Super Hero Squad Rumorbuster

Rumorbuster 2.0

2008-10-27T18:06:00.000-04:00

Well after weeks of hard work, Rumorbuster 2.0 is ready for launch. It's only a sample of what's to come but we're still building. In the meantime, we've had a good run over here on Blogger, but it just isn't scalable for the plans we have in store. Galleries, space for comments and discussion, and more on the way.

Once again, Rumorbuster 2.0

More SHS animated information!

2008-10-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

From the Omelete site comes this Google Translated page that doesn't say much (at least not much in translation) about the series, but does offer some handy promo art featuring... Ms. Marvel! First image, top corner, below Hulk and Thor.

Hulk: Brawl on sale

2008-10-24T13:52:00.000-04:00

The Hulk SHS set Brawl that Shook the World is in Toys R Us's 2-day sale, marked down to $14.99, apparently with free shipping if you use their website. Not a bad deal for 4 figures and the "sonic tank" and those that have held off on buying a repaint set.

Infinite Heroes Defense of Oa

2008-10-23T21:22:00.000-04:00

And Toy News International has posted shots of the Defense of Oa set. If only the Battle-Damaged Manhunters could have been differently damaged. John Stewart is listed as an exclusive figure, so apparently there's no plans of him being released individually, at least not for a while.

Some people just don't get it...

2008-10-23T20:11:00.000-04:00

Wow. There is just so much that this person just doesn't get.

Like, for instance... can someone describe how, exactly, the Super Hero Squad is "scary"? And isn't suggesting that kids will just "grow up thinking that Earth's Mightiest Heroes is made up of midgets and little people" kind of silly? A little like suggesting kids should never see the Sunday comic strips because Charlie Brown is a short, fat little kid with a huge head? They should probably stay away from cartoons involving animals as, by that logic, kids will grow up thinking dogs, pandas and hedgehogs can talk. And the shocks in store when they find out that plumbers don't grow after running into magic mushrooms. Suggesting that kids are going to be in for a shock when discovering that "regular" comics (and what, tell me, is "regular"? Only mainstream comic characters? Only characters from the Big 2? Only top-tier characters from the Big 2?) don't look like the Squad is an alright proposition, but honestly, not every representation in "regular" comics will look like a Simon Bianchi cover. That's like suggesting Bill Sienkiewicz should never have been involved with such classic stories as Demon Bear-era New Mutants or Elektra: Assassin because it wouldn't look like most other interpretations. Or, on a similar argument, suggesting that only artists with narrow ability to mimic the style guides should have employment. Goodbye Chris Bachalo, until you learn to conform! Zeb Wells you are on notice!

Anyway, I'm sorry Mr. McMillan thinks the Squad is Marvel's torpedo, diluting their strength, scary, and weird.

Oh, and families... if you visit the article, be wary of the comments. There are some people who just hate cute.

Super Hero Squad 7-pack

2008-10-21T19:28:00.000-04:00

Hasbro seems to be trying to unload those Wave 1 sets sitting around the warehouse with a Value Pack of 7 sets from Wave 1 and 2.

- Angel & Colossus
- Cyclops & Magneto
- Wolverine & Sabertooth
- Daredevil and Elektra
- Hawkeye & Captain America
- Iron Man and Thor
- Hulk and Wasp

Everyone but Ghost Rider and Punisher! It's a great deal for people looking to catch up, looking for older figures or even customizers

New Posters

2008-10-21T19:14:00.000-04:00

Well as posted earlier, Danger of Dreadknight and Iron Monger Attacks contain new posters featuring several of the new characters (Ronin, Shang-Chi, Electro, Green Goblin, Nick Fury and the Skrulls) so hopefully we'll get full scans up this week. In the meantime, gaze as Shang-Chi, Ronin, Spider-Man, Wolverine and generic SHIELD Agent (or perhaps, an easy way for semi-obscure character collectors to pretend they haveClay Quartermain?) as they take on a handful of Photoshop-cloned Hand Ninjas.

SHS animated first looks

2008-10-21T18:00:00.000-04:00

And straight from the Incredible Hulk DVD... the Super Hero Squad screen caps. Captain America,Wolverine, Iron Man, Thor and Colossus! Also, the last three shots are the announced Marvel Anime series. Not much was shown, but not much was expected, right?

New Fantastic Four and Defenders revealed!

2008-10-21T17:57:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the awesome new posters in the new Iron Men sets, we now know that the New Fantastic Four four pack will be Storm, Black Panther, a translucent version of Johnny Storm and the Thing, while the Defenders will be Nighthawk, a Chrome Silver Surfer, Hulk (looks like the v1 Hulk though. Pity.) and Gargoyle!

Before you renew that license...

2008-10-20T21:11:00.000-04:00

In what hopefully will NOT be a regular column, I present "Before you renew that license..." Spotlighting companies that ruin good product, hopefully there won't be many posts in this heading.

Marvel Masterpieces, the original Jusko ones, were great. While the art may or may not impress as many buyers in a post Alex Ross world, but at the time they blew the comicy Marvel Universe cards away. When the trading card market cooled considerably after the 90's boom, Marvel Masterpieces disappeared. I missed the 2007 revival, and apparently sketch card speculators have managed to soak up the limited run of boxes so when I saw a few packs of the new set I picked them up.

Never expecting to find an OHOTMU like history of the characters, I was struck by the inconsistencies. It's noted that Scorpion became Venom, but not that Jubilee is Wondra. Well, that's fine. Entries for Cyclops and Jean Grey discussing how they have a son together... ok, a mis-interpretation of events but ok. Sebastian Shaw artwork that looks closer to Donald Pierce? Perhaps an oversight, perhaps bad coloring. A re-colored Scarlet Witch as the Enchantress? Sounds like a great What If story. Punisher artwork being used as the Nick Fury artwork? That's just sloppy.

So while sketch card hunters are going to keep the sets sold out, hopefully Marvel will put in a quality control clause before renewing that license.

Not quite Super Hero Squad style...

2008-10-20T21:05:00.000-04:00

but they're certainly stylized. Action Figure Insider has a bit about the new Batman Cosbaby figures (advanced solicited for July 09? That's like forever from now!) 3 inches, huge heads, funky style... could be fun.

Super Hero Squad: The Comic

2008-10-20T20:48:00.000-04:00

So those promo images are, in fact, a one-shot. And there's a poster too.

$3.99, set in Super Hero City and... well... just read the press release:

Marvel is proud to announce that SUPER HERO SQUAD: HERO UP! One-Shot will be released in January 2009, based on the successful Hasbro action figure line featuring Marvel’s greatest heroes & villains. Written by fan favorite scribe Paul Tobin (Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes) and featuring art by the can’t-miss team of Marcelo DiChiara & Chris Sotomayor, this extra-sized one-shot features all your favorite Marvel characters. Experience the Marvel Universe like never before, as the heroes & villains of Super Hero City clash in epic confrontations! Take a stroll down to the Xavier Institute, past the FF’s Baxter Building…but don’t stray too far, because dastardly Doctor Doom’s domain is the next block over…! Plus, learn more about your favorite heroes with bios and more! This issue ships with two covers—one featuring the heroes of SSH and the other featuring the villains!

Also, don’t miss the SUPER HERO SQUAD POSTER, featuring all the heroes and villains of Super Hero City!

In 2009, comic book fans everywhere will be asking “Are You Ready To Hero Up?” and there’s only one place to find the answers— SUPER HERO SQUAD: HERO UP! One-Shot!

SUPER HERO SQUAD: HERO UP! ONE-SHOT
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Art & 50/50 Covers by MARCELO DiCHIARA & CHRIS SOTOMAYOR
All Ages …$3.99
FOC—12/18/08, On-Sale—1/7/09

SUPER HERO SQUAD POSTER
Poster by MARCELLO DiCHIARA & CHRIS SOTOMAYOR
24 x 36... $8.99
FOC—12/11/08, On-Sale—1/7/09

Found at Retail!: Iron Monger Attacks and Danger of Dreadknight

2008-10-19T07:24:00.003-04:00

A quick weekend update, Targets are now stocking Iron Monger Attacks and Danger of Dreadknight4 packs.

They are all great figures, but I was impressed by Hasbro's gall to release two repaints of the same figure in one pack. The movie set includes a new Iron Man sculpt that comes paired with his repainted Don Cheadle War Machine counterpart.

So the Hunt is on! Check your Targets and lets hope this is the end to the current squad drought.

location found: Target

(972) 490-3951
1313 Montfort Dr, Dallas, TX 75201

Newsclips 10/16/08

2008-10-16T21:07:00.000-04:00

Before heading out of town for the weekend I figured we should post some news, even if it's been a bit of a slow-news-week (although lots of cool stuff is happening behind the scenes) so here we go...

Pilot of the new Witchblade series is on iTunes... check out the free iTunes offerings here.

Hasbro Customer service gets another knock from its handling of the Cloverfield Monster sales (remind me some day to tell you all about the half hour I spent on the phone with a Hasbro rep who e-mailed me to say that not only did they cancel my order for taking too long (2 hours to respond to an e-mail sent at nearly midnight on a Friday night! Thank insomnia I was even up!) they couldn't uncancel it only for them to realize that the part that they were canceling was the part they had previously shipped to me. A month prior. And I had just wasted my time talking to them.).

While Marvel's online comic reading format is hard to navigate, they're going on with several new online only comic projects... many of which actually sound good to an obscure and older character lover like myself. A Frontline-esque take on Galactus, good old fashioned western fun with Kid Colt, Frankenstein and the Werewolf-by-Night? Sounds great!

And while the old news on eBay is the gentleperson still selling pre-orders for Super Hero Squad Wave 9 ("arrives late sept!" they proudly exclaim. In mid-October. I wonder if they're going to have the stock to fulfill their orders or if unsuspecting marks... I mean dupes... I mean buyers will have time to get their money back thanks to various time-limits eBay has in place on complaints. Personal experience folks: eBay pre-orders can be scary...) the fun news is...

Custom Super Hero Squad soap.

Ok, it's just putting SHS figures in handmade soap as it hardens, but who would have thought of it? Other than the person that thought of it of course. Anyone else spot some creative uses for these guys? Cake toppers? Chess pieces with Spider-Man and Hulk or Iron Man being pawns?

Infinite Heroes Battle For Metropolis

2008-10-15T22:33:00.000-04:00

Forgot to post this earlier but apparently the Battle For Metropolis Infinite Heroes set is up for pre-order at Toys R Us. $50, plus shipping and handling for Superman (of Earth II... that's the gray haired one for those that only know him from Infinite Crisis), Captain Atom, Captain Marvel, Lex Luthor in battle suit, and 4 Luthor Troops. 8 figures, including the huge Luthor and the instant army is great, but 3 3-packs will only set you back $33 to $39 depending on where you get them. While Lex is huge, shouldn't the mass-production factor of just shoving a bunch of generic soldiers requiring no additional tooling bring down the cost?

Iron Monger and Dreadknight on Hasbrotoyshop.com

2008-10-14T21:52:00.000-04:00

Like the title says, you may now buy the Iron Monger Attacks and Danger of Dreadknight sets at Hasbro Toy Shop. The only coupon code I could get to work was disc10 which gets you a 10% discount (which means the two sets are still going to set you back $30.) On the plus side? You can finally act out unofficial Iron Man movie scenes using Ultimate Nick Fury and the movie figures.

Go forth and enjoy! Given the number of sites claiming that Sentry, Ronin and Marvel Girl waves are all shipping between now and November, the Collector's Pack appearing here and there and these guys we're looking at a serious infusion of Super Hero Squad figures.

Chutes and Ladders!

2008-10-11T14:35:00.000-04:00

Marvel Super Hero Squad Chutes and Ladders! Come on! Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine and Spider-Man taking part in America's favorite game (runner up: no limit Texas Hold'em. Second runner up: Pogs.) After Operation: Hulk, this is the second SHS themed board game, but is there anyone else out there that would love to see an official board game? With actual figures as the tokens?

Mitch Schauer, SHS Producer

2008-10-10T19:06:00.000-04:00

As a follow-up to the Mitch Schauer post yesterday, here's his website with samples of his work and his IMDB portfolio.

Long story short, the guy's got some comic/cartoon history! Most importantly, he was a producer for Freakazoid which, although a little dated now, was the greatest superhero parody of its time, he was a story editor for Super Powers Galactic Guardians, and Super Friends the Legendary Super Powers Show, and most recently character designer for the Next Avengers direct-to-DVD film.

Dreadknight and Iron Monger on Hasbro Toy Shop

2008-10-10T14:29:00.000-04:00

Danger of Dreadknight and Iron Monger Attacks are on Hasbro Toy Shop. Listed as Coming Soon and with the 10.99 price tag.

One reason to buy the Incredible Hulk on DVD...

2008-10-09T23:00:00.000-04:00

Well, Marvel Animation Age has a little article about all the cool previews coming with the upcoming Incredible Hulk DVD release and best among them? Super Hero Squad!

In related news, the upcoming DVD release of the live-action The Incredible Hulk feature film contains a trailer for Marvel Animation Studios. The trailer contains new footage from Iron Man: Armored Adventures, as well as new footage from Wolverine and The X-Men, Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, Hulk Versus, Black Panther Animated, Marvel Anime, and a look at designs from Marvel Super Hero Squad.

Ok, so it's a look at designs and not full footage but still, cool enough. Footage of Marvel Anime sounds interesting too... presumably it's going to show off at least one of the Anime initiatives talked about way back when

Winter Soldier and City in Crisis/Spider-Man Saves the Day in production?

2008-10-09T19:32:00.000-04:00

Rick and Alex e-mailed to let everyone know that Winter Soldier Saga and City in Crisis (listed as Spider-Man Saves the Day) have hit eBay thanks to a seller in China. In all likelihood, these are the run-of-the-mill stolen from the assembly line figures, so while stealing is bad, the plus side is that there were figures on an assembly line to steal!

There's also reports on the Super Hero Squad forum that a few Toys R Us's have put out, and sold, the long awaited Collector's Pack 2 so all signs point to some happy Super Hero Squad hunting in the coming weeks.

Prof. X and Shadowcat (at long last), Winter Soldier, Crossbones, Falcon, Mary Jane, Green Goblin, Mandarin, Dreadknight, Iron Man (Movie), Iron Monger... it seems like it's been a while since we've had so many new characters!

The Super Hero Squad producer

2008-10-09T18:52:00.000-04:00

Comics Continuum has a piece up talking about the upcoming Hulk vs. DVD, along with a bit about the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon and they follow it up with a brief piece on the Super Hero Squad cartoon:

"Mitch Schauer, who created Nickelodeon's Angry Beavers, is producing the Marvel Super Hero Squad series. Look for a more humorous approach than other Marvel shows."

Another Superhero Squad image.... Cartoon or Comic?

2008-10-08T17:16:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we got an anonymous image depicting the good guys of the Marvel Universe in the traditional Superhero Squad style. Today it's the bad guys.

Whether these are teasers for the upcoming comic or the cartoon, it appears a concrete announcement is forthcoming.

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.

2009's Infinite Heroes

2008-10-07T20:23:00.000-04:00

Urban Collector has placed up pre-orders for the first Infinite Heroes Assortments of 2009. 3-packs and singles even! So for new figures, looks like we've got Two Face, Wonder Woman, Alex Luthor, Sinestro, Deadshot, Scarecrow, Mary Marvel, Harbinger, Shadow Demons, Robin and Nightwing.

Between Batman, Batwoman, Robin, Nightwing, Two Face, Commissioner Gordon, Scarecrow and Hush, Gotham is filling up nicely. Alex Luthor and Harbinger show that the line is true to its word with the more obscure characters. And of course, Wonder Woman fills out the Trinity.

Dc Universe Infinite Heroes Af Asst 200901

Dc Universe Infinite Heroes Af Asst 200901 is an Urban Collector pre-order. The greatest heroes of DC Comics invade your toy collection with the DC Universe: Infinite Heroes 3 3/4' action figures! Featuring sculpts based on the characters' appearances in the comics, plus comics-authentic accessories, these action figures will let every comics fan recreate their favorite comics adventures! Characters like Two-Face, Wonder Woman, Alex Luthor, Flash III, Supergirl, Wildcat, The Question, Batman, Sinestro, and more can be yours! Blister card packaging.

Dc Universe Infinite Heroes 3-Pk Af Asst 200901 is an Urban Collector pre-order. The heroes and villains of the DC Universe enter a new realm - Mattel's 3 3/4' DC Universe: Infinite Heroes action figure line! These action figure 3-packs contain figures based on themes like Green Lantern (Hal Jordan/Star Sapphire/Black Hand), Gotham City (Batman/Deadshot/Scarecrow), the Marvel Family (Black Adam/Shazam!/Mary Marvel), Crisis (Harbinger/Shadow Demon 1/Shadow Demon 2), the Batman Family (Batwoman/Robin/Nightwing), and more!

Could this be our first glimpse of the Super Hero Squad cartoon?

2008-10-07T16:24:00.003-04:00

Hi I'm Seantified, and with my first post I bring you this curious image of "Super Hero Squad-esque" characters.

Could this be the fabled toon versions? The comic? Or something else entirely? discuss......

Danger of Dreadknight and Iron Monger Attacks packs up...

2008-10-06T19:36:00.000-04:00

but not for sale yet. Rick and Alex let us know that the links to Iron Monger Attacks and Danger of Dreadknight sets have gone up, pictures, details and all. I guess they're the first people to get two no-prizes? Well, they've earned them.

Oh, and notice the $10.99 price tag. It could always be worse though. Hopefully they'll show up on Hasbro Toy Shop soon

Danger of Dreadknight:

The mystical master known as Zhang Tong and the technological terror of the Dreadknight have teamed up to take the Iron Avenger down! Against the magical power of Zhang Tong, the only hope Iron Man has is the sneakiness of his stealth armor, while the power of the Dreadknight can only be matched by the high-flying might of his traditional armor!

These fun, collectible figures are ready for to stage an imaginative battle! Four-pack includes Dreadknight, Zhang Tong, Stealth Armor Iron Man and Iron Man figures.

Item #: 78633
Approx. Retail: $ 10.99
Ages: 3 & Up

And Iron Monger Attacks:

Every piece of technology in the Iron Monger battle suit is stolen from Iron Man, and it looks like the armored villain wants to upgrade! He's smashed into Tony Stark's lab, intent on stealing the original armor. Luckily, Iron Man and War Machine are on the scene, and they're armed and ready to blast Iron Monger into scrap!

These fun, collectible figures are ready for to stage an imaginative battle! Four-pack includes 1st appearance Iron Man, Iron Monger, War Machine and Iron Man figures.
Item #: 78632
Approx. Retail: $ 10.99
Ages: 3 & Up

Updated Infinite Heroes Checklist

2008-10-03T23:47:00.002-04:00

I just updated the Infinite Heroes checklist to reflect the recent number reveals (thanks to Cool Toy Review's recent reviews of Wildcat, Batwoman, Batman, Star Sapphire, Question and Power Girl, as well as the Superman and Titans 3-packs showing up on eBay. So far: 16 characters in singles, 11 characters in 3-packs for 27 total, and another 18 that have been shown. 4 more are rumored (Nightwing, Scarecrow and Joker were "late additions according to Action Figure.com, while Batgirl is quite possibly a listing error.

In the meantime, I heard a rumor that Adam Strange, Zoom, Guy Gardner and Shazam are secretly made of gold. Quick... rush out and purchase them, as many as you can, so the shelves will be cleared for the new figures!

Cool Toy Review reviews Infinite Heroes

2008-10-02T08:14:00.004-04:00

Well, they've at least got some good photos of various Infinite Heroes. Most important? They've got Batwoman, who is apparently Series 1, Figure 13 and Batman, Series 1, Figure 11.

Personally, I'd be interested in a number scheme for Super Hero Squad figures, but at this point I'd just be interested in actually having the figures show up for sale.

Newsclips 10/01/08

2008-10-01T18:17:00.002-04:00

Well 6 months in and still going (although I wish I had more time to do some of the features I'd like), it's been a slow newsweek so here's a few odds and ends.

Impulse Creations has the Batwoman Infinite Hero in stock. Earlier in the week they had Question and Wildcat. It appears that the figures are coming and going in stock, so someone must be buying the figures. Too bad all I've seen on shelves are Wave 1 Zoom, Adam Strange, etc.

The CW is apparently going to give the stories of a young Dick Grayson a chance. How many seasons before our young gymnast meets a bizarrely tanned teen Starfire, or references to millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne start showing up? Is anyone else more interested in how this plays out than on the concept itself?

And Marvel's own storefront has gone live, including calendars, mugs and costumes including this wonderful photo of the Punisher. That's... that's just great. On the downside... Crimson Dynamo Attacks for $16? Okay now.

Marvel Universe figures

2008-09-29T19:30:00.006-04:00

I started reading the comments here and blew them off thinking... huh, just a few months back everyone loved the figures, now these guys are complaining about the look?

But upon going to the actual pictures at Marvelous News the figures don't look nearly as impressive as the initial photos. It looks like the sculpt is intact, but compare the Bullseye uncarded and Bullseye promo shot, or the flaming Human Torch uncarded and promo shots. Some of these figures aren't translating well. Perhaps it's just the angles of the poses but the shoulder joints in some poses look unusual when they join the torso, some of the detail looks washed out. They just look... off.

On the plus side, Marvelous News has this as Wave 1, and they won't hit for a while so we've got time to fix it right?

The line up:

- Black Panther
- Bullseye
- Daredevil
- Human Torch
- Human Torch (variant powered down, or is the variant powered up?)
- Iron Man
- Iron Man (Stealth Armor)
- Punisher
- Silver Surfer
- Spider-Man

Nick Fury on DVD, finally

2008-09-28T16:09:00.004-04:00

Long-time Marvel fans know that there's a ton of Marvel movies waiting for DVD release, if for no other reason than for cult appeal and die-hard comic fans who want to know what the hype was. Examples? The Generation X made for TV movie, the Spider-Man live action series, Doctor Strange, Howard the Duck (which did get a region 2 DVD release last year).

This week, however, we can cross Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD off that list. Best Buy is promoting it in its weekly ad along with the other Iron Man related content (boxed sets, Blu Ray, single disk, two-disk releases... come on now!) Maybe with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine we can get the Generation X movie released, and then if Silver Surfer ever gets off the ground (pun intended) we can have the 80's Fantastic Four movie. Marvel would do well to realize that the movies are already out there in bootleg copies and imports being sold to hard core collectors for well above the price of a copy of Ghost Rider or Fantastic Four. While the market is small, they're willing to bear a premium cost for these things, and if you sell it at a reasonable rate, you'll probably get a fair number of curiosity seekers too.

No more Mega-sized?

2008-09-24T21:10:00.003-04:00

I saw this on the Super Hero Squad Forum and so I checked out Figures.com's Q&A where a Hasbro rep says Mega-sized figures might be a thing of the past

FIGURES.COM: The Superhero Squad line has proven popular over the years with kids and collectors alike. Will fans be seeing more larger scaled figures in this line similar to the Apocalypse or Galactus?

HASBRO: There are no current plans for mega-scale Squad figures in 2009.

What exactly does that mean in the end? Mega Scale figures haven't been selling? They're struggling for new ideas for characters popular enough to get mega-figures? They realized how silly a mega-sized Wendigo would be? We'll most likely never really know. Speculation on!

Be warned though, visiting the site treats you to nearly 30 flashing ads and then just teases a Superhero Times Q&A featuring... well, the same set of ads and even some text ads. Firefox + Ad Blocking Extension = a much more enjoyable reading experience, especially given the time it takes to render the page with ads.

This may be our last farewell post... on Winter Soldier.

2008-09-24T21:02:00.003-04:00

Same news, different delay:

ITEM(S) NOT YET SHIPPED
Item number: 78452
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – City in Crisis: Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Green Goblin and Sandman
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 12/23/2008

Item number: 78453
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – Winter Soldier Saga: Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier and Crossbone
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 12/23/2008

Once again, you need to contact Hasbro to let them know that you still want these figures, now scheduled to ship sometime around Christmas apparently.

Marvel Universe Update

2008-09-24T20:58:00.002-04:00

From Marvelous News's new Q & A:

MN: How is the 3 3/4" Marvel line coming along? Has there been any kind of updates, changes or additions made since Comic-Con that you can talk about?

Hasbro: The line is coming along great - we're finalizing the 4th wave of single carded figures right now and we're hard at work on the 5th wave for 2009. We're continuing to partner closely with Marvel Publishing to make sure that there is a tight relationship between comic and toy. We're also in the middle of nailing down the full year 2010 lineup, which is always exciting. The fan reaction has been tremendous for this new line and we're looking at all sorts of exciting new possibilities and ideas!

So in sum: at least 5 waves have been worked on for 2009, the lineup is planned through 2010, and they hope the line stays connected with the comics.

External Rumorbusting

2008-09-23T16:01:00.004-04:00

The status of the 60's Batman TV series are famously rumor riddled. Lying in the Gutters is famously rumor riddled. Put the two together and you get... an editorial at TV Shows On DVD.

I'm 67% sure Rich will post a response on LITG about some of the statements made, but a few things stood out and I figured sine there haven't been any good Super Hero Squad rumors lately (although I'm positive another crop of "Is the line doomed? Winter Soldier still isn't out, Sentry still isn't out, Ultimate Hulk isn't out, Collector's Pack 2 still isn't out!" rumors to start any day now) I'd just sort out a few misconclusions from the TV Shows on DVD site (which I actually like, and if they ever read this, hopefully they'll take this as constructive as it's intended to be.

1) It's not a CBR article. It's an edition of LITG. A difference, though subtle, is that most in the comics world know not to blame CBR if Rich is wrong. It's tantamount to citing something from Steven King's column in Entertainment Weekly as "Entertainment Weekly said a lot of books nowdays are stoopid". LITG is generally treated as a wholly separate beast and it's probably better that way.

2) Who owns what...

"Let's clear that up, though, about whom under the Time Life conglomerate umbrella owns the character of "Batman" (and related characters and trademarks). We're told, time and again by people at the company, that it's DC Comics, and not any other division of Time Life! The folks at Warner Bros. Pictures does not own Batman, nor does Warner Home Video (as we relayed at the bottom of our recent report of what WHV execs said on the subject at a live online chat held a week ago at the Home Theater Forum). And these "sister" companies to DC Comics have exactly as much right to tell DC what to do, as you and I have to tell our own siblings what to do (i.e., none). And the parent company apparently has very little interest in stepping in and telling these individual divisions how to run their day-to-day operations."

Right... but what Rich is suggesting is that Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc., which does own DC Comics and is, in turn, owned by Time Warner, via their ownership of DC. While WB Pictures and WHV are sisters to DC, it's not because they're all owned by Time Warner, it's because they're all owned by Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. What Rich is suggesting is that Warner Brother Entertainment, because DC is it's subsidiary, is "A Warner Bros. Entertainment Company." (as they note at the bottom of their website) owns what DC owns. An imperfect analogy would be the court system. At any given appellate level, no court is really able to inflict law upon the next... that would DC and WB Pictures for instance. They both, however, are bound by the decisions of the court above them. This would be Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. The subsidiaries report not to each other, but to the same boss.

Rich doesn't suggest any co-subsidiary owns any rights over any other, but rather that the company that owns the company that owns the rights, owns the rights by owning the rights owners.

How much day to day control WB Entertainment Inc. exerts is also subject to rumor... looking into the rumors regarding the "Death of Batman" is a good cross-section of the rumors surrounding WB control over DC. However, the fact remains, they own the rights owners.

Suggesting that the parent company has "little interest" in telling the divisions how to run the day to day operations is just conjecture, and in this case, off point. Just because Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. can't force a company it owns and a company it does not own to come to an agreement regarding rights issues, does not mean that Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. doesn't have some say in what goes on. TV Shows on DVD may have its sources saying there's no interest in telling the divisions what to do, but LITG has its sources saying the opposite. Truth? Probably in the middle.

Anyway, the rest of the TV On DVD article is a list of parties that may or may not have some possible claim to a possible slice of the pie.

For instance, on costumes: "In fact, we have heard it said that some of those designs were copyrighted (though we've never been clear on the truth of that)."

On the Batmobile: "It's rumored that the unique Batmobile design warrants royalties or residuals."

On props: "It's rumored that the unique Batmobile design warrants royalties or residuals. Other props, both large (Bat-Boat, Bat-Cycle, Bat-Copter) and small (utility belt gadgets, designs of something like a batarang or bat-phone, villain props, maybe even the Shakespeare-switch to the Batcave) could all possibly be unique enough to the show to require some sort of addition [sic] license for a DVD release."

On an old lawsuit: "While we've heard that this particular lawsuit may be over (we're not sure), all of these issues would have to be taken care of prior to a DVD release."

The optimist in me thinks that most of these issues would be easily remedied once the owners of the footage and the owners of the characters get together. If, and this is a big if, the owners of certain possible claims (props, costumes) have legitimate claims, then the fact that they haven't come forward in the past 4 decades to make their rights, or at least their claims, known (taking them from possible rights owners to known parties) may extinguish some of these potential claims, and those claims that survive... well... honestly now, how many pennies per unit could it really take to pay off a potential prop designer currently getting nothing?

So there you go, my take on the rumor busting of others.

Poll Results, New Poll - Villains

2008-09-23T15:39:00.002-04:00

Ok, Poll results are in (and have been for a while… yeah, we’re a little backed up here) but in short, with 129 votes cast results for most wanted X-Character Super Hero Squad figure are:

Madrox 32 votes (24%)

Warpath 15 votes (11%)

Dazzler 62 votes (48%)

Cannonball 20 votes (15%)

And Dazzler is THE shock. Almost half of all votes cast despite her recent status as X-Curiosity (mainly because in recent years, the sole reason to give her an appearance has been to subject her to various questions and curiosities. Example: Jean Grey’s Genosha Invasion X-Men where she appears, dodges questions about her ex-pregnancy, her ex-boyfriend Longshot and her ex-rebellion in Mojoworld. Or New Excalibur where she appears, is possibly immortal, and dodges questions about it. Or in Uncanny X-Men where she appears, makes no mention of how she left Excalibur in part to reunite with Longshot who then also appears mysteriously in X-Factor with no mention made of what went on during their reconciliation. ) But she does have classic status, appearing during one of the X-Men’s major glory days, has some mainstream media exposure (granted, it’s all old by now) and is now back in the X-Men proper.

As for the rest, Madrox takes second while former X-Force teammates Warpath and Cannonball take up the bottom half.

And now for the new poll:

We’ve done Solo Books. We’ve done Team Books. We’ve done X-Books. This poll was going to be characters without ANY book, but most easily recognized characters are in one book or another so it would probably end up as a battle of the B-List characters (which is in itself a whole different poll) so we went with villains, and no, not because that’s the name of the new Heroes storyline. They rarely get more than a mini, and with the occasional exception of Weapon X and Thunderbolts, they rarely get any sort of indepth run to explore the characters.

Standard disclaimers for this sort of poll: rounding means results may not equal 100%, characters who’ve been given a “The Case For” don’t get a poll entry, we’re not official so while you’re opinion is important, it doesn’t guarantee results here, and finally the poll is a little buggy in relying on cookies or something to prevent ballot stuffing and as such, it’s not necessarily foolproof.

Mr. Sinister – Perpetual thorn in the X-Men’s side, he may have recently met one of his more final ends during Messiah Complex, but let’s be honest, he’s survived worse than blaster fire (in fact… his earlier appearances spent a lot of time explaining how he’s pretty much invulnerable, had malleable skin, was mostly vulnerable to Cyclops’s eyebeams) so there’s a strong chance he’ll come back to much with Summers DNA. Plus, what good is having the third Summers brother exposed if Sinister isn’t able to have some fun with it.

Thanos – The premier cosmic villain, the man behind the Infinite Gauntlet, the man that’s brought the universe to the brink of destruction time and again, only to have it screwed up one way or another, sometimes due to his own ego. Like all good villains, Thanos may currently be dead, but he’s come back from worse. Or at least just as bad.

Klaw – Master of sound, enemy of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Black Panther, frequent member of the Masters of Evil, imagine a grinning Klaw with translucent pink plastic energy crackling from his hand and you ask yourself what villain is more perfect for this line. Recently defeated in battle against the Fantastic Four, he’s probably the only member of this list not currently believed dead.

Doppleganger – The Spider-Man doppelganger from the Infinity War was just one of the many, many evil dopplegangers to plague Earth’s heroes during that War. While the remaining doppelgangers went wherever dead doppleganger’s go, the Demogoblin’s mystic energy kept the Spider-ganger alive. He may, emphasis on may, have died at the end of Maximum Carnage, but as the list of Spider-Villains that haven’t had figures made is getting thinner and thinner, and the Doppleganger remains a solid lower-level (however one measures level) Spider-villain, he’s not that unlikely.

Danger of Dreadknight and Iron Monger Attacks coming soon to HTS?

2008-09-23T14:35:00.002-04:00

With Iron Man coming to DVD on September 30, it would be really appropriate for Hasbro to put out the upcoming Iron Man 4-packs, and they've already put up preliminary pages for the Iron Monger Attacks set and Danger of Dreadknight sets.

And remember, just because Hasbro puts up preliminary pages does not necessarily guarantee that the products are imminent. Remember Winter Soldier was up as a pre-order in May before being taken down, and although the pages for Ultimate Hulk and the new Galactus Mega Packs are still available for viewing at the main Hasbro site, the coming soon pages were pulled, as were the pages for the ever-upcoming Sentry wave. Still, it's a good sign.

Super Hero Squad Fabric?

2008-09-23T13:02:00.004-04:00

Ok, standard disclaimer about not linking to ongoing eBay auctions because more often then not, the ones that benefit are the scalpers and all that... but if you go to eBay and search for Super Hero Squad Fabric you'll see one of the more interesting licensing examples of Marvel's Super Hero Squad. Literal bolts of fabric. Perfect for making pillow cases or curtains, or maybe even a backdrop for your display case? A search on Google Shopping shows some varieties of color. So puzzles? Check. Operation Hulk? Check. Fabric by the yard? Check. What's next? Birthday party napkins? Bubble dispensers? The future is wide open.

Infinite Heroes Black Adam et al

2008-09-22T16:03:00.003-04:00

If you're not willing to pay the still-exorbitant eBay prices for Black Adam, Qwardian Weaponeer, Hush and the Manhunter robot (seriously... I just saw bidding up to $11 on a figure) you can try Impulse Creation. As a warning, I have NOT tried them before, and this is my first attempt at using them, but they have the figures in stock for $5.69, and shipping started at $6.50 for UPS. 4 figures, plus shipping, equaled just under $30. Anyone have any good results from this store?

Edit: 9/26/08 - Came home today to find my box with the figures in it. 4 days from order to opening isn't that bad, but as we all know past performance does not guarantee results. I probably won't get a chance to update the profiles until next weekend but who knows.

Headlines gone wild!

2008-09-19T12:49:00.003-04:00

Every so often I come across some hype or some marketing that (in my opinion) humorously gets it all wrong. Either it markets a story that's not what is being told, it promises things it can't deliver, or best of all, it just sounds confused.

Take this blurb for X-Men: Worlds Apart for instance.

Point 1: Storm has in fact returned to the X-Men in Ellis's Astonishing X-Men. How long-lasting, who knows, but given the recent interviews suggesting a more fluid X-team structure (thus allowing Emma Frost to be in every X-story. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing) there's no reason to believe Storm can't continue being an X-Man who only pops up for occasional stories.

Point 2: Headline for that blurb for X-Men: Worlds Apart - "Storm returns to the X-Men"

Point 3: Marketing hype trying to explain why this story "matters" (and presumably why it was named X-Men: Worlds Apart rather than Storm (vol. __) or something less distinctly marketed because presumably the average reader is more likely to pick up an X-title focusing exclusively on one character, than a solo mini, and for the eventual bookstore placement it's presumably better to have it placed with the other X-books, rather than next to the Spider-man and Squadron Supreme trades) - blah blah blah "What she discovers, though, may force her into a position where she must decide: Will she remain a queen or return to her mutant teammates, the X-Men?"

Come on now. Calling it X-Men: Worlds Apart seems like a cheap attempt to game the alphanumeric organization, a little like aaa____username profiles. Marvel has gotten a little shameless with this recently, for example, in tying up both it's Excalibur and Exiles titles, Marvel threw them into a mini-series called X-Men Die by the Sword. Magneto, despite having already carried a few mini-series, gets his origin re-told in X-Men: Magneto Testament. But it's an unfortunate fact of editorial mandate that the events of a solo-character mini-series are unlikely to over-rule the developments of two ongoing series (Astonishing and Black Panther), and if you want us to at least pretend there's a chance something, anything, is actually going to happen, how about using a headline that plays along?

And we now return you to your every day programming.

Marvel's December Solicitations

2008-09-18T13:57:00.009-04:00

Still no sign of the fabled Super Hero Squad comic series in the December solicitations but what do we have?

Spider-Man Brand New Day Yearbook - apparently has OHOTMU style profiles that (many would hope) explains some of the post-OMB storyline craziness.

Venom Dark Origin 5 - so far the story has just made Eddie more of a creepy loser but who knows how the story will turn out.

Lots of solicitations are classified until after Secret Invasion 8, so there's many, many gaping holes for titles like Initiative, Ms. Marvel and Iron Man. The Fantastic Four Cosmic special is equally classified, but Marvel seems to be insisting that Sue is due to die. If she is, that would explain why they're pumping out appearances of the Lady Liberators in Hulk, She-Hulk and the She-Hulk one-shot.

Immortal Iron Fist 21 gives us yet another possible glimpse into yet another possible future. Some day I expect Marvel to do a Countdown Arena type story where various characters from various futures fight to the death. My bet for favorite battle? The Moon Knight of 2099 will team up with the Iron Fist of 3099 to battle Killraven (the first one) whose brain has been placed in a Deathlok unit.

The Marvel Apes series has had a few surprises but it seems like December's 0 issue, chock full of reprint goodness, is just a test to see how padded the eventual hardcover needs to be.

New Warriors, the title (issue 19 that is) features more of Thrasher's visit to yet another possible future, while New Warriors, the group (the originals that is) visit Nova in Nova 19. Between Avengers The Initiative, appearances in New Warriors and now Nova, the original New Warriors (or Counter Force or whatever Marvel's trying to bill them as now) are getting as much as, if not more, exposure than the group that has their name.

Marvel has fallen in love with one shots recently and this month is no different, with one shots for She-Hulk, Moon Knight (a Christmas special at that), Thor, Wolverine and Punisher receiving one-shots, and Dark Reign following up on Secret Invasion's aftermath.

Thunderbolts 127 is apparently setting the stage for a board clearing, game changing new line-up and things don't look good for Songbird. Poor Songbird.

What If is back with another set of one-shots, and Marvel's Noir series of mini-series kick off with Spider-Man and X-Men.

Marvel's Adventures line only offers up Spider-Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four and Super heroes this month, but Wolverine and Power Pack continues.

And wrapping things up, Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men Kingbreaker are leading into the War of Kings.

One more last word on Winter Soldier/City in Crisis

2008-09-18T13:57:00.003-04:00

And that additional, final last word is... a date. September 23, 2007. One month, 5 e-mails threatening to cancel the order... one can only hope that this is in fact the final last word.

Infinite Heroes Black Canary set on TRU?

2008-09-16T19:01:00.003-04:00

Toys R Us has an unusual listing on their website for "DC Comics Hero 3 Pack" and they're showing the picture for the Black Canary, Green Arrow and Green Lantern set, but not referring to the figures by name or as anything other than DC Comics Hero 3 Pack. Also unusual is their Flash 3-pack listing showing 3 prototypes two being Flash and the other a caped figure (Black Hand?)

So who knows what you'll get, but it sounds fun, if you don't mind paying $12.99 plus another $5 or so for shipping and handling for some figures that some reason are overpriced at $10 let alone $18. Still, keep checking stores and you'll get lucky soon enough.

Speaking of alternate realities...

2008-09-13T14:57:00.003-04:00

After just complaining a bit about Jon Favreau's apparent belief that Marvel solves all its problems by alternate realitying stuff away, I came across the early solicitation for Final Crisis Secret Files: "Witness how Darkseid's death shattered the Multiverse, creating continuity ripples throughout the DC Universe!"

For those that don't know, DC editorial has had some flack lately for continuity issues, like Countdown only sort of staying in touch with the DCU, and most famously for the Fall of the New Gods storyline (in FotNG, Orion deals with Darkseid, the Infinite Man, the death of his friends and family, all while Superman witnesses. In Final Crisis, Orion is back to life, dying from a bullet traveling backward through time or some similar concept and some story about Darkseid being displaced through time to before Seven Soldiers. With the only-a-few-years-old Infinite Crisis having used Superboy's punch through reality to excuse Jason Todd's return to life and a few other odds and ends, is DC really that editorially mixed up that they need to do a chronology fix already?

And on a separate note: Another Teen Titans recruitment drive? Didn't they just have one leading into Titans? And wasn't the post-One Year later story one big recruitment drive with Miss Martian and Kid Devil?

Captain American is such a winner!

2008-09-13T13:04:00.004-04:00

Everyone knows by now how I love data morphs and mutates like a virus on the Internet. I just read an interesting teaser at Digg for "Iron Man 2, 3 and 4" and the "may have Captain American and Hulk" comment. Now, I know we have our own typos here (and will continue to do so until we can afford a copy editor to take a pass at our posts), so no ill will about the good Captain's name, but I do have a pet peeve for the link-aggregator-post-that-has-something-rather-sensationalistic-as-a-title-but-is-actually-wishful-thinking-based-on-misinterpretation-of-something-else.

See, on Digg, where 500+ people have already "dugg" it (meaning they like it, they enjoy it, they support it, or maybe they just wanted to bookmark it for later and don't know how to use standard bookmarking) it's passed off as a possibility that Cap and Hulk will show up in these movies.

The article that is being "dugg" doesn't actually suggest that headline. Instead, that article says "Favreau does intend to include background links to the likes of Hulk and Captain America in the sequel, but finds Thor a little difficult to do so" and that this information came out during an interview with "Jon Favreau sitting down with a major contingent of online press".

And then at the end it points to the transcript of said interview with a "major contingent" (which was apparently just ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype! the way I read the transcript's intro.) The intro itself translates the interview as saying:

Marvel's current plans to set its upcoming slate of films – including Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor and The Avengers – in the same shared universe as Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk is a tricky but still inviting prospect for Favreau, who plans to utilize his improvisational background to find clever ways to integrate certain elements of the other films into the sequels, enhancing and not disrupting his own storytelling needs. He thinks Cap and Hulk fit fairly easily into Iron Man's world, while Thor is more of a challenge.

And of course, the actual interview itself features Favreau just talking about how cool it is to throw in Nick Fury or Captain America's shield, the continuity problems inherent in these things (since Iron Man is looking to start a team at the end of Hulk, the story probably doesn't take place the day after Nick Fury approaches him at the end of Iron Man), and giving a ridiculously flippant dismissal of Marvel Comics continuity. When discussing the issue of timing between Hulk and Iron Man (and sequels) he wonderfully says:

That's clearly not the day after "Iron Man" ended. Where does it fit in the time continuum? I don't want to just ignore it or do what the comic books have done. I guess you could do what Marvel has said: "It's an alternate universe." They've gotten away with that one for a couple of decades, but how do you make all that work within that world?

Which is just sort of insulting to Marvel. Let's be honest, the "alternate universe" is not Marvel's answer for continuity problems... they've long since mentioned their sliding time-line principle to explain aging issues and pride at never having had to "fix" their continuity a-la Crisis. If someone nit-picks how Captain America couldn't have had a beer with the Juggernaut on the same night Ben Reilly and Jubilee were locked in deadly battle with the Checkermaster, Marvel doesn't "alternate universe" it away. They give a no-prize, or they say say it's not a big deal (and these things usually aren't that big a deal) and everyone moves on, or maybe a later writer will come in and fix things. Sorry, that's just a personal nitpick, that this guy lauded by some comic fans as so "respectful to the material" thinks Marvel has just spent "decades" dismissing every uncomfortable plot point as "alternate universe." If Marvel HAD been throwing plot points out as alternate dimension, many fans would probably be a lot happier.

Back to the interview though... Favreau doesn't suggest appearances by Captain America or Hulk in any of the Iron Man sequels. He says that these callbacks and nudge-nudge-wink-wink references are fun, they're a way to prove themselves to the fans, and that he sees problems in incorporating some of the superheroism of Avengers mythology (which Favreau says isn't tech but rather "dealing with inter-dimensional portals and all the sh*t that makes you jump the shark if you don't handle it right").

He goes on to talk about the difficulty of these convergent elements by saying:

Then "Hulk" went a little the same way. It's still kind of tech-based. You get to Cap and you say, "Okay, he was frozen in that thing –" and it's like, "Okay, I could maybe buy that, with the super-soldier thing." Then you get into Thor and it's like, "Okay, well now..." and so how do you make that all feel like it's in the same world as our movie is? That's going to be the challenge moving forward.

So long story short, we start with an interview where Iron Man's director says mixing these elements are difficult. The same article summarizes the interview as Favreau planning on using improvisation to "integrate certain elements of the other films into the sequels". And when this article is re-summarized by Dark Horizon it becomes an intention "to include background links to the likes of Hulk and Captain America in the sequel, but finds Thor a little difficult to do so." And by the time it gets to Digg, it becomes "Captain America and Hulk in Iron Man 2, 3 and 4?"

Now, does that mean Captain America and Hulk won't appear? No. It just means that there's nothing suggesting they will. A director saying that the shared universe is fun and challenging at the same time, and that some aspects work together better than others, is not the same as (or anywhere close to) suggesting character appearances or whatever else.

Ah telephone game... how we love you. Now everyone reading this post... quick... go out and post that Tigra and the other-dimensional Cat People are going to be in Iron Man 2. Post that everywhere... tell everyone! Oh, and say that a Hawkeye movie is in development too! What else... oh... and that the Doctor Strange movie is retroactively being including into Marvel's movieverse so Peter Hooten is going to reprise his role for the Captain America movie. I can't wait to see what these rumors turn into.

Hopefully the last word on Winter Soldier/City in Crisis?

2008-09-13T02:20:00.003-04:00

An e-mail saying there was going to be a delay until 8/20, but that orders would not be canceled.

Then the e-mail saying the product was delayed until 8/26 and would be canceled without confirmation.

Then the e-mail saying it would be delayed until 9/2 and would be canceled without confirmation.

Then the e-mail saying it would be delayed until 9/8 and would be canceled without confirmation.

Then the e-mail saying the item was backordered, would ship on 9/8/ and that the order has been confirmed.

Then the e-mail saying the item was delayd until 9/12 and would be canceled without confirmation.

Can you guess what just showed up in my inbox? That's right... an e-mail saying that the item is delayed until 9/17 and will be canceled without confirmation.

So we've had 5 e-mails threatening to cancel our order unless we confirm it, 1 e-mail saying the item was delayed but no further action was needed, and 1 e-mail saying it was delayed, full stop.

Hasbro, maybe you should consider giving us faithful shlubs a gift card, free shipping or maybe just a new poster?

At the very least, with all the delays, we should have flawless paint jobs. Mary Jane better be the best figure you've ever put out because you've had more than enough time to work on her.

If You Like... part 4

2008-09-12T18:51:00.006-04:00

As you may have notice, while we love Super Hero Squad here at Rumorbuster, there's a whole world of other merchandise out there that you might (and may already) enjoy and we like to bring that to you. Plus, who knew some of this stuff was out there?

A little backstory: Before Marvel and Hasbro entered into their licensing which has had... let's just say mixed reactions (while it brought us the Super Hero Squad, Mighty Muggs and the upcoming 3.75' line, some people think it was tantamount to a deal with Mephisto... read the comments there) their kid-friendly licensing brand was Spider-Man and Friends. There are books, toys, games (the fairly recent Spider-Man Yahtzee used the Spider-Man and Friends logo I believe, while the recent Operation: Hulk had the Super Hero Squad logo) and the whole shebang. These were one of the pieces of merchandise liscenced out, and I have no idea whether more figures were planned but scrapped, or if the line would have continued if not for the Super Hero Squad figures, but as far as I know, these are the only four [Marvel Universe] characters produced. Given that the concept is a lot like a wooden Mighty Mugg I could almost imagine a custom market for these guys given the uniformity of the bodies (although there are dog, horse and skirted princess forms, amongst others) but tucked away in the deep recesses of the infant entertainment aisle there was no way they could be found by a possibly far more lucrative market: The Adult Collector.

Finally! Wave 9 and 10 hi-res photos!

2008-09-12T16:58:00.002-04:00

Marvelous News! Hi-res!
Wave 9!
Wave 10! Nick Fury/Skrull!

Phew, now lets get on to the analysis! First off: Wave 9. And keep in mind, there's still a chance things will change from what we see here.

- Captain America's got a repaint. A weird one at that, with reversed stripes on the shield. Ok.
- Red Skull did end up with the clear Cosmic Cube
- Spider-Man (in the Electro pack) did end up being the white-web shooting one

Wave 10.

- The box says Nick Fury and Skrull Agent, so apparently Nick Fury is confirmed, and the SHIELD agent is possibly just an army builder in a box-set or a later character.
- From the way Ronin's knives change position in the box, can we assume he's got those wrist articulations that let you pivot the hand, even though it only looks "right" in a small area?
- Black Spidey looks to have metallic silver spider-logo... which, if true means everyone complaining that he's a straight re-pack can settle down. Now, such a slight repaint isn't any better for the majority of fans, but I'll accept it. Now here's hoping we don't have a new trend of taking all the Spidey-sculpts and releasing them as black-costume/silver spider variants.
- Spider-Man with the translucent red goop is coming with the Cyberman... I mean Ultron. Personally, I think translucent red goopy Spider-Man is one of the more visually dynamic versions of that sculpt, but that's opinion.
- Weapon X/Wolverine looks... well... like a Weapon X Wolverine should I suppose. There's been some banter on the trading boards about whether his near-nudeness will put off some parents, but look, let's be honest, the biggest potential sales problem is that he's not called Wolverine. I doubt many parents are going to freak out and refuse to buy the figure because he looks near-nude. More likely, they're going to wonder why he's near-nude, and then buy it anyway.
- Mystique looks good, but it's a little sad that almost every woman sculpt has been a virtual statue.

New Infinite Heroes hitting

2008-09-12T08:40:00.003-04:00

Surfers of Amazon.com and eBay will be noticing that Black Adam, Hush, the Manhunter robot, and Qwardian Weaponeer are starting to hit. Black Adam is the ever-interesting Series 1, Figure 1 (we've been wondering who that was going to be since figures 2-7 shipped already... it was an easy assumption though), Hush is Figure 8, the Weaponeer is 9, and the Manhunter is 10. Still no idea on how variants and chase figures are going to included in the numbering system though.

Infinite Heroes Checklist updated

2008-09-11T08:04:00.003-04:00

The Infinite Heroes checklist has been updated, finally, to include the Atom and Black Hand figures as well as pictures of the figures released so far. Yes, I know about the site that stole the pictures from Michael Crawford's review to use as their own, so all I can do is ask people not to take these photos without at least letting us know, and reminding them that because I'm not a great photographer, they can probably take better photos on their own.

Anyway, we'll continue trying to put up profiles and photos of the remaining figures as they come out.

Wolverine and the X-Men cast list

2008-09-09T21:01:00.004-04:00

Marvel Animation Age has posted a cast list for the Wolverine and the X-Men series (I'm still thinking of posting reviews of the episodes, and maybe some Marvel movies and TV series here if there's any interest... or if there's any interest from people who want to review things that's great too, drop an email to clevernamehereshs@yahoo.com) but be warned because there be spoilers ahoy! Many of the characters listed are to be expected, but there's a few kind of shocking choices in there.

It's not totally complete though, as they acknowledge, and I can think of at least 2 mutants (or was that 3? I can't remember right now if _ _ _ _ spoke on the plane) that had a speaking role during the fight/climax of the first episode.

And again with the City in Crisis!

2008-09-09T20:40:00.003-04:00

Everyone knows the drill now... Hasbro has sent out e-mails saying "whoopsie, our bad. City in Crisis and Winter Soldier are like... IDK, on a truck or something somewhere. Whatevs." And then we, the concerned pre-orderers, have to call or e-mail to confirm. Anyway, their new e-mail has an estimated ship date of 9/12/08, but honestly, at this point I think the "estimated ship dates" are automatically generated to be a few days after the original because this is what, the fourth time they've pushed the date back a few days, not counting the times they've sent e-mails saying there's a delay and we DON'T have to call them.

Anyway, when you do contact Hasbro, be sure to voice your displeasure, and let them know if you'd prefer a system that only cancels your order when YOU want it to, without forcing you to jump through hoops to keep something you ordered on order.

City in Crisis/fulfillment issue?

2008-09-07T18:52:00.002-04:00

One reader reports that after responding to the most recent request to confirm that they want the City in Crisis and Winter Soldier sets, they received the following e-mail.

Thank you for contacting us with your confirmation.

Please be aware that the items you ordered are currently not available but en route to our fulfillment center. We expect to be able to ship it by the dates indicated below. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Your credit card will not be charged for backordered items until they have been shipped.

Marvel Super Hero Squad – City in Crisis: Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Green Goblin and Sandman - Expected Ship Date 09/08/2008

Marvel Super Hero Squad – Winter Soldier Saga: Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier and Crossbone - Expected Ship Date - 09/08/2008

Will tomorrow be the real ship date? Will we have to call and confirm for our orders, again? Look for all this drama, and more, on the next edition of As Our Plastic Ships.

Lego Batman... the cartoon?

2008-09-05T11:00:00.002-04:00

Well I wanted to post more up-close pictures of Hulk Wave 3, but because of a shipping mistake on Hasbro's end (and I swear on Captain America's grave, if, after waiting 10 days to make sure Skaar doesn't show up separately, I end up having to pay a premium on eBay because he's sold out online my vengeance will be mighty!) I'm going to wait to take photos (and this time I'll be sure to use better lighting.)

In the meantime, one of the greatest Lego sites of all times, Brickset pointed us to Eurogamer's article on the possibility of a Lego Batman cartoon. While Lego can be finicky with its licensed properties (while Star Wars is still going strong, the last Harry Potter movie received only one set, and it was yet another super-sized Hogwarts Castle) I can never tell if Lego Batman (one of the few micro-heroes we haven't covered here) is doing well or not. In 2006 when it started there were 7 sets, including the super-sized Batcave, Arkham Asylum and "collector's" Batmobile, while 2007 only had 2 sets and 2008 jumped up to 4 sets, all in the small-to-mid-sized range.

If I didn't blow my Lego budget on the new Castle sets, I'd probably pick up the older sets before they reach "OOP VHTF Rare OMG" status on eBay and you have to pay twice the price (or more... the Catwoman set is already listing for multiple-times listing price on eBay). Although the recent retailer's catalog featured pirates, farm sets and the new Power Miners sets, no word on what Lego Batman sets might be coming out in 2009 to capitalize on the video game that should come out later this month.

Newsclips 9/4/08

2008-09-04T17:57:00.004-04:00

While it continues to be a slow news week, here's a few more news clips...

First off, internet thy name is misconception. "There have been talks and good ones with where to go with the character,” explained Cage" does NOT in any way equal "Nicholas Cage who starred as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider in the 2007 Marvel Comic adaptation, confirmed that a "Ghost Rider 2" movie was going to happen". Talks happen every day. Instead of linking to the front page of MTV's Splash Page, let's go to the actual interview which is much more skeptical of Cage's "confirmation" of a movie that has no villain, no plot, apparently no returning stars other than Cage who's having "talks", and a vague sense that the storyline will dig into the more religious aspect of things, as the comic has done recently.

Second, upon finding the most magical Toys R Us of all (there was a matte-grey Iron Man Hall of Armor 4-pack sitting right there on the peg in front of a half dozen silver!) I saw a Gamma Lab in the wild. So, at SDCC we were told it's a Toys R Us exclusive, one person on a trading forum was able to buy one at a Toys R Us (and promptly placed it on eBay for over $50), then it showed up on Hasbro Toy Shop (who promptly shipped them out... mine is waiting at the Post Office apparently), so the question remains whether it's a TRU exclusive also being sold on HTS, or whether the TRU exclusive was changed at the last minute or what.

Third, with the Punisher War Zone poster hanging up in theatres now it seems as good a time as any to talk about Marvel Movies. Newsarama is hosting an interview with Kevin Feige on Marvel's movie madness, rights issues. Be warned... it's a puff piece that refers to Incredible Hulk as a big hit, forgets which movies interviewee is actually involved in (Marvel Studios does NOT equal all Marvel movies... Punisher War Zone being a good example), then closes up by asking Feige if he still has a huge collection of action figures (the answer? He's pared down some of his collection to a core.) While part of me wants to make fun of what passes for journalism in some circles, the other part of me knows if I got around to doing interviews for the Rumorbuster I'd probably throw lots of softballs too.

Infinite Heroes Shipping Schedule?

2008-09-03T22:52:00.004-04:00

Action-Figure.com has posted a shipping list for the Infinite Heroes... of note, coming out this month (in addition to the ones already out) are:

Black Adam - September
Qwardian Soldier - September
Manhunter - September
Batwoman - September
The Question - September
Wildcat - September
Hush (Masked) - September

But check over there for the full list. As always, stay cynical... the dates mostly correspond (as in, they're within a month or so) with the pre-order dates from Entertainment Earth and Big Bad Toy Store, but no clue who their source is. All they mention is that Cornerstone Comics is reporting Scarecrow, Nightwing and Joker as "late additions"

And again with the City in Crisis...

2008-09-03T22:43:00.000-04:00

Third time is the charm?

ITEM(S) NOT YET SHIPPED
Item number: 78452
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – City in Crisis: Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Green Goblin and Sandman
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 9/8/2008

Item number: 78453
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – Winter Soldier Saga: Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier and Crossbone
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 9/8/2008

And yes, once again, you must contact Hasbro or risk having your order canceled.

News Clips 9/2/08

2008-09-02T15:17:00.002-04:00

Since it has been a slow-news day (perhaps we're all just recovering from Labor Day in the US) here's some news clips:

1) Hasbrotoyshop has been shipping the Hulk Gamma Labs and Hulk Wave 3, but still no word on City in Crisis or Winter Soldier Saga.

2) Next Avengers, Marvel's latest direct-to-DVD movie, is on shelves today. 5th in Marvel's line, it's the 4th to feature Iron Man, 3rd to feature Hulk (although both parts of Hulk Vs are promoed on the dvd) and 3rd to feature, in some way or another, the Avengers roster used in the Ultimate Avengers movies.

3) In all-ages reads, this Wednesday should see the release of the newest Marvel Adventures Spider-Man digest featuring... Spider-Thor?

4) For those that hate Brand New Day (with Rich Johnston doing the numbers crunch on recent Spider-Man sales), don't forget that Spider-Man appears, married and well, in daily newspapers across the country.

5) For those interested in the upcoming Masters of the Universe Classics line, He-Man.org is hosting shots of the new Skeletor sculpt.

6) The TAG Blog has a history of the rise and fall of animation employment which certainly highlights something I've been thinking for a while... they just don't make cartoons the way they used to.

Collector's Guide to Iron Man

2008-08-28T22:21:00.006-04:00

We've just finished the first (of likely many) Visual Collector's Guides. The concept? Side-by-side comparisons of various repaints and resculpts of major characters in the Super Hero Squad line. First up is the Collector's Guide to Iron Man, thanks to the repaint-heavy Genius of Tony Stark and Crimson Dynamo Attacks 4-packs.

Obviously, thumbnails link to larger shots, but please, don't steal the photos. They took time to shoot, time to resize (and someday, when we have more webspace to use, we'll use the higher-quality larger shots) and time to prepare for uploading. They're not watermarked, but that could change with the next round. And besides, my camera skills are no better than (and possibly worse than) the next person's, so you might have better luck simply taking your own photos. If you do want to use the pictures, asking is a good start. Giving a link to indicate where you took the photos from is a great follow-up. Besides, not only can you probably take better photos, but your figures might have fewer paint-application mishaps than these.

What're you still reading this for? Why aren't you checking out Iron Man (who looks better when not automatically resized by blogger)?

Custom Ideas 5 - Red Raven

2008-08-27T18:41:00.007-04:00

Continuing our series of poor-man's customs, and also our interest in the Marvel Universe's more obscure characters, we present, Red Raven. Like always, the photoshopping is offensively bad, but it's enough to get the idea across.

For those not in the know, Red Raven is one of Marvel's oft-forgotten Golden Age characters, and that means... yup... a convoluted origin that gets worse every time a writer decides they like the design and want to make use of the character. Let's see if we can sum it up: Inhumans with wings broke off from Attilan and eventually encountered a young human, the man that would become the Red Raven, and raised him. Seeing the despair and problems of World War II he joined the Liberty Legion. Eventually, some of his people wanted to conquer the world while it was still reeling from World War II, Red Raven stopped them, but soon enough, a robot double placed everyone into suspended animation. The robot Red Raven encountered the "modern" Marvel U, only to die in battle with Namor. Of course, soon enough Red Raven's artificially created daughter and the Avian (the bird-race that found Red Raven) creation Bi-Beast had their own interactions with the Marvel Universe. Eventually, it's discovered that the Avian race didn't die from the suspended animation, they're awakened, and everyone goes to live in the floating city Aerie where they only periodically waged war against mankind and were conquered by the Defenders who used the Aerie as their base when acting as the Order. Corrections and additions are welcome. With his 70th anniversary coming in 2010, maybe Marvel can try a Red Raven: Rebirth story to simplify and pretty-up his backstory.

Concept: Angel, plus red paint, and possibly some minor sculpting depending on which look you prefer. Classic hairnet style requires giving Warren a haircut and using sculpting material to round off the head and add the ear-bulges. If you're going to go with the full-face version, you would be better off grabbing a head from a Punisher or the Spider-Man figure where Peter is showing his face and be-head Warren altogether. Once finished, you're that much closer to a Golden Age Super Hero Squad.

And just as a reminder, this isn't a real custom, but rather a custom suggestion... I barely have enough SHS to satisfy my addictions, let alone extras to ruin with my shoddy painting. If you take on a custom suggestion like this one, or any of the others, be sure to show it off and let us know so we can appreciate some real skills.

Hulk Gamma Lab

2008-08-27T15:46:00.003-04:00

Hasbro Toy Shop has put the Gamma Lab up for sale officially on their site. After the SPRREQ8 coupon code, the price is $38.82.

Hasbro, while the playsets aren't everyone's cup of tea, at least give us new ones! You know what were the coolest things about the classic Masters of Universe? Playsets. Castle Grayskull, Snake Mountain, Eternia, The Slime Pit. You know what made them great? They made sense. The features were modest (the occasional trap door, a prison cell) but there was a reason for it.

Now, try it again, but give us Tony Stark's labs, with little containers for his "spare" armors (re: the extra Iron Men we have) and a launch zone for him to take off and battle evil. And an X-Mansion, with a danger room of claws/spikes/booby traps. I bet with the right design and ooh factor you could even sell kids on a Sanctum Sanctorum with skylight entrance, mystical dimension trapdoor, and an exclusive Shuma Gorath to fight off.

New Guy! Let's Have Fun!

2008-08-27T13:34:00.002-04:00

Hi, everyone! My name's Cris. I'm here to help Clever Name (and Seantified) post on the blog to bring you all sorts of fun and interesting information on the comics-related things we love. Anyway, seeing as this is my first post as the new guy, I figured I'd start off with something new (well, relatively anyway, haha) and exciting.

So, I went to Comic-Con this year and made sure that I went to the Hasbro panel so that I could share all the cool things there with all of you loyal readers of SHS Rumorbuster. Don't get me wrong, I didn't go to the Hasbro panel simply to cover it for SHS Rumorbuster (I would've gone no matter what), but I did make sure to take pictures and video of the panel to share with you guys; that way even if you weren't able to make it to Comic-Con this year, you can still experience the Hasbro panel! (Aren't you all lucky?)

Well, Clever Name has already posted the pictures I took, so all that's left for me to post is some information...and of course the video I took. Haha, but Comic-Con being the amazing spectacle that it is, unfortunately my camera's battery died before the panel was completely over. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes every day, right?

So, before I get to the video, allow me to set it up a second. Ok, so upon entering the hall the panel was being held in I was given some awesome SHIELD swag promoting the FuryFiles.com website. After a few not altogether interesting introductions and announcements, the fine Hasbro people (each dressed in awesome SHIELD Agent shirts that admittedly made me daydream about how I could snatch a shirt from one of them, dash out the door, down the escalator, and be home free...yeah, they were that cool, but I digress) opened it up for questions. The very first question asked was about the rumored 3.75" line, and this is when I started rolling. So, without further ado...I bring you the SDCC 08 Hasbro panel (more or less)!

1.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

2.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

3.

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

So, as the promotional stuff for the 3.75" line shows, they have the sculpts for 32 or 33 figures (depending on whether or not there will be Nick Fury and army builder SHIELD agents or just one or the other...not gonna lie, I'm hoping for both Nick and army builders). Here's the complete list:
Iron Man
Spider-Man
Silver Surfer
Punisher
Black Panther
Bullseye
Daredevil
Johnny Storm
Human Torch
Stealth Armor Iron Man
X-Force Wolverine
Ultimate Captain America
Green Goblin
Hulk
Grey Hulk
Iron Fist
Ronin
Black-suit Spider-Man
Hand Ninja
Classic Iron Man (with/out horns)
Ms. Marvel
Classic Ms. Marvel
Punisher (all black)
Thing
Nick Fury/SHIELD Agent
Blade
Hobgoblin
Moonknight
Red Hulk
Union Jack
Colossus
Thor

Who else can hardly wait until "Spring 2009"?
Well, it seems that we technically don't have to. If you've checked out FuryFiles.com recently, then you'll no doubt have noticed the countdown clock that is counting down to roughly March 1st. Haha, the irony of me starting a rumor (by speculating about what that countdown's actually for, since it doesn't really say on the site) here on SHS Rumorbuster just hit me. Anyway, if I am right in speculating that the countdown is for the launch of the 3.75" line, then that would mean that technically the line will be here just a little before "Spring 2009" since Spring technically starts somewhere around March 21st.

No matter when the 3.75" line actually ends up dropping, I can hardly wait to throw my money at Hasbro to get my hands on these marvelous action figures (shameless pun).

P.S.
Does anyone else think that it's slightly wrong to put out a Danny Rand (Iron Fist) figure without a Luke Cage? I mean, come on...how are we gonna get some Heroes for Hire action without Luke?

P.P.S.
Seeing that Hasbro is willing to do some more off-beat costumes as variants for the figures...I can only hope that if they end up doing a Gambit they do a variant costume that isn't his first appearance fuchsia costume. I'm hoping beyond hope that they'll do something a little sleeker...like, say, his X-Treme X-Men costume? Admittedly, I won't be holding my breath since even in the comics it seems like the only person willing to shed the fuchsia is creator Chris Claremont. Who knows? They might not even make a Gambit figure.

City in Crisis/Winter Soldier... one more time

2008-08-27T10:56:00.003-04:00

Hasbro Toy Shop has sent out another delay notification for City in Crisis/Winter Soldier, and again requires people who have placed their order (months ago) to (once again) tell them that they still want it. The updated shipping date is 9/2, but we'll see if they send another delay e-mail on 9/3.

ITEM(S) NOT YET SHIPPED
Item number: 78452
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – City in Crisis: Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Green Goblin and Sandman
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 9/2/2008

Item number: 78453
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – Winter Soldier Saga: Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier and Crossbone
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 9/2/2008

We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions regarding your order or would like to change your order, please call our Customer Service Center at 1-800-408-0052. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO WAIT UNTIL THE DATE(S) INDICATED ABOVE TO RECEIVE YOUR ORDER, YOU MUST CONTACT US TO CONFIRM THAT YOU STILL WANT THE ITEM(S). IF WE DO NOT HEAR FROM YOU, THE ITEM(S) WILL NOT BE SHIPPED, AND YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED FOR THEM.

Gamma Lab coming soon to Hasbro Toy Shop?

2008-08-26T17:10:00.004-04:00

Hasbro Toy Shop has posted this little ditty for the Gamma Lab

Price: $29.99, Availability: Coming Soon, Ages: 3 & Up, Item #: 78565

Take this store-and-go portable playset along for all of your Super Hero Squad adventures. “Blast” open the Gamma Lab door and catch super villains on the spinning ledge trap! Spider-Man can speed to the scene of a crime on his spider-swinging webline or in his crime-busting spider car! With lots of other movable features, you can create a whole new action scene every time you play. Pack everything up inside and you’re ready for a rescue anytime, anywhere.

Playset comes with vehicle and Spider-Man and Hulk figures.

No idea if this is something similar to how Spider-Man's Sand Pit Standoff sets were showing up in Walmarts with the Toys R Us exclusive sticker on them before eventually being offered in Toys R Us and then eventually on Hasbro Toy Shop or what other crazy situation could be going on, but I bet it makes you feel good that you didn't pay $76.70 for one of the first ones to sneak out. Remember, it IS just the Bank Heist Playset with new colors and yet another Spider-Man and Hulk repaint.

News Clips 8/26/08

2008-08-26T12:02:00.004-04:00

For those not able to keep up with the couple dozen or so Marvel titles put out monthly, Marvel has put up a Marvel Universe Saga for a free read on their website. With one paragraph catch-up descriptions of most major events and characters, it brings you from Secret War through Secret Invasion.

And FOUR new 12 episode half hour anime series based on new versions of classic Marvel Comics characters? Good idea? Bad idea? Launching in Spring 2010, the press release talks of "a uniquely localized and cross-cultural adaptation of the Marvel Universe", "creating in essence a whole new character base for Marvel" and "a completely new character base, which will eventually cross-over into the current Marvel Universe" (Note: snippets out of order.) Although the press release talks about how original this concept is, Marvel has dipped its toes into the concept before with Spider-Man J, Spider-Man India, the agreement for Marvel and Del Rey to produce manga series together, the Marvel Mangaverse titles, the 1970's Hulk manga, and Spider-Man Manga, Marvel UK's Captain Britain... all attempts by Marvel to create localized and cross cultural versions of Marvel Comics characters (with the exception of Marvel's Mangaverse, which was made for and marketed to an American audience).

Maybe Marvel will take a cue from DC have have a Countdown Arena type series where the Ryoichi Ikegami Spider-Man, the Yamanaka Akira Spider-Man, the Sharad Devarajan and Jeevan J. Kang Spider-Man, Animated Spider-Men from the 60's, 80's, 90's, BOTH animated Spider-Men from the 2000's (MTV and the current Spectacular), the 70's live action Tokusatsu-style robot-fighting Spider-Man, the 70's "American" live action Spider-Man, the Mangaverse Spider-Man, and... what the heck, maybe even Ultimate Spider-Man can all fight to the death.

Hulk Wave 3, FINALLY for order on HTS

2008-08-25T16:51:00.004-04:00

Hulk Wave 3 is offiicially up for order on Hasbro Toy Shop.

Not sure if there are many other coupon codes out there, but SPRREQ8 still gets you 10% off (meaning if you purchase all 4 sets, 5.99 a set, $6.97 for shipping, your total after the coupon is only $30.79.)

So go, show the Hulk your love!

Also worth noting is that the figures are (according to their site) in stock for quick shipping. I wonder if HTS has done much market research into what's a better strategy:

1) allowing pre-orders for accurate order information but running the risk that when figures are found earlier, the pre-orders are canceled, or that in the event of a delay people (like us) are bugging them for answers or

2) Waiting until figures are in stock and ready to go before allowing orders, while running the risk that buyers are going to go elsewhere (Big Bad Toy Store, Entertainment Earth) to make sure they get the figures.

And in an unrelated note, anyone have any solutions for the army of Hulks many of us have collected?

Hulk Wave 3 pictures

2008-08-24T17:41:00.003-04:00

Seantified has sent over some pictures of a couple of the new Hulk sets. He included comparisons of two of the Hulks (the Hulk that comes with Zzzax is a darker shade of green than the original version packed with Spider-Woman). For articulation he says Zzzax moves at his waist and head only while Skaar moves at his right shoulder, head, waist, and left wrist (for the knife).

Speaking of Skaar though, it looks like he's going to be appearing in the upcoming Hulk Family one-shot, featuring Hulk, She-Hulk, Scorpion (the female version of the character who may or may not be the biological daughter of Bruce Banner), Skaar (aptly named the Son of Hulk), and the genetic result of Thundra's theft of Hulk's cell samples during Hulk: Raging Thunder. So that's one known child, one genetic offspring, and one child of questionable paternity... he's going to be giving Cyclops and Wolverine a lesson in absentee parenting.

Checklists are updated

2008-08-23T13:54:00.004-04:00

After way too long the Super Hero Squad checklists have been updated. We've been meaning to update them for a while, but because of the recent wackiness with Hasbro (Red Hulk being listed, Green Hulk being shipped. Nick Fury being shown on the slides at SDCC 2008, while blond SHIELD Agent is listed in Big Bad Toy Store's pre-orders, so on) we considered waiting. The problem with that, is that there's always going to be something new so we'd always find a new reason to postpone it.

For those that are unfamiliar with our checklists, we maintain two separate lists: One is for the "set collectors" which breaks down the offerings by wave, and includes things like playsets and vehicles. The other is for collectors who don't care much for repaints, repacks and resculpts, and just lists which characters are released (counting mainstream comic book, Ultimate, and Movie versions separately).

With characters going up to the slides shown at San Diego, we have 137 characters present and accounted for, which is pretty good for a line soon to be celebrating its second major Christmas. Can the line keep up this pace of almost 70 characters a year? Assuming Hasbro keeps the line going through to December 31, 2011 (the expiration date of the Hasbro/Marvel contract, assuming the extension option for Spider-Man 4 isn't exercised) 70 characters a year would mean 210 additional characters, almost 350 different characters total. Granted, that depends on a lot of maybes (maybe the line continues selling, maybe Hasbro continues developing both fan-favorite back-catalog characters and current properties) but half a toy-line's fun is its potential, right?

Speaking of milestones, we're almost at 200 posts here at Rumorbuster in a few days short of 5 full months. While we didn't start using analytics until after the site started, 2313 people have visited more than 9 times, and almost 500 people have visited over 101 times. I know that's nothing compared to a big site, but we're still happy to know at least a few people find some use from this project. Big thank yous to all you regular visitors, and especially everyone that's sent in comments, questions or suggestions.

Edit: And we just updated the index too, but since it was only a small update, no sense posting separately to talk about it, right?

Hulk Wave 3 in the wild

2008-08-22T19:51:00.003-04:00

Seantified just let us know that Hulk Wave 3 is hitting retail, specifically the Toys R Us at Walnut hill and 75 in Dallas Texas. Along with Wave 3, they've re-stocked on the Sand Pit Stand Off set. He also noted that of 6 Zzzax's, they were all transparent. Has anyone seen an opaque Zzzax like the one shown in pictures at SDCC, or was that just an early production model, like the way Thor and Ares had different paint jobs when they were first shown?

And finally, he was able to confirm that Skaar and Leader were shortpacked (2 per case, confirming Entertainment Earth's pre-order listing). If Entertainment Earth is right about the first case revision for Wave 3, Leader's going to get even harder to find when he moves to 1 per case, but on the plus side, they're going to be shipping Wave 2 figures in that case revision so there's still a chance for those that haven't got She-Hulk yet.

As you guys know, we don't have anything real to give in exchange for news, photos and interesting chat, but we have plenty of Non-Marvel Unofficial No-Prizes to hand out, and Seantified gets one!

Wave 10 Pre-Order

2008-08-22T10:46:00.002-04:00

Since we were using the Wave numbering from Wikipedia as our numbering system, and since someone decided to change it to make Wave 5 and 6 one big wave, which, retroactively, everyone decided they were, we're going to continue following Wikipedia, and as such, the Mystique wave is now going to be the Wave 10 wave, and we'll refer to Sentry's Wave as 9.

With that preamble out of the way, Big Bad Toy Store's pre-order for Wave 10, shipping in November, now has photos of the figures up. While their listing still says SHIELD Agent, their picture is clearly Nick Fury. Chase? Variant? Accurate, yet not totally, product listing wherein Nick Fury, who is a SHIELD agent, is listed as SHIELD Agent, instead of Nick Fury, possibly to avoid confusion with the previously released Ultimate Nick Fury, who happens to be the Nick Fury they've shown in promotional artwork for the upcoming animated series? Incorrect picture where they were sent a file of hi-res promo shots and picked Nick Fury out to be the SHIELD agent?

Who knows, but we're still going to love that wave!

Genius and Crimson Dynamo sets shipping

2008-08-22T10:12:00.003-04:00

While Hasbro may not be on top of their game with shipping City in Crisis and the Winter Soldier sets, at least they're shipping the Genius of Tony Stark and Crimson Dynamo Attacks sets on time.

Item number: 78767
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – Crimson Dynamo Attacks!
Quantity: 1

Item number: 78768
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – The Genius of Tony Stark
Quantity: 1

Hulk Wave 3 on HTS, again

2008-08-21T13:18:00.003-04:00

Following up on our discussion earlier today of Hulk Wave 3, it looks as if Hasbro Toy Shop is almost ready to put the figures on the site. Searching for "Hulk" brings up the four new 2-packs, but the listings are still "coming soon", and some of the listings still contain the price typos noticed earlier, and Doc Samson is showing as the boxed pic for Hulk/Skaar. Hasbro, we love you but you can be such a mess!

Grey Hulk/Leader - Price: $16.99*, Availability: Coming Soon, Ages: 3 & Up, Item #: 78460.

Mini but mighty, this two-pack of figures includes the Gray Hulk figure with fists ready to fly and Leader Villain figure, ready to spring into action!

Hulk/Doc Samson - Price: $5.99, Availability: Coming Soon, Ages: 3 & Up Item #: 78462

Mini but mighty, this two-pack of figures includes the Hulk figure with his gritted-tooth grin and Doc Samson figure, showing off his flexed muscles!

Hulk/Son of Hulk (AKA Skaar) - Price: $5.99, Availability: Coming Soon, Ages: 3 & Up, Item #: 78463

Mini but mighty, this two-pack of figures includes the Hulk figure with “torn” t-shirt and the sword-wielding Son of Hulk figure!

Hulk/Zzzax - Price: $14.99*, Availability: Coming Soon, Ages: 3 & Up, Item #: 78461

Mini but mighty, this two-pack of figures includes the Hulk figure ready for smashin’ good fun and Zzzax figure, the “living” lightning bolt!

*Note the clearly erroneous prices.

With the Iron Man repaint packs, Wave 3 of Hulk, and the City in Crisis and Winter Soldier Saga 4-packs all slowly trickling out at about the same time it seems like we're going to have another mini-Super Hero Squad flood.

Hulk Wave 3 on eBay

2008-08-21T11:52:00.005-04:00

Our policy is not to link to ongoing eBay auctions, yadda yadda yadda, but astute shoppers will notice that Hulk Wave 3 is starting to make its way onto eBay, with sellers from Texas to NY shipping them.

One thing we'd like to point out though, if only to save you money from (what we feel) is an questionable practice we noticed.

Cmdstore.com's web-store: Hulk Wave 3, $34.95, plus $8.95 shipping. Total $43.90.

~~Cmdstore.com's~~ Ddmark's eBay listing: Hulk Wave 3, $34.95 (or 39.95 if you Buy It Now), plus $9.95 shipping and handling. Total (if you buy it now), $49.90.

Since they're shipping from the same source via the same post office in Champlain NY (a small little town on Canada's borders and gateway to Quebec, for those that have never visited) you might as well save yourself $6.00 and buy directly from the store. And what's worse is they still haven't fixed their listing to show that they've been shipping Green Hulk, not Red Hulk (which so far, nobody has seen and was likely a product swap-out)

Winter Soldier and City in Crisis Delayed, Action Required

2008-08-21T11:36:00.004-04:00

After sending out e-mails saying that the Winter Soldier Saga and City in Crisis/Spider-Man Saves the Day sets would be shipping out on August 20 (and after we congratulated them on the far more reasonable policy of keeping the order on file in the event of a delay, instead of the puzzling policy of canceling delayed orders AFTER the products have been shipped) Hasbro has sent out the following e-mail...

ITEM(S) NOT YET SHIPPED
Item number: 78452
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – City in Crisis: Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Green Goblin and Sandman
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 8/26/2008

Item number: 78453
Item name: Marvel Super Hero Squad – Winter Soldier Saga: Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier and Crossbone
Quantity: 1
Estimated ship date: 8/26/2008

We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions regarding your order or would like to change your order, please call our Customer Service Center at 1-800-408-0052. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO WAIT UNTIL THE DATE(S) INDICATED ABOVE TO RECEIVE YOUR ORDER, YOU MUST CONTACT US TO CONFIRM THAT YOU STILL WANT THE ITEM(S). IF WE DO NOT HEAR FROM YOU, THE ITEM(S) WILL NOT BE SHIPPED, AND YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED FOR THEM.

Which means that yes, once again, if you don't want your order canceled, forcing you to re-place the order and ending up at the end of the queue, you must contact them and waste your time dealing with customer service.

While we were on the phone, we asked them if they had any insight into the logic of making customers waste time in phone queues (I'm assuming e-mail will work as well) confirming that they want what they want, when it's Hasbro's fault they couldn't provide the figures on time. The answer got? "That's just the way the system is." Truer words, my friend. Truer words.

SDCC Hasbro Panel pictures

2008-08-20T17:56:00.003-04:00

While I'm sure Chris must hate me for not getting them up earlier, the first set of his SDCC panel pictures are finally up. The ML waves, SDCC exclusives, Transformer Crossovers... all up. Thanks again go to Chris!

Infinite Profiles

2008-08-20T17:15:00.004-04:00

Profiles are up of the various Infinite Heroes released so far, with the exception of Black Hand and Atom (dang eBay prices) at the Infinite Heroes checklist, with pictures hopefully coming soon (as soon as we're happy with them, and not a moment too soon!) I know some of you may have already seen the profiles for the single-carded figures, but we've also got profiles for characters in the 3-packs up now.

News Clips 8/19/08

2008-08-19T17:27:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since we've done a News Clips, so here we go.

While we discussed family friendly books earlier in the November Solicitations, Marvel's Free Mondays put up a Marvel Adventure Hulk issue for free reading this week.

Comics Continuum continues coverage of Marvel's animation, discussing how Steve Blum is voicing Wolverine in both the new X-Men cartoon and the upcoming Hulk Vs. direct to DVD title, how Spectacular Spider-Man is still likely homeless, etc, etc.

Marvel Animation Age has a news piece on how Wolverine and the X-Men will be premiering on Canada's YTV in September.

Custom IH Guy Gardner

2008-08-19T16:42:00.004-04:00

We were just talking about custom Infinite Heroes a few days ago and Spy Magician of Action Figure Insider went one lateral with a custom kit-bash of Guy Gardner, using a Jakks wrestler body to give Guy some articulation.

He goes on to mention a few complaints we share about the recent Fwoosh interview where Mattel said that 2009 was going to see improvements to the line in terms of articulation and sculpt. There's some healthy discussion going on in the comments, with POV's ranging from perfect-as-is to comparisons with Happy Meals and accusations that the line was poorly handled. While "Happy Meal figures" is a bit extreme and some of the criticisms are valid (yes, the GCPD set only comes with two guns and two nightsticks for three characters. Who says Commissioner Gordon can't use one of the guns while one of the SWAT team uses a nightstick instead of a gun, or vice versa? And yes, lanterns for the Green Lanterns are kind of common sense, but in honesty, the lanterns are rarely seen in action or in the battlefield so it's forgivable that Guy doesn't have one) the line does show promise and a few posters did bring up other popular lines with minimal articulation (DC Animated) and rocky starts (Marvel Legends, the early Toy Biz figures.

Marvel's November Solicitations

2008-08-19T13:46:00.004-04:00

As long-term readers know, we've been diligently looking at Marvel's fall solicitations for a possible Super Hero Squad comic book. It started in May when MSNreported on the upcoming video game and we noticed some problems in the reporting. Don't get us wrong, we think a Super Hero Squad comic sounds great, but Marvel's Marvel Adventures Line seems to be the closest we've got for now.

So while there is no Super Hero Squad comic listed in November's solicitations so far, there are a few interesting items.

First up, for family friendly fair, Franklin Richards new one-shot is Sons of Geniuses, the new Power Pack series will feature Wolverine, Amazing Spider-Girl continues with issue 26, MA: Spider-Man 45 features Doc Ock, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 4 comes out, MA: Avengers 30 guest star's Tigra and promises a new team member, MA: Fantastic Four 42 features an election in Latveria, and MA Super Heroes 5 features Doctor Strange and Spider-Man fighting mystical creatures. Marvel Adventures Hulk and Iron Man both appear to be missing. Hulk's solicitations last months didn't indicate it was over, but the last time MA: Iron Man was solicited was for September, and then it was as Iron Man Golden Avenger 1.

Other than that, there's additional one-shots for Thor and Wolverine and the usual assortment of Secret Invasion books.

With the launch of a second Wolverine-related First Class that, like Wolverine Origins before it promises to be an exploration of Wolverine's history before joining the X-Men, The solicitation for Power Pack and Wolverine best sums up all the Wolverine issues this month.

"All right, bub. Gimme my appearance schedule for October..."
"Sure, Mr. Logan! There's your regular solo title, of course. Plus, the usual line-up of team books."
"So that's just UNCANNY, ASTONISHING, NEW AVENGERS and X-FORCE. No prob."
"There's also your side projects. ORIGINS, FIRST CLASS, MANIFEST DESTINY, another FIRST CLASS..."
"Uh huh. Anythin' else?"
"Don't forget cameos! Possibly AVENGERS/INVADERS... maybe a SECRET INVASION appearance..."
"Hmph. Sounds like a light month to me. Think I got room for one more book. You got anythin' FUN?"
"Actually..."

Of course, that ignores his Ultimate appearances in Ultimatum (with 1 and 2 shipping that month), a probably appearance in Ultimate X-Men, appearance in Marvel's Director's Cut of the Free Comic Book Day 2008 X-Men title, his Marvel Adventures Avengers appearance, Secret Invasion: X-Men 4, and of course his appearance in X-Men Legacy, which is tying up the crossover from Wolverine Origins and one of October's one-shots, which brings the total up to about 20 appearances, if all those cameos come through of course. Maybe he'll start making cameos in the Marvel Illustrated titles (Three Musketeers or Odyssey would both be good choices).

Winter Soldier and City in Crisis shipping 8/20/08

2008-08-17T15:14:00.003-04:00

Hasbro has started sending out e-mails revising the availability of the Winter Soldier and City in Crisis sets and giving them an estimated ship date of 8/20/08, which is this Wednesday. And best part of it? While probably unrelated to our little rant some months ago about the bizarre logic of canceling delayed orders weeks after the orders have already started shipping, they include this little bit saying

"We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions regarding your order or would like to change your order, please call our Customer Service Center at 1-800-408-0052. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that you have agreed to the revised ship date indicated above."

Which means we hopefully won't have any canceled orders and panic setting in and OMGBBQFTW teh lien is dooommed sentimentality, we'll just have great new figures.

One interesting thing is that Hasbro Toy Shop tends to get figures a little slower than others, so the lack of City in Crisis and Winter Soldiers on eBay indicates they're not showing up at retail yet.

What's Missing

2008-08-16T20:39:00.003-04:00

One of the beauties of a new toy-line is in all the possibilities that lay ahead. While we still love Super Hero Squad and look forward to the Marvel Universe figures, Infinite Heroes (despite their current poor articulation) has this sense of possibility. With the animated Justice League/DCU line still putting out new characters and plumbing the depths of the animated DC Universe (see: the upcoming Temple Fugate/Clock King figure as an example) and with IH's first offerings including characters like Guy Gardner and Black Hand when conventional wisdom indicates John Stewart and Sinestro would have been more likely choices, it's easy to believe Mattel's hype.

Rather than front-loading the release schedule with big names, it seems obvious that many A-list characters are being held back to anchor future waves, and that many B-list (and below) characters have a serious chance with this line.

This is an unabashed wishlist, supported by excitement and reason, and one that you should feel free to add to. Although it's hard to tell what the future holds, even if DC and Mattel are unable to keep up with the planned 45 characters over the course of the next 4 months that are currently planned for the remainder of 2008, imagine a line with even 75 new characters over the course of a year?

With that in mind, we've picked ten groups of characters and come up with some characters for each. Some are obvious choices (Wonder Woman, Joker, Sinestro, Robin) and some are certainly B-List and below characters. There's a rough character count after each group but because DC loves legacies, do we really need to count each Hawk, Dove, Cosmic Boy and Robin individually? And as a side-note, with the exception of Kingdom Come's Superman, Elseworlds and alternate reality characters are left out because otherwise we'd be posting a list of the best Supermen, Batmen and Wonder Women we want. Because of the weird rights issues, characters from Milestone, Wildstorm, Impact, and Vertigo titles are omitted (except for a handful with strong DCU connections)

1) Wonder Woman characters. Diana herself is almost a certainty, but she comes with a large supporting cast. Donna Troy (double dutying as a Titan character), Artemis, Ares, Hippolyta, Cheetah, Circe, and Nemesis (a fairly recent addition to the WW cast) are easy choices. Roughly 8 characters.

2) Aquaman and co. Like Wonder Woman, he seems like a lock, and there's many incarnations to make. Hook-hand, water hand, classic Super Friends style. Since Mattel says in interviews that they attempt to coordinate DCUC, DC Direct and Infinite Heroes, it's likely that Aquaman's appearances in both DCUC series 2 and planned return in series 7 kept him out of the running for an early figure. Still, original Arthur/Orin could be joined with a modern Joseph, Aqualad/Tempest, Dolphin, Atlan, Ocean Master, Lorena/Aquagirl, King Shark would make a handsome underwater crew. Roughly 8 characters.

3) Green Lanterns. While the first set of announced figures is definitely Lantern friendly (Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Manhunters, Black Hand, Star Sapphire and of course, Hal Jordan), this line was built for the Green Lanterns. Kyle Rayner and Alan Scott, Kilowog, Jade, Boodikka, G'nort, Ganthet, Sinestro, Tomar-Re (or Tomar-Tu... it's really a toss-up), Jack T. Chance, Evil Star, Goldface, Major Force, Mongul and any of the Sinestro Corps are just waiting for figures. Roughly 14 characters.

4) Justice League. Notice anything about the first three entries? They're all heavily affiliated with the Justice League. Then again, who isn't. While many major leagers have already been made or shown, a few modern classics like Red Arrow, Hawkgirl, Vixen, Firestorm and Red Tornado are always ready. Going back a little, Zatanna, Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Doctor Light (the nice one, the lady), Elongated Man, Zauriel would make great figures. Villains like Queen Bee, Despero, Dr. Light (the first one, the guy), Felix Faust, Prometheus, and Neron would make quite the assortment. Roughly 18 characters.

5) Justice Society. Another group well represented by the early figures, the sheer number of members mean this team requires its own shelf to be done justice. Modern members like Mister Terrific, Sand, Doctor Mid-Nite, Lightning, Lance, Kingdom Come Superman, Stargirl, Starman (Thom Kallor), Damage, Liberty Belle/Jesse Quick, Hourman, Cyclone and Atom Smasher are great choices, with Starman (Ted or Jack Knight), and an Al Pratt Atom representing some classics. Roughly 15 characters.

6) 4th World. The total and absolute lack of any Kirby/4th World characters suggests the following: While wonderfully nostalgic, the New Gods never seem to play nice with the rest of DC's characters, or, and this is most likely, the events in Death of the New Gods and Final Crisis are going to result in a serious re-invention of the New Gods and everyone from Beautiful Dreamer to Darkseid. Whether Mattel is holding out for brave new versions of Kirby's classics or for a high-intensity re-launch coming out of Final Crisis's finale, Parademons keep with IH's avowed love for army building, Darkseid, Orion, Metron, Lightray, Mister Miracle and Big Barda are virtual guarantees, while great lower-level characters include Big Bear and Beautiful Dreamer, Infinity Man, Black Racer, Moonrider, Serifan, Vykin, Highfather, Takion, Desaad, Granny Goodness, Kalibak, Steppenwolf and Mantis. Roughly 21 characters.

7) The Legion. Like the 4th World, the Legion seems to be in a period of flux. Regular readers of Lying in the Gutters will know that Johnston has been long covering the possible comings and goings of creative staff on the book, and Final Crisis's Legion of Three Worlds is theoretically going to bring some sense of balance to the three concurrent alternate Legion of Super Heroes realities. While Legion salesmen will try to convince you that knowledge of Legion continuity is unnecessary, back-issue hunting (does anyone still do that?) will be torture if you don't at least recognize that until the late 1980's, the story was one long adventure that skips ahead 5 years and drastically changes most everyone, while more classic versions (time-dislodged versions of many characters, discovered by their latter day counterparts) appeared in a spin-off title. Until the mid-90's when the books were rebooted, pre-continuity was shucked off and for about 10 years the book continued until the third and latest re-boot prior to the Infinite Crisis storyline.

Having said that, 2008 is the Legion's 50th anniversary, and no army of heroes is complete without the original army of heroes. Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, Chameleon, Colossal Boy, Ultra Boy, Invisible Kid, Starboy, Brainiac 5, Sun Boy, Shrinking Violet, Matter Eater Lad, Ferro Lad, Karate Kid, Dawnstar, Wildfire, XS, Andromeda, Timber Wolf (pick and choose which versions of the various characters) make a handsome roster, while Lightning Lord, Nemesis Kid, Tyr, Mano, Emerald Empress, Validus, Time Trapper and Mordru would be formidable enemies. Roughly 29 characters.

8) Secret Society of Super Villains. Another team that already has representatives in the current offerings, but is missing some noteworthy members. The original Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, Copperhead, Shadow Thief, Floronic Man and Poison Ivy flesh out the classic roster, while Talia al Ghul, Deathstroke, Grodd, Vandal Savage, Chemo, Doctor Polaris, Killer Frost, and Solomon Grundy represent the more familiar modern members. Catman, Chronos and Libra have had varying roles with the Society so throw them figures too. Roughly 17 characters.

9) Titans. They're initially well represented with Wonder Girl, Flash, Raven, Starfire and Supergirl either here or on the way, but to really represent we'll be waiting for Nightwing, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Robin, Miss Martian, Red Devil, Ravager, Blue Beetle, some pairing of Hawk and Dove, Flamebird and Terra. We'd throw in Kon-El if we had some idea what the heck DC can or can not do with him. Roughly 13 characters.

10) The Rest. In their recent interview, the Four Horsemen said that Swamp Thing was among the available DCUC characters, despite the long-standing prohibition against Vertigo and related characters being licensed to anyone but DC Direct, but Swamp Thing, Constantine and Sandman (Morpheus or Daniel) have all interacted with the DCU proper both pre-Vertigo and post (Swamp Thing and Constantine attended Hal Jordan's funeral, Daniel shared an adventure with the Justice League) are good choices, and so aren't bat-villains Joker, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Lady Shiva, Clayface, Harley Quinn, Man-Bat, Riddler, Scarecrow, Two-Face and bat-friends like Huntress, Spoiler, Sasha Bordeaux, and of course characters like Steel, Animal Man, Eradicator, Lady Styx, Mary Marvel, Blue Devil, Speedy, Fire, Ice, Lobo, Doomsday, Eclipso, Phantom Stranger, Manhunter (the Kate Spencer version), Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, El Diablo, Sgt. Rock, the Blackhawks, Etrigan, Captain Atom (or Monarch), Deadman, Geo-Force, Metamorpho, or Warlord. Roughly 42 characters.

And if they're really stretching for lower teir characters, might we recomend Gemm (Son of Saturn), the Shaggy Man, Anthro, Amethyst, Claw, Tomorrow Woman, Fate (not the doctor), OMAC (the ever-handy modern robots or the 70's post-apocalyptic gentleman, and almost any member of LEGION, Power Company, the Omega Men, Darkstars, Xenobrood, Challengers of the Unknown, Freedom Fighters or Suicide Squad. Roughly too many characters.

Maybe someday we'll do a What's Missing for the Super Hero Squad too just to show we're not partial to one universe or another.

Hulk Wave 3, part deux

2008-08-14T15:12:00.003-04:00

It looks like Hasbro is still tinkering with putting up Hulk Wave 3. Case in point? This listing for the Leader. This time they have pictures, at least of the Leader's pack, which is better than their previous attempt to put the figures up. On the down side, "fists ready to fly and Leader Villain figure"... come on! Oh, and there's a price tag of almost $17.

The Incredible Hulk teams up with the mightiest Marvel Super Heroes to battle the villains and save the day. Build your team and join in the battle with the Marvel Super Hero Squad!

Mini but mighty, this two-pack of figures includes the Gray Hulk figure with fists ready to fly and Leader Villain figure, ready to spring into action!
Item #: 78460
Approx. Retail: $ 16.99
Ages: 3 & Up"

So here's hoping the official listings will get put up soon. We're looking forward to this chance to bring on the bad guys.

Infinite Heroes 2009

2008-08-14T11:31:00.003-04:00

The Fwoosh has a great interview with Scott Neitlich where they discuss some of the upcoming Infinite Heroes changes for 2009 and it seems like people dissatisfied with the current offerings will be happy with what comes next.

Highlights of the interview:

- From 8 points of articulation to 11+, including ball joints to the elbows and knees, wrist and ankle joints, and possibly ball joints in the hips? (Note: The flat feet and t-hips were our big complaint. They can be posed, but only in standing and, if you have a seat nearby, sitting.)

- They're looking into "vehicles, play sets, the whole thing." If they're looking for advice from us, and they're not, let us be the first to say: Be sure to scratch-guard the Invisible Jet.

- The Crisis theme runs from 2008 through 2009, with 2010 starting a new direction.

- Once again, hold onto the Anti-Monitor points for SDCC 2009, which they say will be the peak of the line.

- 2010 is already in planning, 2009 is already in tooling and sculpting.

- The line is being coordinated with DC Direct and DC in general so that characters with upcoming "moments" get figures, while DC Direct and DCUC aren't over-lapping characters.

- The first 40 characters were sculpted by a single team, but "if the fans really pay attention to the sculpting in 2008 and '09, they might be able to find out just who designed the characters"

So go read the interview! There's good points (upcoming articulation, even better sculpts, vehicles, close coordination with the comics (something the comics themselves can't even do! Death of the New Gods/Infinite Crisis we're looking at you!) and bad points, but it gives you lots to look forward to in 2009.

Side issue, and just as a note to anyone making anything: suggesting that the first 40 or so pieces produced, at about $5 a piece, are just a warm-up that they need to stick it out with is a dangerous marketing strategy. Is that a threat? That if we don't buy the initial offerings, with whatever problems they bring, we won't get the good figures? Or that we can pass on these figures and wait for better ones? While some big names like Superman and Batman are likely to get re-sculpts with the "better" articulation and such, do we get the "privilege" of re-buying mid-to-low level characters in better formats later on?

Infinite Heroes Checklist

2008-08-13T15:28:00.003-04:00

The Infinite Heroes checklist has been updated to reflect the Entertainment Earth pre-orders for various waves and revisions. There's also notations to indicate differences between Entertainment Earth pre-orders and Action Figure Insider's shots of the placards shown at SDCC indicating which figures are coming when and in what wave. Atom and Black Hand have been spotted quite frequently on eBay, while carded Hush has been spotted a few times, also on eBay. Apparently depending on where you live (isn't that always the case) Atom and Black Hand are easier to find.

Custom Infinite Heroes

2008-08-13T14:41:00.002-04:00

Well it was only a matter of time before custom Infinite Heroes started hitting. While we don't generally link to ongoing eBay auctions featuring official products because of the fine line between scalping and your every day auctioning, customs are a one of a kind product that depends a great deal on the customizer's talents and abilities, moreso than their luck at finding a half-dozen un-opened cases at their local Walmart.

Heatwave
Captain Cold
Abra Kadabra
Pied Piper
Trickster

This mini-rogue's gallery, combined with the official Mirror Master, Weather Wizard and Zoom sure give the Flash plenty of enemies. Anyone spot other Infinite Heroes customs out there in the wild?

Marvel's Mighty Muggs

2008-08-13T10:24:00.003-04:00

While they may not appeal to me, Hasbro's Mighty Mugg line has lots of fans, and Marvel is hosting a gallery of most of the line.

Marvel's new super-deformed 2 inch line?

2008-08-12T10:41:00.002-04:00

Arriving in stores tomorrow should be Toyfare 134 with the Four Horseman's new Skeletor sculpt debuting. Also featuring?

a peek into the sketchbook of Japanese artist Yu-Pon, who's designing spirally-eyed, super-cute interpretations of Marvel superheroes and Indiana Jones characters for Kotobukiya! We'll see her original artwork, plus character designs no one else has seen, as well as having an in-depth interview!

Super Hero Times had a rundown of some of the things Kotobukiya was putting out with their Marvel license. Here's what they had to say about the "super-deformed" mini-figures:

The first wave of one-coin mini figures, based on the designs of Japanese artist, Yupon, is set to debut this fall, and fans were given the first wave’s 6 “known” characters: Dr. Doom, AIM Agent, Phoenix, Thing, Spider-man, and Nick Fury. 2 mystery characters will also be included with each wave. The figures will be blind-boxed, but the countertop display assortments will include all 8 figures and an additional army builder Unit (AIM Agent, in the first wave’s case) per display, ensuring that all characters have relatively equal availability to fans.

Action-Figure.com was the site that said they would be roughly 2-inches way back in February.

Chile Juguetes features a flyer promoting the upcoming toys and suggesting that the one-coin figures will cover both Marvel Universe proper and it's "movieverse" in "SD/Super Deformed" style.

Poking around tis thread on SG Collect shos you some of the ridiculously high quality sculpts on the statues that Kotobukiya is putting out, but alas, still no pictures of the 2-inch super deformed line, so Toyfare may actually be the earliest shots.

For more examples of Yupon's One Coin mini-figures however, you can check out Kid Nemo with their listing of Lamento: Beyond the Void One Coin Figures.

And off-topic, surfing around Kid Nemo is where I also found this wacky, and certainly stylized Green Goblin and Spider-Man PVC set made by Plex.

Poll Results, New Poll - X-Characters

2008-08-11T22:15:00.003-04:00

So the results of the last poll (which character currently starring in a team book would you like as a Super Hero Squad figure) are in. 100 votes, which was roughly 40% more than the previous poll for solo book characters and the results were pretty interesting. Some points I find interesting: Adam Warlock and Taskmaster were neck and neck and they both outperformed Night Thrasher and Songbird. Does that have anything to do with Warlock's upcoming Marvel Legends action figure and Taskmaster already having one. Night Thrasher's highest profile gig lately was dying in Civil War, so it's understandable why even his current role in New Warriors (the ex-X-Men disguised as somewhat similar and interchangeable tech-based heroes version) didn't get him a lot of love.

Songbird is just a little depressing. While the other three characters have suffered from long periods in comic-book limbo (anyone else remember that time Adam Warlock and Gamora realized they were in love and left to raise psuedo-adopted daughter Atleza in another dimension for like 6 years? Yeah, neither do the writers of Guardians of the Galaxy...) she's been a constant member of the Thunderbolts with only minor dips into comic-book limbo between the Thunderbolts Fight Club style make-over and the Avengers/Thunderbolts mini-series, for a little over a decade. Her last place showing may be a combination of being a B-character and also of being a fairly recent development (while Screaming Mimi, her earlier disguise, dates back to the late 70's, Songbird and the Thunderbolts didn't show up until the late 90s, by which time Night Thrasher had already starred in his own mini-series, a short-lived series, although on second thought by today's standard 21 issues is a pretty good showing, and several important issue of the first two volumes of the New Warriors).

Now, for the new poll, the rules are the same: Characters with known Super Hero Squad figures released or rumored don't count, nor do characters that we've already covered in The Case For sections. So far we've done polls for Solo Title Character and Team Book Character, so this month we go with X-Universe character. Although nothing is set in stone, the next poll will likely be either Characters Not Currently Featured in a Book or maybe Characters Created in the 2000's. Who knows?

So previous poll results:

- Adam Warlock 33 (33%)

- Night Thrasher 22 (22%)

- Songbird 15 (15%)

- Taskmaster 30 (30%)

Total Votes: 100

And new poll choices:

Madrox - Always at the periphery of the X-Universe, Madrox has been a member of X-Factor (both the government sanctioned strike-force of the 90s and the modern private investigations firm), Banshee's X-Corp and Xavier's X-Corporation. One of his duplicates even attempted to register X-Factor in his capacity as an agent of SHIELD.

Although he has never been an official X-Man, he has served as one of Moira MacTaggart's Muir Island X-Men with former X-Factor teammate Polaris and current teammate Siryn. In the past, he also worked with Siryn and another current teammate Rictor in X-Corporation's Paris branch. Actually, he worked with Siryn in Fallen Angels as well. With a Kevin Bacon level of mutant connectivity, his teammates have represented every major x-team, he plays well with most characters, and is a friend of a friend of almost everyone. Also, give him decent articulation and watch the army-building commence.

Warpath - Originally a Hellion who blamed the X-Men for his brother Thunderbird's death, he joined X-Force and blamed Emma Frost for a massacre at his reservation. Recently, he joined the newly reformed X-Force, blaming the Purifiers for the death of his friend and teammate Caliban. Although his motives for joining X-Teams tend to be a little repetitive, after over 20 years in the X-Universe, he finally hit the big time by joining the X-Men in the Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire.

Dazzler - Although her time with the X-Men was brief (from Uncanny X-Men 213, more or less, to Uncanny X-Men 250, once again more or less) her 42 issue series, her appearances in the X-Men Arcade Game and the two X-Men computer games of the late 80's and early 90's, the graphic novel (back when Marvel made original graphic novels, albeit much shorter than what we'd expect nowdays), Beauty and the Beast mini-series (starring Beast, obviously) and notable role in the perenially favorite Phoenix Saga storyline ensure her place in the X-Men pantheon.

Recently returning to the spotlight in New Excalibur, X-Men: Die By the Sword and rumored to be returning to the main X-Men teams, a figure of Dazzler would help round out the X-Men of the 80's line, featuring Magneto, Rogue, Psylocke, the upcoming Marvel Girl and Shadowcat figures and characters like Longshot and Forge who are certainly a longshot (if you'll forgive the pun).

Cannonball - Just as Dazzler is critical to the X-Men of the 80's, Cannonball is important to the X-Men of the 90's. While fellow New Mutants like Magma, Karma, Sunspot and Moonstar never really get the action-figure attention they desrve, Cannonball's membership in the X-Men earns him the occasional figure. Most recently he has served with Rogue's Marauding X-Men and now appears in Young X-Men as a member of what may (or may not) be a new version of the Brotherhood of Mutants.

Customizing Ideas 4 - Golden Age Vision

2008-08-11T14:42:00.005-04:00

Since it's been a slow newsday, what the hey, lets throw up another customizing idea. This time the victim is a golden age hero who, like the Flash and Green Lantern before him had his name and look stolen while having his origin thrown out... the golden age Vision.

As an alien cop, he fought crime and Nazis on Earth, and during recent retcons he's become an ally of the Invaders. Powers are a hodgepodge of mind-control, strength, flight, and transportation through smoke. Most recently, he appeared in Avengers/Invaders 4 as Doctor Strange and Echo/Ronin sought possible clues to the Invaders' appearance in modern-day New York City. And while his origin keeps getting more and more complicated, this resident of the Dimension of Smoke also gets redesigned every time he appears. Examples of his various color schemes are seen here, here, and here. This suggestion is based on his Avengers/Invaders look though.

The recipe: Vision (From the Avengers 4-pack, naturally), plus paint. Having seen his previous versions, you can make do with everything from yellow, black, blue, white, green, red. Just pick and choose which scheme you like. And a little bit of some sculpting material to finish off the gauntlets, which usually come to a point. Once finished, you're just a Spitfire, Union Jack, Whizzer, Miss America, Toro, Bucky, Jack Frost, Sun Girl (and about a dozen other golden age heroes) short of being able act out scenes from Roy Thomas's classic Invaders series.

Customizing Ideas 3 - Lady Octopus

2008-08-11T12:20:00.005-04:00

After stealing MikeEvil's Red Hulk, we went with the much more obscure Lady Octopus. Originally calling herself Doctor Octopus, this assistant to the original Doctor Octopus aided in his resurrection by the Hand (who get along and have also resurrected Elektra, Wolverine, and Northstar among others) and for the most part disappeared into Marvel obscurity, reappearing briefly during Nick Fury's Secret War where she helped take on Captain America.

The concept: Wasp + Doctor Octopus's Arms + green paint, yellow paint = Carolyn Trainer, the Lady Octopus. The same warnings apply, the photoshopping is laughably poor, someone with real skill could certainly make a much better version, etc., etc.

And to really make your Lady Octopus stand-out, you can trim the claws to more point-like ends, or use thinner claws, like the Movie Doctor Octopus claws for instance. Using the movie claws will probably require slightly more work to make the figure stand however. Also, instead of merely painting on her gauntlets and legs, a little sculpting material can be used to actually sculpt on costume accessories.

And as a final point, the Wasp figure relies on her wings for balance, so if you simply cut the arms off directly from Doc Ock's back where they're glued on, the final figure will NOT need the legs to be angled as they are in the picture.

The Index is back, and it's updated

2008-08-09T23:16:00.002-04:00

Well something was obviously up when traffic from the index skyrocketed suddenly, and that means one thing: The index is back up. Google is fixing their problem, and we have happily updated the index. We're still thinking about a new format for the index, more Fact:Cite than Question:Answer since even in pure-toy posts, we still end up pointing out everything from interesting all-ages comics to intellectual property issues.

News Clips 8/8/08

2008-08-08T10:29:00.002-04:00

First off, happy Olympics for those that enjoy them.

Second off, Iron Man on DVD and Blu-Ray September 30? No word yet on when Incredible Hulk might be coming, although people on IMDB are speculating about cut scenes, scenes from the script and novelization that weren't included in the movie, and the possibilities of adding 70 minutes (70? The entire film was only 114!) back to the film, including the possible Captain America cameo.

And speaking of DVDs, TV Shows on DVD has volume 1 from Spectacular Spider-Man coming on September 9. Over on the Marvel Animation Forum there's been discussion about a revelation at Gathering of the Gargoyles that the individual releases are apparently cut differently (scenes that were cut from broadcast put back in, episodes spliced to form a "movie"), and apparently at some conventions details about a spring-break related movie were discussed

Marvel Animation Age talks about the upcoming slate of direct-to-DVD animation releases. Nothing new is announced, but the fact that there were 4 movies in 2 years, followed by 1 in 2008 (Next Avengers in September), 1 in early 2009 (Hulk Vs), and then another 2 all the way in 2010 (Planet Hulk and Thor: Tales of Asgard) is kind of a let down. Imagine if, instead of extended breaks between some movies, Lions Gate could have produced another movie or two? 10 movies over 5 years, instead of 8. A new Marvel title every six months. Possibilities.

And speaking of movies: The Iron Fist Fan Film. Featuring Elektra. Well, it's no Marvel Zombies, but it'll have to do.

Finally, the all-ages story everyone wants to read: Wolverine Babysitter. Shadowcat, Illyana, Siryn and new character Amp have a slumber party filled with secrets and robot-Magnetos.

Wave 11 at Entertainment Earth too!

2008-08-07T18:29:00.001-04:00

Entertainment Earth has Wave 11 up for pre-order too! Shipping in December is the first set of cases, featuring:

1x Black Spider-Man & Doc Ock
1x Daredevil & Spider-Man
1x Wolverine & Psylocke
1x Ben Reilly Spider-Man & Carnage
2x Spider-Man & Ultron
2x Skrull Soldier & S.H.I.E.L.D Agent
2x Spider-Man (Black Costume) & Ronin
2x Weapon X & Mystique

Then Revision 1 changes to:

1x Black Spider-Man & Doc Ock
1x Ghost Rider & Motorcycle
1x Wolverine & the Hand
1x Blade & Punisher
2x Spider-Man & Ultron
2x Skrull Soldier & S.H.I.E.L.D Agent
2x Spider-Man (Black Costume) & Ronin
2x Weapon X & Mystique

Wave 11 up for pre-order

2008-08-07T18:25:00.005-04:00

Big Bad Toy Store has Wave 11 of the Super Hero Squad (Ronin, Ultron, Mystique, Skrull Soldier, SHIELD Agent) up for pre-order ($30 for the set, another $8 and change for shipping and suggests that the figures are shipping in November.

And interesting to note, this is the first wave since way back when 5 and 6 shipped together to feature a 2-pack where both characters are new. Who knows when the next pack will come out, since the Black Widow wave and upcoming Hulk Wave 3 are all 1 previously released character and 1 new character. The Skrull Soldier, while making perfect sense in terms of Secret Invasion, still came totally out of left field when the SKUs were released back in February. While popular guesses for the set included Winter Soldier, Hydra Soldier and AIM soldier, nobody guessed Skrull Soldier until he was shown at SDCC.

Cool Toy Review posts CP2, IM3 pictures

2008-08-07T17:06:00.003-04:00

Cool Toy Review has also posted the promo pictures of the upcoming Super Hero Squad Collector's Pack and upcoming Iron Man Wave 3 figures.

Side-note, when filling in backgrounds of the promo-pics, if you don't remember to fill in the blocked spaces (ie, Wolverine's arm, Iceman's legs) you do not achieve the result you wish.

Index is down

2008-08-07T15:33:00.002-04:00

For some reason, the index is down. It most likely stems from whatever problem caused these users (although there are a many other posts on the subject in Google's help area) to have the exact same problem at the exact same time so we're just waiting for Google to fix the problem (or for us to get the gumption to pick another place to place the cross-index since the Google Sites framework has been obnoxious.)

Customizing Ideas 2

2008-08-07T14:55:00.006-04:00

Since we had some positive response to Miss Sinister we figured what they hey, lets throw another one up. And you'll note that just like Miss Sinister, the photoshopping is poor, the changes are mostly in color, the results amateurish, but for those with talent or at least a little creativity, it's a fun exercise.

This figure came about as a result of the disappointment that Red Hulk is apparently not going to be in the new Hulk wave (at least not from the pictures that have turned up online. Although Red Hulk's comic book reception has been lukewarm, he's every bit as notable a continuity development as Grey Hulk/Mr. Fixit or any of the many, many mutates.

The suggested recipe: One of the many Wave 1 Hulks that are out there (from the packs which are still on some store shelves, to the Toys R Us Avengers 5-packs that were clearanced to $3 a few months back, to the Easter Packs, but really, you can probably make due with most other Hulk figures) + some dark red paint, some black paint = Red Hulk

Now, as we have said previously, the really bad photoshopping is for illustrative purposes. To improve on your results, try using some sculpting material to give him hair spikes or some bulging veins. Or you can wait for a possible 4th wave. Your mileage varies.

The Case For... Havok

2008-08-07T13:39:00.002-04:00

It's time for 5th installment of the mostly monthly Case For.

With the exception of a couple notable big names (Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Scarlet Witch, Moon Knight, Bullseye) Hasbro has done an applause-worthy job of putting out the Marvel Universe's heavy-hitters. In only 2 years, we have (and yes, this is counting figures like Sentry which have yet to ship) most of the current core-title Avengers line-ups and a large section of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. X-Men fans, however, usually have a long list of characters they want to see.

One can argue that X-Men just don’t get the same love those other groups get, but being honest, the one new X-figure (more or less) per wave keeps up with other major groups like the Avengers, Spider-Man, Marvel Universe, Bad Guys, and seriously out-performs other groups like Cosmic Characters and New Classics (Young Avengers, Runaways, Agents of Atlas, The Initiative, New Warriors and other groups that are not as iconic as many other figures), but the number of different X-groups and X-characters means more characters are beloved to more people.

All that is a long-winded way of saying important X-characters like Havok are still missing in action. One of the first additions to the original X-Men, Havok left after the all-new, all-different X-Men came on the scene, but returned for the Australian years. During the 20+ issues during which the X-Men were effectively disbanded (250-273), Havok was a Genoshan Magistrate before joining the newly government sanctioned X-Factor.

Over the next 80 issues, Havok was featured either as leader of X-Factor, or as one of X-Factor’s then arch-enemy the Brotherhood. Follow that up with his 30+ issue stint as the main character in Mutant X and a return to the X-Men featuring high points (The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire) and low points (a botched engagement to Polaris, a cross-over with the Exiles where he faced the “evil” Havok personality), the character has almost 40 years of history behind him.

With the upcoming storyline War of Kings promising to resolve ongoing storylines for both Havok and the Starjammers, Black Bolt and the Inhumans, and even Nova and many players from the Annihilation stories, Havok will be once again in the spotlight.

Unlike some of the Case For characters, Havok has actually had a few action figures before (certainly better than Polaris who was lucky to get a bad repaint of an early Rogue sculpt for her action figure debut) so the odds of him being made eventually look pretty good.

Now, the case against Havok can be strong as well. Most importantly is the fact that none of Havok’s re-inventions has been successful. He has been the bitter younger brother living in Cyclops’s shadow, the confident team-leader, the space-rebel, a mutant trying to live a normal life, an outsider trying to do good in a world of evil… and none of these lasts very long. When a majority of the character’s stories involve said character possessed by Eric the Red, mind-wiped by the Siege Perilous, brainwashed by the Dark Beast, psychically induced to love his nurse by a comatose mutant, and possessed by an evil version of his own psyche, one may wonder if he has any purpose on the team other than being the one to get mentally messed around with by one villain or another.

His pre-disposition for possession and manipulation rubs off on those he's near, as Polaris has also been possessed and distressed a number of times (possessed by Erik the Red, Malice, and the Shadow King, brainwashed by Apocalypse into becoming one of his many Horsemen, haunted by visions of Daap, driven insane by Havok's death and more insane by his return), Wolfsbane spent years programmed to love him before Haven cured her, and we've already talked about his nurse.

More customs

2008-08-06T11:22:00.003-04:00

Figure Realm is currently the host of 9,027 different customs, including G.I.Joe style Captain Americas and a Taskmaster that look like they'd fit well with Marvel's upcoming Marvel Universe line, a couple dozen customized Super Hero Squad figures (and as a sign of how quick the line moves, 11 of the 26 figures have since had official versions produced), and tons and tons of Marvel Legends style figures (over 3000 total.) Interesting to note that a couple great designs (Tiger Shark, Captain Marvel/Photon/Pulsar, and Jocasta) keep popping up despite being on the b-character lists, while a couple of popular mainstays (Wolverine, Punisher, Hulk) can be seen in almost every permutation. In fact, Deadpool, one of the more popular customs, even has his own Potato Head version to sit next to your Spider-Man, Optimus Prime and Darth Vader.

Customizing Ideas

2008-08-05T15:11:00.008-04:00

In the past we've suggested customizing ideas even though we lack the time (as can be seen by the half-converted Captain America to Red Guardian that has been sitting in the closet since he was covered in primer) to actually produce the customs, but inspired by Toycutter, specifically this post we thought it would be interesting to post customizing ideas for Super Hero Squad figures (and whatever else may strike our fancy). We will also be poorly photoshopping our suggestions. Attempt at your own risk!

First up: Miss Sinister! The (likely) clone of Mr. Sinister recently uncovered in X-Men Legacy, she does not appear to know much of her past, and neither does the reader, but Sebastian Shaw has plans for her. After rejecting an offer to be the new Black Queen of the Hellfire Club (how come nobody gives Selene any respect?) she dubs herself Miss Sinister, and follows the long, proud trend of female versions of male characters (from Spider-Woman and She-Hulk, to today's Lady Bullseye, Scorpion, Tarantula and White Tiger).

Emma Frost
+ black paint, white paint, red paint, clipped cape
= Miss Sinister!

And to make the figure that much more convincing, Miss Frost needs a bit of a haircut, a little Apoxy to make the hair fall over her shoulder, and of course, the fine details like Miss Sinister's earrings.

We've got other similar ideas, and plenty of bad photoshopping, so if you try this, be sure to let us see your results.