Toy Fair 2011 – Hasbro Marvel Report – Marvel Legends and Marvel Universe

Hasbro held its collector event for the online media outlets – how we qualify for this I’ll never know, but I won’t fight it. It’s a great event that covers all the Hasbro collector-oriented lines, including Star Wars, GI Joes, and Transformers. But my first love is the comic book properties, so I’ll be sharing the pictures and recaps of the Marvel lines first.

First off, let’s start with Marvel Legends. I was a little surprised that they decided to show some items – at least in the slide show. None of what we were shown was available in the showroom, and that’s not surprising since this is 2012 product. And unlike last year, no pictures or video was allowed during the presentation. But, across the board, I can say what was in the slide show looked good.

Legends will actually make its return at San Diego Comic Con, with an exclusive figure of Heroic Age Thor. The package, which Hasbro did not reveal, will be pretty special (lights and sounds?) with artwork by Simone Bianchi. It looks like Legends will follow the Marvel Universe model of numbering its figures, as Thor will bear the Marvel Legends #0. Also shown in unpainted sculpt only (some wax, some 3D) were Ultimate Hawkeye, who Jesse Falcon told me was sculpted by Dave Cortez, and Heroic Age Captain America (Bucky Barnes), who I am guessing is a 3D sculpt by Gentle Giant.

The big news, though, is that the Build-a-Figure will be back with Legends, with Terrax the Tamer being the first revealed, again in unpainted sculpt form. Depending on who you talk to, the BAF concept was either a slam dunk once Hasbro decided to bring Legends back, or a topic of much debate. I would guess that with the history of the BAF and now Mattel’s Collect and Connect, there was no denying the positive impact the BAF would have at retail – but there were probably some challenges in getting it to cost out.

The expectation from everyone at Hasbro is that the Legends line will continue the quality we’ve seen in the Legends 2-packs that we’ve gotten sporadically since the main line went on hiatus. I can’t wait to see more at San Diego Comic-Con.

Marvel Universe will continue going strong – and rest assured, Hasbro believes there is strong demand for both 6 and 4-inch scales. This fall we’ll see new team packs:

• Classic Avengers – Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, with a tiny Wasp and Ant-Man, who will have a winged ant to ride

• X-Force – Warpath, Wolverine, and Deadpool

• Fantastic Four (Three) – Reed, Ben, Sue, and Herbie

Single figures will continue. Wave 2, with artwork by Olivier Coipel, is due to hit in a few weeks. It will feature Cyclops, FA Wolverine, Gladiator, Apocalypse, and Cable with baby Hope. I had not hear before that Hope would be a chase variant, but apparently she will come with Cable in the first shipments, and Hasbro said she won’t be hard to find.

Waves 3 and 4 will feature artwork by Simone Bianchi. Shown only in the slide presentation, we’ll be seeing:

• Commander Steve Rogers
• X-23 in her X-Force costume
• Darkhawk (with classic and War of Kings variants)
• Namor (brand new sculpt in green trunks)
• Ultron with modern dexo
• Doctor Strange (with astral variant).
• Falcon with Redwing
• Skaar
• Doctor Doom
• Scarlet Spider

Comic 2-packs will also continue. We had previously seen a press shot for Wolverine / Silver Samurai and Deadpool / Taskmaster.

They also showed (in the slide show only):

• Spider-Man and Captain Britain (first appearance)
• Quicksilver and Wonderman
• Luke Cage and Iron Fist – classic outfits
• Adam Warlock and Thanos (celebrating the 20th anniversary of Infinity Gauntlet)

And while there is no line planned for the X-Men: First Class movie, Hasbro is planning a few X-Men items to support it. Two comic 2-packs are planned:

• Cyclops and Jean Grey in First Class deco
• Wolverine and Sabretooth

The X-Men 6-pack, featuring Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird, will be a Toys R Us exclusive. This pack will also have a variant, featuring a “bamfing” Nightcrawler (the presenter said Wolverine, but I think it was a misstatement) and an alternate deco on Colossus.

Gigantic Battles will hit in the next couple months, but as these originally had the Norman Osborn / HAMMER packaging, I am wondering if these are having trouble finding space in the Wal-Mart planograms – maybe these will hit when the Thor movie is out. The Goliath and Thor pack will have a Ragnorak variant. No variant reported for the Frost Giant and Loki.

The Marvel Universe Masterworks Sentinel is still coming as planned, with an exclusive San Diego Comic-Con version with suitcase art by Joe Quesada. This will be the dark purple version, and it will only be available at SDCC (and I suspect at HasbroToyShop.com in very limited quantities.) Galactus did extremely well at SDCC and so they’ve made a little more this year, but still expect to sell out quickly.

The retail version of the Sentinel will come with Wolverine,  like the retail version of Galactus came with Silver Surfer.

Finally, Hasbro teased us with some Guardians of the Galaxy goodness, showing a slide of Rocket Racoon and Groot. All they would say was that they were coming in 2011, but wouldn’t say when or how. I really hope this means will be getting a modern Drax the Destroyer, because that guy is badass.

Overall, a nice showing for Marvel Universe and Legends, even if the most exciting stuff was just in slides – they’ve got to save something for San Diego Comic-Con, right?