Review: Marvel Legends Tiger Shark

If there was an award for the most ridiculous-looking comic book character...well, there'd likely be a lot of competition for that crown. But for the moment we're going to just concentrate on the completely insane Tiger Shark....because that's the figure I've just bought from Toys R Us!

Review: Marvel Legends Iron Monger (Iron Man 3 BAF)

Once upon a time Marvel Legends toys could be found in every toy shop in the land. Then Toybiz went out of buisness, Hasbro took over and... Well, it's been a bit hard to find Marvel Legends toys ever since. At least in this land, the UK. Hasbro UK, Toys R Us, Smyths - someone decided that the UK deserved a second chance and thus, hopeful that the film release would boost sales, decided to release the Iron Man 3 Legends series.

The first 3 figures were released earlier in the year. Ranging from £15 to £20 a piece, these were annoyingly expensive, though the price wasn't entirely unexpected. At least, in addition to the figure, Hasbro added in a (reasonably) large Build A Figure piece of Iron Monger. Of course a film version of Iron Monger was released to coincide with the first Iron Man film, but this time we've got a figure based on the comic version.

Unfortunately, with only 3 figures released, Iron Monger was looking a little sad. Or he would have done if his head had been one of the pieces, which it wasn't. Until now!

SDCC 2013: The Want List

San Diego Comic Con is this coming weekend which means it's time for my annual 'stuff I want' list. As usual, just because I want it doesn't necessarily mean I'll pay ebay prices for any of it.

MOTUC Rokkon & Stonedar (Mattel)
As a collector of Masters of the Universe Classics toys since the very first release (which was also a SDCC exclusive), buying this set is kind of a given - especially since it includes one of my favourite He-Man characters.

In addition Mattel are selling a mini-Masters two-pack, based on the characters as seen in the iPad game. If these were a hell of a lot cheaper, I might be interested but at 'exclusive' prices they're an easy pass.

As usual, the MOTUC stuff will be available on MattyCollector.com after the show.

ThunderCats Minimates series 4(?) (AFX)
As a new convert to ThunderCats minimates, these are a must-have. I'm not especially fond of minimates as a rule, but somehow the style really suits the 'Cats.

Marvel Legends Thunderbolts (Hasbro)
I've collected Marvel Legends since series 1 of the Toybiz line. There are now numerous large vats of the things in my house. Occasionally I'll think about selling them, cover the living room with them, remember how great they are and then put them all back in their vats, safe from sale for another day.

I've been reading Thunderbolts since...um, can't actually remember. Think it was about the time Warren Ellis took over writing. The team in this set is one of my favourites and it's really upsetting that the Hasbro exclusives always cost so much on the secondary market that I really can't justify buying them.

The Hobbit Azog (Bridge Direct)
As anyone who went into my office while I was doing my PhD will know, I have rather a lot of Lord of the Rings ToyBiz figures. The Bridge Direct ones aren't a perfect match to these, but they're close enough. I really, really hope that Bridge Direct aren't stupid enough to release Azog, a relatively major character, as an SDCC-only release. Here's to hoping I can get hold of him, minus the fancy packaging, in a 'regular' toy shop sometime soon.

Doctor Who Ace (Underground Toys)
This is one which will definitely be easy to get hold of from Forbidden Planet, likely sometime in August if past SDCC 'exclusives' have been anything to go by. Ace was one of my favourite Who companions and it's great to finally get a figure of her.

News: Marvel Legends wave 2 in the UK

Hasbro UK have got back to me via their Facebook group with news about Marvel Legends. Wave 2 is coming! (yes, I know it's a very old logo I've used above but it'll do)

Wave 2 of the Marvel Legends will be hitting the UK around August. It will include the following characters: 

HEROIC AGE CAP
THUNDERBALL
DARK WOLVERINE
FANTOMEX
DRAX
MADAME MASQUE
BIG TIME SPIDER MAN

Which of course leads to the question of whether the variants are coming too...

News: Marvel Legends Yet Live!

After news on what was happening on Marvel Legends in the UK, I went straight to the source. Well, their Facebook page...

Demand for the first wave was super-high and we're experiencing some stock shortages atthe moment, but we're hoping to get some new stocks over the next few months.....we'll know more soon. Watch this space!

So Legends aren't cancelled. In fact it appears the complete opposite is true and Legends are selling better than Hasbro expected. Excellent!

Marvel Legends: Terrax Wave

This time last week there was panic on the forums of t'interweb that Wave 2 of Marvel Legends wouldn't see release on these shores as orders were being cancelled by Hasbro UK. After a slight panic, it appears that the release has simply been delayed until the summer (possibly due to Americans complaining that the first and second waves appeared in shops on top of each other). From all appearances Marvel Legends is doing okay in toy shops. Indeed at Memorabilia yesterday I overheard countless conversations about the figures.

Getting back to the toys at hand. The first wave of Legends - the 'Terrax' wave - has recently arrived in shops and looks a bit like this -

Review: Extremis Iron Man

Someone once said that Marvel Legends was the most important toyline of the 2000s. Can't remember who, exactly, but he was surely someone amazing. After Hasbro fantastically managed to kill the line 2 minutes after taking it over from Toybiz, they've now bowed to public demand and brought it back again. Hurrah!

The first Marvel Legends figure I ever bought was Iron Man (I say 'I bought' but it was actually my mother I conned into buying it) so it seems fitting that the first figure I've bought for The Return is also Iron Man, this time in his 'extremis' armour.

I'm making out I bought this particular figure out of nostalgia, but the real reason is that Legends now cost an arm and a leg each and Iron Man was the cheapest in the shop (since there's two of him in each case, compared to one of all the other figures in the wave).

Before we get to the figure I'll quickly note that the packaging looks great on these (no, I didn't take a photo. Because I forgot). The previous attempt by Hasbro was fairly terrible, but I really like The Return box.