October 2008 - Each month, Hasbro will answer five questions about their Marvel and Spider-Man products. Here are the latest questions and answers:
1. Is pricing on Marvel Legends going up (staying up from what it has been) on the next assortments? The prices went up for the Fin Fang Foom and Red Hulk waves, but are future prices going to the same as those? (The Fin Fang Foom wave price was just for that wave, but now people are getting worried when they see that the Red Hulk wave price is the same.)
Answer: Pricing is ultimately set by retailers, but in general, if you compare the price of Marvel Legends to other 6" BAF lines in the marketplace, you should find that the pricing is comparable. It can also be said that price is related to the size of the actual Build A Figure character. For example, in order to offer a Build a Figure as large as FOOM (the largest Legends BAF ever), the price per figure simply had to be higher than standard BAF prices.
2. Are Heroscape expansions still being made? Is the Marvel Heroscape expansion still coming? (Back in a July Q&A round, the answer to this was "We will send you an answer to this question soon!")
Answer: WE ARE LOOKING INTO THIS AND WILL GET BACK TO YOU SHORTLY. (RTM adds: oops, our bad.)
3. Comic packs for the 3 3/4" Marvel line seem to be a natural -- should we expect them?
Answer: We agree completely that comic packs would be a natural fit. We're excited about the launch of Marvel Universe in 2009 and the bottom line is that you're probably going to see all sorts of fun stuff in this line.
4. Will the ARES wave be available to other retail outlets? And if not... where are the online stores getting cases of figures from?
Answer: The Ares wave is a Wal-Mart exclusive only. Online retailers who are posting the Ares figures for sale would most likely be re-selling the product.
5. In the last Q&A session, you gave the collecting community the assurance that retailer exclusive waves for Marvel Legends would be readily available and easy to come by for consumers. There was some truth to that as I was able to build my Red Hulk figure after hitting multiple Targets over a few weeks, and I'm still seeing figures from the wave about. The same however cannot be said about Wal*Mart, which locally had received its Ares wave and was sold out in less than a 4-day period. It was through dumb luck that I got my complete set, but others have not been so fortunate, and many reports are confirming that Wal*Mart has these items listed as "non-replenish", a designation supposedly assigned to seasonal items and exclusives where local stores cannot make requests for re-orders, and instead have to take what is given to them, IF it even arrives in the first place. Now obviously you have no control over the distribution of these exclusives, but I'd like to use my question to hear from you guys as to what you think about this situation, especially when you consider that some of you are customers too.
Answer: The first wave of inventory sold through very quickly and reinforcements are on the way. Additional inventory has already shipped to Target & Wal-Mart & our expectation is that both waves will be readily available for the holiday season at their respective exclusive retailers.
