MAFEX Marvel Comics Figures

[TheSameIdiot]

Here are the latest estimates from Medicom's site:

Cyborg Superman..................12/22
Terminator.......................12/22
Spider-Man Classic...............12/22

Homelander........................1/23
Butcher...........................1/23
Harley Caution Tape version.......1/23
Wonder Woman Golden Armor.........1/23
Loki Infinity War.................1/23
Superman ZSJL.....................1/23

Cyclops X-Factor..................2/23

Huntress..........................3/23
Deadpool X-Force..................3/23
Wolverine X-Force.................3/23

Magneto...........................4/23
Nightwing Hush....................4/23
Storm.............................4/23

Thor Comic Book...................5/23
Steel.............................5/23
Iron Man mk 50....................5/23
Cyborg ZSJL.......................5/23

Scarlet Spider....................6/23
RoboCop Damaged...................6/23

Rescue............................7/23
Black Noir........................7/23
THE Batman........................7/23
Starlight.........................7/23

Terminator 2 Damaged..............8/23
RoboCop 2 no helmet...............8/23

Spider-Man No Way Home............9/23
Iron Man Endgame damaged..........9/23

LeBron Space Jam.................10/23

Poison Ivy.......................11/23
Terminator 2.....................11/23

Jesus it’s jus going from bad to worse… are the ships just completely out of fuel and personnel or is Medicom on the verge of going in the tank? How can these estimates change three times in the space of a week? They’re not even close to instilling any confidence in their customer base right now. It’ll be a miracle if retail accounts decide to hold on or start offering cancellations


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Come on now. I know you're not new to this line. This is still a far cry from a real shitshow like Mezco.

[EnigmaticClarity]

I've mentioned it before, but I think of MAFEX much more like Super7 and Bandai/SHF like Hasbro. I *think* MAFEX takes their production orders from pre-order numbers, like Super7 and the smaller companies. That's why their PO's are up for so long... you aren't buying a figure that's already produced, they are giving time to see how many units move, and maybe they round up little. Then they go to the factory and start the production process, and like Super7, they are hit with delays, some maybe due to COVID, shipping, and the fact that they aren't prioritized the same way a larger company would be. Additionally, I think at this point both MAFEX and Super7 might be being a little dishonest about release dates when PO's go up. They must know by now that there will be snags, etc, and they could account for it-- so why not wait until the figure is closer to being in production, or actually in production? Unless the POs help with funding or production estimates somehow. However, if they told people the figures release was actually two years out, they'd get very few POs and there wouldn't be any urgency around it - so if they wanted a head count before they ordered the pizza so to say, this wouldn't work.

Meanwhile, when SHFs go up for PO, what they are selling is a number of figures already in production. So their PO's sell out fast, they can't promise more because there aren't any more. But, I think they almost immediately put in another order with the factory based on how fast the POs moved for a supplementary order. That's why SHF stuff tends to sell out in POs and go out of stock instantly on release... and then several weeks or months later there is a somewhat consistent amount of stock for a bit. With MAFEX, after POs close on a popular fig, you have to hope that they do a reissue in the future.

Who is it that is taking and closing pre-orders in your description? Are you talking about the retailers taking pre-orders from customers, or are you referring here to Medicom taking pre-orders from retailers?

Also what's their usual time frame for pre-orders? I always assumed retailers knew how many they were going to get and just kept selling the pre-orders until that number gets passed...didn't think about them just taking an infinite number of pre-orders for some period of time.

[Handsome]

Not loving the delays, but I was kind of expecting it in the back of my mind so not really surprised.

[Amazing_Spider-Man]

I'm surprised that the first Terminator figure didn't get delayed at all. I think it was always scheduled for December.

[AgentLionel]

I've mentioned it before, but I think of MAFEX much more like Super7 and Bandai/SHF like Hasbro. I *think* MAFEX takes their production orders from pre-order numbers, like Super7 and the smaller companies. That's why their PO's are up for so long... you aren't buying a figure that's already produced, they are giving time to see how many units move, and maybe they round up little. Then they go to the factory and start the production process, and like Super7, they are hit with delays, some maybe due to COVID, shipping, and the fact that they aren't prioritized the same way a larger company would be. Additionally, I think at this point both MAFEX and Super7 might be being a little dishonest about release dates when PO's go up. They must know by now that there will be snags, etc, and they could account for it-- so why not wait until the figure is closer to being in production, or actually in production? Unless the POs help with funding or production estimates somehow. However, if they told people the figures release was actually two years out, they'd get very few POs and there wouldn't be any urgency around it - so if they wanted a head count before they ordered the pizza so to say, this wouldn't work.

Meanwhile, when SHFs go up for PO, what they are selling is a number of figures already in production. So their PO's sell out fast, they can't promise more because there aren't any more. But, I think they almost immediately put in another order with the factory based on how fast the POs moved for a supplementary order. That's why SHF stuff tends to sell out in POs and go out of stock instantly on release... and then several weeks or months later there is a somewhat consistent amount of stock for a bit. With MAFEX, after POs close on a popular fig, you have to hope that they do a reissue in the future.

Who is it that is taking and closing pre-orders in your description? Are you talking about the retailers taking pre-orders from customers, or are you referring here to Medicom taking pre-orders from retailers?

Also what's their usual time frame for pre-orders? I always assumed retailers knew how many they were going to get and just kept selling the pre-orders until that number gets passed...didn't think about them just taking an infinite number of pre-orders for some period of time.

Yeah, you might be right, but if that's the case the number of PO slots allotted to a store must be much much more than Bandai allows, or they are allowed to reserve as many figures as they want, which would still imply a more made to order method. Bandai seems to deal in finite quantities initially because the first wave is likely already undergoing production.

[tybigg]

seeing December 9th as the official release date for the classic Spider-man, can anyone confirm?

Ordered from Hobby Genki

[Revox]

Eh, I’d say Medicom have been pretty good this year, definitely feels like they’ve picked up the pace compared to the previous couple of years. And for all their delays, at least they do put the stuff they reveal up for sale (I will never stop being salty at Bandai about those Wandavision Visions they never did anything with!).

[panther10]

Eh, I’d say Medicom have been pretty good this year, definitely feels like they’ve picked up the pace compared to the previous couple of years. And for all their delays, at least they do put the stuff they reveal up for sale (I will never stop being salty at Bandai about those Wandavision Visions they never did anything with!).

True but the holiday season is when everything inevitably comes to its biggest choke point of the year when it involves overseas shipping and distribution and Medicom has inevitably been caught in the middle. There’s only so many containers that they can secure and move this time of year. And compared to the likes of the bigger mega corporations and even the larger toy companies, it looks like they were only able to grab the bare minimum of containers. I don’t think things have looked this grim since they only Mafex figures they had to move was the RotJ Stormtrooper and Vader figures when the line first dropped. These delays prove that it will be a real cat and mouse game waiting for those ships and extra containers to come back to the ports after the holiday season is over.


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[MollyMillions]

seeing December 9th as the official release date for the classic Spider-man, can anyone confirm?

Ordered from Hobby Genki

Ordered from Amazon, says Arriving December 13 - December 16, so I'd say that checks out based on my past orders.

[RoboKillah]

Eh, I’d say Medicom have been pretty good this year, definitely feels like they’ve picked up the pace compared to the previous couple of years. And for all their delays, at least they do put the stuff they reveal up for sale (I will never stop being salty at Bandai about those Wandavision Visions they never did anything with!).

True but the holiday season is when everything inevitably comes to its biggest choke point of the year when it involves overseas shipping and distribution and Medicom has inevitably been caught in the middle. There’s only so many containers that they can secure and move this time of year. And compared to the likes of the bigger mega corporations and even the larger toy companies, it looks like they were only able to grab the bare minimum of containers. I don’t think things have looked this grim since they only Mafex figures they had to move was the RotJ Stormtrooper and Vader figures when the line first dropped. These delays prove that it will be a real cat and mouse game waiting for those ships and extra containers to come back to the ports after the holiday season is over.


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Naw. Here's the updated shipping schedule from 12/11/20.

Medicom MAFEX Schedule Update 121120.jpg (187.16 KiB) Viewed 1395 times

That Mando listed for May was supposed to be releasing as the list was updated to kinda coincide with the new season. Even then it didn't actually release until August.

Gambit: Originally slated for March 2021, updated to June, released October.

Peter B. Parker was June 2020, pushed to January 2021, still waited until March.

Essentially, par for the course for MAFEX. Plus your container scenario assumes that these are actually produced and just sitting on docks, waiting to be picked up. Not the case.

[AddictBraids]

I don't feel like Mafex has been bad at all in terms of their production output. If anything, I think its increased with all the reissues we got plus the new releases. I wouldn't even mention them in the same breath as Mezco when it comes production and delivering product. I feel like Mafex is trending up, not down. And I think that's where some of this quiet murmur comes from about Mafex "declining" in their production. I think there's a lot of new collectors that are jumping on the Mafex bandwagon recently, and they aren't used to the Mafex release cycle yet. I knew months ago that classic Magneto, Storm and Nightwing weren't going to be released this year. Whenever a new figure gets solicited by Mafex, whatever they have listed as the "release window", I typically add 6 months to that and generally they hit that window. I'm genuinely shocked that the new Terminator figure is releasing this month, I'm pretty sure he only got pushed back 2 months which is really fast for Mafex.

[AddictBraids]

On a side note, I'm going to be hurting big time in April, if these new release dates are accurate... Magneto, Storm and Nightwing and I have two copies of each coming... there goes $450...

[gpmartin414]

I don't feel like Mafex has been bad at all in terms of their production output. If anything, I think its increased with all the reissues we got plus the new releases. I wouldn't even mention them in the same breath as Mezco when it comes production and delivering product. I feel like Mafex is trending up, not down. And I think that's where some of this quiet murmur comes from about Mafex "declining" in their production. I think there's a lot of new collectors that are jumping on the Mafex bandwagon recently, and they aren't used to the Mafex release cycle yet. I knew months ago that classic Magneto, Storm and Nightwing weren't going to be released this year. Whenever a new figure gets solicited by Mafex, whatever they have listed as the "release window", I typically add 6 months to that and generally they hit that window. I'm genuinely shocked that the new Terminator figure is releasing this month, I'm pretty sure he only got pushed back 2 months which is really fast for Mafex.

Yeah, you have to add six months. Also does seem like they upped it from two to three releases a month, which is 12 extra figures a year. They're presumably producing more units of each figure as well given the seeming increase in popularity.

[RoboKillah]

Yeah, but those third releases for the past couple of months are simple repaints with very limited quantities, only stocking Medicom's own overseas stores.

[TFitz]

I haven't fulfilled a Mafex order in months. I just decided the value wasn't there for me. I'm more than happy with Legends. But this has also been the case with Hush figures. I think I Mafex'd out. The delays on them really made me rethink my spending priorities, and they just aren't one for me anymore.