Gillbob316

Yeah... I don't mind using the AoA one as a fill-in for now, but I too think I'd prefer a classic Sunfire. Giant-Size X-Men #1 (or rather a much cheaper reprint of it, lol) was one of the first comic books I read and actually understood as a child. And by that I mean, I was a child of the 90s... a time when comic books didn't seem very kid friendly, and got very muddled up and confusing with... time travel... big mullets... lots of pockets... and more X-Men teams than any sane human could ever hope to follow. That said, I got into X-Men through the cartoon... and tried making the leap to the comics of the day... but my not yet developed child brain found them VERY hard to relate to or even follow at that age. So what worked for me... rather than the new release rack... was the old 25 cent bin at my local comic book store. Because... the quarter bin had lots of old books. With simpler plots from a simpler time. Instead of cataclysmic events that warped all of reality permanantly or children born of time traveling futures... The old comics mostly just involved good guys fighting bad guys and super heroes trying to sell you Hostess Fruit Pies. (Love those ads btw). In any event, I found a reprint of Giant Size #1 in those bins way back when, read it, followed it, loved it... and it's always been one of the books that really helped launch my love of X-Men and comic books in general... alongside the 90s X-Men cartoon. So I love that team, and those looks... and because of that my ideal set of X-Men lies somewhere between Giant Size #1 and Jim Lee... I'd love to buy a real copy of Giant Size #1 when I'm rich someday... for that reason.

I know it's not gonna happen, but Morph, Blink & Sabretooth have me salivating for it, so I'm gonna take the opportunity to write it out here... Rounding out the Exiles Wave... Exiles Mimic & Nocturne Longshot & Sage Orange Sasquatch & Some army builder... I dunno. Stepford Cuckoo? Variant: White Sasquatch I realize that in an Exiles themed wave White Sasquatch makes more sense as the main figure, and normal as the variant... but I'm being realistic... Alpha Flight fans would pitch a friggin' fit if Orange was a one per case variant. But speaking of Alpha Flight fans, this wave would pull double duty and kick off their team too, leaving the door open for them to nag Diamond for more. And Longshot opens the door for Dazzler. And Exiles Mimic opens the door for people to nag "When do we get the REAL Mimic!?" So you see, not only does this wave round out my Exiles... it helps send Minimates in future directions I know some people have been clamoring for. But since I know it won't happen I'd settle for this... Mimic & Nocture as a random Toys R Us filler set. White Exiles Sasquatch as a variant of Orange Sasquatch in a future Alpha Flight wave. (Preferably with removable parts that turn her into Heather Hudson underneith. Heather often wore a white jacket/jumpsuit, so it would work easily. The limb color would match.) I'd love more, but those three would be enough for me. Alongside Blink, Morph & Sabretooth, they'd give me a nice iconic team of six Exiles (as is the standard iconic number of Exiles) I've already mailed Chuck about all this in AskDST. lol... PS. Before someone throws it in my face, yes I know that Holocaust and Spider-Man 2099 were both Exiles and have minimates, but neiter of them were exactly iconic members. Their runs were both short lived, and both are better remembered in their original books than they are as Exiles. Which isn't the case for Blink, Morph or Sabretooth. Nor would it be the case for Nocturne, Mimic & Sasquatch, who were much more important members in Exiles overall run.

Here's the story of my yesterday. It was a rather fruitful minimate day, so I thought I'd share... I'll be using actual city names since I know a few members live in my area, and will be able to follow. Everyone who doesn't ignore it, lol... Went to my local Toys R Us (Melrose Park, IL) and found most of a case of Wave 10 and less of a case of Captain America mates. Cap mates only had commons, all exclusives were gone. They were also sold out of Blink & Sabretooth, but bizarrely still had one Morph & Holocaust. And plenty of the other sets. So I decided to buy the Holocaust & Omega Red sets (quite naturally). It was about this time I realized I'd forgotten my wallet at home and said, "DOH!" >_< So I hid Morph and Holocaust behind some Zhu Zhu pets and headed back home, lol... Rather than go straight back to the store, since I figured Morph & Holocaust would keep in their hiding place for a few hours, I headed to the Schaumburg, IL TRU to check them out. They had Cap and Wave 10 mates here as well, but were far more sold out than Melrose Park. They didn't even have any Omega Red sets left, let alone the other exclusives. Just the Iron Fist set and old stuff. At this point, since I was already in Schaumburg, I headed over to Dreamland comics just on the off chance I might get lucky and find something I needed. And HOLY CRAP! It worked! Happy day, They had a Selvig, a Laufey, and a Jane Foster variant from the Thor wave, all of which I still needed, so I bought them all! I was thrilled to find the three shortpacks I didn't have. Also bought Frost Giant 2 and the Agent Coulson set, figuring I could pickup the Thor & Loki sets from Toys R Us cheaper later... since I still see them everywhere... Little did I know how soon later would come... I then headed to the Golf Mill TRU, again, just to scope things out. They had 1 Iron Fist & Spider-Man 2-Pack and a bunch of old crap, so they obviously had Wave 10, but were picked even cleaner than the previous 2 stores. No sign of any Cap mates. Interesting thing about this store though, all their Marvel Mates were labeled on the rack as "Marvel Minimates 2-Packs. Clearance: $4.98" Three whole rows of them, which included that Iron Fist set, Several Thor sets & some older stuff like the fantastic four wave and other junk. No exclusives. All common stuff. HOWEVER... ALL of them still scanned for $7+ ...So I asked myself, "Well wtf? Which ones are the clearance ones?" because none of them rang up cheap. Now I assume that the $4.98 ones were supposed to be some much older wave they'd sold out of... and everything on the rack wasn't actually included in that price... but since it was their own dumb fault for labeling them as such, I took a Thor vs Destroyer set and an Odin vs Loki set over to the service desk and said, "Hi, there are three racks of these labeled $4.98, but they scan for around $7.50 sooo... what's the deal?" The girl had a guy do a price check. I showed him the rack. He radioed her and said, "The sticker says $4.98" So she rang them up for me at $4.98 each, and my set of Movie Thor mates is now complete for cheaper than I thought it would be. The discount actually offset the slightly inflated "comic book store" prices I'd just paid at Dreamland! lol... I then drove all the way BACK to my hometown of Melrose Park, went back to my TRU, dug out my Morph & Holocaust, bought them & Omega Red, and headed home... 15 minimates richer. 1 variant, 2 Shortpacked single figs, a TRU exclusive, and 2 $5 clearance packs amongst them. Good day! So like I said, even though I didn't find Blink & Sabretooth, or the Cap exclusives... still a fruitful day for minimating all around. PS. And advice to anyone who lives nearby: Head to the Golf Mill Toys R Us before they fix those clearance stickers. The mates still scan at full price, but like I said, that's not what they're labeled on the rack, and it takes only a brief trip to the service desk to get a price adjustment. They have the common mates from the Thor movie wave, The Fantastic four wave, and misc sets from a couple other waves. And who knows, they might get restocks of the Cap mates or Wave 10 any day now you could pickup on the cheap.

Top 10: * Marrow * Pixie * Banshee * Longshot * Dazzler * Mimic * Pyro * Avalanche * Toad * 616 Blob Spider-Man/Wolverine Variants: * Amazing Bag Man * Astonishing X-Men Update w/ Mask

Just for the record... I took my Volstagg and Sif back today and exchanged it. The other one was still there, so no problems. I asked the guy if he would mind if I opened the new one beforehand to verify he had feet (lol) and he said sure. He did. Yippie. All is well. So the first one was just a screwup... missing his feet. (Wouldn't be the first time it's happened. I'm looking at YOU Modern Mandarin) And yeah, the new one's feet were attached to his ankles... the weirdness with the plastic bubble I guess is just... weirdness with the plastic bubble... wherein Volstagg's feet don't fit exactly right, and he actually fits better without them, hehe... Now the REAL question is... next time I go back to Toys R Us, will the one I returned with the missing feet be back on the shelf with the package taped shut again. I've seen this happen at least twice. Once I returned a Power Ranger whose light up feature wasn't working, found it back on the shelf with the bubble taped back onto the card days later. Once I returned a board game with a hole (punched/dented/stabbed?) in the front of the box cover. I noticed the hole before I even removed the shrinkwrap, so exchanged it fully shrinkwrapped for a new one. Found the one with hole in the cover back on the shelf days later. lol... "Someone returned this merchandise defective." "Does it look defective at a glance?" "No" "Well then put it back on the shelf fool! We can still sell that thing!"

Alright, stupid question, I know, but due to my circumstances I must ask... Does Volstagg come with Feet? lol... I just opened mine, bought him today, my TRU had what looked to be a full case on the shelf (12 packs, 2 of each exclusive) and he didn't have feet, so first I thought, "Aw damn! They screwed up!" but as I look at him in the package... it doesn't even look like there would be enough ROOM for feet to be attached at the bottom. His footless ankles come all the way down to the bottom of the plastic bubble... leaving no room for feet... so now I'm just... confused... He has feet in every picture of him I can find on the internet... so I'm puzzled as to where mine are. I've scrounged the rest of the box frontwards and back, and there are no feet inside to be found... I figured they might be taped inside somewhere, in a baggie... but turned up nothing. So basically I'm asking like... where were his feet in your packages? Is mine a factory defect, or did they just hide these things somewhere I'm completely oblivious too? lol... Are they supposed to be attached to him? Are they supposed to be inside a baggie in the box? I'm just assuming there should have been some feet in this package somewhere that I didn't end up getting... so now I have to go back to TRU tomorrow and hope the Volstagg and Sif set I DIDN'T buy, is still on the rack... and hasn't sold in the 24 hours that passed since I left it there. /facepalm And if it is still there I have to hope that one... ya'know... still HAS feet...

Regarding their license covering all the Marvel vs Capcom games... Assuming that indeed covers Marvel vs Capcom 2... *Gets on knees and prays to Minimate Gods* Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, PLEASE... let this lead to a Marrow Minimate. Because frankly, she's one of my absolute favorite characters, but I'm fully aware she's kindof... D-List in the greater Marvel Universe... and this is probably the best chance she's ever gonna get toward being made.

Heeeeeyyyyy... Lukey Luke Luke Luke Luke Luke... Lukerton... (lolz? hehe) Any chance you might be making a set of just the 5 Thor Single-Pack Army Dumps available for order any time in the nearish future? I think I'm on the verge of a big minimate order for series 37, 39 and a few other misc box sets and things I have yet to pick up... and the army builders fall under that misc heading... But ideally I kinda don't want to drop fiddy-five bones on a full case of 12 if I can avoid it... since I'm not really an... extensive army-building kinda guy. IN any event, figured it couldn't hurt to ask. Little strapped for cash atm, so I doubt I'll be jumping right on anything immediately anyway. Followup question: Will you be restocking the heroic age boxed set at anytime soon, or is that pretty much a dead issue? 'Cause that's another thing on my misc list, which I thought you had, 'til I tried to add it to a cart and said, "Oh, guess not" lol

So just to clarify... There isn't a free promo minimate at C2E2 this year? Because I'm going tomorrow (Sunday) but didn't go Friday or Saturday, and I was honestly wondering about whether or not I had to keep my eyes peeled for a battle beast or a... blank, or somethin'. PS. Did anything interesting get revealed at the Minimates panel today? That was one of the things I'd prefered to have gone Saturday for, but misc circumstances made Sunday the day I be goin'... heh.

I had another idea in the bathroom earlier... (I totally said that to be funny, but it was also 100% true...) Savage Land: Ka-Zar, Shanna, Zabu & Sauron I also thought of a good one sometime yesterday too, but I forgot what it was... wish I could remember, but for the life of me I can't.

Tell me if this is true for anyone else, because it's COMPLETELY true for me... Whenever you luck out and find the first shipment of a set of TRU minimates, and buy the whole wave up. That series gets restocked about 4 times consecutively at your TRU afterward. Whenever you MISS the first shipment of a set of TRU minimates, they never restock it again and you have to buy it on ebay. Both scenarios have happened to me at least 4 times. Seems like I always get the first shipment on the ones they restock plentifully, and miss the first (and only) shipment on the ones they don't. It's maddening! >_<

I'm just gonna come out and say this... no offense to anyone specifically... but after reading the whole thread: I don't know how in holy hell you guys expect some of these sets to ever get votes, let alone get made... lol... Plus I don't feel alot of the character lineups are very realistic. I'm seeing alot of like... "4 obscure X-Men box set" or "All the lamest characters from Excalibur" or "The Marvel Universe's Least Memorable foes" lol... and yeah, if you think they'd make a Maximum Carnage set and NOT put a Spider-Man in to boost sales you're... dreaming, lol... Don't get me wrong. There are a few good ones in there. But a fair amount of "yeah right!" ones too, lol... BUT... that said, I guess everyone is entitled to wishful thinking, so I can't fault anyone too much. Anyway, guess I should nominate some stuff now... (Now, marvel as I completely disregard everything I just said and nominate my own obscure and completely unrealistic wishlist... lolz...) Xtreme X-Men (Sage, Thunderbird III, Xtreme Storm, Xtreme Rogue) (Or swap Bishop for Rogue/Storm. Pref. Storm) Generation X (Banshee, Husk, Chamber, M) (Or swap Emma/Jubilee for someone) Mojoworld (Mojo, Spiral, Longshot, Dazzler) Morlocks (Marrow, Callisto, Caliban, Leech) (Realistically: Some sort of Storm variant replaces one of those) Modern Starjammers (Modern Havok, Marvel Girl, Korvus, Lilandra) Classic Starjammers (Corsair, Ch'od, Hepzibah, Raza) Deadly Genesis (Vulcan, Darwin, Petra, Sway) Agency X (Agent X, Modern [uDON] Taskmaster, Outlaw, Bob: Agent of HYDRA) Second Coming (Hope, Cable, Bastion, Cyclops) Exiles (Mimic, Nocturne, Sunfire [Female], Sasquatch [White] [becomes Heather Hudson with parts removed]) X-Statix (Orphan, U-Go Girl, Dead Girl, Doop) (Picture the Slimer minimate for Doop) Modern X-Factor (Strong Guy, M, Siryn, Layla Miller) (I'd suggest classic, but plenty of people have already) Brotherhood (Blob, Avalanche, Pyro, Updated Mystique) (I realize this has been suggested, but I think I'm the first to include Mystique? Seriously, the Mystique we have now is showing its age.) And to keep everyone's Deadpool over-saturation complaints rolling... Deadpool Corps (Deadpool, Dogpool, Lady Deadpool, Kidpool, Headpool) I realize that's 5 characters, but Headpool doesn't actually count. He'd be like Zombie Wasp, from the Marvel Zombies set.

Going over some misc thoughts... 1st, I saw a couple people talk about Azazel's "claws" on the first page. They're not claws. He's Nightcrawler's dad people. Think about that one. (Or look at this link: http://minimatedatabase.com/figure.php?i=1...;n=Nightcrawler) Second, I'm seeing alot of praise for Mystique, and I get it from the neck up... her head looks great. But I hate her body. I have no use for a Mystique mate in an X-Men uniform. Even if she is one for portions of the movie (as I assume her to be, obviously, based on what we've seen) I'd still have prefered naked Mystique. Much more useful if I could use her to double as an X1-X3 version. Shaw looks lame. Doesn't register as the character or the actor. Just looks like a generic guy in a tux. (Took me twice as long just to figure out who that was. At first I thought it was Hank McCoy.) Overall... i dunno. I'll buy them, because I have a complete collection of Marvel Mates, beyond gold and silver spidey, and I'd like to maintain that collection. But it really is a lackluster lineup. And I blame the movie for that, not Diamond. Hard to make merchandise with a good lineup when the actual movie... doesn't have a good lineup. Everything about this movie just screams "disaster waiting to happen" to me.

See the thing I'm not nuts about with the Captain America mates is... beyond Cap, Red Skull & Maybe Buckey... they all look far too generic for my taste... I'm seeing lots of... generic soldier, generic military, generic girl, generic guy in a suit. I realize they're characters like Dum Dum and Howard Stark... but I feel like they just don't translate well to minimates. With the Thor Minimates, or X-Men minimates, or most of the Iron Man minimates... at least they all look like characters. Ya'know what I mean? Half the cap minimates look like they could be in the MAX line and no one would ever know the difference. I'll buy them all anyway, because I'm a Marvel completionist... just saying... *Shrug*

I really think people are getting far too uppity about the new Deadpool... I don't think anyone would disagree that the scalping has gotten ridiculous on the original one. I got one at retail, thank god, but I feel for the people that missed it. That said, I think it's good that Diamond is trying to give people who missed him options. But so far I don't think any of those options have been steller ones... Liefield X-Force was a con exclusive. Not exactly easy to get ones hands on. Modern X-Force Deadpool is hardly a "classic" Deadpool, and doesn't work a substitute. (Same goes for both the lame movie ones.) I'm still not completely clear on where Heroes & Adversaries was available. But as far as I can tell its an obscure internet exclusive. That said, we haven't really seen a plain old, normal, regular market Red & Black Deadpool, beyond that one that sold out everywhere and alot of people missed out on. So like I said, I think people are getting too uppity.

These all look great. And to everyone saying "TOO MUCH DEADPOOL," don't let his comic overexposure creep into this. MvC3 Deadpool is only our 3rd comic Deadpool. We have 4 Psylockes. Wanna rethink that argument? This is our 4th comic Deadpool. Him and Psylocke are even. Deadpool: Modern, Liefield X-Force, Current X-Force, MvC3. WITH the two movie versions he's at 6 total. Psylocke: 90s, Caped, X-Force & The new one. Not that I'm complaining, I love X-Men, so I'll buy them all. No such thing as too much Deadpool or Psylocke imo. (What I'd REALLY like is a "Revanche" Psylocke.) Just saying your comparison is slightly flawed... hehe...

Eh, I think they'll do alright. I think packing the capcom figs with the marvel figs will be enough to keep the line afloat a short while. At least enough to sell what we've seen pictures of. It's enough to get me to buy every last one of them, even though I really have no interest in half the capcom characters. (Though I do really want Wesker, Felicia & C. Viper) I'd never buy Viewtiful Joe, or Arthur or Dante on my own (I hear Devil May Cry is cool, but I never played it) but since I'm a marvel completionist, the whole set is must haves for me. So long as they're packed together.

Eh... And how many Iron Mans, Hulks, Spider-Men, Wolverines & Captain Americas with far too similar costumes do we have now? I agree that I could totally have lived without this set, but it is what it is. And I understand why it is what it is. They want to cash in on the X-Men: First Class movie hype. It's to be expected.

Random thoughts... 1st and most importantly... after seeing Zero as a minimate, I am once again PISSSSSSSED at Capcom for using him in MvC3 instead of Mega Man. The day they finally made a Mega Man minimate should have been a happy one for me. Instead it just flamed the hate fire I already had going after Mega Man got snubbed from the game in the first place. I've never been a fan of the X series (or any of the Mega Man offshoots really) but I LOVE the original series. That said... I realize Zero has his fans, so I can see why he'd be in the game. But NOT at the expense of MEGA MAN HIMSELF! It just sucks. So great... 1st Mega Man minimate ever and it's one from an offshoot series, that's not even Mega Man. This blows. (GrrrGrumbleRantRageFireBrimstoneDon'tTryToConvinceMeHowAwesomeZeroIsHeWillNeverBeBetterThanMegaManHateThatDamned Usurper) On a happier note... Not much else I'm seeing here bothers me. Sinister looks awesome. Nimrod I think could be better, but still nice to see him. I'm thrilled that we're getting more Street Fighter & Darkstalkers minimates. Just wish 90% of them weren't re-dos. (PS. I think the new Ryu looks kinda ugly truthfully. Beyond that no complaints. Can't wait to get Felicia. Also want the new Phoenix and Taskmaster bad.) Wish there was more Resident Evil in that lineup. Chris at the very least. Can't have Wesker without Chris. Like everyone, I only hope that these will sell well enough to see more Capcom minimates. I'd love more Street Fighter, Mega Man, Resident Evil & Darkstalkers mates. I could have lived without X-Men 1st Class, but will buy them nonetheless, since I'm a Marvel completionist. I kinda don't like the new Hulk. Kinda didn't like the new Thing either. I feel they've crossed the "over-done" line. I personally think they were in a good middle ground for a while there. My favorite setup is Big Chest, Duck Feet, Big Crotch, Normal Hands. The Hulk movie mates, orrrr... Red Hulk... orrr... Anti-Venom. I think those big figs were well done. I feel the Marvel Mates are growing more obscure. I have lots of "Who the heck is that?" questions in regard to these pics... And I'm a guy who usually doesn't have these kinds of questions, so this really suprises me... First, what is Age of X, and who are those minimates? Three look like weird versions of Magneto, Rogue & Gambit, but I'm not familiar with this story, so I couldn't say for sure. Is this something new? I haven't been keeping up on comic books for about a year, because frankly, I'm too poor to afford them every week. I stopped keeping up around Necrosha & Second Coming. Furthermore who are the armored guy and the chick pictured with Wolverine and Blade? Further Furthermore who is the Black Skinned guy in the white suit with Nightcrawler, Psylocke & Fantomex. He has a familiar look to him, I just can't place why or remember who he is.

Even if they were, we're playing continuity police here, so it still wouldn't work. They're names are Sophie, Phoebe, Irma (aka Mindee), Celeste & Esma. But personally, I'm in the "She's Silver Fox's boring blonde sister whose name just coincidentally happens to be Emma, and whose powers are the same" camp. The way they worked her into Origins was stupid anyway. Better off retconned.

PS. I'll buy the Minimates though. I love Minimates. Moreso, I love X-Men Minimates. Even if the movies they're based on suck. lolz...

I've said this in the past, but for those of you who didn't care or don't remember... I'm a gigantic X-Men fan. The only reason I hesitate to say I'm the world's biggest X-Men fan is, the world of comic book nerds has some CRAZY huge friggin' fans... so I know I'm not the biggest one... to make such a claim as I'm the biggest would be outrageous. I know I'm not. But in the scope of your average human's X-Men fanboyism... I'm definately on the high end. Within the scope of every human being I've ever known since I was born... I'm certainly the "goto" guy for all things X-Men, at least... Now, the reason I say all this is not to brag or be an arrogant jerk or anything... just to stress the fact that... I know and love my X-Men. That said... It is my somewhat informed opinion... that this movie... looks like a gigantic trainwreck waiting to happen... Now I know, I know "fanboy raging over Hollywood changing his comic book for the big screen" is nothing new, we've all heard it a million times... but really... trust me... no good can come from this. I look at this cast of characters... and it's such a random mess that I have no idea what they were thinking when they chose them. Actually, that's not true... I'm pretty sure I know exactly why they chose them, and I think it was for the wrong reasons. But I'll get to that later.... And let me be clear, I am NOT saying, "Where's Wolverine!? Where's Cyclops!? Where's Storm!?" I'm not the type of person who thinks we need the headliners to make a good movie... There have been about 50 some-odd X-Men over the years, and LOTS of good teams that didn't involve any of those characters... that's not it... What I'm saying is... I think that it would have been nice had they used more... actual... X-MEN... to make this cast of X-Men. Characters who make sense together. Characters who have history an chemistry... Characters chosen because they have a goo story to tell... and with a few exceptions, I don't think that's why these characters were chosen... Let's break this down... The only two returning X-Men we have are Prof. X and Beast. This works for me. Not a bad start. Two decent characters, who have been X-Men since day one. My only real gripe here is... Charlie X has hair... Yeah, he's young, I get that but... Already, even with the characters I think were good choices... they've taken one and altered one of his most distinctive visual traits. But... ultimately... just a minor nerd gripe, let's move on... After this the cast of characters steadily loses me even more... Also returning, we have Magneto and Mystique. Both... strangely enough... wearing X-Men uniforms. Now... Mystique and Magneto have both been X-Men in the past, under the whims of one writer or another... but I don't think anyone would disagree that they're both more classically X-Men villains... so this... already rubs me the wrong way. Now Magneto, admittedly, has alot of history with Xavier, so ultimately I don't mind him as much as Mystique... but Mystique really bugs me. We already KNOW... since this is a prequel, they ultmate turn on Xavier... so basically what thsi says to me is... they're taking Mystique and rehashing what they did with Pyro in the second and third movies here. Taking an old X-Men villain and inventing some non-existant history with the team to work him into the plot. I mean did anyone actually like movie Pyro? Did anyone feel he had a thrilling story crucial to the plot? No, it was just a cheap way to work one more familiar character into the plot... so I'm sure Mystique is destined for much the same... as things go south between Magneto an Charles, she can be swayed to Magneto's point of view, and become one of his followers... from then on doomed to be his faithful crony forever after. I didn't like when they did it with Pyro, and I don't like it now. Now, let's look at the actual X-Men they've added to this X-Men movie. Havok, Banshee & Emma. Now... I... don't hate any one of these three... in fact, given her increased role in recent years, I think Emma is a downright decent choice... They've all three had their decent moments over the years... and I hate none of them. But does this really sound like a good TEAM to anyone? Banshee and Emma have some history in their Generation X years, but beyond that... I don't feel a whole lot of chemistry between these characters. Nor do I feel they have much chemistry with any of the four established characters. The only silver lining I see here, is that Kevin Bacon is playing Sebastion Shaw, and based on Emma's outfit, they're obviously going to tap into some of that Hellfire Club potential... but beyond that... eh... Banshee I assume is just here to work a love triangle with Moira and Charles... which consiquently is also the only reason I assume Moira is here, to be a love interest for Charles. Havok I assume is just here to be a cheap substitute (and eventually lead-in) for his brother. I don't dislike Havok, nor do I WANT him to be a Cyclops substitute... But I'm betting that's what he's gonna be. Azazel... baffles me. The story he was introuced in... was one of the most universally panned X-Men stories of the last decade... I don't ever remember anyone saying a kind word about that story. That said, alot of people I would think would ask "WHY did they put him in this movie?" Well... I think I know why: To have sex with Mystique. That's your answer. I believe Azazel was chosen for next to no other reason than he's Nightcrawler's father, and he's here to knock up Mystique. Likely as part of her "seduction to the dark side" Every other aspect of his story will likely be changed. If I had to guess, they'll likely just lump him into the Hellfire Club with Emma and Shaw to round out the bad guys. Speaking of Emma and Shaw... I think the hellfire club COULD have been a good direction for this movie... they've been around a long time, there's alot of history there, alot of story potential, and it's also a nice way to set Emma up for a redemption story... which is likely their plan. But ultimately... I don't think it's enough to save this movie. They'll likely just butcher it any way. Just for fun, I'm willing to put a dollar on the line that says they turn Shaw into a powerful super-mutant before the end of the movie. Part of me thinks they might even turn him into Mr. Sinister, as a lame way of setting up Apocalypse in future sequels. Finally Angel... I don't know why in holy hell they used Angel. Ignoring for a moment the obvious confusion that might result between her character and Warren Worthington's Angel... I still can't understand why they chose her. First off, she was she never, technically an X-Man, but one of their students. Furthermore, I just can't stand her... as a character. Not only was her "fly-vomit" power stupid and disgusting, but throughout Grant Morrison's run, she was the single most annoying, obnoxious bitch of a character, with next to no redeeming qualities that I've seen pass through the X-Mansion in years. And as soon as Morrison's run ended, she got dropped from the X-Universe like a bad habit. Now... I'm aware she came back, along with several lame depowered X-Men characters in New Warriors, so if she got more likeable there... I can't say... but her entire run in X-Books was... obnoxious... for lack of a better word. She was definately one of the low points of Morrison's years, imo. Ultimately... all these things combine to make me... fear how terrible this movie will be. TLDR version... In the end, it seems to me... that this cast was chosen not because they're great characters, who have a great story to tell... but with the very specific intent of creating a history for the first three movies. A history that the producers of this movie made up, and that doesn't stay true to much of anything these characters have ever done in their 40+ years of comic-book histoyr. Let's review... Charles and Magneto: Here to set up their past. This I think is a good thing. Beast: Here to set up the history with the team he was already implied to have on X-Men 3. Eh. Could work. Mystique: Here because Magneto needed a crony. Will likely be fairly 1-Dimensional except for... Azazel: Likely here to be a love interest for Mystique, just to bed her and set up Nightcrawler. Havok: Here to set up history for Cyclops, and likely fill his role. Moira: Here to set up the history it was implied she had with Charles in X-Men 3. Likely a love interest. Banshee: Likely just here to support Moira. Probably a rival for her affection with Charles. Angel: For the life of me, I have no clue why she's here. SO many better characters to choose from. Emma & Shaw: I'd argue... could actually have been a good direction for the film, but will likely drown in the rest of this crap... if they even treat them right. Buuuut... At the end of the day, that's all just my keen intuition as an X-Men fanboy setting off early alarms... I haven't seen the movie, so I admit, I could be all wrong about it... So ultimately, I'll still see the movie either way. If it's good, I'll eat my words. Buuuuuuuuut... as you can tell... my hopes aren't very high for it... and I don't have much fear of eating my words.

I feel you've overdone it with this one. I don't see Diamond doing three Alpha Flight sets. Ever. Even two is a longshot, in reality, but still... for the sake of trimming it down down to something more realistic, I'd say... Set 1: Sasquatch, Snowbird, Northstar & Aurora Set 2: Guardian, Vindicator, Puck & Shaman The other characters, while I'm sure Alpha Flight diehards would love them... I don't feel are nearly as integral for making a "Classic" Alpha Flight lineup, for those of us who only have a passing knowlege of Alpha Flight, as they drift in and out of the Marvel Universe on the whole. Trimming the fat, as it were. In all seriousness, the most realistic way I see them doing Alpha Flight is with 4 of those characters as a box set, and the remaining 4 in a Toys R Us wave That sounds about right. PS. Sorry, I didn't mean to come off like a dream-dashing jerk, I just honestly think 3 Alpha Flight sets is a major stretch.

That had never dawned on me before , I wonder what the motive is for not giving either set the 'exclusive' sticker? I think they're just limited to two per wave. Technically the ENTIRE Fantastic Four wave was TRU exclusives, but only two sets in that wave had the silver sticker too. (And frankly, I'd prefer it if all waves were like this. I always pass on the retread sets in the TRU waves. The more original mates the better, imo. [but no ridiculous short packs! Pack them in even numbers dammit!])

Granted this is just my own assumption, but... Assuming the variant pack in series 40 turns out to be Mr. Sinister and Nimrod, as is somewhat rumored, I'd say there's a very, very, very strong chance that Sinister's variant is AoA Sinister. But this is just an educated guess on my part, and should be taken as nothing more than that.