Yes, I know it’s been a long time coming, but on the eve of San Diego Comic-Con and the expected re-launch of Marvel Legends, here is part 2 of our interview with the Hasbro Marvel brand team. You can see part 1 of the interview at ActionFigurePics.com.
Thanks to Scott George, David Vonner, and Dwight Stall for participating.
A lot of armchair brand managers suggest that having a handful of standard bucks with systematic planned reuse (like what Mattel does for DC Universe Classics) would be the way to go for Legends. Others think that Marvel characters are less uniform, and therefore need unique sculpts. Where does the Hasbro Marvel design team fall in that spectrum, and why?
We like the sound of the armchair thing! You really need both to pull off a great line with lots of breadth and variety. There are plenty of smooth bodied costumes that can be created from a few standardized forms (like a Guardian… or a Klaw for example). Others, like the new Heroic Age Thor, demand that we create an all new body to capture the real comic essence of the character.
You could describe the Marvel Legends line-ups in the past as being anchored by A-listers (like Spidey, Cap, Hulk, Iron Man, and Wolverine) and filled out by B-listers. What’s the approach for the line-ups in the Marvel Legends re-launch? Have the chances for more obscure characters, like Brother Voodoo (preliminary prototype figure shown at SDCC 2010), gotten stronger in 2012?
This approach is still relevant because you need the gold standard characters to keep the line healthy and keep the pegs churning. With that said, you have our word that we’ll be choosing characters carefully, so you’ll see plenty more wish-listers like Forge, Valkyrie, Dugan, Spiral, Black Knight, Domino, Nova, Rachael Summers, Hercules, Mole Man, Crossbones, Adam Warlock and Kree Soldiers.
To give you an idea of where our heads are at, 4 out of 7 figures (that’s right, we said it…7 figures!) in the first wave have NEVER seen their day in 6” scale! And that doesn’t include the new BAF – Terrax!
We’re guessing that over time a lot of the A-listers will be revisited in the re-launch. A lot of them, like the Heroic Age Thor, have new costumes or looks. Will you be focusing on giving us new looks for the A-listers? In the case where you’re redoing a character in a previously released look, how will you entice collectors who may already have one or more?
Of course, some A-listers will be revisited, but all of them will feature completely new looks. We want to give loyal Legends fans a new reason to be excited about these timeless characters, and get new collectors and fans into the Legends tradition by continuing to offer the most recognizable heroes and villains.
We’ve noticed that over time, newer releases have been getting smaller compared to ones released earlier. For example, put Namor from Toy Biz series one next to the recent Deadpool – both are supposed to be 6’2″. Any chance that the new Legends can be scaled up a bit so there’s more uniformity between Legends old and new?
Sure, we hear you. It really depends on whether or not we’re utilizing existing tools or sculpting an all-new figure. If it’s being tooled from scratch, it’s probably going to match up perfectly to the Marvel Universe handbook stats for height.
Keep in mind, however, that sometimes a new body is designed with the intent of reusing it again in the near term future for another character.
We always want to capture the impressive stature of these characters as best we can. For example – the Hercules, Lord of Asgard Thor and Wendigo figures were all enormous at over 7”.
Right before Toy Fair, we ran our Marvel Legends Top Ten Poll. You’ve already announced one of our top ten – the Bucky Barnes version of Captain America (he came in tied at #4). Please comment on how the rest of the top ten fits in with your plans for Legends:
#10 Rogue
#8 (tie) Madrox the Multiple Man and Storm
#7 Jubilee
#6 Enchantress
#4 (tied with Bucky Cap) Wrecker
#3 Polaris
#2 Ultron
#1 Jean Grey
BAF Lockjaw
We love the list – and if we’re not mistaken, it matches closely with the Fwoosh top 10’s of the not so distant past! We’re not going to comment specifically on characters or subsequent waves at this point, but we can tell you this – at least two (maybe more!) of these characters have already been sculpted in 6” Legends scale, but Lockjaw isn’t one of them. Discuss!
Stay tuned – we’ll have reports from the showroom at San Diego Comic-Con, including the Hasbro Marvel booth, throughout the remainder of the week !
