Figured I'd buy the whole wave just to get Blackheart, but the longer I look at it I've basically talked myself out of all of them, even flame-on Wolverine.
I'm just PO'ing Moon Knight, but will definitely track the rest of the wave through Keepa and grab them on the cheap eventually to build Blackheart. I can't imagine this wave doesn't go deep discount at some point.
Facebook toy groups are cesspools. Reddit ML groups are bearable. Fwoosh really is the place to be.
@akajomiha You're probably not wrong about the "deep discount" but I'll just play devil's advocate and point out that we know Hasbro is intentionally under-producing what they think will sell now because so much of their product went to those deep discount prices over the past few years. I think that the company was genuinely embarrassed by the Ollies and Ross stuff. I do believe that there will be quite a few items in the near future that if you don't pre-order them, you won't find them... especially these waves that are "fan channel" only and never intended for traditional retail shelves. We've also seen pre-orders sell out really fast on some select stuff already.
Nerdzoic did a YouTube channel video not too long ago about how Hasbro, McFarlane and other are starting to "allocate" and not fill full orders for the online retailers anymore. So someplace like his store might order 200 copies of a figures but only end up getting 75 now. We saw the Target Carnage and Warbird both sell out in minutes, but I still expect that more of those will become available in store. Astonishing Wolverine is another one that I believe is pre-order sold out most places.
@rishoutfield social media is almost unbearable if you want to talk about action figures (or anything else, really)
Old school forums like this are the only place I feel like I can actually come and have a real discussion about toys. Facebook, reddit, and Twitter are all either too toxic, or no one has anything of substance to say. I noticed during the livestream everyone in the chat would just say "L" or "mid" for every reveal and it felt like my brain was rotting just from trying to read it
Oh god, shutting off that live chat is the first thing I do when I pull up the fan streams. Just a non-stop string of absolute garbage spewing forth - I'm amazed they even leave it turned on.
Like everyone else, this is the only place I actually enjoy engaging with the hobby. It definitely enriches the experience, and I wonder how my collecting would be affected if Fwoosh went away. The other social sites I occasionally engage with (instagram, reddit) quickly turn sour and feel just so much more like clout-chasing and feeding an addiction than any sort of real fulfillment or joy. That's overly judgmental and painting with too broad a brush for sure, but it's definitely the impression I'm left with.
Anyway. Long live Fwoosh.
Yeah... I do think we'll be entering a period soon where a number of people who were waiting for clearance will end up frustrated - certain things will likely still end up there, some things always sell worse than others - but the days of most everything hitting discount are likely gone.
Yeah... I do think we'll be entering a period soon where a number of people who were waiting for clearance will end up frustrated - certain things will likely still end up there, some things always sell worse than others - but the days of most everything hitting discount are likely gone.
Exactly. The other downside of that will be scalpers becoming a bigger issue and thus higher secondary market prices after things can't be found for retail price anymore.
That's not even taking into account that smaller product runs mean less profitability per unit for the manufacturer, which usually results in higher original retail prices for the consumer to begin with.
I'm just PO'ing Moon Knight, but will definitely track the rest of the wave through Keepa and grab them on the cheap eventually to build Blackheart. I can't imagine this wave doesn't go deep discount at some point.
I know people are saying "smaller product run and fewer retailers will mean people miss out" but honestly which of these characters from this wave are likely to sell out? When you have AOA Wolverine, an arguably more notable version than FlameDome Wolverine, selling for $7-$9 most places about a year after he was released, I don't know that deep cut variants of beloved characters are gonna be sellouts. Would Brood Wolverine have sold well on his own? 80s / J. Scott Campbell Rogue is arguably higher profile of a character and she's $8-$14 if you look for her. I'm having a hard time discerning who will be the "big name" figure in this wave other than Blackheart himself. At least the Zabu wave had Cable. I don't know if the 3rd or 4th run of Dr. Voodoo and MoonKnight are gonna draw people in like even the most obscure Spiderman variant would. I guess Dracula would probably be the singular figure that would be niche "popular" since he's new, but even then Blackheart's probably going to be released in a variant Capcom coloring scheme at some point.
While I realize this wave won’t hit brick and mortar for prime casual shopping recognition, I still contend that Dracula *would* have been a big and easy sell to “the masses” if he materially resembled the character as pop culture knows him.
While I realize this wave won’t hit brick and mortar for prime casual shopping recognition, I still contend that Dracula *would* have been a big and easy sell to “the masses” if he materially resembled the character as pop culture knows him.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but that exact figure you just described is also basically readily available from Jada, NECA and others already. Someone can log into Amazon right now and buy them at retail price or lower. I remember seeing a crap ton of 6" Jada Dracula figures at Ross this winter for $5 because they sold so poorly with their original retailers.
I've still got the Toy Biz Dracula from the monsters box set so I'm personally glad that they did something different this time.
I know people are saying "smaller product run and fewer retailers will mean people miss out" but honestly which of these characters from this wave are likely to sell out? When you have AOA Wolverine, an arguably more notable version than FlameDome Wolverine, selling for $7-$9 most places about a year after he was released, I don't know that deep cut variants of beloved characters are gonna be sellouts. Would Brood Wolverine have sold well on his own?
It's a difference of scale though. If they produced 100,000 units of AoA Wolverine and he's still widely available at clearance prices - but only ship 20,000 units of FlameDome wolverine in response - that can change the calculus dramatically if there are say 35,000 avid "buy everything" Marvel Legends collectors.
If only those 35,000 people bought AoA Wolverine it meant there were 65,000 copies of that guy languishing on pegs that had to be clearance priced and can't be given away.
But if there are only 20,000 of FlameDome Wolverine and those same 35,000 die hards want him - well now all of a sudden he's going for $70 on ebay because he's impossible to find.
Obviously the numbers I've used are entirely made up - but scaling and ratios are examples of how it works when they dial back production. If Hasbro cut way back on production numbers based on retailer feedback then there simply aren't going to be a ton of leftovers hanging around to hit clearance prices.
The Mindless One wave might be a good bellweather for the scaled back production. I've been trying to snag extras to build a few Mindless Ones, and there haven't been a ton of discounts to go around. Clea and Blade seem to have sold through pretty handily. Lady Bullseye, Daredevil, and the Fist are available, but not a ton of discounts yet. Power Man and Iron Man are the ones widely available at less than retail, but even that isn't anything dramatic.
I'm definitely jumping on figures sooner this year than I might have the last few years.
One helpful thing about trying to army-build Mindless Ones: the left and right legs are effectively interchangeable, and the arms are too, assuming you have extra hands laying around. But, yeah, it’s not a wave of popular characters, and it is not easy to find below retail.
I understand the argument that less figures being produced means they're harder to get. My point is that these are predominantly niche characters going out along with deep cut variants paired 3rd or 4th releases of figures that are already in existence. The Mindless Ones you can argue is an army builder and would therefore be more desirable in that regard. But we'd need to know the production minimum that Hasbro sets for something to be "worth producing," as well as how much each figure actually costs to make. I'd wager that at half price they're still making money, but not the numbers the Hasbro board may want. At times Hasbro seems like the guy who bangs his head on the door frame every time he passes through it because we see things like the Hellfire Club goon that people are still saying they want but can't get. So while we may not see $8 for figures in this Stranger Tales wave, I'd argue you'll at least see $14+ prices, as even the X-Men 97 waves had a discount for the time before the show came out, and most of these characters aren't that prominent in media aside from perhaps Dracula in this summer's comics.
Remember that we're the community they target the "FOMO Cannon" on the most through retailer exclusives and the like. Personally I'm looking more at the Deadpool & Wolverine wave and leaving this one as a "maybe, if it's still around and on discount."
Wolverine's head could make a good stand-in for a helmeted Robbie until he's allowed to come out on his own.
I've been meaning to post, but I wasn't able to log in (the math problem would not work on my computers, either at home or at work). You guys have always been friendly and helpful in the past, but over on Facebook, I posted the question: "Where would I know Lilith from? Is she a Doctor Strange villain? An enemy to Ghost Rider? Someone who fights Blade? Frasier Crane's ex-wife?"
And all I got were "Why don't you pick up a fuggin comic?" and "Just Google it, weirdo" type comments. I mean, they didn't even laugh.
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