Personally, I feel that the idea of variants kinda kills the main lines, and just make another 2 pack. Preferably, an army builder 2 pack.
Sure, we get to have a cool variation of an existing character, but sometimes this doesn't work that well, and we end up with an unrelated mate, and two of another figure.
The TRU packs do just fine without variants.
I feel that there need to be 2.5 and 3 inchers brought back.
Also, get rid of the "4 pack only" rule. I don't see why so many box sets have to be 4 packs. While this works for groups like the FF, it hurts teams like the classic X Men, the Age of Apocalypse packs, and others. Battlestar Galactica had a few 5 packs, nothing bad happened. The Giant Size X Men set is considered to be one of the best older sets. Hell, who else got the 10 pack that was out at TRU for a while?
I also would love to see a Shield vs. Hydra 8 pack, with Nick Fury in proper Agent attire, 3 Shield Agents, Baron Strucker in Hydra gear, and 3 Hydra Soldiers.