On 5/7/2025 at 11:52 AM, Psychosomatic said:Love the sets of three idea to update characters without taking up places in main line! I love that Hasbro tries new things, and tries to update characters, but I imagine it must be damn challenging to manage all of the different things they could possibly produce and release (BAF Lines, Retro Lines, Multi-Packs, Exclusives, Deluxe, Haslab, Comic, MCU, Disney+). Wish they would bring back Army Builders on Hasbro Pulse, and larger boxed sets. An Original X-Men Set, or a mixed Army Builder Set (Skrull, Hydra, Aim, Brood, Shield, Hand) could be great ideas.
Buddy an army builder wave is something that is not only long over due but I honestly think would bring in tons of money. If you look at something like that Mindless One wave that was so ridiculous. They actually put an Army Builder type character as the BAF and then went on to put only one character in the wave with any reason to buy more than one of. They could have done so much more with that wave. Had every character in that wave been one that was an army builder or army builder possibilities I would have bought a buns load of them. I don't know who's brainchild that was but it was just such a missed opportunity. Here's what I would propose and I swear if there was any way I could shoot this to Hasbro brass and be fairly certain they would see it I would. I have tried to contact Dan and Ryan through X but have never received any kind of response so maybe my idea is not as good as I think but here maybe they have a chance of seeing it as well.
And TBH much of this wave was stolen, borrowed, cobbled together from other friends and acquaintances on other social media platforms. But it makes it no less a good idea.
So my Army Builder wave goes as such:
1. Doombot - by far this is the most requested army builder I've seen. Why hasn't it happened yet is a travesty. They have the body mold. Do a new head sculpt and maybe a few alternate damaged head sculpts and watch the money fly in.
2. Ultron Drone - probably the second most requested army builder I see requested. Possibly a tossup for the first spot. Same formula as Doombot. The body mold is there. A couple of head sculpts and you're there
3. White Ninja (Chaste) - we already got the Hand (I personally have like 2 dozen) and the Fist so this one obviously makes sense. This was also one of the characters in one of Hasbro's early two packs. One version had a Red Ninja and a SHIELD agent and the other had a White Ninja and a different SHIELD (Fury, Duggan, either or). Long story to say Hasbro's been on a bit of a high streak going back and redoing old figures and we already have redos of Fury Duggan and Red Ninja so the White Ninja makes sense. Body is already done. Just re-cast/repaint.
4. Female SHIELD agent (Yo-Yo) - I know we already have a female agent two pack and also a Quake figure that has army builder options but this could be a white uniform option as Yo-Yo and other female agents are quite often depicted wearing the white uniform. Not only would you knock another notable female agent and a member of the Secret Warriors off the list but it would open up a ton of head swap options for previous figures such as Quake, Maria or Sharon. Yo-Yo even wears similar arm bracers to Quake so they could use literally the same exact set up as the Quake figure only cast in white plastic. So easy.
5. Chitauri Warrior - this thing should have been done many many years ago. And it's not like we didn't ask for it. Personally I've said time and time again I'm totally over the MCU thing. I will get what appeals to me and any new character but the fact that they hadn't done this figure to this point makes me not even want it anymore. Buuuuuut, put it in an army builder wave and give it a kick butt BAF I could find room for them in my display. I know a lot of people still want these to this day and I think they would still get a pretty good reception. And for sure this would satisfy the need for MCU product in the wave.
6. Hammer Drones - seriosly just cut and paste everything I said about the Chitauri Warriors and go. The only problem I see here is it would be impossible to do them in all 4 colors for all 4 branches of the military. Simple solution: make them all a neutral color such as charcoal grey and give them a few gun options instead of swappable head sculpts and do something Hasbro has never done in ML. Just pack in a little sticker sheet with the option of whichever branch you want to represent. Not all that hard actually.
7. The Brood - Hasbro did Queen Brood as a BAF many many many years ago and it was terrible and static and by no means could you pose that thing in any way without it falling the heck apart. Seriously I will give anyone a hundred bucks if you can provide evidence they were able to. This thing was so weird. There was articulation where it didn't need to be and no articulation where it should have been and the thing was absolutely useless. Hasbro can do and needs to do this again. Redemption time.
And for the Grande Finale the BAF would be..........
Mandroid Armor - the original MKII SHIELD version. Those big yellow exosuits with a cannon arm and big dome heads that Iron Man fought in Iron Wars. The ones that look eerily like the Zyclops from the Lightyear movie. Originally Stark Enterprises built 5 of these armors for SHIELD before he destroyed them. There's that extra incentive. Somehow out of standard BAF wave protocol get that info on the box and put the cool cover art from Iron Man #227 on in to show how cool they look squaring off against Iron Man and you got instant sales. Personally I would buy 5 to begin with but honestly I would buy a lot more and I honestly believe a lot of hardcore Marvel fans would too.
Honorable mention: I could have swapped out The Brood with a Skrull Warrior but I still think there's a lot of potential for Hasbro to go back and redo all those older figures on more modern models and simply make it new by including and possibly even displaying it with a Skrull head sculpt. Talk about something that needs to happen ASAP as well.
On 5/6/2025 at 6:27 AM, AndyL said:I bought this thing simply because it was an update on an updated body model but I don't really like these wings. I know they're technically accurate for the way he appeared when Walter Simonson drew him but I was kind of hoping for some of the more modern depictions where there was a little more detail in the wings. Kind of like the new Joaquin Torres Falcon figure's wings.
This guy and pretty much any of the figures in the current X-Force releases that are on newer molds and have updated headsculpts. The funny thing about collecting stuff like this is of course they do as many of the characters as possible up front and then when they update the molds and technology they feel like they have to do a different variation of the character as to not do a straight redo of that character. And as collectors a lot of us are guilty of complaining when they do straight redos. I think it would be great if Hasbro did an outright Update Subline. Straight out just saying hey we've improved and progressed a lot from when this whole thing started and for all that want updates for those older figures here it is. They could probably even do it as some online only pre-order thing. Maybe even do them as sets of 3 or more at a time as to be able to use 3 different molds at a time. Maybe do sets based on cover artwork such as they did with the X-Men Training Uniform 3 packs. Or like they did with the mini comic wave. Of course I'd rather not have to have a mini comic to bag and store and never see again and have an actual BAF instead but the desire to have all my main characters on new models will override all that. Especially any character they ever did on the Bucky Cap or Kate Bishop molds. As good as they might have looked at one time those gummy knee joints do not hold up over time.
Love the sets of three idea to update characters without taking up places in main line! I love that Hasbro tries new things, and tries to update characters, but I imagine it must be damn challenging to manage all of the different things they could possibly produce and release (BAF Lines, Retro Lines, Multi-Packs, Exclusives, Deluxe, Haslab, Comic, MCU, Disney+). Wish they would bring back Army Builders on Hasbro Pulse, and larger boxed sets. An Original X-Men Set, or a mixed Army Builder Set (Skrull, Hydra, Aim, Brood, Shield, Hand) could be great ideas.
I bought this thing simply because it was an update on an updated body model but I don't really like these wings. I know they're technically accurate for the way he appeared when Walter Simonson drew him but I was kind of hoping for some of the more modern depictions where there was a little more detail in the wings. Kind of like the new Joaquin Torres Falcon figure's wings.
On 5/5/2025 at 9:23 PM, Porcupine said:I cannot wait for a classic update of this guy.
This guy and pretty much any of the figures in the current X-Force releases that are on newer molds and have updated headsculpts. The funny thing about collecting stuff like this is of course they do as many of the characters as possible up front and then when they update the molds and technology they feel like they have to do a different variation of the character as to not do a straight redo of that character. And as collectors a lot of us are guilty of complaining when they do straight redos. I think it would be great if Hasbro did an outright Update Subline. Straight out just saying hey we've improved and progressed a lot from when this whole thing started and for all that want updates for those older figures here it is. They could probably even do it as some online only pre-order thing. Maybe even do them as sets of 3 or more at a time as to be able to use 3 different molds at a time. Maybe do sets based on cover artwork such as they did with the X-Men Training Uniform 3 packs. Or like they did with the mini comic wave. Of course I'd rather not have to have a mini comic to bag and store and never see again and have an actual BAF instead but the desire to have all my main characters on new models will override all that. Especially any character they ever did on the Bucky Cap or Kate Bishop molds. As good as they might have looked at one time those gummy knee joints do not hold up over time.