With the Captain America Marvel Legends 2014 Infinite Series scheduled to hit stores next month, I figured it was only a matter of time until the Hong Kong scrappers inevitably got some of the figures to shill online early. I wasn’t disappointed. Thanks to a series of online ebay auctions, we can now get out first look at production samples of the Captain America Marvel Legends Infinite Series WWII Captain America and the rest of the first wave…

Ever wondered about those action figures that turn up in droves on ebay from Hong Kong sellers even before the toys have been officially released anywhere in the world? Most of the time, those are figures that have been stolen from the factory or didn’t meet quality standards and were thrown out and meant to be destroyed. Either way, those figures were never meant to be sold. They are all the time, mind you, but they’re not really meant to be.

We saw this year’s Marvel Legends Rocket Raccoon Series and Wolverine Legends figures sold first well-ahead by Hong Kong scrappers, and now we’re getting to see the 2014 Marvel Legends Captain America Infinite Series in the same fashion. What’s unusual this time is that the scrappers are actually selling a figure that Hasbro hasn’t even shown off yet themselves: the Marvel Legends WWII Captain America figure based off the “Captain America: The First Avenger” movie costume!

For an action figure that was likely meant to be destroyed for not meeting QC standards, that Marvel Legends World War II Captain America figure is looking pretty good! Unfortunately, the same can’t really be said of his modern counterpart…

The prototypes of the Marvel Now Captain America Marvel Legends figure looked far better proportioned (in fact, they looked far better, period), so let’s give Hasbro the benefit of a doubt here and assume that this particular sample was a production snafu that was meant to be destroyed and got picked up for sale by a scrapper instead.

You can check out the photos of all six of the upcoming Captain America Marvel Legends Infinite Series now, but do keep in mind that these images are of figures that were likely illegally obtained and very likely not completely representative of the final production version Marvel Legends 2014 figures that have actually passed through quality control.

Having seen samples of what the final version of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Marvel Legends Infinite Series is likely to look like (minus some quality issues), how do you feel about this set, Marvel fans? Are these an instant buy for you, or are you taking a wait-and-see approach?