DSC_6029
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
DSC_6029
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels