Not to retread this conversation but this succinct sentence sums how how I've felt about MLs since ~2023's Avengers subline. I realize this conversation is more about past and future figures that "go together" but just the mindset that Hasbro can and will string you along for years and then throw the last figure you need into a multipack or exclusive (or just not make it at all) is diabolical. If these things were priced fairly it would be one thing, but as figures approach $35 after tax, nah, I'm not taking chances or expecting anything positive.
This is a very important point. Buying a figure you don't want to get another figure you do is sending Hasbro the wrong message. At the end of the day all they're going to care about is you plunked down your hard earned cash to buy a figure. They're not going to care that you wouldn't if you didn't have to, they're just going to care that you did. So they're going to keep doing it.
We gotta stop. We gotta stop.
@Xavion2025, if that offer for the BAF piece is still open, I will take you up on that. Just let me know how much and I can paypal you the money. Thank you for doing that.
After thinking about it, I have decided I'll get the rest of wave. I have waited so long for Phantom Rider, Werewolf By Night and Skurge, I hate to lose out now. Plus there's that Golden Age Human Torch figure that we should see in late December or January. I was told by two different Hasbro reps that it would be "before the year is out" and "in the next six months." That was in July. I have waited for this figure since Marvel Legends debuted over 25 years ago. The Torch was on the cover of the very first Marvel Comic. It is definitely my Holy Grail and I want it.
I will stay in the hobby for now but I'm going to be a lot more picky. And I was pretty damn picky before.
To all the Crystar fans out there, I get childhood nostalgia. I really do. I see a comic book from the Silver Age and I get a warm, fuzzy feeling so I get it. But you gotta see it from my point of view. I was 23 years old when the Crystar comic came out. I was an adult serving in the United States Navy. And to this day I've never seen any of the action figures. I didn't collect figures back then and I didn't go into toy stores. So I have zero connection to them. I read the first couple of issues of the comic. I wasn't impressed so I stopped. The concept was created by Marvel for the express purpose of licensing it out to a toy company. Apparently there was a lot of money to be made doing that. It was basically a cash grab. I remember the late Mark Gruenwald, an executive editor at the time, saying in an interview that it was a mistake. And I mean, look what happened. The comic was cancelled after less than a year. And that was in the days when Marvel was selling a crap load of comics. Claremont and Cockrum's X-Men, Miller's Daredevil, Byrne's Fantastic Four. Marvel was outselling DC, their nearest competitor, nearly 3 to 1 IIRC. So a miss was rare to them. And not only was the comic a miss, the toyline was cancelled after the first wave. I'm sorry but those are the facts.
But If you're reading this and you have affection for Crystar, then I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pee all over your cornflakes. I know that nostalgia can be a powerful thing. I'll try and watch that in the future.
And Dwight and Dan, if you're reading this, I apologize to you, too. You've both always been straight with me and I appreciate that. And I really appreciate that you take the time to talk to the fans at SDCC. I know you don't have to do that and I think it's great that you do. I know that decisions get made by people higher up the food chain and you have to deal with it and do the best you can. But you have done some stellar work and you've definitely done some amazing things. Thank you for making it work. Have fun in London!
