A huge focus for Hasbro this year will be the ‘Avengers Assemble’ theme with the continuing Iron Man line, and new Captain America and Thor movie lines.  This is in addition to the core Marvel Universe line and the Spider-man line.  Below are highlights of the Hasbro presentation.  Which, this was my favorite part of the Hasbro event, really enjoyed the material the team put together.

• Thor merchandise shelf date of March 1st; Movie arriving May 6th
• A whole wardrobe of Thor role-play toys will be available, including his helmet, which talks and shoots a small projectile
• There’s a slew of Thor figures on the horizon, refer to the galleries for images
• Super Hero Squad is continuing in the form of movie 3 packs for both Thor and Captain America
• Captain America toys hitting shelves in May with the movie releasing July 22nd
• Several role play shields being released, one shoots foam discs – like the old Millenium Falcon and Tie Fighter toys; another is a frisbee.  Two of these were thrown into the crowd.
• Several figures in the line up – Captain Britain, Movie-uniform Captain America, Battle Field Captain America, Winter Soldier, and US Agent (who looks awesome)
• Captain America will have several vehicles, similar to the ones Iron Man has
• As reported at SDCC, several ‘team’ sets coming.  Fantastic Three (Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing and H.E.R.B.I.E),  X-force , original Avengers (Hulk, Thor, Kirby-styled Iron Man, Wasp, Ant-Man & flying ant) and Giant Size X-Men set
• Marvel Universe 2011 Wave 3 – Doctor Strange (variant clear figure coming – astral plane), Falcon, Skaar, Doctor Doom (new), Scarlet Spider
• Marvel Universe 2011 Wave 4 – Steve Rogers, X-23, Dark Hawk (Variant costume coming), Namor (new version), Ultron (new version)
• Cable with Hope won’t always include Hope, so pick this one up before the running change
• Comic Packs: Wolverine and Silver Samurai, Spider-man vs. Captain Britain, Power Man and Iron Fist (incredible), Adam Warlock vs. Thanos
• SDCC Exclusive – Giant Carded Sentinal – deep purple color.  The retail version will have a different deco and be boxed
• No X-Men: First Class toys however some TRU exclusive X-Men toys coming – Jean and Scott 2-pack, Wolverin and Sabertooth 2-pack, the X-Men team box-set
• Lots of Spider-Man in 2012 due to the new movie.
• 2011 SDCC exclusive Marvel Legends #0 – Thor
• Prototypes shown for Ultimates Hawkeye, Captain America and the Build-a-figure Terrax

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Storm

Series: X-Men; Giant Size X-Men Box Set
Availability: 1995
Comments: Giant Size X-Men #1 was a 1975 comic where Professor X had to throw together an All New! team of X-Men to save the original X-Men from a mutant island. In 1995 Toy Biz released a box set of figures to commemorate the 20th anniversary of this issue’s release. This Storm figure was included in this box set. Also included in this set are Nightcrawler, Banshee, Thunderbird, Colossus and Banshee.  The set as a whole is awesome, and provides an example of how good ToyBiz’s releases could be.

I cannot say enough good things about Storm.  This is one of my all-time favorite figures.  Her sculpt is fantastic.  The cape is fantastic.  The stability of the figure is fantastic…even in her heels.  The only small nit I have is that the “bracelets” where the cape connect to the wrists are awfully large, but really…in this scale that’s easily overlooked.  All in all, an A+ figure.

Cyclops

Series: Superhero Squad
Release Date: 2006
Comments: Stylized, kid friendly, figures of our favorite characters are nothing new.  No longer limited to just Star Wars figures, these cute little guys have spread to the Marvel Universe, DC Universe, GI Joe and show no signs of stopping.

Included in a 2-pack with Magneto, Cyclops was one of the early Superhero Squad releases.  However, this really isn’t apparent as the line hasn’t changed much.  Cyclops is fairly well sculpted, features nice bright paint apps, and the average level of articulation.  The picture really covers everything, if this is the sort of thing you like, then you may want to dig one up.

Cyclops

Series: X-Men vs. Street Fighter
Release Date: 1998
Comments:  In 1996 Capcom released the arcade version of ‘X-Men vs. Street Fighter’ taking characters from MARVEL’s merry band of mutants and pitting them against their own.  The game proved to be popular enough (though I preferred Marvel Super Heroes myself) to convince ToyBiz to release a series of X-Men vs. Street Fighter 2-packs, one character per universe for each pack.

Cyclops’ partner in the 2-pack was M. Bison, who was sold off about 2 weeks after getting the set.  This Cyclops figure was, hands down, the best ToyBiz Jim Lee Cyclops released.  My only criticism is that the soft-goods coat is a little bulky, but ToyBiz gets points for game accuracy for including the jacket.  An A+ figure!

Nightcrawler – Giant Size X-Men #1

Series: X-Men; Giant Size X-Men Box Set
Availability: 1995
Comments: Giant Size X-Men #1 was a 1975 comic where Professor X had to throw together an All New! team of X-Men to save the original X-Men from a mutant island. In 1995 Toy Biz released a box set of figures to commemorate the 20th anniversary of this issue’s release. This Nightcrawler figure was included in this box set. Also included in this set are Storm, Banshee, Thunderbird, Colossus and Banshee.  The set as a whole is awesome, and provides an example of how good ToyBiz’s releases could be. 

As a figure, Nightcrawler is pretty cool.  Not only does he have better than average articulation for his time, he also has a bendy tail.  There’s not much to critique really, the figure looks like Nightcrawler and has a bendy tail.  What more could someone want?