The New York Sun reports that Marvel is suing one of its former toy contractors, claiming it was forced to spend millions to retrieve molds and tools after they ended their business relationship.
The lawsuit, filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, seeks more than $6 million from Jeffrey Hsieh of Hong Kong and two companies apparently affiliated with him. I’ll let the Sun explain the rest:
The papers say Marvel agreed to pay Mr. Hsieh’s Worldwide Toys Ltd. more than $22.7 million upon ending their business relationship to make sure Marvel could retrieve its molds and tools to keep the toys on the market.
But Marvel had difficulty retrieving the items from Mr. Hsieh’s subcontractors because they claimed Mr. Hsieh owed them money, the papers say. Marvel says it essentially had to pay for the items twice — once to Mr. Hsieh around December 2005 and then again to his creditors during the next year.
The suit claims Mr. Hsieh’s Worldwide Toys was in debt because it had fraudulently moved $9.8 million to another company, Cornerstone Overseas Investments, apparently affiliated with him.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:19 am
does this have anything to do with the suckiness of the new Marvel Legend figures?
January 26th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Maybe they should sue Hasbro for the god awful Marvel Legends figures they just put out.
January 26th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Four words: Modok Build-A-Figure
January 26th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
The HASBO MARVEL LEGENDS ARE A TOTAL JOKE!I’ve seen better figures at the $1 Store!
January 26th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Poor Yellowjacket and Planet Hulk Hulk… they really look awful and I was so looking forward to them.
January 26th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Go get’em, Marvel!!
January 27th, 2007 at 12:27 am
Yeah…the ones showed at San Diego Comic-Con looked great. But the ones released not.
January 27th, 2007 at 2:48 am
i thought the iron spidey on the back of the boxes look neato….just can’t find it anywhere…
January 27th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Good lord guys, Hasbro has a completly different manufacturing style and they’re trying to get it to match ML. This was their first try! Did you see the Ghost Rider figures? Those are actually decent, their articulation and quality is far better than most of what ToyBiz did. I say they’ll have everything ironed out by the third wave. Hasbro has already proven they know how to make figures, I’m happy to actually FIND the figures on the shelf instead of having to guess who’s carrying ToyBiz’s stuff like I had to.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I agree that the figures weren’ the best look, but it was their first try. Toy biz’s figures weren’t that hot. AND hasbro is making more contemporary figures as well as opposed to just the classic look.
January 27th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
What does it tell you when Toy Biz had to go through Hasbro to get their toys in stores? Can someone say Monopoly?And I am not talking about the Parker Bros. Game.
January 28th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Agree with a previous entry — the Hasbro ML wave one was the horse’s ass, but it’s kid of to be expected. Look at Toy Biz’s ML wave one and it’s pretty much the same way. Over time there was significant improvement, and seeing as how Hasbro has much more experience in the field than Toy Biz, I expect the improvement to come much faster than it came with Toy Biz.As it is, my biggest complaint is that Banshee is so ugly he’s unusable and Annihilus is colored pink. Who would want a pink Annihilus…? Pink just ain’t menacing.
January 29th, 2007 at 2:29 am
You only get one shot to make a first impression, so do it right the first time!
Why are people saying “in time they should get better or it is their first time”, that’s crazy talk, Do it properly from the get-go, and they’ll keep us coming back for more all the time, this is 2007 not 1907 if Marvel is too cheap to pay some one like Todd McFarlane to get it done right, then this is what Marvel deserves! Peace.
January 29th, 2007 at 5:34 am
hasbro suxors!
January 30th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I tend to agree with David Knoll on this.
It’s a doormat mentality for the collector/fan to simply lie down and accept inferior merchandise as if doing so is an investment in the future. Yes, it’s comforting to know that experience indicates these will become better with future sets, but there’s nothing wrong with expecting a company to aim higher and work out as many problems as they can pre-consumer. Toy Biz set the standard for the line, and as it was Marvel’s decision to shift producers they should have insisted Hasbro raise their standards first. Handling it the way they did delivers the message that they were confident the collector base is sufficiently well-trained that while some may complain they’ll pretty much all shell out the cash.
It’s all done now, and so has passed into trivia. Hopefully the next wave will be up to previous expectations.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:19 am
MARVEL ICONS (Hasbro) Series 2: DR. DOOM 12″ Figure is freaking AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Hasbro also made some crappy Spiderman 3 toys, 5 INCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT 6, 5 INCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!