro seemed like they were trying to retrofit a wave with comic and MCU just to comply with the BAF concept, or with a hodge-podge of characters for the same reason.

I would argue at this point that the BAF is no longer making figures we wouldn't get otherwise, given the current options of deluxe figures, made to order, etc. Maybe in some rare cases, but not often. Because to me the logic is:

1 - If the BAF is popular enough to get people to buy figures they don't want otherwise then the BAF would have sold as a stand alone deluxe release.
2 - If the BAF could not have sold as a stand alone deluxe release, then it isn't popular enough to get people to buy figures they don't want otherwise.

I am grudgingly buying some figures to get Skurge, but I'd be much happier - and I honestly think it would sell more - if this was an all Thor wave.
 
I much prefer a themed BAF wave. These more mixed theme BAF waves have been brutal for me.

Even a looser theme works for me. I LOVED the Controller BAF wave example, but this Skurge wave is tough.
 
I may be in the minority but I love the BAF concept and prefer the waves being mixed — with one caveat: I like when the BAF is closely related to at least one figure in the wave and there to be at least some other figures in the wave related to each other.

The mixed approach reminds me of the earlier ML waves. I really loved those. It got me to learn about characters I ignored before.


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Themed is definitely more consumer friendly. The random assortment likely only appeals to those who cast a wide net with their Legends collection as it creates opportunities for deep cuts. I’m mostly in agreement with those who would prefer it be eliminated at this point. It feels like it has outgrown its use. What once was a way to do oversized characters in an affordable way is now mostly stuff that probably could be released stand-alone. It creates the appearance that these characters are just being held hostage behind an archaic distribution model as opposed to feeling like a bonus for those who collect a full wave.
 
I'd kill for waves that were 100% themed, including the BAF. Not that it would EVER happen. Try a MTO wave Hasbro. I'd love it if every other MTO offering was a themed wave like this.

New Mutants Wave: (all training uniforms)
Cannonball
Magik
Mirage
Wolfsbane
Magma
Karma
Cypher
BAF Demon Bear

Guardians of the Galaxy Wave:
Starhawk
Aleta
Nikki
Martinex
Talon
Yellowjacket (Rita)
Korvac (or Badoon army builder)
BAF Charlie-27

Alpha Flight Wave:
Master of the World
Aurora (Gold and white Costume)
Flashback
Talisman
Diamond Lil
Wild Child
Marrina
BAF Box
 
I love BAFs and a combination of mixed and themed waves. I came to Marvel Legends as an Iron Man fan. But because of BAFs, I’ve learned to appreciate the wider Marvel Universe a lot more. It’s fun to learn about characters from all corners of the Marvel Universe.


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It would probably make sense to continue to do a combination of both since you're serving both audiences. However, I do think doing waves that largely complete teams in one fell swoop, like the abovementioned original New Mutants or Guardians of the Galaxy, would be a good idea. Also, how about waves that reflect extremely well-received storylines like the Siege on Avengers Mansion ? You could do Thor in that costume, Jarvis, the Shroud, Dr. Druid and several never done members of that incarnation of the Masters of Evil.
 
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gpmartin414 said:
I may be in the minority but I love the BAF concept and prefer the waves being mixed — with one caveat: I like when the BAF is closely related to at least one figure in the wave and there to be at least some other figures in the wave related to each other.

The mixed approach reminds me of the earlier ML waves. I really loved those. It got me to learn about characters I ignored before.


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With this all being said, it’s pretty clear from the recent trends that BAF waves are not the main wave Legends are released any more. At the current trajectory, we won’t see any next year. That would be a huge disappointment to me at least.

I hope they at least continue to knock out one X-Men BAF wave a year. We have at least one a year since 2016 (if you count the Zabu wave as an X-Men, which it mostly is).

Weirdly, Spidey switched over to mostly retro carded waves back in 2022 and hasn’t had a BAF since Armadillo.

I know that deluxe figures are a way to get out larger figures, but the reality is that Hasbro isn’t releasing almost a dozen of them a year like there have been with BAF waves.


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gpmartin414 said:
With this all being said, it’s pretty clear from the recent trends that BAF waves are not the main wave Legends are released any more. At the current trajectory, we won’t see any next year. That would be a huge disappointment to me at least.

I hope they at least continue to knock out one X-Men BAF wave a year. We have at least one a year since 2016 (if you count the Zabu wave as an X-Men, which it mostly is).

Weirdly, Spidey switched over to mostly retro carded waves back in 2022 and hasn’t had a BAF since Armadillo.

I know that deluxe figures are a way to get out larger figures, but the reality is that Hasbro isn’t releasing almost a dozen of them a year like there have been with BAF waves.


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It feels less rock solid than the x-waves, but we also basically have been getting Avengers BAF waves pretty consistently several years in a row. I'd be happy if those two trends continued, even if BAFs as a whole are no longer the focus.
 
gpmartin414 said:
I know that deluxe figures are a way to get out larger figures, but the reality is that Hasbro isn’t releasing almost a dozen of them a year like there have been with BAF waves.
Click to expand...
It's not just deluxe. It's two-packs, box sets, and MTO figures, too. All told, they're probably releasing about the same number of big guys that they were six or 10 years ago.
 
I am unabashedly pro-BaF and don't carebhowbyou cherry picking namby pambies geel aboutbit 🤣

Seriously though because I do tend to want most of the figures in a wave I don't mind the baf concelt at all. I also don't care if it adheres to a strict theme.

It does bug me a little when they go for the start of a theme but then feel they have to push a Spider-Man, Iron Man or Wolverine into the wave... frequently all 3 at once like with the Executioner wave

And I do not think a baf wave should ever mix comic and MCU in a single wave. Just the aesthetic differnces between the figure styles makes a wave like that look disjointed.

But gimme all the BaF's
 
Asking for less BAFs is the same as asking for less value in the package. If they were to lower the MSRP in non-BAF waves, okay fine. But they don't.

BAF pieces don't look good on Retro cards - a free floating, sometimes huge, unrelated piece on such character-specific artwork is distracting, I agree. So that helped push most of the line back to carded because it's cheaper for Hasbro!

Anyway, I prefer a general themed wave. I thought the Ch'od wave was actually quite nice - two Astonishing, two Starjammers, two Gen X (kinda three), two randos who kinda relate to the rest - that's a great wave!

But the kicker is to FOLLOW IT UP WITH THE REST!!! It's now two years and we've only gotten one new Gen X, no new Starjammers (and there's only TWO left!). Astonishing is really the only thing growing. And I really don't think this is that hard to plan.

Themed is nice. Boxed figs are nice. FF sold really well because it was underproduced and/or just late to market so not having HERBIE ended up not hurting (not having HERBIE at all still sucks), but the Spidey Gamerverse wave would have sold better with a BAF piece to help move all the variants. Amazon had almost the whole wave on sale recently.

Mass retail may disagree with me, but BAF pieces help figures sell. And it is 95% of the time NOT HARD to get rid of the piece or figure. I don't want it to go away.
 
Since in the 90s Toybiz had a Vault wave/toy line, why not have Hasbro do one?

Mentallo (80s handbook)
Fixer (80s handbook)
Cobalt Man (original 60s costume)
Red Skull (suit and tie) (he's the "anchor" figure, to help sell the wave, to non comic book fans)
Typhoid Mary (90s costume, like what she had in the original vault line)
Alkhema (replaces Ultron, from the original wave)
Deathwatch (90s series 2 cards, with alternate series 4 cards head)
BAF Stegron (since he was in the original series, too)
 
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