Twisted Two-Face

The fact that we have ZERO Noir minimates irritates me to no end. God, i loved those books. Noir Spider-man was great.

I'm on the side of Miles started out as a gimmick. His book is (was?) very entertaining and you can tell Bendis is trying to make him seem like "not a gimmick, I swear!" but he's pretty clearly a gimmick. It's like when DC made Alan Scott gay (100% against Alan's conservative character) and when Simon Baz became a Lantern (in a ski mask and with a gun, with a tattoo forbidden by his religion no less). Companies use reboots and fresh starts to say "hey, we can be so progressive here, let's go for it" and maybe those aren't the worst intentions, but they come off as pandering and it's irritating.

DC's French Muslim Batman Nightrunner was brilliant for the fact that it was a new character. Don't just change everything about an old character to make the pandering "popular" or controversial. If you want a character of a new race, religion, creed, sexuality, ANYTHING, have the balls to make a brand new character. Batwoman was brilliant. Nightrunner was brilliant. Apollo and Midnighter? Brilliant. Show some backbone and go all-out again, Marvel and DC.

I love Minimates because they were the first toy line I ever collected. When I was younger, i remember stopping in a Target with my mom and grandmother on the way to the shore, and that's where i saw my first Minimates: Iron Man/Doctor Doom, and Human Torch/Mr. Fantastic. From then on, the floodgates were opened and I became a full-fledged toy collector, not just Minimates, and they made me get into comics, film, pop culture, etc, so in a way they redefined my life. I love Minimates, because they played a huge role in who I am today.

You mean Uncanny. These are the Utopia looks.

Really happy to see Scott in the wave, as well as Omega Red. This Scott and 90s Scott are my favorite looks for him. Deathlok just makes me sad that that Agents of SHIELD Deathlok is so close but so far from this.

Yea, why does everyone want that Rogue, anyway? It's an all-white Minimate with a few lines of minimal grey detail, a bland face that looks little like Paquin, and a hairpiece we've had at least once before. She makes for a REALLY boring figure, and a really easy custom. I don't want Storm either, but she at least looks more interesting.

Fortunately only Jon broke. Weirdly enough, he's not the one that's a traditional breaker. Based on other reports, it's like all but him, so i'm not sure what happened to mine. But my Ned, Dany, and White Walker are all still A-okay, so take that however you want.

The sad part about the new production of Wave 1 is that there's nothing to signify which are the new ones; supposedly the clear plastic is stronger and the oil on the joints hasn't let any of them get stuck, according to some guys over on the Fwoosh, so i'm actually wondering if yours are from the first run, Ten.

Jealous of your Tyrion, though. Haven't found him yet, and considering the paint on this series, i'm not ordering online. Bring on Jaime!

I'd have preferred neither Rogue or Storm, honestly. Rogue is a severely boring design that i would have just used for Ultimate Kitty Pride, or Agent 13, and Storm i have no interest in Halle Berry's version of the character. Trask, Bobby, FREAKING BISHOP, Sunspot; there were a lot of options.

I still have no words on Time Traveler Wolverine; i get it, he's in what's supposed to be the DOFP leather jacket. But we have like 6 of those already, another Wolverine already in this wave, and we're coming off way too many from his movie wave. Knowing characters like Bishop aren't getting made but another Logan is, that's ridiculous. (Doesn't matter if it was Fox who mandated it, btw. Ridiculous either way.)

Anyway, Love the rest of the Wave. Magnetos and Charles(s) look AMAZING and it's amazing to finally get McKellan and Stewart after being criminally glossed over in the X3 wave. Love the wheelchairs.

Absolutely freaking love this wave. I'm one of maybe 10 people who like the new costumes; Jean and Scott look fantastic. And Bobby Drake! Finally!! Love the "Modern" Sentinel too; maybe he could use a little more bulk or detail through the abs and thighs? Regardless, beautiful wave, and beautiful figures. Between this, the Cap Wave, and the Winter Soldier wave, it's a great year for my personal taste!

Also, i love that technically the team is actually incomplete already. Freaking X-23.

He comes with two heads that look identical from the small thumbnail I've seen, so I would assume. It's his EpIII costume, so having two heads would be pointless otherwise, as that's the only thing that changes in the movie.

Well, that, and the Starfighter headgear from the opening. That would also be a neat alternate look. But yea, we're getting one normal Anakin head and one that looks disheveled, damaged, and Sith-y, so probably Mustafar-inspired. Shame we don't have an Obi-Wan to match.

I'm curious, why don't you want Troopers, Ten?

But where's Chewie? I won't complain about the army builders, I wanted another stormtrooper. I also want Anakin, but don't need another Boba. Does this mean scalpers take a hit? If so, that's great! I hope that this will be the last repeated character for a while, wave five should have Darth Vader and Chewie, But who else? Clonetrooper? Anakin? Do the deluxe figures count? I know C3-PO and The Emperor are in the works as well as Luke from VI.

Chewie got pushed to a deluxe slot like Jabba or the Speeder Bike. Lucasarts didn't like the way he was jammed to fit the packaging. But each wave is getting one repeated character, they said that a little before Toy Fair i think.

The one's we've seen sculpted are the Black Pauldron Sandtroopers, Chewie, Vader, Jedi Luke, Jabba, and the Biker. This was the "rumored" list on RebelScum from before Toy Fair:

• SW 6″ EP 4 CHEWBACCA
• SW 6″ TIE PILOT
• SW 6″ EP 5 C-3P0
• SW 6″ EP II CLONE TROOPER
• SW 6″ EP 5 DARTH VADER
• SW 6″ EP 6 LUKE JEDI
• SW 6″ JAWAS
• SW 6″ SANDTROOPERS (Multiple Listings)
• SW BLACK SERIES 6INCH DELUXE AST (?)
• SW BLACK SERIES 6INCH JABBA THE HUTT
• SW BLACK SERIES 6INCH SPEEDER BIKE

So i'd be willing to bet we see the TIE Pilot and another rerelease to round out the following wave, if they're keeping an Original Trilogy theme for it.

That's a really damn nice wave, actually. Might be worth pre-ordering a case or two of those.

Loved Age of X. Very unique story. Great work on the customs, they're some incredibly clean work.

Camp Lehigh has been in Wheaton, NJ since Captain America #1.

Apparently Marvel does their homework.

There were only 4 airbases in NJ during World War II, but the one that did the most Army training was in Millville/Wheaton, NJ. It became a gunnery school. The rest were used more for strategy and defense, with some but little training. Considering the context, and that Whedon is pronounced wee-don and not wheat-on, i really doubt it was intentional. You did say you weren't seeing anyone talk about it; I'm assuming that's because you weren't supposed to draw that connection.

As per recently, London Grammar. They're new, from across the pond, but damn if the lead singer's voice isn't one of the most haunting things i've ever heard. Very decent, cinematic sound to their music. It's mellow and dark, but Hannah Reid's voice is the perfect antithesis/companion. I'd give them a listen, specifically Strong. Great group.

I've only ever really liked Rogue in her Age of X costume, with the cape. That was a sharp look. Actually, i liked a lot of those designs.

It's bizarre how we've seen a production sample for Phoenix Cyclops when he was outright canned, and not Rogue who was supposedly still on the way.

Oh, and i finally found a Boomerang and Spider-girl at Target the other day, on a grocery trip of all things, so that was beautiful; didn't want Toxin, so it's great to be done with that line. But wow, Spider-girl is fantastic; the teen girl buck is very impressive. Torso could use a bit more range since she's a Spider character, but it was designed for Jubilee so i can give it a pass. Love the headsculpt, too; ponytail is great.

Wait, do we even know if there will be Drones in this movie? Whedon said it's Age of Ultron in name only.

Iron Man i'd say they could double-up like with Phoenix Buster. Or just drop the reverse colored Mk 42 altogether. But doubling-up seems more likely. We probably don't need a Hulk, either. I can't imagine he'll be that different since it's still Ruffalo.

I think Glantern is pretty close, but i'd go with:

LCS:

Hulkbuster/Ultron

Cap/Strucker

Hawkeye/Black Widow

Thor/Bruce Banner?

TRU:

Hulkbuster/Ultron

Cap/Alternate Thor

Wanda/Pietro

War Machine/Vision

Going by the running theme for Thor movies, he seems to change his costume quite a bit, so i imagine we could see two looks again. And we know DST isn't a stranger to swapping line-ups in TRU waves. I suppose Banner could also be a double-up, but i think we'll only see that with Hulkbuster, and not getting Banner at all would be a shame.

We also don't know how Rhodey and Vision will even appear, but better to be safe than sorry. But Wanda and Pietro will very likely be TRU.

Okay, so I saw the movie opening night with my Dad (we did the AMC double-feature), and I WAS going to finally express my immense love for everything about it...but then after SHIELD last night I've had my mind reeling with conspiracy theories with Hydra, even moreso now that Fiege says they have a plan straight through 2028 for the franchise. So, here's a pretty lengthy (okay, REALLY LONG), slight convoluted tin-foil hat theory for the future of the MCU:

I warned you, it's VERY VERY tin-foil. But all of this Hydra stuff has been bouncing around my brain and drawing connections to the rest of the MCU, and this is what was produced. I welcome and anticipate all criticism.

Yea, i agree with TM2, one set per Bond could feature a tux, but there's enough variants. The immediates that come to mind are Roger Moore's Live and Let Die tactical turtleneck and shoulder holster, Moonraker spacesuit, The Spy Who Loved Me British Royal Navy uniform, Pierce Brosnan's Goldeneye tactical jungle gear, Sean Connery's Thunderball wetsuit, etc. There's enough to save the line from redundancy.

Even the girls have different looks other than bikinis.

Apparently the new people in charge of the franchise don't want ANY toys for Bond. Sideshow had to stop making figures too.

It basically looks exactly like Secret War, which is freaking awesome. Love the tiny little Avengers logo on the shoulder. Really good call on this one, as much as i'll miss Commander Rogers.

Way too expensive. I've got like $40 in Rewards but i was hoping that would bring it closer to $160 or $180, not $200. Definitely on the buy list, though.

I'll sum up everything you need to know about the movie/trailer:

13 seconds into it, we get an explosion. Yup, this is Bay alright.

So, um, this is on eBay. I'm wondering the plans that were scrapped were his Wolverine Legends figure, and he could be part of a Phoenix 5 SDCC exclusive?

Well well well, looks like someone gets some swanky skirted duds this time around. Pointed goggles would be a nice addition.

Sooooo... has anyone noticed that ASM2 Gwen Stacy minimate is wearing black boots, a lavender skirt and a thigh-length green jacket? o_O

That was always supposed to be the intention with this movie, yes. Remember Peter's promise.

Spidey is simple in an oddly charming way. Not terrible. I definitely echo the Cyril comment for Smythe. Definitely need him now, that's brilliant.