They're doing a fair number of ReAction and those novelty bicycles. Vac metal Silverhawks and an o-ring Joe wave closer in the month. But a lot of ways they read more to me like an evolved version of the 2014 company I followed than the version that people who started following them with MOTU or TMNT thought of them as. I always said it was less likely they'd go out of business and more that they'd wane in relevance to 6 and 7 inch collectors and be more of a presence again in skate and head shops. It's not even the most extreme version of what I was predicting but I think we're kind of there. Those My Chemical Romance ReAction from last year look to be some of the best selling things they ever made but a number of Ultimate lines, if you follow Flynn closely, are being planned more as 1-3 figures, once a year. I don't think of it exactly as a failure although there's obvious downsizing. It's more that their core is now (again) more stuff like Peanuts and music figures and less 80s/90s cartoon nostalgia. Even going all-in on 2003 Turtles going forward is a different demo. I gather it's not that we'll never see other eras of TMNT occasionally but waves will be 2003 now.
Oh. And I'm hearing more and more that it sounds like Tigersharks was initially going to be an open-ended quarterly line in 2025 and now is probably going to launch in 2026 and be more like Toxic Crusaders as one of those "every year to 18 month" things where the longterm goal is just getting the main 6-7 characters in one look once instead of being some ten wave thing where every main character gets 2+ figures.
Sidebar, also: I'm hearing a lot of chatter that rather than viewing every IP as open ended that they're now a lot more focused on completing sets or teams. I'd expect Silverhawks to prioritize Melodia, Flashback, Hardware, and Poker-Face in the next 2 waves. I'd expect any vintage TMNT to round sets. Toxic Crusaders is squarely focused on a mix of Toxies and the main 9 vintage figures. They don't seem to be playing that game of saving key characters for 10 waves later and seem to honestly be approaching IPs closer to their Animaniacs or something like "We're going to do five figures and walk away". Thundercats is the big weird exception because apparently the sales are there to do one off randos who never had toys so they feel like they can push. And TMNT sales are there to go deep on 2003 but I think they're conscious enough of licensing challenges and competition to try to make every wave feel like a great stopping point. Hence the main TMNT, followed by 4 main characters. And April likely in wave 3. Thundercats is the one where both sales and licensing have them thinking they could do anything, especially as every major cartoon character is achieved, there's retail interest, there's few toy characters to hit, and enough interest in one off toon characters.
Final note: I gather you will see more and more stuff in Deluxe with no direct Ultimates counterpart. And we won't see that until MAYBE 60 days before it hits. Expect something like Joe Deluxe or Transformers Deluxe to start doing stuff that doesn't exist in Ultimates. Thundercats has to some extent and will continue to. Deluxe isn't JUST slight repaints with more accessories. If there's a major character they didn't hit and a Deluxe line, that's possible. Think Bumblebee, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Serpentor, Android Krang. Particularly if no tooling is needed but any big character is up. There's a couple of Thundercats I know of that don't line up directly to any existing Ultimates figure. If a retailer picks up an IP as Deluxe, it will essentially be whatever the top 10 characters are, even if that's an unreleased deco or new tooling.
My wife works as a travel agent as a side gig. They basically exist today because cruise lines, Disney, etc. don't want to hire their own staff to book stuff so instead they pay a pittance to travel agents who book with them. It doesn't cost the traveler any money and the employees are all considered self-employed so there's no taxes, benefits, etc. It's definitely not a great way to make money, she just likes doing it and sometimes we get free trips out of it (because they would rather give you a free cruise than just, you know, pay you a better wage).
Biggest issues with The Batman: 1. Why is 28-year-old Bruce a petulant child? Still maturing, sure. But “you’re not my daddy, Alfred!” No. 2. Batman’s rubber suit can’t save him from disintegrating when he flies into a bridge. And even in the most generous assessment, he isn’t walking that off. 3. The last 40 minutes in the stadium should’ve been edited to about 15. Same thing happens like 4 times with no additional dramatic payoff. 4. Batman is an elite fighter, elite endurance athlete, and elite explosion athlete. Guys like that look like linebackers or gymnasts, not flimsy little Battinson. 5. Any Batman not knowing Spanish is stupid. Young Batman not knowing the carpeting tool is a great angle. A lot of that movie was incredible. The more I watch, the more holes I find. But honestly I loved it on first sit through. There’s some really powerful atmospheric shots, good brutal fighting, and in spite of his physical inadequacy, Pattinson does the Bat well in costume.
Bigger question is what is going on with Super 7? Zero new preorders in months, no news on most of their lines generally is not a good thing.
They're doing a fair number of ReAction and those novelty bicycles. Vac metal Silverhawks and an o-ring Joe wave closer in the month. But a lot of ways they read more to me like an evolved version of the 2014 company I followed than the version that people who started following them with MOTU or TMNT thought of them as.
I always said it was less likely they'd go out of business and more that they'd wane in relevance to 6 and 7 inch collectors and be more of a presence again in skate and head shops. It's not even the most extreme version of what I was predicting but I think we're kind of there.
Those My Chemical Romance ReAction from last year look to be some of the best selling things they ever made but a number of Ultimate lines, if you follow Flynn closely, are being planned more as 1-3 figures, once a year.
I don't think of it exactly as a failure although there's obvious downsizing. It's more that their core is now (again) more stuff like Peanuts and music figures and less 80s/90s cartoon nostalgia.
Even going all-in on 2003 Turtles going forward is a different demo. I gather it's not that we'll never see other eras of TMNT occasionally but waves will be 2003 now.
Oh. And I'm hearing more and more that it sounds like Tigersharks was initially going to be an open-ended quarterly line in 2025 and now is probably going to launch in 2026 and be more like Toxic Crusaders as one of those "every year to 18 month" things where the longterm goal is just getting the main 6-7 characters in one look once instead of being some ten wave thing where every main character gets 2+ figures.
Sidebar, also: I'm hearing a lot of chatter that rather than viewing every IP as open ended that they're now a lot more focused on completing sets or teams. I'd expect Silverhawks to prioritize Melodia, Flashback, Hardware, and Poker-Face in the next 2 waves. I'd expect any vintage TMNT to round sets. Toxic Crusaders is squarely focused on a mix of Toxies and the main 9 vintage figures. They don't seem to be playing that game of saving key characters for 10 waves later and seem to honestly be approaching IPs closer to their Animaniacs or something like "We're going to do five figures and walk away".
Thundercats is the big weird exception because apparently the sales are there to do one off randos who never had toys so they feel like they can push. And TMNT sales are there to go deep on 2003 but I think they're conscious enough of licensing challenges and competition to try to make every wave feel like a great stopping point. Hence the main TMNT, followed by 4 main characters. And April likely in wave 3. Thundercats is the one where both sales and licensing have them thinking they could do anything, especially as every major cartoon character is achieved, there's retail interest, there's few toy characters to hit, and enough interest in one off toon characters.
Final note: I gather you will see more and more stuff in Deluxe with no direct Ultimates counterpart. And we won't see that until MAYBE 60 days before it hits. Expect something like Joe Deluxe or Transformers Deluxe to start doing stuff that doesn't exist in Ultimates. Thundercats has to some extent and will continue to. Deluxe isn't JUST slight repaints with more accessories.
If there's a major character they didn't hit and a Deluxe line, that's possible. Think Bumblebee, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Serpentor, Android Krang. Particularly if no tooling is needed but any big character is up.
There's a couple of Thundercats I know of that don't line up directly to any existing Ultimates figure. If a retailer picks up an IP as Deluxe, it will essentially be whatever the top 10 characters are, even if that's an unreleased deco or new tooling.
'Skeleton Crew' was pitched as a film. It was the higher ups that wanted to stretch it out to a series when they were trying to fill out Disney+.
The new Turtles show (Tales of TMNT) was a Paramount Plus exclusive when it released in August, but is now available on Netflix as of Jan 1.
My wife works as a travel agent as a side gig. They basically exist today because cruise lines, Disney, etc. don't want to hire their own staff to book stuff so instead they pay a pittance to travel agents who book with them. It doesn't cost the traveler any money and the employees are all considered self-employed so there's no taxes, benefits, etc. It's definitely not a great way to make money, she just likes doing it and sometimes we get free trips out of it (because they would rather give you a free cruise than just, you know, pay you a better wage).
Oh wow you're in the new Lost documentary? That's pretty awesome! Looking forward to seeing it soon
Just watched Lost all the way through with my son last year. He loved it.
Biggest issues with The Batman:
1. Why is 28-year-old Bruce a petulant child? Still maturing, sure. But “you’re not my daddy, Alfred!” No.
2. Batman’s rubber suit can’t save him from disintegrating when he flies into a bridge. And even in the most generous assessment, he isn’t walking that off.
3. The last 40 minutes in the stadium should’ve been edited to about 15. Same thing happens like 4 times with no additional dramatic payoff.
4. Batman is an elite fighter, elite endurance athlete, and elite explosion athlete. Guys like that look like linebackers or gymnasts, not flimsy little Battinson.
5. Any Batman not knowing Spanish is stupid. Young Batman not knowing the carpeting tool is a great angle.
A lot of that movie was incredible. The more I watch, the more holes I find. But honestly I loved it on first sit through. There’s some really powerful atmospheric shots, good brutal fighting, and in spite of his physical inadequacy, Pattinson does the Bat well in costume.
I, too, had box shock when that Ghost arrived on my porch 😮.
I'm not exhausted on TMNT because I've only just started on collecting Joy Toy .
And what they just dropped ...holy sheeeeet lol.
I could see McFarlane continuing to do 7" stuff and Hasbro doing 6" stuff
I would love to see Hasbro make some DC Legends.
Watch the new TMNT show. Its pretty amazing. Its only like 12 episodes I think.
What happened to the Friday night indie toy streams you were going to do?