Another Comic-Con has passed us by, so it is time for us to pick our “Best in Show” this year! I’ve gotta do a top three since I have trouble just picking one!
3) Number three goes to Hasbro’s Marvel Legends Wave 2 Build-a-Figure Arnim Zola!
I have to admit, I’m not super familiar with the character, but I love the way he turned out! C’mon, how can you not love a guy with his face on his chest? I see Arnim as a sign of great things to come from the revamped ML. I guess you can say I’m generally excited with the return of Marvel Legends, period. The fact that the Arnim Zola wave (wave 2) will include Bucky Cap and some Wrecking Crew members just adds to the excitement of it all! I do hope they start innovating and improving some of the standard Marvel Legends bucks moving forward (just like Thor!), it’s the perfect time to do so too with the popularity of Marvel (due to the upcoming movies) riding high for the next couple of years!
>> See more Marvel Legends coverage
2) Number two is a tie between Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics Sorceress and Shadow Weaver!
Mattel really had a good showing for Masters of the Universe this year. The Mattycollector line is still going strong, and I was happy to see some must-have characters start off the next year. I was impressed by two figures in particular, the Sorceress and Shadow Weaver.
These two ladies are the reason I’m getting a MOTUC Sub this year so #2 goes to the both of them (I loved Snout Spout but he comes with this year’s sub!)! The Sorceress turned out real good, and I can’t wait to see how those wings fold up! Shadow Weaver is a nice surprise as next year’s Sub exclusive, for a while there we thought we wouldn’t get her because of all the Filmation rights hullabaloo, but I guess they finally sorted that out. I can see some people being miffed that they have to subscribe to get her though!
>> See more Masters of the Universe Classics coverage
1) My number one pick goes to the Square Enix God of War III Kratos figure!
Square Enix had a lot of great stuff in their booth this year. The Arkham Asylum figures and the Metal Gear Solid Play Arts Kai figs blew my socks off. But in the end I was really excited to see a fully articulated Kratos figure. Just look at the detail on that figure. It looks like they used actual chains for his Blades of Exile, and knowing Square Enix, the articulation should be top-notch.
I think NECA and DC Unlimited fell short with their versions of the “God of War” (as far as articulation goes), and even though the games are over, I am happy to see a fully posable Kratos. Granted, we probably won’t go very far as far as selection of characters from the GoW videogames and his scale might be different from what I usually collect, but in the end, even if Kratos is the only figure we get out of the GoW games from Square Enix, I’ll be one happy toy collector.
>> See more Square Enix coverage
My honorable mentions go to ThreeA’s Star Wars Prototypes (crossing my fingers they get made one day), and Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts Vegeta, which I can’t believe I did not take a pic of! Shame on me!!
There goes my “Bests in Show”!! I had a blast this year at the ‘Con and it was nice seeing Ron, Cara, meeting Buzzy and seeing all my Fwoosh bros in San Diego! Can’t wait for next year’s Comic-Con!
I want to like Marvel Legends more than I do. But I’ll wait to get some of the figures “in hand” before judging. ZOLA looks pretty good. I DO want him.
I do know that I would like a better Bucky,…and NAMOR, THE SUB-MARINER figures.
And I would like to see ML open up the Marvel Golden Age with figures like:
THE HUMAN TORCH (two figures: one- just the “flame-off” android, and one “flame-one” “full-burn” Torch.
Also, TORO, (with “on” and “off” versions)
THE DESTROYER (Stan’s first hero and one of my favorites.!!)
THE VISION (Simon and Kirby’s Vision. Another favorite of mine.)
THE RED SKULL (a better one than we have.)
CAPTAIN AMERICA
MISS AMERICA
THE WHIZZER
MASTERMAN
MASTERWOMAN(?) Is that her name.??
Some Nazis uniformed thugs (for Army Building)
UNION JACK
SPITFIRE
THE ANGEL
and…a few more Golden Age Marvel GREATS!!
I could be won over a little if ML did these figures.
Tough order for some of those names there Capt. Zero, you know how the business goes, if it doesn’t relate to anything going on in the current movies, cartoons, or even comic books, it’s tougher to get it produced. Hasbro has been pretty smart lately about adding some lesser known characters (to newer generations anyway) in their Marvel Universe and Movie lines. And I’m sure they’ll throw in an obscure character every now and then in future ML waves. Thanks for commenting!