Seeing as how the first wave of Hasbro Marvel Infinite Series 3 3/4″ action figures are almost ready to ship out and up till now we’d heard zippo from Hasbro about Wave 2, it didn’t take a zen master of collecting to know that the 2014 Marvel Universe Infinite Series 2 figures would be debuting at New York Toy Fair 2014 this weekend.
And as expected, they did–highlighted by the Marvel Infinite Series 2 Whirlwind, Death’s Head and Red She-Hulk action figures!
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Considering that we had seen at least the untainted prototypes of five of the six Kotobukiya Avengers ArtFX+ statues at NYCC 2013 in October, I had an expectation of seeing the whole lineup at New York Toy Fair 2014 this weekend.
I was not disappointed–the Avengers Kotobukiya Iron Man ArtFX+ statue has been revealed, and he brought the painted Kotobukiya Thor statue along for the ride!
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Though I run both a LEGO blog and a Marvel blog, I don’t buy every LEGO Marvel set. With LEGO there are just so many high-priced items each year, and usually they’re better than the Marvel LEGO ones. That said, as soon as I saw the LEGO Marvel Hulk Lab Smash 76018 set, I knew it would be coming home. And sure enough, I walked into the LEGO Store Tuesday, saw LEGO 76018, bought it on sight, and built it immediately. I’ll review the playset portion of this set later, and discuss what everyone really wants to hear about first: the minifigures!
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When speculation hit the net that the major licensed 2014 LEGO sets would be delayed past January 2014 until after the theatrical release of The LEGO Movie (so as not to damage LEGO Movie sets’ early sales), I thought that notion was silly.
But I guess maybe there was something to that rumor after all… the LEGO Movie hit theaters just days ago, and like magic, all of the LEGO Marvel 2014 sets have suddenly appeared in LEGO stores!
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The price increase of the beloved Hasbro Marvel Legends 6″figures line to $19.99 per action figure ($24.99 if you’re crazy enough to shop at Toys R Us) left a pretty big void out there for moderately-priced 6″ action figures that parents could buy for their kids.
To fill this gaping chasm, Hasbro has just revealed and solicited an all-new line of low-priced 6″ Marvel Avengers All-Stars figures. The price is low–and as you’d expect, so are the detail and articulation…
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Last week Kotobukiya posted a teaser photo of a certain black and purple bow, so it didn’t take someone with the IQ (or humongous, bulbous brain) of The Leader to know that the Kotobukiya Hawkeye ArtFX+ Statue was about to debut in painted form. And sure enough, Kotobukiya has now opened pre-orders for the Hawkeye Kotobukiya Avengers statue! But while ol’ Hawk-guy is the statue I was most anticipating out of this series, something feels a bit off about this figure…
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Well, it seems that the months of sadness and grieving surrounding the name change of Hasbro’s “Marvel Universe” line to “Avengers Infinite Series” may have been premature… sort of. Hasbro sent out the first hi-res packaged photos today of the upcoming Avengers Infinite Series 1 figures, and as it turns out, the line isn’t called that at all! (What?)
Apparently the line is going to be called “Marvel Infinite Series”. But whatever the line is called, the packaged images make it clear that that the figures are going to be pretty outstanding!
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There’s probably not a whole lot of folks out there that collect them, but I know for a fact that Marvel Micro Muggs collectors do exist! And for those collectors, this is the time to get psyched up, because Hasbro has brought Micro Muggs back to stores with new assortment of twelve Avengers Micro Muggs blind boxed figures! My Target finally reset and put out these Avengers Assemble Micro Muggs that were sitting in the back room for weeks, and while I’ve avoided being bitten by the Micro Muggs bug up until now, that was before Micro Muggs Loki and MODOK…
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Despite the frigid sub-zero temperature outside today (and if it wasn’t sub-zero, it sure felt like it was), I made the trek to my nearest comic book store to pick up Peter David’s All-New X-Factor #1. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there–the shipment of that comic was delayed by the weather. But since I was already at the comic book store at that point, I figured I might as well blow a quick 17 bucks on some other comics, including the Marvel NOW! Black Widow #1. This is the comic book that desperately wants to be Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye–but is it up to that high standard…?
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After a long drought of news regarding the Avengers Infinite Series 3 3/4″ line (which was replaces the Hasbro Marvel Universe line in 2014), in the past two weeks we’ve learned virtually everything there is to know about Avengers Infinite Series 1. A confirmed lineup and hi-res images appeared during the holidays, and today Hasbro is allowing retailers to take orders for Avengers Infinite Series 1 figures and cases, thus revealing the case ratios! Though, sad to say, Wasp fans will not be happy…
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If there’s one company that I’m finding I really need to plan my collecting budget around for the entire year, it’s Hot Toys and their amazing (but oh-so-expensive) Marvel Movie Masterpiece Series figures. While I was drawing out my 2014 budget today (yes, I waited until January 1st, 2014 to do so), I realized there were quite a few more Hot Toys Marvel MMS figures already announced for 2014 than I thought, so I had to adjust my outlook accordingly. I figured some other Hot Toys collectors are probably having the same problem as me, so I thought I’d share my Marvel Hot Toys 2014 release schedule to help other fans plan out their future Hot Toys-induced debt…
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Over the years, I’ve made a lot of great new toy discoveries on New Year’s Eve toy runs. This was not one of those years. I went out today in search of the Hasbro Marvel Legends 2014 figures, and I (mostly) struck out. But what I found instead were some monstrosities that I had heard about–but decided in my mind couldn’t possibly be real. Check out the very first (and hopefully only) series of Hasbro Marvel Super Hero Mashers figures… starring Captain Iron Spider-Hulk and more!
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Hot news items have been few and far between during the week between Christmas and New Year’s this year, so tonight I’m going to take a step back and take a closer look at some Hasbro Marvel 2014 figures revealed just last week. As it replaces the soon-to-be legendary 3 3/4″ Marvel Universe line, the Avengers Infinite Series has some pretty big shoes to fill–but with a strong initial lineup, it may be on the right track.
Coming in March 2014 (if not earlier)–Avengers Universe Infinite Series 1!
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Marvel collectors got an unexpected early Christmas present tonight, when the great Dan Curto posted a scan from this week’s new Diamond Previews Magazine, fully revealing the first wave of Hasbro Marvel Universe 2014 figures: the Avengers Infinite Series Wave 1! Along with a couple “headliners” most collectors already have, we’ll also be getting Avengers Infinite Series Wasp, Hyperion, The Grim Reaper and the Indestructible Hulk!
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I griped an awful lot last month when Diamond Select Toys announced that they were reissued the Marvel Select Spider-Woman figure. I complained that it didn’t make sense to re-release the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman Marvel Select action figure (as that figure typically sells below its original cost on the aftermarket), when they should have reissued the more valuable Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman II Marvel Select figure. Well, it seems I was just a bit hasty, as the Marvel Select Arachne variant action figure is heading back to stores in 2014!
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