BAF Waves - Themed or Mixed?

I'm definitely team Eliminate BAFs. $30 a piece is too much to drop on stuff you don't want to get an arm or a torso.

But if they're going to do them, at least a themed wave would seemingly cut down on unwanted buying. If Skurge had come in an all Thor themed wave, I'd have been more likely to want the entire wave versus a modern six armed Spider-man, modern Iron Man, and random Ghost Rider variant that I don't need.
 
Don't forget Volcana! She's still not confirmed and I don't think she's coming blister carded.

Moonstone
Volcana
Alkhema
Diablo
Fixer (give me my Tbolts!)
Maximus

If we have to throw in a heavy hitter, how about Wanda? Modern Wanda, Lore (am I the only one who loves that design?), some other variation and call it evil.

Much as I don't care about Venom, I could be tempted by a Bride of Venom. Especially if it looks like the movie - thought that looked cool, and that's Venom's whole thing. :)
 
I had to look it up. The last BAF wave that I DIDN'T complete was Venompool in 2020. I only bought Morbius and Phage from that wave. Before that it was the Fat Thor wave in 2019 because I skipped Cap and Vision.
 
From this point on considering the price increases, I wonder if the Hasbro team would only make themed BAF waves going forward since it seems the majority of collectors prefer them as opposed to the random red brick waves.
 
I'm not sure they will With BaF concept in play people are incentivized to buy all the figures, even ones they wouldn't buy absent a baf part.

If you make the wave a little eclectic you widen the net of potential customers that want some of the figures. If you make it Avengers only you lose purchases of the X-men guys or whatever.

Obviously they'll do whatever sells best... and they do at least learn some lessons... like no more mixed movie/comic waves...
 
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But on a serious note I did buy my first MCU figure in like 6 years with Born Again Daredevil and he is phenomenal.

Can't wait to buy the black season 2 repaint.
 
I love, love grab-bag waves but if they're keeping BAF as a concept, at the current price point, keep it VERY thematic. I'll happily buy a whole wave of randos if I like them but there really should be consideration for theme going forward for BAFs.

FWIW, back in the older days, I found I always had to buy ONE figure I didn't want for a BAF but at cheaper prices I considered tht one figure the price of getting the figure I did want, like an imperfect two-pack. These days that's an expensive tax on a luxury hobby.
 
It did seem a lot easier mentally for me to justify $100 or $120 for a 6 figure + BAF wave with a few figures I may not have truly wanted, but at $150+ at this point I feel like my price goodwill has been tapped out. Also, there appeared to be larger numbers of collectors a few years ago and flipping unwanted loose figures was easier to do.
 
docsilence said:
I love, love grab-bag waves but if they're keeping BAF as a concept, at the current price point, keep it VERY thematic. I'll happily buy a whole wave of randos if I like them but there really should be consideration for theme going forward for BAFs.

FWIW, back in the older days, I found I always had to buy ONE figure I didn't want for a BAF but at cheaper prices I considered tht one figure the price of getting the figure I did want, like an imperfect two-pack. These days that's an expensive tax on a luxury hobby.
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Great point. Been there myself over the years. Hard to justify getting what is to me a borderline want just for a BAF.
 
I think we’ve all experienced that at some point with the line. I’m on the fence on this question. I see the pros and cons on both sides of the be argument. I think randomized waves are losing their purpose. It was cool when the line was still young, and still putting out a lot of fresh characters. The prices were lower, and buying an entire wave didn’t mean mortgaging your house, to get a BAF.
I understand all the marketing reasons Hasbro does this. From a business standpoint it makes sense. That’s where their concern is. They’re in business to make money. Otherwise people lose jobs, companies go out of business, and we don’t get the toys we enjoy so much.
It’s now much later in the Legends line, and we have a much bigger roster, so it means more repeat buying of characters we’ve already gotten several of. That’s good for new collectors, unfortunate for long term collectors.
With the price increases, and outside circumstances, I can’t collect like I used to. I do like what Hasbro has been doing with select BAFs, and offering a solo release later on (like they did with Strong Guy). Skurge would be an excellent candidate for that, down the road.
 
It feels like BAF waves generally already have themes. X-Men. Spider-Man. Avengers. We've had a few waves recently which are scattershot, like the Zabu wave, but those feel more like the exception and more of a recent experiment. I suppose they could have scattered those Zabu characters into separate waves (Kazar and Cable in a X-Men wave), but maybe it would have taken quite some time to get all of them out, as they'd have to wait for proper wave homes.

I suggested a potential pattern for ML waves way back when we first started getting themed (character branded) waves. Something along the lines of:

Main character
Main supporting character/ally
Main character villain
Secondary character
Secondary character villain
Random
2nd potential Random (if 7 characters per wave)
BAF for Main character

So you could get something like 3 Daredevil-related figures in a wave. 2 Punisher-related characters. And then someone like Madcap. A pattern like this helps build out 2 character universes with associated villains and maybe allies.

I suppose you could squeeze 7 figures into a wave. Not sure who wouldn't come with a BAF piece. They haven't been packing BAF pieces in with A-list characters (like Wolverine and Iron Man) who are packed 2:case, but if the BAF is related to that main character it would make sense for the main character to have a BAF piece. You could not pack a piece in with the random, but I think BAF pieces help sell more obscure characters.
 
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