Disclaimer: I’ve had a few drinks and I just finished rebuilding the site, so this post may ramble on a lot longer than it should. Feel free to make fun of me in the comments.

This past Thursday night the wife and I saw Thor: The Dark World after months of anticipation. Unlike a lot (seemingly) of my fellow Marvel movie buffs, I really really like the first Thor. Compared to an Iron Man or a Captain America, Thor and the concept of the nine realms was the trickiest thing Marvel had to try and introduce to the general movie-going crowd, and I feel like they handled it very well. Fast forward a couple years, and in my opinion, the sequel takes the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe to another level. I loved it, and it just makes me more excited for the expansion of the MCU.

The Slow Build

When you look at the MCU starting form Iron Man in 2008, you can start to realize the genius behind their whole strategy. They started with concepts that weren’t that hard to buy into. Tony Stark is a brilliant dude, he builds a suit that lets him become a superhero. I can buy that. Then they threw in that post-credits scene with Nick Fury and set this years-long expansion in motion.

Unlike Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk, Thor had to work in order to set up The Avengers. Whether or not you like the first Thor film as much as I do, you have to admit that they succeeded in selling the concept. People love Loki. People get that there are different realms, that Thor and his Asgardian bros aren’t gods, but more like aliens. This let us believe in the power of the Cosmic Cube that the Red Skull harnesses in Captain America, and the madness that Loki unleashes in The Avengers. Smart guy in metal suit to full-scale alien invasion in just four years. That’s impressive.
Read More

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!

It’s just a teaser—in the grandest sense of the word—but the new trailer for next year’s The Avengers movie has dropped. Perhaps the biggest highlight is the glimpse of this Hulk iteration. It’s too quick to make judgment but it certainly looks promising.

The whole Joss Whedon-directed film has a ton of promise, actually. These are all heroes we’ve come to know on the big screen in recent years. Rather than spending one-third of the film with exposition and origin stories, we can expect fistful after fistful of action.

Who wants to get in line now for the May 4 opening?

(Unintended hilarity for your third or fourth viewing of the trailer: at the 0:50 mark, pretend that’s a Scarlett Johansson fart leading to the explosion.)