The Avengers line has certainly been released with a degree of hesitancy by Hasbro.  The spacing of the waves with Black Widow and Hawkeye, and now Nick Fury and the Chitauri ahas been a little frustrating.

Hasbro seems to have learned some lessons from the Iron Man 2 line.  That seems to have carried forward into how they released both the Thor and Captain America movie lines.  Iron Man 2's toy line was a big release and it dominated toy shelves for a while.  A lot of that stock sold through, but it took a while.  And then the transition over to the follow-on line that's now in clearance outlets was an over stretch.  It seems reasonable that Hasbro would adjust on the Thor and Captain American lines and dial down the quantity of products.

Hasbro did go bigger with Avengers than either the Cap or Thor lines, but they still seem to be stuck in the same rut:  releasing too many versions of the main characters and almost no villains until much later in the line's run.  I understand the potential for spoilers from some figures, and a movie studio's hesitance to reveal characters.  But this does seem to be holding the line back a bit.

Looking at those first couple of waves of the DROID FACTORY line, I definitely feel like I SHOULD be selective.  The definite buys for me?

Wave 1
- Arena Padme (It's about time!) BUY
- Rockets R2  (Gotta wait and see if this is any kind of improvement over the 2007 release)
- Ep2 Anakin  BUY
- Ep2 Clone SGT (Meh.  Is this a removable helmet version?)
- Geonosian Warrior (Meh)
- Luminara  (Looks like a definite improvement over the ROTS version) BUY
- Biker Scout (Is this the same as the Speeder Bike pack-in?)
- TIE Pilot  BUY
- RED Battle Droid (Meh)
- Sandtrooper (Black Pauldron)  (Meh.  How many Sandtroopers does one person need?)
- Pablo Jill  BUY
- 212th Clone (Again? Meh)

BADs = TC-70 & FA-4


Wave 2
Mace Windu Clone Wars Armor  BUY
Captain Rex  BUY
Luke Yavin Ceremony (Significant improvement over the 30AC version) BUY
Mara Jade Jedi  BUY
Darth Vader Bespin  BUY
A-Wing Pilot  BUY
Biggs Darklighter  (Significant improvement over the 30AC version) BUY
Ep 2 Clone Pilot (Meh)



The only incentive that I can see for buying all of the figures are the BAF droid parts.  Otherwise I'd definitely be cherry picking figures from these assortments.

The fact they're repainting it for next year tells me no, but that's just my opinion.  I think it's destined to only be overseas or imported by the few willing to pay out for it.

EE has a single case/assortment with the Republic Dropship.  I may just bite the bullet and get that.

I'd like to see a Snowtrooper with electronic E-Web cannon

If they could integrate it with the power pack for the E-Web, it would be awesome!  But I think that what's holding Hasbro back from doing some really cool electronic features are the child safety standards & the cost.

Wow.  I didn't realize until I saw the blown up image that this Sandy features electronics.  Bummer.

I think the concept definitely works with the lightsabers nicely.  It could work well with droids, too, but I think the execution hasn't been quite right. 

But this?  It kind of looks silly.  The blaster is just way too oversized for starters.  Add in the fact that electronics like these cuts down on articulation, and it really hurts the figure.

Can't believe that I've actually been happy to find the electronic lightsaber Qui-Gon and MH Jar Jar over the past week.  Things are really lean when you get excited about finds like this.

A SHIELD pilot?  Definitely interesting.  Although I am a little bummed that it (probably) wouldn't include Agent Coulson.  By the time Thor rolled around he became a pretty cool character.

And does Cobie Smulders wind up starring this?