General Marvel Legends

You have to remember that with GI Joe, Hasbro doesn't have to deal with Marvel. So they only have to serve 1 master, so if Hasbro wants something, they can do it. Hasbro may well pitch doing whatever they want to Marvel, but Marvel will have their own agenda and maybe want Character X pushed cause they're making an MCU appearance or whatever the motive might be. That and there is a licensing fee involved with Marvel
 
yojoebro82 said:
IMO, there is a disparity in quality between GI Joe Classified and Marvel Legends that is tremendous, so much so that you cannot just blame it on licensing. Every toy company deals with licensing. It's not some insurmountable handicap that takes your toy line down from a GI Joe Classified level to something that is "just OK" most of the time.
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Here's a question, can you think of a single American licensed property with figures that sells for the same price as an average Classified that has even close to as much put in? I honestly can't (granted, doesn't help that a ton of licenses are now owned by Disney).

In fact the only line I can think of that even comes close is Jada with Street Fighter. It's not as though McFarlane DC stuff is a huge shift in accessories or quality from ML. And import Marvel figs might be better, but they often cost 2x-4x or more.

Like, if there were a comparable license line doing business with Disney or other similar license holder that was hitting Classified quality for the same cost, I'd feel differently. But I just can't think of one. And that tells me this may not be just the straight license cost, but also all the other myriad difficulties that come with working with a license holder. Things like costs related to extra rounds of revisions and such because it's not just your internal QA, it's the licensor approval holding up production.

There are so many more moving parts with licensed stuff, and all of them add costs either in out of pocket fees or simple man-hours contributed to the process.
 
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JakeEkiss said:
Here's a question, can you think of a single American licensed property with figures that sells for the same price as an average Classified that has even close to as much put in? I honestly can't (granted, doesn't help that a ton of licenses are now owned by Disney).
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Diamond Marvel stuff. $2 to $3 more than an average ML is still the same ballpark, IMO. How did they make their Iceman, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Silver Centurion Iron Man etc so good, packed with so much, while being licensed to Marvel and dealing with Disney? How did they make their Hulks, Crimson Dynamos, their Juggernauts SO HUGE for $3 more than a ML Vulcan buck repaint? They pay licensing fees too.
Jada Street Fighter
NECA TMNT, Gargoyles, and just about anything else they do (and I know their price is higher but if a Marvel figure offered that level of quality, each time I'd happily pay it).
If I were a wrestling fan I'd be pretty happy with what I see from Mattel.

And I know people are ready to counter everything I just listed one way or another. I've typed this all before, it's fine. And we aren't provided with any numbers on this from Hasbro so it's all us just guessing anyway.

To me it just boils down to two different lines that, IMO, have such a huge quality gap on average that they often look like they're from a different company. I personally don't feel licensing is the main reason.
 
yojoebro82 said:
To me it just boils down to two different lines that, IMO, have such a huge quality gap on average that they often look like they're from a different company. I personally don't feel licensing is the main reason.
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Thing is, I bet you're right it isn't all the flat license cost. I bet there's also a bit of stuff built in from Hasbro's side. I also believe licensor approval stuff cuts in and they're probably accounting for that (I can only imagine how much of a headache the MCU stuff is to handle, the movies themselves don't always have finalized looks when they're cut together).

The thing I don't buy at all is that the people involved just don't care. I've worked on licensed stuff before (not toys, but other media) and I've known a lot of people who do that work in various fields. Invariably, it's not those folks responsible for the stuff the fans don't like. It's always a money person somewhere who doesn't even consume the work or even care about the license.
 
Comparing a comic ML to a G.I. Joe seems a bit apples and oranges. The comic hero often doesn't require as much effort in design or accessories because they aren't needed. I think the better comparison is G.I. Joe to Star Wars. They have more unique clothing and designs as well, but have almost no accessories even though they could arguably justify many more in most cases.
 
Select made like 8 figures a year to like 136. For a company that was losing tons of money.

This discussion reminds me of halftime of an NBA game where the sum total of Kendrick Perkins’ analysis is “someone need to step up”
 
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PanchaMaestro said:
Select made like 8 figures a year to like 136. For a company that was losing tons of money.
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Yeah, hard to say Diamond was doing it right when they're going out of business (and holding a bunch of indie comic folks product hostage to cover their own debts apparently, woo-hoo).

Chooch555 said:
They have more unique clothing and designs as well, but have almost no accessories even though they could arguably justify many more in most cases.
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Those unique clothes and designs are the killer for Star Wars. So little reuse possible with anything, bodies or accessories outside the troops. It wouldn't even surprise me if the Star Wars budget has impact on the ML one since it's the same licensor. It might be that Hulk is in part paying for Han.

I don't think anybody would argue you get great value for dollar with Joes, equal to or better than any of the licensed lines. It's just the why of it all.
 
JakeEkiss said:
.

There are so many more moving parts with licensed stuff, and all of them add costs either in out of pocket fees or simple man-hours contributed to the process.
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I used to do production design for Disney branded crap like kid sunglasses or candy and lip gloss boxes at the register lane, and even those standards and rules were maddening.
 
altcunningham said:
I used to do production design for Disney branded crap like kid sunglasses or candy and lip gloss boxes at the register lane, and even those standards and rules were maddening.
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Yep! The licensing stuff I did was with BBC and some small comic companies and even that was fraught with complications. And all that stuff adds up. Every time you add days in for approvals it's pay for all the people you've got who are just sitting on their thumbs.
 
This makes me real curious what the heck happened with Thunderbolts and why those are coming out so late and the only physical prototypes we've seen were in a movie promo. What snag did that merch hit? Every other company made it to market on time and on model.
 
Schizm said:
This makes me real curious what the heck happened with Thunderbolts and why those are coming out so late and the only physical prototypes we've seen were in a movie promo. What snag did that merch hit? Every other company made it to market on time and on model.
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Nobody quite knows, but it seems that one of the biggest factors, if not the factor, was the change in concept art. The first couple team pics they showed off were concept art that had different costumes for Yelena and Red Guardian, and had Ghost and Taskmaster in their old costumes, so it seems like somewhere along the line, things changed. Not to mention the rumors of Taskmaster having a much larger part in the film, so script changes too. Filming started in/around late February 2024, and assuming Marvel didn't hand over materials to Hasbro until then, and if it really does take about a year/year and a half to make a figure like to Hasbro has said before, then it's about right timeline-wise.
 
heh, someone did a comparison:

images
 
I'm cool waiting on Ghost, even if it means waiting for the Doomsday waves, but Taskmaster is my big worry anymore. REALLY liked her upgrade.
 
Schizm said:
This makes me real curious what the heck happened with Thunderbolts and why those are coming out so late and the only physical prototypes we've seen were in a movie promo. What snag did that merch hit? Every other company made it to market on time and on model.
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What other merch/companies are we thinking here? I think the only other Thunderbolts figure style stuff I've seen is Funko.

If it's other kinds of merch, that's because almost any other kind of merch has a MUCH faster pipeline. If it's a 2d printed product (or something added on a product you already have) you can have that out the door scant months ahead and still make street dates. All new physical products from scratch takes loads of time.

The issue for toy makers and the MCU is they can do digital edits to costumes after shooting has finished. That's what happened to some of the costumes for Endgame. So you can't really be 100% sure you're correct until picture lock, and that is way too late.
 
This is random as Hell, but I just realized I don't have a Spider-Gwen/Ghost-Spider figure. I hope (and assume they will) Hasbro make another figure of her soon.

I can't believe it, but I never bought a Spider-Gwen. I have Gwen Stacy. But not in her Spider-Gwen costume.
 
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