>>6915699I don't think you understand the situation that Toy Biz was under during that time.
Their Legendary line was the same quality as they had been making in their last few years.
Furhermore, Marvel/Toy Biz was still transitioning, as Toy Biz had bought Marvel in the late 90s and TB switched to just being known as Marvel Toys. Overseas Toy Biz was spun off as their own company and all their licenses were discountinued. The Legendary line was going to be very limited, as Marvel Toys was basically shuttering, and basically to test the market to see if there was more interest in comic book toys. TB had known for years that they weren't going to be producing Marvel action figures, since 2004 and maybe even earlier as that's when Marvel was seeking out other companies to see how much money they could get for the license.
Their artists were all being hired by Hasbro and pretty much all the higher ups are still at MArvel today, just being franchise/licensing approvers who work with all the merch companies.
>>6915706It's not really oil prices. China was experiencing riots with workers around the same time and this made production of their toys more uncertain, especially since they were asking for pay raises and better conditions (also raises costs). This is another reason why Marvel Toys fully left the market, because of how volatile production had become. The spike in oil prices was just that and everyone knew it was temporary, but Chinese production? That was long term until forever, to the point that HAsbro is finally transitioning away from China.
Anyway, since Hasbro has to pay so much for the license, it's just a cost cutting feature. They experience cheaper unit costs that way. Hence their own lines, like GI Joe, had accessories coming out of their asses.
