TNInterview: David Vonner Talks Marvel Legends, Marvel Universe and Mattel's WWE

[JayC]

For my latest interview, I got a chance to sit down with David Vonner, who is currently a Design Manager on Mattel's WWE line of action figures. Before that David worked at Hasbro, and was the driving force behind their 3.75" Marvel Universe line. Before coming to Hasbro, David got his start making action figures at Toy Biz working on Marvel Legends and LOTR figures. We talk about all those things and more in the interview.

David was at Atomic Basement Comics in Long Beach, CA during the interview. He also wanted you to know that you should support your local comic book stores.
 

[Darth_Primus]

I caught the interview.  Very cool.  A lot of the Marvel Universe figures were better sculpted than the Marvel Legends iterations. I enjoyed collecting both lines, but Marvel Legends won out because of the price considerations and I found many of the Marvel Universe figures difficult to stand without their stands.

Here are a few of my Marvel Universe figures/photos.

 

[Belmont13]

Funny, being a Marvel legends collector and having a few Marvel Universe figs I was looking forward to this interview but I found the Mattel WWE portion to be the most interesting part. Despite being a Marvel Legends guy I feel that there were some Marvel Universe releases that are better than the ML counterparts and to this day the Marvel Legends team has not surpassed like the modern Oliver Coipel style Thor.

[SubZero]

I didnt like how Hasbro tried to phase out MLs in 2009-2011 and make MU their main collector line. The 4" MU line does have a place in the market, but should be a sub-line. 

[JayC]

On 2/6/2020 at 10:28 AM, SubZero said:

I didnt like how Hasbro tried to phase out MLs in 2009-2011 and make MU their main collector line. The 4" MU line does have a place in the market, but should be a sub-line. 

I don't think they tried to phase it out. I think Hasbro struggled with 6" for awhile and Vonner's 3.75" for a while became more popular, but then with prices rising that kinda killed the MU momentum and Hasbro started to get their act together with 6"

[MCUcollector24]

Love these interviews! Keep them coming!