So... I ordered the 4H bear as well - but specifically I ordered him as a mount for Vikor to ride in my MOTUC collection.
These bears won't serves as mount, just as awesome bears.
My soft spot and weakness is for cats, bears and foxes (well and otters, but they are far less likely to make into any aggressive fantasy line like this, so..) - when I majored in Zoology at university my concentration was on the evolutionary development and distribution of large carnivore species - I did multiple thesis papers on or around the subject - especially focusing on the families felidae, ursidae and mustelidae.
Anyway I find most figures of big cats and bears intriguing and nigh irresistible and these guys look like catnip for me. Previously the best Polar Bear figure we ever had was from the Golden Compass movie - and while those were fun for the time, they don't work well in a modern display. So I am stoked this set is coming.
If there's anyone that is only interested in the Snake Eyes from this set, hit me up, I'm certain to have extra(s).
@panthercult I may need a couple of those purple Snake Eyes if you have extras and don’t need them.
@panthercult Right there with you on the fascination with certain animals, and a few lines have been working wonders with them lately. Joes are at the top tier but Zabu over in Marvel Legends is spectacular and the D&D line's animals are phenomenal too. I bought a second Drizz't during one of the Pulse fire sales so I could have an extra panther to put with T'Challa, and their displacer beast cat and owlbear just never go into storage. They're great to pose and scale-wise fit with everything i collect. Kinda hilarious to have an owlbear fighting Duke and Winter Soldier on the shelf.
Yup... agree on all fronts. I have the displacer beast and Drizzt's cat, as well as the 1/6 black Smilodon from Creative Beast studios and yes - Zabu turned out fantastic. I've been thinking about gathering more Zabu body parts to build other cats.
And I definitely picked up a few extra owlbears on clearance intending to mod a couple of different style owl heads onto those to go with the two they gave us. (I took a fair few ornithology classes too 😉 )
My Mythic Legions Bear will be my mount for Snow White and her dwarf army.
The Classified animals will animals. I would love to see Hasbro take a crack at Pachyderms. Not sure why they would but it would be cool.
Thwipp!
I think the 4H bear is too big, ill stick with the snake eyes version. would like to see a comparison with the 2 bears.
My soft spot and weakness is for cats, bears and foxes (well and otters, but they are far less likely to make into any aggressive fantasy line like this, so..) - when I majored in Zoology at university my concentration was on the evolutionary development and distribution of large carnivore species - I did multiple thesis papers on or around the subject - especially focusing on the families felidae, ursidae and mustelidae.
Anyway I find most figures of big cats and bears intriguing and nigh irresistible and these guys look like catnip for me. Previously the best Polar Bear figure we ever had was from the Golden Compass movie - and while those were fun for the time, they don't work well in a modern display. So I am stoked this set is coming.
I haven't got any formal education around it, but I recognize this pretty hard. The animal companion pieces are the only Classifieds I own. If only there was one that had a hyena, or one of the viverridae... 🙂
Would making figures slightly smaller produce any real savings on materials or shipping costs?
In the long term; probably? Hard to say for sure because we don't really know what their costs on anything are. But it can certainly add up over the millions of units they're producing. It's also worth considering that if a downshift in size fits even one more piece into a tool, then over a half-dozen figures, or a dozen figures, that could mean actually producing one less steel tool. And that would be a savings of like 30 grand right there. That's a half of a percent of one CEO bonus right there.
Add that savings to the potentially thousands of dollars saved in material costs over a run of each figure. And to get really petty about it - a figure that's 9% smaller might use what... 2% less material in the paint deco? Again - nothing for one or two figures, but if it becomes a trend then you might also be talking thousands of dollars in the long term. Yeah you could be talking about a decent sum overall.
But again... PURE speculation and I'm not suggesting that's what's happening. In fact, I think it's more likely that these are being produced in a different factory and the factory fucked up. We can't know for sure either way. Could be neither.
Dial-Tone is such a weird figure for me. I have literally never cared about the character or any of his figures. But for some reason that Classified figure just speaks to me. Something about the overall design, the colors, the wacky retro-ness of the backpack. I kind of want it but I also feel like I need to convince myself not to just get stuff I don't actually care about because it -always- ends up in the sell pile within a year or two.
What if hasbro shrinks Classified figures down so much they eventually fit into my old ARAH vehicles 🤔
I'm leaning toward Saw Viper being a one off goof in sizing. Is he mostly new tooling? Mistakes happen. Any wrestling fans remember when Toybiz (or Marvel Toys?) released two abnormally large and out of scale figures, then double or tripled down by releasing them again later down the line rather than tossing the molds. Toy companies seem really averse to discontinuing a mold. Hopefully we don't see a situation where newly tooled figures are commonly too small compared to a figure that's mostly older tooling. Leatherneck and Zandar seemed reasonably sized.
Was it Jerry Macaluso that said years ago when he owned SOTA, the plastic costs between a 6, 5, and 7 inch figure were pretty negligible? Not sure how that holds up in todays market though.
Although I do like heights differences between characters, I didn’t expect Leatherneck or Saw Viper to be smaller. I also forgot that the windowless packaged Joes had their heights listed on the back. I recently picked up an extra LT Falcon and he’s listed as 6’4. I’m out of town and nowhere near my collection so I can’t see if the heights are listed in the current window boxes.
Was it Jerry Macaluso that said years ago when he owned SOTA, the plastic costs between a 6, 5, and 7 inch figure were pretty negligible? Not sure how that holds up in todays market though.
Yeah, I think anything someone from SOTA said is beyond irrelevant. Could absolutely still be true - but the source, at this point, is basically worthless. Not in a rude way, mind. It's just that you're talking about something said 15 years ago, or more. Jerry would have been speaking from the perspective of what the current oil prices were, what the current production/labour costs were, what the current shipping costs were, and the relationship between those numbers.
If oil prices rise drastically, but other costs don't, then material costs become a larger percentage of the costs. If everything goes up at the same rate, then the comment is still accurate. If labour costs skyrocketed but oil prices stayed relatively low, material costs could be even more negligible than they used to be. Impossible for most of us to have the necessary information. The only thing we know is that ALL costs have definitely gone up since the SOTA days. We just don't really know what percentage each different cost has risen.
Also worth pointing out that SOTA was producing a handful of figures per year. What is negligible for them might not be negligible for a company producing hundreds of figures per year - almost assuredly in larger numbers per item than SOTA would have even fantasized about. There's probably more Leathernecks being produced than SOTA Vegas, Guiles, and Zangiefs combined. What might have amounted to a few hundred bucks overall to SOTA could, for Hasbro, amount to many thousands of dollars.
I skimmed the last couple of pages and the "small Leatherneck and SAW Viper" chatter made me curious enough to look at some height comparisons in reviews. Yeah, Leatherneck is a bit shorter. From what I have seen SAW Viper is not as big an issue. I'll need more examples before I start calling this another Hasbro cost cutting move but I definitely wouldn't put it past them.
Height-aside, I'd be happy with slightly-closer to hero proportions. Leatherneck looks way too much like a regular-ass dude which doesn't gel with his character at all. He's just so boring. Oh well. They can't all be Zandar-levels of awesome.
Once we get Wetsuit and if he’s taller than Leatherneck, we’re gonna have some problems.
@theknightdamien I wonder if a comparison of retail prices over the years could shed any light on that. It seems to me like the gap between 3.75" and 6" is closer now than it has ever been. However that could just be my misconception.
I know retail price is not related to manufacturing costs directly, but there has to be some causal link so maybe there is some way to get an idea without insider knowledge.
Latest Post: Marvel Legends MAXIMUM SERIES Our newest member: GeorgeWiZ Recent Posts Unread Posts
