The single-biggest toy shopping day thus far in 2015 is nearly upon us, but for a change, Marvel won’t be the impetus for collectors going wild tomorrow: Star Wars will be! But while Marvel won’t be at the eye of the storm this time, Walgreens Marvel Animated Minimates Series 1 will be hitting stores–which means that now is the perfect time to talk about things to come: Animated Marvel Minimates Series 1.5!

I’m still genuinely surprised to see that Walgreens stores are not only going to be carrying a Diamond Select Toys line, but getting their own exclusives.

Even so, Walgreens must be feeling pretty confident in the sales of their exclusive Minimates that will be hitting shelves tomorrow, because in advance of Series 1 hitting stores, they’ve already revealed the upcoming Marvel Animated Minimates Series 1.5 figures! And while this series is called “1.5”, it might as well be “Series 2”, because none of the Minimates figures will be repackaged from series 1!

Walgreens Minimates Series 1.5 will contain four two-packs:

• Minimates Hawkeye vs. Crossbones (Avengers Assemble)
• Minimates Ultimate Spider-Man Miles Morales vs. Ultimate Venom
• Minimates Agent Coulson & Partially-Masked Spider-Man
• Minimates Hulkbuster Iron Man vs. Ultron

While I almost gagged seeing yet another Ultron Minimates figure after the last year or so have tidily saturated the Ultron market, I’m pretty pleased with all of the other figures in this lineup.

Miles Morales is getting a huge push from Disney/Marvel and most assuredly deserves his spot in this set, and it’ll be neat to get the Ultimate Venom Harry Osborne figure in Minimates 2″ figure form as well. In addition, I’m surprised (but pleased!) to get Avengers Assemble Hawkeye and Crossbones figures this early in the Minimates Animated line.  Black Widow next wave please, DST…?

The two figures that I think will be the biggest hits from this assortment, however, are the Armored Agent Coulson and Hulkbuster Iron Man figures. Agent Phil Coulson has previously only been released as a movie Minimate (and a Toys R Us exclusive from several years ago at that), while we only got a movie version Hulkbuster this year from Diamond Select. As such, I imagine there will be a big collector demand for both those figures.

As soon as I heard there was a plain-suited Phil Coulson underneath all the armor, I knew that this Animated Coulson Minimate was going to be a must-have for me (and countless other Agents of SHIELD fans). And as he’s packed with an unusually-popular-this-year Half-Masked Spider-Man variant, I don’t think there’s much chance of Coulson not selling well at retail!

The Walgreens Marvel Minimates Wave 1.5 figures are scheduled to be released in December 2015, which means that corporate is expecting Wave 1 to be sold-through within three months of release. So if you’re planning on collecting this line, that ought to give you a vague deadline of how much time you’ve got to snag Series 1.

How do you like the Animated Marvel Minimates Series 1.5 lineup, Marvel collectors? Is there a new Miles Morales or Agent Coulson Minimate figure in your future? And how do you feel about Guardians of the Galaxy being left out of this half-wave altogether?