These are dark and troubling times indeed when I drop what I’m doing and race off to Target on a tip that new Marvel Super Hero Masher figures have been released, but such are the times we find ourselves in. Online stores received the latest case of basic Mashers last month, but physical stores have been way behind and buried in unsellable Hawkeye figures. But finally, the new Marvel Mashers Iceman and Ghost Rider figures have begun hitting retail stores this week!

While the Hasbro Marvel Mashers Superhero figures have been pretty easy to hunt down at retail thus far, things are getting a whole lot tougher this summer, as Hasbro has begun shortpacking most new figures at one-per-case. The excellent Deadpool Mashers figure I reviewed a few weeks ago has been rare at retail, and it appears that the Marvel Super Hero Masher Ghost Rider and Iceman will be continuing that trend.

The Marvel Mashers Wave 3 case assortment is as follows:
(1) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Iceman
(1) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Ghost Rider
(1) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Dr. Doom
(1) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Green Goblin
(2) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Iron Man
(2) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Captain America
(2) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Spider-Man Classic
(2) Marvel Super Hero Mashers Wolverine Brown Costume

Thankfully, Hasbro has apparently realized that stores are absolutely inundated with the Marvel Masher Hawkeye figure, and he’s absent from this case assortment. ::Phew::

Target had just freshly put up a huge endcap display of the Marvel Super Hero Mashers figures (in addition to all of the pegs allocated for Marvel Superhero Mashers in the regular aisle), but the entire endcap only had one Iceman and one Ghost Rider on it (which isn’t a surprise, seeing as how we know that the new case assortment contains only one of each figure).

In addition to Ghost Rider and Iceman, the store had one of each of the Marvel Mashers Red Hulk and Deadpool figures up for sale (and I imagine at least the Deadpool will be gone in a few hours).

Now that I’ve got the Iceman and Ghost Rider action figures in-hand, I have to say that I’m quite pleased with both of them (more so Ghost Rider than Iceman, though). I’ll post reviews of these guys once I get a chance to open them up and make them fight against Deadpool, but at a glance both figures look nice. The first Marvel Mashers figures with translucent plastic seem to be a success.

I could absolutely do without the “funny” little witticisms that the characters are thinking on the back of the packages (“Chill out, there’s plenty of me to go around!” and “I’m letting my new powers off the chain!”), but I guess the unique box backs for these figures are at least superior to generic box backs with no character-specific anything on them.

It’s also worth noting that there are no unreleased figures shown on the box backs for the Hasbro Ghost Rider and Iceman Mashers. I was hoping to see some official previews of Mashers Pyro and Iron Fist, but I suppose we’ll have to wait until fall for those!

And thus, my seemingly never-ending quest for the new Marvel Super Heroes Mashers figures is at an end… for now!

What do you think of the latest pair of Marvel Super Hero Mashers figures, Marvel fans? Are the shortpacked Iceman and Ghost Rider Mashers on your list of Marvel figures to hunt for, or are you continuing to steer clear of Hasbro’s kid-friendly Marvel toy line?