From Super7's website...

What isn't mentioned in that is that Super7 began as an English language magazine dedicated to Japanese toys.  Making toys was an off-shoot of that.  The magazine copied the style of the Japanese toy magazines and Brian took it to the next step by having special colorways made of Japanese produced vinyl toys that were only available to order through the magazine like the Japanese magazines did.  Brian kept having Super7 exclusive colorways produced and began designing original vinyl figures.  Eventually the magazine was dropped (the website has .PDFs of those magazines for download -- https://super7.com/pages/super7-magazine-rack ) and they branched out into licensed pop culture t-shirts, posters and other merchandise.

This next bit goes on to explain (to the best of my memory and quick research) how Super7 started making action figures and on to the Ultimates lines.  I'm sure I'm going over a lot of stuff everyone knows but I'm trying to be thorough anyway...

From what I remember, Brian had been obsessed with the 3 3/4" Alien action figures that Kenner decided not to produce in 1979 and decided to see if Super7 could actually produce them.  I don't remember now if the first series of figures was actually made from the Kenner prototypes of if they were new sculpts made to match the originals.  I'm fuzzy on this, too, but either with the Alien figures or right after Super7 partnered with Funko to create the Re:Action brand because Funko already had connections to so many properties.  Re:Action kind of exploded then imploded at retail (particularly Toys R Us) and the partnership with Funko ended. Around this time Mattel decided to close the direct-to-consumer Matty Collector and end the Masters of the Universe Classics line.  Not sure who approached who about Super7 continuing the line but they reached an agreement rather quickly right before Comic-Con that year.  Collectors had a lot of questions when the change was announced but it was so soon after reaching the agreement that neither party could give proper answers at the time.  The first MOTUC product Super7 offered were re-issues of He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, Faker and Ram Man.  Ram Man was simply a re-paint of the previous release but the other four included multiple heads and accessories from across Mattel's various releases of those characters.  Super7 referred to this initial batch of figures as ultimate versions.  The idea came soon to apply this format across multiple licenses much like Re:Action had.

History lesson done.  I can't speak to quality changes in Re:Action from the Funko days to present because I don't think I've actually handled a loose one.  From my memory I have a few colorways of Maria from Metropolis and the Kirby character from Argo and I think that's it but they're all still on the card.  As for the Ultimates I don't think there was much of an issue with that first batch of MOTUC figures because they were made by the same factory that Mattel was using.  The only thing I really remember was that the heads didn't swap as easily as Mattel's and it caused some figure damage if some form of heat wasn't applied first.  I don't think there was much problem with S7's other MOTUC figures other than the head swapping and Dylamug (those thin, spindly arms and legs have "break me" written all over them) but I do remember a lot of complaints about the Filmation style figures they produced but I don't remember specifics.  With the other brands production delays (and the head swaps, again) seemed to be the biggest problem, Thundercats being the exception.  Thundercats finally seems to be on track but that line seemed to have a very consistent problem with quality and deco on top of delay after delay.  Things do seem to be on-track now (or, at the least, much improved) since moving production away from the factory Mattel used for their Thundercats run.

One thing that I've heard Brian talk about that surprised me is that Super7's figures are (usually) 100% tooled instead of mixing and matching existing and new parts the way Mattel did with MOTUC and Thundercats.  Each type of plastic gets one mold for everything for a specific figure and they don't have to worry about storage and retrieval of dozens of individual tools or the potential loss or damage of stored tooling.

It's good to hear that you're pleased with the quality.  I don't have any display space at the moment so I haven't been opening my figures for quite a while now.  I know they look good but wasn't sure how they held up.  Glad to see Super7 figured it out.  NECA, on the other hand, has been making extremely fragile action figures for years and nothing ever seemed to change.  I would hope that with Target and Walmart both carrying their product that they've finally gotten the breakage problem under (reasonable) control.  So, to you, Matt...  your opinion on the quality of the Gargoyles figures?...

Posted by: @jim_abell

So, to you, Matt...  your opinion on the quality of the Gargoyles figures?...

Honestly? They feel a little stiff so I haven't really been playing with them for fear of them breaking (I had the same mindset with DC Direct's DCAU lines). I do know that one of Goliath's wings doesn't want to stay on him, but it's loose, not broken. But I'm still being very careful. 

The ThunderCats are my favorite figures in years. At least since Justice League Unlimited.