Marvelicious Toys did an interview with the Hasbro Team at NYCC about Giant Man. It hit their podcast feed today. First, I want to say that this is the BEST podcast at the moment for interviewing industry insiders. They have access. They are polite and friendly and supportive of the work but are appropriately critical.
Of course, I wish they asked harder hitting questions, but compared to everyone else, they offer the most criticism in a constructive way.
I am disappointed with the Hasbro's Teams answers. They probably read these forums so I'm writing in hopes they see them:
1) Dwight said 50% of the fans want figures in the Haslab and 50% do not want figures. He said people got mad that they were locking Goblin Queen and Mephisto behind Engine of Vengeance. And now people are getting mad there are no figures in this Haslab so you can't make everyone happy.
False.
People were mad about the EOV figures because Dwight said this was the only way to release these figures. They modeled them up, made prototypes, showed the prototypes, and gave us an ultimatum of back the EOV or never see these figures ever.
Additionally, the figures didn't have anything to do with EOV.
That's what made fans mad. Holding us hostage into backing a Haslab we might not otherwise have interest in to get highly sought after figures that we will never be able to get otherwise.
We wouldn't be mad if you said "here's 4 figures, if EOV doesn't fund, we will release them as a four pack next year" but they can't do that because they are trying to push the EOV Haslab. It's FOMO marketing and I am disgusted by it, as are most fans.
With Giantman, you can say here's 2 figures, comes with Giantman at $X price. If Giantman doesn't fund, we will offer the figures on Hasbro Pulse next year for $25 each. Now no one is mad. BUT they lose the FOMO marketing factor.
2) Dan said the options were to include two figures at a $250 price point or no figures at a $200 price point and buy the two figures separately for $50 in the future.
Oversimplication.
First, by having the Hank Pym and Wasp figure in the Haslab, we know that the figures will exist. Right now there's no guarantee of the figures being made in the future. We can speculate it's likely, but no guarantee. We also dont know what versions of the characters they'll make the figures into, maybe versions we dislike.
The correct comparison would be:
Buy Haslab with 2 associated figures of known quality and quality now for $250 or buy Haslab for $200 and potentially get the chance to buy 2 figures that may or may not be of the quality and quality you want for $50 in the future.
Further, it should be cheaper to include figures in the Haslab than separately. They dont need to have their own separate boxes or ship them separately. Personally, I'd like the figures to be in their own boxes. GI Joe has figured out how to do that with HasLabs, unlike Marvel. Likely due to the enormous licensing fees Hasbro must pay Disney compared to GI Joe that has no licensing fees.
Assuming no box, there's no box artwork, no box to create, no labor / factory time to put into the box, and the figures can fit within the same size boxes as the Haslab, in one of the empty nooks. The Haslab will not be 100% filled, it could fit 2 loose figures easily.
Further, the $25 future price point assumes a profit margin on the figures. Hasbro could say "if you back the Haslab, we are giving you these figures at our cost of production" and I'm not even saying cost of the plastic. I'm saying go ahead and factor the cost of modeling the figure, cost of licensing, cost of everything, but then dont tack on a profit.
It would be totally possible that instead of $200 with no figures it could be $225 with two figures and doesn't lose Hasbro any money on the two figures they include.
On one hand, you can argue that Hasbo is a publicly traded company, they need profit, they can't sell us two figures at cost in the Haslab. However, if the Haslab does not fund, then they aren't going to sell too many of these accessory figures next year at $25 retail.
In other words, include 2 figures for $225, they are making a profit on the Giant Man itself, no profit on the 2 included figures, but the total profit from the Giant Man will exceed Option B, which is no figures, the Haslab fails to fund, and next year they put those 2 figures out at retail for $25 and make a small profit on those 2 figures.
Or they don't put those two figures out at retail at all - which is probably why we haven't seen Wasp yet.
Which is ridiculous and, unfortunately, an example of the sexist industry mentality I hoped was on its way out - holding the female character's release hostage.
People were mad about the EOV figures because Dwight said this was the only way to release these figures.
I obviously don't know if it's definitely true any more than you know it's definitely false, but it wasn't just 3 highly-demanded figures. It was 3 figures that they were/are claiming they could not get approval to make and sell through any other outlet due to boobiness, deviliness, or some combination of the two. The suggestion was that the Haslab was the best opportunity to get these made and there was no other path to producing them. Maybe they're lying through their teeth about that, but that was the entire reasoning given for including those specific characters in the Haslab, not simply to leverage highly-demanded characters to push sales.
Or they don't put those two figures out at retail at all - which is probably why we haven't seen Wasp yet.
Which is ridiculous and, unfortunately, an example of the sexist industry mentality I hoped was on its way out - holding the female character's release hostage.
Exactly.
She named the damn team, was one of their most successful chairpersons and she has been a consistent Avenger waaaaaayyyyy longer than Hulk, and yet his two pack was included within the anniversary banner. She deserved to be included somewhere in the 60th anniversary. Her exclusion cannot be an accidental oversight. It was deliberate. BTW - it's also the 60th anniversary of her debut.
"MCU Wasp pegwarmed hard". Yeah, well this is the comic version and they could have included at least one tiny Wasp in at least one anniversary offering, like the WCA set.
Couldn't Hasbro release those three EOV figures as pulse Exclusive repainted? I would much like a classic Mephisto in the same colors as the marvel select figure. They did say they couldn't release them in retail stores like Walmart or Target.
No one is "investing" in Giant-Man. A lot of people "invested" in multiples of Galactus and now these people have these huge boxes in their closets. He's selling for about $500 ($600 shipped). After Ebay fees, what's left? And Galactus is a much more coveted character than Giant-Man. (Over 30,000 sold).
Couldn't Hasbro release those three EOV figures as pulse Exclusive repainted? I would much like a classic Mephisto in the same colors as the marvel select figure. They did say they couldn't release them in retail stores like Walmart or Target.
@canprime last year Galactus probably would have cost $500, inflation was at record highs and continues to be a problem, but USD is trading well still so that may help with realigning prices, also the lack of characters going into tiers for GM help bring the costs down a lot
Saw this in person today at NYCC! It’s very, very impressive, especially for the price point.
The Hasbro team was there but talking to some people I think were podcasters or influencers, so didn’t get a chance to ask any questions.
Really hope this funds. I saw the EOV last year and thought it was incredibly impressive in person.
Great photos! They sting a bit though. As does something the Hasbro team said on the Marvelicious Podcast.
They asked why now for Giant Man. They said he ties into anniversary and goes along with other figures released this year such as the Black Widow.
The Black Widow that is in EVERY marketing picture with Giant Man, including the NYCC display above.
The Black Widow figure that they agreed to make a Target Exclusive that didn't hit anywhere in my area and was unavailable on the website to order.
Yeah, thank you to the people who offered to sell me one. I can also go on eBay and overpay with shipping. It just burns that they would make this pivotal figure a store exclusive and then rub it in our faces by including it everything Giantman related. I'm probably the only collector who couldn't get one, most here were able to buy several at 50% off.
So you’d rather continue complaining that you couldn’t find one than accept an offer for one from someone here? Is it so you can keep complaining?
There are meds for this you know.
Hey they use the same stands I do for Galactus and the Sentinel (well Master Mold for me)
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