Marvel Select - History

History

The line was originally designed, sold and marketed by Diamond Select Toys, with development and production by Marvel Comics' toy division, Toy Biz, but now that Toy Biz is defunct, all design is done in-house at Diamond Select. The figures were originally based mainly on the Ultimate Marvel and Marvel Knights characters, while the mass-market toy lines dealt with the main-universe characters. However, this practice was soon phased out, allowing all the lines to expand, and today the Marvel Select line covers both the core titles as well as most of the Marvel movies. In the early days of the line, figures focused on sculpting over articulation, but they also tended to include large, diorama-sized bases and accessories (sometimes even a second figure) that necessitated large display packaging, distinctively decorated with comic artwork of each character. These pack-ins helped differentiate Marvel Select from similarly scaled toy lines, but as Marvel Select began to tackle more and more large-scale characters, like the Hulk, its appeal with 6-inch scale figure collectors grew, as well.