Inhumans, X-Men & Avengers Team Building With Marvel Universe

The new Marvel Universe team packs are starting to show up at retail. They’re nice addition to a line that doesn’t seem to offer too much this year, at least before Toy Fair.

The West Coast Avengers make up the first the pack, featuring War Machine, Hawkeye, and Mockingbird. Each figure comes with its own accessory, which for a team pack is unusual. War Machine is a redeco’ed figure, and comes with the shoulder cannons with attachable projectiles, a nice addition for a figure that is strictly repaint. Hawkeye is also a figure collectors have seen before, an amalgamation of the Dark Avengers Hawkeye and Secret Wars version. The figure has a darker deco that makes him just different enough from the other two versions to seem desirable to many collectors. Also included is his signature bow, quiver, and one arrow. The last member of the trio is Mockingbird. She played a big role in the recent Avengers cartoon, so she will probably be in demand by both kids and collectors. She uses the older style female body, but it works for her. She comes with her own accessories, escrima sticks, which can be connected to make a staff weapon.

The next team pack is based on Marvels Inhumans and the only set to include three all new characters to the line. The set features Inhumans king Blackbolt, his queen Medusa, and their mind reading assistant Karnac. The simplest figure of the set is also surprisingly the best– Karnak uses the slim male body with a new head sculpt. The paint is clean and stands out well when displayed. Medusa, the Inhuman queen uses a slim female body, and shares some parts with the Scarlet Witch. Her head has her long flowing hair that is actually larger than the rest of the figure. Her extra long mane makes it easy for her to stand up on her own, balancing the body nicely. The main concern is she has a very thin neck, so if she is not stored or posed with care it may snap down the road. The final figure is the Inhuman king, Blackbolt. He uses the newer body type with articulation at thigh and rocker ankles. Blackbolt’s wings are separate pieces from the arm. They can be moved depending on how the figure is posed, but the scalloped gloves make it impossible to remove the wings without disassembling the figure’s arms. The plastic used for the arms is not as tough as the other figures, in my case the bicep joint broke off at the shoulder, so pose carefully.

The final pack includes one of the most fan demanded characters from the X-Men and a cute little surprise. The Wolverine in this set is just a redeco, with nothing new (not even the nice new head seen on the prototype at Comic Con). Two of the other figures have a connection, Longshot and the X-Babies Cyclops. Longshot uses the Ghost Rider body, but might have looked better on the slimmer body, appearing bulky compared to the other figures. He also has a strange open hand making him look a little awkward. Hasbro could have gone with the easy cheap option using a Super Hero Squad figure as the Cyclops, but instead opted for a whole new sculpted figure. He is definitely one of the cooler accessories that Hasbro has included in the line. Rogue is the most impressive figure of the set. She is in her 90’s iconic look, using the slim female body, with her leather jacket. Her hair limits the neck articulation, but her overall sculpt and excellent deco makes up for that limitation.

Overall this is a good group of additions to the Marvel Universe line. Let’s hope this trend of mostly new figures continues in 2013.

If you want these guys right now Click Here and pick up a set from our friends at Mike’s Comics ‘N Stuff.