JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Other Toy Lines => The Bullpen => Topic started by: Brian on December 27, 2013, 08:52 PM
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Didn't see it posted yet, but it looks like we finally know a little bit more about the post-MU 3 3/4" line. Dan Curto had posted this scan from Previews magazine:
http://marvelousnews.com/index.php?catid=252&itemid=16827 (http://marvelousnews.com/index.php?catid=252&itemid=16827)
It shows the first wave of what is being called the "Avengers Infinite" series, at least according to this information (although it seems confusing as the "Infinite" title is being used to describe the Legends lines for both Cap and Spidey as well. Here's the lineup:
Captain America
Iron Man
"Platinum" Wasp
"Platinum" Hyperion
"Platinum" Hulk
"Platinum" Grim Reaper
Not sure what platinum means, aside from the figures pictured are all new ones while the non "platinum" ones (Cap and IM) seem to be repacks.
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they are called "Platinum" figures because they are only going to be packed one per case and therefore will sell for roughly the same cost of their respective weight in platinum on the secondary markets.
;)
I wonder how long til we start seeing these on Chinabay?
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Long live MU!!!!
Call it Avengers platinum if need be.
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They're seriously kicking this new line off with a repacked Cap and repacked Iron Man?
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I wonder how long til we start seeing these on Chinabay?
Street date of 03/2014? They'll probably trickle in from Asia in February.
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They're seriously kicking this new line off with a repacked Cap and repacked Iron Man?
That part's not good, but if that's what it takes to get 4 great new figures in Wave 1 when we thought the line might be dead, then fine.
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They're seriously kicking this new line off with a repacked Cap and repacked Iron Man?
That part's not good, but if that's what it takes to get 4 great new figures in Wave 1 when we thought the line might be dead, then fine.
Well, 3 new figures potentially. Do we really need yet another Hulk? New sculpt or not, they should have gone elsewhere. I don't mind Cap and Iron Man if they are one per case - will be disappointed if there are more. Iron Man should at least be a repaint - if not, that's just lazy. We haven't had a Stealth IM in a while...
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Hulk is a hot character right now. At least with fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hulk STOLE the show in Avengers. In that regard it makes perfect sense that Marvel & Hasbro would want to capitalize on his popularity right now.
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Hulk is a hot character right now. At least with fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hulk STOLE the show in Avengers. In that regard it makes perfect sense that Marvel & Hasbro would want to capitalize on his popularity right now.
I'm not saying Hulk shouldn't be in the assortment - I was questioning the logic in yet another mold of him, since they already have a few solid ones. They come in a case of 12, so repack those three with Thor, then give us 2x of 4 truly new figures.
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I'm not saying Hulk shouldn't be in the assortment - I was questioning the logic in yet another mold of him, since they already have a few solid ones. They come in a case of 12, so repack those three with Thor, then give us 2x of 4 truly new figures.
I am no expert - but I dont think much on this new hulk is new. Most of him comes from Thanos/Juggy/Apocalypse. The new stuff being his head, his chest and forearm armor and maybe his forearms and hands.
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Pics are up on BBTS (http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/list.aspx?list=14846&utm_source=retail_news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BigBadToyStore-Retail&utm_content=) if anyone want s to see them. Hyperion and Wasp look solid, as does the Grim Reaper, but I don't buy the villains. Hulk looks ridiculous. I don't even mind the Iron Man and Cap repacks, but THREE Iron Man vs. ONE Wasp? Really? I just don't understand Hasbro. What data is telling them that a repackaged Iron Man, after 50 different versions of this guy, is going to sell at 3x the rate of a brand new and beloved Wasp figure? FFS! Can anyone make sense of this? I get that Iron Man is cheaper for them to produce, but not in the long run if the item doesn't sell. I can't imagine 6 to 9 Iron Men flooding the pegs is good for anyone.
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I did a WTF when I saw that BBTS wasn't offering the Wasp on her own and then read your post, Jman. It's probably the same old story: female action figures statistically do not sell well.
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I wonder if sales would be better if Hasbro actually made more of them. Can't imagine anyone wanting more Shae Vizla or Bastilla Shan. Good thing Guri didn't top the EU most wanted figure list this year. Oh wait...
Hell, even the Marvel U I think Aurora and Dagger have been some of the hardest to find figures lately. I'm betting Wasp is more popular than either of those two. Just doesn't make any sense to me at all.
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The Wasp shortpacking is frustrating, because that's the only figure I really want from that wave, and I can't preorder it. I may pick up the Reaper figure as well, and we'll see about the Hulk, but I don't really have the need for either of them (or the others in this wave). I have plenty of Caps and Iron Men, and haven't ever cared about Hyperion all that much. Figures look nice in the pics though.
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I wonder if sales would be better if Hasbro actually made more of them. Can't imagine anyone wanting more Shae Vizla or Bastilla Shan. Good thing Guri didn't top the EU most wanted figure list this year. Oh wait...
When you artificially create a shortage of a character through shortpacking, you drive up their desirability. Hence Shae Viszla and Bastila were VHTF figures. That's a calculated move by Hasbro because of the long running track record with female characters.
Case in point? The Lost Line Look wave from the TVC line was pretty equally packed. There are some places I know where you can still find this particular wave of figures. And guess who's left? Bespin Leia. The Clones, Sandtrooper and Vader have pretty well sold through. Even Jar Jar has sold. But some of those Leias still linger.
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Yeah, no offense but that argument is bull****. For starters, I'm still looking for Bespin Leia and haven't seen her in a long time, but I still see Jar Jar and sprinkles of others around. You can't assume that availability in your area matches everywhere else. I'm sure she's plentiful in some areas and hard to find in others. Second, I don't know of anyone who buys more of something or picks it up solely because its rare. The fact that the figure is short-packed doesn't make me want it any more or less, and I wouldn't buy more than one of these unless I thought a friend needed it. With your logic, producing 1,000 of a female figure means they sell all 1,000, but producing 2,000 of them means they'll only sell 500. If you buy into that, I have some land on the moon I'd like to sell you. Oh, and if that were true, they should have short-packed Grim Reaper because he'll peg warm worse than three repacked Iron Men.
The fact is that Hasbro either has no clue what figures people actually want or they're letting the bottom line decide what characters to put into an assortment. Do they do any research at all? As someone who works in the industry, I find it appalling that they have reams of free feedback from consumers on sites like this, but they continue to just ignore it and release these ridiculous ratios. I'm sure it's appealing to put repack Iron Man who costs $.75 per figure in the case in place of all-new Wasp who costs $1.50 because it eats into their profits. But it's that kind of short-sighted thinking that undermines the success of the line in the long run. When I see heavy collectors of stuff like this bail on the line, it's typically because they're frustrated with the complexity or cost of trying to track down crap that's hard to find, like short-packed figures and exclusives. And when Walmart or Target bail on the line because they have 20 Iron Men warming the pegs, who's fault is that?
Sorry, but Wasp is the most popular character in that wave - producing just one of her is just plain stupid.
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Deny the trends as much as you want. The fact remains that female characters sell more poorly. I know that flies in the face of what YOU and other collectors may want. But in the broader market? Female characters just don't sell as well. Hence, they get short-packed. If they didn't, the retailers would give the manufacturers grief regarding case assortments that don't sell through.
As for short packing being used to create artificial demand? We've seen it plenty of times. Do we really need to go back to some of the golden oldies? How about as far back as 1999, with the POTF2 CommTech R2-D2 with holo Leia? Shortpacked at 1 per case and only offered in once case. At it's peak that figure sold for as much as $80. Or how about the Ultimate Galactic Hunt foil cards? That wasn't even discrete. Hasbro called them what they were: chase figures. We also saw EU characters in the TVC line which were only offered as one per case like Bastila, Galen Marek/Starkiller, and Shae Vizla. All offered in only a single case assortment and packed one per case. Lo and behold you wound up with these as "HOT" figures, and some collectors NEVER saw them at brick & mortar retail. THAT is called creating artificial demand. And it's been done numerous other times, all in the interest of driving the collecting chase.
If you still need a Bespin Leia? I know where there are plenty of them if you want one.
As for Wasp? She's an important character in the scope of the Avengers comics. And IIRC she wound up making an appearance in one of the Ultimate Avengers animated features. But I don't think you're likely to see her in an Avengers figure assortment at more than 1 per case until her character winds up in one of the Marvel cinematic universe's feature films.
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LOL! Nick, you can't throw your opinion around as fact without some data to actually back it up. I don't have any sales data to show how well female figures sell versus other figures - do you? The fact is that no one knows how well a short-packed figure would sell if it was offered more broadly. Do you really believe Hasbro would have sold fewer Bastilla, Starkiller, and Vizla figures if they had put twice as many of them on the market? I find that pretty hard to believe.
I'm not sure what your point is in listing a number of older short-packed figures. Yes, short packed figures often sell more on the secondary market. That's not called "creating artificial demand," it's simply the principle of supply and demand. Check out an Econ 101 class sometime. When you halve the number of figures normally available, there simply aren't enough to go around and that raises the price. Artificial demand would imply that people are buying up a figure they wouldn't normally have purchased, which we don't have any evidence of outside of scalpers.
Your example actually proves the opposite of your position. If female figures sell so poorly and are less desirable, then short packing them shouldn't cause a demand problem. Bastila, Starkiller, and Vizla are all still commanding higher than retail pricing, and two of those are female figures. And as far as retail sales go, I'm betting Hasbro sold just as many Vizla figures as they did Starkillers. So much for female figures selling in lower quantities.
Hence, they get short-packed. If they didn't, the retailers would give the manufacturers grief regarding case assortments that don't sell through.
Do you really think Target and Walmart would be calling Hasbro to include more female figures in their assortments?! Seriously? How could they even reach that conclusion. From what I've heard, the big retailers ARE upset with the current assortments. That's why you're finding so little at stores, seeing clearance prices on new product, and watching many stores not even willing to carry current Star Wars lines anymore. Guess not everyone likes the current assortments as much as you.
And yeah, if you can let me know where to get a Bespin Leia on the cheap, please unveil the curtain. I still need one.
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And yeah, if you can let me know where to get a Bespin Leia on the cheap, please unveil the curtain. I still need one.
I know where to get one locally for about $8 or $9. Not a total bargain, but if you need one PM me.
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I see this line is now called Marvel Infinite, and they showed some new stuff at Toy Fair. Appears to pretty much just be a packaging/name change from MU, so that's good. Some things shown past Wave 1:
Yellowjacket
Ionic Wonder Man
Red She Hulk
Steve Rogers
Whirlwind
Bearded Thor
Death's Head
Ares
Deathlok
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I just received Hulk, Hyperion, and Grim Reaper.
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A pic of the wave 2 case of Avengers Infinite has been posted by etailers:
(http://www.entertainmentearth.com/images/AUTOIMAGES/HMVA6749Blg.jpg)
The case breaks down as:
1x Platinum Grim Reaper
1x Platinum Hyperion
1x Platinum Wasp
1x 80s Thor
1x Death's Head II
1x Whirlwind
1x She Hulk
1x Captain America
1x Heroic Age Iron Man
1x Beta Ray Bill
1x Yellow Jacket
1x Steve Rogers
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Spotted these at Target earlier. Well, 3 Iron Men and 2 Caps. The packaging is similar to the Black Series packaging. $9.99 a pop i you're lucky enough to find the new figures.
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Spotted these at Target earlier. Well, 3 Iron Men and 2 Caps. The packaging is similar to the Black Series packaging. $9.99 a pop i you're lucky enough to find the new figures.
Just curious did this line have its own peg space and DPCI, or was it the same space and number as MU? If the latter they may never show up near me.
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I spotted these at our Target this week as well. I'm not positive on the DCPI, but I'm pretty sure it took over the space previously occupied by Marvel Universe. The Wasp was gone by the time I found them, and Hulk has since disappeared as well. The rest of the wave seems to still be there, I think maybe people didn't know these were hitting pegs yet.
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Yeah, all of the MU pegwarmers were gone and the AI figures had the two pegs that the Universe figures had previously occupied. Didn't even think to check for a DCPI.
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The DPCI on these is the exact same as the MU figures: 087-06-1970.
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Looks like Wave 4 just went up for preorder on BBTS this week, no pictures but the lineup looks like this:
Platinum Hulk (repack)
Death's Head
Wonder Man
Star Lord
Rocket and Groot
Drax
Not sure if the Guardians figures are just repacks of the earlier box set or not. Also, didn't see it posted, but Wave 3 is also up for preorder now:
Ares
Deathlok
Cyclops
Omega Red (repack from MU)
Valkyrie
Ant Man
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Whirlwind, Red She-Hulk, and Thor arrived today from HTS.com.
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Whirlwind, Red She-Hulk, and Thor arrived today from HTS.com.
I check, I check, I check, I check. Finally I get bored. New crap pops up and I miss out. Hilarious. The only line I'm actually collecting and I can't even manage to find the stuff I want. ::)
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Still looking for a red She-Hulk. This line is attrocious for distribution. :-\
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Still looking for a red She-Hulk. This line is attrocious for distribution. :-\
No sign of her around here either. The cases are so few and far between that even when they do show up I'd be likely to miss them. I can't figure out if Valkrye is in the next wave or not - seems like she's listed in some case assortments, but not others... ???
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I keep forgetting this line exists because nobody stocks it. I was at Austin Comic Con earlier this weekend and saw some figures for sale but no Red She Hulks or anything interesting. Looking up cases, the newest figure they had was Cyclops.
I also see some pretty awesome figures coming in 2015, so I guess I should just preorder a case or something because they won't be showing up here.
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All I ever see from this line are the same four figures: Cap, Iron Man, Hyperion and Reaper.
I would like to pick up Ant Man and Wasp, but this line has been beyond scarce.
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I finally saw a Wasp in the wild at TRU last week, along with Hulk, Reaper, and a few others I rarely see. Seems TRU is just getting that case though, so not sure when or if Red Shulkie will show. :-\
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Finally found the Wasp. And at a couple of stores, no less. Still no sign of Ant Man yet, but he'll probably turn up at some point.
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I didn't realize you guys were so far behind. I'd assumed that first wave came through quite some time ago as it initially showed up north at TRU/Wally back in late August. I never did come across a Wasp until I bought one online. So a bit of regret there, except that I bought Wasp along with Yellowjacket and then the whole wave of Cyclops/Omega Red/Ares/Ant Man/Deathlok/Valkyrie.
I will say they certainly had no need to include a Cap nor Iron Man figure in that first wave and yet again, a poor assortment in the first wave kills later sales by killing orders. That's the only wave that has shown in my part of Canada and we still have Cap/Iron Man/Reaper/Hyperion clogging up the pegs. Same old, same old.
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Gave in. Since I was ordering the LOTR EE BluRays from Amazon, I snagged the red She-Hulk figure at the same time for $10.99. Couldn't get the timing down to find it on HTS.
I think the only thing I'm missing that's out and non-exclusive is the Wonderman figure.
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That's a nice score. She's like $19 now. :P
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Interesting find last night.
Wandered into our largest grocery store called "Superstore". It's part of a nationwide chain run by Loblaws and the chain stores go under a variety of names, depending on where you are in Canada. It's kind of like a poor man's Costco, carrying everything under the sun minus the auto stuff, but in summer you can buy a lawnmower there if you like. They always have a toy section too and I've bought some SW stuff there over the years. It's always more expensive for toys though too.
So I took my traditional walk through there and they had the old, crappy Marvel toys they've had for months. But in the diecast cars section ??? I stumbled across the latest wave of Marvel Infinite figures and was able to pick up Black Cat, Beast (blue) and both versions of Sandman. I left behind the grey Beast, the black and neon green Spidey figure and the Hawkeye figure. From what I could tell everything is 2x per case except Black Cat and Hawkeye.
The bummer is the price. These were a whopping $14.99 :o so after tax they were a silly $16.94 per. Ouch. I'd been waiting to get them off HTS but they (all but spidey) disappeared last night from the site. It's about all I collect these days so I sucked it up and bought them. My understanding is that U.S. retail is going to be $12.99 on these so I guess it's not that far out of line with the tumbling Canadian dollar.
by edit: I looked around online and it's showing the wave to contain Bishop and Daredevil as well. No sign of those guys at all on the pegs. Could be I missed them. That would suck, because Bishop would have brought me right up to date on what's been released.
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Yeah, I'm seeing these anywhere from $10-14 in the US. Haven't seen any of the wave you mentioned though, so kudos on finding them so quickly! That Hawkeye is just a repack, right? Looks like the Dark Avengers one based on the pictures from Entertainment Earth (http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=HMVA6749E#.VOT-bPnF-So). Their casepack shows the following:
1x AVN BISHOP
2x AVN BIG TIME SPIDERMAN
1x AVN BLACK CAT
2x AVN CLASSIC SANDMAN
1x AVN SANDMAN
2x AVN BLUE BEAST
1x AVN GREY BEAST
1x AVN HAWKEYE
1x AVN DAREDEVIL
You may have a different assortment up North or maybe the others already sold through. If the pegs were packed, you might want to try back for the ones you missed in case they were just back-stocked.
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Thanks Justin.
Just a single case. This retailer is kind of weird in that they put stuff out and if it sells, great. But the restock rate is shockingly slow, as in months. So I'm trying to stumble onto other stores in the same chain in hopes of finding Bishop.
I didn't think there was anything new about Hawkeye at all. I haven't looked real closely but I can't even find the differences between Dark Hawkeye and just Hawkeye. ;)
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The Barton version of Hawkeye has bare arms and a mild expression. Dark Hawkeye (Bullseye) has long sleeves and a shifty evil grin.
Did you ever find a Red She-hulk? I still have yet to see this in the wild.
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Yup, but just timed it well to find it on Amazon. She never showed up locally.
We only ever saw wave 1 on the pegs, nothing after that, except in the last two weeks at one Walmart they had the Guardians of the Galaxy wave. I don't recall if She-hulk was on that wave or not, she wasn't at the store. That wave, along with Wonderman I was able to score off HTS right around Christmas time.
So I'm caught up to the point of only missing Bishop now. Have checked multiple stores where I found the rest of the wave and none of them have put anything out.
Gave in. Since I was ordering the LOTR EE BluRays from Amazon, I snagged the red She-Hulk figure at the same time for $10.99. Couldn't get the timing down to find it on HTS.
I think the only thing I'm missing that's out and non-exclusive is the Wonderman figure.
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Whatever happened with Northstar? Did he ever get released?
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Whatever happened with Northstar? Did he ever get released?
Nope. I don't actually know what happened. "Cancelled" I think, but definitely not released.
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I finally scored Scarlet Witch and Bearded Thor last night thanks to help froma friend. Still have never seen any sign of these at retail.
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I was killing time in a Target this afternoon and found 3 Sandman figures and 3 Big Time Spider-Man figures on the pegs. Seemed weird to me... I think they got in a half case? No sign of any other new figures. I snagged one of each. Will probably never see another figure from this wave so I'll probably order a case of the wave.
Also, all the Sandman figs were the "normal with sand arms" variant.
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Yeah, I have seen that wave floating around. Not sure what the assortment is though. I've only seen Black Cat, Daredevil, & Gray Beast one time. The others seem a bit more plentiful. I picked up Blue Beast another Hawkeye, but I think he's just the same as the Dark Avengers version.
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Is this even the right thread? I've no idea any more what these things are supposed to be called. But that said, HTS.com has the latest wave of figures available so I picked up the classic Vulture and Doc Ock plus Shanna. The rest of the wave - ultimate Spiderman (?) and armored (?) Daredevil were up as well, but no interest from me. Get 'em while you can.
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Sweet, thanks for the heads up Brent. Snagged Vulture, Ock and Miles Morales from HTS. I also found a Black Cat at a local grocery store last week (so far the one figure I've been willing to pay $12.99 for :( ) so I think I'm actually caught up on this line.
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thanks for the tip. I couldn't find any coupon codes, but ordered a few from the latest waves. Sounds like Target raised their prices on theses, so I guess the $9.99 is already a screaming deal. ::)
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Today's Daily Deal @ EE (http://www.entertainmentearth.com/hitlist.asp?id=HA-807301583&spotlight=4409) is 30% off some figures from the Marvel/Avengers Infinite line.
No idea if any of these are old or really old or whatever, but thought I'd pass along the news...
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Has anyone heard of the Marvel Infinite Series Ant-Man 3.75 Inch Figure with Flying Ant (http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/marvel-infinite-series-ant-man-375-inch-figure-with-flying-ant?BR=820&ID=34997)? I was just picking up some Black Series figures on HTS and came across this. Its $20, so a bit pricey, but will look cool with my movie, legends, or icons displays I think. Had not heard of this before...
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Yes it was announced at Toy Fair. Good to see it's out now. ;D
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Got my Ant-Man and winged ant in the mail yesterday. This thing is huge! The Ant is the size of Legends/Select figure - much bigger than I expected. Really well done. Now I'm just wondering where in the movie the ants get so big...
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Is the Ant articulated or is it like that Clone Trooper/Gelagrub POS set from a few years back?