Marvel Legends 2015 Blizzard Dr. Strange Valkyrie Coming?

What’s that? The 2015 Marvel Legends Avengers Wave 1 and Wave 2 sets with Odin and Thanos Build-A-Figures haven’t even hit stores in the U.S. yet, but you’re already pining away for news regarding more upcoming Hasbro Marvel Legends 6″ figures? Well, ask and you shall receive. As a Funko collector, I’m pretty used to seeing Barnes and Noble leak upcoming figures months before Funko can announce them. And this time, B&N has turned its sights to Hasbro, leaking a list of potential Marvel Legends 2015 figures including Blizzard, Dr. Strange, Valkyrie and more!

2013-Marvel-Legends-Series-3-Blizzard-Action-Figure-at-SDCC-2013

A new assortment of 2015 Marvel Legends Infinite Series 6″ figures has leaked out online, due to some collectors hunting down listings on the Barnes and Noble website (yes, the Barnes and Noble website). As with several Marvel Legends figure assortments released in the past year or two, the list of discovered figures includes seven different figures.

This Marvel Legends lineup looks like a pretty safe bet as a real wave, as it includes the unreleased Marvel Legends Blizzard and Valkyrie figures that Hasbro showed off in 2013-2014, easy retools/repaints in War Machine and a black-and-gold Marvel Now Iron Man, a Thundra figure that could be repainted from the unreleased Marvel Legends Lyra Savage She-Hulk figure, and a headliner in the form of Dr. Strange.

The full newly-uncovered list of Marvel Legends 2015 figures is as follows:

  • Marvel Legends Dr. Strange
  • Marvel Legends Blizzard
  • Marvel Legends Valkyrie
  • Marvel Legends Thundra
  • Marvel Legends Marvel Now Iron Man
  • Marvel Legends War Machine
  • Marvel Legends “Hero Number One”

“Hero Number One” is obviously a code name or a placeholder listing for another character.

Now, I’ve seen some sites reporting that this set is likely to be a Barnes & Noble exclusive, based solely off the fact that Barnes & Noble is the only site to have these figures listed right now in their database. Personally, I think that’s balderdash.

Unreleased Marvel Legends Lyra Savage She Hulk Figure

The Barnes and Noble website was the first to reveal the Game of Thrones Black Series 6″ figures, the first to reveal the entire Funko Odin/Heimdall POP! Vinyls assortment, and many other figures over the past few years. How many of those have turned out to be Barnes and Noble exclusives? Zero. To assume that this assortment would be a Barnes and Noble exclusive just because Barnes and Noble has added these figures to their website–likely before getting the go-ahead from Hasbro–is preposterous.

Is it possible that Barnes and Noble is going to be the exclusive retailer for this Marvel Legends Dr. Strange series? I guess that’s within the realm of possibility–especially in a world where Walgreens is getting exclusive Hasbro figures–but it seems highly unlikely.

The Walgreens Agent Venom exclusive was one new figure that Walgreens stores ordered tens of thousands of, which is the quantity that needs to be ordered to make production worthwhile for Hasbro. Would Barnes and Noble really invest in ordering thousands upon thousands of cases with characters like Blizzard and Thundra in them for their first foray into Hasbro exclusives…?

And while Barnes and Noble has had exclusive Kotobukiya and Funko items in the past, every one of them has been a complete repaint with no new tooling, as is necessary to make the exclusives financially feasible to be produced in the quantities B&N can and will order. Meanwhile, new tooling is basically required for characters like a new Marvel Legends Doctor Strange figure.

Marvel Legends Valkyrie Figure Hasbro 2015So, in summary: “Do I think that this is a real list of upcoming 2015 Marvel Legends Avengers Infinite Series figures?” Yes–it certainly sounds like a plausible list, and Barnes and Noble has never been wrong with an item that they’ve leaked out via their database.

“Do I think this will be a Barnes and Noble exclusive Marvel Legends wave?” No, I think that’s a highly improbably eventuality. There’s no precedent for Barnes and Noble having an entire exclusive wave of any figures, and certainly not where new tooling is all but required.

What do you think of this potential leaked list of Marvel Legends figures featuring Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, Marvel Now Iron Man and more, Marvel collectors? Would you want to see an assortment like this be an exclusive at a retailer like Barnes and Noble?

Comments

Marvel Legends 2015 Blizzard Dr. Strange Valkyrie Coming? — 15 Comments

  1. Could take or leave this wave, depending on the BAF. Glad to see your reasoning that it’s probably not a B&N exclusive, though, either way.

      • There are actually Dormammu and Magik Prototype images on google, they’re scheduled for 2015, and Magik is probably Hero #1, and Dormammu is probably the BAF

  2. I’ll have to see what Doctor Strange looks like before I decide, but he’s the only figure in that wave that I would be interested in picking up.

    • I hear you. Seeing comes before wanting. And,dude! We’ve seen Blizzard,Valkrie and company before and you still don’t want them?
      The Ironman armors I understand. However,Valkrie and Dr.Strange are Defenders and Avengers teammates. Thundra was in The Lady Liberators with Valkyrie too. That is just me probably,that’s motivated by those reasons.

  3. Man, this is a lot of marvel legends news just at the beginning of the year. I hope this means more around sdcc time. On top of that I really hope we get a comic ant man, no movie figures Hasbro, maybe one or two but please make more comic figs, let select do movie figures.

    • Sorry,B. That’s a no go. HasbroMarvel is commited to the movie motivation plan. I like it bc it works. The distribution at the boxtop stores has really improved. Funny I was over at the fwoosh telling a guy that superhero figure collector fans want comic accurate toys,not many movie figures. Spiderman only had 2 movie figures and Cap2 only had 3,which was really good guys like us,but Gaurdians was movie heavy and only had 2 comic figures,but its all good. Look at all this plastic comic goodness coming down like a rainstorm. 😀

      • It seems like Hasbro is leaning more towards making movie themed waves that are made up of mostly comic figures with the recently announced waves (avengers age of ultron only has 3 movie figures out of the two series’ announced). I think the stores have also started to understand that comic figures sell better than movie figures and are being more open to having less movie figures than before.

  4. Si lugar a dudas mis expectativas estannpuestas en la figura de dr.strange y la otra misteriosa “heroe uno” … valkirya me encanta es muy superior a su anterior version … blizzard me gusta xq es un personaje nuevo y me encanta tener nuevos personajes .. lo mismo que thundra .. sobre war machine no es de mi agrado mas si es la figura ironpatriot de la serie ironman repintado … iron man now … me llaman sus colores obvio jeje y comparto que el baf debe ser dormammu .. ya fue anunciado antes y si trae a dr.strange tiene su logica … esperar y ver … hay un rumor de una serie antman con varios villanos interesantes ….. esperemos mas informacion

  5. Are you kiding me? Everybody! To paraphrase Darth Sidious,”Swipe them up…ALL of Them!” Lol my plastic for purchasing plastic is going to be busy and Marvel red hot! (As long as this is all true and not a delusion.)

  6. I understand why people are tired of the same characters always being released, but that’s because the same characters keep getting makeovers in the comics. For example, we have a Marvel Now! Captain America and Thor. If this news about wave 3 is true, we’ll have a Marvel Now! Iron Man. Most collectors like to stay current/accurate. I’m one of them. This is why I’m hoping that “Hero Number One” figure will be Indestructible Hulk (of Course he would be better served as a “build-a-figure). Also, It’s my belief that the SDCC exclusive boxset will be Guardians of the Galaxy. The Hasbro people said we might get that with a comic accurate Gamora as well as a larger scale Drax. I think it would be kool if the remaining figures were to include members of the “original” (future) Guardians or even an original costume Star-Lord (which Marvel has brought back for the Guardians 3000 book).

  7. Would love to see Dorrmammu build a figure! He’s long overdue. Brother Voodoo would be a fun figure!