Marvel Legends Designers Break Down Process of Releasing New Versions of Characters
Hasbro unveiled an all-new slate of figures as part of the wildly collective Marvel Legends line [...]
Hasbro unveiled an all-new slate of figures as part of the wildly collective Marvel Legends line with some selections from Avengers: Endgame back at San Diego Comic-Con. Fans are always anxious to see what heroes get picked for new figures and which ones get left out. With Marvel's 80th Anniversary upon us, the creators had a huge job ahead of them with selecting who would be up for this wave of figures.
ComicBook.com's Matthew Aguilar was at the event and had the chance to interview General Brand Manager for Hasbro's Marvel line Ryan Ting and Senior Design Manager Dwight Stall about how they make those tough calls surrounding characters. The full interview is located up top and subjects like the Endgame slate, which X-Men made the cut, and of how they found out about Bro Thor are all discussed.
Aguilar asked: There's a lot of characters who get requested over and over again, like re-do's because they have so many costumes and things like that, how big of a gap do you try and leave between like an Iron Man? Some characters are more popular than they need to be, like 'Okay, we've had a version of them it's like semi-modern two years ago.' Is it there enough time to where you can go back to that well? As opposed to when you can revisit the character?
"I don't think it's a very set one if it is. Because we constantly have to keep your finger on the pulse of multiple things. We don't always know what the secret eggs Marvel is going to sprinkle into the MCU are going to be nor necessarily what Marvel Publishing is going to push as a new direction for a character. None of us would have expected the Hydra Cap a couple of years ago. We have so many Caps, but that was such a different take on the character that it warrants a whole new look and a whole new opportunity to do something really quickly," Dwight Stall answered.
As one might expect, a lot of the time these sorts of decisions come down to the creator's choice. Characters that have huge shake-ups like Cap's turn as a Hydra agent or Falcon becoming the new Captain America are going to elicit a speedy reaction. That doesn't mean that Hasbro isn't going to stop releasing the "hits" though.
"We plan out waves about a year to a year and a half out on what we want to do for the classics stuff. That's a little easier because we have so much here on the 80-year, you know 'everything' to do, which is fantastic," He continues, "But, when you talk about the upcoming shows and movies and everything that they have going with all the different ventures. It is a little tougher to figure out who's going to be hot and who's not, who's going to be that next rising star. Sometimes you don't know until you see it and do it. Sometimes you have to do it again like, 'Yeah, I know we just did it, but...'"
Long-running properties like Marvel Comics have a wealth of material to choose from when making choices on merchandise. Couple that with how popular the television series and movies surrounding these characters are and it's easy to see why the designers want to find that sweet spot. You simply can't please everyone, but these insights into both the design process and planning go a long way in helping fans understand.
