>>9766995>"oh Eternals and Shiang-Chi flopped" doesn't really matter because them flopping was expected, while in the meantime Hasbro was selling multiple other waves of figures.Spector Creative did a pretty timely breakdown of this--why it wasn't just the Eternals and Shang Chi waves that flopped. I was also perplexed as to why some stores would pull ML given those are the only two waves people talk about as duds. But he noted reasons why the Black Widow wave (which had figures way too early before the movie and a horrible Taskmaster design 2 per case), Fantastic Four wave (kids today have lost association with them because they haven't been in a movie forever), and 2 Xmen Age of Apocalypse waves (designs from a 90s storyline that mostly will just appeal to a niche group, not kids going down a toy aisle) also struggled. That's a lot more waves failing.
There may be something to Todd's sense of "cool designs sell" in that they end up being more timeless and independent of their content. I had no idea what the DC Death Metal storyline was, but I definitely noticed Death Metal Batman and Wonder Woman's designs and they made me take notice of the line.
