fantastic_four

Thanks to online inventory tracking by all five of the major chains that carry Legends--Walmart, Walgreens, Target, Gamestop, and Best Buy--I don't mind it much because I can usually identify them in stores before I go first via the web and possibly also by calling the store. All five of them don't have foolproof online inventory tracking and they all suck in different ways, but I've learned their idiosyncrasies well enough to find it not that big a deal.

Thanks! I've worked out my Target toy hunting technique quite a bit over the last year and a half, and as a result I've found it not exactly easy but not terribly time-consuming to find their exclusives in the store. After they screwed up the GI Joe pre-sale yesterday morning I assumed they might screw up the Legends set, but I didn't really care because I mostly enjoy going into stores to look for them--but only a handful of times, and preferably exactly one or two depending upon how many of them I want. To make sure I find any given item with very few visits to stores, this is what I do: Find the Target product identifier for the item. They call this a DPCI. Use the brickseek.com or popfindr.com web site to look up inventory for the DPCI. Both of those sites just call Target's publicly-available programming interface. Once an item shows as having an inventory count in a store call that store. Ask them if they will hold the item at customer service. If they won't--and half of the time they won't--ask them if it's in the store and if so where is it--in the back, on the shelves, or in an unknown location (probably wrapped up on a pallet, but also possibly on a cart waiting to be put on shelves). If they won't do any of that or try to look for it but can't find it just move to the next store, and if necessary call back later and hope for someone willing to be more helpful. That worked for me all of last year. However, there was a Legends Target exclusive item earlier this year that was a red version of the REALLY great Hulk figure Hasbro did last year. Target's online inventory system was not returning accurate counts for this item at all. It would say it was in stores it wasn't in, and stores that definitely did have it were sometimes returning zero counts via their API (on brickseek and popfindr). During that time period their online inventory counts were accurate for other Legends figures, but for whatever reason they weren't for this red Hulk exclusive. No idea why. But what worked quite well for me with this item was Target's own web site. When it was in the store there was a "Pickup available" button that would show for that store on the Target.com page for the item. If I saw this button I knew it was absolutely in the store, and I tested this successfully four times by calling. I didn't want a red Hulk all that much, but I was testing this knowing they'd eventually get an item I wanted--and that day is now coming for this Storm/Thunderbird set. I had the red Hulk page open in my browser and would just refresh the page every hour or two. I saw it show up as "Pickup available" about two to three dozen times over the course of a few weeks, and I successfully identified the item in stores by either calling or just buying the item via the site about a half dozen times. I actually did buy two red Hulks and successfully identified four others, but I haven't cracked one open yet. I might eventually, or maybe not, haven't decided. The red Hulk is General "Thunderbolt" Ross (played by William Hurt in the films) transformed into the Hulk. Sounds goofy to me as I prefer Banner being the only Hulk, but I haven't read the comics so I can't say for sure. MANY times I've thought I didn't like a character but later ended up liking them and regretted not buying the figure when I could have, so I've now taken to buying hot items like red Hulk or less-hot items I find on deep clearance sales just in case I end up liking the character later.

One of Hasbro's Marvel Legends reveals today is a first appearance version of Storm and Thunderbird, and like the GI Joe exclusive it's only at Target. They were supposed to list it this morning but didn't. They listed it at 3:42 EST, and it sold out in minutes. THANKS TARGET.

Not a fan of that two-pack. They had already said they were doing an X-Men movie SDCC exclusive, and I was severely hoping for a Logan/X-23 two-pack. Would have settled for a 3-pack with these two and her, but I don't really want a Professor X with dementia figure.

In general, no. That doesn't mean a small number of Marvel Legends heads won't fit onto any given body from another line, but in general expect the heads not to swap at all. Hasbro doesn't even make their head and wrist peg sizes consistent across Legends, so they definitely don't do it across lines. Even within Legends there's a less than 50% chance any given male head will fit on any other similarly-sized male body. About a third of the time they fit well, a third of the time they rest on the peg but it's not a tight fit and would fall over if you tipped the figure, and a third of the time a head will be too small to fit at all on another figure. There are a lot of collectors who either dremel out head holes that are too small to fit on a given body or put filler in if a head's hole is too big. I've never done any of that. As far as I can tell the teams at Hasbro don't share designs at all. One team might borrow innovations from another in the same way competing companies borrow from each other, but I've seen zero evidence of parts or design re-use across brands like Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, GI Joe Classified Series, or anything else.

Ah, Target, not Walmart. Sheesh, seems like nobody can keep up with demand for Hasbro figures! Not Walmart, not Target, and not even them via their own web site. Maybe they need to increase production runs. Walmart very quickly sold out of all of their SDCC items when they went up for sale on Friday. The only one I wanted was a Star Wars 6" Ahsoka figure, and it sold out immediately. Later in the day Walmart made them available for pre-order again and I got it at that time. I saw multiple figures available for a few hours that day, but by the evening everything I looked at was sold out. So if you're lucky Target will make these available for pre-order again soon.

Definitely not. I have that Widow bike and it's completely different. The one with Baronness looks military, but the one with Widow looks like a sporty bike.

Wait, I went and checked the Fwoosh forums for more info about this, and it sounds like this was a Walmart exclusive. So what's your issue with Hasbro here--that they're choosing to give exclusives to Walmart at all given that they usually screw them up? That's probably fair, because they usually do find a way to screw almost every exclusive up somehow.

One second is a bit much, but the window last SDCC for ordering exclusives was also quite short at about 5 to 10 minutes. They had a Hulk figure that first went on sale to Pulse members only and sold out in under ten minutes, then it went on sale for everyone and also sold out in under ten minutes. So yea, getting two unreasonably short cracks at something last year instead of just one wasn't a great reason to subscribe. I bet they didn't learn any lessons for this year, but hopefully I'm wrong. They're covering the new Marvel Legends stuff at noon today, and they've been dropping hints for weeks that they will be offering a Hellfire Club box set as an SDCC exclusive, probably starting today. Or at least they will announce it today. Hopefully it won't be the same sheet show you're describing for Beachhead.

That's not far from the original scale Kirby drew him at on the cover of FF #49 below. The 1:18 scale Silver Surfer that came with the Marvel Universe Galactus at retail is about twice as big relative to Galactus as this, so yea, if they do a 3-foot version of the character then still using a 3.75" figure with that makes complete sense.

Is it the Galactus BAF you are referring to above? I was referring to the Marvel Universe Galactus. I tend to forget the Galactus BAF exists. It looks tremendous in sculpting detail, but it's just SO small. It's far more available than the MU Galactus, about as available as the Sentinel BAF. Market prices are usually $150 to $200.

My guess is army-builder Sentinel, and I base that on market prices for the 2010 Hasbro Sentinel and Galactus as well as the 2005 Toy Biz Sentinel build-a-figure that came with Legends figures. The Marvel Universe Galactus released in 2010 in my experience is available in no more than half of the supply as the 2010 Marvel Universe Sentinel, but I think it's in far lower supply than even half. I have no idea why that would be, but that's my experience in seeing how frequently they hit eBay, that the Sentinels hit at least twice as much as Galactus and frequently three to ten times as much. Plus the Sentinel was re-released again in 2018, and if you include those the Sentinel is FAR more available. As an example as of right now I see one Galactus on eBay, but I see many dozens of Sentinels. That's completely normal from all I've seen over the last 1.5 years. Market prices on the Hasbro Sentinel from any release year are about $130 to $180, and market prices on Galactus are $150 to $200, or $250 to $300 for a dark purple variant Galactus which is somewhat more comic-accurate (beyond the FF 48 to 50 run). The dark purple variant is FAR more rare than the red-and-blue colored version; I probably see five or six per year on eBay. So despite the fact that Galactus is MUCH rarer in any color, he doesn't go for significantly more than the Hasbro Sentinel that is available in comparatively huge supply. Galactus goes for more, but not as much as you'd think given how rare he is. If he were available as often as the Sentinel I have to assume the prices would drop significantly. Add to that the Toy Biz Sentinel. That one is far less available than the Hasbro Sentinel, but much more available than Galactus. He sells for $150 to $250 on eBay. So given that the existing Sentinels are far more available than the most-excellent Hasbro Galactus yet still sell for similar amounts--and they should sell for less since they're so much easier to find than Galactus--coupled with the army-building aspect of the character I'd say Galactus wouldn't have sold anywhere near as well as this Sentinel has even if you bundled him with half a dozen heralds. I still think Galactus would sell second-best among every Haslab project I can imagine. Vehicles aren't as popular for Marvel characters as Star Wars or GI Joe because Marvel characters have super-powers, and the powers are the main draw. I'm convinced an Avengers Quinjet or X-Men Blackbird wouldn't do as well as either the Sentinel or Galactus. The next obvious Haslab project is Galactus. Next I'd guess Giant-Man, and it was rumored that's the one we were getting this time instead of the Sentinel. Beyond that I have no great guesses. Maybe a Quinjet or Blackbird, maybe a Celestial if the Eternals movie does well, maybe a small SHIELD Helicarrier. No real idea, but Galactus is practically a given.

It's DEFINITELY going to happen since the Sentinel has been such a massive hit. There is no other Haslab project that would sell as well as a big Galactus, although he won't sell as well as the Sentinel since you can't army-build him. But they can go more all-out on him and make him packed with features to cost $500 to $700.

I can’t remember how much these were? I don't even know, but I believe the retail figures were $60, so I'm guessing that's what they cost at SDCC, or possibly less since they had no pack-in figure like the retail versions had. These days last I checked they sell for $150 to $250 in the blister.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to order at least five, but I'm not doing it until near the end to give me time to mull it over and see how big their total production run will be. It's possible they end up making so many that resale ends up becoming difficult, although I doubt that will happen. I already know I want at least three for myself, but if they add more battle damage features I could potentially end up wanting more.

The problem with X-23 is that she's a clone of Wolverine, so ideally Marvel casts a man as Wolverine and a woman as X-23 who are extremely similar to each other. If they go with a short Wolverine Keen may end up being too large for the role given that her parents are 5' 11" and 5' 9", and even if she turns out short there's the additional requirement of at least somewhat resembling whoever they cast as Logan. But if they ignore all of that and cast them both regardless of their similarity to the comic characters or each other then I do hope they cast her again...she did great.

And a last note about the Marvel Universe Galactus--he's one of my three favorite action figures ever, LOVE LOVE LOVE that guy. The voices he says when you press the G on his chest are super-fun too, EXTREMELY well-written and voice-acted, and are demonstrated below. He shares a lot of parts with the Sentinel, and while his head is at the same level as the Sentinel his tall hat increases his height from the Sentinel's 16" to about 19.5". My display cases have adjustable-height shelves, and I had to do multiple adjustments to get someone as big as him to fit in them.

One more thing about the Marvel Universe Sentinel--the first version of both him and the Marvel Universe Galactus--which is even better than the Sentinel and WELL worth getting--were first sold at San Diego Comic-Con in 2010 on HUGE blister cards, but with no packed-in figure (Galactus came with a 3.75" Silver Surfer at retail). Those massive blister cards look super-cool, and anyone who enjoys having packaged figures as art deco and likes either of these characters would do well to snag one in the blister since they dwarf every other blistered figure I've ever seen. I don't have one of either on the blister but I've considered it many times.

They revealed the third stretch goal this morning, and they're only about 100 backers from hitting it--a female Sentinel Prime. Makes perfect sense since it's sort of army-buildable if you buy multiple Sentinels, although having them all with the same hair seems weird. They posted on Instagram last night that they're considering more stretch goals beyond the third one. I bet they do it.

I still love that guy. There were four different versions released, and the first three are compared here: http://www.onepercase.net/2012/02/marvel-universe-masterworks-sentinel.html That page was written back in 2012 when three versions had been released, but a fourth one was released in 2018 as an Amazon-exclusive "Days of Future Past" set that included a larger 6" Wolverine figure. That newest one had the worst paint deco as none of the wires in the wrists or ankles had silver paint like yours or the other two. Yours is the second version that the guy at the site above claims was the one sold in retail brick-and-mortar stores. I have the third version that's mostly purple that was sold only online. I learned about all four prior to buying and intentionally went for the third version because I liked the paint the best. All four versions are functionally the same with only paint applications differing. I still love everything about this Sentinel--particularly the lights and sounds, with the sounds being surprisingly good--except one thing, the T-joint hips where you have to rotate the hip ball to control the angle the legs swivel outwards at. Swiveling that T-joint is a ROYAL pain in the rear. Hasbro used to regularly use T-joint hips up until five years ago; no figure molds they've created since then have that style of hip joint. They've released figures since 2015 with T-joint hips, but those figures have all been based upon molds created before 2015. I expect that the new Sentinel won't have that type of hip, and I'm quite glad. If you buy the new Sentinel you could still use it with an army of these 16" Sentinels by just making the Haslab version a Master Mold since he comes with a head for that Sentinel. Master Mold was a Sentinel that could create other Sentinels. He was bigger than the others and had a different head and a few other style differences, but other than that he mostly looked like other Sentinels.

I was half-expecting a $500 Sentinel with more features, such as a chest compartment to place captured mutants into. Still wish they had done that, but I'm sure they wouldn't have sold as many at that price. I bet they come out with accessory packs for him like Hot Toys does for their figures. Repulsor beams, more battle damage, a female Sentinel Prime (the Primes are humans converted to Sentinels so they can be either gender), a Wolverine blasted down to an adamantium skeleton as shown in X-Men 142 in "Days of Future Past," or a dozen other options one could brainstorm.

More likely tomorrow evening, or possibly Tuesday morning.

Today's revealed incentive promotes buying more than one even more in battle-damaged parts. They will almost certainly now create even more damaged parts, and it begs buying more than one to display different Sentinels in varying states of damage. The original design was three stretch goals, but they said during the presentation there could be more if it did well. And since it's crushing it, I bet we get a LOT more extensive battle-damaged parts.

I'll likely get at least three just for me and more out of speculation. One of you guys bought two of Jabba's barge, was that you or F for Fake?

The new Haslab project is up, and it's a Sentinel as teased. $350, with a bendy-wire tentacle, a Sentinel Prime/Bastion 6" figure included, lights in the chest and eyes, and three additional features unlocked and revealed once they reach 6000, 7000, and 8000 backers. https://hasbropulse.com/collections/haslab/products/x-men-legends-marvel-s-sentinel