With the return of Marvel Legends, Hasbro’s 4-inch Marvel Universe line has slowed down a little bit. It’s understandable – collectors who had no outlet for their Marvel appetites had adopted the line, but with 6-inches back in force, some old-timers who had bought in wholesale to Universe are back to cherry-picking, or back solely on the Legends line.
On Preview Night, Hasbro had the next wave of Universe on display, as well as the current Wolverine 4-inch line. They also revealed 4-inchers for the upcoming Thor movie.
Even with some cannibalization from Legends, there’s advantages to what Marvel Universe can do at retail. The line has adopted the running change variants strategy in the latest wave revealed. Cloak and Dagger will share one package, as will Abomination and A-Bomb. With Universe’s figure counts per case, it makes it easier to implement the variants than it is with Legends, so Hasbro thinks Universe won’t run into the same issues we’ve seen with the variants for the more recent Legends lines.
It’s nice to see some product for Thor to join the Marvel movie lines that kicked off this summer with Wolverine. But I’m hoping for something along the lines of Thor Legends in 6-inches. We’ll see if they can squeeze in a retailer exclusive, at the least, for the Thor sequel.
I really wanted Cloak and Dagger but now that I see these pictures… not so sure I want them anymore!