Avengers: Age of Ultron

This week's Ani-Com and Games Hong Kong event is barely underway, but Hot Toys has already announced a handful of new and eagerly awaited figures in its sixth-scale Marvel line. The company's had an incredibly busy year with both the Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe making up the bulk of Hot Toys' new figures. While the majority of the Avengers: Age of Ultron cast has already been shown numerous times, the ACGHK marked the debut of Quicksilver, and for the first time, an all-new Nick Fury based on his appearance in Captain America: Winter Soldier. Neither of those reveals was as important however as the update to Guardians of the Galaxy's Drax the Destroyer. Drax has been MIA from any official release schedules, unlike the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy. As the last member of the crew to be formally announced, fans had been plastering Hot Toys' social media pages with pictures of an earlier prototype, hoping against hope that eventually Hot Toys would actually have news on the character's figure instead of another new Iron Man armor to hype. Today, those dreams came true.

I give Hot Toys a lot of grief over the amount of Iron Man figures its released since the first movie arrived back in 2008. Over the course of the last seven years, there have been more than 40 different Iron Man sixth-scale figures (including Tony Starks) crafted by Hot Toys. New armors or variants seemingly get announced every week, and with Iron Man set to appear in at least a few more Marvel movies over the next four years, it's a trend that will likely continue, too. However, in all that time, I've only ever purchased one figure based on the license, and even that was a Tony Stark figure, not a true Iron Man suit of armor. Given just how many armors have been released by Hot Toys, you'd think it would be hard to craft a piece that truly stands out among it peers. To an extent, that's true enough of the Avengers: Age of Ultron Iron Man MK XLIII sixth-scale figure. Just like its movie counterpart, the Hot Toys MK XLIII is a repainted MK XLII from Iron Man 3, which swaps the red and gold color arrangement. But that's just on the surface. Where this figure sets itself apart is in the little details, and sometimes that kind of attention to minutiae can make all the difference.

Did you know Hot Toys makes Iron Man figures? This week, the company announced its 51st Iron Man collectible. Just for a frame of reference, there have only been around 310 Movie Masterpiece figures (its most recognized series). Forty-nine of them have been sixth-scale Iron Man armors or Tony Starks, which means 16% of all Hot Toys figures are Iron Man in some capacity. Think about that. The company's quarter-scale line hasn't been quite as robust, but in two out of the six are also Iron Man pieces. We've already seen the Iron Man MK XLIII 1/4 figure, but now the MK XLV will join him. Fresh from its silver screen appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the MK XLV armor is just the sixth quarter-scale figure Hot Toys has ever developed. It's got all the bells and whistles you're likely accustomed to seeing from Hot Toys at this point, but this week has officially pushed Hot Toys' Iron Man collection into Fatal Attraction levels of obsession.

Back in April, Amazon sent an e-mail to customers claiming that Avengers: Age of Ultron was available for pre-order on DVD and Blu-ray and would include an “extended edition”. The online retailer quickly retracted that statement saying that nothing had been officially confirmed by Disney and/or Marvel. Now, director Joss Whedon has had his say on the upcoming Avengers 2 DVD and can confirm that there will be no extended or director’s cut of the film, mostly because he’s “super f---king lazy”.

You know who is the most serious hero in the Avengers? It's Thor. You know how I know this? It's because his Hot Toys figure has a face sculpt that's so "srs bsns" it looks like he's trying really, really hard to not crap his Asgaridan britches. Typically, I really like Hot Toys' sculpts. There are a few here and there that don't really match up 100% (Chris Pratt Star-Lord and pre-Winter Soldier Scarlett Johansson Black Widows), but the sculptors there haven't missed on a Chris Hemsworth Thor yet. Technically, this does look like Chris, it's just that I'm not so sure anyone wants a version of Thor that looks like he just got done watching Zoolander. It's a shame,too, since the Thor: The Dark World version was really sharp. This Avengers: Age of Ultron figure takes plenty of inspiration from the previous iteration, though the head sculpt is all new. The armor and cape are fairly close to the last figure, with some minor variation to differentiate it just enough. This Thor will also come with multiple Mjolnirs, including the standard metal version and a new LED light-up version. There's also a little lightning effect add-on to include for that added bit of Mjolnir realism.

In case you forgot, there's a Lego Marvel video game still on the docket this year. That's on top of Lego Jurassic World, Lego Worlds and Lego Dimensions, all of which are either currently available or coming very, very soon. Though we haven't had a Lego Marvel game proper since Lego Marvel Super Heroes in 2013, we have had one of the biggest Marvel movies of all time release this year. Guess that makes it perfect timing for a new adventure in the Lego Marvel world. The first full trailer for Lego Marvel's Avengers arrived today, just ahead of its gameplay debut at E3 2015. Like Lego Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings before it, Lego Avengers will combine the cinematic heroics of Marvel's most well-known team of heroes into one game disc. While it is a bit of a shame we won't have quite as big a look into the Lego Marvel U as we did with the previous game, this trailer does bring back fond feelings for Lego Hulk.

After a few months of hype, Hot Toys has finally revealed its Avengers: Age of Ultron Scarlet Witch figure, and it sure does look like a keeper. Beyond robots, this is the first new character figure we've seen in full from Hot Toys based on the never-ending series Age of Ultron collectibles. Her inclusion here also makes this the first Marvel movie figure line from Hot Toys to include multiple female figures. Yes, I'm still salty we never got an armored Pepper Potts from Iron Man 3, but we could get 99 other Iron Man armors. But I digress. Scarlet Witch joins the increasing roster of Avengers figures produced by the Hong Kong-based company, though we're still waiting for her brother, Quicksilver, and Thor to join the party. The figure is based on her appearance in 95% of the film, where she donned mostly street clothes, and not the uniform we saw her get during the very last moments of Age of Ultron. Normally, plainclothes figures don't really do it for me; I like the spectacle of the superhero costume. However, the rest of this figure is so nice, I'm ready to make an exception.

Everyone wants a piece of the Avengers pie. When a movie with a global audience this large is at stake, there's no brand deal that doesn't make sense to at least attempt. We've already seen Under Armour, Samsung and Gillette, among others, team up with Marvel and Disney to produce a few Avengers-themed goods. It would seem however, that Adidas, already responsible for Quicksilver's sneakers, isn't content with just running shoes with Avengers designs. According to Chinese sneaker site Dunk, Adidas is planning on revisiting some of its more well-known basketball sneakers from years past, albeit with a comic book twist. Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor will all get retrofitted onto kicks from the Adidas catalog, though your mileage may vary as to how attractive these shoes really are. Though I guess it doesn't really matter given that comic book-themed footwear for adults is rather limited outside of Journeys.

Yes, yes, it's another Iron Man figure based on the movie version of Marvel's genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Yes, it's another extremely pricey high-end collectible recreating the Hulkbuster armor at a size that will actually allow it to fit in most homes. What sets King Arts Hulkbuster apart, aside from the 1/9 scale (who does that?), is that you can actually fit a 1/9 scale Iron Man figure inside. Guess it's a good thing that King Arts has one of those, too, isn't it? King Arts has previously dabbled in 1/9 scale Iron Man figures in the past, but is taking its commitment to the scale to new heights with this Hulkbuster. It's also crafted some extremely expensive mobile phone charger statues, too, but even those pale in comparison to the Hulkbuster. Which, to be fair, isn't all that big an accomplishment considering those are statues, and this figure is fully articulated and fits an Iron Man inside. It's kind of a big deal.

For years, Hot Toys has been releasing licensed figures as part of its Movie Masterpieces line. Anticipation for what the 300th figure in the long-running collection would be started peaking earlier this year as the number of new announcements drew us ever-closer to the magical tricentennial collectible. If you've been following the company's release slate for the past seven years, you'd know Hot Toys has a certain affinity for Iron Man. As such, it came as little surprise to learn that Hot Toys MMS 300 would be yet again another Iron Man figure. Hey, at least it's an all-new design this time.