Mirymate

Very good to hear. As a relative newcomer to serious mate collecting, I've been quietly watching this play out and hoping to see a good resolution. Faith:Growing

We all knew this was coming. But it does seem a little soon. I mean, what, Captain Bucky has only completed 2 maybe three whole adventures as Cap?

the super skrulls are usually dressed up a bit different, aren't they? Most generic Skrull soldiers wore simple purple boddy suits without a lot of decoration. The uniforms have a darker horizontal stripe across the shoulders, extending up to include the skull cap and in some case extending down vertically to the belt and trunks. How dark the stripe, the higher the rank. The Super Skrull has the large flared shoulder piece that seemed to be as much a function of hs rank in the Skrull army as his formerly unique nature, as similar shoulder flares were shown on other Skrull generals/admirals. (though Kl'rt was only a captain... yes they named him Captain Kl'rt and I'm sure they laughed to themselves every time) Every super skrull I saw during the recent Invasion was manifesting their various powers and modifying their uniforms into an amalgam of a standard Skrull uniform and whoever they were copying, so I have no idea if they had "standard" look when "at rest".

Actually the closest thing to a "cannon" Stealth Iron Man came in the early 90's in the Iron Man cartoon line. It's the only time the armor has been made that it wasn't simply a dark blue repaint of the classic armor. The shoulders, boots, and guantlets are overly exagerated, though the basic shape is correct, (okay so the shoulders are really really exagrated) And you'll have to forget the entire back piece of the armor w/ the wing. Ironically, even though that Iron Man line featured Drill and Samurai armor, there was no classic armor made. (though stealth to classic was an easy repaint, I mean, if I could do it...) My main complaint with the mm Stealth is the bright yellow unibeam. Doesn't mean I wouldn't snatch it up if I could get it for a "reasonable" price. And reasonable shipping... people seem to like to screw you on shipping. But that's a rant for another time.

Come on now, BHM, let's not compare the new recruit to toilet paper. Let's assume we're dealing with a more motivated individual. And Welcome. (wanted "Who wrote the book of Love?" but couldn't find it.)

The Avengers have/had three main villians: Ultron, Kang, and this week's Masters of Evil incarnation. Ultron just attacked recently, the Hood's gang is currently filling the MoE niche, and Kang will always be back, eventually. There were/are others who could be considered mostly Avengers' foes, includng Taskmaster, Gravitron, Count Nefaria, and the Lava men. And everyone in the MU has to have Dr. Doom and Magneto on thier top ten villains list. It's in their contract. But now you've got a street level team of Avengers, a team of "real" Avengers, and another Masters of Evil pretending to be Avengers, so much like the modern X-Men, exactly who the bad guys still are remains muddy. Exacly who is a member of any of the teams is likewise muddy. He started carrying the staff after his... third... ressurection just before Thanos started collecting gems for the Guantlet. He only recenty quit using it. I remember seeing it just before the Annihilation Wave, but not since. Point being in the costume represented, it's a very appropriate accessory to expect.

And more Ultimate. Please. What? I thought the only ones left alive were the ones they mates of already? I'm just sayin'.

That's because Punisher and Sentry are the villains! (to be fair, Sentry's a joke that's long since become unfunny) Mephisto can torment the Ghost Riders, the Surfer, Thor, Dr. Strange, heck he spent a year trying to corrupt Daredevil (although in light of the last few years worth of stories, maybe he succeeded)

One of my favorite Thanos momments happened during his first encounter with the Silver Surfer. Thanos is explaining his mission to ease universal overcrowding by killing 50% of the total population everywhere, a mission given him by Death herself. Thanos is teleporting himself and Radd around the universe as Thanos tries to convince the Surfer of the correctness of his actions. Of course, the Surfer is angered and offended by Thanos's point of view. So Thanos brings Radd and himself back to one of the first stops on their tour, and they find a once heavily populated world totally decimated. When the Surfr prepares to attack Thanos for killing a planet full of sentient beings, Thanos simply smiles and tells the Surfer that he didn't kill these beings, the Surfer did, with a virus the Surfer happened to be carrying when they teleported in for their earlier visit. It was such a wonderfully subtelly evil momment. BTW, it was Thanos' mission of universal genocide that lead him to gather the Infinity Gems in an effort to speed his task along.

Interesting. We got the ending after the credits. Can anyone confirm actually seeing the other ending?

A Messiah, a Golem, a Nihilist and Satan Yeah, I'm guessing it's not a mass market retail set. It's a set I honestly have trouble believing is happening. But thuroughly pumped over! Now we need that Moondragon and Pip 2 pack. And just for those who don't know Adam Warlock was the Messiah of the High Evolutionary's Counter Earth, right down to being crucified. (It reads better than it sounds) Drax the Destoryer was created by the "god" of the Titan Eternals using the rocks of Titan infused with the soul of a murdered Earth man, and made to destroy Thanos. Thanos worships death, and all of his various plots have been designed to win her favor, and he's been frighteningly good at it over the years. Mephisto may not actually be the Biblical Satan, but he plays him on TV.

Since they are making a Deadpool movie, "fast tracking it" in fact. My guess is they will say at the last few minutes and Weapon XI or something. I noticed in the credits that Weapon XI was even , so my theory isn't that far fetched. But I digress. I'd vote for a Battle Damaged Final Fight Wolverine, with a revisable head block with bullet holes in his forehead. Which coincidently I was wishing Stryker had done to me after his "Master Plan" was unveiled.

thats probably Ghost riders chain Nope. That Ghost Rider didn't use a chain. Originally Blaze's GR used Hellfire to blast people for a variety of effects, usually to "burn their souls" or whatever the writer felt like it needed to do that day. So I'm hoping for a flameing fist effect. The Chain showed up with the 90's Dan Ketch Ghost Rider, who coincedently didn't have Hellfire blasting powers (at least at first). Since then, Blaze has taken his successor's look, chain, and penance stare (originally only a Ketch GR power) while riding his classic hellfire chopper. Personally I liked the Evil Evel look he originally sported, but YMMV.

There's been a lot of deafening silence from TRU on a lot of Marvel Minimate related items of late.

Welcome to the boards. Relax, make yourself at home. But remember to wipe your feet on the way in, they hate it when you track stuff around. And I collect Transformers too.

You could always introduce Mr. Stark to Mr. Sharpie

My set has been paid for and is waiting to ship! And now, 8 days later, my BBTS wave 25 pre-order is also waiting to ship.

My theory is Mandarin is on tap for the theoretical (at least until they officially annouce it's on) third movie. It will be after the Avengers movie, so in a way it'd almost be Iron Man 4. That's the one Downey and Favreau have talked about doing the drunk Tony story in. My guess is part of what will break Tony is a thurough butt-whipping from the Mandarin. And what will help snap him back is Rhodey as Iron Man getting almost killed in his place. This is just my theory, and the only basis for it are thousands of hours of time wasted reading comics and watching action movies.

Outlandish?!? It's a movie about giant alien robots that change into things and fight each other. Of course it's outlandish! The question is will it do it's job as a popcorn movie. That remains to be seen.

Looks like they are using the same back piece they did with Archangel, so removing the wings from the back piece is going to be kinda irrelevant to removing the wings from the figure.

Champions is the set I want most, and they look really good.

Justin Hammer was big in the books from the 80's through the late 90's He's one of Tony's less scrupulous business rivals, and well known for outfitting criminals with high tech gear under the table. At one point Hammer was considered the #1 source of quality supervillian equipment. Of course it helped that Hammer had the Spymaster sneak into Stark International and copy as many Stark/Iron Man blueprints as he could, which Hammer incorperated into the super-crook tech he was selling. There's actually a pretty long list of B-grade Marvel villians that Hammer supplied gear to. Stark discovered the theft several years after the fact, which sparked his "Armor Wars" campaign. Of course, nothing could ever be officially tied to Hammer. In a series of unlikely (read borderline silly) events, Justin is current trapped in suspended animation in a olympic swimming pool sized chunk of ice in high earth orbit. (even from normall good writers, the stories can't all be winners) Whiplash, as Mark Scarlotti, was a weapons designer for the Maggia. He invents his power-whips and tries to take out Iron Man, who had been a thorn in the side of several recent underworld operations. As Whiplash, he only did really well in he and Iron Man's first fight, which probably had more to do with Tony wondering WTF than the power of his whips. Doesn't take long for the Maggia to cut ties with Whiplash, and after more beatings from the hero community, Mark decides to upgrade his equipment and turns to Justin Hammer for help. Re-armed with new trick whips and a new costume, Blacklash doesn't really fair that much better. But Hammer proves a reliable employer, and keeps him busy as a designer and enforcer. Eventually Scarlotti broke ties with Hammer, (or tried to) went back to calling hmself Whiplash, and started sharing the Gimp's wardrobe. He actually gave Tony a few good fights, adding some gadgets in the costume to protect him against repulsors, and using a hover platform for mobility (which were stuning examples of a b-grade villian actually learning from his past defeats), but ultimately he was killed in battle by Iron Man's "sentient armor". Now in the movie, Scarlotti is being replaced with Anton Vanko, the Russian scientist who designed and built the original Crimson Dynamo. Apparently they don't want to have another armor vs armor climax, so Vanko will be Whiplash now. Mandarin is coming. The whole thing from the first movie is an obvious refrence.

I doubt she'll have anything more than the Widow's bite bracelets. This is late 70's Tasha, no guns. In fact 616 Widow didn't start breaking out the extra hardware until the last few years when the Ultimates version did. (another unfortunate case of the 1610 bleeding into the 616.)

Yeah they did. Nice catch.

I'm sure Johannson can vamp it up in the leather catsuit and fake Russian accent in the finest Bond tradition, which is likely all that this action movie is really going to require. If I actually thought they had time to give her any real depth of character in an already crowded field, I'd be more worried about her acting ability. But they've got to introduce her, Rourke, and Rockwell in this one with enough screen time so they aren't complete cyphers, and give the returning characters all something to do. And in theory, advance Tony's character some more. Given all that, she has to look good and speak clearly. Anything past that will be a pleasant surprise. All that said, I'm expecting a fun movie here, as good if not better than the first. But I don't expect anything deeper than a cookie sheet from any character but Stark. Favreau clearly knows and loves the material, why else cast himself as Happy Hogan. Ah but which vesion of the original? The classic topknot wearing Whiplash/Blacklash costume, or the bondage outfit Whiplash wore in his last few appearances? As ridiculous as the original would look in real life, I'm really, really hoping it's not the bondage outfit.