I’ve only written about them a handful of times on the site, but the truth is, I love action figures. I’ve been collecting them for almost my whole life, starting with the 5″ X-Men line from the 90s, and continuing through Hasbro’s Marvel Legends to this day. So, when Hasbro’s PulseCon 2022 event kicked off this past weekend, you can bet I was there to find out what was coming down the line. So what’s in store? Well, here you go:
Retro Collection Deluxe Iron Man
The Marvel panel wasted no time in jumping to announcements, leading off with the Deluxe Retro Iron Man. This version seems to mostly reuse the Modular Iron Man sculpt from last year, with a few tweaks. The arc reactor section of his chest is sunk a little deeper in this new one, to allow for energy effect accessories (included) to plug into it, and there’s also a slick new paint job, as well as a couple of new head sculpts–both a different helmet design and an unmasked Tony Stark head, mulleted in true 90s fashion.
That’s not all though–the thing that truly makes this figure a deluxe is the inclusion of Iron Man’s signature proton cannon (which they’re calling a plasma cannon for what I assume are legal reasons), which fans of the Marvel vs Capcom game will remember. The cannon accessory is massive–far too big for the figure to hold, and so it comes with its own stand!
It’s absurd. It’s excessive. I love it.
HasLab Engine of Vengeance
After that (and a brief stream interruption), the team moved on to coverage of the current HasLab project, the Engine of Vengeance. As of this writing, the project has almost 6,000 backers (of the necessary 9,000), meaning that there’s only about a third of the way to go! The base project includes the car itself, with a host of attachable flame effects as well as LED lighting designed to highlight those effects, and a figure of the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider. While it’s too bad the human version of Robbie Reyes won’t be included due to the campaign not meeting the early backer requirement for it, the team showed off a Mephisto which will be included, provided the campaign hits 12,000 backers total. Mephisto will be fully articulated and stands at just over 7″ tall, giving him the imposing height to stand over other figures. In addition, the team teased the second tier unlock with the image of a red gem ringed in gold. Who might that be? The funding period ends on October 31st, so if you want a flaming hellcar, you have until then to back it!
2023 Announcements
Next, the team moved on to announce some upcoming figures for next year, including the Orb, Molecule Man, and Moonstone. Moonstone hasn’t been seen since the SDCC Thunderbolts set from 2013 (which runs somewhere between $350 and $500 these days), so it’s great to see an updated version of her coming out! This version will also be an exclusive, but to Walgreens this time, following this year’s villainous theme of Baron Zemo, Jigsaw, and an updated Sentry, the first to feature a swappable head depicting his alter ego, The Void. There’s also a Warrior Gamora figure from the Disney+ What If… series, featuring armor and a weapon that resembles Thanos’ from Avengers: Endgame. Like the prior What If… figures, Gamora will feature a sculpt that shares the animated design stylings of the show.
Retro Collection X-Men
Of course, the most exciting segment of reveals were saved for last: A whole new set of X-Men reveals! Starting with a Retro Collection Wolverine featuring his X-Men team suit from Uncanny X-Men #275, the team then went on to show off an entire X-Men Retro wave, consisting of a single-packed Longshot, Multiple Man, Dark Phoenix, Avalanche, and Spiral (!!).
Longshot features a glowing eye to set him apart from the Mojo box set version, and Dark Phoenix is a redeco of the highly sought-after version from the 2017 two-pack with Cyclops. This new version lacks some of her alternate heads, but has brighter paint tones on the costume (I assume to split the difference between the comic version and the animated one, so she can go with either collection), as well as a new sash sculpt that features the Phoenix emblem on it. The new Spiral is a massive update from the previous version, which is over 14 years old at this point. That puts this Retro set at three heroes and three villains, with some fun updates of figures we haven’t had in a while. Those figures are available now at your retailer of choice.
Additionally, the team dropped a few sneak peeks! Joining the team uniform Wolverine they announced today, they revealed Storm and Banshee in the same uniforms! Banshee is the first version since 2007, a whopping fifteen years ago, and features swappable heads and cloth wings. Storm features her memorable short haircut from that time (immediately post X-Tinction Agenda, where she was growing her hair back out). Next up was a new Stryfe! Stryfe hasn’t been seen since the vanishingly rare Toys R Us exclusive wave from…2012, I think? It’s been a long time, and he was hard to find even then (one of the few I never nabbed!), so this new one is definitely welcome, especially on the heels of all of that 90s X-Force goodness the last couple of years.
Finally, the team capped off their first series of X-Men: TAS figures with a Cyclops! Featuring the same VHS box packaging as other figures in the line, Cyclops isn’t simply a rerelease of the one from a few years ago, but features some significant updates–namely, all his straps are no longer free-floating additions, but instead are keyed directly into the figure. No more leg straps falling down his thighs, and no more too-big chest strap hovering off of his shoulders! Being that this one has the cel-shading style of paint that’s common to the Animated figures, I’m hoping this retool gets a regular release down the line.
Overall, I’m extremely excited for the new offerings coming along. When showing off those X-Men uniformed figures, the team promised that we’d have opportunities to complete that team as well! I can’t wait, and I hope they lean into that arc and finally give us the likes of Lilandra, Deathbird, and perhaps even a Lila Cheney? C’moooon, Hasbro!
