They finally put in an appearance at my local Wal-Mart today.

Okay -- I'm impressed. Despite the pictures I'd seen here and there, I was honestly expecting Superhero Showdown Redux. These figures are tons better than those things. I can't really comment on the sturdiness of the articulation, since I didn't buy any of them, but they look ten times better than I really expected them to. Nearly painted, extremely well detailed, and the high level of articuation is not the visual hindrance that I anticipated. They seem to be well designed and well proportioned -- with the notable exception of the distinctly anorexic Iron Fist. Does he really look like that in the comics these days? Somebody get this kid to a burger joint.

I do sort of wish Hasbro would get off the mid-torso articulation fascination they have. It works better here than it does on some of their lines, but I still don't think it looks that great.

However, two things are likely to prevent me from buying these figures.

(1) - Marvel Comics. I'm sorry, but I've had it. Can somebody please kill Norman Osborn and make sure he stays dead and buried this time? My stars, the man has even turned up in Deadpool, and those lame-ass Dark Avengers put in an appearance in Thor, and those were pretty much my last Marvel holdouts. In fairness, I loved Thor's reaction -- "This is an outrage! This is blasphemy!" Okay, "blasphemy" might be a little strong, but it's certainly within Thor's mindset and vocabulary, but I definitely agree with "outrage". Been that way since Civil War, right through Initiative, Secret Invasion, and now Dark Reign. Sorry, Marvel. I'm done. If I want dirty, under-handed political intrigue, I'll watch the evening news.

None of this is Hasbro's fault in the least. They don't write the books, they just make the toys. But I've had it with the comics, and find that I can barely stand to even encounter the toys right now. I WOULD be willing to bring in the Marvel Legends Kree-Skrull two-pack, but I'm starting to have my doubts that it's ever going to come out at this point.

(2) - The price tag. My Wal-Mart wants $8.44 for these figures. That's roughly $1.50 more than either DC Universe Infinite Heroes or G.I.Joe, and it's almost a buck more than Star Wars. That pretty much makes these Marvel figures the most expensive 3-3/4" figures on the market right now. Heck, they're more expensive than Power Rangers, and those are in a distinctly larger scale! I know we're in a troubled economy right now, but I just can't afford to spend that on figures from a fictional universe that -- no fault of the toys whatsoever -- I've pretty much lost interest in.

Nevertheless, I do feel that Hasbro has done an excellent job with these, much better than I expected, and they should be commended for that. I hope the line fares well for them.

Cool that means I might get to see them in person in a few months as slow as things are to trickle in here. Really want to see them in person myself because I've had the feeling they were going to be like some of the Joe figures that didn't look that good on the net only to really kick butt when I saw them in person.

Only two things have me a bit worried this time. One is how hard is it going to be to complete teams. Looks like figures are getting released here and there with the waves so I wonder how hard it will be to complete say the Fantastic Four, Avengers, or X-Men. The other worry is I'm not seeing a lot of villains so far. Yea it's nice getting Spider Man but what I really want is to have Spidey take on the Sinister Six in toy form or the X-Men to fight it out with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Fingers crossed it's not another Superhero Showdown that dies before you can get a team together or the small DC line that lacks the big name heroes and villains. A good start on the Marvel heroes but I want to see some big name villains added to the line up.

My Iron man's foot doesnt move, it's stuck, and the same leg is loose. Green Goblin's hover sled after a few minutes wont stay on his feet.

Dead Pool can't stand without a stand.


Silver Surfer's hands make him look like a Special Ed kid that fell in a vat of silver paint.





Hulk is the only one that has no problems. When talking about 8.44$ ea. these kind of problems get returned to the store. Hasbro better tighten up the quality or I'm not risking this kind of money on crap quality.

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Wow. Well, that sort of answers the one concern that I couldn't address. Either that, or you've had some pretty horrific luck with these.

BTW, did Wal-Mart give you any grief for returning opened toys?

Yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one, at this upper price point, I do feel like returning my black panter who's legs are just crap at this point, after only three days of playing with him,

surfer is odd, for sure, with the non human head and visible chest joint, but the weird paint sells him for me.

He's fighting BAF galactus as we speak.

Trekker, pass on the line? Nahh, if I were you, I'd pick up cap and well, being me, deadpool, but the rest of the line isn't worth breaking into it.

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haven't had any poroblems with these figures yet. And comparing them to DCIH is a joke, DCIH pales compared to them.

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I wasn't too pleased with the look of Captain America since he looked like the Ultimate version or something. That's a pass regardless of construction or price. Deadpool was a close one for me. We'll see.


Why, because of the articulation, or the characters? I'll admit I don't like the fact that females in the DCIH line have pretty strange articulation, but as far as the male figures are concerned, I don't need a figure to be articulated well enough to do a breakdancing routine to be able to enjoy it. They look cool, they look like the characters, and that's what I expect. Granted, so do the Marvel ones.

And while Final Crisis stunk to high heaven, I still think the DC Universe is in better (and more respectful) shape than the Marvel Universe is these days. Just my thought on the comics universes.

A mix of poor articulation, poor quiality, and fairly poor character design is what is killing DCIH for me.

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Actually this is ALL Walmart's fault.
$7.99 at Target & TRU even at Meijer here in the midwest
This is the price HTS now charges for all their 3 3/4 inch figures.
The only place higher is KMart at $8.99.

Found some that had been picked over hard at Toys-R-Us. So far I'm happy with the one's I've picked up.

Found cap tonight and when I got him out his shoulder was fused, took me over an hour to make it move and now its loose to the point he can't hold it out.

That has been my only problem so far, I count myself luck from the horror stories I have heard.

On surfer, really the SHS one knocks the current on out of the ball park no if ands or buts. Hasbro really dropped the ball on that one.

But what kills me is that dang Surfer mold has been used over and over (its become this lines version of the Duke arms). Both versions of Torchs, and now also as Iron Fist (I just really got a good look at him tonight, he was an easy pass after realizeing this). It has to be one of the top ten crappiest molds I have ever seen and it keeps getting reused.

DCIH, well at least they can hold thier arms on thier sides finding that to be a real problem with the marvels.

Some of them have pretty funny shapes but overall i'm pleased with what we have so far. Really want to pick up a Spidey and Deadpool. Havn't seen any of the Origins figures yet!

Trek, there's a comic pack coming out later with a classic Cap. Thst might be more to your liking.

I found iron fist and ronin last night on a roadtrip and got them. IF looks pretty weird and doesn't have great articulation but I wanted him. Ronin is pretty large in size I feel but he's pretty good. I agree the shs surfer looks alot better than the hasbro version,I have gotten so far both Iron man's, black panther,spidy, wolvy, and the IF and ronin. The rest I want are cap and possibly hulk besides wave 3 figures.

Yeah, you know, I don't know why that concept wasn't blindingly obvious to me. We've got G.I.Joe comic packs from Hasbro, we've got Star Wars comic packs from Hasbro -- and those two concepts didn't even start as being comic-based. Why the heck WOULDN'T there be Marvel comics packs!

Glad to hear there'll be a more classic Cap. We'll have to see. I'm just generally down on Marvel right now, as I said, for reasons that have nothing to do with the toys. I feel like asking Marvel if they ever intend to get back to publishing stories where the heroes act like heroes, where they fight villains instead of each other, and where the stories are actual super-hero type stories instead of alleged social commentary and backstabbing political intrigue.

Well, each to their own. Admittedly the articulation isn't as extensive as some 3-3/4" lines. That doesn't bother me. I haven't had any real quality issues except a few paint issues with DCIH, and those are more easily resolved in my opinion that structural/articulation issues. Granted, the paint issues should be addressed, but I'd say that with any toy line having such problems.