Archive for April, 2008:
Shopping Assist: New Super Hero Squad
A couple quick points to help you on your hunt…
1) A user on Marvelousnews.com’s forums is saying that Hulk movie Super Hero Squads have started hitting Targets in Missouri today (we already talked about comic stores earlier today, and Hasbro Toy Shop has had for sale for a while)
2) City In Crisis and Winter Soldier are up for pre-order on Hasbro Toy Shop with August 14, 2008 (8/14/08) as the shipping date.
Happy shopping!
Hulk Super Hero Squad hits Comic Stores
For those going to the comic stores this fine day, you should be able to find Wave 1 (aka, Assortment 200801) of Hulk Super Hero Squad. Assuming your comic stores stock comic-related toys, of course.
Just as a reminder for loyal comic book shop fans: you can often pre-order Super Hero Squad figures from your local store just by giving them the Previews code, and if you don’t know the Previews code, ask them and in many cases, they’ll happily help you out, although they may want a deposit. Your comic store may charge more than Walmart or Hasbro’s online store, but depending on your gas prices and shipping fees, comic stores are still a great (although mostly under-utilized) source of Super Hero Squad figures.
Hulk Wave 3 SKUs
So Boywithgun has released the newest set of Walmart SKUs, this time featuring the likely third wave of Hulk figures:
HLK GRAY HLK LEADER 65356933645
HLK 2PK HULK ZZZAX 65356933646
HLK HULK DOC SAMSON 65356933647
HLK HULK SOH 65356922648
We all know my policy on “fill in the blanks” when it comes to Walmart SKUs, but luckily there’s not many blanks to fill in. Leaders, Zzzax and Doc Samson are going to be welcome additions to anyone’s collection. Villains in particular are always welcome!
SOH is, of course, the souce of speculation. Son of Hulk IS a good call though, and I can’t think of any other Hulk related characters off the top of my head that might be an “SOH” but it is a little interesting that the other SKUs used many more characters, so SONOFHULK should not have been a problem. Like all these other waves, we’ll hold off until we get more information.
It’s going to be interesting to see how many of the Hulks and HLKs are going to be repaints.
And finally, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Hasbro likes Hulk more than Iron Man. Ok, not entirely true, but just to keep the Super Hero Squad tally going we have
Hulk: 3 waves of 2 packs, a multi-pack with a vehicle, a playset (albeit, a re-release). Of the character selection, we’ve got oft-requested characters like She-Hulk and Black Bolt, plus lots of fan favorites like Leader, Absorbing Man, Zzzax and Doc Samson.
Iron Man: 2 waves of 2 4-packs. Of those 2 waves, one is entirely repaints, despite the number of Iron Man armors that are still not made. When all is said and done 1 “new character” in the repaint packs: Ultimate War Machine. Of the 16 figures in the 4 4-packs, Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man and Ultimate WM are the only new characters (unless you want to give a round of applause to an official, non Collector’s Pack repaint version of War Machine.) 12 Iron Men, many of whom are repaints. Even Spider-Man got new sculpts!
And the repaints themselves… with desert armor Iron Man and red-and-yellow “War Machine” are a little questionable when we’ve got great concepts still waiting… Stealth Iron Man (an easy repaint, as customizers have shown), Thorbuster Iron Man, Iron Man 2020, 90′s Animated/Galactic Storm style Iron Man, Repulsor Ray shooting Iron Man, translucent stealth-tech Iron Man. How about Mandarin? Blacklash? Maria Hill, Daisy Johnson, Dum Dum Dugan or even a generic SHIELD Soldier? Granted, Iron Man’s rogue’s gallery doesn’t strike much fear, but you could probably make some lifelong fans with a Chemistro figure. How about a new Doctor Doom sculpt? Different versions of Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man? His Mighty Avengers teammates Black Widow and Wonder Man? A Stark Labs playset a la the Gamma Lab?
For the most important man in the Marvel Universe (arguably) to be treated this poorly… Tony Stark really needs to put some pressure on Hasbro.
Attack of the Iron Man Repaints!
Yup, those photos from NYC of 8 carefully grouped Iron Men were a sign of things to come.
The Crimson Dynamo Attacks Item Number 78767
and
The Genius of Tony Stark Item Number 78768
And the solicitation text:
Crimson Dynamo Attacks
“The nuclear-powered Super Villain known as the CRIMSON DYNAMO attacks one of Stark International’s secluded desert storage facilities, intent on stealing what technology he can sell, and destroying the rest. Luckily, IRON MAN is there, testing his new desert combat armor. Using his remote systems, he takes control of two other powerful armor systems and turns the tables on his attacker!
Team up with these funky figures and create exciting adventures right in your own living room! Small in stature but big on fun, these cool characters are sure to save the day from a boring afternoon. So get ready to do battle with the Super Hero Squad!
Includes CRIMSON DYNAMO, WAR MACHINE, Classic IRON MAN and Desert Armor IRON MAN figures.”
and The Genius of Tony Stark:
“No matter where Tony Stark goes, he never stops inventing. He is a restless thinker, and a constant engineer. Over the years, he has built dozens of battle suits, both for himself and his friends and allies. Every single one is the best of its kind, a top-of-the-line suit of armor designed to seek and destroy evil wherever it hides.
Team up with these funky figures and create exciting adventures right in your own living room! Small in stature but big on fun, these cool characters are sure to save the day from a boring afternoon. So get ready to do battle with the Super Hero Squad!
Includes Iron SPIDER-MAN, Ultimate WAR MACHINE, HULKBUSTER IRON MAN and 1st Appearance IRON MAN figures.”
In short, it looks like the ugly brown Iron Man is now “Desert Armor” and not “Extremis Iron Man” as some sites have decided. Iron Spider-Man looks more metallic and a more classic Crayola red. The Crimson Dynamo looks like he’s got some metallic reds, so here’s hoping we have at least moderate repaints for all the characters (that way variant hunters aren’t stuck with dupes.)
And on a semi-related note, did I already mention how you shouldn’t keep calling a character “First Appearance” when you’ve already released 2 different versions of his “first appearance” look, and now you’re onto his next armor design/color scheme?
Ever wonder who does that great Super Hero Squad artwork?
Not necessarily a rumor, per se, but it’s hard to find out information regarding the artists involved with these very distinctive designs. However, Create Magazine has some of the art from the latest Iron Man 4-packs.
Also check out Harry Moore Design’s website for other promotional art Harry Moore Designs has done for past Marvel toy lines like the Avengers United and X-Men Onslaught lines from the 90′s.
Spider-Man is disproportionately represented.
Not really a myth, just something I want to get off my chest… no matter why you rationalize it Spider-Man is disproportionately represented in Super Hero Squad. With the current information regarding upcoming waves, Spider-Man continues to be 25% of the figures produced, not counting the movie-related lines.
The abundance of Spider-Men is one of the main complaints amongst collectors and we all acknowledge that it’s because Spider-Man is popular. Movies, cartoons, toy lines, merchandising. Nobody is saying Spidey should go away (although, it’s worth noting that the first 4 waves of Super Hero Squad were all Spider-Man free, and then the movie line came out.
But knowing that Spider-Man is now and will forever be a big seller doesn’t change the fact that he’s disproportionately represented. There are 3 times as many Spider-Men as his nearest competitors (Iron Man and Hulk) and that’s because the recent movie lines result in a nice surplus of those two. There are 5 times as many Spider-Men as there are characters like Wolverine, Captain Ameirca, Ghost Rider, Punisher, any member of the Fantastic Four. WOLVERINE! Wolverine the star of 3 separate titles (Wolverine, Wolverine Origins and Wolverine First Class), leader of X-Force, co-star of New Avengers, Astonishing X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, star of 3 X-Men movies, major player in the animated X-Men, X-Men Evolution and the upcoming Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon.
One can argue that Spider-Man is more popular than Wolverine, but 5 times as popular? Are sales of 2-packs featuring Spider-Man that much higher than sales of 2-packs featuring Wolverine?
Marvel has many popular characters, and while Spider-Man may be the most popular, that doesn’t mean other iconic characters like Wolverine “hurt” sales, or that making 1 Spider-Man 2-pack per wave would result in some catastrophic loss.
Sorry that this post is a bit of a soapbox (which you’ve come to expect from me) but for the life of me I wish people would stop subscribing to the concept that the line would be in some form of great and terrible danger if Spider-Man were not in (literally) every other 2-pack.
Oh, and by the way, look at eBay, online retailers any retail location that managed to get past Wave 1′s Angel and Colossus 2-pack. What packs are the rarest, hardest to find and most demanded, first to sell out on Hasbro’s online toy shop even. Beast/Iceman, Rogue/Gambit, Phoenix/Wolverine, Black Panther/Storm, Antman/Doctor Strange (baffling, but true), Human Torch/Silver Surfer. Beast/Iceman gets to the top of most Most Wanted lists because of the rarity and distribution problems, but for all the others… it’s a solid combination of wanted character, good sculpt and general demand.
The Super Hero Squad Recall
I first read about “the recall scenario” in a discussion about Hulk Wave 1 products hitting stores before the street date. I thought of posting about it, but when I saw a few forum posts last night claiming there had been a recall I figured I just had to post information (interestingly enough, rather than just locking down the recall thread or explaining how there’s not actually a recall, the thread asking about the potential recall was totally deleted from the forum.)
In short:
There is no recall.
The Hulk toys are not supposed to be shelved and sold yet. Some stores (only Walmarts according to the forum posts, but other stores like Meijers have apparently been seen allocating the shelf space) put the new 2-packs on the shelves. So far, everyone that has tried purchasing the figures has reported the same result: “Sale Not Allowed.”
To get around this, some individuals are using peg-warmers like the Angel/Colossus 2-pack to scan the price at the self-check-out registers and then just using multiple swipes to make their purchases. Others are trying the squeaky-wheel technique (complaining up the chain of command until the purchase is allowed.) but the problem is that the Sale Not Allowed defense is a great counter-argument. We CAN’T sell it. We’re not allowed.
I haven’t seen the boxes myself, but some posts on trader forums indicate that the boxes clearly mark a 5/1 street date, but even if the boxes don’t say that, we can see that Hasbro’s Toy Shop doesn’t have the wave being shipped until 5/14 (and from past experience with the Iron Man 4-packs, and the current Spider-Woman wave of 2-packs, their shipping date tends to be a few weeks after official release.) It’s also telling that the figures are still listed for sale on Hasbro’s website, where they could easily take the listings down in the event of a recall. And the fact that only Hulk Wave 1 toys that are not actually available for sale yet are the only Super Hero Squad toys affected by the recall, leaving the earlier Super Hero Squad waves and even the current wave, un-affected should also send a message.
The biggest indication that there’s not a recall (of a toy that has not been released yet): It’s not listed on any of the recall sites. Recalls.gov, US Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Hasbro’s own recall site are going to be the first places you’ll see a recall announced.
In sum: No recall, just over-eager stockboys and merchandisers.
