After the unexpected announcement of the SDCC 2013 Thunderbolts Marvel Legends box set exclusives, I sort of doubted I’d be hearing anything else about Marvel’s Thunderbolts any time soon. Turns out I was mistaken, though, as the very next Hasbro 6″ Marvel Legends 2013 figure to be revealed appears to be another Thunderbolts figure–but from a different iteration of the Thunderbolts entirely. To the surprise of absolutely everyone, it’s… a Marvel Legends Thunderbolts Punisher Variant…?!

In the Marvel NOW! Thunderbolts series that Marvel released in late 2012, there’s a totally different Thunderbolts roster from any we’ve ever seen before, including Deadpool, Red Hulk, Elektra, Venom, and The Punisher. The members of the team may not like each other (besides Punisher and Elektra, who like each other quite a bit, if you know what I mean), but every member of the team wears the same red and black color scheme to show their solidarity!

Earlier this week, an online auction turned up for a Marvel Legends Punisher variant in Thunderbolts colors. The fact that this particular listing went up at the same time as the first Marvel Legends Series 5 figures did is just too convenient to be a coincidence.

Now, I was expecting to see the Marvel Legends Punisher variant show up with Marvel Legends Series 5 (2013 Wave 2) as soon as we learned that the first Marvel Legends 2013 Series 2 case assortment included The Punisher in the case. It’s just that I was expecting a different Punisher variant–the never-released Marvel Legends Series 3 Blade variant. With these photos surfacing of a Punisher Thunderbolts variant, this is almost certain to be the actual Punisher variant that we get with the Marvel Legends Wave 5 cases that ship next month.

At this time there is no official confirmation of when or where this Thunderbolts variant Punisher Marvel Legends action figure will be released–or even confirmation that it’s going to be released at all. I’ll post more information on this figure and its potential (very likely) release as Hasbro makes those details available. And you can ‘Like’ Marvel Toy News on Facebook if you want Marvel Toys news and updates sent directly to your Facebook Newsfeed!