Post all your thoughts on the Marvel toys - Marvel Legends, X-men Classics, Hulk Classics, Spider-man, etc!

I'm currently buying all the Marvel Legends & compatible figures, which inludes XMC, HC & SMC lines. Anyone else?

Marvel Legends is the hot topic right now, with series 6 just released in Walmart & TRU. Here’s the breakdown:

Wolverine (brown costume)
Punisher (movie version)
Juggernaut
Cable (regular blue/yellow version)
Cable (variant blue/brown version)
Deadpool (with Doop)
Phoenix (regular green version)
Dark Phoenix (variant)

Wolverine & Punisher are 3-per case, Cable & Juggernaut are 2-per case while Deadpool & Phoenix are 1-per case with the variants mixed in, along with an unmasked Wolverine chase thrown in too.

I'm still hunting for Deadpool, Phoenix & both varants so keep an eye out for me!

Still no Series VI in my local Wal-Mart. I may check again tomorrow, though.

They had them for sale at my main comic book store for ungawdly prices, though. Trying to sell Juggs for $35, Cable for $25, and Deadpool for $15. Bastards.

Juggernaut for $35?? Yikes.

But I bet someone will pay it...

Still no friggin' Series VI at Wal-Mart.

This is BS!

I'll look for them at my Wal-Mart tomorrow. I'm going to apply for a job there... yikes I'll let you guys know if I find any.

Good luck! You could be our inside source!

Well, I checked the action figures at Wally World today and they didn't have any new Marvel action figures. Plenty of neat Ninj Turles but the same old Hulk and Spidey ones from the movies.

My buddy down in Colorado Springs found Dark Phoenix, brown Cable and unmasked Wolverine today! There's hope for us all!

Okay now my other buddy on the other side of town found 'em all. Dammit! I must be cursed. I still haven't found squat.

In case anyone's interested, my buddies at ePlanet Toys got both the Fantastic Four set and the Spiderman Sinister Six set. And they're the same prices as Wal-mart! They're site is down today, but lemme know if you're interested and I can possibly get you a discount.

I'll have to check the local Wal-Mart on the way home tonight. I wouldn't say I've been collecting Marvel Legends as much as just buying to be used.

I got to a point where I just couldn't play Barbie's any more. HULK SMASH KEN!

Another week, another goose egg. My Wal-Mart must be waiting to sell all their Series V before ordering the new stuff...or something stupid like that.

They'll probably appear that one day you don't go. That's always how it is with me...

Still no damn Legends.

And my comic book store is selling Phoenix for $40. And it's just the normal green outfit one.

Yikes. I bet in a few months they'll be like Elektra, popping up everywhere.

And don't feel bad, I STILL haven't found 'em either...

I've seen them locally at Toys 'R Us, at least Cable(yellow), Brown Wolvie and about 50,000 Punishers.

Picked up Deadpool today. Had to drop 15 but it was worth it. I only have a few complaints and those are all about the crappiness of the belt.

It was worth the 15 bucks for Doop alone.

Saw Wolvie, Punisher and blue/yellow Cable at TRU.

Man, my TRU still only has Series 4. Kinda sad when my Wal-Mart has newer toys than TRU.

Still haven't seen any ML6...but I'm too broke to buy any right now anyway.

I now have one more complaint about Deadpool. The base that comes with him is fine for supporting Doop but if you try to use it for a dramatid pose for Wade himself thatn you are up shit creek. The crappy platic screw things can't support his weight so he always falls over.

And now Marvel Legends series 7 is out now too! And the case breakdown is 1 each of Hawkeye, Apocalypse, and Vision, an 3 each of Weapon X, Ghost Rider, and Iron Man. Way to go Toybiz. I'm getting really tired of all this shortpack crap...

I still haven't even seen ML6 in stores...

Neither have I. DrQuinzel suggested that I buy the rest of the Series V figures my Wal-Mart has so they'll order Series VI, but with my luck they've probably got a bunch more of Series V in the stockroom.

A good trick is to go to TRU and get rainchecks for the figures; when they come in they hold 'em for ya. I haven't tried it, but I hear it works...

Planet Toys might be getting ML7 in tomorrow from Diamond - hopefully I can snag Hawkeye & Vision!

So my shop got in the ML7 cases, and out of 2 cases they got 2 Chase visions but no regular version. All they have left right now are Ghost Rider, Iron Man & Weapon X. I had the chance to snag the Hawkeye & Vision, but somebody bought 'em for $50 & $80 respectively.

I'll think I'll wait for them to hit Wal-mart.

Anyway, Julius Marx reviews 'em in his latest column:

http://www.aftimes.com/aslu/slu.shtml

Good stuff!

Superfly,
I used to work at a TRU, granted this is about 6 or 7 years ago. At that time we couldn't provide rainchecks, or put holds on "collectible items". I'm a Human Resources manager. At the time I was just an HR assistant. I took part in a termination of an employee. The employee was getting paid by a collector to "hide" toys in the warehouse so that the collector got first shot at the variants and rares.

Again, that was 6 0r 7 years ago, so they certainly could have changed the policy since then. good luck with it.

My local TRU finally has series VII figures. Unfortunately, I hit the store after everyone else had gone thru them. The Weapon X figure does look nice, but the 5-6 hanging on the pegs, with the 15 Punisher figures is really frustrating. Hopefully I'll catch the store at a good time and pick up a Vision and/or Hawkeye figure.

Good luck with that...

Vision and Hawkeye are each 1 to a case. At my local TRU stores the stockboys, grab them when they crack the box, hold them at the customer service desk, buy them when they get off duty and put them on ebay. I know this because I talked to two of the stockboys who blatantly told me this. They said if I wanted a Vision he had one up on ebay right now..... he told me this in the TRU store... I told the manager who basically shrugged and said he had bigger problems.

Nice. The only time I've seen these guys is at my comic shop where they are selling each of them for $30. Sometimes I hate being a collector

What a bunch of a-holes. I'd call the district manager and tell him about what;s going on.

Hey Mal, you worked at TRU - pull some strings and get thosr dudes fired!

I would love to make that happen, Superfly, but I'm no longer "connected". If I was, I wouldn't be moaning over the inability to get "my" figures.

I was very fortunate to work with a store manager who was a big Star Wars collector. His rule was that you could put it aside for yourself, but only 1 figure/item, and had to buy it by the next payday. It helped eliminate some of the problems. This was also before Ebay was a big as it is. It was harder to find an outlet for the toys.

I figure you guys had already heard about wave 9 being the "Galactus Wave":

Dr. Strange
War Machine
Deathlok
Nightcrawler
Bullseye
Bullseye (variant)
FA Grey Hulk
FA Green Hulk (variant)
Professor Xavier

Each figure that comes in the wave is going to come with a piece of Galactus; you'll be able to construct a complete 16" Galactus with the set.

I saw the distributor sheet last week that shows the linups for ML 10 & 11. Since the list were already published over the weekend, here they are:

Series 10 - "Sentinel Series" (shipping in July)
1st Appearance Spiderman
Omega Red
Mr. Sinister
Mystique
Black Panther
Black Panther (variant)
Cyclops
X-Factor Cyclops (variant)
Angel
X-Factor Angel (variant)


Series 11 - "Legendary Riders Series" (shipping in October)
Iron Man HulkBuster
Taskmaster
Scarlet Witch
Origin Thing
Vengeance
Ultron
Logan
Logan (variant)
Wonder-Man
Wonder-Man (variant)

I updated the info a bit, but most of it is still "unofficially official"...at least until Toy Fair in Feb...

I'll take an Omega Red, a War Machine, a Black Panther, a Taskmaster, a Wonder Man, and a Hulkbuster Iron Man, thanks, Perry...

A quick bit of Spider-man news, from TNI:

2005 will herald the return of certain 6" Marvel Comic villian figures from Toy Biz you may have missed the first time around, due to the limited release they saw. The reason for this is Toy Biz is releasing a new line of Spider-Man 2-Packs, that will contain a Spider-Man figure with the previously released Hulk Classic Absorbing Man and Abomination figures.

Whats that you say? Why are two classic Incredible Hulk villians shipping with Spider-Man figures? Well from what we have been told this is basically a cleaver marketing ploy on Toy Biz' part. You see retailers seem to jump at anything with Spider-Man on it these days, due to the popularity of the character with the blockbuster movies and being reognized by so many. So by packaging these figures with Spider-Man, it is hoped that this will make retailers more likely to carry these items in greater numbers, giving you the consumer a better chance of finding them on the shelves.

Wait there is more though. Besided these new 2-packs, Toy Biz is also releasing a new line of Spider-Man Classic villians. This will be an assortment of nothing but previously released Spider-Man Classic villian figures. The first assortment of this villian line is slated to include Ultimate Rhino, Carnage, Ultimate Lizard, Morbius, Scorpion, Green Goblin with Glider.

Right now a few etailers like Entertainment Earth have started to take pre-orders for these two new lines. Hopefully large retailers like TRU, Wal-Mart and Target will also see the potential in these new villian lines and carry them as well, but as of yet we have no word on who will or won't be carring these. Stay tuned as we learn more on the availability of these lines.

The all-villains case has already been released in Hong Kong, so it should be hitting here soon!

I finally snagged a Vision & Hawkeye - very kickass figures!!! Ghost Rider, Iron Man & brown Wolverine are really nice too!

Snagged a Cable & Juggernaut too, finally...if anyone finds either version of Phoenix or a Deadpool, let me know!

More rumors...

ML Series 12 - Marvel's "Dark Ages" Series

Origin Capt. America w/ Bucky
Savage Land Wolverine
Ultimate Green Goblin
Mole Man
Loki
Dark Phoenix (new sculpt & costume)
Hannibal King
Mole Man (scary face variant)
Vampire Hannibal King (variant)

Early 2006 - Series 13 - Marvel's "Renegades" Series

Origin Daredevil
Kingpin
Iron Fist
Power Man
Lady Deathstryke
Ultimate Punisher
Tombstone
Shang Chi
Unmasked Daredevil (variant)
Shang Chi (different costume) (variant)

and the next 3 Spider-Man Classics Villians will be:
Mysterio
Hammerhead
Silver Sable

I am extremely skeptical, but thought I'd post it anyway...

I believe there's a couple of Deadpools floating around stores in my area, in the very least?

I forgot to mention this list has been revealed to be bogus. Not a huge shock, but didn't want you guys to get excited...

Some stuff from the Canadian Toy Fair, from ganglork on RTM:

Dropped by there today and saw some of the new stuff from Toybiz, forgive me if you've already heard this stuff.

Movie FF stuff- Doctor Doom was the only carded figure not on display, the figures packaging is tight and very attractive.

Three playsets with a figure were on display (these were mock ups)
Fantasticar with Mr F
Hotrod Car with Thing
Johnny with motorcycle (he's mildly on fire)

There was a prototype stretch Mr Fantastic on display, he's just like the Stretch Armstrongs of old. Can't wait for that one.

Marvel Legends look amazing and that Galactus is fabulous, the next series will be a sentinel you can build. I saw a Green/Grey variant Hulk that was an improvement over the original figure.

After that, the next series is all about vehicles you can assemble, I noticed the Thing, Hulkbuster and original Taskmaster in that line.

I wish I had photos but there was a no photo policy.

Over at the Buzz, NTU-150 snagged a set of ML 9 already:

Someone asked about the articulation on Galactus. He has:

ball joint neck
ball joint shoulders
double-joint elbows
swivel forearm
wrist
fingers (not individual)
mid-torso (a lot like the first Classics Spidey's)
ball thighs (like most of the MLs nowadays)
double-joint knees
swivel calves/boots
ankle
side-to-side ankle
toes

His waist doesn't seem to move at all. The lovely thing is they've covered most of the big peg holes (they have square lids over them which aren't too visible given Galactus' design). And all the joints seem pretty tight with those D-tents that make the joints click.

Other comments:

Bullseye is great! He's done a lot like Ult. Cap. And he has a clicking d-tent torso joint which I wish Hawkeye had.

Dr. Strange has officially made me like plastic capes over cloth. A great job and it can be posed to help the figure stand.

Nightcrawler would have been perfect (engineering-wise and scultping-wise, he is to me) but the plastic on his legs are a bit soft, which make the d-tents a bit useless. He is tough to make stand. A shame.

Deathlok has a peg on his hand that allows him to hold his gun well. But it's at this weird angle. But at least it stays (unlike Hawkeye's bow). The tube on his chest is not removable.

Professor X does not have the loose leg joints the movie version had. In fact, the joints are pretty tight. It is a customizer's dream figure for making figures in suits (I wish there was a decent Tony Stark head without a helmet to use on the body). The chair doesn't seem to be the movie version since it has pegs for his back and feet, but I don't have my movie Prof. X figure with me now to compare.

I think Gray Hulk is my best Hulk figure. No gimmicks or ugly articulation points like the first ML Hulk. Very tight joints. Well-scultped face. The green variant would've been nice (but I doubt I'll ever see it).

War Machine, while using most of the original IM body and the Silver Centurion shoulder epaulets, had d-tents in its elbows and knees. So it poses better (not that the original IM was pretty loose). But watch out for the waist joint. Could still be a problem with other figures (not mine, luckily).

Whew! That's all for now. A great wave! Can't wait for the Avengers wave (wave 11)! I hope it turns out as well as this one.

Did any of you guys see the leaked photos of the Sentinel, Cyclops & Omega Red? Cool stuff...

I've pretty much given up on Legends, honestly. I was never able to find any of the ones I wanted at local TRUs or Wal-Marts...and I'm not willing to pay the kind of cash the scalpers want and usually get on eBay. So unless they drastically alter the case distribution, I'll probably never own a Legends figure.

QUITTER!!!

Is it quitting if you never really started in the first place?

NON-STARTER!!!

Marvel news from the Fwoosh guys at Toy Fair:

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES IX (THE GALACTUS SERIES)
Availability - Mar. '05

NIGHTCRAWLER - 41 POA
GREY HULK - 34 POA
PROFESSOR X - 33 POA
DEATHLOK - 39 POA
DR STRANGE - 35 POA
BULLSEYE - 44 POA
WAR MACHINE - 36 POA

A fully-assembled Galactus was on hand with the individual figures from the series. Both the Green Hulk and Bullseye variants were displayed. It appeared that the Bullseye variant and normal figures were painted prototypes.

Jesse's comments on Series IX were mostly about Galactus. The Galactus on display appeared to be a production piece, as Jesse played with it, showing off the superposeability and d-tent joints.

Toy Biz made the attempt to keep the figure to six pieces, so each case would have two complete "Galacti" - unfortunately his head was too big. Since there are seven pieces, Toy Biz has asked retailers to order even numbers of cases and will attempt to offset the "missing" piece from one case to the next. Jesse called these "variant cases" and said that every other case would be a variant case, although it was not clear that he meant that every other case would have the variant Bullseye and Green Hulk.

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES X (THE SENTINEL SERIES)
Availability - July '05

1ST APPEARANCE SPIDER-MAN - 35 POA
MR. SINISTER - 39 POA
ANGEL - 36 POA
OMEGA RED - 40 POA
CYCLOPS - 34 POA
MYSTIQUE - 38 POA
BLACK PANTHER - 38 POA

As with Series IX, Jesse's comments were reserved for the Sentinel. Like Galactus, the Sentinel will come in seven pieces. The Sentinel appeared to be a painted prototype, posed as he appears in the Toy Biz press release images.

Likewise, all the Series IX figures on display were painted prototypes and appeared to be the same figures used in the press release images. No variant figures were shown, although the Toy Biz catalog shows head and torso shots of both variants. The Cyclops variant is an X-Factor variant with white X-pattern on his torso and white stripe on his head. The Angel variant is a blue-costumed variant Angel with halo symbol on the chest, not an X-Factor variant as previously reported.

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES XI (THE LEGENDARY RIDERS SERIES)
Availability - Aug. '05

HULK BUSTER IRON MAN
ULTRON
TASKMASTER
LOGAN
WONDER MAN
SCARLET WITCH
1ST APPEARANCE THING
VENGEANCE

The figures on display were all painted prototypes at various stages of development. Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch were 2-ups, and Jesse said that the head sculpts on both were not finalized. Jesse described the Yellow Jacket figure as an accessory that will plug into Wonder Man's back. Jesse confirmed for me that Scarlet Witch has an additional point of articulation on her chest - he declined to give it a name, and would neither confirm nor deny that it was called "boob articulation" back at the Toy Biz lab.

Vengeance was somewhere in between 6-inch and 2-up scale. Someone pointed out that the front of his legendary ride has a face of its own, when viewed head-on. The wheels on his bike are reminiscent of the first ML Ghost Rider, with sculpted flames that hinder movement.

Jesse commented on the selection of Vengeance for the line. In consumer testing for Marvel Legends with kids, Ghost Rider has consistently come in third place, after Iron Man and the Hulk. He thinks that kids just find him cool because he has a flaming skull and rides a motorcycle - he doesn't think the kids know who he is.

As previously reported, Ultron featured a more classic head on the figure, instead of the "dog-faced" head that is shown in the press release images and Toy Biz catalog. The head on his glider was unchanged. The helmet on the Hulk Buster Iron Man prototype was removable, and revealed a Tony Stark head. I do not believe this head-sculpt is final either, as it appeared to me to be a modified ML IV Punisher head.

MARVEL LEGENDS SPIDER-MAN'S FEARSOME FOES GIFT PACK
Availability - Sept. '05

SPIDER-MAN
VULTURE
LIZARD
CARNAGE
RHINO

The biggest surprise of the day came in the form of this box set. While this had been previously announced as available only outside the United States, Jesse stated that Toy Biz had recently reversed that decision, making this set available in the U.S. via mass-market retailers and Diamond.

The set features two re-released figures in Spider-Man and Carnage. The Spider-Man shown in the mocked-up box set was the recently released Super-Poseable Spider-Man (commonly referred to as the McFarlane Spider-Man). Vulture, Lizard, and Rhino appear to be completely new sculpts. Vulture is strangely reminiscent of a recent custom featured in the Modeler’s Gallery.

Overall, Marvel Legends looks to have a very promising 2005. I suspect that Toy Biz still has more to reveal for the line this year, as they appear to be on a quarterly release schedule - this suggests that Marvel Legends XII could be available in December 2005. I am looking forward to the San Diego Comic Convention in July, where I hope we will learn more.

Pics: http://www.fwooshnet.com/pics/thumbnails.php?album=4