fantastic_four

The thirteenth has come. WHEREZ MY CRITIC REVIEWS?!?!

It indicates the amount of restoration that CGC believes has been done to the book. I'm pretty sure that designation is B-2. This means that CGC considers this to be fine restoration, with Slight/Moderate work done on the issue. Read more here: Restoration Grading Scale | CGC (cgccomics.com) Great, thanks! I have a few hundred slabs, but haven't bought any or paid close attention to the market since 2010. I remember Matt Nelson coming up with a proposed restoration grading scale back around 2008 or 2009, so my initial guess would be that CGC adopted some version of that after he went to work for them, but I didn't even realize they had done it until now. I'll compare the one that page you linked that says they adopted in 2014 to the original one Matt devised at some point.

I see a bunch of different Masterpiece Optimus Primes when I search. Do you mean this one? https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/84183

What masterpiece Transformers do you have in mind that of a similar size and complexity to Unicron?

My kids will love it. I can't get into multiverse stories yet myself.

What's the indicator on the number label? Never seen that before...anyone know when CGC started that? Never seen that Slight/Mod indicator, and what's the thing in parentheses next to it? I can't tell if it says (B - 2) or (0 - 2).

40 minutes is a weird restriction. I probably wouldn't even bother if I was a critic. What's the point in a review if it's not for the whole thing?

If it makes you feel better I thought it was overpriced at the initial offering. I don't enjoy Transformers, but the intricate design of how they transform leaves me unable to assign a price to them. I know there have been other very large Transformers before, so how did he compare to those, any fans have a feel? $575 seemed high to me as well, but I couldn't rule out that the design complexity warranted the price, but I don't have a feel for what other past large Transformers cost to compare it to.

Social media embargo lifts December 16th. The critic review embargo MIGHT lift that day as well, but I haven't been able to find confirmation of that.

Review embargo lifts on this December 13th. Is this the latest an MCU film has lifted a review embargo? Usually they lift them 1.5 to 2 weeks in advance, but this time it's only a few days...

By the way--ALL of this is my conjecture. I haven't read any rumors anywhere else about Hasbro losing Star Wars. I fully expected them to extend the Rancor project last night, but immediately after it ended they yanked it off of the Hasbro Pulse home page and started cancelling all orders. I was absolutely stunned and utterly shocked, and really I still am because it makes so little sense for them to do this. I've been mulling over what the heck they're thinking and losing the license occurred to me early this morning. Then I started putting the other pieces of the puzzle into that frame and they ALL fit. But it could easily just be politics within Hasbro. That explains some, but not all of the problems with the line over the last year.

Guess one is McFarlane. He seems to be killing it with decent-quality figures at good prices. I prefer Hasbro's engineering and 6-inch scale, so I hope it's not him. Guess two is Mattel, but I mostly doubt it. I'd be surprised if they got it, but not shocked. A dark horse possibility is Disney makes their own toys. They have a mini toy line with their Toy Box figures. I've been wondering for a while if they want to expand further out into the toy business. If their licensing fee for Star Wars is as high as it has long been said to be then them starting there makes the most sense since other companies have a harder time than them profiting. This is the one I REALLY hope doesn't happen. I've bought my kid a lot of their Toy Box figures, and they're the worst around. The styling is fun and I love that about them, but their engineering is terrible. My kid has broken the legs off of five Toy Box figures, and every time it's the same way--if they take ONE fall from 2 to 4 feet or more they're toast, some piece just breaks right off. Hasbro's figures don't do that because they use softer plastic that's less brittle and survives falls and plenty of rough play.

Hasbro owns GI Joe, so there's no possibility there of losing the license being a problem. The teams are mostly separate as well so most politics with Star Wars wouldn't bleed over into GI Joe. So if GI Joe doesn't fund and gets extended then we know for sure something bad is brewing with the Star Wars team.

It was at 8,535 out of 9,000 minimum at the end. I think they let it die on purpose. There is NO doubt they could have easily funded it had they extended the funding period like they did with the Transformers Unicron. That one ended its initial 45 days at about 5,500 of 8,000 backers, and after the extension of a month or so it ended at 10K+ backers. So to not extend a project that was 95% funded means they had reasons to not want to do it in the first place. There's politics afoot in the design team. The ex-project lead for that team at Hasbro did a better job of promoting the project than the actual team did themselves. This is him: https://www.instagram.com/mrstevie18/?hl=en He left the Star Wars team a few years ago. He had told multiple people on Instagram that the project wouldn't get extended--which is an odd thing to proclaim given the success Unicron had with an extension--and he was hustling hard on his Instagram to promote a project he wasn't even involved in. Whatever politics are afoot in Hasbro he probably knew about, but he likely hoped the project would hit the backer minimum anyway so Hasbro would be obliged to fund it. He's a big toy fan himself and posts videos to his Instagram talking about toys and showing off his collection. I have two guesses at the politics. The first is that management or significant portions of the Star Wars team are on the way out the door, probably involuntarily. The offerings and communication with both fans and retailers has been increasingly poor over the last year or so, quality has in general been going down with notable exceptions (particularly the EXCELLENT Bad Batch figures), pricing is ALL over the place and in general rising following little to no pattern, and delays and understocking have been rampant. Even this Haslab had a dozen or more mis-steps that I could outline, particularly the timing of it BEFORE the Rancor likely appears in Book of Boba Fett next month which would have significantly increased demand for the project, coupled with running three consecutive Haslabs all in the worst month where everyone has to buy Christmas gifts. My second guess at the politics behind letting the project die unfortunately is my best one--Hasbro knows they're not continuing the Star Wars license much longer. Supposedly Disney significantly upped their price last year, and that's in the face of the brand as a whole on the decline aside from Mandalorian coupled with the licensing fee already being the highest in the business before the price hike. Hasbro considered dumping the license last year, and this year it's possible they're planning to do it. They may even already know they're losing it if there's another significant bidder out there. The reason this is my guess is because if the reason is personnel being replaced that doesn't explain why they've consistently done more poorly in 2021 than 2019 and 2020. Losing the license hanging over the team all year is a better explanation for their poor performance than some people needing firing, because that could have been done 6+ months ago. I hope the outcome of this is just re-structuring the team, but I fear the end result will be losing the license. I'd rather Hasbro keeps it and just fixes the problems since they've done such a superb job with Marvel Legends, GI Joe, and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, but the high licensing fees for Star Wars have already caused quality to slip, so the risk of them dumping or losing the license is palpable.

Yeah I figured he was pointing them to where he came from... Ah, that makes sense.

This is the third December in a row they've had that deal, and there's one thing I hate about it--you don't get the RedCard discount for buying the card OR for using the gift card to pay for things. So if you're used to getting that constant 5% RedCard discount then you don't get it, effectively making the gift card discount only 5%. Still, 5% is better than 0%.

Were you also wondering what everyone on the cover was looking at?

Didn't they do that with the Barge too? I thought Yak Face was a late addition.

I don't think they did, but rather they found that Disney has nobody who can effectively manage Star Wars in the way Kevin Feige manages Marvel. Kathleen Kennedy definitely can't do it, so hopefully they will find someone like Jon Favreau or Dave Filoni to do the job. Nobody has done it like Feige has, so it's not like Star Wars is in a unique position--they're in the same boat everybody else is except Marvel. I don't know that Favreau or Filoni really want to do the same kind of job Feige does though. Feige isn't a creative type, he's more of an editor-in-chief who is just good at making sure the films stick to the comics where it makes sense and picks directors who will do that, whereas Favreau and Filoni like to actively create via writing, directing, or illustration. Usually creative types like them prefer not to do the kind of producing Feige does and instead prefer creative work. That happened with Geoff Johns at DC; he tried to fill the Feige content management role but ultimately proved not to be great at the politics of it and preferred to directly create stuff himself. So for now there is no Feige for Star Wars--unless perhaps Feige himself becomes that person. He's still producing a Star Wars movie, and if it goes well I could see him helping to manage all Star Wars content eventually.

As usual, another toy-based spoiler that isn't much of a spoiler if you already know the big bad from this movie:

Nice haul! Yea I got that FF retro wave using the buy 2, get 1 free deal too, couldn't pass that up. I passed on Stealth Carter because I already have the one from the Watcher wave and didn't need a re-deco. I got the Watcher wave using the buy 2, get 1 free deal as well, although I had to go to two Targets to complete it since they weren't selling that wave online. Target has the best sales on toys aside from deep clearance pricing, plus they give that 5% off deal for buying via their RedCard. I end up buying more Legends from them than anywhere else due to the RedCard discount and relatively frequent sales.

Who is this person with just a square for a name? I'm surprised there's no minimum length for usernames...

Below are my other Mafex figures, mostly DC including the Batman Begins Batman, Dark Knight Rises Batman, movie Harvey Dent, movie Ra's Al Ghul, Dark Knight movie Joker, Dark Knight Rises movie Bane, Superman Hush, Dark Knight Rises Catwoman, movie Batpod, Dark Knight Triumphant Batman, Michael Jordan, and Catwoman Hush. I just can't say enough about EVERY one of them--they're all spectacular. The second pic is the Mafex Dark Knight Returns Batman riding on a Mythic Legions horse figure named Balius.

I have absolutely fallen in love with the Mafex line over the last few months. EVERY time they release something now it's the best version of that character ever made in twelfth scale. The articulation and sculpts are almost always second to none, and the paint is well above average, although certainly not perfect. I've been going back and buying some of the figures I've missed and now have 25 or so, and I have yet to not fall in love with every one with one exception--the Infinity War Cap has terrible ankle pivot that makes him VERY hard to pose, although other than that he's also the definitive version of that character in twelfth scale. They're releasing an Endgame version in a few months that I think I'm out on because he appears to have the same terrible ankle pivot. A short background on Mafex--it's a line created by a Japanese company called Medicom, and they started the line in 2013. It includes Marvel, DC, and other pop culture characters including the likes of Michael Jordan and Chucky. The early sculpts weren't as good, and they had persistent QC issues up until about 2018 when most figures starting being really solid. All of their releases from 2020 and 2021 have been top-notch without significant QC issues. They only release about 20 or so figures per year, but EVERY one is worth considering due to the extreme quality of articulation and insane aesthetics. Just got the new Psylocke in this week shown in the pic below along with some of my other Mafex figures (the Black Bolt and floating Magneto are Mezco and the Surfer is Legends), and despite a few minor issues she's absolutely scintillating.