by Chris Troy
Alright so Marvel has literally dropped the release mic this past week, unleashing a plethora of new product related to the upcoming Avengers movie (go look at that extended Super Bowl trailer now!) and I want to talk about them, because they ARE RAD. But we’ll get back to that later.
Alright, so the next wave of NECA Gears of War 3 figures is in stock and again, I’m a fan of them. NECA’s female sculpts aren’t always the best, but their angry buff guys and monsters are usually solid toys. This applies to the 2nd wave of Gears figures, which are some of their most articulate figures to date (what with 30 some-odd points or articulation each). The wave consists of Dom Santiago, Damon Bard (my personal favorite!), and Augustus Cole aka THE COLE TRAIN BABY WOOOOOOOOOO! I’m assuming anyone who’s played any of the Gears games got that reference. Anywho, each figure goes for about $18 bucks a pop for each 6″ figure, which also come with various weapons from the games. For less than $20 bucks it’s a solid deal.
Next we have….a lot of words. It’s ::takes a breath:: Composite Ver. Ka VR-014/ HD Fei-Yen HD (Hatsune Miku version). From what I can tell it’s a hybrid of Vocaloid Hatsune Miku and a Virtua-On mecha, which unlike Vocaloid, is something I care about. It’s pretty pricey at $70, but you certainly get your money’s worth. As part of Bandai’s Composite Ver. Ka line, the figure is incredibly detailed, despite some limited articulation at times depending on the hair and accessories equipped. In terms of accessories this figure is LOADED. Miku comes packed with a nice stand, a pair of variant hands, a variant head with an exposed-Miku face, a mic, and a pair of transparent leeks. The big accessory is her “Emotional Heart” which is some sort of weird floaty heart thingie. Miku also comes with a cool Dreamcast-looking backpack, which as someone who owns a Dreamcast, I appreciate. I’m not sure how much the Vocaloid fandom crosses over with the Virtua-On one, but there’s probably a demand for this figure somewhere, given how huge Vocaloids are. Much like any of Bandai’s high end figures, the demand is high and the supply is low, so if you want it, comes by ASAP!
So like I said earlier, Marvel’s dropped the first wave of Avengers merch onto our shelves and OH MY GOD, IT IS BEST! “It” being the Marvel Mini Mighty Muggs, which are tiny and great (and yes I’m am bias because WOOK HOW KWUTE WIDDLE HAWKEYE IS HEHEHEHEHEHE)! Hasbro’s done 2 types of releases for the MMMs, singles that focus on the movie versions of the characters, and 2 packs which are heroes vs. villains that come with more comic accurate versions of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The singles consist of Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. The 2 packs so far are Captain America vs. The Red Skull, the Hulk vs. The Abomination, Silver Centurion Iron Man Vs. the Iron Monger, and the pictured Thor vs. Loki. The singles go for about $10-11, while the 2-packs go for about $20. And as we speak, the first wave of Hasbro’s 3 1/2″ Avengers figures should be hitting the shelves, as well as the first set of the returning Marvel Legends figures. But we’ll look more in those next week, as there’s a ton of ground to cover there.
