Yesterday we got the unfortunate news that the last two Marvel Universe Team Pack three-packs were officially cancelled by Hasbro. Not to pile on all the bad news at once, I decided to hold off for a day before spreading a bit more gloom. Remember all those Marvel Legends running changes we’ve been waiting for (some of which for over a year), like the Marvel Legends Dani Moonstar and Red Deadpool variants? Well, apparently, Hasbro still hasn’t found any way of releasing those figures…
There is a little bit of good news sprinkled in amongst quite a bit of bad, so luckily it’s not all doom.
According to Hasbro, next year’s Captain America Marvel Legends Infinite Series 6″ figure cases are scheduled to include the swap figures in every case. That means that the Marvel Legends Red Skull, Baron Zemo, Hydra Soldier, and A.I.M. Trooper figures will be in the same case together (packed with the Marvel NOW! Captain America figure). This is fantastic news, as Hasbro hasn’t exactly managed to inspire confidence with their attempts at releasing running change figures in the past year. And speaking of which…
On to the bad news. The 2014 Spider-Man Marvel Legends running change figures will not be packed into the same case assortments, so we’ll have to pray (again) that retailers will order sufficient supplies of revision cases and Wave 2 cases if we want to get all of the Spider-Man Marvel Legends 2014 figures like Carnage, Black Cat, Ultimate Beetle and Boomerang. Oy.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not going to be pleased if Hasbro ends up not releasing those Marvel Legends Black Cat or Carnage figures for any reason.
In addition, Hasbro has apparently still not managed to find any way to release the Marvel Legends running change variants from Marvel Legends Series 3, Series 4, Series 5 and Wolverine Legends. This is absolutely baffling to me, as the tooling for these action figures has already been created and in some cases the figures have already even been produced by the factories. The Marvel Legends Future Foundation White Dr. Doom and Red Deadpool figures saw a release internationally and sell for $60-$90 each on ebay, so clearly some of these figures were produced in some quantities and are ready to be released.
I can’t begin to imagine why Hasbro is having difficulties selling a case consisting entirely of these particular 2012-2013 Marvel Legends variants to retail or even as a retailer exclusive. To be frank, a case assortment headlined by Marvel Legends Classic Hawkeye, Red Deadpool, X-Force Archangel, White Phoenix, Bulldozer, Rogue, Dani Moonstar and Blade would be better than any case assortment that Hasbro has put out for Marvel in years and would be an instant sellout. I have a tough time believing that Hasbro is trying very hard to get out a truly packed all-star assortment like this and can’t find retailer support for it anywhere.
What are your thoughts on this latest news, Marvel collectors? Do you think that we’ll ever really see long-wanted figures like Marvel Legends Bulldozer and Dani Moonstar released, or are you starting to feel like we should give this one up as a lost cause?
Damn. I really want that Boomerang, hope he makes it out at some point. Hopefully being tied to movie will help.
“To be frank, a case assortment headlined by Marvel Legends Classic Hawkeye, Red Deadpool, X-Force Archangel, White Phoenix, Bulldozer, Rogue, Dani Moonstar and Blade would be better than any case assortment that Hasbro has put out for Marvel in years and would be an instant sellout.”
YES !!! So true!!! I don’t understand why Hasbro is having so many problems with the Legends line !!! Despite what Hasbro may say or believe, there is a ridiculously high demand for Marvel Legends. When they actually show up in my area, they disappear in a matter of days, while the other Hasbro Marvel products sit on the shelves until they are eventually transitioned to the clearance area 😛
Unlike many other Legends collectors, I’m excited that the upcoming Legends waves are all going to tie in to a Marvel movie, since Hasbro seems to want to place all of their efforts on movie-related products. I never had any trouble finding the 6″ Avengers figures (despite being highly sought-after, as well as Wal-Mart exclusives), the 6″ Amazing Spidey figures, or the Iron Man Legends, but I’m lucky to spot a single case of the actual Marvel Legends figures. With the future Legends waves being movie-related, maybe we’ll all actually be able to find them at retail, and can avoid having to rely on ebay so frequently.
I was excited to get Mirage (I’m a huge New Mutants fan). I haven’t seen the last two Marvel Legends waves. I just thought they’d been discontinued but I hope they keep putting them out. I pick up the odd character every so often like that green Spider-Man figure variant and Mystique.
hasbro should fire stahl already.
I really want to see Dani Moonstar! I had been looking everywhere for her and finally found out she hadn’t been released yet very upsetting and I will be furious if they do not release Black Cat and Rouge both of the previous figures turned out horrible and never really had a redo on them those are very high on my wish list!!!! I love marvel legends my brother and I both collect them so come on Hasbro get on it already! These figures have been long awaited for and you are disappointing a lot of people!
Hasbro is either playing games to try to get more sales off the Marvel Legends line or they are just being plain sloppy and paying no attention to what the fans want. It’s just a game they’re playing. Get people excited about a new figure or variant, don’t release it with the wave and bam! Instant case sales of a whole bunch of other characters we didn’t really want or need. From there the fans buy the coolest or best of the unwanted figures and Hasbro has made their money off the wave. Then much later on, release one or two of the ones we really want so we don’t abandon the line altogether. Trust me, Hasbro knows what they’re doing. To Prince Bubblegum: don’t think Hasbro doesn’t know how popular the Marvel Legends series is. They know. They have people on their payroll that monitor the sales of each of their lines and releases from the major store chains on down to the independent comic shops and even Ebay sales. That’s the reason they’re playing these games. Even though it looks stupid, they’ve planned it out that way for a reason. That’s why they’ve hired a team of marketing strategists. They will never release an all fan demanded lineup so don’t even bother dreaming about that. The Hit Monkey and that goofy looking racoon as build a figures? Give me a break. That was nothing but a marketing strategy to try and get some fan interest in those dumb kiddy characters. From there they judge how popular they were so they’ll know whether to mass release them in a later line or side series of ML. Arnim Zola was the last really good BAF we’ve gotten from the Marvel Legends line in my opinion. I did like Puck and the Sabretooth, Cyclops, Wolverine and Emma Frost releases were nice too but I wouldn’t have necessarily picked Puck as the BAF even though I do like the little guy in my collection and he did turn out nice. Sometimes they do a decent job with the more obscure, lesser known characters.We have three out of the four members of the Wrecking Crew. The molds and bodies have already been made so Bulldozer should be mandatory at this point. Especially since he didn’t get released with Wrecker like he was supposed to be. To add insult to injury they printed up the blister cards with Bulldozer in the artwork with Wrecker to build up the hype. Like they did it on purpose as a tease. It’s nice that they are releasing new versions of the Hydra soldiers and the main Hydra crew but they should concentrate on the ones that haven’t or should have been released. At this point I’m not expecting anything I want from Hasbro but if I could get Bulldozer, Carnage and Amazing Spider Man I would be satisfied. But that’s if that’s ever gonna happen. I’m still holding on to a shred of hope but that’s starting to dim. If the three I just mentioned don’t get a release I won’t be buying any more Marvel Legends Figures for a long time. To all the other Marvel Legends fans, don’t hold your breath and don’t get your hopes up. Don’t expect any character from Hasbro even if they release a statement that it’s gonna be released because that could change at the last minute just like Bulldozer. Just take them as they come. When case sales and multiple sales go down, they’ll get the message.
wow, really? Blade just looks like some custom figure variant of an Ultimate Nick Fury.
hi I got the entire spiderman series including all variants and the whole captain America series including all variants at my local toys r us