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

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.

The Mysterious Wave 10

I had a great e-mail from a reader pointing out that the Super Hero Squad Wave 10 figures (Sentry et al) have been removed from Hasbro Toy Shop, and the third wave of 4-packs (City in Crisis/Spider-Man Saves the Day and Winter Soldier Saga) disappeared as well.

In late April Wave 3 of the 4-packs went up for pre-order, and as of right now, orders placed for the sets are still listed as "back-ordered" in HTS's account status and were originally scheduled to ship 8/14/08. Before those figures were up for pre-order, Wave 10 was never made it to pre-order stage.

I've read a couple posts on some trader message boards saying that the line is over, and Entertainment Earth did mark the wave as canceled but the figures remained up on HTS for weeks afterward.

Now, here's where things get even weirder: the first picture of Wave 10 came from the Previews catalog and said the figures were shipping in July. The figures are not listed in the July 2008 consumer cancellations however and we don't have access to earlier cancellation lists. We checked the Product Change Archives and the Shipping Updates but neither of those mentioned the figures. That's not necessarily determinative of anything though, as the only real Hasbro announcement made was when they bumped up some Indiana Jones figures shipping dates.

Midtown Comics still has the figures listed as shipping July/August, and is offering the cases at 10% discount, Urban Collector lists them at 18% discount and shipping in July, Statue Toys has them shipping 3rd Quarder 2008 for about a 10% pre-order discount, Galaxy Comics gives them a July 30 shipping date so apparently none of those retailers have any reason to think that orders will not be fulfilled. But as we've talked about before, simply being available for pre-order online does not mean a product is guaranteed.


We're going to try to get more information on the subject, but right now what we have is:

(1) Winter Soldier Saga wasn't shipping until August, and those pre-orders when placed before HTS took the product listings down have not been yet been canceled.

(2) Wave 10 is listed as canceled by Entertainment Earth, and the products which were shown on HTS (but never put up for pre-order) have been removed. The figures were originally scheduled by Previews to ship in July, and (from what we have access to) Previews does not list the figures as canceled/delayed, and many comic stores (or at least their online counterparts), still have the figures available for pre-order.

So the information we have currently says the products are still coming out.

And slightly better pictures of the Winter Soldier Saga Set...

Well, better is subjective. Marvelous News has some more of the same pics of the upcoming Super Hero Squad Wave 3 set, Winter Soldier Saga. Basically, the shots get sent to the reputable news sites, but to make them look "theirs" some sites try coloring the background, and the result is Falcon's ear going bye-bye so while these are the same pictures, albeit smaller, they don't have the chipped photoshopping and the awkwardness of using fill to paint over part of Falcon. They do still have the same white specks all over the Winter Soldier box as the earlier photos though. Still, for photo junkies, this may be of interest.

Up close with Spider-Man Saves the Day, Winter Soldier Saga

Cool Toy Review has up close shots of the new Super Hero Squad 4 packs Winter Soldier Saga and Spider-Man Saves the Day. It's a little easier to see the text on top of the Spider-Man box in this photo set. There's some unfortunate photoshopping that cuts through Falcon's ear and left bits of the white background Hasbro usually uses for these promotional photos in spikes on Captain America's shield, but if nothing else it does show that the City In Crisis on Hasbro's site = Spider-Man Saves the Day once boxed.

The Champions rumor

And for the other part of my latest rumor-busting romp, a dissection of the Champions rumor.

Basically, the crux of the rumor is that the Champions and X-Men 2 4-packs have been confirmed by Walmart SKUs.

I already discussed the Second X-Men Super Hero Squad theme pack at length in the City in Crisis post which, to summarize: the second X-Men 4-pack already came out, but because early posts with the SKUs called “City in Crisis” “the one with Emma Frost”, when the official name came out everyone assumed City in Crisis had been named changed to reflect Magneto, and then added City in Crisis back into contention when it was revealed that a 4-pack with that name came out. We got both X-Men packs, we know what “Urban Heroes”, “Winter Soldier Sa”, “Avengers”, and “City in Crisis” are now, and eventually when another X-Men pack comes out, everyone is going to assume it was the X-Men pack that we had the SKU for last year. Long story short: it has been confirmed, but it already came and went and we all have bamfing Nightcrawlers on our shelves.

As for Champions, it is not confirmed by Walmart SKUs.

The known SKUs for 4 packs are:
MVL CITY IN CRISIS 65356933020
MVL THEME PK URBAN HEROES 65356930439
MVL THEME PK X-MEN 1 65356930256
MVL THEME PK AVENGER 65356931768
MVL THEME PK X-MEN 2 65356931769
MVL WINTR SOLDIER SA 65356933021
MVL 4PK THE NEW F4 65356935071
MVL 4PK THE DEFENDERS 65356935072
4 PACK SECRET WARS 65356937551
ALIEN INVASION 6535693755

No Champions listed there. There is mention of Champions coming out of coverage of Toyfair 2008 from Marvelousnews but no SKU, and no other information.

If anything, the fact that “The Champions” are a bit of a name-problem for Marvel, as they discovered during the World War Hulk when they originally pitched “The Order” as the Champions as seen here on Newsarama and then had to change plans as seen elsewhere on Newsarama, means it's probable that if and when we do see a Champions set, it may not even be called Champions, at least not officially. It's unlikely that it would be called New F4 or Defenders though.

So yeah, X-Men 2 was a confirmed Walmart SKU, but it's already been released, and Champions was mentioned at Toyfair, and reported on Marvelousnews, BUT it's not a confirmed Walmart SKU.