[Prem1x]

If you relaunched Marvel Universe with a theme, you could pick an existing story. If Thanos and the Avengers are parts the the Marvel universe that Marvel wants to exploit, then 2013's "Infinity" story would be a good one to take from. It's already been mined by cartoons and soon the movies, which may or may not be a good thing.


!!!SPOILER WARNING!!!

Here is an example series 1, with 3 waves (re-arrange figures as needed) of 6 singles each wave. And some supporting two-packs, vehicles, and playsets. I think it has just the right mix of A-listers, collector wants, playability, engaging story (Thanos attacks Earth, Avengers defeat), cost-saving repacks, and new sculpts.

Good Guys: (Though really just the anti-Thanos team)
01. Capt America - A new head sculpt with chin strap. Some of the old Cap figures at least need rocker ankles. Either do a new sculpt or possibly update an old one. The most recent ML4" may even work with a new head and paint.


02. Iron Man - Hey! One we don't have yet! The second series could include the black/gold armor one from the beginning of Infinity (if the second series doesn't change theme). Lion not included.


03. Thor - You could probably just paint the MU Straczinsky Thor with a new head sculpt. Or do us real nice and sculpt new arms and legs to match the armor's "outside-only" look.


04. Capt Marvel - Needs torso artic and head that looks up (because F those MI figures with no artic, remember). But otherwise, she's the character we've had twice recently. They need to really spruce this figure up to get it to sell since its one that's been on the shelves recently. Fix the artic. Include both heads. Fix the gun-hand into a flight/projection pose, and include some blast effects. Really play up the Princess Sparkle-Fists aspect. maybe even have transparent head/hands.


05. Capt Universe - Not 100% sure about this one. However, she's a big player in the story and its a figure that collectors don't have. Make her a dark transparent figure with a cool pearl paint job and it will sell.


06. Ronan the Accuser - The next few characters should bring the collectors running. For Ronan, a new head on Colossus seems to to be the recipe, so it shouldn't be too expensive.


07. Kl'rt Super Skrull - In Infinity, the Galactic Council didn't do much fighting till the end. He was armored in this story. Fans may want him in his classic suit. So its, a tough call on whether to go modern or classic here.



08. Annihilus - The great thing about this story is you get tons of villains. They're just all on the heroes' side. Here's another figure to re-launch with that will get collectors out of their seats. He's pretty close to his classic look in this story.

But if they did an Annihilation version, it would make my heart pitter patter.


09. Superior Spider-Man - He didn't go into space. He stayed home as part of Luke Cage's Mighty Avengers, which fought Proxima Midnight in NYC. Make this the must-have figure. Kids don't know its Octavius. It gets Spider-Man on shelves and collectors buying a new figure. Load it with accessories, spider-legs, webbing effects, spider-sense, suction-cup-string. Make it super POA with a new head, proper raised eyes, and correct hands. The paint job should be easy so it should be a good looking figure.


10. Luke Cage - In the story, his look is the same as the MU figure from way back. But the cover art shows his yellow shirt. Re-deco him yellow and pack him like that, I'd say.


11. Doctor Strange - Updated costume. Parts already exist from one of the better MU figures.


12. Black Bolt - Repackage an existing figure but do a head sculpt of him shouting! Inhumans suck but Blackagar will still sell, esp since his figure body is top notch. (P.s. check out the file name of the JPG )


13. Sunspot - Bobby and Sam were just comic relief but they were on the team so that gives us a chance to do collector wants. Hasbro can easily do another dark-transparent figure with some yellow/orange dots. Add in some matching blast effects. He could go nicely into a future New Mutants team one day.


14. Cannonball - Its not his pilot look, but its real close to the black/yellow New Mutants look. Be sure to have blast effect that closes over the legs!


Bad Guys:
For this series, the big bads are Thanos and the Black Order. Hasbro get to save money on Thanos and just repack him, maybe updating the deco. EM, SG and CG could share a body. Some new parts on the Ulik body might get by for Black Dwarf. These are recent characters but kids should recognize from comics, cartoons, and soon movie. There are not as many "bad guys" single-carded because there are so many classic bad guys on the good side. You have to buy two-packs if you want to complete the team.
15. Thanos
16. Ebony Maw
17. Supergiant


18. Builder Aleph - I'm thinking we need an army builder for the bad guys. Though I may be wrong since so many "good guys" are bad guys. Also I've largely been ignoring the Builders in this story since they're super lame. However, its possible this could be a cost-savings slot if you stick a new head on an old Iron Man figure, like Hyper-Velocity, even though the figure should be about the size of Thor2 Front Giant. One plus is that heroes smashing robots is considered kid-friendly violence.

Another option for a villian army builder if the Builder robots suck would be to stick No-Name brood in this slot as a stand-in for Queen Brood. If the armor is removable, he could be an army-builder. Though this then becomes a new tooling slot so that's cost-prohibitive. Smashing insects is also kid-friendly.



That's 18 single carded figures. Now on to larger stuff:

Two-Packs and Small Vehicles
Black Panther v Namor - These two had a grudge because of Phoe-Namor jacking up Wakanda. T'Challa returns the favor against Atlantis. Be sure to add in plenty of weapons. Another option would be to switch Namor with Black Dwarf since BP fights and jacks up Black Dwarf. That would get another big figure into a bigger box.


Hyperion v Corvus Glaive - CG is one of the better of the Black Order so it should help this two pack sell. But damn, another of this Hyperion guy. They could do a different cape with two shoulders but its a character we have (unless he's from another different reality. Fuck I don't know). Seems to be a big hitter in the story though.


Hulk vs Proxima Midnight - Another repack but it comes with a new character! Hulk goes toe-to-toe with Black Order and Thanos. Hasbro needs their repacks to save moeny!


Sky Cycle w/Hawkeye - Hawkeye might not be shown to ride one around in the story but I'm sure he had one. Also, you can't put Spider-Woman on one because boobs. But dress the skycycle up with Avengers decals and if you bring in some EMH or classic skycycle aspects, it would go over well. Be sure to give Hawkguy a helmet so other figures can swap out. I think the movie Hawkeye body might work for his look in Infinity.




Quinjet w/Spider-Woman - I wanted to put Shang Chi as the pilot here but he's costume looks like crap and Jess has a bigger part of story and her figure needs updating anyways from the old MU female. She'll come with space helmet. This jet needs to hold six figures. Two in the cockit and room for 4 more in the back. Kids love putting their figures in vehicles. And it needs shooty things. Look there's Thor going in to get a ride! Too bad there isn't any cool Builder ships to fight against. Maybe Glave's H-shaped spaceship but its too big and didn't do much.





Playsets
Thanos rock throne w/Thane - Yes, really. This could be a cool playset. Have an authentic-looking rock throne that thanos can sit in and hold court with other figures and have battles in front of. Have a spot where a character (Thane) can be trapped in a yellow cylinder. Maybe have some popup cannons and other ways to chain figures up. But this is the bad guy base.




These last two, I'm too sure about. The Thanos throne may be enough of a playset but these two ideas have some legs and will help fill bottom of the shelves where the expensive stuff goes.

Wakanda Necropolis - You could stick Black Bolt in here instead of single-carded. Have him in the bomb contraption. Have lots of Wakandan sculpting and technology on the walls and have some fighting break-away features. This is essentially the location of the (almost) final showdown.



Avengers Tower - Pretty much Tony and Reed just used the Tower defense systems but a hero base with pop-out weapons makes a great play set. You can move Luke Cage into this playset or other Mighty Avengers (White Tiger, Shang Chi) that need to defend NYC. Maybe (stupid ape) Beast or even Reed but he'd be my last choice.




Special/Mail Order
Ex Nihilo - Not sure about this guy. it really depends on how well the Legends figures sold. This is not a character I know anything about and he was mostly just a talker in the story. Not much "action" in this figure for me. but stick him as a gift with mail order purchase.



SDCC
Thanos Copter - Come on. You know you want it.


Appendix:
Characters and places in story but not used:
Firstly, the GotG. They are line killers every time so not bringing them here no matter what.
Gladiator, Brood Queen, SWORD The Peak, Agent Brand, Angela, Spaceknights, Shiar Imperial Guard
Nova, Attilan and Inhumans,
Wolverine, Reed Richards, Beast, Shang Chi
Nightmask, Starbrand, Abyss, Black Swan
Black Widow, Power Man, Falcon, Shang Chi, White Tiger, Blue Marvel, Monica Rambeau, She-Hulk, Ronin
Red Hulk/Agent Venom/T-bolts - Really would like an excuse to get Venom in the line.