History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / Toys

** Having leftover parts between modes has more or less been eliminated, especially with Combiners. The original combining robot toys had armor, hands, feet, and connectors that all just sat around doing nothing when separated, and most characters had weapons that had nowhere to go in their alternate modes. Later G1 figures at least made it possible to mount the weapons on the vehicle, and ''Beast Wars'' did its dardest to incorporate them into Beast Mode seamlessly. It even introduced Combiners that didn't need extra parts, with the feet, hands, and head integrated into their component robots. Very few modern toylines will have loose extra parts, primarily the collector-focused ones like ''Masterpiece'' with alternate faces, hands, etc.

** The line wouldn't nail down its engineering formula until after the first few waves. This meant that despite ''Marvel Legends'' later becoming famous for its immensely posable figures, some early entries like Toad, [[ComicBook/AntMan Goliath]] and Film/{{Daredevil|2003}} were noticeably lacking in the articulation department. Some of the larger characters like [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] and ComicBook/TheThing also came with bendable fingers, a gimmick that was quickly discarded.

** One of the most striking differences was the general lack of movie characters in the early years of the line. While a select few films like ''Film/{{Blade II}}'', ''Film/{{The Punisher|2004}}'' and the aforementioned ''Daredevil'' received a single ''Marvel Legends'' figure each, the general trend was for [=ToyBiz=] to do separate movie lines that featured the same sculpt and articulation style used in ''Legends'', but without actually labelling them as such. This meant that the big Marvel movies of the early 2000s like ''Film/SpiderMan2'', ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' and ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2005}}'' did not have any presence in ''Marvel Legends'', with the line instead focusing almost exclusively on comic book figures. When Hasbro took over the line in 2007, they did some ''Marvel Legends'' figures for ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', ''Film/SpiderMan3'' and ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'', but generally stuck to [=ToyBiz=]'s strategy of focusing on comic figures instead. However, starting with ''Film/IronMan3'' in 2013, they completely threw out that idea and began integrating characters from the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, with each subsequent MCU movie getting its own dedicated ''Marvel Legends'' wave.[[note]]The sole exceptions were ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' and ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'', though ''Legends'' figures from the latter movie did end up being released as part of the second ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' wave.[[/note]]
** As ''Marvel Legends'' was originally a SpinOff of the ''Comicbook/SpiderMan Classics'' line, characters from the Spider-Man franchise were also noticeably absent from ''Legends'' during the [=ToyBiz=] days. Only Comicbook/DoctorOctopus, [[Comicbook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]] and Spidey himself were featured in ''Legends'' under [=ToyBiz=], while a few other villains like Comicbook/BlackCat, the Vulture, the Rhino and Comicbook/{{Venom}} were included in box sets. Once the license transferred to Hasbro, Spider-Man characters began appearing in the series far more regularly.

** The original squad has birthdates mentioned in their bio tags, similar to Toys/BeanieBabies. This was quickly dropped.

* Whoo-boy, Gunpla (Franchise/{{Gundam}} plastic models) have evolved tremendously since the early days. The earliest 1/144 scale Gunpla, released in 1980 were of a single color (you had to paint, and usually glue, these suckers) with some articulation with the 1/100 and 1/60 scale not faring as well. Also, the intended way of putting in beam sabers back into their sockets? Breaking the blade. The original series also included a number of non-Mobile Suit vehicles and important human characters, which were largely dropped in later lines (the most notable exception being Figure-Rise Standard), as well as four suits that were scrapped from the TV series. 1/100s would be mostly colored by the time ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' launched and it wouldn't be until the launch of the Gunpla for ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' that we would have stickers for certain areas. During the early days of the High Grade Gunpla the beam sabers would still be one single-colored piece of plastic resembling the blade and hilt (or even worse, blade, hilt and hand holding it) with certain rare models, like the early Rick Dias and RX-78 Gundam having the modern day two piece blade-and-hilt. Don't expect the two-piece to be standard issue until the release of the G-Armor + Gundam set. Arm sockets were different as well; originally the arms would attach via a ball polycap attached to a stiff joint on its shoulder. As well, the elbows could only bend 90 degrees, giving stiff arm poses. It would start out slow with the start of the ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Second Season'' Gunpla releases (minus the Exia Repair II) that the ball jointed arm sockets and improved elbows would start up and become the norm.

** The 2001-2003 arcs also placed a bigger emphasis on the franchise being a Lego toy-line. Upon arriving on the island, the Toa reassemble their scattered bodyparts, [[FusionDance the ability to form Kaita or Nui fusions is important]], and there's multiple plots related to [[GottaCatchThemAll collecting items of interest]], which was partially inspired by the canceled ''Legend of Mata Nui'' video game. Later years would only give occasional, off-hand reminders of these concepts; Kaita and Nui combinations were dropped after 2004, and the collecting angle diminished as Lego phased out collectibles in favor of various projectile gimmicks. This also meant that while most early masks were made available in a variety of colors, later on it was rare for a mask to be released in more than one color.

* Whoo-boy, Gunpla (Franchise/{{Gundam}} plastic models) have evolved tremendously since the early days. The earliest 1/144 scale Gunpla, released in 1980 were of a single color (you had to paint these suckers) with some articulation with the 1/100 and 1/60 scale not faring as well. Also, the intended way of putting in beam sabers back into their sockets? Breaking the blade. 1/100s would be mostly colored by the time ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' launched and it wouldn't be until the launch of the Gunpla for ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' that we would have stickers for certain areas. During the early days of the High Grade Gunpla the beam sabers would still be one single-colored piece of plastic resembling the blade and hilt (or even worse, blade, hilt and hand holding it) with certain rare models, like the early Rick Dias and RX-78 Gundam having the modern day two piece blade-and-hilt. Don't expect the two-piece to be standard issue until the release of the G-Armor + Gundam set. Arm sockets were different as well; originally the arms would attach via a ball polycap attached to a stiff joint on its shoulder. As well, the elbows could only bend 90 degrees, giving stiff arm poses. It would start out slow with the start of the ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Second Season'' Gunpla releases (minus the Exia Repair II) that the ball jointed arm sockets and improved elbows would start up and become the norm.

** The early figures came packaged with detailed, diorama-like display bases, usually depicting some sort of recognizable location or vehicle from the Franchise/MarvelUniverse (such as Comicbook/GhostRider's motorcycle, a destroyed Sentinel, or part of Comicbook/DoctorDoom's castle). The display bases were eventually phased out in favor of the Build-a-Figure concept, wherein each toy in a wave would come packaged with a piece needed to complete a special bonus figure. The [=ToyBiz=]-era figures also usually included a comic book featuring the character in question, something that Creator/{{Hasbro}} discarded when they took over the license.

* The first wave of ''Anime/Naruto'' action figures were very different compared to the later ones. The figures had very limited range in their legs, the plastic quality was much cheaper, some of the sculpts looked rather off, each figure (apart from Orochimaru and Zabuza) had some kind of action gimmick and they would usually come with pointless accessories. The 2nd wave of figures had much better quality plastic, more articulation in the legs, better sculpts and didn't throw in a bunch of pointless accessories and action features.

* The first three generations of Toys/BeanieBabies had much plainer designs and no cutesy poems in their tags. It wasn't until 1996 that the designers began printing cutesy poems on the tags and giving them birthdays; these poems were themselves printed in Times New Roman before switching to Comic Sans a year later. It was also at this point that the toys began to deviate more frequently from fairly realistic depictions of animals to more instances of SeldomSeenSpecies and AmazingTechnicolorWildlife (for instance, Batty the Bat shifted from a realistic tan to a dark tie-dye). Naturally, this coincided with the fad taking off in full force.

** Having leftover parts between modes has more or less been eliminated, especially with Combiners. The original combining robot toys had armor, hands, feet, and connectors that all just say around doing nothing when separated, and most characters had weapons that had nowhere to go in their alternate modes. Later G1 figures at least made it possible to mount the weapons on the vehicle, and ''Beast Wars'' did its dardest to incorporate them into Beast Mode seamlessly. It even introduced Combiners that didn't need extra parts, with the feet, hands, and head integrated into their component robots. Very few modern toylines will have loose extra parts, primarily the collector-focused ones like ''Masterpiece'' with alternate faces, hands, etc.

* The ''Figure-Rise Standard'' model line began as a plastic figurine bust line using characters from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans'', ''Anime/GundamBuildFightersTry'' and... ''Franchise/LoveLive''. The first figurines weren't actually part of the ''Figure-Rise'' line, but part of the "High Grade ''Build Fighters Try''" line, which were considered off-putting and poorly designed (it didn't help that they were essentially "cosplay" figurines). The first figurine in the line normal was from ''Anime/ActiveRaid'' before being dominated by ''Anime/DragonBallZ''

* At one point in time, [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Esmerelda]] and [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Tinker Bell]] were part of the ''Franchise/DisneyPrincess'' line-up. They were later dropped, with Esmerelda getting canned because she wasn't really that popular (it doesn't help that her movie was DarkerAndEdgier than most ''Disney Princess'' films) and Tinker Bell [[Franchise/DisneyFairies getting a merchandising line of her own]].

** The line wouldn't nail down its engineering formula until after the first few waves. This meant that despite ''Marvel Legends'' later becoming famous for its immensely posable figures, some early entries like Toad, [[Comicbook/AntMan Goliath]] and Film/{{Daredevil}} were noticeably lacking in the articulation department. Some of the larger characters like [[Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] and Comicbook/TheThing also came with bendable fingers, a gimmick that was quickly discarded.

** One of the most striking differences was the general lack of movie characters in the early years of the line. While a select few films like ''Film/{{Blade II}}'', ''Film/ThePunisher2004'' and the aforementioned ''Daredevil'' received a single ''Marvel Legends'' figure each, the general trend was for [=ToyBiz=] to do separate movie lines that featured the same sculpt and articulation style used in ''Legends'', but without actually labelling them as such. This meant that the big Marvel movies of the early 2000s like ''Film/SpiderMan2'', ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', ''Film/{{Hulk}}'' and ''Film/FantasticFour2005'' did not have any presence in ''Marvel Legends'', with the line instead focusing almost exclusively on comic book figures. When Hasbro took over the line in 2007, they did some ''Marvel Legends'' figures for ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', ''Film/SpiderMan3'' and ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', but generally stuck to [=ToyBiz=]'s strategy of focusing on comic figures instead. However, starting with ''Film/IronMan3'' in 2013, they completely threw out that idea and began integrating characters from the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, with each subsequent MCU movie getting its own dedicated ''Marvel Legends'' wave.[[note]]The sole exceptions were ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' and ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'', though ''Legends'' figures from the latter movie did end up being released as part of the second ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' wave.[[/note]]

** [=ToyBiz=]'s line included "Chase Variants" of figures, which usually featured a different head, color scheme or some other change. While these were often just the same character with a [[PaletteSwap repainted outfit]], these variants were sometimes brand new characters built on the same body, such as Comicbook/CaptainMarVell's variant being his son Genis-Vell, or the Jessica Drew Comicbook/SpiderWoman's variant being [[LegacyCharacter Julia Carpenter]]. Hasbro continued this idea for a few years, but dropped it around 2014.