The Avengers has been out for quite a while now, but Tim, Rob, and myself just had a chance to sit down and talk about it on the latest episode of Bubble Pipe Theater over on our podcast network. We discuss the movie and geek out about the next phase in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and you should have a listen.

Avengers Mini-Review

I usually forget or don’t get around to typing up my official thoughts on geek movies on here until it’s too late, but The Avengers could very well be the geek movie of the decade so I wanted to go ahead and get my thoughts down.

I didn’t get a chance to see The Avengers at midnight on May 4th but I went the next morning with my wife to a packed IMAX theater, filled to the brim with geeks of all ages. We didn’t really want to see it in 3D, but for this film I knew I wanted to see it on as big of a screen as possible, so I made an exception. My wife was just as excited as me, having loved Thor and Captain America last summer, and having watched Iron Man for the first time that week. We were ready to see them all team up on the big screen.
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I’m jealous of kids today. I mean, I’m a kid at heart and I have no qualms spending my time watching cartoons, buying toys, and blogging about said cartoons and toys, but to be a kid right now in the age of iPads and Angry Birds and actual Avengers movies would be pretty awesome. I got bored with storybooks pretty quickly when I was little, and I’m sure flipping through the app equivalent of a storybook on an iPad would have kept my attention at least a little bit longer.

Like the Spider-man origin story app Rob reviewed a few months ago, Disney and Marvel have released two Avengers storybooks on iOS devices to coincide with the movie, and they were kind enough to send me some download codes so I could take a look. Avengers Origins: Assemble! and Avengers Origins: Hulk are both available for the iPhone and iPad.

Avengers Origins: Assemble

The awkwardly named Avengers Origins: Assemble! gives kids one version of how the Avengers all got together. It focuses on Captain America getting frozen in the ice and the Avengers finding him a few decades later. The line-up used in this story contains Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp, and the threat is non other than Namor himself. I’ve never understood Namor very much (read: casual comics fan), and this app actually taught me something.

Stan Lee narrates both of these stories and it’s great hearing him read. His voice is as iconic as his face, moustache, and sunglasses, and hearing him read about his heroes is a blast. I’m not sure if kids appreciate an old man narrating their stories as much as older geeks, but I’d like to think they don’t mind.

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The other day I realized why I don’t really buy action figures anymore. Nobody seems to sell 6″ action figures anymore. What gives? I’m not a huge fan of the Star Wars scale (as I call it), or 3/4″ action figures. They’re too small and the detail looks horrible most of the time. I like old-fashioned 6″ action figures.

With a huge blockbuster event like the Avengers on the big screens, I almost couldn’t reist picking up some movie tie-in toys until I found out that most stores are just selling the little guys. Luckily, Wal-Mart is selling some exclusive 6″ Avengers action figures soon that don’t look that bad. If you get them all, they connect at the base to form a circle. The odd thing is, Black Widow isn’t represented, while Loki is. I felt like Black Widow was surprisingly well-written and badass in the Avengers, and she definitely deserves a toy in this line.

The Hawkeye/Jeremy Renner head scult is pretty dead on, and the Hulk looks awesome. Only Thor and Iron Man have sculpts carried over from previous toy lines. Even without Black Widow, I think I’ll try to track these down for my shelf. You can check out more photos over at Super Punch and Marvelous News or check out Avengers toys on Amazon.

Make sure to subscribe to the site via RSS or by email to get more updates like this. We should have reviews of these Wal-Mart exclusive Avengers action figures soon!

Hasbro definitely gets an A for their efforts in hiding the fact that all these Avengers-branded roleplay toys are just rereleases of the toys that came out for each heroes’ individual films. The catchy/annoying rap is made tolerable by the cool shot of the kids standing around in a circle emulating the poses from the Avengers trailers alone.

Granted, there’s no Hawkeye or Black Widow to be found. How hard would it have been to have a kid in some shades chillin’ with a bow? Or a young lady with…a gun?

On a semi-related note, Walmart.com has begun selling the Avengers LEGO sets as of yesterday. I snagged a couple and I’m glad I did, because they’re showing up as out of stock now.

It’s a good week to be a Marvel fan. A few hours ago the new trailer for Marc Webb’s reboot of Spider-Man debuted and it is pretty amazing indeed. I loved the first Spider-Man movie when it came out, but then again I was a sophomore in High School and I haven’t really watched them since that time. The Amazing Spider-Man looks like a Spider-Man movie I can get behind.

Andrew Garfield looks great as Peter Parker, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey will be a welcome break from whats-her-face playing MJ. The tone of the film looks great. Spidey cracks jokes and displays some impressive acrobatics, and the costume and tech look awesome. All in all, this is one of the top four movies I’m most excited about in 2012, along with…
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