Can I blame Disney?

[GPM in ICT]

SO looking through the pics from yesterday and I got to thinking. Hasbro was doing fine with there Marvel figures until the Avengers movie hit last year. Before then every Marvel movie line just got better and better. Then we got the Avengers line and POA went out the window. Looking forward to IM3, Wolverine, Thor 2, Ultimate Spiderman cartoon and Avengers Assemble, all I see are poorly articulated figures and lots of re-used molds with new heads.

Now the reason I bring up Disney is because they weren't in charge of everything until Avengers came out. Paramount was in charge of Captain America and Thor, which we got decent figures for. But Disney was in charge of the Avengers. While it could be coincidence, I'm not completely sure.

[yojoebro82]

I think it's a coincidence.

 

Hasbro-not owned by Disney (yet)-is doing the same thing with certain GI Joes. My guess for why this happens is posted in greekboy's status update. Basically I think it's a mix of cost cutting and the fact that kid's aren't into action figures anymore. Hasbro is hurtin' because of it.

[GPM in ICT]

I know, I just think it's extremely funny that out of the three major brands that Hasbro does (SW, Marvel and Joe) that the two which are owned by Disney are getting low cost, low articulated figures. While Joe, which is owned by Hasbro, started to go that way but has now returned to it fully articulated glory.

[yojoebro82]

It's definately fishy since, like you said, Hasbro produces the vast majority of the popular toys and all these action figures in question sell anyways. The declining kid interest most likely plays a roll, but enough to cause Hasbro to send their product back to the dark ages of articulation after 30 years of being able to pose your 3 3/4" figures? I'm not sold.

 

I'd be careful still considering GI Joe to be in its "fully articulated glory". Remember, most of this is all last year's stuff. Who knows what it will look like when they catch up. I've said before that if Joe goes the way of 70's Star Wars, I'll have no problem calling it quits.

[GPM in ICT]

But even Star Wars has cut back on some articulation. I don't buy a lot but the last figure I got was a Clone Wars Captain Rex phase 3 armor, and I hadn't bought anything SW since I got the Savage Oppress figure eight month prior. I was completely thrown back by Rex's lack of knee and wrist articulation. So for them to cut out those and now bring on a new batch of SW figures that only have 5 POA isn't that surprising.

[JoeRhyno]

But remember, you're talking about clone wars figures, something already geared towards kids. So I can see the cutbacks being warranted by Hasbro. Look at the vintage line and all the vintage styled figures in multi packs that they've given the collectors. Even if they're making cuts in star wars figures, they're still making the effort to make the figures for the collector.

 

With the marvel movie lines, if they keep marvel legends and universe, I can see them as using that as the same thing. Movie lines, give the kids their "cheap" toys, the others, for the collectors.

[Draven79]

Its happening in every Hasbro line. So at this point just gonna have to accept it and buy the none crappy articulated figs it looks like

Draven

[Dragon66]

Hasbro has been doing less articulation on the 3 3/4" lines other than MU for a while (Wolverine & The X-Men, X-Men Orgins:Wolverine, and Spider-Man come to mind). I don't mind gearing lines based on cartoons having less articulation since they tend to be geared toward kids. That being said, the price point for these figures should be more in line with Ben 10 and other lines geared towards kids. I feel we got a little spoiled because of the quality of the previous movie lines (Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and the Avengers), but looking at figures from those lines still clogging pegs in most stores means that Hasbro needed to adjust their plan accordingly. I personally overjoyed that they are focusing dedicated movie lines to the 6" scale and hope that trend continues through the next phase of Marvel Movies. How awesome would a Thor Legends, Cap Legends, or Gaurdians of the Galaxy Legends ( with a Thanos BAF ) be?

[JoeRhyno]

Yeah, I still don't get the whole cost cutting thing, and yet we still have $10 figures, lol.. if you're cutting cost, pass it down to the consumers, don't hog it all for the CEOs and their 3rd and 4th summer homes and yachts.

[CLAM]

it has nothing to do with Disney. Disney bought Marvel, not Hasbro. Hasbro is still in charge of making figures however they want to. And they pay a licensing fee to Marvel/Disney, which has already been decided upon. Nothing changed, I am sure Disney has to honor all of the contracts that Marvel had when they purchased them.