Dragon Man is clearly a test figure they feel pretty strongly about (no doubt due to previous version value = proof of demand) and it's clearly an improvement, with a more classic look.
What happens next is going to depend on how he sells. No idea what the threshold will be to make it works as he appears to be a top-down new sculpt. I expect the follow-up to involve some re-use. For instance, the DOFP Sentinel, possiby with some tweaks or another existing 12" tool with some overlays (shudder).
I hope it's a success because, as the thread proves, the opportunities are wild. I would fully expect him to be $100 (maybe even a little more). The idea that it's three times the plastic and therefore only worth $75 ignores it's a new sculpt, and a much bigger & heavier figure (which will add to shipping costs both based on weight and dimensional weight).
Dragon Man is clearly a test figure they feel pretty strongly about (no doubt due to previous version value = proof of demand)
Isn't the Toy Biz Dragon Man insanely rare, i.e. less than 100 copies distributed? I thought that's the reason it's so valuable--there are very few around.
I think Dragon Man was short packed in the FF Classics Wave 2 that wasn't widely distributed, if I recall it was released right at the end of the ToyBiz license - the Kang was pretty hard to find as well, and had a chase clear Invisible Woman. So it was rare but not 100 figure rare, I found mine at retail. Probably closer to an onlline exclusive/convention exclusive but still in the 1000s...
The first wave had a great set of variant SuperSkrulls and an Impossible Man packed in with Johnny Storm.
EDITED to add: Not sure but maybe KayBee toys was the only retailer to carry the wave,
Isn't the Toy Biz Dragon Man insanely rare, i.e. less than 100 copies distributed? I thought that's the reason it's so valuable--there are very few around.
I mean, from the people who have it I have heard that the Dragon Man figure was pretty good. But yes it's value is driven primarily by rarity.
I do believe there are far more than 100 out there though. I don't know exactly how many were distributed in package - it was not an excessive amount. But then there was also a large lot of wingless Dragon Man figures that became available from China that allowed many collectors to buy a Dragon Man and use Annihilus wings (or other DIY methods) to fudge a close enough version.
Considering the bulk of the figure, that they were selling this for the same price as regular figures was amazing. Think if they had done MODOK as a $24.99 figure. It is technically underscaled but still really well done.
No way Dragon Man was limited to 100 copies. I have one that I picked up at retail when it was released, along with the rest of the wave. I think that set just had a limited release (think the TRU exclusive BAF Jubilee wave) but nothing *that* limited.
I found Dragon Man at my LCS for $7.99 when he was released. I knew he was hard to find (although I would have bought him regardless) but at the time I didn't realize how lucky I was.
The idea that it's three times the plastic and therefore only worth $75 ignores it's a new sculpt, and a much bigger & heavier figure (which will add to shipping costs both based on weight and dimensional weight).
Again, Marvel Select has done similar heavy characters at $30, all with original sculpts, zero re-use potential and lots of paint and accessories. Shipping costs aren't really relevant, are they?
While I don't know how many they produced, 'round these parts (the Northeast), Rite Aid stores were the only retailer that carried that Toybiz F4 classics line. Of the numerous area stores I contacted, only one ever confirmed they had actually got DM in, but some jerkface had already scooped him up earlier in the day. I remember calling and driving around like a lunatic trying to secure a Dragon Man for my collection only to come up empty handed over and over again. It really is the only time I ever failed to secure a particular Marvel Legends figure that I very much desired ...and my brick-and-mortar game was hella strong. As I've mentioned before, once I even drove out of state solely to obtain a tail-strike Scorpion from a New Hampshire TrU.
Basically, the Toybiz Dragon Man was this Silverback's White Whale.
Why wouldn't shipping costs be relevant? If it's going to cost them two or three times as much per unit to freight the product it's going to be factored into the cost.
I'd be surprised if there's anything from MS that is truly comparable to this Dragon Man. Larger size, more articulation, two huge sets of wings, etc.
No one is going to know the answer to this, but I'd love to know if/how the licensing for Marvel Select is different from Legends. We know they have very specific limitations on how much and what they can make - maybe that comes with different licensing terms that let more money go into the actual product.
I’m wary with this made to order situation since I already feel like Dragon Man’s wings not being articulated but swappable is the wrong way to go on an articulated figure (and it’s why I’m a hard nope on Lockjaw having less POA than other quadruped figures like Cosmo and Zabu).
A bigger price and larger scale than a regular off the shelf deluxe figure should give them scope to better innovate on articulation and engineering, kinda like how the Haslab projects did, to varying degrees of success. Sure they screwed up the Sentinel’s joints but they tried, and in Galactus they actually got it right.
Articulated wings aren’t even requiring much innovation, they’ve done multi-piece hinged wings that open and close at not too much smaller before, so instead going to a fixed-spread wing piece that has to be swapped out falls on the side of “it’s more pieces/accessories/plastic, therefore more cost” rather than just doing the job right and making a proper poseable wing that opens and closes. To me this fundamentally signals a warning sign as to where further offerings in this bracket could go, and I don’t want to be getting long-desired characters like Cameron Hodge and discovering that his tail is the same useless unarticulated effort as the pre-posed tail on Mojo.
I definitely would like to see offerings like a Shuma Gorath/Gargantos and a Children of the Atom Sentinel too, but again they could end up being more like diorama bricks if the squid arms aren’t all independently articulated or bendy-wire, and the limbs on Sentinel swap out to demonstrate its offensive capabilities rather than have moving parts to replicate the effects
I think it's premature to say something is the wrong way to go when we haven't even seen it. Looking at the pics of the fully spread wings, you can imagine why they might not want to articulate the wings for folding - it would break up the full wing sculpt and make the wings 4-5 overlapping pieces each. It also precludes them from putting any curvature in the wings at all, requiring them to be completely flat. Has NECA articulated any of their Gargoyles figures' wings? I'd be interested in seeing how they worked (or other examples where it works well) if they have.
I think Angel worked great, but that doesn't mean it's the right solution every time. Plus, they might be basing the folded wings on something like this - really compact to the point that it would be difficult to achieve even with lots of additional articulation:
I still hope/expect the wings to be articulated for posing, but if they can't fully collapse - and they instead include an alternate piece to achieve the same effect - I think that's just as good of an option.
No that’s not true, curved wings absolutely can be collapsed in to slide over each other as 3 or 4 pieces pivoting at an hinge , and that’s exactly what I want. It would be more work on sculpt and engineering the moulds, but then we come back to the cost issue which will be higher than a retail figure anyway.
The Gargoyles figures could have had that done on the extended wings but they also become cloak-like in the source animation so I think swappable pieces makes more sense for them.
If they view this a mini-Haslab, wonder if they might consider bundling a Diablo figure with Dragon Man?
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