Reno

Wow, this is awful. She has a Charlie Brown face.

As a general rule, I'm usually all for consumer choice and increased competition. So there's definitely that... and maybe he would make characters that we know that Hasbro isn't ever going to do. However, as someone who has bought a fair amount of McFarlane product - I honestly feel it is quite inferior to the work that Hasbro and Mattel are currently doing in their lines. Yes, there are positives and negatives with all of the brands. There are certainly some things that McFarlane is doing better than the big 2. However in general, I still strongly prefer what the big 2 are doing, Hasbro especially. There is certainly room for improvement from all - but that's not really my point. For me personally, it's relatively telling that I've bought a ton of McFarlane DC figures but I still have mostly only Mattel DC figures displayed. In the interest of full disclosure though, it also took me many years to warm up to Hasbro. It was probably just in the last few years that I've finally come around on them, so I'm probably much slower than most when licenses switch hands to embrace the new. I think that's just part of having a large collection already in place that you don't want major changes in general aesthetic for. When you have hundreds of figures for a line, it's not appealing to jump to a new scale, articulation template or even major paint/sculpt differences. However, McFarlane has certainly shown they can be quite good. Some of my favorites that he's done for the DC line are New 52 Frankenstein, Frost King CTB, Ghost Maker, Godspeed and Future State Jace Fox Batman. I'm quite smitten with the Waverider figure that just came out even though it's not a look for the character that I identify with. The Batman Beyond wave he put out early on as a Target exclusive was also quite good for the most part. They've also done a very good job with some of the movie figures, perhaps their best work has been on that. His willingness to do vehicles at a reasonable price point has been a plus. I've also bought several figures across his other lines as well including Spawn, Mortal Kombat, Princess Bride, Avatar (both kinds), Dune, My Hero Academia, etc. Honestly there are far more misses than hits, though. Scale, proportions, attention to detail and outdated / less than ideal articulation are the biggest pain points. Unique sculpting and price point have been McFarlane's biggest upsides - but he's now re-using a lot more sculpts and prices are increasing (because that's just the reality of the business, and eventually he's got to make money even if he's a private firm and not answering to shareholders like the other 2 are). My take is that, sure I'd like him to be able to put out a few Marvel figures per year - but I wouldn't ever want him to get the master Marvel license. If that ever leaves Hasbro, there are much more deserving companies, in my opinion. It would likely need to be something like the agreement with Diamond has for Marvel Select. I don't see it happening, though -- but only time will tell.

It will be interesting to see which pre-order hits first. I still have the original 3 that I pre-ordered from Target and I went ahead and put in a pre-order at BBTS for 3 as well. I do already have one in hand that I bought off ebay months ago. The situation with Target on this figure is beyond bizarre.

I certainly enjoyed him in both of those roles that Tarot mentioned, but he also has experience with comic related roles having played Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984 and Agent Whiskey (Jack Daniels) in Kingsman Golden Circle. I personally think that he would be a fantastic choice! He's a very talented individual and I'd likely take him over most of the people that I had seen rumored as attached to the role (like Matt Smith, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and Adam Driver).

I'm someone who admittedly will watch pretty much any and all Marvel live-action stuff --- and I'd certainly watch this, but with that being said... Disney, please buy out Sony on the Spider-Man film license already, please!!! Also, Sony is watching in real time how the much better ran Disney MCU is struggling with a movie featuring 3 female leads, do they really think they have any shot of doing better with this??? I really enjoyed the Marvels, by the way. I have no issue with female led movies whatsoever --- but there is a very loud vocal contingent on the internet that clearly does have a problem with it. I personally don't ever want to hear the terms "M-She-U" or "Get Woke, Go Broke" ever again, but there's certainly a vocal contingent online spreading that garbage. I'll root for this, but have very low expectations. I fully expect Kraven to do worse than Morbius did, and I expect Madame Web to do worse than either of them --- regardless of whether any of those movies actually end up being any good or not. Maybe it will be enough to convince Sony to abandon their expanded Spidey film franchise. Unfortunately the success of the animated Spiderverse movies has only hardened their stance on keeping the film license at any cost. (Those movies are fine, but I'm just not into animation).

I really wish that we'd see more creativity with creating completely new characters and power sets rather than re-hashing the same ones for new individuals to take on the same alter ego. I also understand that after decades that the well has pretty much been emptied, though... Passing the mantle to a new person has just always struck me as lame. I only want one Ghost Rider, one Punisher, one Spider-Man, one Captain America, one Venom, etc. Please create something new rather than passing on a mantle to someone new!

Congrats to Thwippersnapper and good luck to everyone in November! Also a big thank you to Jay and BBTS for continuing to offer this every month!

In his YouTube video where he shared these leaks a few months ago, Dave at Displaying Model Behavior mentioned that this Lilandra was coming in a 2-pack with Civilian Logan, so that's what I'm expecting unless/until that is proven wrong.

The fact that it's tracking so poorly in pre-sales is disappointing, but not terribly surprising. The fact that the stars of the movie can't promote it is a very detrimental thing. I'm honestly still surprised that they didn't push it back. 2024 is going to be a weak year for movies for everyone due to the strikes so they should have just let it come out then. It would have allowed them more time to make sure they get other things (like Deadpool 3) right by pushing them back to 2025. Just doing The Marvels and the new Captain America movie in 2024 would have been completely understandable due to the strikes. The poor reception of the Secret Invasion Disney+ series likely didn't help this, even though the two may only be slightly connected. I'm one the biggest Marvel homers there is, but I will openly admit that the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series is the only thing that Marvel Studios has ever put out that even I didn't like... and I love the comic character. I just don't think they did Kamala justice and made too many changes (which of course they tend to do with most characters, but Kamala more so than others). It also may have been too targeted towards younger viewers for me able to identify with. With that being said, I'm very tired of and completely over some of what I deem ignorant You Tubers and others that have started calling the MCU the "M-She-U" because they have a movie or two led by women. I find myself wondering if they have any knowledge whatsoever of the source material. The first time I hear someone use that phrase or start calling things "too woke", I just stop watching/listening and make sure I don't watch their feed anymore. I'm a middle aged straight white man who lives in conservative Iowa, and even I find references like that incredibly insulting and off putting. They probably think people like me are their key demographic, but it's certainly not true in my case. I hope that this ends up doing much better than people are currently expecting. I honestly expect it to be quite good. However, I certainly don't need anyone else's opinion to know what I enjoy and what I don't (and no one else needs mine).

According to Dave from Displaying Model Behavior, this is expected to be packaged with a civilian Wolverine figure as part of the Wolverine anniversary 2-packs. I'm pretty sure that I'll be picking that one up. As far as I can tell that Lilandra head is the exact same one that was previously included in the Walgreens exclusive Mystique figure. After revealing Red Widow and Lilandra, that just leaves the likely Ka-Zar update as the previous con exclusive from the previous teases.

A month off from new announcements is fine but just because they spread out the announcements or even pre-orders doesn't mean that all of the stuff doesn't still seem to hit at once and get charged all at the same time, of course. The last shipment I received from BBTS on 10/5 had the Mindless One wave, X-Men '97 wave and Nighthawk/Blur so it's been nearly a month since I had anything new in hand. I'm fully expecting that the new Infinity Saga figures and the Void wave will likely hit sometime this month. Infinity Saga probably very early in the month and the Void wave late in the month or very early in December. They always seem to hit 60-90 days earlier than advertised (at least to BBTS), and this time of year especially. Of course the Target pre-orders for Space Knight Venom / Mania, FA Spidey / Moon Knight and the Tracksuit Mafia (finally!!!) are all supposed to hit within the next week or two also. I can't think of any other Legends exclusives that should be hitting off the top of my head other than those, though -- but it's certainly possible that I'm forgetting something. The retro Spidey wave that they just showed this weekend has an anticipated release of May -- which likely means it will actually hit in February/March based upon my recent experience.

According to Rektangular there is another Spider-Man BAF wave expected in 2024 in addition to this retro card wave.

Ok, my thoughts on the full wave not that all 6 have been revealed: Hallow's Eve: Definitely my favorite of the bunch. She's honestly the only "must have" for me, although I expect to buy the whole wave. I do wish that she came with more than the just the 2 masks though. Her power set is based almost completely on her masks and each mask gives her different abilities. It looks like they gave her a vampire and a devil mask. I don't really remember the devil mask. I remember the vampire one. I also remember Frankenstein, Witch, Werewolf, Ghost, Mummy and Black Cat among some others. I realize they can't give us them all, but 4 would have been nice. I think this is one time that I would have sacrificed one of the sets of extra hands for one more mask. This figure is the star of the lot for me. Jack O'Lantern: I already have the Absorbing Man BAF version and the Toy Biz Spider-Man Classics version (Mad Jack), but this is better than either of those. I love the scales on the vest, the hover disk, the bombs on the belt, the whole thing. I'll likely keep all 3 figures in my Spidey villains display since they're all representations of different characters who were Jack at different times. Tombstone: Although I was always fine with the original release, everybody has long wanted him in the suit. The Tombstone figure itself looks great and will definitely replace the old version on my shelf. However I'm very disappointed that they gave him the "Talos" treatment with the whole neck having to be swapped out. Like with Talos this reduces the kitbash possibilities for this big suited figure of which I otherwise might have bought multiples. It's likely that they'll be doing more of these full neck swaps in the future, so maybe it will open up more kitbashing opportunities in the future - but right now I just find it annoying. Dwight seems to be giddy over being able to do this. Assassin Spider-Man and Last Stand Spider-Man: I'm going to group these both together because I feel the same way about both. They're both very nice looking figures representing multiverse versions of Peter. I'll likely buy both and put them on the Spider-verse shelf but I don't find myself particularly excited about either. Ben Scarlet Spider: This is a clear upgrade over the prior version, which I still have on card - but is the one that I'm least excited about. It's a fantastic figure - don't get me wrong! I just feel like I've bought this costume too many times already and it's no longer my preferred costume to display for Ben. This is a good start to 2024 reveals (because I think that it's likely that the Void BAF wave hits before the end of the year - especially at BBTS who seems to get everything early)! I'm very excited for Hallow's Eve, especially! I thought that there might be some outside possibility they would give us a tease of first appearance Psylocke that is rumored to be coming in a Wolverine anniversary 2-pack, but I'm happy with what they've revealed over the past 24 hours.

I caved and pre-ordered all 3 plus the Vamp. I'm weak.

Good call on Ezekiel. I might get him now for that reason as well.