The other day, I picked up some Avengers "figure" (the small ones) at Walmart. They were on clearance, the Scarlett Witch looked decent, and I had wanted to buy the Iron Legion set. So, I bought two packs and brought them home.

Today, I get around to putting them in the box with the Guardians of the Galaxy munchkins I bought last year.

They are not even the same size.

Really, Hasbro?

You didn't think some poor kid might want both series, and maybe use his vehicles/accessories from different toys together? I have even thought of using them as drivers for some of my Transformer Alternators - yet, that won't work.

I honestly fear what is coming out for the Star Wars movie. I can't wait to see how they go out of their way NOT to produce anything good for 4" figures. Who'd want that, its only been the base of SW merchandise since 1977.

You make a great point. Why mess with a formula that works. I mean yes every toy line will have figures that are peg hangers that sit there because they aren't as popular as others, but then again sometimes there are reasons for that. How man different versions of Iron Man, Obi Wan, or Anikin Skywalker is the averages parent or kid gonna buy till they say hey I got enough. And just like you mentioned with scale, in the 80's everything was either Joe scale or He Man scale. If it wasn't it didn't last long, knockoff or not.

Bravestarr, I liked those figures but they were scaled too big to play with anything else where Thundercats and Sectaura were perfect. Then there that line, Silverhawks I think that was a little larger that Joes, it just didn't work.

I understand competition between toy companies but if they are made by the same company they should at the least be able to cross over size wise.

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Hasbro has said they have different engineering formats for the various 18th lines because they want each team to have the freedom to experiment and find what works best for their line. I can somewhat see the sense, but only to a limited extent that we should see that experimentation pay off in a continual improvement of all the figures in all the lines. What's the point of the experimentation if it doesn't pay off in better product, and presumably greater profits for the company as a whole. Sense, to me, seems to lead to the conclusion that they'd all converge in one 'perfect' format for a given scale (ignoring the obvious and significant interference of the razz'n-frazz'n accountants, of course).

But, Hasbro's performance with 18th figures since... well, forever; doesn't really lead to a conclusion that this has been their philosophy all this time.

To me, it looks more like Hasbro's different Boys Toys divisions are ran like I hear Sears is ran, where each division is in competition against each other for the consumer buck, instead of being in collusion as a collective entity for the consumer buck. I wonder if the MU figures are formatted *almost* like Joes because the Joe team denied the MU team permission to copy the Joe format, or if this sort of thing is why the Marvel movie figures consistently used them infernal hip spheres despite their universal derision from we consumers.

It's not that Hasbro doesn't understand scale; they don't understand that uniformity is in their best interest against us.

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Unless I missed some announcement, I'm pretty sure that Hasbro will stick to the 4" scale for Star Wars.
Might be 5 poa figures, but I'm pretty sure that they'll be in scale with what is currently available. They've been at it for way too long to start producing figures that won't fit with what people, kids and collectors alike, already have in their collection.

AoU might prove me wrong, but I think they simply changed scale as a way to cut cost and to try to make the same old core characters new and desirable once again...

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You may be right on Star Wars, but boy did they mis the mark on AoU.

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...recently i was going to buy the Iron Legion set. I'm glad you posted this as i didn't but thought of picking it up the next time i'm in a store that carries them. If Hasbro hasn't even made them in scale with their other mini figures it really would be a waste of my time / money to buy the entire range of Marvel mini figures.

I remember when MASK cam out my mom bought me Mile Mayhem cuss she thought he went with the Joe size figures. I remember pretending he was a midget cause he was the only MASK figure I had at that time.

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What worries me is there hasn't been almost no announcement of Ep7 figures. All we've seen is a few 6 in figures. Yeah, I'm sure the will be 4 in scale, but I wouldn't be surprised if the they try to do more in these other scales in the interest of saving money.

And, the AoU figures are taller, not shorter. So, I can't see the change being for cost.

If I read correctly, and I may be wrong, they are trying to keep everything hush hush and not let any thing out until the grand unveiling on September 4th. It's kinda like when Episode 1 came out, our Walmart had a whole isle blocked off with black plastic so people couldn't see down it until whatever day they had the grand release, I remember cause I went the night before and the had workers stand at each end to keep people from getting close enough to peak in.

I guess it's supped to build up to the surprise and anticipation I order to boost sales. I mean come on its new Star Wars the sale are gonna be there, as long as it's not a complete line based on JarJar Binks.

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What's this Iron Legion "set"? I found a single carded Iron Legion figure at Walmart recently, and decided to bring it into my collection since I got a kick out of them in the movie, but I wasn't aware there was any sort of "set".

As for the topic at hand -- wow, If Hasbro is running their different departments in competition with one another, that's pretty stupid, given that the toy world in general isn't exactly doing stellar business these days.

I think josh.kestner is right about Star Wars. TRU has those silly countdown devices, and I think Hasbro is just sitting on it until they unveil the Episode VII toys. That they've been able to do so in this age-of-internet-information is pretty impressive. What I don't expect to be terribly impressive is the toys. I wish I could have gotten that SDCC Stormtrooper, but I suspect it will be available at retail at some point, and I'll get it then. I don't see myself paying attention to anything except the 6" Black Series, since it's about all they produce that's worth a darn.

As for Avengers -- I snagged those Marvel Legends Avengers that were Walmart exclusives with the first movie, and subsequently added the Marvel Legends movie-based Black Widow to the group when she turned up in the Captain America Winter Soldier line. If Hasbro does a movie-based Marvel Legends Vision, I'll add him, but really, so much of what Hasbro is putting out these days is just junk. Not that they're the only ones guilty of this.

As for Hasbro saying that they "have different engineering formats for the various 18th lines because they want each team to have the freedom to experiment and find what works best for their line."

Well, that's the sort of uncontrolled, chaotic "freedom" that's destroyed DC Comics as far as I'm concerned, and if Hasbro is subscribing to that theory --

Sounds tome like they are running their toy company they way politicians are running the government. They are competing with each other rather than giving the people what they want, really good quality cool toy with awesome accessories.

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The Joe team is NOT dictating what can or can't be used by other teams. Never, at least not in modern times. I think what you have are designers and managers trying to make their mark on the brands. Sometimes, they are just trying to come up with something cool and innovative and sometimes the powers that be push them off to one of the licensed brands.

You can get a design patent for certain play features and certain types of toy movement like a new body part joint. But they only have a a limited time where they are in effect. So after the period ends anyone can use it. So some of what we see is them trying to innovate and some of it is them trying to keep things different from what other companies (looking at you Lanard) are doing with their brands. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn't (looking at you Thor hips).

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And when it doesn't, why don't they revert back to what does work? Them movie hips were used far longer than was needed to learn consumers hated them. And when an innovation does work, why does it disseminate to other Hasbro lines so rarely? Why don't Joes get the larger&lower SW neckball that allows for more head movement in all axes-of-direction than the Joe neckball, or alternatively the MU neck hinge?

From what we get on the shelves, it's practically impossible to see that Hasbro is a unified company. Frankly, with the variations of size we got with the COPS and Visionaries lines, it's a historical issue.

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