Saw a review of Leatherneck in hand and he's about the same size as the SAW Viper y'all are complaining about
Oh really, then he should change his name to PleatherNeck 😝
Supreme-D I believe was the marine who had an issue with the sleeves from (what I'm assuming was) a military standpoint, where I was one who had an issue with the sleeves from a "the original figure's sleeves went past his elbows and thus looked far better" standpoint.
They did the same thing for Doc with the sleeves too short and it throws off the iconography. If you're going to say "details matter" in these livestreams then you need to realize that goes 360.
@docsilence And I appreciate size variations, which is why I have Tunnel Rat next to Roadblock right now. But if it looks more like the SAW Viper or whoever belongs in the five inch line or something, that's always gonna bother me.
@ibentmyman-thing Thank you! And yeah, I can deal with Cobra people being weird bastardizations and even sci-fi-ish more than Joes, whom I want more authentic to the branches they're representing. Also, yeah, having the sleeves past the elbows looked cool.
There's basically no chance these figures are turning out eensy weensy as an intentional -design- decision for those specific characters. No amount of hard drugs could make the Joe team think, of ALL characters, that SAW Viper and Leatherneck would be better if they had dainty hands and relative body mass of a K-Pop Idol.
As I suggested earlier, I do think there's a reasonable possibility this was an intentional -financial- decision that was taken a bit too far, or wasn't expected to be as obvious as it is. The other possibility is these figures are being made at a different factory that is fucking this up (either by accident, or because the factory themselves were trying to skimp on Hasbro and charge the same amount for the product while using less raw materials).
It's worth noting that there was a noticeable issue with Hasbro's recent Danny Ketch figure being on the small side for Legends. So this issue may be new to Joes, but it's not new to Hasbro. I don't feel like pulling Danny out of the display, and I don't have SAW Viper or Leatherneck - but I'd be interested to know if they are stamped China or Vietnam (I believe Hasbro has moved some production to new factories in Vietnam).
Would making figures slightly smaller produce any real savings on materials or shipping costs?
I can only imagine menial savings for scaling down 5-10% of materials to make the figures. But I'm not gonna pretend to know the ins and outs of those logistics. I do know it would suck if an anomaly like this became the norm.
In anticipation of the upcoming lull in Classified product, I've caved on a lot of sales and clearance. Wound up picking up most of the Night Force figures, negating my stance on those subgroups. I have a backlog of other random figures like Nunchuck and Kamakura. And the Iron Grenadiers they've released so far. Gonna slowly work through those when things really slow down.
I can only imagine menial savings for scaling down 5-10% of materials to make the figures. But I'm not gonna pretend to know the ins and outs of those logistics. I do know it would suck if an anomaly like this became the norm.
A 5% reduction in the cost of materials probably adds up to significant savings over time at the volume they'd be dealing with on something like this. Especially if it's being siphoned into one person's pocket... Of course it's possible that it's just a translation error in the modeling, but the fact that it happened on more than one figure in the wave is intriguing. Now to wait and see if it is all the figures in the wave.
I think my little pre-christmas haul is: Hawk, Doc, Alpine, Night Creeper, Jinx, Grunt, Quarrel, and Mutt.
It's gonna be tough to buy anyone right away with this in mind next year.
@panthercult Here is a review of Zandar from D Amazing. It looks like Zandar and Dial-Tone are not as small as Leatherneck and SAW Viper. They appear to be more properly scaled. However I can't say for sure, even in the video. They may all be a bit small, but it seems more apparent with Leatherneck and SAW Viper.
Thanks for the video. The Leatherneck is weird because the top of the head looks like it is taller than Zandar, but the shoulders are definitely lower. Zandar doesn't look off, slightly smaller than Zartan, which he should be and bigger than his sister.
The Dial Tone was even shorter than him, though, so might also trend small next to other Joe figures.
I was asking back on like page 295, if there was anything mentioned for the retro line beyond the upcoming Wave that's up for pre order with Rock N Roll, Dr. Mindbender, and Cobra Viper.
I was just noticing on Hisstank they do have what I assume is the next Wave in the Pipeline reveals. And they are
Flint
Cover Girl
Tele-Viper
I completely missed or forgot about those pipeline reveals. I wonder if Hasbro will ever make a Deluxe SKU for the Retro line to do characters like Mutt and Junkyard, Heavy Duty, Gnawgahyde, or Road Pig?
I'm interested to see what they do with Cover Girl... will they give her the blond hair they gave her on the 2013 card since the look we got in Classified already is technically listed as "Wolverine Driver" in the original line and didn't come on a card but in a vehicle box?
I do hope they change it up and give us a different head for her to acknowledge the different looks.
The CG image they used was from the animated series. That could indicate that the coming CG could be part of their M.A.S.S. figures. On the other hand, that version was blonde, so there is the possibility of hope.