Diamond needs to re-examine retro Marvel license in 2016...

[huedell]

I say one set per month!! Start cranking them out!!!
Four sets a year is fine, as long as they keep making them. If they keep going for five years, that's twenty sets, and sixty outfits!

This is pretty much how I feel. Take as long as you want, as that's an opportunity to prep and research to ensure the line's longevity!

Thought I'd chime in since Zach and/or Doc et al may be reading this thread specifically.

Overall, I feel about EMCE's retro WGSH-oriented line the same way I feel about FTC's: I've been so jaded over the years in the context of Mego style retro superhero figures, culminating with Mattel's truncated DC line, that a trepidation has caused me to be (admittedly) overly critical of both EMCE and FTC's WGSH-oriented lines.

My belief since FTC's line started (with EMCE's soon following suit) was that enough missteps in the lines' marketing, customer service, quality control and wave release planning, and that these very crucial lines (that included replicas at their core, with potential for infinite line extension characters) in the context of WGSH homages and "all would be lost" as far as WGSH succeeding into the future.

I now realize that FTC has barreled into a very comfortable place for me. And EMCE is not far behind. As far as the future of EMCE's WGSH-oriented line, all that I'd want is hitting 15 or so more of Marvel's biggest names---with the remaining eight (8) WGSH (that EMCE hasn't touched upon---no Conan included) being 8 of those "15 or so".

Yes, I am one of those guys that is essentially only interested in the WGSH replicas as well as any subtle Mego-esque improvements to the Bronze Age WGSH characters whether they be replicas, or Bronze Age line extensions (or any number of Bronze Age variants of the same heroes including secret identities). On that note, I can appreciate the "non-Bronze Age" choice of Deadpool (akin to FTC's Harley), a choice made so as to maximize profit without straying too far from the Bronze Age character designs overall.

In a nutshell: My personal opinion is (as opposed to potentially crashing and burning this "so far, so good" venture w/risky, hasty choices), please do everything you can to maximize releases in this line, even if that includes moving slowly

Thanks!

[LonnieFisher]

I say one set per month!! Start cranking them out!!!
Four sets a year is fine, as long as they keep making them. If they keep going for five years, that's twenty sets, and sixty outfits!

[ovenmitt]

4 sets a year is not enough compared to FTC DC output.

At least 6 Marvel sets a year a set every other month.

Too many Mighty Marvel Megos to make!

[LonnieFisher]

They can make individual figures, but the price wouldn't change. That's the deal they have, high end collector priced.

[tllgn]

Yeah that strange licenes that Emce/diamond is working with is weird ,but its far better then no Retro-mego marvels at all .I bought thor as i did
the earlier figures .except for daredevil this year looks kinda "Yawn".although ill get deadpool and Punisher,perhaps Spiderman 2099.If only Emce/Diamond
could do what FTC is doing with DC,which is fantastic .oh well it is what it is .If they could ,imagine the figures ,a Fantastic four line,Spiderman line ,avengers
line ,a first app line,etc .

[BATMAN89]

I would buy Hulk, Daredevil, & Cyclops. I don't know how they could do Dr. Doom in 3 versions, but I'd like one version of him in Mego size. Not interested in any AEs, except I love Logan.
I will buy Deadpool, but I always wait to get a deal.
No interest at all in Dr. Strange.

[wise guy]

As a collector I have always wanted remegos of Hawkeye, Vision , Black Panther, and Scarlet Witch, in classic costumes(60's-70's). Now it seems unlikely
that all 4 will make the cut. I do hope we see Dr. Strange and Ironman.

[dr_cyclops]

If only the Marvel license would allow EMCE To do single characters. There is (IMO*) no good reason to restrict this line. EMCE could do $30 figures all day long. FTC is asking the same on all their new sculpt characters.
*'Mego' is like 'Lego'. It's a style unto it's own.

[ovenmitt]

I have not paid $80 on any of these sets and I have all 4. $80 is too high for these even if they included 3 complete figures which they should.

My only other complaints:

Spidey- Mego box was glued inside, Modern costume looks faded and leaves skin exposed around neck, and no strap for Peter's camera and glasses don't stay on.

Cap- 2 stars are stitched on not silkscreened. Mego box covers Cap's head. Wrinkled shield sticker. Otherwise nice set.

Wolverine- No regular hands for retro Wolverine inside gloves. Orange on 2nd costume a little dark. Otherwise nice Mego representation of Marvel"s #1 mutant!

Thor- Love this set but Modern Thor head will not plug into body, hair gets in the way. I can display him and head stays in place but won't fit into body all the way.

I hope QC is addressed with future sets. Looking forward to Daredevil!

*If these aren't selling for $80 and going for less than half the price, why do stores keep ordering and how can Diamond keep justifying making them if it depends on sales?

If classic characters like Daredevil and Punisher don't sell well enough even with the Netflix Daredevil series giving both support then Diamond needs to re-evaluate the license by 2017. I especially questioned Spider-Man 2099 choice until DSTZach said Black Spidey costume might be in set, too. Miles Morales Spidey costume wouldn't hurt either.

[wise guy]

Thanks for clearing that up DSTZach , but since this a MEGO forum , 3 of the first 4 diamond figures were not only popular charectors but also 3 of the original Marvel megos.
This let some of us think that we might also get the F.F, Hulk, Falcon , Ironman etc , the same way FTC did the DC remegos, Tarzan, and Conan. I am not sure
what you are saying about a repro box but why did Diamond include one if they did'nt think collector's wanted them ?

[Ninersphan1]

To elaborate: Yes I do want the line to continue, in hope the quality issues mentioned by other posters here are addressed. I can not purchase an item if the item does not meet my personal criteria of quality. ( I am quite certain this holds true for most people whether it is a house, automobile, pants, television, computer, etc....) What is considered quality is an individual decision. Am I being selfish and self-centered by wanting this product to meet my criteria? I would say "yes," because it did not meet my standard. I have absolutely no jurisdiction or right to mandate from anyone or any company what standards are important. I could only offer suggestions and/or perhaps the reasons why I would or would not purchase the product. When posters here mentioned the pros and cons of a figure, based upon what is important to me, I will no longer have any interest in the item such as the modern Captain America's unattached star and long neck, and Spiderman's short inseam and perforated clothes and modern Thor's struggle to be dressed in even a type 2 body. I want to have a mego Dr. Doom and/or Dr. Strange on my shelf. So, I hope this line continues. I will not buy a Dr. Doom and/or Dr. Strange with perforated clothes, elongated neck, short inseams or ill fitting clothes. I hope this clarifies matter better.

Well said.
I'd also add, especially for the price these are being sold. I can not in any way shape or form, justify paying the full retail on these when there are SO many issues. The quality just isn't there IMHO, and it seems little is being done to address it.

[nubee]

You want it to continue, but you don't like anything we've made?

To elaborate: Yes I do want the line to continue, in hope the quality issues mentioned by other posters here are addressed. I can not purchase an item if the item does not meet my personal criteria of quality. ( I am quite certain this holds true for most people whether it is a house, automobile, pants, television, computer, etc....) What is considered quality is an individual decision. Am I being selfish and self-centered by wanting this product to meet my criteria? I would say "yes," because it did not meet my standard. I have absolutely no jurisdiction or right to mandate from anyone or any company what standards are important. I could only offer suggestions and/or perhaps the reasons why I would or would not purchase the product. When posters here mentioned the pros and cons of a figure, based upon what is important to me, I will no longer have any interest in the item such as the modern Captain America's unattached star and long neck, and Spiderman's short inseam and perforated clothes and modern Thor's struggle to be dressed in even a type 2 body. I want to have a mego Dr. Doom and/or Dr. Strange on my shelf. So, I hope this line continues. I will not buy a Dr. Doom and/or Dr. Strange with perforated clothes, elongated neck, short inseams or ill fitting clothes. I hope this clarifies matter better.

[MIB41]

These are better than no Marvel remegos at all but there's Q.C issues in each of the sets I bought. If I got these as Christmas gifts I might be a little less critical
but since I pre ordered and payed for these at full price I expect better Q.C. The Spiderman set was 41.00 yesterday on Amazon and that's the price I like better

I absolutely appreciate where you're coming from and took that into consideration when I reviewed these as gifts. Without question the Captain America set seems to hold the most issues - ill-fitting window box, stitched on stars, and a poorly design star decal for the shield have nothing to do with Mego history, so those were bad misses. And I deplored the wrinkled decal explanation on the shield as if that was intended. Give me a break. The vintage ones showed the seams where they had to make cuts on the decal to lay it down. But nothing was crinkled up. That's just a bad factory app. Nothing more, nothing less. The missing hands from the retro Wolverine was a great example of a factory likely thinking the molded gloves WERE the hands for the figure. A little surprised Diamond or EMCE didn't get behind that and offer free hands since that was most likely figured in with the pricing of the set and the factory simply didn't include them. The Spiderman set would have been flawless had the factory not glued everything down. I got the box off without damage, but the one side still retains that sticky adhesive, so I'm not sure there is any retention value for the box since I have to keep it away from my vintage ones.

So without question they had issues you wouldn't expect at that price point. And your demands for better QC is completely warranted. I too have already said, while I have a new appreciation for the product, I still have no desire to get them at that initial shelf price point. Their license restriction is their problem, not mine. But I'm sure the elevated price also means they don't have to sell as many to go in the black either so traditional expectations for volume sales can likely be lowered here substantially versus a company that makes three thousand of one that sells for $25.00. So that leaves allot of excess in the secondary markets and you see how quickly the price falls. My wife got these for me and only did so because the prices were so good on Amazon. So she didn't spend half of the retail price for any of these. Anything I pick up will follow that same guide. I'm not worried about keeping the line alive if I can get them for 50% off and they keep cranking them out. That simply means the people paying upfront are paying the difference for the rest of the community to get them at the more reasonable price. Quit paying top dollar. If the company can't meet that profit margin, they'll have to go back and renegotiate a better deal.

And the pricing comment is in no way aimed just at Diamond. That goes for all companies. FTC is already crossing into that territory so I'm pulling back there too. Price increases will always be a certainty as long as we close our eyes and pay up. So we as consumers have to establish a ceiling for acceptable pricing, otherwise allot of upfront buyers will continue to bleed on this stuff while an increasing number of others will wait for the sales. It's absolutely becoming a buyers market because of the saturation of licensed goods.

[DSTZach]

I also wonder why diamond would ask us why we wan't classic figures when the first 2 releases were Spiderman, and Captain America (classic figures ) just like the first 2 mego marvels. They could have wen't with a all new line up like Deadpool but chose to include a classic mego version( in box ) of original mego figures in first wave. I only buy the classic charectors and am really looking forward to Daredevil

DST didn't ask, I did. And I think we made classic characters because we wanted to start the line with the most popular characters in the MU, and that's Spidey and Cap and Wolverine. It was meant to appeal to the broadest spectrum of buyer, whether they owned originals or not.

My question was only directed towards the repeated requests here, not for Hulk, FF and Iron Man specifically, but for "all of the originals," even villains, often to the exclusion of all others, including other unmade, classic characters. I understand each of the reasons I provided (although I still don't understand JUST the need for a repro box), but I was curious which applied specifically to forum posters.

[DSTZach]

I really want the this line to continue. Unfortunately, I have yet to buy a single figure.

You want it to continue, but you don't like anything we've made?