Okay, so Hasbro has been dangling tidbits of info about this year’s Marvel Legends Hulk-centric line for a while now. At first it was two series of six figures - 12 total - to build the Fin Fang Foom BAF. Then it was reduced to 10 figures, and now down to 8. But it’s still two waves of four. So… they’ve spread the BAF over two waves. Well, that’s weird and frustrating enough. But it’s still just eight figures for a good sized BAF, right? Well, maybe.

You see, we haven’t actually seen Hasbro’s prototype of the Fin Fang Foom figure. What they showed at the UK Toy Fair was an image of custom done by a customizer named Cal. That’s right - Hasbro stole a customizer’s work and pawned it off to toy retailers as what they’ll be offering this year. Wow…

Now we get news from Hasbro that this wave of Marvel Legends will retail for… 14.99!!! What?! a 50% increase?! Why? Is it because they’ve increased articulation and paint apps? Um… no. It’s because the BAF is “bigger”. Uh huh. He’s supposedly 15″ tall. Now, he’s stretched over two waves, and they still want us to pay five dollars more per figure to build him? What the hell is Hasbro thinking?! I seem to remember buying a Maestro Hulk with a pretty big Apocalypse BAF piece for about seven bucks a couple years ago. I can’t say I’m too happy with Hasbro not only lessening the quality of Marvel Legends, but now DOUBLING the price.

This is ridiculous. But, Hasbro wins. Because collectors are going to pay the ludicrous price and make the wave a huge success. And from here on out, we’ll see nothing but crappy 15 dollar figs on the pegs from Hasbro. Well, I’m just not going to pay that. I think I might be officially done with Marvel Legends.

And here’s the link to the news release on Hasbro’s official site, in case you think I’m just making all of this up!

Mezco has released images of their first line of action figures for the upcoming Hellboy 2: The Golden Army movie that hits theaters this July. I felt that Mezco did a really excellent job with their figures from the first movie, as well as their follow-up Hellboy comic line. The figures for the second movie look great so far - Abe, Liz, and Johan in particular. They seem a little less articulated than last time around, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see their final release. These should hit specialty stores some time in the next couple of months. Expand the post to see all the pics! (more…)

My lastest custom creation is a ‘classic’ version of Cable. I always felt the ML6 Cable was undersized so I’ve been wanting a bigger, beefier Cable for a while. Lately, I’ve been watching the old 90s X-Men the Animated Series on DVD and it got me jonesing for a good, classic, “Liefeldian” Cable (sans the tiny feet and head… oh Liefeld!). So, I dug through the fodder bin and pulled out pretty much every strap, buckle, and pad I could find and whipped this bad boy up. Expand the post for more pics and the recipe. (more…)

TheFwoosh has posted their latest series of questions and answers with the Toy Guru - Mattel’s Senior Brand Manager of the DC Universe Classics line. This time around he clears up Mattel’s strategy on the ratio of variants - different versions of characters, like classic and modern renditions, will be packed an even 50/50 while costume variations of the same character will be at a lower ratio as chase figures. He also builds a little New York Toy Fair anticipation by hinting that Mattel may have an announcement concerning the as of now off-limits Charlton characters (ie - The Question!). Check out the entire Q&A here to get all the info.

This is a rare non-toy related post on SA. But I felt that Marvel’s new animated series “Wolverine and The X-Men” was worth mentioning. There’s a nice extended trailer/preview of the series here. I’ve always felt that as far as cartoons were concerned, Marvel never came close to DC in terms of quality of writing, character, animation, etc. In fact, it’s the Bruce Timm DC animated universe that really pulled me into DC Comics. While Marvel’s previous efforts with their 90s X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man cartoons were very much designed for young children, it looks like with Wolverine and The X-Men they’re taking a page out of the DC playbook and writing an animated series that is both fun for kids and engaging for older fans of the characters. It seems kind of like a nice blend between the 90s X-Men cartoon and the later X-Men Evolution series. I really like the animation style, so I hope the show takes off and we can get a superarticulated animated line from Marvel Legends (yeah, right…). I haven’t found out exactly when and where this show will air, but I’m guessing Saturday mornings on a major network. When I find out, you’ll find out!

EDIT: The site linked above must have taken down the trailer. Maybe all the traffic clicking over from SuperArticulated overwhelmed their servers… heh. Anywho, here it is on YouTube.