As has been their tradition the past several years, Hasbro held its ‘Twas the Night Before… Party on the eve of New York Comic Con. All of its collector-oriented brands were represented, including marketing and design members from their Star Wars, Transformers, and Marvel brand teams.
We focused on the new Marvel Legends reveals. Those included the final reveals for the widely-rumored and now-confirmed Sandman Build-a-Figure Spider-Man wave, and four other Legends whose final homes have not yet been revealed, but may be slotted into upcoming X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy waves.
Let’s start with the Sandman wave.
We saw most of the Sandman wave, sans Sandman, at the Hasbro preview breakfast at San Diego Comic-Con a couple of months ago. The reveals there were Green Goblin, Spider-Man U.K., Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), an updated black-suited Spidey, Spider-Man 2099, and Jackal.
At this event, Hasbro revealed Shocker as the last individually carded figure in the wave. Each of the seven figures will include a BAF part for Sandman. The Marvel brand team really wanted to pack in a lot of value for Sandman – that’s why you’re getting two heads (one regular and one horrifically battle-damaged) plus a few interchangeable attachments for his hands.
These figures shown are production pieces, with a planned shelf date in the January / February 2017 timeframe.
The Hasbro Marvel team also revealed four 2017 figures but wasn’t ready to share in which waves these figures would fall – Shatterstar, Old Man Logan, Adam Warlock, and Death’s Head II. We’ve got our theories.
Shatterstar and Old Man Logan are likely to be the final figures in the Warlock BAF X-Men wave that were part of the Hasbro Marvel reveals at San Diego Comic-Con. At SDCC, in addition to the New Mutants Warlock BAF, Hasbro showed off Dazzler, Sunfire, Polaris, the Jim Lee Cyclops, and Colossus (in his Utopia / San Francisco costume). With Shatterstar and Logan, that would make up a 7-figure wave.
These figures are painted prototypes, but Hasbro brought out the first test shot for Old Man Logan just for comparison. So production is underway on that figure, and it’s looking really good thus far.
Adam Warlock is most likely part of the Guardians of the Galaxy wave. That wave’s first figures, Angela, Nova, Vance Astro, Darkhawk, and the Titus BAF, were also revealed at SDCC. This still leaves at least 2 more spots open, which Hasbro said were to be filled with movie figures. This was enabled by tighter collaboration with Marvel Studios.
Death’s Head II is a wild card. While he looks big enough to be a Build-a-Figure for a yet-unrevealed wave, he is built on the upcoming, single-carded Colossus body. A Marvel UK character, DHII has had some cameo appearances with the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Cable, but has mostly stayed within the confines of his own limited series of comics.
This leaves the tantalizing question of where this figure will land. Does he fit with any of the upcoming themed waves as a single-carded figure? Does he make sense as a retailer or con exclusive? Could he headline a wave as a BAF?
If Sandman is any indicator, the answer could be all of the above. In any case, I’m hoping we’ll see him come with alternate parts that let you build the original Death’s Head too.
We’ll probably have to wait until Toy Fair in February to see more.
[Update – 4 press pics from Hasbro]
