Okay, I know I usually stick to the G.I. Joe side of the house, but I am absolutely in love with these Hot Toys Avengers figures, and I figure other Joe fans might be, too. Pre-Orders just went live for Captain America!
Check out the mirrored image below.
Yes, panic is a strong word. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen any real panic from anyone yet, but I do think what we’re seeing already from some Avengers toys being shown on Toys “R” Us Canada’s website might be something we want to keep in mind as we prepare mentally for Toy Fair in a couple of weeks. I will admit, I did panic a little bit myself, mostly over articulation concerns, but in all honesty, I don’t think we have much to worry about with the mainline G.I. Joe releases.
As for the product itself, the first thing is the appearance of a clear image of the Avengers Quinjet:
Originally there was some hypothesis that maybe the Quinjet was retooled from the canceled Sigma 6 Thunderhawk and Rise of Cobra Phantom X90, but upon closer inspection that’s not the case. The surface is completely different, and while there are some structural simularities, I think the vehicles themselves are different molds. If you look at the cockpit area, the surface is much smoother on the Quinjet without the vents near the rear, and the wing assembly looks like it’s all one piece, and not modular like on the other planes.
Regardless of the construction, the Quinjet looks pretty neat, and could make for some potentially cool custom fodder.
Next up, is this weird Ground Assault Vehicle:
This thing is actually pretty darn cool, design-wise, as long as it’s larger than the picture indicates (I think it probably is). If it’s close in size to the RHINO or even a bit smaller, it could make for a pretty awesome Cobra vehicle, with some fresh paint applications.
Another potential source of cool custom fodder is revealed with the appearance of Captain America:
Yes, the figure looks great, the webgear looks awesome…but… where’s the articulation? We’ve got single-joint knees and no torso joints whatsoever. Curious… I know some folks were wondering about this last week when Marvel leaked a few early images of the Avengers figures, but now seeing a finished model looking the same way is a concern. Granted, if your only worried about the accessories, this isn’t a big deal, but it is somewhat disappointing, especially considering it won’t necessarily match aesthetically with the rest of the Marvel movie figures that have been revealed so far.
Granted, Marvel figures aren’t necessarily known by their extensive articulation, but still… I have an Ultimate Captain America, Iron Man, and Nick Fury all in this format already, it is kind of too bad the Thor and potential Hawkeye figures won’t match it.
So even beyond folks being excited for G.I. Joe toys in 2012, the potential is there for some awesome customizing above and beyond the Retaliation brand. More info will come in a couple weeks from Toy Fair, and GeneralsJoes will be there as always to cover it!
With G.I. Joe: Renegades not hitting until Thanksgiving (allegedly) I’m focusing all of my animated attention on Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, which most of you know by now. Reason? I think it’s awesome and I want to talk about it. So, 788, go ahead and click away now. 😉
The New York ComicCon just wrapped up, and revealed some more details about the series… apparently those awesome Micro-Episodes running on DisneyXD right now are in actuality the first five episodes of the animated series, broken down into smaller chunks. That does explain a lot…I thought it was kind of weird that those microsodes were so high quality and would be in addition to normal content, especially since they’re actually revealing the origins of some of the key players.
Also revealed at New York ComicCon was that the “pilot” for Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes would pick up where the Microsodes left off and show a veritable Super Villain rebellion, with widespread escapes from the various super villain prisons around the country. Certainly a story that’s been done before, but if the quality of the series even comes close to matching what we’ve gotten for the microsodes, we are in for a damn treat.
I’ve already professed my love for Hawkeye, and I’ll also admit that I’m a huge Captain America fan as well. Granted I haven’t read the book in a number of years, but the 90’s era Captain America stories were among my favorite comic stories ever written. Steve Rogers’ leaving his post, becoming The Captain while John Walker became the new Captain America…that whole storyline and how it tied into Ultimatum and the Red Skull. Diamondback, Crossbones…all of this made for some fantastic Marvel Comics memories. So while much of the nuances of The Avengers may be lost on me, I can certainly appreciate it when they focus on some of the more key characters.
One question I had was how would they handle Captain America’s origin? The answer? Pretty damn well. I’ve embedded a series of three microsodes below the jump, which feature the origin of Captain America…and also some very cool familiar faces.
We see Fury and his Howling Commandos, including one very familiar commando who is only called “Logan”. Not only that, but in one of the latest microsodes, Nick Fury also references the Mutant Response Division, and even calls them “Marties” a terrific reference to the unfortunately canceled Wolverine and the X-Men series, indicating that this series ties in with that one. A very cool, rich Marvel animated universe is starting to form, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next. Click the “read the rest of this entry” link below to check out Captain America’s animated origin!
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Part of the news in New York ComicCon is the information that G.I. Joe: Cobra co-writer Christos Gage has received an exclusive contract from Marvel Comics, which means he will be moving on from the fantastic IDW title. His co-writer Mike Costa will remain on the book.
Announcing it via his Twitter feed, he expressed regret that he had to leave the book, but confidence that Costa can continue on fine in his stead.
As a humongous fan of G.I. Joe: Cobra, I’m sure Mr. Gage’s influence will be missed, but I wish him the best of luck, and a huge congrats on the Marvel deal! Part of the Marvel deal is also doing the writing for the upcoming Captain America: Super Soldier video game from Sega (to launch in conjunction with the film) so I know we’ll all be sure to check that out!
So, is anyone getting tired of me posting information about Avengers? I hope not, because I’m going to keep doing it. Feel free to skip by if you’re not interested. I’m extremely fired up to see this cartoon, so I fully intend on posting about the videos as they’re uploaded.
The latest five-minute short focuses on The Hulk… DisneyXD.com is the first place to post it (which doesn’t allow embedding for some weird reason). It’s on the same video page that the Iron Man one was posted yesterday.
Along with that, Marvel.com has also begun posting their own content, including very short snippets of the origins of the Avengers. First two are Thor and Captain America.
Thor
Captain America
Along with those, Marvel.com also has hosted the Iron Man Micro-Episode, so it’s embeddable now!
Iron Man Micro-Episode
This cartoon really looks great. It has a very “realistic” feel to it. Sure, the animated style is the typical distorted look, but the dialog is very mature and natural, the action is very well choreographed…it really rocks. October 20th…I’ve marked my calendar!