Toy Fair 2015 has been delivering nonstop for the past few days, and Hasbro showed up with their A-game fully in effect for Marvel’s 6 inch offerings. I’ll be taking a look at the Avengers and Spider-man waves, while TheManintheAnthill will be bringing you his views on the Ant-Man wave later in the week.
Let’s not waste time and jump right into things, starting off with Spider-Man’s newest wave of Infinite Legends. This wave really took a lot of people by surprise with a few of the character choices. Like…pretty much everybody was completely mindblown by one choice in particular. Take a look at the lady in red right there:
Yep, that’s Misty Knight. They’re actually making a Misty Knight figure, someone who barely makes it to anybody’s wishlist, not for lack of desire, but because who expects Misty Knight to get a figure? Right—nobody expects it. Well, expect it now. That’s just fantastic.
Following up that kick in the head, we’ve got a brand new Kraven, who comes on a brand new mid-sized body. Yes, that body that stands between BuckyCap and Hyperion is now official, and will be making more than one appearance in this article. Kraven is a more modern take on the hunter and pain in Spidey’s ass, but as he retains the same motif and doesn’t go nuts with some weird redesign, this one is more than welcome. Kraven made an appearance years and years ago on a bad body, so getting a new one on a great body is most welcome. Can’t wait to have him fighting the brand new Spider-man figure.
White Tiger has made appearances in both Avengers Academy and Mighty Avengers and is now making an appearance in a Legends line. While I lament the lack of her older brother, the original White Tiger, she’s a great character also and it’s nice to get some of the newbies as well as the …oldies?
Ghost Rider makes a bikeless appearance in the line. This one is straight Johnny Blaze through and through, at least once you ditch the chain. That AIM body looked perfectly earmarked for a Blaze version of Ghost Rider, so it’s nice that Hasbro didn’t waste much time pumping one out. GR is one of my favorite characters and the old ToyBiz one was always too scrawny for me, so this is an awesome choice, and continues this wave’s trend of kicking more ass than a boot factory. Just run with that one.
Scarlet Spider and his hood is the requisite Spider-man of the wave. I’m always cool with adding another Spider-man variation to the collection, so this one is welcome. Who’s next? Who knows!
Superior Venom…ok, this one seems to be getting the most negative reactions and has quickly become the least popular choice on here, because a lot of people—me included—would have wanted a classic Venom on the Hyperion body over another random Venom design. BUT, that said, I loved the Superior Spider-man storyline from top to bottom, and I have no problem with a Superior Venom. I figure I have Agent Venom, I’ll have the Superior Venom…third time’s the charm, there’s got to be a classic Venom in our future soon.
Chameleon…or J. Jonah Jameson, or even Hammerhead. Hasbro’s already making use of the brand new suit body debuting on Agent Coulson, and Chameleon is the natural choice for it. While I’m always a proponent of Super-Villains having more Super-villainesque costumes and this wouldn’t be my absolute first choice for Chameleon, I can’t fault them for going in this direction, and coming with those extra heads is a nice bonus that will make multiple purchases more certain. Besides, according to an article from a while ago by a stylish and sexy staffer, Chameleon was a character totally due a figure.
And finally, we’ve got the Build-A-Figure of the wave, Rhino. I didn’t think I needed an upgrade to my Fearsome Foes Rhino, and while that figure is still stellar, I love Rhino as a character so this is more than welcome. Plus, look at that build. Dude’s a big chunk, wide and powerful. The looks of his leg articulation make me hesitant, I’m hoping that there’s no 45 degree pegging going on at his hips, but I guess we’ll have to see. The only thing that bugs me are the headsculpts. While giving us the option of two heads is nice, I don’t think Rhino is a character that needs a half-mask at all because he’s not Batman, and I’m not really fond of the wide eyed yelling face. I see Rhino more as a squinty, gritted-teeth guy, not a YOU STEPPED ON MY TOE kind of guy. Other than that, this wave is the frickin’ tops, and I’m in for all of them.
Now we move on to the Avengers. They’ve got a little movie coming out this year you may or may not have heard about, which means they’re the lucky recipients of a whole hell of a lot of attention. While you may think the movie figures would be smothering the comic figures, think again. We’ve got plenty of comic goodness to grab onto.
Dr. Strange arrives in a brand new costume, and also a brand new torso that tones down some of the musculature on the BuckyCap body. I’ve never had any problem with that body, but having options is never a bad thing, and a new, less bulky torso works well for Dr. Strange, who I’m sure keeps himself in shape but probably doesn’t bench 700 pounds regularly. While I would have preferred a redo of his classic costume, I don’t mind his newer one at all—probably due to my love of red and black working in sweet sweet tandem—and so I like this look for him.
Thundra took the same taxi cab that Misty Knight rode in straight from “what the fuuuuuh?”-land. Thundra is one of those lower tier characters you don’t ever think they’d actually make, and then they done gone and madededed one. This one comes with an extra special bonus of allowing me to scratch off yet ANOTHER co-star of the Thing in Marvel Two-In-One. That is 20 bucks well spent when that happens. Now how about Arkon, Hasbro?
War Machine is a decent looking figure, but is more a movie-figure space-filler than anything else. There are other War Machine designs I’d dig before this one.
Iron Man Now is black and gold, which is abnormal and weird, like, there’s no red, I don’t understand it…where’s the red? Dammit Tony! Crazy Jillionaire, with your lack of red.
Valkyrie makes Hasbro’s previous attempts at the character look like the bland puddle of puke it was. While this is a modern take, it still looks light-years better than the old two-pack one. A wave with both Valkyrie and Thundra confuses us all, but confuses us in all the right ways.
Blizzard. Finally, one of the “lost figures” shown to be in a wave and maliciously withheld is making it out. It took a while but many of them have been showing up in various waves. Blizzard is a simple design done well, perfectly evocative in both name, powers and design. He has a nice metallic sheen and is everything I love about toys and comics.
Vision (whew, these waves are full) is unfortunately not a better version of the character’s classic costume, since both previous versions have sucked. It is, however, a good looking version of his modern costume—at least I’m assuming he still looks like this now. Just buying trades, I can’t keep up. Anyway, it’s got a nice metallic sheen to it just like Blizzard, and it at least keep the traditional Vision color scheme, and eschews needles techy components, so that’s a plus. While I’d still like a well done classic version, this one is good looking enough for now.
Anf finally, the Hulkbuster Iron Man BAF. This one is straight out of the upcoming Avengers Movie, and is the only movie figure I can see myself ever giving a poop about. It was awesome in the trailer, and it looks great in toy form. It seems to be appropriately HUGE, and I might like it even better than the ToyBiz version. Now I need a really good Hulk for him to fight. Because there really isn’t a really good Hulk out there in any form.
And that’s our year in Marvel stay tuned as the rest will be covered soon. Thanks for reading!