most years, I can count on no fingers the number of times I have to resort to Google to research the backstory on a Marvel character Hasbro releases. 2022 isn’t going to be one of those years! Hasbro is kicking off the year with a truly DEEP cut—the Doctor Strange Marvel Legends D’Spayre figure is now beginning to ship! But just who is this dude, and is his first 6” action figure ever worth your 20+ bucks? Here’s my review…
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cancellation of New York Toy Fair 2021 took the whole collecting world by surprise, and is the likely cause of the recent dearth of new Marvel toy news and announcements. But Hasbro is coming to the rescue today with a bevy of new X-Men Legends figures going up for order that we’ve been waiting for the chance to buy since late last year: the 2022 Marvel Legends X-Men Bonebreaker Series is finally up for order!
Individual figure links:
Havok
Siryn
Sabretooth 1st Appearance
Return of Wolverine
Vulcan
Maggott
Darwin
It was when Iron Studios actually solicited a resin statue of Pyro that I knew they were dead serious about making their 1:10 scale X-Men Battle Diorama Series the deepest range of X-Men statues ever made–and also when I started to get really, really excited about the line. Now that he’s in-hand at an affordable-ish ~$160, is this fiery former member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants worth his price-tag?
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Losing most of my vision (and function of my left side) has altered what and how I collect somewhat. If I can’t see (or lift) enormous statues that are larger than my field of vision, what’s the use in having them, right…? And so, I’ve begun prioritizing smaller, lighter statues such as the 1/10 scale Battle Diorama Series from Iron Studios. And thus, I’ve backtracked to pick up some pieces from the last year or so that I missed—including some statues from Avengers Endgame such as the subject of today’s review: the Iron Studios Endgame Rescue statue is a great value at $105 shipped—should you add this Pepper Potts to your collection?
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The long-running and prolific Marvel Gallery PVC statues series and Marvel Animated statues line (based on Skottie Young’s designs ) took a rare break last month with no new pieces solicited, but both lines are BACK with all-new entries as part of the Diamond Select Toys February 2022 solicitations: the Marvel Animated Sam Wilson Captain America statue and Marvel Gallery Psylocke statue are now up for pre-order!
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ew York Toy Fair 2022 is officially canceled—which totally sucks since we’ll miss out on seeing hundreds of collectible reveals in one weekend for the second consecutive year. But it’s a guilty blessing for me, since I won’t have to force myself to run up and down the Javits Center, mostly blind, while I’m still recovering from my strokes. Even with limited vision, though, I still would have liked to have seen their newly-solicited Marvel goods from Diamond Select Toys up-close—including the new Marvel Minimates Fantastic Four figures box set and Legends in 3D The Thing 1:2 scale bust!
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As a 13-year-old boy in 1995, the very notion of Magneto himself serving as the founder and leader of the X-Men—even in an alternate reality—completely blew my mind. X-Men Age of Apocalypse served as my favorite comic book storyline ever for over 20 years, and while AOA Magneto was never my favorite character from the story, I still happily gobbled up the 5” Toybiz AOA Magneto figure and its repaint. But 26 years later, I was ready for an upgrade, and Hasbro has delivered: the Marvel Legends Age of Apocalypse Magneto figure is now available! Is it a worthy successor to Toybiz’s version two and a half decades later?
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Ever since Sideshow Collectibles debuted the painted prototype of their upcoming new iteration of the Lethal Protector last July, fans have been asking when they’ll have the opportunity to place their pre-orders for the hulking 23” brute. Well, out of nowhere and with little fanfare, that day has arrived: the new 1/4 Sideshow Venom Premium Format Figure is now up for order! How much will this massive monster set you back, and is he worth the spatial and monetary cost?
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hardcore X-Men fanboy-ism was born in the early 90s, so I have vivid memories of thinking Bishop was the coolest and most badass dude ever. The ripped, arms-wielding enforcer from the future was a central character and plot element for years after his arrival, and I was delighted to buy his first-ever mini bust and statue from Bowen Designs a good decade-plus ago. And now, I’ve added another resin Bishop to my collection. The 1/10 scale Iron Studios Bishop statue is now shipping—is it worth having this time-traveler travel to your home? Here’s my review…
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One thing about Marvel collecting we can count on reliably as we head into 2022 is that Diamond Select Toys will keep consistently churning out all-new Marvel collectibles basically every single month, just as they’ve been doing for just about two decades now. And while their latest round of solicits included just one pair of Marvel-themed items, both are good sculptures that will appeal highly to value-priced collectors: the X-Men Animated Professor X and deluxe Marvel Gallery Green Goblin statue are now available for order!
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If anyIf anyone had told me a year ago that my last review of 2021 would be me reviewing a Marvel Legends Armadillo Build-A-Figure semi-blind, I’d have thought they were crazy on all fronts. But here we are, so let’s begin. Collectors will need to buy almost the entire Marvel Legends Spider-Man No Way Home figures series of 6″ figures to get all the pieces for the ML Armadillo BAF. Is it worth the expense to build this relatively obscure pro wrestling supervillain?
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X-Men 92 has a long-standing legacy with fans as being among the greatest superhero cartoons of all-time. It’s also how mutants permeated my 10-year-old brain, beginning my life-long love of the X-Men. So when I was given a chance to have a review sample of the Diamond Select Toys X-Men Animated Series Gambit mini bust by Entertainment Earth, I jumped at the opportunity. Now that I’ve spent some time with the first resin Gambit animated statue ever, does the Rajun Cajun spark as much love from me as he did almost 30 years ago?
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brought their A-game for the final Hasbro Pulse Marvel stream of the year, debuting far more than just the Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness wave during the event. Not only did Hasbro reveal and open pre-orders for the exclusive Marvel Legends 20th Anniversary Hulk figure (no Toad just yet, sadly), but they also surprise-debuted all eight figures in the X-Men Legends 2022 series as well—including Siryn, First Appearance Sabretooth, the Bonebreaker Build-A-Figure and more!
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Spider-Man: No Way Home has officially swung into theaters and appears to be a smash hit with fans, so it’s time for makers of toys and collectibles to start looking ahead to the next big theatrical entry to the MCU: spring 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness movie! And as such, this week Hasbro revealed and opened pre-orders for the 2022 Marvel Legends Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness figures series, featuring the first-ever ML Wong!
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Just when it looked like Funko had managed to squeeze out every possible penny from countless canonical variants of the most iconic Marvel characters, they had a devilishly ingenious idea for this year’s Holiday Marvel POP Vinyls figures series. I instantly fell in love with the Funko POP Gingerbread Spider-Man figure, and had my pre-order locked in as soon as listings for the series went up in August. And now that Gingerbread Spidey has arrived…? I am not at all disappointed. In fact, I want more POPs in this stylized form…
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