General Marvel Legends

You know I just gave myself nostalgia now.

When did everything start to shift towards chases and limited run.

I remember panty and party Angela. But I think I would put it on Marvel Legends Wave 4, at least as a Toys R Us employee.

That's when things were scarce and that's when people were really hip to the idea that there chased and short packs and it made working there hell. I don't know why four jumps out at me. That was the one with Elektra and Gambit right? Because that was the one where we suddenly had dudes just rolling up everyday and blowing up the phone line asking if it was on the truck.

I also remember Amazon used to give you store credit as an apology if they couldn't fulfill your order.

And Amazon listed the dark Phoenix as available. And I knew there was no way that was true. So I ordered 12.

A day later they were like yeah we can't fulfill this and then they gave me $10 per figure in credit. Which was actually what I knew I was doing the whole time.
 
Yeah, I would say the shift happened pretty much the moment 'buying action figures' went from something kids did, to something adults did. ToyBiz made the two biggest lines for the real beginning of people opening cases to get the figure that was 1 per case with Marvel Legends and Lord of the Rings.
 
Oh yeah, the Lord of the Rings was also madness.

I remember we only had one Galadriel for the entire store. And I put it under my counter in the R Zone, which I was allowed to do as long as I was going to buy it on break.

But then this mother and her preteen daughter came up with an arm load of the figures and then they asked if we had seen Galadriel, and that was her favorite.

And I could just tell they weren't scalper bullshitting. I thought it was cool that this young nerd girl was collecting Lord of the Ring action figures because this was 2001. It was still hard out there for us.

So I did make it appear and both of them were so happy, and the mom even came back to give me a milkshake because she just thought it was the greatest deed anyone had ever done.

And then I just yankked the next one off the next truck.
 
I still remember how miserable it was at first to find the Prologue Elf and the Helm's Deep Elven Archer that only came in that two-pack and had Jesse Falcon's likeness, I believe. Then there were variants of the same figure depending on if they were single-carded or in a boxed set, because LotR had so many boxed sets.

Goddamn, I had so many LotR figures.
 
Yes, I remember people going after that now that you say. I was only in for the fellowship and the ladies, so a lot of that line is a blur for me.

I did get the Helm's Deep set.
 
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As far as I know, unbearable collectors putting TRU workers under siege began with those damned Hot Wheels treasure hunts in the mid- to late-'90s, when I was working at Toys R Us. The HW collectors were a permanent fixture at my store.

And the lengths some of those guys would go to ... We eventually had to lock up any HW cases that came on the truck to keep a few of the guys from trying to sneak them out of the stock area. It was so bad.
 
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altcunningham said:
Yes, I remember people going after that now that you say. I was only in for the fellowship and the ladies, so a lot of that line is a blur for me.

I did get the Helm's Deep set.
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I got the two-pack, as well as the Helm's Deep boxed set with Haldir in it. And when they re-issued the Prologue Elven Warrior on a different card I think I bought four more on top of the one I had.
But again, I had a LARGE LotR collection by the end of that line.


Good point @GrumpyMatt about Hot Wheels. I don't even consider that when I think of toy collecting stuff because they've always felt so far removed from the rest of the toy collecting world.
 
Palisades went hard for chases and variants and retailer exclusives for both The Muppets and their Micronauts revival.

Playmates with The Simpsons didn't have chases but had the mail-away redemption figures that were despised by the MoC collectors as you needed to send in the UPCs if I recall.
 
I remember being so conditioned to expect just one soldier army builder for a whole line, that when LotR released “Newborn Lurtz” as the first orc, I was annoyed thinking “this is what we have to army build”. The line pleasantly surprised me in giving us a generous amount of actual individually different orcs, that were movie accurate. I scooped up each one, even the “Burger King exclusive” one. That line spoiled me for army builders going forward. Now I look for individuality in my army builders.
 
DetectiveHoag said:
I scooped up each one, even the “Burger King exclusive” one.
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That one was brutal to find, and I really wanted a few of them...

Really that whole LotR line is probably in my top 10 all time, and the various army builders, horses and creatures is a big part of that. I loved those prologue elves.
 
The only real problem I ever had with the LotR line is that it was happening RIGHT at the start of the swing from 'toys' to 'collectible action figures.' So you'd get a beautifully articulated and excellent-looking figure next to one that's gimped hard by some incredibly stupid and intrusive action feature and also kind of looks a bit shit. That got frustrating. And, of course, by modern standards most of the figures are kind of terrible because ToyBiz hadn't really fully learned how to do super-articulated figures yet. But they were amazing for the time.

Gandalf the White is the figure that introduced the vertical wrist hinge to domestic action figures, and then we basically didn't see it again for like a decade because toy companies are filled with idiots.
 
GrumpyMatt said:
As far as I know, unbearable collectors putting TRU workers under siege began with those damned Hot Wheels treasure hunts in the mid- to late-'90s, when I was working at Toys R Us. The HW collectors were a permanent fixture at my store.

And the lengths some of those guys would go to ... We eventually had to lock up any HW cases that came on the truck to keep a few of the guys from trying to sneak them out of the stock area. It was so bad.
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Loved treasure hunts.

Dudes would come in, ravage the aisle, and then tell me that if I saw this particular car it was worth money. So could I please set it aside.

Sure. In my trunk for resale. Thanks for the hot tip.
 
What is the "Burger King" LOTR exclusive figure?

I loved when toy companies made more than one case available at a physical store at a time. I loved going through pegs and pegs of toys hoping to find the ones I needed. The only movie action figure line I can think of right now that is saturated like that is probably SpinMaster's 6" Superman line, which are still all readily available. Maybe Jurassic? Maybe WWE?

But I remember not liking when the cards switched from the Ring packaging to the regular cards but I hadn't gone all-in on LOTR except for Bilbo, Arwen, Galadriel and Eowyn, so it didn't really bother me - but once it switched and ALL the characters were available I took advantage of those "Buy 3" sales. And the boxsets. And the big guys.

LOTR was a really wonderful line. I picked up the hard-to-find Eowyn during the pandemic and she really was an improvement, but I keep almost all of these figures carded. They look great in my parents' guest room's closet. The only one I have with me is Entranced Galadriel - because she's awesome.

I did have a weird moment the first time I saw the glow emanating from the GITD Dead King dude. Did NOT know I'd supercharged him with the light in the closet and it was effectively creepy. :)
 
altcunningham said:
Loved treasure hunts.

Dudes would come in, ravage the aisle, and then tell me that if I saw this particular car it was worth money. So could I please set it aside.

Sure. In my trunk for resale. Thanks for the hot tip.
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Was never a Hot Wheels collector but I have a fond memory of Treasure Hunts. Todd Toys had just rebranded to McFarlane Toys as they released their 2nd Spawn series and it included a 12" Malebolgia figure on a regular blister card at regular price (then $7.99). Collectors and scalpers were hot on this new line and I couldn't find it anywhere except once at a comic shop that wanted $100 for it. I was working at Papa Murphy's at $4.25/hr and getting only ~10h a week, such that it was big if I made $100 over a 2 week pay period. Malebolgia seemed out of reach. However, a middle aged woman (she was probably only late 20s-early 30s but seemed middle aged to a 16 year old) who joined the collector/scalper gathering outside Target at 7:55 every morning told me if I could get her a Treadure Hunt car she's trade it for a Malebolgia 1 for 1. One auspicious morning, I biked to Target at opening, went to check whether they had Batman Forever Two Face (best/only non-animated one made at that time) and then saw a mad scramble of collectors at the Hot Wheels endcap. I sidled over and immediately spotted a green stripe indicative of TH on the side of one of these thousand packages, snapped it up, bought it for $0.79, and trade it for Malebolgia, a figure I still own to this day, more than 30 years later! (I'd bet the TH car is worth more today as one can't give away old McF stuff, but I don't care. Getting the Malebolgia for $0.79 and enjoying all these years what was my favorite figure for awhile was all worth it.)
 
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