I have comfort that this guy knows what he's talking about. Makes sense to me why they share bucks. And shartimus etc complain on how the bucks are being shared. Smh tell em to cough up 100k for new molds
I had never heard the thing about toybiz not paying for their tooling before. The story I had always heard about their downfall was that toy biz and marvel essentially merged or one bought the other in 1990, which is how Avi Arad who was from the toy industry ended up becoming an executive producer over at marvel. And since they were essentially in partnership with another they didn't have to pay a licensing fee to make marvel characters, but I think they shared profits with marvel. and since both companies were not doing too well financially at the time it was a mutually beneficial agreement and led to us getting everything from the marvel superheroes line onwards. In the mid to late 2000s when marvel started to bounce back and the films started to take off they realized that the licensing fees they would get from other companies would be a huge source of revenue so they rebranded toy biz as marvel toys and then gave the master license to Hasbro. And so marvel toys continued to make figures for TNA wrestling, and legendary comic book heroes, and other lines that never really took off while Hasbro took over marvel legends. Now while the tooling thing could be true, if you look at dates Hasbro had the marvel legends license while toy biz was still around and still cranking out figures under the marvel toys branding.
Well the licensing part is true too. Both things can happen. They don’t need to be mutually exclusive. But I also don’t have any documentation about the tooling bill. Just something I heard a few times from different sources over the years
Marvel legends changed the game that mcfarlane started. We're currently in the golden age of Marvel legends. It's a great line to collect. I started collecting legends after I had collected all the vintage heman back in early 2000's. Legends are the standard for $20 action figures in today's market.
The tooling rumor makes sense since I remember there were articles online that Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd. - not to be confused with Toy Biz, who licensed the name to Toy Biz World Wide - the manufacturing vendor withheld a bunch of tooling from Marvel and Hasbro. The articles made the owner of Toy Biz Worldwide a bad guy by stealing the molds. However, if Toy Biz/Marvel owed money to Toy Biz Worldwide for the tooling, it would be logical for the latter not giving the metal tooling to the former.
I don't know a ton about plastic but U can certainly go over the different types. Their isn't anything like "cheap" plastic. It is a matter of type. i.e. a different type is used for capes vs legs.
I think a lot of it will be for safety, to avoid breakages, if they break they might just break on the joints, but not say shatter or break off into sharp pieces.
Thanks for the video. I was wondering where the idea for ML articulation came from, since it was such a drastic leap forward back in 2001. I searched out the topic and this video came up. You very succinctly explain everything I was curious about. Ive been buying Marvel Legends (on and off.) since that 1st Spiderman back in 2001(still have it to this day). I've been collecting Marvel figures since the early 90's (even 80's-I had Super Powers and Secret Wars as a kid), this was everything I wanted out of my figures growing up. It amazed me (still amazes me) how it went from 8-15 points of articulation that was the standard throughout the 80's, 90's, and right up to 2001, and then suddenly with Spiderman Classics, we jump to what's the standard today (more or less) with very little to any evolution to get here. Thanks again for the informative video.
Most of my Marvel Legends are MCU based. The last one I bought was the Amazon Captain America/Peggy Carter two pack. I only bought that for Peggy. I would have preferred a post war Peggy 1946/47.
This is a great and very informative video. I really appreciate that you highlight the tooling and manufacturing costs associated with producing a 'one-off" action figure. One of the most common criticisms I read from toy fans and collectors is: "why won't toy manufacturers make certain figures" or if they do, then they are crucified because the toy lacks certain key design details or accessories. Most collector specific toys are so niche that they would never be financially viable to produce en mass for sale at wider retailers, so SH Figurats, Hot Toys and even the Black series figures are fine with me LOL
Thank you so much for the well written comment. Yes, tooling and manufacturing is one of those things that can be a roadblock between dream figures and an empty shelf.
I had some what gotten out of collecting, but I remember thinking, that if I ever found a super poseable Spider-man figure I would buy it. I then walked into Walmart to find the Toybiz Spider-man and immediately grabbed it. I ended up buying the black suited Spider-man, and later on, the Man-Spider as well. I think what eventually became the Toybiz Marvel Legend line pulled me into collecting and showed me what toys could be.
Great video, great idea and great execution. Interesting to hear your take on the toy business and the hows and whys of what the typical collector doesn't have any idea about.
Great content sir. I love the business acumen you bring to your channel. Even if you didn’t work on a particular toy line I think you should cover anything and everything just like you did here.
I sat next to Jesse when he was working on Marvel Legends, and I looked at the Sentinel bases that he created for Colossus and Ice Man, and I was like, ‘Jesse, nobody wants that sh@t! You should include a piece of the Sentinel with each character so that they’re forced to buy every figure in the line! And the build-a-figure was born! Btw, Dave Vonner was there when I said it, so he can vouch for me-Lol!
If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? How have you been collecting Spider-Man classics? I was too young to be a collector back then (I was in college).
On those lord of the rings there stamped with marvel Ent. Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz) is the toy division of Marvel Entertainment. Originally, the company produced toys with a license from DC, and later acquired an exclusive contract with Marvel. now my mind is 🤯the source was from Entertainment earth
Marvel Legends are good but I wish we had more things like that Symbiote wave Carnage and the Fantastic Four Doctor Doom from last January setting the bar for quality. There's a lot of times that certain unpopular characters in a wave will get the short end of the budget, relatively speaking, and just get outshone by their wave mates, like poor Black Tom Cassidy from a while back.
Lol I remember reading on the Fwoosh how people literally wrote pages complaining about you guys mixing comic figures with movie figures on that Green Lantern wave. I personally liked the idea since I collected both comic and movie figures. But I guess people freaks out when someone rattles the beehive
I know I'm feeling the recent years influx of 90's X-men. Only started collecting a year and a half ago and have a decent shelf devoted to The Gold and Blue teams. Also a small spider-verse is started between Spidey, various clones and Miles and Gwen, with Silk coming soon. I'm actually hoping they do more AoA X characters. Need an AoA Cyclops and Rogue at least. Then to get to the Exiles....
What do you do for a living now? Do you still work in the toy industry? Awesome video once again. Apparently McFarlane uses new tooling for every DC figure, so I wonder if that is why he is only doing Batman stuff. Did Mattel do lots of Green Lantern figures, I remember there was a company that was doing a whole bunch of characters. I'm a huge Green Lantern fan and there are so many cool characters and designs, I wish someone would do a Kickstarter or something and just do all the Green Lantern Universe characters.
It seems like NECA puts out all new sculpts for every figure they do. Except for the Predator line. They must be spending a ton on tooling. How do justify that? NECA must be doing very well.
1: NECA does not have a high overhead, 2: NECA figures tend to have limited articulation (compared to Marvel Legends) which makes them less expensive to make, 3: NECA figures are usually priced a bit higher.
The dream is too one-day get that sentinel and also the newer Galactus I may have too settle on the older ones in the meantime untill I sell a kidney or something
It's kind of comical that what saved Marvel Legends was a rule about how retailers could put the toys on the shelf. That seems so ridiculously unimportant.
Bro i love ur content but mattel really underperformed in dc toys now their doing better than marvel with mcfarland doing dc he does real art work with the toys
@@spectorcreative1872 his actually fixing that problem he talks about it in his new line coming out im excited for the damian wayne robin coming out it looks really cool
@@spectorcreative1872 I like the 7" scale more, big time, the figures look better and the cost is the same as a Marvel Legends but yeah, too much Batman.
I have comfort that this guy knows what he's talking about. Makes sense to me why they share bucks. And shartimus etc complain on how the bucks are being shared. Smh tell em to cough up 100k for new molds
If I could
shartimus is so annoying, especially his freaking voice!
Neca uses new molds & charges the same price as legends. No need to stockholm for hasbro.
I especially like when you make mistakes and leave them in. It’s very humanizing. Keep up the excellent work!
Thanks. I try not to make my videos perfect for that reason
I had never heard the thing about toybiz not paying for their tooling before. The story I had always heard about their downfall was that toy biz and marvel essentially merged or one bought the other in 1990, which is how Avi Arad who was from the toy industry ended up becoming an executive producer over at marvel. And since they were essentially in partnership with another they didn't have to pay a licensing fee to make marvel characters, but I think they shared profits with marvel. and since both companies were not doing too well financially at the time it was a mutually beneficial agreement and led to us getting everything from the marvel superheroes line onwards.
In the mid to late 2000s when marvel started to bounce back and the films started to take off they realized that the licensing fees they would get from other companies would be a huge source of revenue so they rebranded toy biz as marvel toys and then gave the master license to Hasbro. And so marvel toys continued to make figures for TNA wrestling, and legendary comic book heroes, and other lines that never really took off while Hasbro took over marvel legends.
Now while the tooling thing could be true, if you look at dates Hasbro had the marvel legends license while toy biz was still around and still cranking out figures under the marvel toys branding.
Well the licensing part is true too. Both things can happen. They don’t need to be mutually exclusive. But I also don’t have any documentation about the tooling bill. Just something I heard a few times from different sources over the years
@@spectorcreative1872 fair enough. Glad I discovered your channel. So much behind the scenes info. Love it.
this is an interesting topic and a great retrospective video, glad I found your channel on the front page about Gorr and windowless packaging.
So glad you are enjoying! Suggestions for topics always welcome too!
Marvel legends changed the game that mcfarlane started. We're currently in the golden age of Marvel legends. It's a great line to collect. I started collecting legends after I had collected all the vintage heman back in early 2000's. Legends are the standard for $20 action figures in today's market.
I agree. I've gotten more Marvel Legends in the last year than in the last ten!
nice trip down memory lane and insights to the line
Glad you enjoyed!
The tooling rumor makes sense since I remember there were articles online that Toy Biz Worldwide Ltd. - not to be confused with Toy Biz, who licensed the name to Toy Biz World Wide - the manufacturing vendor withheld a bunch of tooling from Marvel and Hasbro. The articles made the owner of Toy Biz Worldwide a bad guy by stealing the molds. However, if Toy Biz/Marvel owed money to Toy Biz Worldwide for the tooling, it would be logical for the latter not giving the metal tooling to the former.
It was a mess
Can you discuss the type of plastic used for certain lines of figures. Do they cheap out on plastic? Great Video!
I don't know a ton about plastic but U can certainly go over the different types. Their isn't anything like "cheap" plastic. It is a matter of type. i.e. a different type is used for capes vs legs.
I think a lot of it will be for safety, to avoid breakages, if they break they might just break on the joints, but not say shatter or break off into sharp pieces.
My Toybiz Marvel Legends get sticky as the years roll. Just like my vintage TMNT figs.
Thanks for the video. I was wondering where the idea for ML articulation came from, since it was such a drastic leap forward back in 2001. I searched out the topic and this video came up. You very succinctly explain everything I was curious about.
Ive been buying Marvel Legends (on and off.) since that 1st Spiderman back in 2001(still have it to this day). I've been collecting Marvel figures since the early 90's (even 80's-I had Super Powers and Secret Wars as a kid), this was everything I wanted out of my figures growing up. It amazed me (still amazes me) how it went from 8-15 points of articulation that was the standard throughout the 80's, 90's, and right up to 2001, and then suddenly with Spiderman Classics, we jump to what's the standard today (more or less) with very little to any evolution to get here.
Thanks again for the informative video.
Glad to inform!
Most of my Marvel Legends are MCU based. The last one I bought was the Amazon Captain America/Peggy Carter two pack. I only bought that for Peggy. I would have preferred a post war Peggy 1946/47.
I'm just glad they went back and did ML for the earlier movies that missed out on them
This is a great and very informative video. I really appreciate that you highlight the tooling and manufacturing costs associated with producing a 'one-off" action figure. One of the most common criticisms I read from toy fans and collectors is: "why won't toy manufacturers make certain figures" or if they do, then they are crucified because the toy lacks certain key design details or accessories. Most collector specific toys are so niche that they would never be financially viable to produce en mass for sale at wider retailers, so SH Figurats, Hot Toys and even the Black series figures are fine with me LOL
Thank you so much for the well written comment. Yes, tooling and manufacturing is one of those things that can be a roadblock between dream figures and an empty shelf.
This was recommended to me! Great video! I'm subbed and can't wait for more.
Well thank you so much! I am very grateful for you sub'ing!
Soooooo many memories.
Yessuree!
I had some what gotten out of collecting, but I remember thinking, that if I ever found a super poseable Spider-man figure I would buy it. I then walked into Walmart to find the Toybiz Spider-man and immediately grabbed it. I ended up buying the black suited Spider-man, and later on, the Man-Spider as well. I think what eventually became the Toybiz Marvel Legend line pulled me into collecting and showed me what toys could be.
I had the EXACT same experience! And this first figure still stands up. I remember being amazed at how articulated it was
Excellent video, informative and entertaining. Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed. Perhaps more videos on lines I did not work on to come. I am very grateful for your comment
Great content I'm very envious id love too work in the toy industry especially Marvel legends or pretty much any super hero line
Great video, great idea and great execution. Interesting to hear your take on the toy business and the hows and whys of what the typical collector doesn't have any idea about.
Thanks! That was exactly my goal for these videos. Appreciate the comment
Imagine if Mattel did a build a character for Tytus or Megator for origins
It would have taken either a lot of individual parts or some really big ones that would not have fit in the package. We did look into it!
my favorite legend figure is the toy biz juggernaut.. I love the toybiz legends
It took me so long to get a juggernaut. I regret passing in that one!
Great content sir.
I love the business acumen you bring to your channel. Even if you didn’t work on a particular toy line I think you should cover anything and everything just like you did here.
Well thanks! This video was a test to see what people thought of me doing videos about the industry on lines I didn't work on
Foom was wide release. This video is amazing
Yes, he got a wide release, correct. Started as a SDCC item, but then wide. Good point! Thank you.
I sat next to Jesse when he was working on Marvel Legends, and I looked at the Sentinel bases that he created for Colossus and Ice Man, and I was like, ‘Jesse, nobody wants that sh@t! You should include a piece of the Sentinel with each character so that they’re forced to buy every figure in the line! And the build-a-figure was born! Btw, Dave Vonner was there when I said it, so he can vouch for me-Lol!
Oh i don't doubt you! I have worked with both Jesse and David. Both cool guys.
If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? How have you been collecting Spider-Man classics? I was too young to be a collector back then (I was in college).
Thanks for the history lesson!
My pleasure! Beats college classes anyday
On those lord of the rings there stamped with marvel Ent. Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz) is the toy division of Marvel Entertainment. Originally, the company produced toys with a license from DC, and later acquired an exclusive contract with Marvel. now my mind is 🤯the source was from Entertainment earth
It was for many
Marvel Legends are good but I wish we had more things like that Symbiote wave Carnage and the Fantastic Four Doctor Doom from last January setting the bar for quality. There's a lot of times that certain unpopular characters in a wave will get the short end of the budget, relatively speaking, and just get outshone by their wave mates, like poor Black Tom Cassidy from a while back.
Yeah it is amazing how the line can be all over the map with some figures perfect, others, not so much
Scott you should do a walk through video of your toy collection!
My wife did one here:
ua-cam.com/video/hBcqjZJ36IA/v-deo.html
Lol I remember reading on the Fwoosh how people literally wrote pages complaining about you guys mixing comic figures with movie figures on that Green Lantern wave. I personally liked the idea since I collected both comic and movie figures. But I guess people freaks out when someone rattles the beehive
what was once a sin is now expected!
The Hasbro Marvel Legends sculpts look so much better than the Toy Biz sculpts. 17:41
Oh they do!
Imagine the 200x line of MOTU would have had the articulation of the ML figures?!
See my 200X 6" video!
@@spectorcreative1872 watched them all :-) its a pity you guys didn't come to make the 200x in Classics :-(
I know I'm feeling the recent years influx of 90's X-men. Only started collecting a year and a half ago and have a decent shelf devoted to The Gold and Blue teams. Also a small spider-verse is started between Spidey, various clones and Miles and Gwen, with Silk coming soon. I'm actually hoping they do more AoA X characters. Need an AoA Cyclops and Rogue at least. Then to get to the Exiles....
Yeah, I was surprised they didn't announce another AoA wave at Pulse Con but went House of X instead. Maybe every other wave?
I'd like to hear one of these vids about secondary collecting views on different lines. Who collects what?😄
Great idea. I'll add it to the list
Marvel Legends X-Men are awesome!
One of my favorite teams to collect
What do you do for a living now? Do you still work in the toy industry? Awesome video once again. Apparently McFarlane uses new tooling for every DC figure, so I wonder if that is why he is only doing Batman stuff. Did Mattel do lots of Green Lantern figures, I remember there was a company that was doing a whole bunch of characters. I'm a huge Green Lantern fan and there are so many cool characters and designs, I wish someone would do a Kickstarter or something and just do all the Green Lantern Universe characters.
I now do consulting for the toy industry. Check it out at Spectorcreative.com
Size is always important, so with that being said why was hit monkey a build a figure?
To save money.
:(
Where's Nightcrawler in your X-men display. Show some love for Kurt!
He is there! Bottom right!
It seems like NECA puts out all new sculpts for every figure they do. Except for the Predator line. They must be spending a ton on tooling. How do justify that? NECA must be doing very well.
1: NECA does not have a high overhead, 2: NECA figures tend to have limited articulation (compared to Marvel Legends) which makes them less expensive to make, 3: NECA figures are usually priced a bit higher.
The dream is too one-day get that sentinel and also the newer Galactus I may have too settle on the older ones in the meantime untill I sell a kidney or something
It's kind of comical that what saved Marvel Legends was a rule about how retailers could put the toys on the shelf. That seems so ridiculously unimportant.
Toys are not without a sense of irony
Got black suit venom hulk cap I got supetr articulation Spiderman with base and comic
Nice score! Havent' seen that one myself
Didn't Captain Marvel make 1 billion dollars at the box office? Not sure how it under performed.
There were some shenanigans with the ticket sales to over inflate the box office for PR reasons. And the toy line went on clearance pretty quick
Infinite hazzbro glossy legends series killed the Marvel Legends
Galactie.
Nice
Bro i love ur content but mattel really underperformed in dc toys now their doing better than marvel with mcfarland doing dc he does real art work with the toys
My sadness with McFarland is the 7" scale and that it is more or less just a Batman line
@@spectorcreative1872 his actually fixing that problem he talks about it in his new line coming out im excited for the damian wayne robin coming out it looks really cool
@@joelvazquez3596 Damien Wayne is still part of the Bat family
@@spectorcreative1872 I like the 7" scale more, big time, the figures look better and the cost is the same as a Marvel Legends but yeah, too much Batman.
@@justinmohan7103 yeah your right on that i do love it when mattel or marvel or mcfarland do figires we dont have