Of everything that was shown at SDCC, two things stood out the most to me. Actually it was three, but I’m not counting one of those because that is more of a case of “when” than “if.” It wasn’t so much the figures themselves, but what the figures could and should lead to. As most toy collectors are no doubt aware, this leads to that, want leads to more want, and what’s shown is often less important than what wasn’t shown. What the hell am I talking about? Let’s see if I know!
One particular figure that doesn’t count among the two I will soon be talking about was the Invisible Woman. Now, unless they are particularly cruel, that means there are more Fantastic Four members coming. Of course, I’m still waiting for more____ (fill in that blank with just about any team you can think of, from Inhumans to Alpha Flight to seemingly every team ever), so one figure is not necessarily a guarantee for the rest, but they can’t really be that cruel to show off one of the FF and not deliver the rest … can they?
Can they!?!?
I’m going to go with an optimistic “no.” They won’t be that cruel.
So if I can be that optimistic about the Fantastic Four, then I can be the same way with two other teams. Let’s just play pretend. We’re toy fans; we can do that. Let’s pretend that Hasbro won’t leave us hanging. Let’s pretend we’re living in a perfect world where once a single team member is shown we have an absolutely stellar chance at finishing off that team.
The first of those two figures was a swanky new Guardian of the Galaxy figure of Major Vance Astro, carrying Captain America’s iconic shield and everything. The modern Guardians team has gotten plenty of attention, both in comic and movie form, but the older team has up until now been ignored. This is the first sign that they don’t intend to ignore them forever. So with Astro, can we absolutely expect a Yondu, Martinex and Charlie 27 to go with them … followed up by Starhawk, Aleta and Nikki?
I just don’t know. I see a beginning, but if we’re depending on Guardians of the Galaxy waves to deliver the classic team, then we’re pretty much already running out of chances for that. There are still waves to slot these guys in.
There aren’t that many of them. It’s just one little team of people, don’t leave Astro sitting all alone in space. That’s just sad.
Next, we saw a huge surprise figure in Warlock, the Build-a-Figure of the X-Men wave. But does this signal more New Mutants members, or is Warlock destined to be a one-off, single-bullet shot leaving us devoid of the other New Mutant members? Is the “New” in New Mutants a bit of a misnomer at this point? Probably, but let’s ignore that for a second.
This Warlock would fit in with either modern and classic versions of the New Mutants, and at this point I’ll take whatever I can get. We were supposed to get a Dani Moonstar figure a while ago, but that never materialized. At least the New Mutants seem on their radar, and with Warlock debuting as a BAF and more X-Men waves no doubt planned, we have to get more New Mutants to go with him.
Warlock looks like a fantastic centerpiece but he’s going to be pretty lonely without the rest of the gang there. Self is lonely and so forth.
Hasbro has spent the past couple of years proving that they are really trying to finish off teams. They actually completed the Wrecking Crew — even if it took a little longer than expected — so that’s definitely a cap-feather. By next year we’ll almost have the entire All New All Different Avengers team minus a Jane Foster Thor — and you know she has to be coming sooner rather than later.
New Mutants and the classic Guardians of the Galaxy, Hasbro. We’ve got a good start. Let’s keep it going.
