Skurge the Executioner BAF Wave

altcunningham said:
And I feel like there's this collective coping mechanism, especially in Facebook groups, which I think are a little different than forums like ours in terms of tone
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I wish someone would conduct a study to figure out why some people prefer forums and others social media.

For me, I'd rather put a gun in my mouth than spend one more second on Facebook, but I'm sure it's more nuanced than that.
 
Forums tend to self “curate” their members. Social media is down in the sewers. I mean I disagree with some of y’all about things but very rarely have I found anyone here or back in the Fwoosh days to be a total D bag. Not many Russian bots either.
 
altcunningham said:
But some collectors feel the BAF is synonymous with Legends, and it was for a bit, Mattel of course did theirs and McFarlane tried with Batmobiles and horses and characters. Even be just throws them up at deluxe prices these days. Oh, but my point is collectors also tend to fear change, it's a hobby of habit and familiarity, so dropping BAFs suddenly becomes a value loss discussion, etc.
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IMO, three major things have changed the consumer arithmetic on the BAF model:
  1. Price. It's a lot easier to swallow two figures you don't want when they're $8 each.
  2. Character selection. The Galactus wave was:
    • Doctor Strange
    • Hulk
    • Nightcrawler
    • Professor X
    • War Machine
    • Deathlok
    • Bullseye
      • Even the most casual Marvel fan would want most of those characters in their collection. When the line goes for another 20 years, suddenly you're replacing Nightcrawler with Phantom Rider and War Machine with Warbow.
  3. Other formats. I don't want to spend $180 on a BAF wave when I could get the same product as a deluxe, MTO, or two-pack figure (like Gorgon).
 
TheSameIdiot said:
I wish someone would conduct a study to figure out why some people prefer forums and others social media.

For me, I'd rather put a gun in my mouth than spend one more second on Facebook, but I'm sure it's more nuanced than that.
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In general I'm always amused that we came up on a time where you never gave your real name, photo, ASL, etc.

Now people regularly post with public photos, locations, everything that was No. And if you're private at all you're weird for it.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
I wish someone would conduct a study to figure out why some people prefer forums and others social media.

For me, I'd rather put a gun in my mouth than spend one more second on Facebook, but I'm sure it's more nuanced than that.
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Some of it has to be that social media makes decisions for you. Even searching by text is a bridge too far for some folks. I know a 26 year old that says something isn't available on Youtube if it isn't in his immediate feed.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
IMO, three major things have changed the consumer arithmetic on the BAF model:
  1. Price. It's a lot easier to swallow two figures you don't want when they're $8 each.
  2. Character selection. The Galactus wave was:
    • Doctor Strange
    • Hulk
    • Nightcrawler
    • Professor X
    • War Machine
    • Deathlok
    • Bullseye
      • Even the most casual Marvel fan would want most of those characters in their collection. When the line goes for another 20 years, suddenly you're replacing Nightcrawler with Phantom Rider and War Machine with Warbow.
  3. Other formats. I don't want to spend $180 on a BAF wave when I could get the same product as a deluxe, MTO, or two-pack figure (like Gorgon).
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I agree. This wave in particular seems like the biggest grab bag they've made in a while, so with higher prices and MTO (and Id argue their own Joe line delivering more for the same), it's a jagged little pill.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
I wish someone would conduct a study to figure out why some people prefer forums and others social media.

For me, I'd rather put a gun in my mouth than spend one more second on Facebook, but I'm sure it's more nuanced than that.
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I like the forum format because it's easy to keep organized, and I can post at length. I'm on Facebook and Instagram for the news I get about toys I collect, but I don't ever comment there. I don't need to. I can do that here. Most of the people who comment on social media are just very dumb.
 
Forums are so much better than social media for all the reasons stated. If this forum community went away (and it almost did!) I honestly think my collecting would take a nosedive as I'd basically disengage from everywhere else this information is available. I browse reddit, but jesus it sucks.



altcunningham said:
I agree. This wave in particular seems like the biggest grab bag they've made in a while, so with higher prices and MTO (and Id argue their own Joe line delivering more for the same), it's a jagged little pill.
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There really is such a dichotomy of tastes and preferences. I'm honestly just as excited by the Skurge or Zabu waves as I would be by the Toy Biz series 9 Galactus wave that TSI posted, cause I'm in it for the new folks. I always want everything new, and generally want the upgrades, so I'm still not put off by having to push myself to buy 1 or 2 that I might have otherwise skipped. Especially since they seem to have moved away from split MCU/comic waves.

Obviously the Galactus BAF wave stacked with recognizable names would sell 10x better than these grab bags of c-listers, so I'm grateful we still get them. If it's true that the BAF model wouldn't negatively impact the diversity of new characters, then I don't care how we get them. But that character selection applies not just to the BAF, but also the wave itself - my gut instinct is that BAF waves tend to dive deeper into the Marvel U. Someone should do a study.
 
Reddit really is bad. Between the Fwoosh meltdown and the rise of Articulated Thoughts, that was my only option, and everyone there just seemed so new to collecting. Like they started within the past year or two. Reddit sometimes gets news faster, but the readers of it just seem so uneducated on the world of action figure collecting.
 
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altcunningham said:
Oh, but my point is collectors also tend to fear change, it's a hobby of habit and familiarity, so dropping BAFs suddenly becomes a value loss discussion, etc.
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I think this sentence is equating too many things. Losing BAF pieces is absolutely an objective value loss - there is less in the box.

And the prices are going up. So less for more. I'm never going to advocate for that and I am not stupid or fearful of change for expecting more for my money. The BAF has stuck around because it works well.

Also, it doesn't have to be huge characters. Gilgamesh was a great BAF for the Eternals wave. Mantis a bit less so (and it's crazy she's never gotten re-released), Cosmo was kinda not great (sculpt, size or value). Jarvis could be a BAF. With the world the way it is, I'm okay if we switch to regular characters for a bit - let's knock out all the best civilian sidekicks - Aunt May, Rick Jones, Jarvis, Trish Tilby - if it means keeping the value in the package.
 
I'm fully on on board with @Schizm's suggestion of civilians as BAFs. That may be the only way I get many of the characters that I want. Let's start with Robbie Robertson, Edwin Jarvis and Rick Jones please! Otherwise they'd probably need to be offered in a multi-pack to get them.
 
altcunningham said:
I agree. This wave in particular seems like the biggest grab bag they've made in a while, so with higher prices and MTO (and Id argue their own Joe line delivering more for the same), it's a jagged little pill.
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I don't know what you mean by 'awhile' but the Void baf wave had Black Panther, Vision, jae lee Namor, blue Namorita, Justice, Power Princess and Crystar....

I guess its arguably closer to an Avengers themed wave, but in terms of character selection its pretty all-over-the-place.

And the Zabu BaF wave had Ka-Zar, white armor Iron Man Ikaris, Red Widow, Black Winter Thor, Cable and Wolfsbane...

erratic character selection is the norm for these non X-themed waves it seems to me.
 
For me, Void wave was pretty Avengers, but yeah, Crystar was random. The rest connect and make sense to me.

Zabu was a grab bag but those are some heavier hitters with Cable, Ka-Zar, Wolfsbane, and even Thor saw a lot of demand. I never even saw him.

I don't find any of these Executioner characters to really fit a theme or era or even have heavy hitters outside of Logan and Iron Man.

But for argument's sake, sure, they all lean LOL Random. I suppose Executioner isn't any different than Zabu when it comes to needing to buy them all to put them with one character from the wave they're synonymous with.
 
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