Also, why wouldn't this be available at retail? It's a classic Spider-Man figure. Sure, the price would make casual shoppers do a double-take compared to the $17.49 Iron Spider hanging nearby (with about the same amount of paint), but the idea that big retail doesn't want main character items but they want Odin? That makes no sense. Hulkbuster moved very well.
The box makes this basically a Hasbro McFarlane statue - except a figure.
No doubt there will be re-use of this body, including Spidey variants. I doubt a new top-down sculpt would exist unless they could amortize it over multiple figures.
One thing people here seem to leave out of the cost discussion is Hasbro's overhead and being a Public Company. These are things Mafex & Mezco don't have to reckon with (not saying they don't have overhead, but it's waaaaay less than Hasbro's).
These two factors have a huge affect on their overhead. On top of that, they're getting sued right now for inflating their results and they're worried about potential tariffs chopping their bottom line.
Based on all available data (especially pricing for recent larger or DX figs), this Spidey will be $50 list, like it or not.
Yep, I was trying to stay out of the speculation game, but in my head, I'm seeing this as a $49.99 line.
No doubt there will be re-use of this body, including Spidey variants. I doubt a new top-down sculpt would exist unless they could amortize it over multiple figures.
One thing people here seem to leave out of the cost discussion is Hasbro's overhead and being a Public Company. These are things Mafex & Mezco don't have to reckon with (not saying they don't have overhead, but it's waaaaay less than Hasbro's).
These two factors have a huge affect on their overhead. On top of that, they're getting sued right now for inflating their results and they're worried about potential tariffs chopping their bottom line.
Based on all available data (especially pricing for recent larger or DX figs), this Spidey will be $50 list, like it or not. ...
It's not even a public company vs independent thing. No toy line survives for multiple years without reusing their molds. Even lines like Mythic Legions do it, as they should. I get the frustration over doing it too much, or forcing reuse where it doesn't work, but it needs to happen at some level for a line to be successful.
I REALLY don't know what you mean about dynamic posing, because I have all of the major Mafex Spidey iterations (original, classic, Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, symbiote) and they all have pretty much the same articulation that is about the same as the Legends retro Spidey, Renew Your Vows Spidey, or AF15 Spidey but a bit better than all of them. The Mafex advantage in articulation range is minor at this point in Hasbro's engineering design progress, but this Maximum figure appears to blow ALL of the Mafex versions away, and every other figure I've ever seen for that matter.
Hard disagree. You're completely ignoring the circular range of the Mafex butterfly joints compared to Hasbro's forward-backward butterfly range. Not to mention, we don't know what the neck range will be like, but I own like a hundred Classified figures with Hasbro's neck joint and none of them pose anywhere near the Mafex. I can also get the Mafex's leg up and behind him like that photo, you don't know how the torso is even posed, it's hidden.
And that's all fine. The Mafex is gonna pose better because the ML was designed to look great in a basic pose as much as an action pose. Personally I think Mafex figures look ugly in basic poses without a ton of micro-fixes. You can't just plop them into a good standing pose like you can a ML. Anyways, this is all moot, we will see how the Maximum figures poses when we get them in-hand.
Personally, I think the MAFEX figure will remain better than this Spidey, but this one might end up being more fun. I like the balance on offer here. More premium than a standard Legends, but not as frail as a MAFEX. Not to say MAFEX figures break easily, but there's no doubt the Maximum Legends figure will be more playable and more durable. Especially the paint. I've had repeated issues with paint scraping on my MAFEX Spideys. Don't think it'll be as much a problem here, especially since most of the parts are molded in their proper color rather than being painted on. Big fan of that honestly.
For me, that's the trade-off. Maybe the articulation isn't quite to that level, but I'll be able to use what it does have without worrying about damaging anything.
Also, why wouldn't this be available at retail? It's a classic Spider-Man figure.
I think that it may have to do with the fact that they want this to always be stocked and not be placed on any type of sale. That's just not how the Targets (for example) of the world work when it comes to toys. They love to clearance the stuff out not terribly long after they initially hit shelves. A premium price point like this is probably a better fit for online retailers anyway, at least those are my thoughts. However if it's on Amazon, it seems inevitable that they'd eventually discount it at times. Who knows?
MAFEX Spider-Man figure (185 especially) is great. One of the best Spidey figures you can have. But his articulation is limited compare to new releases like Mafex Daredevil. I wish they just did Spider-Man 2.0 figure...
MAXIMUM SERIES Spider-Man looks great. But his price is very important. If you remove his accessories, how much does he really cost? This looks like another 25$ figure they can put on a retro card any day. Fine, he can cost just like that new Astonishing Wolverine figure 28$. They can even reuse this mold later.
But do you really think some hands, webs, one unmasked head and effect cost a lot? This looks like 15$ of stuff to me.
I feel domestic toys always miss the real or imagined, hmm, intangibles or cachet of import figures. It can be something as trivial as ties holding the figure to a tray. That totally takes it out of premium territory in my mind.
But do you really think some hands, webs, one unmasked head and effect cost a lot? This looks like 15$ of stuff to me.
Yeah, I agree. The above picture is a standard $25 Marvel Legend with a standard offering of accessories. The below is $15 max. If all's fair then this figure ends up being $40. Again, I think that's the lowest we can hope for.
Man, how long will this speculation keep up?
One thing people here seem to leave out of the cost discussion is Hasbro's overhead and being a Public Company. These are things Mafex & Mezco don't have to reckon with (not saying they don't have overhead, but it's waaaaay less than Hasbro's).
These two factors have a huge affect on their overhead. On top of that, they're getting sued right now for inflating their results and they're worried about potential tariffs chopping their bottom line.
Based on all available data (especially pricing for recent larger or DX figs), this Spidey will be $50 list, like it or not.
One thing I as a customer don't have to care about is Hasbro having too many mouths to feed. If Storm Collectibles can bring a super articulated, well deco'd figure to retail at $25 then it doesn't matter what all of Hasbro's factors are they are still a bad value. And once you are a bad value you'll end up losing
Jada Toys bringing Dhalsim to market with one extra head, two swappable hands, two swappable bendy arms and two swappable bendy legs and a display stand for $25 is going to make a Spider-Man figure that has one more head, 3 more pairs of hands and some webs, and a stand - but doesn't have the extra bendy limbs.... a tough pill to swallow at a substantially higher cost.
So, I get it. Hasbro's math for how much more they are putting in the package over what they are already selling to us for $25 makes this thing come in at $40 or $45 or whatever. But if I look at this Spider-Man or a new Jada Toys figure or Storm Collectibles figure at $25 I'm going to start to think this "Maximum" brand is maybe a ripoff. Heck it sounds like the Maximum figure is going to come in more expensive than most of NECA's retail figures now and I'm not sure they hold up as a good value in that comparison either.
I understand that the people that like this like it and are going to defend it. But I am not sure it's going to be take off.
And there's a cynical part of me that is not sure I want it to. Because the reality is - if this Ultimate figure does sell like gangbusters, this is the future of Marvel releases and the regular Legends line is going to stop altogether and then it's not going to be too long until it's MAXIMUM versions of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron-Man and Deadpool over and over and over again because the lesser names just don't sell enough at that higher price point.
@mrboshek For me, it essentially boils down to two things: quality of plastic, and paint apps. While I welcome this new approach from Hasbro, I generally find their paint apps lacking and can't stand that gummy plastic they typically use, it just feels so cheap.
@panthercult As someone who collects Jada toys SF figures, and is cheap, I totally agree. I’m only in because I held off on all the other Spiderman figures that have come out. At $40-50 for a standard sized character, I’d be pretty hard to convince to re-buy other main characters in this format. Wouldn’t have as much of an issue if they were larger characters (or BAFs) to begin with. Still wouldn’t like it.
@vicious7171 I don't even know if I'd give this new Spider-Man that much credit. They're sacrificing the basic pose aesthetic to get better hip range as this one looks pretty silly standing just straight up and down. If the hips work though I don't think people will be complaining. They're definitely not going for that basic look here, they intend for people to twist this thing into some Spidey poses as opposed to just standing around. Even so, I think Medicom does a reasonable job of making their articulation cuts as palatable as can be. Legends Spider-Man figures usually have cuts I never use because they break up the anatomy or the costume too much i.e. the thigh swivels or the shin cut.
At any rate, this new Hasbro offering isn't direct competition for something like a MAFEX. It's an upscale Legends which really just means a neck joint and some new accessories. This is for the Legends collector who might admire the import offerings, but fear it won't fit in with their Legends display or just can't get over the mental hurdle of paying 100 bucks for six inches of plastic. I'd be very surprised if I personally took a MAFEX Spider-Man and compared it to this one and came away thinking the Hasbro figure was better. On the other hand, the Hasbro figure plus 50 bucks might be a more tempting argument.
I don't think the Legends team tipped their hand as to how these will be sold. I also wouldn't interpret "evergreen" to mean this figure is always available. If it sells out, they'll probably come back with another production run at some point, but no action figure is truly "evergreen" in that you can just go out and buy it for MSRP whenever you wish. I do think it's possible this series will be limited to certain outlets so as not to devalue it with clearance pricing. Then again, if Walmart or Target really wants it they'll get it because that's a nice revenue stream. It just remains to be seen how eager either store will be to stock it. If it's in relatively low numbers like Hulkbuster or Venompool then that would definitely increase the likelihood of this series hitting those stores as it would likely sell before moving to a discount shelf. And personally, I don't see Legends being stocked near me in large quantities so maybe Target and Walmart have already made that change across the board. I haven't seen a clearance Legends figure on the pegs in quite some time.
I think that it'd be both funny, and great, if instead of Wolverine, they gave us Albert instead. Not only could they give us Elsie Dee as a pack-in, but maybe damaged arms, robotic arms, normal arms, claws out, battle damaged face, etc. 😀
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