With today being the first day of the final push that will push Avengers Endgame beyond Avatar as the worldwide all-time box office champ, you might be expecting to see some new Endgame product today. But Hasbro has thrown us a mega-curveball with something totally off the wall: the first new premium role-play item in quite a while! Coming our way from the Future Fight game, the EXCLUSIVE Marvel Legends Punisher War Machine Helmet replica is now up for order!

…Well, that came out of nowhere! My eyes shot wide open this afternoon when listings went live for the first Marvel Legends Prop Replica announced since the Ant-Man helmet’s sudden debut at New York Toy Fair 2019. This time, it’s an item not from the MCU live-action movies or even (officially) from the comics—it’s a video game-inspired GamerVerse prop replica!

A couple months back, Hot Toys dropped jaws when they announced a $400-ish die-cast Punisher War Machine sixth scale figure. The response to that solicitation from the start of the year has been very positive and sales seem to be strong, and now Hasbro is ready to cash in on this jaw-dropping design as well!

Basically, this is the helmet that the Punisher wears as part of his War Machine armor in the Marvel Future Fight video game. Punisher has worn the armor in the comics as well, but both Hasbro and Hot Toys have specifically tagged this as being part of the “GamerVerse” theme and not a comic book item.

The Punisher War Machine Helmet will be wearable with adjustable straps to fit most adult heads, and will feature LED light-up eyes, a detachable faceplate and electronic sounds. The previous four helmets in this line have all turned out amazing (Star-Lord, Iron Man, Black Panther and Ant-Man), and I’m not expecting any less from this very cool-looking Punisher Helmet.

It would stand to reason that we’ll get an actual War Machine helmet announced in the near-future (perhaps at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 next month?) next, but no Rhodey version has been confirmed or mentioned at all by Hasbro just yet. Cross your fingers, James Rhodes fans!

The Exclusive Marvel Legends War Machine Punisher Helmet is now up for pre-order, and is scheduled to be released in October 2019. This is the first retailer-exclusive item in the Marvel Legends Prop Replica series, and also the first video game-inspired piece, so I really have no idea how well this is going to sell or how quickly it’ll go out of stock. I love the crap out of this line, though, so I went ahead and reserved one just in case it disappears early!

What do you think of this very unexpected addition to the ML role-play/props line, Marvel collectors? Are you interested in niche items like this helmet that have never (and likely will never) appear in the MCU? Who’s planning to snap this very unique Punisher collectible up?