New 52?

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Rann's picture
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Joined: 2012-01-04

Jeez, this forum has become a ghost town relative to a few years back.

I ascribe this silence to lack of viable product—outside of Hot Toy$, and kiddie blocko figures that must appeal to someone, I suppose.

The new Marvel Legends have a disease similar to the one infecting DC Universe Classics...(including, but not limited to) really poor, short-sighted character selection.

Bronze/Lead Age figures/versions mean nothing to me. (And 12yos these days have little interest in action figures.) I would not buy these at half their ridiculously high prices. Ditto the "New 52." I could not possibly be less interesting in DC's attempt to needlessly rejuvenate classic heroes into barely recognizable teenagers. It didn't work to turn Bugs & Daffy into toddlers several years back; why would anyone revisit this failed plan?

(Just as when some comic book hero "dies," I think we should start a pool as to how long it will take DC to realize what a bone-headed idea someone had (probably some exec's kid) and go back to square 1?

DC's figure sculpts remain superior to the revamped "Legends" line in almost every meaningful way. The latter's QC is so bad, I can only surmise Marvel relocated paint ops from China to BLIND painters in Sri Lanka.

One possibly positive note, however...some of the New 52 figures are FINALLY sporting what appears to be a redesigned bicep sculpt.

http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_060313a.htm

Compare teenage Darkseid to teenage Aquaman (and the Superman du jour at the bottom of the page...at least I think that's who it's supposed to be, unless his "S" stands for "Shorty?")

For many years (going all the way back to the mid-'80s) I have winced at the sort of odd musculature Darkteen still displays (locate a picture without his silly shoulder pads obscuring your view)...now look at Aquateen's bicep...MUCH improved, human-looking anatomy.

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On another note, I was saddened to see such an abbreviated CustomCon recently. I put forth a valiant effort to complete ALL my entries by the April 1 deadline, believe me, but...

At any rate...IF there is ever another CustomCon, I plan to submit:

  • Combo DC Direct/DC Universe Dr. Fate.
  • Two Batmen with extravagant cloth capes.
  • A decent Fantastic Four, albeit with Johnny, not a flying, flaming Torch.
  • The Golden Age DCUC Mr. Terrific (masked & unmasked).
  • Silver Age, Comic versions of Cap, Thor, Giant Man (classic & TTA helmeted), Hulk...and the original, skirted version of Kirby's Shell-head (aka the Big Yellow Banana).

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Rob
Rob's picture
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Joined: 2009-10-14

Custom Con has continued to shrink over the years due to several things. When we moved from 2 a year to 3 a year that made each a little smaller. Also, it seems to be very easy for folks to show things off as they complete them, so there is less need to wait and have a CC entry versus a regular update.

You do bring up an interesting point that I think gets missed in that the action figure market is changing in the mass market. You really have 2 general types of figures - kid-oriented ones and adult-oriented ones. There are a lot of things going on to encourage this split and the result is that there really isn't a lot of middle ground.

You are either seeing (relatively) cheap kid toys or expensive adult collectibles (Hot Toys is certainly part of this). There are very few mid-range options (NECA being probably the biggest exception to this rule).

In a sense the action figure world is squeezing out the middle class and the getting bigger on the ends. The days of going to the store and having plenty of options at a middle price range (now it would be the $15-20 range I think) are fading fast if they aren't already gone.

-Rob

Rann's picture
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Joined: 2012-01-04

Good point about CustomCon trends, Rob (and I wasn't meaning to slam or demean this event).

Alas, the vanishing middle class...on every front, apparently...

Back in the mid-90s I bought this Goldar figure (still have it) when the Internet was a relatively new player in the action figure market...

http://www.artoftoy.com/magtaisgol.html

It was maybe $125 back then, which was WAY more than I could have ever imagined spending for even a 12" figure.

I've often pondered how much more it would cost me (in today's worthless American Peso) to replace the hundreds of figures on my shelves these days, even if the items were still commercially available...?