Toybiz Looses Toy & Game License To Hasbro

[xstoys]

Marvel has jumped into the sack with Hasbro. Where does that leave Toybiz???

Read about it here:

http://www.marvel.com/company/showarticle.htm?id=1171

Edited January 10, 2006 by xstoys

[buffalobob77]

That sucks. The Legends line in one of the best out there and even though hasbro has done some great things with Star Wars they don't seem to put as much effort into their other properties.

Oh well I didn't collect Marvel Legends. Just had a lot respect for the line and I'd hate to see it turn into something more kiddy friendly.

[promethuem5]

BASTARDS!!! They had better release all of the announced 2006 Legends waves, because if I don't get my Original Armor Ironman I will go on a mad killing ramage. This is an outrage... ToyBiz for Marvel has been putting out one of the greatest toylines in history, where was the problem?

[eriku]

Great, I can't wait for the day when the only toy companies left in America are Hasbro and Mattell, and then they'll merge to form Allied Toy.

Toy Biz has been great for Marvel, Hasbro must have really offered Marvel a lot of money.

Edited January 10, 2006 by eriku

[emajnthis]

That sucks! I have a feeling like Hasbro is going to give Marvel characters shooting weapons and awful proportions, like Toybiz back in the 90's. Finally, when Toybiz starts to get things right, it all goes down the toilet.

[Southpaw Samurai]

So does this mean that Toybiz has officially come out from under the same umbrella that Marvel was under? If I'm not mistaken, I believe Toybiz is/was owned by either Marvel, or by people who worked for whatever company technically controls Marvel these days (part of the reason Marvel lines make up the vast majority of Toybiz's products, at least state-side).

Yeah...looks like Hasbro's just throwing the cash about again. Really a shame given that Marvel Legends (and the off-shoots that used a similar design) were incredible toys....accurate enough for little statues, durable enough to be played with (at least compared to much less poseable McFarlane stuff, for example), poseable enough to fit almost any pose one wanted. I actually impressed a female coworker who couldn't care less about comic book characters with one or two Legends. She went from almost scoffing at having them on my monitor to being impressed that they were more flexible (and able to hold the pose) than her art model.

Even if Hasbro doesn't dumb down or simplify the characters (or castrate them like Optimus Prime's smokestacks and such), it'll probably still suck since they'll probably start all over from the start with main characters again so anyone looking for their favorite second or third stringer might never see them.

Edited January 10, 2006 by Southpaw Samurai

[promethuem5]

Yeah... hasbro had better not dumb down the designs. I usually hate Hasbro stuff. This blows.

[DARTHTODD]

I HATE hasbro. Other than the 3 1/2" figureline, they've killed off every good star wars line that there was! For SW, the only good thing they've ever done was sell thier 12" license to sideshow (someone who can make a good figure).

[emajnthis]

I have never been fans of any Hasbro toy products, except for the Clone Troopers, but even those have things that bother me (like why there's one with possible legs and not possible arms, then one with possible everything except legs... ugh...) and very select GI Joe lines. So i can only expect them to royally screw up Toybiz's greatly engineered Marvel lineups. Marvel Legend's as said before was finally getting to the third tier characters and now none of those will ever come out.

Edited January 10, 2006 by emajnthis

[sabretooth]

i saw this yesterday

and screamed many a foul word.

well we can look forward to them screwing up the next 2 spidey films with such wonderful ideas that they could'nt use for the gijoe line i.e. bright neon mega power super armor that smell like strawberries and you use it as a pda/ blood pressure moniter.

well i guess toybiz is done. great. i had just submitted my portfolio friday.

crap. $57.23 flushed down the tube.

apparently my love for marvel merch. has just died

Edited January 10, 2006 by sabretooth

[Twoducks]

Well this sure sucks. I had great respect for the line and it has cost me a lot of will power not to get any of this figures. Great poseability. Remember trying to convince myself to get one by saying "you can use it as one of them drawing mannequins".

Well, out with the cool extras like Galactus and the Sentinel in with super water cannon action (or worse).

[eriku]

Well, after reading more on this I don't feel as bad as before. It sounds like ToyBiz is still going to control the selection of characters, the designs and sculpting, and Hasbro's end will be the marketing, production, QC and all that. Still, I can't help but wonder if Hasbro will take control of all of those aspects within a year or so. They'll probably realise that ToyBiz's current way of doing things isn't "cost-effective" enough. Come on, if Hasbro was really into killer sculpts and mad articulation, their own figures wouldn't be the stanky butt that they are.

Still worried I guess.

[myk]

For certain, there will be a 6" line to match their Sigma 6 'Joe line, and Star Wars 6" selection. They will dumb down the Marvel camp like no one has ever been dumbed down before...

[sabretooth]

(throws r2d2 toy into a wall and curses liberally hasbro the license killer)

[Greyryder]

Uh guys. It's Toybiz World Wide that's getting the Axe, Not Toybiz. They're two different, unrelated companies. Toybiz will still be designing the Marvel Legends. They will now be manufactured at Hasbro's factories. It will still be Toy Biz's designs, just Hasbro's manufacturing, and distrobution.

This should mean better paint aps and availability.

[DARKWIND]

OMFG!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

We can only hope that they don't change but only imporve it!

'Cause I swear if the Marvel figs start going the way of the DC figs, I will cease all intrest.

IMO:

DC figs- Crap looks, terrible articulation, stupid gimmicks, the list goes on. . .

Marvel figs- Good/excellent sculpts, superb articulation, smart gimmicks, useful accessories.

This has the potential the be the biggest step backwards in toy history. . .

Now is the time to cherish the ones we have brothers.

I'm just glad they did alot of my favs already, even though there are still more I would like to see given the Marvel Legends treatment.

And yes there were a few duds and things they could've been done different, but as a whole it is a top notch toy line.

I can feel the prices going up on the old ones right now. . . . . .

Edited January 11, 2006 by DARKWIND

[Macross73]

I've only gotten a few and they are Great,

its the articulation that stands out.

As long as Toybiz can maintain thier direction then

it wont be so bad. Are there any indicationd that DC characters

could get the Marvel Legends treatment?

What about a 18 inch 64 point Articulated Batman?

[DARKWIND]

I've only gotten a few and they are Great,

its the articulation that stands out.

As long as Toybiz can maintain thier direction then

it wont be so bad. Are there any indicationd that DC characters

could get the Marvel Legends treatment?

What about a 18 inch 64 point Articulated Batman?

359226[/snapback]

The closest thing you can get to a Marvel Legends Batman is the Black Panther fig.

With a few mods it could be a dead ringer. . .

[Vermillion21]

Anyone collecting these nowadays?? I just bought Wolverine from the Red Hulk build-a-figure Target exclusive line today .... pretty cool.

[polidread]

Anyone collecting these nowadays?? I just bought Wolverine from the Red Hulk build-a-figure Target exclusive line today .... pretty cool.

i stopped collecting ever since i saw how bad Hasbro sculpted their version of White Queen...

but ive seen that they have improved since then

though im not sure if that brown (1980's-1990s costume) Wolvie will ever reach the Philippines

id like to get one eventually. do you have pictures of your wolverine toy in action?

Edited November 2, 2008 by polidread

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

I collect some of the Hasbro versions. The quality is much higher, specifically durability, however I hate how articulation was lost. See I never liked how some of the Toybiz ML had an ass ton of articulation that compromised the sculpt, but the articulation Hasbro took away on some figures was too much. I want a balance, like the Silver Surfer from the BAF F4 wave, and the mk 3 Iron Man movie figure. Anything less would dissapoint me, anything more might screw up the sculpt.

[Scream Man]

i have a few as well, but largely Im passing on them these days. I have almost every character i want anyway, though a REALLY nice Cap still eludes me.

Ive been getting into Mattels DC line. Now THATS an awesome series!

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

Ive been getting into Mattels DC line. Now THATS an awesome series!

No doubt but it might be doomed to failure. Mattel's direction for it seems to be sabotaging any chance of it succeeding. They will be reintroducing Batman, Superman, and other popular overdone characters in every wave again starting soon. Yes this will make it harder to build your BAF.

I have almost every character i want anyway, though a REALLY nice Cap still eludes me.

The best ones to me are HML wave 3 "Kirby" Classic Cap, and the Ultimate WWII Cap in the 2 pack.

I just recently bought the Target exclusive Black Spiderman(surprising that this series is a PITA to find considering the amount of b1tching I saw about it on the net when the price was announced). Great figure, best Black costume Spiderman figure, but I hate the redundant points of articulation. For example, It does not need ankle and forearm swivels, it already has ball jointed ankles, and ball jointed wrists. When you have ball wrists and ankles, forearm and ankle swivels do nothing but break the sculpt.

[Vermillion21]

id like to get one eventually. do you have pictures of your wolverine toy in action?

The Wolverine I have is the yellow custom, Hulk 1st appearance version I think. I'll try and take some pics when I get some free time later this week ...

Anyone have Cable or the Build-a-figure Sentinel? I'd love to get these, but they are pricey ...