Diamond Select Toys manages to keep prices down on most of the non-movie Marvel Select action figures released over the past decade-plus by frequently reissuing older figures. And one of the most hotly-anticipated reissues announced last year was of the hard-to-find Marvel Select The Watcher figure. But unfortunately, there’s some bad news for Watcher hopefuls: the Marvel Select Watcher reissue has been cancelled…

Last spring, thousands of Marvel figure collectors were psyched when Diamond Select Toys announced a much-requested re-release of the long sold-out and expensive-on-the-aftermarket Marvel Select Watcher figure. Collectors placed their pre-orders, waited patiently, and… nothing.

Delays are no big deal with Diamond Select Toys, as they happen all the time, so I wasn’t really worried. But I should have been.

Collectors who pre-ordered The Watcher Marvel Select figure are now across the board receiving cancellation notices from the retailers they ordered him from, which read something like this:

“Thank you for ordering from Entertainment Earth. We have been notified by

the manufacturer that we will not be receiving any additional shipments of

Marvel Select Watcher Action Figure, (Item DC10783), because they have

discontinued production of this item at this point in time. The order you

placed for this item has been cancelled in our system.

If this item is again made available, we will contact you for a possible

re-order. We apologize for the inconvenience, as we certainly would have

preferred to fill your order. Your order information appears below.“

Wanting to see what was up, I headed over to the Diamond Select Toys Facebook Page for comment, where they stated: “None were produced. The item was cancelled a few months ago, prior to production. I’m sorry you were not notified until now“, “We realize people were looking forward to it, but we have had to shelve it for the time being“ and “Reasons beyond our control, unfortunately. Sorry.“

Now, this is only speculation, as Diamond Select Toys didn’t outright state it, but it seems a strong likelihood to me that DST can’t reissue the Watcher Marvel Select action figure right now because of his nature as a primarily Fantastic Four character and the feud going on between Disney/Marvel and FOX over the Fantastic Four movie rights.

With this being a Fantastic Four movie year (unfortunately), it wouldn’t be shocking if Disney put a stop to any Fantastic Four figures being put out for sale in 2015. If and when Disney reacquires the Fantastic Four movie rights, hopefully the Marvel Select Watcher figure will be able to make its return.

Did your pre-order for the Marvel Select The Watcher figure get cancelled? If so, are you willing to pay the high aftermarket prices for ol’ baldy, or are you not willing to fork out that much for Uatu?