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Friday, September 28, 2018

Pros and Cons of Marvel Legends !!! Both Toybiz and Hasbro !!!

Since Marvel Legends is basically split up between two companies, first it was owned by Toybiz then when Toybiz folded the Marvel Legends franchise got sent to Hasbro . So because of this situation I've decided to review both Toybiz and Hasbro Marvel Legends together . The words " APPLIES TO " will be used to clarify rather  a situation applies to Toybiz , Hasbro or both .

                         The Pros of Marvel Legends 
                    (   Both  Toybiz and Hasbro  ) 
                                The  Positives  

( 1 ) Applies  only  to  Toybiz  -   ACTUAL  REAL  COMIC  BOOK  REPRINTS  CAME  WITH  THE  FIGURES  -
Even though they are all re-prints , there were some re-prints of some classic Marvel Comics . Actual real comics by Marvel themselves, and not some made up stuff by the toy company . So not only did you get a cool figure , but also an actual comic book for your reading enjoyment . Once Hasbro took over the comics ended .

( 2 ) Applies to BOTH  -  EXCELLENT  LIKENESS  OF  ACTORS AND  ACTRESSES OF  THE  MARVEL  MOTION  PICTURE  MOVIES  -
From the Spider-Man films with Tobey Mcguire as Spidey to the most recent Guardians of the Galaxy figures based on the films , both Toybiz and Hasbro have done an excellent job of making the figures look like the actors .

( 3 )  Applies  only  to  Hasbro  -  THE  LUXURY  OF  HEAD  SWAPPING  IS  FUN  -    With the most recent Marvel Legends by Hasbro , you can now remove the head of a figure and place it unto the body of another figure . Just think of the options being almost limitless . Lots of fun and creativity to explore with head swapping . The older Hasbro figures do not have this luxury, same with the Toybiz figures . However the most recent Hasbro Legends are making head swapping a fun trend .

( 4 )  Applies  only  to  Toybiz  -   MORE  ARTICULATION  THAN  ANY  OTHER  KNOWN  SIX  INCH  SCALED  TOY  LINE -
With the Toybiz Legends , a lot of figures even have finger articulation . You can actually move all five fingers on some figures . When Hasbro took over quite a bit of the articulation that Toybiz gave the figures got cut out . Also with Toybiz the female figures have ab crunches whereas till this day the female figures still do not have an ab crunch .

( 5 ) Applies  only  to  Toybiz  -  REALISTIC  LOOKING  FACES  ON  THE  FIGURES  -  Even though today's Hasbro's figures are catching up to Toybiz in this department, however the Toybiz figures have more details in their faces so far .  For example , compare the faces of the Toybiz version of the Absorbing Man to all of the Hasbro Absorbing Man figures, including the build-a-figure, and you will immediately notice the differences .

( 6 )  Applies only  to  Hasbro  -   MARVEL  LEGENDS  STILL  GOING  STRONG  TODAY  -   However the reason the line still lives on is because of Hasbro and not Toybiz . Why is it that Hasbro can keep the line going and Toybiz could not ? Did Toybiz's business practices did them in ? They suffered the same fate as Toys R Us . However Hasbro has been around much longer than Toybiz ever was and has much more business experience . Lack of experience in the business could have been a factor in the demise of Toybiz .

( 7 )  Applies  to  BOTH  -    THE  JOY  OF  BUILD - A - FIGURES  -   Once Marvel Legends started the build-a- figure  idea , other toy companies have continued the trend by following in Legend's footsteps . Toybiz's BAFs ( Build-a- Figures ) were bigger , however this could be a negative too as well as a positive because the bigger the figure the more shelf space, among just space in general it takes up . Rather you prefer the bigger BAFs of Toybiz or the smaller Hasbro ones , the build-a-figure concept was and is a great idea to keep one from spending a lot of money all at once on over-sized characters . By purchasing individual body parts over time is a great way to keep from spending too much at one time . A situation very similar to lay-away .

( 8 ) Applies only  to  Hasbro  -   THE  FIGURES  COME  OUT  MORE  FREQUENTLY  NOW - 
Since Toybiz is no longer in operation . Now there are no more long waits between waves . Hasbro has been on a ball keeping the figures rolling into the stores without the long waits .

( 9 ) Applies to  BOTH  - MARVEL  LEGENDS  ARE  CHEAPER  THAN  OTHER  MARVEL  FIGURES  - 
The other companies that make six inch scaled Marvel figures such as Diamond Select Toys with their Marvel Select figures and the Mezco 1 /12 Marvel figures  are doing a great job, however the figures are on the pricey side . Even though Marvel Legends are not as cheap as they used to be under Toybiz , twenty bucks per figure is still better than what Marvel figures from other companies are priced at . How does Toybiz apply you may ask ? Because you can still purchase loose Toybiz figures off of places like Ebay and Amazon for fair deals .

( 10 )  Applies only to Toybiz  -  THE  FRESH  STRONG  NEW  SCENT  OF  OPENING  A  NEW  FIGURE  - 
How many of you remember opening a Toybiz figure and inhaling a strong scent afterward ? It's not a bad odor but it's not exactly roses neither . It's kind of hard to explain in words however I'm sure many of you have heard people mention " that new car smell " . That's the kind of feeling you get when you open a Toybiz figure of some characters . I remember my Toybiz Sasquatch had that scent when I removed him from the packaging .

( 11 ) Applies only to Toybiz  -   STRONG  DETAILED  BIOS  ON  THE  CARD  BACKS  - 
I'm sorry but Hasbro's bios just do not cut it anymore . They started off similar to Toybiz but recently the bios are just too basic and seem more aimed at kid collectors than adults . For example , if you purchase  any figure of the Hulk these days, the bio may say something similar to this " The Incredible Hulk uses his super strength to smash the enemy . " No bio has actually said those exact words,  however those types of bios have been given to us recently by Hasbro . The bios are now basic and in my opinion are now also boring . They're not as fun to read as they used to be . The older Hasbro bios were good because they're similar to the Toybiz bios . The Toybiz bios provided a physical trait chart displaying a character's strength, speed, fighting skills and intelligence . You also got the character's origin story alongside the chart . I miss those old Toybiz bios .

( 12 ) Applies only to Hasbro  - A  LOT  OF  THE  MOST  RECENT  FIGURES  MAY  COME  WITH  EXTRA  HEADS  AND  HANDS  - 
Some Toybiz figures had alternate heads but not many came with alternate hands . This is where Hasbro has them beat . Extra heads come in handy for masked characters, such as a masked and unmasked head for multiple display options .

Before moving on to the Cons of Marvel Legends , let's see how both Toybiz and Hasbro compared with each other with the Pros .

                        TOYBIZ  - Applies  only to Toybiz  -  5 out of 12
                                            Applies  to BOTH     -       3  out of   12
FINAL   TOYBIZ   SCORE   -    8  out of 12 for a total  Score  of   8 

                          HASBRO   -  Applies only to Hasbro  - 4 out of 12
                                                  Applies  to   BOTH    - 3 out of 12 
FINAL    HASBRO  SCORE   -  7 out of 12 for a total Score  of  7   

Toybiz wins by only ONE point . Even though Toybiz has the winning score this by no means mean that Toybiz did a better job than Hasbro . Because there are some things not discussed in this article such as paint applications on figures . Categories like that vary from figure to figure so that situation alone makes paint apps a difficult category to judge .  Now on to the Cons of Marvel Legends .

                                 The  Cons of Marvel Legends
                           (  The  Negatives  )  - Both Toybiz and Hasbro

( 1 )  Applies to Toybiz  -   TOYBIZ  WENT  OUT  OF  BUSINESS  -   I sure miss Toybiz , but Hasbro has slowly caught up with them in the quality of the figures .

( 2 )  Applies to  Hasbro  -  NEEDS  TO  CONTINUE  TO  IMPROVE  THE  TIGHTNESS  OF  JOINTS  IN  SOME  FIGURES -
Some figures made today still have loose ab crunches , etc . 

Well that;s it for now folks. I enjoyed writing this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it . Before I go let me leave you with some pics of Marvel Legends in action .













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