I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe is brilliant. I am interested in everything they do, I'll give everything a chance. The DC Cinematic Universe, I just don't care, when did I become such a Marvel fanboy!?
As a kid I loved the X-Men cartoon, I didn't pay attention to the other Marvel cartoons. I loved the Batman Universe, I watched the films and read a fair few comic books (most of the comics I've ever read have been Batman, though a few were Spider-Man, Punisher and X-Men). In particular I really enjoyed Knightfall, the only 6" figures I have are Bane and Azrael Batman for that reason.
In the early 2000's I started watching the 90's Spider-Man cartoon plus X-Men Evolution. There were Spider-man and X-Men films which I really enjoyed, Batman however had suffered the shocker that was Batman and Robin. Marvel was edging ahead.
Fast forward to the late 2000's, I've watched Hulk and Fantastic 4, they're okay. At this point I've got no time for Iron Man ('he's just a man in a suit of armour!'), Captain America or Superman (they're just a bit too perfect). My opinion on those last two are based on the Superman films and Cap's appearances in the Spider-Man cartoon. Then the game changer: the Iron Man film, a great blend of action and humour. I like the character. It becomes apparent that Marvel are building something big.
Meanwhile Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy is also kicking off and for me is as close to a comic on screen as you can get. Those films are great but self-contained.
Around this time I decide I need to get some action figures of these characters, X-Men, Spider-Man, Punisher, Blade, Batman plus the important characters, Superman, Cap, Iron Man and Hulk. Marvel Universe and Infinite Heroes started up around then and so were the ideal fit.
I was at a mate's house when he put on Avenger's Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Immediately I was hooked. It also sold me on Captain America as a character, for the first time I got his character, he was a leader and motivator. I particularly appreciated one of his chats with Hulk 'in my day we had a word for people like you: hero'. This was followed by the Cap and Thor movies and I was completely on board and couldn't wait for the Avengers movie. I also watched all of the other 90's Marvel cartoons (Iron Man, Fantastic 4, Hulk and Silver Surfer), Wolverine and the X-Men, and Black Panther. Although the IM and FF cartoons were pretty lame I was at least introduced a lot of new awesome characters, mostly villains.
Meanwhile I got rid of my Superman figure as I didn't see the point of owning a toy of a character I didn't like. Now I haven't seen any of the new Superman films, but I just don't feel the need to, and maybe I just haven't given non Batman DC a chance (I did watch Green Lantern and thought there was some potential), but I'm just not interested and now DC have set out their stall I still am not. Incidentally I started to watch the 90's animated Batman, but found myself wanting to watch A:EMH instead! I will probably give it another chance, but the first few episodes didn't pull me in. It's possible that with the crossovers it has to other DC properties that I'll get pulled in but at the moment I'm just not feeling it.
So I actually wrote most of this before the Spider-Man announcement was made, but damn if the MCU didn't just get a little bit more exciting! The reaction online has been very exciting to follow, it's one of those rare moments when everyone who cares is happy. There has already been requests not to have another origin story, I don't see why they can't do the same that they did with Hulk (whose origin film was made by Universal), the subsequent film didn't follow exactly but more or less it could have.
Of course now Marvel has a deal with Sony, it's hard not to think about Fox and their Fantastic 4 and X-Men movies. The FF trailer dropped recently, it's okay, I suppose, but I'm not that interested. It's hard to see the film doing well. I think the way that Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes used the FF was spot on, use their villains (particularly Doom and Galactus), have them make cameos, that would be perfect for the MCU where there are going to increasingly be more and more characters to try and give screen time.
I love the X-Men, and whilst Fox seem to be doing a reasonable job with them, I'm not so worried about them being in their own place, especially as generally it's only a couple of X-Men characters that frequently interact with the wider Marvel Universe (usually Wolverine). I do wonder how long the contracts that Marvel signed with Sony and Fox actually last for, apparently they're long, it must be more than 10 years, maybe 30, 40!? I think Marvel getting the rights to FF is actually more important than the X-men, they are more central to the Marvel Universe, watching Thing and Hulk fight, Spider-Man and Human Torch joke around, and Tony Stark and Reed Richards working together would be awesome. I guess one day we will seem an Avengers film with the Thing and Wolverine, but not soon.
With the upcoming Civil War film it seems quite likely that the Avengers roster will change, if only because some of the actors are towards the end of their contracts and want to pursue other films. It might also be that Marvel wants to concentrate on characters other than Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and maybe Hulk. We know what characters the upcoming films are going to introduce, plus they're developing characters through the TV and Netflix shows. Given that there are going to be so many characters plus the schism from civil war, I think they might go the Mighty and Secret Avengers route (Iron Man and Captain America's team).
So here's a wild guess at what those teams might be. Mighty Avengers, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, War Machine, Black Panther and Mockingbird (to bring in an Agents of Shield link) and Secret Avengers, Hawkeye (for continuity with the first film), Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Vision, Falcon, Luke Cage and Iron Fist (Netflix link). No room for Doctor Strange, but naturally eventually they'll all make up (and bring back Iron Man and Cap) to take on Thanos.
So it sounds like Ant-Man will cover some of the 1960s timeline, I wonder whether they might do a second series of Agent Carter to fill in a few more of the details, they could have Howard Stark again, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, and maybe Spider-Man's parents!? (Who I think in most continuities have some of secret agent background.) Perhaps Nick Fury as well. I'd like to see a bit more of Arnim Zola so maybe he could be the villain. Could be cool!
I finally got round to opening Marvel Infinite Ant-Man and Wasp, I'm not really sure why I waited so long. A bit like Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Panther before them I really gained an appreciation for the characters from Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes (actually, thinking about it I think I like every single Avenger in that show). I thought Wasp really needed to be in a flying pose so cracked out a stand for her. I'm actually going to display them both with my Beast Wars figures. I saw a picture of Ant-Man on Inferno's back which I thought really worked well ('for the royalty!'), then I thought Wasp and Waspinator made sense as well (although not Wasp on Waspinator's back). I have put the mini figures of the respective characters with my Avengers so I don't break my rule of only one figure per character. Anyway, great figures.
There have been some more photos of Generations Motormaster, despite people not being so keen on Optimus Prime, I think he's looking pretty good. I think where he really excels is his head sculpt(s). Both the Motormaster and Menasor heads look really good, I'm not regretting my decision to sell FP Menasor at all. Taking this a bit further, I realise that a good head sculpt is incredibly important to me and it is a bit subjective what constitutes a good sculpt, but I think it's the main reason why Hasbro products are better than third party. Strangely I think iGear are (used?) to be one of the better ones, but I'm not always very keen on the FP heads, I was never very keen on their Springer for that reason.
A good head sculpt with a good paint job can really sell a toy to me, Classics Grimlock I passed on, Henkei Grimlock with the superior paint I couldn't. I like Universe Sunstreaker better than Sideswipe because I think he has the better head sculpt. The Seacon Snaptrap has a great head sculpt, but because of the lack of paint you don't notice, Beast Wars Halfshell on the other hand, same mold but with paint really stands out for me (I bought him well before Snaptrap for that reason). I think you get the idea, but one final honourable mention goes to BWII Starscream, he basically has a Optimus Prime head, but in black it looks really nice.
So Toy Fair has come and pretty much gone, I think we already knew about everything I was going to be interested in in advance from Generations and Marvel Infinite. We finally got to see official photographs of Devastator and Defensor, this line is just blowing my mind, the individual robot modes are just so unbelievably spot on for what I want. I'm extremely tempted to display the Protectorbots separately just because Hot Spot looks so good. I need them both without question.
There have been rumours that the next Masterpiece figures will be Ironhide and Tracks. Ironhide would be a done deal, I think I would have to make an exception to my 1984 collecting purely because I like the Corvette Stingray altmode (I saw one in a museum once, it's awesome!).
I predict that Bruticus will be Wave 1 of 2016 and then Computron will be Wave 2. I also predict that someone will make a kit to turn CW Optimus into a Powermaster. There seem to be a few options for him at the moment.
Marvel Infinite confirmed the rumoured third wave, Chameleon, Korg and Emma Frost. Chameleon looks pretty good, think I might put him next to the Red Skull as a little nod to the 90's Spider-Man cartoon. DC Multiverse had some interesting stuff, Azrael in Knightfall costume and a non Movie Penguin (I was just considering customising the Danny DeVito figure into a more comic look, so good timing). Batman Beyond looks good (I have also seen a bit of that cartoon). I think it's time to look into the Multiverse line a bit more; I'll need a Bane to go with Azrael (might sell off my 6" versions of these characters), and the Two-Face looks like a better colour scheme than the Infinite Heroes. Look at me getting enthusiastic for DC!
Might also get me some Jurassic World Raptors and a T-Rex!
So looking into the Multiverse figures inspired me into actually opening the Mr Freeze I've had sitting around for ages, and, actually he's really quite good! I had this feeling that I thought he was a good villain, but couldn't work out why given Batman and Robin and that I haven't made it to the Batman TAS episodes where Freeze appears, but then it struck me, I have actually seen Batman and Mr Freeze: Sub Zero. The figure has reminded me of a happy memory of watching that film. Anyway, the figure is a really nice sculpt, decent possibility, and although from a game I've never played, fits nicely into my display.
