I was originally going to reply to this on the "Toy Biz vs. Hasbro" editorial, but there's too much detail and information to say that I think it'd be better expressed in an article all its own.
That said, I'm sure there are people upset with the Marvel-based toy lines that Hasbro made and wish that Toy Biz had continued to make the toy lines for Marvel instead. However, there's no way Toy Biz can get the toy rights back and make Marvel figures again because, and I'm sad to say, TOY BIZ DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE!
Let me explain, as quick as I can:
Once upon a time, there was a toy company named Toy Biz. They first made toys for DC Comics, such as DC Comics Super Heroes, and some of those were really clever for their time. I remember the Superman toy that would fall over when the Kryptonite ring accessory it came with was held to the toy's chest. That said, the toys themselves were, sadly, very cheap and the action figures left a lot to be desired. Just look at Lex Luthor's "Power Punch" action feature - his action feature made him uppercut his fist up and it looked like he was punching himself in the face. Though Toy Biz also made the first toys for 1989's blockbuster film "Batman" - notably the Joker, Bob the Goon, and the Dark Knight himself, as well as its vehicles and Batcave playset - Toy Biz would no longer make toys for DC characters.
Then in the 1990s, the company made toys for Marvel Comics instead. They started off in 1990 with their Marvel Super Heroes toy line, which included the likes of Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, and Doctor Doom. Some of the action figures had cool action features, like Doc Ock's bendable tentacles with snapping claws and suction cups on its ends. Others had accessories with them, like the guns the Punisher came with or the boulder and bendable steel bar that the Hulk came with. These toys were also famously spoofed in an issue of Peter David's run of "The Incredible Hulk" comic (1991's Annual #17, part 2), where the Hulk laments that for his toy, upon looking at its boulder accessory, "I got a rock." Classic line.
Throughout the 1990s, Toy Biz made several successful Marvel toy lines, such as toys for Marvel's successful "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" animated series on the Fox Kids network. They even made several boxed sets of figures that are as impressive now as they were in their time, like the Classic X-Men (just look at Cyclops' red eyes when you lift up his visor for proof) and the Classic Avengers roster, including dents in Iron Man's armor.
Sadly, Marvel entered chapter 11 bankruptcy in the late 1990s, but Toy Biz helped Marvel emerge from bankruptcy by merging with it. With the two companies now owned by the other, Toy Biz would produce several new successful toy lines for Marvel, including the highly-detailed Spider-Man Classics line that spawned the fan-favorite Marvel Legends series. Toy Biz also created the movie-based toy lines for the likes of "X-Men", "Spider-Man" and "Hulk".
However, for reasons I don't know, Marvel Comics decided to switch to make toys with the toy company Hasbro instead and Toy Biz said it'd no longer make Marvel toys. Now that they wouldn't make toys for Marvel, Toy Biz made Total Nonstop Action wrestling action figures and Curious George toys afterwards and they tried to make agreements with other companies to make toys off their products, but it never happened. In 2007, the company was renamed Marvel Toys, even though Hasbro now had the rights to Marvel Legends and Marvel's movie franchises. Toy Biz, or rather Marvel Toys, made a superhero toyline for non-DC and non-Marvel characters instead called Legendary Comic Book Heroes. Those toys included characters like Judge Dredd, Witchblade and Savage Dragon. However, by 2008, Toy Biz/Marvel Toys was dissolved and it is now no longer a company.
And that really, really, REALLY, sucks.
I don't know what happened to make Toy Biz - the company that merged with Marvel to save it from bankruptcy and made its best, most successful toys ever (let's be honest, folks, they were) - no longer make Marvel toys and have Marvel make toys with Hasbro. But I'd really, REALLY love to know.
It's hard to believe, and even harder for me to type, because I was a huge collector of their toys during my childhood. I am fortunate enough to have memories of getting several Toy Biz toys when they first came out over the years. One year for Christmas as a kid, I was surprised with several DC Comics Super Heroes action figures (Superman, Lex Luthor, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze and Robin, respectively). I started getting their Marvel toys from their very first Marvel Super Heroes line on, and some of them, like their famous "Talking Heroes" toy line, were the coolest things I'd seen as a kid. Not only did they say things like they would in the comics, such as Venom's famous "I want to eat your brain" or Spider-Man's "Spider-sense tingling!", you could tell this company really got the characters they were making the toys for. Over the years, even when I got over, the collector in me had me still buying Toy Biz toys in my later years, and even towards the (little did I know) end I was buying action figures from their popular Marvel Legends toy line. What people now spend dozens, even hundreds, of dollars on now for collectors' value, I was fortunate enough to get from the start for a handful of bucks. (If only I'd left more in the box than actually play with them as a kid...)
Then, when I saw previews for Marvel Toys in either ToyFare magazine or on the internet from the Toy Fair, I was anxious to see what toys that Toy Biz would make next for Marvel and waiting for them to come out was sometimes unbearable.
Now, when I think of Marvel toys, all I see are Hasbro's piles and piles of non-selling 3 and 3/4 inch Marvel Universe figures, with their 6-inch versions of Marvel toys popping up only every now and again. Now, Hasbro seems to have seen the error of their ways by saying we'd see more 6-inch figures and the return of the Marvel Legends line in 2012. Sadly, nothing in the 2011 Toy Fair impressed me when it came to new toys for Marvel by Hasbro. Spider-Man was barely present there at all, with a handful of new toys. The Captain America and Thor movie toys are mostly 3 and 3/4 inches, aside from one or two toys made taller than that. And the 6-inch toys they did have were just painful to look at. Barely poseable, squeeze-legs-for-action-feature Spider-Man action figures? Really?
However, when it comes to articulation, sculpting, and overall cool Marvel toys, Hasbro has a ways to go to impress me. Hasbro may make Marvel's toys now, but Toy Biz made the BEST Marvel toys. The company will be missed. And the sad thing, the worst part for me, is that I don't even think people know Toy Biz/Marvel Toys is even GONE now.
What do you guys think?