Hasbro’s Toy Fair reveals verified a lot of rumors and had a few surprises as well. Before we go any further, I need to know who it was that got my hopes up about Squirrel Girl, because they need a wedgie. There was no Squirrel Girl appearance.
Sniff.
However, there’s always SDCC for her.
Marvel Legends made a strong showing, giving each faction of collector what they wanted. Obviously, this means there was some heartbreak and hurt feelings, but you can’t crack and egg without making a hen cry. I think? In any event, it was an event.
Movie figures are not going away any time soon, so we all need to get used to the multimedia synergy brought about by having movie figures in our comic line. Or, if you’re weird, comic figures in your movie line. Weirdos. Luckily, these are not the craptastic movie figures of yesterdayyearweek, so even if you still think their appearance in the line is cacapoopy, at least it’s pretty cacapoopy, like after eating a bowl of Lucky Charms. Or so I’d imagine.
The Guardians of the Galaxy lines have balanced their movie-centric nature by delivering a handful of much-needed comic characters. We’ve known about Death’s Head 2 for quite a while now, but I feel that he needs to be mentioned again, and appreciated, and we all need to stare in awe of him for a while. 
Moment of silence time, people, for the appreciation of Death’s Head 2, may he be the first of many Death’s Heads to grace our homes. Or at least mine and the other cool people who are into it.
It looks like Rocket will no longer be a little micro-statue with moveable arms. I have no idea why it took so long to get mobile legs on him, but both Diamond Select and now Hasbro are doing it. Now if we could somehow get a Rocket that looks like his original mini-series out of all this, I’d be ecstatic.
Ex Nihilo is … well, he exists. He’s definitely … well, I guess at some point someone will make him into an interesting character.
The rest of the movie figures are okay. I kind of wish I was more excited for this movie, but still. Regardless, Death’s Head 2. Zombie Roger Ebert’s thumbs way up on that one.
The Spider-Man wave ratchets up my eagerness level quite a bit — almost near Death’s Head 2 levels. Finally, after Buzzing Beetle, Ultimate Beetle, Lady Beetle, Blue Beetle, Beetle Bailey, John, Paul, George, Ringo, and Beetlejuice, they have finally made a classic Beetle. They even went the extra mile and didn’t just spray-paint a body with metallic green — he’s got a newly sculpted torso and everything. This is technically the Vulture wave, but it’s officially the Beetle wave now, because the Beetle is in it.
Oh, wait, there’s more figures in the wave that are awesome. And one that’s … well, okay, I guess. We’ll start with Moon Knight. I think we all kind of knew the “modern” Moon Knight was coming (put into quotation marks because the suited Mr. Knight was modern like five seconds ago) instead of an all-white Moon Knight that was never made. I still think he’s wearing Crocs to fight crime, which is either weird or ballsy. I’m going with weird. I am glad the Mr. Knight version wasn’t made because that was stupid and everything Warren Ellis has done sucks, including Nextwave. So, because it’s not Mr. Knight, I embrace this Moon Knight while side-eyeing the fact that he’s not the all-white, didn’t-need-updating look.
Tombstone is someone I’ve wanted for a while. I had no concrete idea how I wanted him presented. I like the spiffy suited Tombstone, but I also liked the more casual badass type of Tombstone. I was literally fine either way. This is definitely Tombstone, so this sates my Tombstone needs.
And then there’s Captain Universe.
There are three things I like: Captain Universe, Spider-Man’s Captain Universe story-arc, and Spider-verse. This takes all three of those things and smushes them into a single package of awesomeness that will force me to buy several. And then I might buy more to put some extra random heads on “the hero who could be YOU.” So essentially this one figure is a money pit, and I need an entire Captain Universe display with nothing but Captain Universes.
The Netflix wave is definitely a nice-looking wave. It’s not my thing, but if it is your thing, then it should really be fluffing your porkchop right about now.
Oh hey, box sets!
Box sets can kick ass if done well, and there are a couple of upcoming box sets that kick an adequate amount of twin-cheeked terror. First up is a Cyclops/Dark Phoenix set. 
We knew we were getting Dark Phoenix, and I was hoping a classic Cyclops would be coming to take the place of that jaded backwards abortion of an ML series 10 figure. And it is here. It is here, and it is glorious. So simple, so lovely, so much buttockian thrashing. Now, Santa, I need some other things to go with him, first of which is a FIRST APPEARANCE STORM and then I need a new Colossus and a Banshee and a Thunderbird and a horse and a pony and a Coke.
Speaking of things you snort, there’s also a Spider-Man/Mary Jane two-pack. The Spidey is from the All New All Different Spider-Man comics where he’s getting all corporate. Meaning, it’s the glowy Spider costume. I like the glowy spider. I don’t know why. I just do. It won’t last, but for now … glowing Spider. Sue me, it’s neat.
Mary Jane could use a few tweaks. She’s pretty, but she needs bangs. And ditch the freckles. Really, if you revamped the hair on her to give her a bit more redheaded bangs (giggedy) then she’d be pretty much exactly what she needs to be, instead of “vague redhead Spider-Man might have saved once.” There should be no mistaking this for anyone but Mary Jane, but unfortunately it’s not quite hitting “iconic” enough. It’s more “random pretty chick I would definitely like to disappoint for a few awkward seconds.” Which I would. I totally would.
There was also an Ultimate Vulture/Spider-Man pack. Spider-Man gets around. Reaction: I do not care about it.
And then there’s A-Force. Yeah, who saw this coming? The most random of reveals, the chicks in a box is unprecedented. There’s no precedent. None, Jerry! I am not totally jazzed about all of them — Lady Loki’s allure is lost on me, at least for the moment, and Captain Marvel is the wrong version, wearing a trench coat for reasons or something — but I can’t deny the precedent. Can you say precedent? Unprecedented! An all female box-set would have been something to make the toy gods laugh until they pee at one point, but now absolutely nobody is peeing.
Nobody’s peeing at all!
It’s been a long time since we had a She-Hulk, This one is on that body with the bad bad bad bad bad bad hips that plug upwards, but … BUT … she has fists, so I can’t get mad. Well, not too mad, at least.
A She-Hulk with fists. Hallelooloo. All I ever want is for all gamma-irradiated characters to have fists.
I don’t know what a Singularity is (from a character sense), but I’m sure I’ll find out before this comes out. Sif and Elsa Bloodstone are making their Marvel Legends debut.
Speaking of women, Lady Thor, Jane Foster Thor, or just, you know, “Thor,” is due for an upcoming wave. She looks great, We are absolutely going to get every Thor before a classic Thor. I’m cool with this one, because the comic has been nice and it’s not like the hammer hasn’t been passed around like a debutante at an Olive Garden anyway. What? I don’t know. But yeah, cool figure.
And finally … I think finally at least, if I forgot anything, then pretend I reacted to it — we’ve got the Human Torch. He’s semi-translucent, which … slight ugh, but he looks like he might not be too translucent, so there’s that. And he’s also apparently got a “4” on his chest, because otherwise nobody would be able to identify the man that’s on fire and what team he belonged to. I don’t know, I like him, but there’s things about him that make me worried about the direction they might go for a Thing. Repeat after me once again, Hasbro: no teeth, and not too tall.
Also, I am all for a Deadpool Legends wave if that pans out. So many characters would fit in there. Slapstick! Foolkiller! Deadpool! And so forth. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if they made a Deadpool wave without a Deadpool? That’s so like him, not showing up for his own wave. Cheeky monkey.
