@derrabbi that's how I have been with Jada Street Fighter. I did pick up two Mega Man figures because I like the IP, but with Street Fighter I just don't have a desire to start a collection so I admire from afar. I've certainly considered picking one up just to mess around with it, but so far I haven't been driven to do so. I'm not every collector, but I do think most are driven by IP first, quality of the figure second. There might be someone out there who is picking up Jada Street Fighter at the expense of Marvel Legends, but they're likely the exception and not the start of some trend. I would expect brand fatigue to hurt Legends before another company does. Hasbro has had the license for decades and released a lot of figures, at some point maybe people will have enough Spider-Man figures by Hasbro? Or since this thing has sold out in multiple places already, maybe we're not even close to that day?
i don't think legends are hurting lol, they're putting out more product a year the last few years than they ever did...
This is patently untrue for 2024. They put out less product in 2024 than they did in any of the previous few years.
In 2020 there were 126 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
In 2021 there were 137 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
In 2022 there were 135 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
In 2023 there were 134 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
in 2024 there were 94 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
So for the preceding 4 years it was a fairly steady number averaging just over 130 Legends figures per year. Last year that number dropped by FORTY total figures. That very much suggests that Legends contracted in 2024.
We have discussed the reasons for the contraction at length elsewhere but in addition to the volume of each release getting smaller the total number of releases was smaller as well. This isn't due to competition from a company like Jada, but that probably doesn't help when the market is already getting smaller overall.
Or since this thing has sold out in multiple places already, maybe we're not even close to that day?
Or, cynically, knowing that this higher price point is risky maybe the initial pre-order allotment is deliberately small, in hopes of pushing some FOMO so when more are subsequently made available for pre-order in a week or two, some fence sitters jump in, or speculators buy them in hopes of selling at a mark up.
@panthercult certainly possible. I would anticipate a new SKU having a somewhat conservative order total at the outset. I'm sure they're thrilled with the sell outs though and I don't think they would have cut production to create false scarcity.
@panthercult certainly possible. I would anticipate a new SKU having a somewhat conservative order total at the outset. I'm sure they're thrilled with the sell outs though and I don't think they would have cut production to create false scarcity.
Oh... I don't think they cut production to create false scarcity. I think they limited the amount available for pre-sale today - to create the illusion of scarcity. I think there will be more available, I don't think this will be so hot it will be impossible to find item. I think this is a tactic McFarlane uses regularly with his product too - when you open initial pre-sales you limit availability at that time to engender quick sell outs... this creates panic in a small segment of the collector base and - suckers the greedy into buying multiples in hope of profiteering off of their less fortunate brethren - but ultimately there's enough product to satisfy demand when the full supply is actually available.
We'll see - but I'm betting this is going to be plenty available when it actually ships and the "sell out" will have been a pre-order fabrication
It did get me thinking about whether the big ticket items like the HasLabs really puts a bunch of "new" money in Hasbro's pocket or whether much of the big ticket money is just being pulled from people's basic ML figure spending.
I think most people have a buffer zone where they could scare up some cash for something they really wanted. I didn't really need to use my stimulus check to buy the Haslab sentinel, and wasn't planning on spending $300+ for something, but since I never got the ToyBiz sentinel as a kid, and this one looked ideal, I sprung for it. I don't know how tight other folks budgets are but mine is mostly limited by "do I really need this" and "do I have room." Thankfully I mostly revolve around Marvel, Batman, TMNT and a few other lesser properties that don't get much love, so I'm not buying anything and everything. I can't imagine being a completionist for stuff like GIJoe and Transformers in addition to the rest of it. Even then my Marvel stuff is mostly X-Men related unless it's a "definitive" looking figure like the Walmart classic Dr. Strange was.
As predicted, this is also selling out up here in Canada. GameStop had a last minute price adjustment from the previously leaked $72.99 down to $69.99 and $59.99 with my Onyx discount. I can definitely stomach that. Enough to get 3.
@panthercult certainly possible. I would anticipate a new SKU having a somewhat conservative order total at the outset. I'm sure they're thrilled with the sell outs though and I don't think they would have cut production to create false scarcity.
Oh... I don't think they cut production to create false scarcity. I think they limited the amount available for pre-sale today - to create the illusion of scarcity. I think there will be more available, I don't think this will be so hot it will be impossible to find item. I think this is a tactic McFarlane uses regularly with his product too - when you open initial pre-sales you limit availability at that time to engender quick sell outs... this creates panic in a small segment of the collector base and - suckers the greedy into buying multiples in hope of profiteering off of their less fortunate brethren - but ultimately there's enough product to satisfy demand when the full supply is actually available.
Ditto to all this. Exactly what happened - everything about this release and its marketing is very carefully curated. And Spidey popped back up on Amazon for at least a couple hours after the initial sellout. He's gone again now.
The MCU collector fans would tell us that difference in output in 2024 that PantherCult pointed out was almost all due to no new MCU figures. 😆
I could have completely misinterpreted what they said when they announced this, but I was under the impression that this Maximum line was a way to keep a version of A-list characters always available and thus "in stock". I also interpreted that to mean that they'd like never go "on sale" because brick and mortar retail wouldn't ever have to move out old inventory because they're not even going there. I might very well be trying to read too much into all of that, but that was how I took it.
I'm not into any of the licenses that Jada has right now (maybe will be in for Scooby Doo), but I'm under the impression that their output is very low as like only a handful of figures per year for their lines. They may be doing a great job on a very limited output, but that doesn't mean they could even handle a truly big license.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of 2025 goes with Hasbro and the Marvel license as their output might be an indicator of their longer term intentions. I hope they keep the line for a long time, but I'll be closely watching their output. So far, so good for me. I pre-ordered the entire retro Spider-Man wave, X-Men BAF wave and mini-comic wave. If they start to slow down for the 2nd half of the year or start doing A LOT of re-releases of stuff they already put out in the past then I'm going to be worried as I'll take that as a sign of not wanting to invest too much into the line at this point.
i don't think legends are hurting lol, they're putting out more product a year the last few years than they ever did...
This is patently untrue for 2024. They put out less product in 2024 than they did in any of the previous few years.
In 2020 there were 126 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
In 2021 there were 137 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
In 2022 there were 135 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
In 2023 there were 134 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
in 2024 there were 94 Marvel Legends figures released including BaFs
So for the preceding 4 years it was a fairly steady number averaging just over 130 Legends figures per year. Last year that number dropped by FORTY total figures. That very much suggests that Legends contracted in 2024.
We have discussed the reasons for the contraction at length elsewhere but in addition to the volume of each release getting smaller the total number of releases was smaller as well. This isn't due to competition from a company like Jada, but that probably doesn't help when the market is already getting smaller overall.
I'm not sure you can make that conjecture over one year, though a big part of that was the lack of MCU films and D+ Shows that year as well. If it's a repeating pattern for this year and next, then yes, you can say they've since scaled back.
I'd also argue, production numbers are likely down due to the Covid boom. that brought in ALOT of new collectors who've since dropped off, so there's not enough consumer to supplement what there was. Over all i'd still say Legends over the last 5 years have never had it better.
It did get me thinking about whether the big ticket items like the HasLabs really puts a bunch of "new" money in Hasbro's pocket or whether much of the big ticket money is just being pulled from people's basic ML figure spending.
I think most people have a buffer zone where they could scare up some cash for something they really wanted. I didn't really need to use my stimulus check to buy the Haslab sentinel, and wasn't planning on spending $300+ for something, but since I never got the ToyBiz sentinel as a kid, and this one looked ideal, I sprung for it. I don't know how tight other folks budgets are but mine is mostly limited by "do I really need this" and "do I have room." Thankfully I mostly revolve around Marvel, Batman, TMNT and a few other lesser properties that don't get much love, so I'm not buying anything and everything. I can't imagine being a completionist for stuff like GIJoe and Transformers in addition to the rest of it. Even then my Marvel stuff is mostly X-Men related unless it's a "definitive" looking figure like the Walmart classic Dr. Strange was.
in my case, I was able to buy 3 sentinels BECAUSE of the stimulus, I definitely know we got an influx of newbies to the line and alot dropped off as the extra expenses dwindled.
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