The three waves of Marvel Legends figures hitting this month (the Spider-Man Kingpin Series, Captain Marvel Movie Series and Black Panther M’Baku Series) have been a bit hit-or-miss with collectors, with many fans saying they’re picking-and-choosing just a figure or two or even skipping the waves entirely. But Hasbro posted the first packaging photos today of a wave that’s got “surefire blockbuster” written all over it: the 2019 Marvel Legends X-Men Caliban Series of 6” Figures!

Over the course of the summer and fall, Hasbro fully rolled out the lineup for the Marvel Legends 2019 Series. We weren’t expecting the wave to be released until spring 2019 (March/April)—and still aren’t—but usually these packaged photos turn up shorty before figures start to ship internationally. Hmmm.

Hasbro surprised us with the Warlock Series months earlier than expected in 2017—I wonder if we might see history repeat itself with the Caliban series?

The Marvel Legends Caliban Series case ratios are as follows:

• (2) Gambit
• (1) Beast
• (1) Jubilee
• (1) Weapon X Wolverine
• (1) Forge
• (1) Blink
• (1) Reaver Skullbuster
• Build-A-Figure: Caliban

With an all-star series like this one, I’m sure Hasbro really struggled deciding whether to double-pack Gambit, Beast or Weapon X in the case packs. X-Men is the wave that sells the most full cases to collectors each year, though, so hopefully the shortages of single-packed figures won’t be too much of an issue.

For those staring blankly at the extra head that comes with Skullbuster, it’s to allow him to be changed into his fellow members of the Reavers, Reese! Yes, there’s finally a Marvel Legends Reese figure. Now we can all die happy. Heh.

Even so, Skullbuster isn’t likely to be on anyone in the universe’s list of top 200 characters, so this figure is almost certain to be one of the slowest-selling ML figures of the year–especially with a Build-A-Figure choice in Caliban that a lot of folks would consider “weak”.

Weapon X Wolverine gets a surprise alternate unmasked head as well, though I imagine the style will be a turn-off for many Wolverine fans. I’ve never liked the look of Logan in his Weapon X gear all my life, but I’m buying a whole case of this wave, so I guess this’ll be my first Weapon X. It really does look well-done, albeit not something I’m sure where to display on my shelves.

Marvel Legends Blink will be getting perhaps the coolest accessories in the series—teleportation energy javelins and a teleportation effect ring! Anyone else smell a new ML Nightcrawler in the future they can reuse this teleporting effect for…?

Gambit may be runner-up accessories-wise, as I love that he comes with a whole extra switch-out hand with charged cards attached to it. Not having to worry about accessories falling off or fitting snugly always puts a smile on my face. While I don’t think this version is quite as nice as the (expensive) Revoltech Gambit that’s hitting later this year, I do think it utterly trashes any mass-market Gambit figure we’ve ever gotten in the United States before.

Rounding out the series are two characters Hasbro has never released single-packed before: Jim Lee Jubilee and Forge. This is the Jubilee I have literally been waiting for for over 25 years–that I dreamed of as a kid–so to say that I am pumped to finally own the ultimate Marvel Legends Jubilee figure is a gross understatement.

The lack of fireworks effects pieces for Jubilee is a bit of a head-scratcher, but the removable glasses and alternate bubblegum-blowing head more than make up for that. And at this point, it’s not like we all don’t have a big pile of excess effects pieces lying around, right…?

Forge is, well… he’s pretty basic, but he’s never really been a flashy guy. His one mechanical hand is covered by a glove, which is a shame, since it would add some extra visual intrigue. The boots on Forge look great and he’ll be good to fill out a roster on the shelf.

The X-Men Legends Caliban Series is expected to go up for order online this winter, and should begin arriving in early spring 2019. Experience and intuition tells me that this wave is going to be HOT, so those who order online are going to have a much, much easier time of getting the popular figures like Beast, Jubilee, Weapon X and Gambit. I’ll post links to order here and to the Marvel Toy News Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages once POs open up.

Having seen the final figures packaged with all of their accessories, how are you feeling about the X-Men Marvel Legends Caliban Series, ML collectors? Is anyone out there planning on buying this wave solely to build the Caliban Build-A-Figure, and on the flip-side, is anyone skipping characters in this wave because they don’t care about Caliban?