This really seemed like a great year for SDCC. Hasbro was anxious to come out in force and show that they were fully behind the Marvel Legends line, and came with lots of new stuff for the fans to prove it.
With all that was shown and not shown, however, there was inevitable confusion on some things. So I called Jesse Falcon (VP, Marvel Toys) at his office to ask for his help in clearing some things up a bit.
First off, I asked him if he could now talk openly about his role going forward. Jesse said he’ll continue working for Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz), and will work in a collaborative role with Hasbro on the Marvel Legends line. They will work together on series lineups and character design. I asked if Marvel Toys was interested in pursuing other licenses for their unique brand of 6 inch action figures, and he said absolutely, but that it wouldn’t be prudent to discuss anything at this point.
Next, I asked about what we saw from San Diego. I asked if articulation would change under Hasbro. He said that articulation impacted cost, and so it was up to Hasbro to make decisions on articulation going forward. However, do not expect any major changes in levels of articulation anytime soon in Marvel Legends. Marvel Legends is now the collector’s brand, and most Marvel Legends collectors love super articulation.
In the Marvel Heroes line, however, a line geared more to the kids, expect more action features and less emphasis on articulation. Marvel Heroes is the offspring of Spider-Man Classics, aka Amazing Spider-Man, and other “classics” lines, such as Fantastic Four “Classics,” Hulk “Classics,” etc. I asked it She-Hulk would gain a waist swivel, and he said that at this stage of development it was entirely possible, but he didn’t know that for sure.
Comics are indeed gone, and he stated that would probably have happened even if Marvel Toys had kept the license. The comics are an easy target for offsetting rising materials cost.
I asked if bilingual packaging would still appear first under Hasbro, and he said, as I expected, that he wasn’t involved with distribution, but that with Hasbro distribution is a whole new game.
Finally, I got down to specifics on line-ups:
ML14 – Mojo Build
- Psylock with Crimson Dawn variant
- Longshot
- 1st Appearance Iron Man with gold variant
- Falcon with modern variant
- Luke Cage with Heroes for Hire (grey shirt) variant
- Baron Zemo with unmasked variant
Note: ML14 should be hitting retail in about a month.
ML15 – MODOK Build
- Beta Ray Bill
- Moon Knight with all white variant
- Spider-Woman with Julia Carpenter variant
- Captain Mar-Vell with Genis variant
- Wasp (black and yellow) with red variant and blue/white variant
- Thor Buster Iron Man with Destroyer variant
Hasbro 1 – Annihilus Build
- Banshee
- Emma Frost
- Hercules
- X3 Beast
- Planet Hulk
- Ultimate Iron Man
Variants have not been determined. The figs will have newer, better paint apps by release time. Weapons have been sculpted for Planet Hulk, but whether they’re used by Hasbro isn’t determined.
Hasbro 2 – Blob Build
- Ultimate Wolverine
- Quicksilver
- X3 Dark Phoenix
- X3 Juggernaut
- She-Hulk
- Xorn (with a helmet pack in)
- Yellowjacket
- Lord Thor (yes, both the hammer and ax are his)
Hasbro 3 – ???
I read him what I’d heard was the line-up, and he said wave 3 was far from set, and was even highly skeptical at some of the rumored line-up.
Marvel Heroes 1 (formerly “classics”) – X-Men series
- Ultimate Cyclops
- Astonishing Wolverine
- Ultimate Magneto
- Mutant X Iceman
Only 4 figs in the first wave. All of them will reuse existing tooling. MH will target kids markets, will use more action features, will likely have less articulation, and may even scale down to 5 inch eventually, though that’s not certain. The next wave will focus on the Avengers and the Hulk.
3 packs – nothing set or announced – wouldn’t even discuss it. Face Off 2-packs will continue however, although no new line-ups are announced yet.
Amazing Spider-Man is still scheduled to release the Shocker wave, to be arriving soon, as well as the Electro and Toxin wave. Electro has had action features added to his arms, but he wasn’t sure if Symbiote Spider-Man would be using the body shown at SDCC – it’s not his line, so he wasn’t sure.
Marvel Icons 1
- Captain America
- Wolverine
- Iron Man
Marvel Icons 2
- Hulk
- Venom
Marvel Icons 3
- Spider-Man
- Beast
Marvel Icons 4
- Thor
- Wolverine
Marvel Icons 5
- Dr Doom
- Punisher
On a final note, Jesse also confirmed a couple of things that Damon Nee had mentioned to Fwooshers about the X-Men Classics figures. Rogue will indeed have a green/yellow variant, and Phoenix was cancelled because the tooling was being used for Warbird. [Editor’s note: Damon noted that the running change to Rogue is dependent on production runs and re-orders.]
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About Waiting
Waiting is a long-time fwoosher, mod, and hosts the site MarvelLegends.Net.