I gripe about Hasbro an awful lot (an awful lot), but occasionally Hasbro really and truly does come through for collectors of Marvel action figures. Defying all expectations, Hasbro has now allowed retailers to officially start taking pre-orders for a previously unannounced 2014 case of Marvel Universe figures! While the case isn’t confirmed to have any new characters (and in fact only has the potential to have one new figure: Marvel Universe Northstar), Marvel Universe 2014 Wave 1 is pretty much the star-studded case that a lot of collectors have been hoping for…

Hasbro broke a lot of hearts when they announced at SDCC 2013 that the Marvel Universe 3 3/4″ figure line would be ending in 2013, and the end seemed to come and go with a whimper and some pretty “meh” case assortments.

In addition, one of the figures announced and shown off for the line–Northstar of Marvel’s Alpha Flight–was totally left out of any Marvel Universe case assortment. I assumed the worst–that this would be yet another time Hasbro dropped the ball and never released a variant figure–but it seems that Hasbro has one more chance to make things right, as an unexpected, just-announced 2014 Marvel Universe figures case assortment has a listing for “Marvel Universe Alpha Flight” on it. This must be Northstar… right?

Marvel Universe 2014 Wave 1 Cases will Include:

(2) Marvel Universe Cloak and/or Dagger
(2) Marvel Universe Abomination and/or A-Bomb
(1) Marvel Universe Alpha Flight [Northstar or Aurora]
(1) Marvel Universe Rhino(1) Marvel Universe Mysterio
(1) Marvel Universe Thanos
(1) Marvel Universe Nova
(1) Marvel Universe Colossus
(1) Marvel Universe Grey Hulk [2013 Version]
(1) Marvel Universe Black Knight

In addition to the possibility of Northstar, it’s definitely worth nothing that each case has space for two “Cloak or Dagger” figures and two “A-Bomb or Abomination” figures. If Hasbro has any sense, this case will include one of each of all four of these figures, as the whole quartet has been very popular and hard-to-find at retail. And really, it would be pretty crazy if Hasbro produced Cloak and Dagger figures and then never packed them in the same case together.

The first (and perhaps last) Marvel Universe 2014 case is now up for pre-order, with an expected release date of Q1 2014. I’ll post an update when the exact contents of the case are known, but I’m feeling very positive about the probability of Northstar, Cloak, Dagger, Abomination and A-Bomb all shipping in the same case together this time.

If this is in fact the final Marvel Universe case assortment ever, how would you feel about that, Marvel collectors? Is this case full of mostly hard-to-find recent figures and a few greatest hits what you think Marvel Universe should go out on, or would you have rather seen a different mix bringing some much older figures back into the line?