Indeed. Hasbro saw the toy aisle packed with all of those peg-warming repainted Dark Knight Rises figures and said, "Us too!" These Iron Man figures are just wretched. I'm not a fan of the character, the movies, or even most of the figures from the Iron Man 2 line, but as a fan of useful custom fodder, even I'm disappointed by these offerings.



You and me both. Nice-looking figures with tons of useful parts for custom purposes. I would have bought carts full of them if they had more user-friendly hips.

I guess the brief Silver Age of 3-4" action figures is over. For a little while there, it was like the 80's all over again, but with better sculpting and less fragile plastic. GI Joe, star Wars, Indiana Jones, Marvel Universe, Movie lines for lots of movies, even some video game lines, and I guess if you stretch you can count DC's Infinite Heroes...

Oh well, it couldn't last forever! I had hoped it would at least last until Avengers 2! Maybe we'll still get a few neat things from GI Joe Retaliation.

I think you just backed the point I was making on the whole thing.



By this rational the $6 MU figs at Dollar General should have flown off the shelf while the Familly Dollar $8 repaints of MU would still be rotting, however it seems the opposite is true.

I wasn't sure which way you meant the original statement, but yeah if you were calling bs on the company line of them doing this because they say it's what the kids want, I'm with you.

_________________

Maybe the current teams are out of touch?
Flooding the market with IM2 and Episode 1 products, producing 5 PoA figures, the upcoming 12" SW figures with are huge chunk of plastic.
Cancelling the JP line which might've brought back the Adventure Team.

_________________

If there's one thing I think Hasbro is right on, it's that I'm sure kids who like Iron Man would absolutely hate to have a 1/18 figure that looked like this, or had the removable armor bits, etc... Why would a kid like this anyway?

http://marvelousnews.com/news.php?itemid=15705


In related news, it seems Hasbro has also correctly identified that kids don't like cookies, ice cream, riding bicycles, playing video games or having fun.

In unrelated news, for those of you who collect Hot Toys figures - do they really look this... real... in hand? How the hell do they do that, and still have it be (somewhat) affordable for a collector?

_________________

Yes they do look that real in hand. How they do it is a mystery but some believe it is dark magic. As for affordable, they are really anything but. At an average of about $200 a pop this is the most expensive toy line I've seen at mass market. But they keep costs down by doing things smart. Basically the figures are built on a stock body (that they keep improving on and selling as well) with unique parts added to create the character (clothing, head sculpts, accessories). And their sculptors and painters are frelling wizards or something because they just keep getting better and better each time out. Just look at the RDJ head that comes with the original Mark III and compare it to the one that comes with the Mark IV and you can see a world of improvement.

_________________

Yep, we're on the same page, I guess I was trying to be a bit to satrical for the point to get accross.

$200 for something that looks like THAT is affordable, at least in context. I don't think anyone is challenging its rightful place amongst the most expensive toylines available en masse.

If I weren't so invested in 1/18 scale and specifically in cutting those toys into little bits, I'd have a hard time not going for the Hot Toys items.

_________________

If only I had your strength of will. I'm just as invested in 1/18 and yet I find myself cruising ebay looking for 1/6 scale parts for customs. I'm just thankful that Hot Toys is still making wicked awesome Iron Man figures now that Hasbro has basically blown off collectors with this new 4" line.

_________________

The Hot Toys figures do in fact look that great. It's just that after buying five of them, I was like, "I spent what?"

_________________

My scenario was intended to be taken under the premise that said parents were choosing between 2 figures at the same store. Also keep in mind the fact that those two stores don't get anywhere close to the amount of traffic that Wal-Mart or other major retailers get.

And yes there ARE parents out there that think like this. You may not have encountered them but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

So, guys, I know nobody is actually interested in buying these pieces of crap (or at least I assume that's the case) but these are actually out already. I just came back from TRU tonight and they had the 4" figures out on the shelves. They most certainly are not getting the kind of shelf space IM2 got. And while I'll admit they do look better in person than those promo pics, they still look like total garbage. I seriously can't believe they think these are what kids want.

Funny, that was my point to you. I wasn't speaking in broad ranging generalities but was giving specific evidence to counter what seemed like conjecture.

_________________

If you say so.