The line-up for the third series of Halo 3 figures from McFarlane Toys has been posted online for a while now, but the first teaser images have just shown up. I’m uber-excited about this line. It just seems to keep getting better! The third series will bring us yet another version of Master Chief, the “Hayabusa” armor spartan, a jackal major, a weapon class brute, a “recon” armor spartan, and a flood form. Super-neato! I hope the flood gets some artic though. In this pic he’s looking like a statue. Hmmm…

TheFwoosh has broken through with a great big ole juicy promo pic of the upcoming SDCC exclusive “Savage Land” box set from Hasbro. This is the set with Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil, and Zabu. At first glance, these look really good. Now get ready for my nit-picks! Shanna has Hasbro-itis, being chock full of swivel joints. I think she might be a reuse of the Savage She-Hulk body from the upcoming HML Hulk wave. Bleh. Ka-Zar, overall, looks pretty darn good. But upon closer examination, he appears to be reusing the ToyBiz Face-Off Punisher body. Why does a guy with bare skin have sculpted clothing wrinkles?! Seriously, Hasbro! Zabu, naturally, is a repaint of the Sigma6/8″ GI Joe Adventure Team tiger. So, he’s blocky and angular and anime looking and totally doesn’t fit in with the rest of the line. Oh well. Since these are really early pics I’m crossing my fingers that some of the smaller kinks (Ka-Zar’s wrinkles) will be worked out before production. I’m curious to see what, if any, changes Hasbro makes in response to fan feedback.

So, I don’t know if you guys have been keeping up with NECA’s TMNT line, but it’s really shaping up to deliver us the best superarticulated figures of the year. I’m not even that big of a fan of the turtles and I have to admit that these are looking jaw-droppingly awesome. The only knock I have against them is that they’re not out yet! But, I think we’re only about a month away from their release date at this point and TNI has posted a whole slew of excellent in-package pics. You can buy the four turtles either individually or all together in a box set. The individual figures come packed with display bases and a few extra accessories that you won’t get in the box set, so they’re the way to go for fans who “want it all”. Check out TNI’s pics to whet your TMNT appetite, and if you want to preorder a set then visit BBTS.com or CornerStoreComics.com!

Or any Marvel Legends product, for that matter? HML2 came out in May of last year. The latest internet rumors have HML4 slated for May of this year. That’s one freakin’ wave in an entire year? Well, we got the HML Fantastic Four wave in there, but that was technically designed as a movie tie-in wave. So, that’s just one wave of Marvel Legends proper in twelve months. What’s up with that, Hasbro?

Granted, not all collectors (me especially) have been super-psyched about the quality of Hasbro’s product so far, but by not releasing anything for months on end they’re really killing the momentum of this line. The latest internet rumors are that after the Hulk waves shown at Toy Fair, Hasbro might just do a complete relaunch of Marvel Legends (probably in a 3 3/4″ scale). I hope that’s not true. I’m pretty sure it’s just wild speculation at this point, but in the interest of keeping some of the fan base at least mildly interested in the flagship product of the Marvel license that Hasbro spent hundreds of millions of dollars on, don’t you think they might find it a good idea to at least sling us a press release every couple months or something? Seriously.

I know everything Hasbro/Marvel Legends related has been all doom and gloom recently, but I’m really starting to get a bad feeling about the future of this line. I really hope that this awkward, silent hiatus is being put to good use by taking fans’ criticism and working toward improving product and reassessing the line to better meet consumers’ desires. But, in my gut, I think Hasbro is just deliberating on whether or not to pull the plug on ML and just use the license for nothing but movie toys. Sigh… I guess time will tell. A whole lotta time…

I’ve updated the site with more pics and reviews of the first series of Halo 3 figures from McFarlane Toys. There are lot of armor and color variants on the Spartans, and now I’m all caught up! You can see pics of the Blue and Steel CQBs, the Red EVA, and the White MARK VI here.

Also, I found this really neat article on the Bungie site. (Bungie is the software company that produces the Halo video games). The article is an interview by Bungie with McFarlane, walking through the entire toy making process, step by step. It’s a really neat read for anyone who is interested in how an action figure line shapes up - from conception, to licensing, to sculpting, to production. Check it out!