I’m disappointed.

Macbeth with Hudson’s Wings and Coldstone were two figures I was looking forward to as they were shown so long ago. 

I guess NECA can continue to make those creepy little kids selling like hotcakes. 

Thwipp!

Posted by: @doc-baghead

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Posted by: @jtmarsh

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I'm currently going on 20 months / nearly 2 years waiting on some Mythic Legions hands I ordered from BBTS.

Are these by chance the skeleton or knight hands?

If it is, I’m going on two years of waiting of having pre-paid directly to the Horsemen for those hands and still not received them! That’s not a Big Bad issue, it’s a 4H issue.

Edit to avoid a double post:
Ultimates checklists today, Gargoyles wasn’t folded into it.

Calling it now, but we’ll see what happens in March: Last year’s check list saying the line had no signs of stopping, saying at SDCC Macbeth and Coldstone were still coming, Djorde having more unseen sculpts done, NECA not folding the figures back into the Ultimates checklist like they did with BTTF and ET … the line isn’t dead. It’s not progressing as fast as some of us would like, but signs are there it’s not over.

it’s worth noting no other checklist uses grandiose terms like Gargoyles check list, I scrolled back to the last BTTF checklist (which didn’t include items that would not be released like the animated DeLorean) and it just said “we made so many products! Find them in stores!” No promise of more figures even though we demand cowboy versions, dammit!

I hope you are right.

Posted by: @doc-baghead

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Posted by: @jtmarsh

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I'm currently going on 20 months / nearly 2 years waiting on some Mythic Legions hands I ordered from BBTS.

Are these by chance the skeleton or knight hands?

If it is, I’m going on two years of waiting of having pre-paid directly to the Horsemen for those hands and still not received them! That’s not a Big Bad issue, it’s a 4H issue.

I ordered some knight hands, that said, if there's problems with a supplier that should be communicated to clients rather than just radio silence.  I'm sure BBTS has the ability to see aging orders that have languished for going on 2 years now and could easily communicate what's going on to those who ordered with them.  Putting up preorders for both Retro Beast and Retro Symbiote Spiderman and then never filling them can be partly laid at Hasbro's feet, but again, why would I bother with a retailer who keeps preorders open for 12-18 months and I'll only hear any updates when they finally cancel the item?  Nature of the preorder toy game I know, but as bad as Target is (they have a whole host of other issues besides being the 1am cancellation King), they typically don't make you wait a year+ to find out you're not getting what you ordered and now you get to go hunt it down for likely an inflated price as is the case w/ Retro Beast.

3 years ago I was fine with BBTS, but given recent experiences, I prefer to deal with retailers where I'm not waiting around thinking I've secured something only to find out much later that the window for buying that item for a reasonable price closed long ago when I thought my item was taken care of.  I'm sure others have their own glowing/dismal reviews, but my overall point was "if you really want it, don't sleep on it, because BBTS isn't gonna notify you that they're not getting something for a good long while."

And there it is...

https://bsky.app/profile/gargoylespodcast.bsky.social/post/3lheggbyiys2v

Disappointing but not surprising.

At least we got all the main characters. NECA could have easily pulled the plug before getting Lexington out.

That’s really too bad. I would have liked McBeth, Owen, and Coldstone at least. In the end, it was probably the wings that really killed this line. Really wish they had gone with articulated wings or included the options with each figure. Having the Gargoyles at one price and humans at another would have been better then trying to force the same MSRP for the entire line. People get that bigger figures that include more cost more. And maybe having a less ‘ultimate’ version of the gargoyles with just one set of wings could have satisfied those worried about $50 figures.

In hope if nothing else, this proved to Disney there is still support for this brand and a revival of any kind beyond the Dynamite comics would potentially do well too.

Yup. Expected, but still disappointing. I don't know what the sales figures were, but NECA certainly shares some of the blame. The critiques were constant, fans made it known what it was about these figures that they didn't like, but they refused to address it beyond a half measure. It's a shame, as MacBeth would have rounded out the important characters for me while Coldstone just looked like an awesome toy. The line seemed like it had a ton of momentum upfront, but either NECA dropped the ball or fans just didn't show up for the other characters like they did Goliath. Here's hoping it won't be too long before someone else gives the brand a try.

Toy Collector magazine is going to start having a reputation as having a cover curse. First Coldstone, then Super7's The Simpsons. I hope Thundercats fans aren't too attached to that vehicle they just revealed on their cover!

I know that Brigitte Bako was ecstatic that Angela finally had an action figure. Kenner didn't release one back in the 90s.

You know what would be a guaranteed seller, just sell the caped wings separately as a NECA store preorder.  If these figures exist I don't understand why they can't be sold as a limited run before they bow out.

I don't think the unreleased stuff ever got far enough along to where steel was being cut, so there would be considerably expense in going forward with a figure like Coldstone. Gabriel and MacBeth probably utilized some existing parts, but they still need some new stuff. The wings are a different animal and selling them would be nice. Not sure how well they'd sell though as I think most collectors like having the caped wings, but they're not the wings they really want. Still, if NECA announced an open preorder for Coldstone I'd be all over it and if it didn't get enough support to be made then oh well.

The wings were a thing for people, yes, but there was always another hard truth underlying this line: it ain't TMNT.  The vast majority of people were going to buy the main characters that they remembered, or maybe even just their favorite one or two, and that was gonna be it.  It was never gonna go deep. 

I will say I'm still mystified they didn't milk the molds more, I thought stone variants were a foregone conclusion.

I'm SUPER bummed Macbeth isn't going to make it out.  That's one figure I was really looking forward to getting from this line & he looked fantastic!  Oh well, toss these onto the heap of disappointing cancellations we've all endured over the years.  Still a fantastic line overall.

@cmoney This is the reality.  Some fans just over-estimated any potential popularity to the brand/line.  It's amazing the line lasted as long as it did.  Would semi-opened wings been better than the full open ones?  Certainly.  I know I would have been more interested in more Gargoyles if I could realistically fit them into a display.  So they may have lost a couple of sales to me based on the full spread wings.  I'm not sure that's what killed the line, though.  It's the fact the property hasn't had any relevant media in decades.  I assume it just hit its ceiling in terms of sales and it wasn't enough to make it worth continuing.

Unfortunate, but I can’t complain about what I got!

I’ll take a complete team over missing two or three members in exchange for a “deep cut” character no one asked for or worse just half a team and dipping out.

I’m glad we weren’t left with half a team like Jackal and no Hyena or Oberon and no Titania 

with three dee printing tech being were it is today I can make Macbeth (a DP&W Blade would be an excellent base if that Chinese company that does 1/10 MCU figs wants my money), I can turn a steel clan and goliath I pick up on Clearance into a passable Coldstone, Vincent Price (full suit) and Van Hellsing (rolled up sleeves) will be my base bodies for Owen. AWoK moving into bigger bodies and Mythic Legions introducing more animalistic parts will help me build out the Mayan and English Clans… the main Gargoyles themselves were always the hardest part to customize and I have the full team! This is exactly what I wanted from NECA.

So yeah, heart broken, but realistic I don’t know how much more I expected (I know the three figures shown and Owen) from this line realistically so I’m fine with this.

I don't know if I agree with some of the conclusions here about ceilings to begin with. Is it TMNT? No.

We know from the 2023 Nerdzoic numbers that the line outsold a LOT of other more popular properties. 2024 gave us variants of figures that we already had. The problem was that NECA, for whatever reasons, chose not to do anything new with the line last year. Which, again, of course killed the sales.

If we’d gotten Coldstone, Macbeth, and Gabriel and then the line was cancelled, then perhaps we could analyze it more thoroughly. But as it stands right now… I don’t feel like we can.

I'd say it's just as likely the reason we got variants and nothing new last year is BECAUSE the sales didn't hold up.  A lot of places had them on clearance, and NECA themselves are dumping them in the blind box bundles they've been selling on their site, which most assume are comprised of leftover/returned Target stock.