TheMightyMiryClay

Already bought it...12 years ago. Toy Biz 5" Spidey line. Spider Man- Vampire Wars assortment Sure, I had to wait until TB did a Hercules/Xena line to swipe him a proper sword, but who's complaining. By the time ML came out in 2002, the movie look had taken over. There's still a long line in front of him IMO before we see Blade getting a new figure.

Okay if no one else has noticed, ToyGlobe still had AXM Beast in their ML4 wave listing. Hasbro last year confirmed Beast was being pulled from the lot for basically sucking, the BAF was being reapportioned, and a Hydra goon army builder was going to pack out the wave. So yes, the ML wave 4 they had listed was indeed cancelled by the manufacturer. And aside from ToyGlobe, to my knowledge no one but Spiral has ever been confirmed for wave 5. Sound more like @$$ coverage than cancellation. And what's tomorrow's date again? On the other hand, Hasbro does have a well earned reputation of not trusting a purely comics based figure lines to do well. (See years of DC mismanagment) Would it shock me given the increasing price of oil, which governs everything from shipping to production costs, if they did scrap ML for just movie lines? Or even a smaller scale Marvel line? Nope.

Exchange Doc Ock (cause we've had a couple of good Ocks already) for the Chameleon, and Mephisto (MS version is perfect) for Klaw and that wouldn't be a bad wave at all.

Hmmm... top 5... Walt Simonson era Battle Armor Thor Captain Marvel/Photon/Puslar/whatever they call her this week Polaris Crimson Dynamo Quasar, the star-field cape costume.

An Iron Man wave is a virtual lock, since they seem to be tying themed wave to movie releases (hence Spidey and FF this year). I'd like to see: Iron Man:"Movie armor" - which is virtually identical to his current suit, but hey maybe they could pony up for more vac-metaling. Heck they could call it "Civil War" armor if they'd like. But the previous ML8 version of this armor's face plate looks like a darn duck. Heroes Reborn Iron Man - I just really like that version. Crimson Dynamo - either the fourth (the one with the pointed helmet and big banded shoulder pads) or fifth (the silver/Red version with the V crest on the helmet). Iron Monger - the "Big" figure for the line Whiplash/Blacklash - the "Green Topknot" version of the costume, definitely not the later leather fetish look (Kurt, what were you thinking?) Mandarin - I actually preffered the "Acts of Vengance" era armor. (Okay I actually liked the costume we got with the Face-Offs best, darn Toy Biz and their rubber cloaks!) Neo-Classic Iron Man - The armor worn from the end of the Armor Wars until the War Machine "death" Living Laser - since he's never appeared the same way twice story to story, whether human or energy, just pick one and run with it. BAF: Titanium Man - the second "classic" armor was big, but not huge. About the right size for the BAF's Hasbro has been doing to date. Past that, what's next on Marvel's live action movie slate? Cause that's what the next theme will be. Be it Namor, Thor, Wolverine, or Captain America. (which are apparently all in various stages of film development) Now in my dreams, they'd do Masters of Evil Baron Helmut Zemo Moonstone Fixer Radioactive Man Klaw Whirlwind Tiger Shark Ultron 5 BAF- Goliath (Josten) They'd all be done in their classic pre-Thunderbolts costumes. Which of course means it would never, ever happen. Half these guys aren't even "evil" anymore, and one's had a "sex change", and they certainly don't resemble their Mansion Seige era counterparts. Ah well.

Um... Hasbro CREATED GI Joe and Tranformers. They own both brands outright. That's just such a... gracious... Hating just to hate eats at your soul, and apparently clouds judgement. (And yes, before some ninny tries to jump in here and correct me, I know the original molds all came from several different Takara toy lines. But the whole Transformer story, the characters, the factions, everything that made Transformers so fondly remembered and its imitators fade away, that was created by Hasbro's people. Okay it was done largely by Marvel comics writers under contract by Hasbro. Takara then "Americanized" their diaclones from there, and has been running it's own way since)

How far back do you want to go? For the modern ML era, I never found: Stealth Armor Iron Man Red Skull Candy Vision Destroyer Genis Vell Wasp variant Moon Knight variant HC Absobring Man HC Abomination F4C Kang F4C Dragon Man XM de-iced Iceman XM Rogue Note a lot of those are from the sub-lines. The ones that for whatever reason became "store exclusives" here locally. (HC only at KB, F4C only at TRU, XM only at Target) I heard reports that F4C's were seen other places in other cities, but they never trickeled down to here. One case of each wave at one single TRU. Not that I'm bitter... really... Now I could add I never found the original 5" color changing Invisible Woman either. I don't want to think about the number of hours flushed down that fruitless search. You know, before Ebay, when you had to actually find the greasy haired scalpers down at the local flea markets. Or shall I whine on a few minutes about never finding Zemo of the Falcon for my Secret Wars collection?

But to bring this topic ful circle... If Hasbro is only going to give non-answer answers, then stop asking for questions.

Absorbing Man? For less than $45 dollars? (cheapest I've ever seen a loose one go on ebay, not counting shipping) The rest of the line could be repacked horse poo and I'd still be happy. And yeah, we've had "Mr. Fixit" and the Kirby grey Hulk, but IMO if they style this one after MacFarlane's run, elephant looking skin, HUGE brow, tiny eyes, then this could be a unique enough looking figure to get some buzz. The only one on that list that I'm "meh" over is "The End" Hulk. Never read it, sounds like it's going to join ML1 Hulk and a half dozen Wolverines in the box in the closet. Now if it were "smart Hulk with huge guns and pink fuzzy bunny slippers" I'd be all over it... oh who are we kidding, I'll be buying it for the FFF piece anyway but I'd be happier about it. And yes, if we get 12 figures worth of Hulk related characters and no Rick Jones, then somthing is seriously wrong. Of course, this site also claims there will be a couple of Spidey related supporting characters in the coming months, so maybe that tide could be turning.

No. they didn't. They did drop the cannon fodder from the Bring On The Bad Guys wave, cancled announced figures (Quicksilver from 15, Crimson Dynamo from 13), shrank BAF's, they re-thought BAF's (no Quinjet in 15), changed figure plans (Prof. X's smaller, cheaper chair), got stingy on accessories (Bullseye) and before that, they dropped the bulk bases for generally smaller BAF pieces. And the general quality of the plastic declined slowly but surely of the course of the lines. They dropped everything they could to try and stay consistent with themselves and keep the cost down. If that weren't evidence enough, Falcon stated all over the net that oil prices and production costs were on the increase and they were scrambling to try and keep from having to raise their price point. Add to that a lisencing fee, and there's your price increase. However, if you want to believe it's just Hasbro trying to screw you personally, feel free. The 64 thousand dollar question is will they give it time. Hasbro is famous for giving up on comics related collector lines. (Pick a DC collector line from ANY of their many long years with the property) And I'm sure their poor wave one sales and general negative fan reaction has them scratching their heads. Unless wave two and 3 do very, very well, I can easily see them canceling the whole thing and focusing on the more kid aimed toys that are doing better. They've already canceled their ill-concieved signature series (the gift none of us asked for or apparently wanted). There's no reason to believe that they won't decided it's too much work to try and keep "the fans" happy and move on. They've done it before, they are more likely than not to do it again. And I can't help but think something has gone very wrong for Hasbro distrobution wise of late. I can't conceive of them purposly not getting movie toys to market in time for a movie, yet thus far only Target has any FF2 toys, and then only one case per store. I can't take my locale as too typical as we sit in the middle of an area famously bad for getting things late. (usually 2-3 months after the first west coast sitings) But a quick scan of various toy boards tells me that the problem isn't just here. And this does concern me, as better distorubtion was a major sticking point for the switch being made to Hasbro.

See, I have this curse. It's called a memory. I remember the infamous gap between ML 5 and ML 6. I also remember the deafening cries when ML6-8's lousy distribution caused so many not to be able to find the figures they wanted. I remember multiple threads on multiple board droning on and on about how much Toy Biz sucks. How they didn't give a crap about "the fans". How they're character selection was God-awful. I remember the complaining that ML 14 and 15 were just "phoned in". I remember the seemingly endless gripes about Toy Biz's seeming consistently ugly females. And that they had females at all, and that the articulation was never right. I remember the pure hate everyone had for the TB Daredevil base body's giant shoulder balls. And it's odd neck. And usual lack of foot swivel. I remember threads dedicated to ways to get TB figures joints to move without breaking them due to "wash-lock". And I also remember the complaining when Toy Biz moved AWAY from the 5" scale to 6" Legends. Coincidentally, I remember characters like Emma Frost, and Banshee scoring near the top of many lists of characters "the fans" wanted to see done. And yet they warm the pegs. My point is not a defense of Hasbro. Their odd execution of Emma's head and Banshee's chest are big reasons those figures can't be given away. And Wave two has yet to show up n my area period. Heck the Silver Surfer figures are barely at local Targets. But increased price? Partly licensing fee's, but also the increased price of oil is to blame. The oil used to do everything from make the plastic to ship it across the ocean and across the country. Shrinking BAF's? That too started with Toy Biz. See the increased cost of oil. No, Hasbro is a far from perfect company, with an admittedly shaky track record. But life with Toy Biz was not the bed of roses many try to paint it as. Toy Biz was derided, defamed, and despised at various points in their long run. Toy Biz had the perfect set up and legitimately lost the license. And if for nothing else than the piss-poor quality control they consistently showed they deserved to. Would I change back? Hard to say. I was fairly neutral on ML wave one, as for me the positives (not needing a blade to open the package, not frozen joints, vac metal parts, finally getting Hercules) balanced out the negatives ("why is he pink?", "what happened to her head?", "what's with the slappy hands?", "what happened to Sean's chest?"). Wave 2 I've only seen online. The switch to 5 inch for movie lines doesn't offend me nearly as much as Toy Biz's attempt to bury the market in nearly identical Spidey's for SM2. And I actually found a Sue for FF2, which is better than I could ever say for the last time. (and consequently why I have no TB FF movie figures, as I didn't want a Fantastic 3) So all in all, I'm still willing to give Hasbro more time before I declare things as definitely worse. Mostly because I remember all the stuff Toy Biz did that ticked me off when it was their turn. Thus is my curse.

Like has been said, Marvel Legends became a brand name during the last year of Toy Biz's run. And it's hard for me to call movie figures "padding" since those too have been with us since Daredevil warmed the pegs. Legends has long been the place Toy Biz put movie tie in figures into when they didn't think Wal-Mart or Target would buy a whole line. The only real change this time is the sheer bulk of them with X3, and that we can no longer just leave them on the peg like Movie Punisher if we want the BAF. (And though I've said this before, for all Hasbro's faults, I haven't had to hunt down a store exclusive variant of a character I didn't really want one of in the first place just to finish a BAF yet.) What has changed with Hasbro, for good or for ill, is the design sense. Let me clarify. With Toy Biz there was a general rule that the figures were done in a characters "classic" look. That is to say, when you first pictured a character in your mind, what costume did the majority of people picture them in. Hence Luke Cage was in his yellow and blue H4H costume, not his modern "ganstah" look. Iron Man was first released in his classic 70's-mid 80's costume. And even though most of us liked Johnny Blaze better, even he has adopted the Ketch Ghost Rider look of late because it was simply a strong design, as so Ketch-Rider was the first version released. (obvious exception to this was Namor, but you guys can go bug Falcon as to why) If this rule was carried into today, Dane's upcoming figure would likely feature his costume from the Mansion Seige era of the Avengers, and Rachel would have come in that red "hound" costume she wore in X-Men and Excalibur for so many years. As it stands both as in their most recent costumes. I'm actually pleasantly surprised that Quicksilver went with the classic blue and white, not his most recent costume. But there's an definite push in character and design selection to try and keep mostly current with the characters and costume appearing in books today. Unfortunately, given the length of time it take to produce a figure, they are going to be a bit behind the curve. Danger probably looked like a great idea when she was actively appearing as a dynamic new design in a hot selling book. By the time she gets to market... meh.

There was a rumor before Toybiz lost the liscense the Spot and Chameleon were going to be in a repaint heavy second wave of the Spider-Man villians subline. Spot was going to be a repaint of a random non-etched-webs Spidey. Chameleon was going to be ML Prof. X with a new head. But I'll agree that characters like Boomerang, Hammerhead, Puma, and Tombstone need some figure love. I'd say we need a classic Beetle too, but that opens the debate as to whether the first or second armor is the "Classic" one. But as a general rule, I'm all for more second and third tier villians period. Wrecking Crew, U-Foes, various Masters of Evil, Lethal Legion... it's all good.

Actually it's is sort of real... it's the nickname several of us locally gave to the last suit of stealth armor that appeared only in issues of the Black Panther. It was mirrored chrome silver with glowing pink highlights... I really wish I was kidding. The only thing worse than the design was T'challa defeating it's holo-cloak devices with a bottle of 409. Again I wish I was kidding.

But... But... What about the Space Armor? Or the Post-Armor Wars "Neo-Classic" (at full size, the mini one doesn't count)? Or the "Heroes Return" Armor? Or the OGS Space Armor? Or the Disco-Ball Stealth Armor? Or even the ever popular Iron-Shnozz Armor? The Riveted-Forehead Armor? Jet-Skates Armor?

Try not to throw rocks (too hard at least), but I don't get the appeal of FA Daredevil. The suit is butt ugly. Yes, yes, I know who designed it, and that for some reason I should like it just because, blah blah blah... whatever. It's ugly. But I have always liked the Holocaust design, and so I guess I'll add it to the growing list of figures I've picked up just to complete a BAF. At least Hasbro hasn't made me hunt down a variant to complete one yet, unlike some former liscense holders I could mention. And I guess the long rumored Ord just got moved back yet another wave? Or has he joined Crimson Dynamo in the forever rumored category?

We're going around in circles here. Characters like Phoenix, Thor, Dr. Strange, or even Thanos or Mephisto operate at one level of power. But there are levels in the MU that far, far exceed any of these characters. The question wasn't who was the most powerful hero or villian, but who was the most powerful in the entire MU. But no question, the "One-Above-All" holds that position, followed by the Living Tribunal. After that, it gets a little fuzzy but it's a long way down til you get to folks like Thor, Hulk, or even the Stranger. (by fuzzy, I mean stuff like do the "Brothers" seen in the Marvel vs DC crossover outrank Enternity/Infinity/Death/Oblivion, does Galactus outrank Lord Chaos/Master Order, that kind of thing) Most characters that commonly appear in the regular titles don't even approach the truely cosmic types.

I wouldn't know. I haven't seen them yet.

Okay, then Original X-men could be done wth mostly repaints and small mods. As could the Original Avengers and/or Cap's Kooky Quartet. In a perfect world, it'd be cool to get an Armor Wars boxed set. Re-release the Silver Centurion Iron Man, with Crimson Dynamo, Titanuim Man, Spymaster, Firepower, and the "neo-Classic" armor that was introduced at the stories end. (and one of the suits not produced in the ML style yet)

If you'd like, I could go through the various Alternate Universes where the Hulk's been similarly one-shoted to make someone else look tough. The Hulk's done a on of impossible feats in the 616 you could site, like smashing Onslaught's armor when none else could dent it for a relatively recent one, without dipping into alternate versions. That said, there's a whole class of cosmic types listed earlier that could summarily erase Hulk from existence with a casual thought.

Hulk may be "Strongest one there is", but Thor has fought him to a standstill repeatedly. However, in terms of brute strength, I'll grant you Hulk is the most powerful earth-born mortal currently alive. Silver Surfer is several times more powerful, by sheer power, he dwarfs even the likes of Thor or Odin. BUT, by the same token, Norin Radd is not a fighter by nature, and has since winning his freedom from the Big G shown that he dislikes using his full poer in combat situations, allowing folks like Hulk, Thor, and others to kick his shiny can. All the power in the worlds wont help if you don't use it. All that said, right now I'd reluctantly have to say that the Scarlet plot-device... I mean Scarlet Witch is probably more powerful than even the cosmic types since she is rewriting reality on at least a planet wide, possible a Universe wide scale at whim these days.