On the contrary, I believe the holes are the direction.
To me, the holes are evidence that there
is direction. If they were just throwing darts at a board, we wouldn't have 90% of this team or 85% of that team.
Do they slow-play releases to keep folks interested? Absolutely. But they have genuine intent to finish teams and keep us happy.
And it's probably fair to say that there's too much under the Marvel umbrella to do so unless you're willing to dismiss the possibility of doing other things at all for long periods of time.
This is another key point. If they give us a character to finish a team, they usually start another by accident. Take Pete Wisom. We get him, and it opens the door for New Excalibur, Black Air, or MI13. More incomplete teams. It's like that for most Marvel characters. It's a never-ending web.
I'm getting tired of this crap. If Hasbro gave Wolverine the BAF piece instead of Warbow we wouldn't even be having this conversation. At all. I would happily skip Warbow, buy the rest of the wave and that would be that.
I don't want to try to convince you to keep your collection, but this feels rash. I agree the BAF model sucks, especially at this price point.
But they gave Warbow the BAF piece for one simple reason: He'd never sell without it. Never. He'd be the king of the peg warmers. He'd join Secret Wars Kang from the 1980's as one of the great peg warmers of all time.
I've seen genuine excitement about Warbow online. People think he looks cool. He's a green diamond guy with a crossbow. He's not for me, but he's kinda cool. I can't keep track of the number of characters Hasbro releases that I either 1) don't know or 2) don't care about.
I wait it out. My Astonishing Kitty is coming.
But that;s 30 bucks I could use to buy little unimportant things. Like food and shelter. You know. Trivial things like that.
If you're selling because you can't afford to stay in the game, I hear you. If you're not, I'd encourage you to take time to mull it over.
The other thing: At SDCC, I had to listen to this "Asgardians and Serpent Society members are too obscure" stuff. But I guess Warbow's ... not? That kinda frosts my chaps too. "Too obscure for THEM" is I guess what they actually meant.
This is Hasbro's normal spin for specific asks, isn't it? "Maybe." "We'll see." "No chance."
I'm sure they'll continue to slow feed us Serpent Society members. The Warriors Three is a different can of worms. I think MTO is the way to go there, but they're all unique sculpts, so I'm not sure that works. I don't know that there's enough interest.
We can keep voting in the top 10 and giving our card packs to Hasbro. That's how we make ourselves heard.
I mean, when I think of all that shit Hasbro has put their customers through. Remember the SDCC exclusive Savage Land set?
The Savage Land set was underproduced, no doubt. Dan and Dwight
do listen to customer feedback, though.
Skurge is different. You'll get another bite at the apple. Hasbro re-releases every BAF they can. Hell, every sculpt they can. (Hint: WARBOW!) How many times have we seen Kingpin? The Joe Fixit body? Apocalypse?
Folks have been clamoring for Executioner. You'll get him in another colorway within 18 months. Guaranteed. The second release will be in a clearanced two-pack within two years.
Now I gotta figure out how I'm going to get rid of this shit. That'll be fun. But hey, when it's over, I'll have a lot more room. That'll be nice.
Are you so angry with the Legends team that your existing collection can't/won't bring you joy? The Marie Kondo "does it spark joy" thing is trite, but it works.
I really do collect for enjoyment now. I've made my peace with there being stuff I won't have, for whatever reason. I don't collect teams or universes anymore. I'm good with having seven Wolverine figures that I REALLY like and no Professor X, for example. I'll be so happy if they make a Kylun, but I feel no inclination at all to get the rest of Excalibur. But I'm also good with not buying figures that do exist if they exist in stupid ways. Either one day I'll find it on clearance or get a good deal or whatever, or I just won't have it.
I know not everyone is cool with that approach. But I am. I've loved action figures for my entire life. As long as it's financially viable for me to buy any at all, I will. But I'm good with being way more selective and letting go of ideas like 'complete collections' or even being too upset when I can't have a character I really want. If it doesn't happen... well... I have other toys that make me happy so I'll live and try not to stress over it.
This is a great post. It provides what every collector needs: perspective.
You've all heard me say it before: your collection needs direction. At the end of the day, we collect to make ourselves happy. You need to figure out what that looks like for you. Is it every Master of the Universe figure? Is it every version of the Turtles from the 2003 TMNT cartoon? Is it seven Wolverines and no Professor Xs?
From what I know about
@SDcomics, I'm not sure it's selling decades of joy because the corporation made a greedy decision, or many greedy decisions. Maybe it is. That's for you to say.
I'm guessing very few toy collectors are in the top 10%. So 99% of us will need to get there eventually. This hobby is pricing everyone out even if you ignore the ridiculous practices like exclusives and BAFs. Obviously, people outside the US in places with unfavorable exchange rates are going to really see that crunch first. It's hard to even explain to someone in the US that I've had to pick-and-choose my collecting for a long time because a full wave of MLs is fully like 70 dollars more for me than it is for them.
People in the US are complaining when their prices go up to what Canadian prices were 5 years ago that we thought was 'fairly cheap.'
So it's coming for everyone. I don't see anyone, or at least not most people, being able to be the same collector in 2027 that they were in 2014.
100%. And maybe that means calling Hasbro's bluff. You want me to pay $200 for Executioner? Fuck that, I'll wait for the re-release.
