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Guest Leroy

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Thanks for your response, Reideen.

 

While I'm not 100% thrilled about your initial tone (one that bloggers and talkbackers seem to take while hidden behind online anonymity). That being said I'm not here to argue or fight with anyone I'm here to chat toys to try to educate and to be educated.

 

I'm man enough to admit where I may be wrong or lacking a full story. Just as you have a right to peacefully correct these wrongs – I have rights in posting here about anything I'd like to share. Where and when Shocker might be posting is beyond my knowledge since I posted this freely with the pride in seeing my property finally made into plastic. I can assure you and other fellow collectors that no one 'put me up to this'.

 

I understand that both companies have been coming at this at roughly the same times so I was merely stating my hopes that one not overshadow another particularly since I have a personal interest in the success of the Shocker project. For me, personally, I'm excited about the Shockinis sicne they will have more characters per assortment then the 6-7" line, but as a collector I'm more excited and anxious to see those figures because that's what I collect. I have no hate towards the new Marvel-branded company whether or not they're still connected to Marvel (I can't remember since that whole sellig off of they licensed stuff to Hasbro and even their original ToyBiz setup was confusing to say the least. Not to mention I'm the writer of a series soon to be rereleased by Marvel this summer. In contrast I'm kind of glad that two companies are both doing Indie lines since competition makes each cometitor stronger if they both last. One can fight about Marvel or DC Comics until the cows come home, but in the end they need one another and we all need them both.

 

As for other creators experiences and who they work with I can't get involved with such external matters. Every story has two sides and most fights or disputes take two parties to start the tango. I also can't speak for the status of the GWAR series since I've not followed it from it's inception, but I do know that having been at shows across the US for some 6 years plus that the business of comics and toys are very very tough businesses to keep afloat given the climate of oil prices, the expectatons for returns from some product licensees, the reported delcine in collecting toys versus video game sales, etc. We've been talking to the president of another small toy company for years now and I've shaken the hands of other CEOs that have 3-5 incredible licenses today and are gone tomorrow. It's a scary climate to work in, but life's a risk and this industry is our passion.

 

Cool screenname BTW and avatar. I'm a huge fan of 70's and 80's mecha and at one point we were looking to get the rights to Go Nagai's Grendizer for either comics and/or film rights. They seem to be locked up for now. : (

 

Until then I'll wait for the newest Gaiking series to hit the American shores.

 

Peace

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I am all for the Marvetoys-produced Indie toys line.. they look fantastic and I am excited to see what they come up with... as long as they are like Marvel legends figures (and Jesse Falcon isn't stupid, so they will be) I will buy them all.

 

I am damn excited to get all the characters I read about from non-Marvel book get made to be added to my Marvel Legend collection...

 

now, if we could just get DC to sell their license to Marveltoys instead of crappy Mattel

 

 

as for Shockertoys... they have never given me anything to look forward to.. bad toys and poor execution... I have no faith in their figures, and I wish they wouldn't produce Darkhawk so I could get him from Marveltoys

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Just what comics are they making toys for?.. Image or ?.. quite frankly anything?.. I'd like some comic styled tmnt, usagia as said above, and groo :P & OH my

yes

...

 

walking dead & invincible figures :D

 

all the above I'd totaly buy HEH! Like others have said I really don't know al ot of the said charecters they are making too well if at all...

 

Sad but true!

Will most likely get a groo. One of the licences Marvel Toys has that they mentioned in the articles was Strangers in Paradise. And yes synch it's all comics that they can get the licence to.

 

lmfao god that would be great! I bet we will see them pimping out kirkman based figures hahah!

 

& groo, my god others out there actaully know aout groo/want figures of him as well and the rest of his cast?.. That would be freakn sweet :) If I get a ml styled groo figure I'll have him kicking the crap out of all my ml figurs on display hahahha oh man!

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I'm crossing my fingers for some Wetworks figures. While the McFarlane ones were excellent, I'd love to have articulated versions of the team and werewolves and vampires.

 

 

you sir ar my new best friend. i made wetworks customs outta my sigma six joes. gotta love grail/assassin one

 

 

Show me please, I want to see that.

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Thanks for your response, Reideen.

 

While I'm not 100% thrilled about your initial tone (one that bloggers and talkbackers seem to take while hidden behind online anonymity).

 

Please. We're all sitting behind a computer screen. We all have real jobs and real lives. This is a written forum. Any 'tone' that you're detecting is in your own mind - nothing implied by me or anyone else here.

 

That being said I'm not here to argue or fight with anyone I'm here to chat toys to try to educate and to be educated.

 

Then please stay on topic and discuss the ToyBiz line. If you want to talk Shocker start a new thread. (One last suggestion on the Shocker topic - if you're going to do business with Shocker do some research on the company - what product they've put out, what product they've said they were going to put out and didn't, who they've p!ssed off, etc. Good luck with your characters - the designs look pretty decent.)

 

 

Synch - I don't think Archie figures are even remote possibilities. There were some Betty & Veronica Barbies released a couple of years ago - they didn't sell well IIRC. That's probably about as close as you're gonna get.

 

Groo (and Cerebus) would be great pack ins - similar to Howard the Duck and Impossible Man. Unfortunately I don't think Dave Sim is interested in doing any figures of Cerebus. @grumpy@

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I'm crossing my fingers for some Wetworks figures. While the McFarlane ones were excellent, I'd love to have articulated versions of the team and werewolves and vampires.

 

 

you sir ar my new best friend. i made wetworks customs outta my sigma six joes. gotta love grail/assassin one

 

 

Show me please, I want to see that.

 

 

i actually gave them all to my friend for a christmas gift. i still have a dozer, jester and was working on another grail/assassin one. i'll let ya know and try and post some pics

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I will definitely buy the first series just for the Pitt BAF. I still have numerous copies of the original Pitt series, Gen13, and The Savage Dragon. I can't wait!

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Personally, I have major doubts as to the longevity of this line. Marvel, moreso than even DC, was hugely marketable. Marvel and DC are basically the ONLY comic companies that can basically sell themselves.

 

But these guys? I'd be astonished if they even get picked up by half the major retailers, particularly Walmart (who isn't sterling on its support to begin with).

 

Not to knock these as comics or toys, but lets face it, to the average consumer, these are just some superhero toys, and ones they probably won't recognize aside frm similarities to Marvel or DC stuff.

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I sorta agree turthfully I don't even really know who half these guys are... GD I know cause of the movies... & the other guys well ... I know OF them I guess I should say, because I see there comics now and then in shops or looking through previews ect :P

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Personally, I have major doubts as to the longevity of this line. Marvel, moreso than even DC, was hugely marketable. Marvel and DC are basically the ONLY comic companies that can basically sell themselves.

 

But these guys? I'd be astonished if they even get picked up by half the major retailers, particularly Walmart (who isn't sterling on its support to begin with).

 

Not to knock these as comics or toys, but lets face it, to the average consumer, these are just some superhero toys, and ones they probably won't recognize aside frm similarities to Marvel or DC stuff.

 

While I agree on a surface level, it seems to me like too many people are just not willing to even give a little effort at spreading some awareness about something new or different, and that includes us, the people who actually care.

 

Saying "Marvel & DC just rule the roost and that's the way it is, so there's nothing we can do about it.", is a kind of self defeating attatude, even if it is true.

Either you like it that way, or you don't, and your willing to do something to change it.

 

Personally, I'm fed up with all the BIG companies giving us our only options, wether it's Coke & Pepsi, MATTEL & Hasbro, or Marvel & DC, there are other choices in this world, and maybe, just maybe, if some of us with a bit of influance, started picking a different path, a few more people would take the hint and open up a new avanue.

 

I know the only influance I have is people hate me, so if I hype something, it would probably kill it. @grumpy@

Still, some of you have a positive vibe, and I recomend you use it once in awhile to help improove the things you feel are worth it.

 

I admit, I doubt if these properties will ever have the kind of status the big boys get, but at least if they get a toe hold, maybe we could all have something to look forward to besides that single villin in the next 5 Spiderman & Superman figures.

 

Wether Wal-Mart carries these or not isn't really a problem for me, because I'll order them online if all else fails, but the idea that Wal-Mart has to sell it to be successfull is just plain absurd. As far as I'm concerned, these aren't really "mass market" material to begin with, so Wal-Mart's going to have to pick between their moral codes and their greed.

I'm placing my bet on their greed. #US1#

 

Seems to me like there were a lot of Marvel characters that people only learned about after they got the ML figure treatment, so Maybe this will work the same way. #enlighten@

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Ah but with marvel most of them had comic books, that trend is now dead and maybe so are the random ass people in that line :|

 

Odds are I will buy the ones I don't know just cause but only once , no way I am going nuts 1/mosc/1open with these like I do with ml... I will try to support it as best I can in hopes of getting more future/charecters that I do know!! Like... Invincible! And many of the heros in that book serires would be great from this line, even walking dead figures! ect ect ect!

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Odds are I will buy the ones I don't know just cause but only once , no way I am going nuts 1/mosc/1open with these like I do with ml... I will try to support it as best I can in hopes of getting more future/charecters that I do know!! Like... Invincible! And many of the heros in that book serires would be great from this line, even walking dead figures! ect ect ect!

I would love to have a set of figures from Invincible!

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I think they look great and i agree that it is tough to be into it all the way. I pre-ordered the first wave, basically becuase i want Pitt. The second wave doesnt get me in the same way and only really want Darkness. So i can see the trouble with this line. I hope it does well though becuase they look great and there is a lot of potential.

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who is the guy in the blue out fit with the redstar?.. I dig the looks of him :) That would make a perfect spiderman repaint right there as well! well... you would have to nix a feew parts here or there ...

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Wether Wal-Mart carries these or not isn't really a problem for me, because I'll order them online if all else fails, but the idea that Wal-Mart has to sell it to be successfull is just plain absurd. As far as I'm concerned, these aren't really "mass market" material to begin with, so Wal-Mart's going to have to pick between their moral codes and their greed.

I'm placing my bet on their greed. #US1#

The problem is...Walmart DOES have to sell a line for it to be successful. Walmart is the single largest toy retailer, and last I knew, its marketshare was well above 70% in regards to the toy industry. Moral codes has nothing to do with this, one of the biggest reasons we got the support we did for Marvel Legends is because toybiz cycled in superbly marketable characters into the assortments (Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, etc) which let them slip in far less marketable characters alongside (Man Thing, Toad, etc).

With this line, the marketability is NOT there, IMO. We are probably teh last of the comic generation, nowadays, aside from DC or Marvel (and the odd Star Wars), comics are NOT readily available to kids. The Big 2 have spent DECADES establishing these characters, much of it helped by popular animated series and films. Many of these characters have barely been around a decade, or remained in cult status.

 

Ultimately, if Walmart doesn't carry the line, it may well become a true collector line, which means higher prices and fewer products.

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who is the guy in the blue out fit with the redstar?.. I dig the looks of him :)
Star (scroll down to bottom) from Savage Dragon.

I don't know much about these guys (besides the names of most of them), but, it's cool to see some of the 'indys' out there. Reminds me of when I collected Playmates' WildC.A.T.s line and McFarlane's Image figs

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Wether Wal-Mart carries these or not isn't really a problem for me, because I'll order them online if all else fails, but the idea that Wal-Mart has to sell it to be successfull is just plain absurd. As far as I'm concerned, these aren't really "mass market" material to begin with, so Wal-Mart's going to have to pick between their moral codes and their greed.

I'm placing my bet on their greed. #US1#

The problem is...Walmart DOES have to sell a line for it to be successful. Walmart is the single largest toy retailer, and last I knew, its marketshare was well above 70% in regards to the toy industry. Moral codes has nothing to do with this, one of the biggest reasons we got the support we did for Marvel Legends is because toybiz cycled in superbly marketable characters into the assortments (Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, etc) which let them slip in far less marketable characters alongside (Man Thing, Toad, etc).

With this line, the marketability is NOT there, IMO. We are probably teh last of the comic generation, nowadays, aside from DC or Marvel (and the odd Star Wars), comics are NOT readily available to kids. The Big 2 have spent DECADES establishing these characters, much of it helped by popular animated series and films. Many of these characters have barely been around a decade, or remained in cult status.

 

If by "successful" you mean selling in the volume that ML sells, I agree, that will never happen.

I also agree that they do not have the kind of puplic recognition to sell well at a mass market retail chain, and it dreadfully worries me that the attempt to do so will kill the line before series 3, but I also know those are marketing strategy based mistakes, and toy lines don't have to sell at Wal-Mart in those kind of quantities to be successfull.

 

I don't know how they decide how much supply will be needed to fill the demand, but I know they need to know what the potential "demand" is before trying to fill it, and I'm not sure they know.

My guess is they're just taking a shot in the dark that they can pull this line off like they did ML, and that is a blue print for desaster.

 

I also know the general masses will buy total garbage based on something they are familiar with over a superior product of something they don't recognize on impulse, and lots of awesome toy lines have gone down the drain because of such.

Stan Winston Creatures anyone?

Anyone besides me own a TENTH figure from Resaurus?

 

Because of this, I don't have much respect for my fellow "collectors".

 

Ultimately, if Walmart doesn't carry the line, it may well become a true collector line, which means higher prices and fewer products.

 

Which is how I think the line should be done in the first place.

These are not family friendly themed comic characters, and I wouldn't get most of them for my kids anyway, but there is a market for them, and if the cards were played right, it could be very successfull.

 

I think Wal-Mart will try to carry them for a while, simply because they have no clue what will or won't sell at this point. They practically dictated what characters got made for a long time with ML, and were totally flabergasted when the BAF thing took off like a rocket. Now I can see them thinking this line will do the same thing, and being just as surprised when it doesn't work like that.

Let's face it, retail stores make their decisions based on number-crunchers, not fan info. @nono@

 

Still, a little glimmer of hope hangs out at the back of my mind that reminds me of all the toys based on Marvel properties that ToyBiz did, before the success of the ML line, that didn't exactly fly off the shelves just because they were mainstream Marvel characters, indicating that at least some small part of ML success was due more to the nature of the product type than just the Marvel logo.

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I don't think marvel really picked up untill around wave 5 or 6 and that is when everyone started to jump on board. Could work this way as well with this line, though the thing is it will get a lot of support from those now allready into ml

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Have people still not figured out why the very successful "ToyBiz" changed their name to "Marvel Toys", just in time to NOT do toys based on Marvel characters? Let's do a little math here, folks:

 

There are three main types of toy buyers out there:

 

a) Us. The guys who go out there looking for guys like Savage Dragon, or Darkness because we're comic geeks who know the characters and were gonna buy this stuff no matter where it was. We care what the name of the company is only because we're anal like that.

 

B) Kids. They come into the toy aisle looking for something cool and see how awesome these are. Then we get "Pokemon effect" when they realize they've got a leg from a figure that has more pieces out there. They don't care what the name of the company is, they just want a cool looking toy.

 

c) Parents. The ones who buy the toys for the kids in the first place. And a lot of the time it's the mom, who's never read a comic before, and doesn't know who these characters are. BUT...and here's the important part...after all the movies, toys, etc of the past few years, they recognize the name Marvel. Parents see something with the name "Marvel" on it, and they figure that these must be more Marvel characters that they just know nothing about. The word "Marvel" puts it in league with Spider-Man and the X-Men in this type's mind...which gets the figures home.

 

It's subtle, but genius if you ask me.

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