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Spider-Man's 60th Anniversary Livestream - An Interview with the Hasbro Marvel Legends Team
489 Plays4 years ago
Welcome to a special bonus pod edition of Adventures in Collecting! This time Erik gets some face time with the Hasbro Marvel Legends team following their Spider-Man 60th Anniversary Livestream! Hear about the some of the thought process behind the latest Marvel Legends news including an update on packaging, new articulation, and even the teams' all-time favorite Spider-Man figure!
Big thanks to Hasbro and R&CPMK for arranging this interview.
Follow Ryan and Dwight on Instagram, and Dan on Twitter!
Stay up-to-date on the latest from Hasbro @hasbropulse on Instagram.
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors.
Spider-Man's 60th Anniversary with Hasbro Team
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting. Eric here. I just had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Ryan, Dan, and Dwight from the Hasbro Marvel Legends team following their Spider-Man 60th Anniversary Hasbro
00:00:45
Speaker
We got a chance to discuss some of the things they announced, get an idea of some of the thinking behind some of the recent innovations and changes to things. Yeah, it was a really fun chat. So with that, here it is. Here from Ryan, Dan, and Dwight. Enjoy.
Iconic Spider-Man Moments for Toy Line
00:01:07
Speaker
Ryan, Dan, Dwight, thank you for joining us on Adventures in Collecting. Again, to talk Marvel Legends, you guys had an awesome fan-first stream that Dave and I had to catch up on because we were on vacation. So we actually missed it live. So we had to watch the rerun.
00:01:24
Speaker
But lots of really, really cool stuff. And I guess to start off, it was an event about Spider-Man and with 60 years of a body of work behind him, how are you guys going about selecting what moments to celebrate in this special anniversary line? And can we expect more announcements for the anniversary collection as the year goes on?
00:01:51
Speaker
I'll take the first part of that. When we try to do a big program for the fall, we kind of sit down and we discuss what are all some of our favorite stories, what were some of the favorites that we've had over our lives and what we enjoyed.
00:02:09
Speaker
Which ones haven't we yet addressed in toy form and then when we take those we kind of put them on a board and we reach out and talk to our Marvel partners to know if there's something new coming in publishing that we're not aware of yet that might be you know worth throwing some interest towards because we
00:02:30
Speaker
60 years in the past, but you know, probably got 60 years in the future too, right? So we're trying to always make sure we're, you know, keeping our eyes on
00:02:40
Speaker
all sides of it, you know, from not just the past, but the present and what's
Marvel & Disney's Beyond Amazing Initiative
00:02:44
Speaker
coming next. So we try to find some of those elements to pull together to keep a little bit of one of the previous interviews kind of said it best. It's like, you know, I don't always know about some of these things till I see them in toy form. And then it goes back and I read the comics, the stories to kind of
00:03:01
Speaker
uh educate myself about something new and that's kind of the cool thing about comics because you know there's you know we've all read things we all love things but there might be a piece that we missed and sometimes you can find a figure or an arc that you're like what is that about and it drives you back to the books the the source material and you can find some amazing nuggets that you might not have known from the spider lore so it's kind of a mix of all of those things uh put into a hopper um along with the MCU and
00:03:31
Speaker
what's out there that we can be inspired by and try to put as much of that together as possible to come up with a cool program.
00:03:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think it starts with our partners at Marvel and Disney. This thing for Spider-Man Beyond Amazing is going to be a big initiative for them later on this year. So in years where we have things like that, Marvel's 80th, we try to lean into what Marvel is doing. And then, yeah, as Dwight said, it's just kind of a big brainstorm session. We all have our favorites. Sometimes you can kind of tell who fought for what. For me, it was really important to do that amazing fantasy 15 version. And I love that figure so much. It's new.
00:04:08
Speaker
It's got all the pieces you could ever want. And so I was really happy that we got that in the line too. And then to that question of, are we done? We're done in terms of these are the 10 items that we typically release all at the same time with some retailer exclusives. But there are a couple of tie-ins later in the year you'll see that are also Spider-Man themed that we also love. So look out for those shortly.
00:04:32
Speaker
And if you count exactly how many items are in the program, we only did nine. So normally if you go back all the way to 2019 or 2020, they're usually 10 items within a fall program. So just so everyone knows we only showed nine. So I apply that.
00:04:51
Speaker
Ooh, there you go. There's a fun little breadcrumb. We've seen a lot of new things with the releases. Every time you guys announce something, there's always some kind of fun little change, some kind of new thing that's coming.
Innovations in Marvel Legends Accessories
00:05:04
Speaker
And one of the things that's really incredible about the community is there's been this amazing cottage industry that has cropped up around creating accessories like web effects and soft good wired capes for a 112 scale across the board, but sometimes specifically for Marvel Legends.
00:05:21
Speaker
Do you guys foresee a future where legends might include similar items? Well, Dwight had some laundry that he teased in our stream. But yeah, to that point, I think it's honestly tough to do like they need to come with a figure, right? We can't just sell like a bag of capes. Really, that's not
00:05:45
Speaker
But yeah, well, I mean, we're always looking to grow in new areas and try new things out here and there. So those types of ideas, you know, accessory packs are something that we've been kicking around for a long time, just haven't quite unlocked it yet. But like the flight stands, you know, those took me years of wearing the team down to get those into the line. So maybe we'll work that out in the future for those kind of plus up type things.
00:06:11
Speaker
Because the one thing I have to say was, so in the new, the newest MCU, Dr. Strange, I initially was terrified that there was no peg on the back of the cape and no port in his back. And I was like, how is this thing going to stay on? And it stays on really nice. And it actually, it drapes on him really nice and you can get him in some really great poses. But at the same time, I was also thinking like, Oh, there's no hole on the back and there's no like, you know, holes for capes or anything. So like if for an aftermarket cape.
00:06:39
Speaker
it really fits on really nicely. Like you don't have to modify anything. So like I like stuff like that as well and I think that's a cool kind of in-betweener. Maybe like a secret move there.
00:06:57
Speaker
So, again, kind of sticking on that track of new things and kind of innovation. As we know, Spider-Man is one of the more limber heroes out there, and it's always exciting to see more points of articulation. You know, that new retro body is fantastic, everybody loves it. But with the Renew Your Vows two-pack, you guys have re-added a toe articulation.
00:07:20
Speaker
So what was kind of the the thought behind that why why why now why bring that back now to that already existing awesome spider-man body. Dan was the thought. No go ahead go to tell them why we did it.
00:07:38
Speaker
It just did. Dan made me. He forced me to do it. He's always smiling and he looks so nice with his hats, but he's a very scary individual. And he was sending me a lot of really scary texts through the dark web. And I was afraid if I didn't give him toes, I didn't know what was going to happen to me or my action figures. I went into my office and
00:08:01
Speaker
my action figures are missing their heads and there was like notes everywhere and I'm like I don't know what's going on because Dan's not even in the state right now so I don't know how he did it but I was afraid so we gave him some toes. I just cut up all his action figure toes on his desk they were just all missing toes.
00:08:20
Speaker
Oh, but it's an awesome ad. It's such a little tiny nuance, but it really does add a whole lot of additional posability to the figure. So we're really excited to see it come back.
00:08:32
Speaker
I think what our team tries to do really hard is we try very much to listen to what the fans want, and I think that's been one of the requests that have been out there for a while, especially for specific characters. To our articulation, I think it's not going to be something that we add to every single character. It has to be
00:08:54
Speaker
you know appropriate for which characters needed and so one of the things that was on my bucket list because I wanted to articulation was for Spider-Man and we also knew that was something that we could innovate more on our retro body as well so we just wanted
00:09:11
Speaker
to at least try it out and see. There's no guarantee that everybody in the community is going to like it on our, even our Spider-Man. So yeah, we try very hard as a team to see what the fans in the community want too. So hopefully you guys will enjoy it. And we will be using it on other characters though. We are working on another A tier character that'll have toes as well with that same body. So it's not a one and done. You will see it again where it makes sense.
00:09:40
Speaker
I really hope that that figure takes us to Hell's Kitchen, Dwight. Just throwing it out there. That would be a really great way to reuse that body. Agreed.
Sustainable Packaging Concerns
00:09:52
Speaker
Um, so again, continuing kind of the, the, the thread here of innovation, you guys are, are doing your part to contribute to Hasbro's, uh, noble effort to eliminate plastic from packaging, you know, save, save the earth so that way we can enjoy it longer. Um, but members of the community have expressed concerns about, you know, with these kind of new windowless boxes, uh, these plastic free boxes have, have concerns about, uh, you know, potential, a potential increase in theft, uh, people who do collect mint, you know, who, who now.
00:10:22
Speaker
in order to see the figure would have to open the box, and the status of tribute line packaging. So like the beloved Toy Biz style packaging that does prominently feature that plastic bubble. Were any of these concerns taken into consideration when you guys were developing the new packaging? Is there anything, any steps that you guys are taking to kind of address any of those concerns?
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah, so a lot to unpack there. It's been a hot topic for discussion, you know, starting at the top, right, as everyone can kind of agree this is being done for the right environmental reasons to, you know, increase sustainability. You know, that being said, there's a big team at work and we've looked at all the options and have considered things, you know, we are aware that unfortunately,
00:11:08
Speaker
theft and figure swapping is an unfortunate reality. It doesn't make it right, but it is out there, so we will continue to monitor that closely. I think in thinking of how retail is done, there's increasingly more happens on e-com these days, to be honest. Us as all collectors are familiar with it, and so for certain collectors, it might not make that much of a difference. I am a self-admitted, I like to
00:11:31
Speaker
to keep some figures mint and pack i mean i think that's more so just to know that i have a pristine version of the figure should i ever wanted i need it in the future it's not it is about seeing at the figure but you know i've got bins and closets full of stuff that i actually cannot physically see right now so i try to spin it spin it like that a little bit and
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah you know we're just gonna continue to focus on bringing out the characters from the comics and the new entertainment as we always do and just try to really focus our efforts on on making the figures you know as best as they can be and you know hopefully you know the fans understand what we're doing and with regards just to legacy.
00:12:07
Speaker
line packaging. We are working on some kind of alternatives to that, which you'll see in the future. So it doesn't mean that we're necessarily stepping away entirely. The offerings just kind of have to adapt to the times with the new kind of reality that we're in. And as we mentioned previously in other interviews, right, 2023 in the spring is really the true start date for the like completely plastic free. So the rest of 2022 this year, it's going to be a mix because we've, you know, our processes are very long and certain things are already in the works.
00:12:36
Speaker
So it just so happens that those Spider-Man items that we showed last week are all in the new plastic free packaging. So that's a good idea of what kind of single figures and two packs in the new reality are going to look like. Cool. Yeah, I mean, to your point, it's one of those things where it's like,
00:12:56
Speaker
if we don't have an earth to enjoy figures on and live on what's the point, you know, and if these little changes can, you know, can make big impacts, it's ultimately what matters more. And yes, I'm currently staring at a bin of figures that are all poly bagged that I can't see any of them. I only know that they're in there because the spreadsheet that I have tells me that I pulled in there. So yeah, I'm right there with you.
00:13:22
Speaker
Um, and, and mentioning, we mentioned the, the, the retro, uh, animated series
Future of Retro Spider-Man Line and Sustainability
00:13:26
Speaker
line. It's, you know, you, you guys recently revealed the, uh, at the last event that the lizard is coming. Um, that line has been a huge hit. Uh, the, the toy biz packaging, the 90s animated series, it's like one of.
00:13:39
Speaker
like a beloved combo and seeing the figures get kind of a modern treatment is amazing. Can we anticipate more waves or single releases in that line kind of continuing, or is there kind of like an end in sight for that? Yeah, I mean, I think, to be honest, that's Spider-Man, Toy Biz, Retro-Card line, that's my favorite line, right? And I've been very adamant about that.
00:14:05
Speaker
You know, like Ryan was saying, we, we've made sort of like a goal by 2023, you know, to be sustainable, more sustainable as a company. And so, um, that doesn't mean that in 2022 you won't see, I can guarantee, I guess I'll just like give you a nugget now that you will see at least a couple of more items on a retro card, I will say. So, um, you don't have to worry.
00:14:30
Speaker
yet about those going away. It's like a phased approach for 2022. So yeah, stay tuned for that. But overall, I think I personally think it's really important, even though I love the retro, you know, packaging in line that we kind of go in this new direction of sustainability.
00:14:50
Speaker
I don't think every, I don't think anything really ever ends for us. And that's what's great about working on a brand like Marvel is that there, there is no end. There's so much, you know, we're never going to get to it all. So we're never really done with it. And, um, you know, we might have to do two different years, different priorities coming out.
00:15:06
Speaker
you know, um, not be able to do everything in one fell swoop, but we can always go back. We can always go back to stuff. We're kicking off 2024 soon, which is crazy because we're only in 2022. Um, but that's just kind of, yeah, what, what, what the deal is. And, uh, yeah, it's like, it's like that, uh, lost meme where Jack says we have to go back. Like we can always go back. We can. Oh man. Lost reference. Nice. I liked it.
00:15:31
Speaker
Speaking of my heart, speaking of my heart, love me some lost. So yeah, I mean, that's exciting to hear. And I mean, I could see a world too, like just looking in your backgrounds and looking at the plastic free packaging, like how awesome that giant ToyBiz 90s Spider-Man logo would just look across like a big two pack box. Like that art and the purple and the spider web would definitely translate.
00:15:59
Speaker
You know, to that, I think as long as as long as we keep getting figures from that 90s animated universe. I mean, there's there's so many unique looks from that that are so iconic. I honestly think people will get over the packaging just as long as they continue to get the figures, right? At least that's the hope.
00:16:20
Speaker
Before we move off of retro, the one thing that you guys didn't mention at all during the event was the retro three and three quarter inch line. Can we expect more news from that line before the end of the year, or have we seen what we're going to see in 2022? Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. There will be more retro 375 news to come. We like to bring our friends, Stevie Evans, on for those. Yeah.
00:16:49
Speaker
We always try to space it out. It was it was very Spider-Man heavy in Alaska. Understandably, it's a little anniversary. 60 years is no slouch, right?
Favorite Spider-Man Figures and Memories
00:17:01
Speaker
And then something you guys know, having had had me before, I like to ask something personal from you guys before before I let you go. And since we've been talking about Spider-Man the whole time, the question is going to be this time to each of you, what is your favorite Spider-Man figure of all time?
00:17:22
Speaker
I'll go first. I think for me, probably into the Spider-Verse Peter B. Parker in the green jacket.
00:17:36
Speaker
I think the likeness to the show was matched so perfectly. I love any Spider-Man that I could aspire to be. And if there was going to be a Spider-Man that I could maybe pull off one day, that would be it. So I think that Peter B. Parker is probably, if not the top Spider-Man, definitely in the top three of the Spider figures that I can think of.
00:18:05
Speaker
I'll go next. I think it's a tie between the retro Spidey that we put out in 2020 on the card, just because I love that card, or Pizza Spidey. I really, when I first played with Pizza Spidey, number one, I love pizzas, so anything that has pizza accessories though, but number two,
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, that figure, I just couldn't put it down when I first had it in my hand. I kept playing with it in the middle of the day of work day. Ryan would see me across our cube, and I'll just be playing with it. So yeah, I really love the Pizza Spidey still. That's tougher for me, because as a kid, I was more of an X-Men focus in the old Toy Biz line. So I don't think I actually even had any for many Toy Biz Spider-Man.
00:18:51
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I think that retro card wave, the first time we did it, you know, we got to reveal it at Toy Fair. I think it was last time we were at Toy Fair. What was that, like 2020, I think. And I had to go back and get the original Toy Biz one because I like to do that like comparison when we would reveal them at events. So yeah, I mean, it's boring, but I'll say that that original retro card Spider-Man just because it was also fun to working with the packaging team.
00:19:16
Speaker
to look at that line look and to be like, how are we going to bring this into the modern age there with the little name and the call outs and then the back? And so just working on the whole architecture of it is a really fun experience. Awesome.
00:19:32
Speaker
Well, I think, uh, I think that, that wraps us up for, uh, for, for this call. I don't want to keep you guys over. Um, thank you so much for taking the time to, to kind of unpack your, uh, your fan first event. And, you know, as always, we'll, we'll look forward to the next one. Yeah, man, always good to see you, man. And, uh, as Spidey would say, let's go meds Eric. So let's go meds, you know, so, uh, I appreciate it. I did that. I did that on purpose.
00:19:59
Speaker
Had to go with the black one because otherwise the blue one kind of messes with the background. I got you I got the black one right here. It's all good, and I think this is my I think it's my my city field in our one back in the day, so You know alright guys well take care and and we'll talk soon. That's good. Bye. Bye
00:20:22
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:20:39
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:21:03
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer Frank Kablaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.