Hasbro Made-to-Order Figures

[Misfit]

I mostly just want the throne. Mephisto is okay. I like the portraits and capes, but that torso kind of sucks. He has that very tubular look that reminds me of the Amazing Friends Iceman, and that’s a figure I never like being reminded of.

 

[yojoebro82]

The made to order Sentinel is gone, right? No chance it's offered again? It's off to the secondary market for me? Probably should have got one.

 

[JakeEkiss]

Sure woulda been great if he came free with a Hellcharger though lol. I broke for the 2nd run of the Ramen Toys version and the entire run was 100% defective.

Wait, what? Are you talking about the Black Chrome version? I just got mine and hadn't noticed any defects.

 

[Misfit]

This whole venture is new so maybe Hasbro will have more sentinels for sale upon release? We should get an idea when Dragon Man drops. People weren’t locked in so there should be some cancellations, but maybe not enough to put them up for sale.

 

[canprime]

This whole venture is new so maybe Hasbro will have more sentinels for sale upon release? We should get an idea when Dragon Man drops. People weren’t locked in so there should be some cancellations, but maybe not enough to put them up for sale.

Actually they did the MTO thing with Boba Fett's Throne Room (TVC) a couple years ago. When it was finally released there was still stock available (can't remember if there always was stock, or if it was sold out and then back in stock).

Anyway, there should be some stock available after Dragon Man and the Sentinel ship because of both cancellations and overstock because they generally make a small percentage more than what was ordered to cover returns/damage. So I agree that there should be some small amount available. Hell remember when a bunch of Haslabs were put up for sale in Europe and even a small amount on Pulse US?

 

[Lucid Silverback]

So, $80.00 for Mephisto? That is insane.
Is he that much larger than the standard 6" figure? Even so, I struggle to justify that exorbitant price. I already question the price point on my boy, Dragon Man but I pulled the trigger anyway because well, it's gd Dragon Man and he's pretty stinkin' hefty.
Sure the throne looks sexy, but come tf on. It reminds me of those figure-and-a-vehicle sets from a while back like Logan or Black Widow; a 25 dollar figure and a bike that should cost maybe 12 bucks at most? At least those had multiple components that required factory assembly and such. This is a simple cast throne with some minimal paint apps.

As of recent it really seems Hasbro have been concocting different strategies for the sole purpose of maximizing those margins and shock-testing the market to see just how far we are willing to go. I know, I know, "they're a business; big surprise Lucid". But in our capitalist society I was under the impression there were unwritten rules like "buy one, full price. Buy two, marginal discount". These days a two pack is consistently twice the price and a three pack is three times the price if not even more. How should we parse out Mephisto? Is he $40 and the throne $40? Is he $60 and the throne $20?

Sorry for the long tirade; I think I have capitalism fatigue.

 

[Reno]

I think that I saw that Mephisto is 7.6" tall. Throne, multiple capes, multiple heads. This came in about where I expected in terms of price. It's certainly not a deal, but also not terribly obnoxious when compared to other similar releases.

 

[hmmberto]

I'm generally ok with them playing with different models (and premium pricing) when the product matches what they're asking - even if they could have released it more cheaply in a different format. I like the throne and all the extras that come with Mephisto, and I'm ok paying the markup for them. But they absolutely have to make the core product (aka the actual figure) the best it can be on these premium format figures. With Dragon Man, it looks like they killed it on the figure itself, and he comes with a few cool accessories. Mephisto comes in a great package, but the figure is missing basic torso articulation that should absolutely be standard at this point, and that kinda totally sucks. That's my only complaint from the whole approach.

 

[Lucid Silverback]

Mephisto comes in a great package, but the figure is missing basic torso articulation that should absolutely be standard at this point, and that kinda totally sucks. That's my only complaint from the whole approach.

One would think that if you're designing a figure accompanied by a throne, torso articulation would be imperative for sitting in said throne.

 

[Ditko]

I've never been a Mephisto guy (which I guess is good?) but will back this. For one Dragon Man looks incredible, like figure of the year incredible, and this program needs to keep going. So do higher pricepoint figures - the product is far better and more exciting. I pay for stuff that makes me happy. Getting shit at cheap prices is useless to me.

I would like this to be $10 less, but will eat a little bit to get an exciting display piece. Also, Blackheart and Dan Ketch are 2 of my faves over the last year so this really augments that.

 

[raybot]

What? Really? That is not good news. Ace has a lot of goodwill from the fandom, but to hear that the second run had widespread problems is sad to hear. Hopefully he addresses the issue.

Yea, they shipped the whole run with the wrong wheel mold so the flames couldn’t pop in. Then they shipped the correct wheels separately, so you had to replace all the wheels yourself. Then all the right-side replacement wheels were mismolded so they snapped the connector pins right off the flame parts. 3 weeks after things showed up they released a Facebook post telling people not to assemble anything and wait for more replacement parts because of the 100% defect rate on tested warehouse parts. No general email or anything.

Something tells me that Hasbro wouldn’t have had those giant wheel effects secured by tiny pins molded as part of a wafer thin, brittle battery-cover. Plus the engine’s held together by magnets so weak the drive belt for the engine pulls it apart. The mirrors pop out all the time too. It looks good, but for ~$300 shipped, the engineering or manufacturing was crap and they missed the release window by 6 months. Right now the Engine of Vengeance Haslab looks like a steal for $350 with just one figure.

 

[raybot]

Wait, what? Are you talking about the Black Chrome version? I just got mine and hadn't noticed any defects.

Nah, it’s literally just the inferno parts were defective. Like, just about everything molded in clear plastic that isn’t the left wheels ended up being total garbage.

 

[JakeEkiss]

Nah, it’s literally just the inferno parts were defective. Like, just about everything molded in clear plastic that isn’t the left wheels ended up being total garbage.

Ooof, that's rough. The base car is gorgeous and I'm really liking it so far. Hopefully Ramen fixes it.

 

[EnigmaticClarity]

Yeah, I thought the rumor was to put Robbie with Mephisto. I guess that either wasn't true, or they changed their minds. Hopefully we still get Robbie in some release.

In one of the SDCC interview videos Dwight addressed this. He said that two years ago Jesse Falcon had told them that a Haslab extra was the only way they would EVER be allowed to release a character that is essentially Satan from a company as concerned about their image as Disney. Two years later Mephisto was in a Disney Plus show, and that changed Jesse's mind.

If that's at all true then I'm guessing that Jesse isn't particularly informed as to what Kevin Feige is doing, because supposedly Ironheart was filmed in 2022 for a release in 2023 that got pushed back two years. If that's true then Mephisto had already been put into that show before Hasbro even ran the Hellcharger crowdfund. That's consistent with Feige not wanting to let toymakers have information that's at all spoilery since it usually gets leaked, so I'm guessing that was all Jesse's thinking alone. And I get it; he was young during the "Satanic panic" in the 1980s and 1990s just like I was where there was a weird conspiratorial idea that Satanic cults were taking over the minds of young people in America.

But I'm also confused as to why they couldn't have just done Mephisto two years ago as a Pulse-only exclusive just like they are now. We all mostly got back then why Disney wouldn't put this on retail shelves, but only ever making it part of a Haslab just sounded like BS then, and it still does now. But Dwight pretty much passed the buck off to Jesse in that interview which I tend to buy particularly given the rude way he responded to PantherCult when he asked about "comic M'Baku." I mean, M'Baku is still in the comics, right, just no longer referred to as Man-Ape? Just a weird, unthoughtful reaction by Jesse there, so he may have had one in 2023 as well related to Mephisto.

 

[NORM]

I’m in for Mephisto, price be damned (see what I did there?) He is an essential character to Marvel’s lore and they seem to be doing a nice job with him. The alternate cloth cape is a smart inclusion for him to be able to sit on the throne, which is the whole point of this set. He will look great with Ghost Rider, Blackheart, Dr Strange, etc.