Too bad this isn't a BAF wave, because for once I'm in for almost all of these (except for the Model 20 Iron Man), because I'm not really familiar with that look. But if this was a BAF wave I'd spring for him too.
Avengers #164-166 is my all-time favorite Avengers story, and Count Nefaria has been on my Top 10 wish list for about 15 years (or longer) now. So glad to see they are finally, finally making him.
Also Whiplash (even though that's actually Blacklash) looks awesome as well. Another favorite classic villain of mine.
She-Hulk looks damn near perfect. She'll make a nice addition to the Avengers line-up.
The all gold classic Iron Man armor is a must-have to complete the First Appearance Avengers roster.
I'm a little on the fence about the Neo-Classic armor. It's a cool look that I like well enough, but it's not my favorite. Still, it's an essential addition to the armory, so I'll probably pick it up.
All-in-all an excellent wave of figures. Classic comic book figures is my thing, so I'm pretty happy with these reveals. Now, if I can just remember to pre-order them on Tuesday.
Great to have a whole wave revealed and glad they are doing more IM cards, but when there's huge hole in IM villains, it's a bummer that three of the 6 are IM and another is She-Hulk (not that I'm unhappy about SH finally getting an upgrade, but kinda illogical for her to be here).
Will also say that as much as she is an improvement, that headsculpt is better but still weak sauce. They are getting great at doing attractive female sculpts and this figure seems very Byrne-era inspired, so why the fugly head?
Of course I'll still buy her and Nefaria (although he and Whiplash are both future clearance if I've ever seen them).
I'm the type that will dismantle everything our intrepid Hasbro Legends Team says and try to see if anything is a clue, whether it pans out or not.
About a year and a half ago during an influencer fan chat when the topic of "can we get an Iron Man wave" came up, Dan specifically mentioned that Whiplash/Backlash with his ponytail would be great to get. No prompting, he just mentioned Whiplash/Blacklash off the cuff.
Since it can take a year and a half from character/discussion approval to reveal/pre-order/shipping, Dan and the guys already knew Whiplash/Blacklash was happening and Dan threw us a clue.
Fast forward to yesterday. Ryan specifically mentioned there were two ToyBiz Iron Man waves, although there were more. He didn't have to. Maybe a bit of trivia, maybe a bit of foreshadowing. Maybe 2025 we'll see another Iron Man Retro Card wave with Century, Crimson Dynamo, Firebrand and other fun characters.
As for Mandarin, he is just perfect for a Pulse Retro Card release to avoid any mainstream big box retail character controversy. Or maybe a Pulse/Fan Channel BAF villains wave.
Or it will be like FF retro, tank so hard it's still on clearance 2 years later and there's only one series. I hope that's not how it works, but the FF retro line bummed me out so hard
A thing that could work in its favor is Iron Man has been a much bigger deal to the mainstream the past decade than the FF were, and he's more toyetic to boot. Even without a movie in theaters, he's still had far more consistent public exposure, having been in a bunch of movies, TV shows and games in a time when the Fantastic Four were banished to limbo because of the stupid movie rights crap Marvel was pissed about. It could go either way, but, as much as some fans are upset at there being three Iron Man variants here, I think that was a smart move on Hasbro's part.
My gripe with NeoClassic is the outdated shoulders. They’ve gotta integrate that red armor into the actual sculpt of his shoulder so it doesn’t separate when he raises his arms.
These are the old Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo figures that I mean. They were essentially Titanium Man 2 and Crimson Dynamo Mark 5.
These are the ones I'd be waiting for. Happy with this series and Iron Man in general for a while now with Hasbro, but these are 2 big omissions. Hoping they come. I wonder if Hulkbuster Iron Man will be on a retro card too??
Ryan mentioned 2 waves?? I know you said Toy Biz, but yeah this is kind of a hint as to how they are thinking! I love The Fantastic Four and would love more, but have more hope for Iron Man. He is a bigger seller I think.
@ditko I’d love a new version of the Valentin Shatalov Dynamo as well. It’s always been a cool armor design.
Likewise Titanium Man II. He’d be neat to get with. New Gremlin pack-in or I’d be willing to sacrifice torso articulation for an opening gimmick with a sculpted Gremlin inside somehow. But that might be too much.
My gripe with NeoClassic is the outdated shoulders. They’ve gotta integrate that red armor into the actual sculpt of his shoulder so it doesn’t separate when he raises his arms.
This. As nice as it is to see them take another crack at Neo-Classic Iron Man, they really need to just make the whole shoulder ball as "armored". No need for armor overlays. Just larger shoulder balls, which are all red.
I think there's a good chance we get a deluxe retro boxed Hulkbuster Iron Man and a retro card Mandarin via Fan Channel and maybe another figure (metallic Neo-Classic with smaller boots?) as a sort of wave 2.
I like this whole wave.
I skipped on First Appearance Iron Man, but I'll gladly take the gold mkII.
Neo-Classic IM. One of my favorite IM armors. It's an improvement, but I still want a gold one. And smaller boots. And those shoulders...
IM mk20. I remember repainting the Toy Biz one into gold and cherry red. Nice to see a new figure of this armor. And hey...this one has bicep swivels! (Hasbro's 4" version was lacking them for some reason).
Black/Whiplash. Finally. Beetle and Blizzard will be a little less lonely.
She-Hulk. Yes, she doesn't make much sense in an IM wave, but we've see this kinda cross-wiring in the line quite a bit. She does look great and is a welcome addition. This is probably her most iconic/prolific look. Secret Wars costume so I'm not sure if that's a hint to other Secret Wars releases, but one can dream.
Count Nefaria has been on my Top 10 for a long while, so it's nice to see him coming out soon.
Super solid wave. Wish it was a BAF one, as I'm going to get all the figures.
The wave looks great and I will be pre-ordering the entire set. My only issue is once again they go to the Vulcan body for a character who is a literal powerhouse. Count Nefaria should not be using the same body as Black Panther or Bucky Cap and should not be shorter than Captain America. The Hasbro ML team now is going to run this body into the grave so later on we can all buy an updated bigger body with "butterfly joints" to redo the likes of Count Nefaria, Wonderman, Falcon and even possibly Captain America.
Agreed that I'd like to see a new powerhouse body, and Nefaria would be a good fit for it!
I am so happy about Whiplash. I've wanted him to get a figure for so long. Count and She-Hulk are great too. I may pick up an iron Man or two, but the 2 Villains and She Hulk are the must haves.
I hope we do get Mandarin, Crimson Dynamo, and Titanium Man at some point.
Is Neo-Classic on the 80th anniversary body?
@hbhfback Yes. You can see the pins on the legs. It could have pinless arms like War Machine, but I can't tell from the pics.
It does look like NeoClassic has the basic limbs of War Machine: pinless arms, standard 80th Iron Man legs with pins. Makes sense since the WM arms seemed intentionally designed to take various gauntlets and shoulder armor.
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