Hrafnblod

That was what I meant, though. We saw Beetle and Hyperion because they factored into the cartoons, despite being pretty obscure characters in comic terms. Likewise, should some villain come out of left field and have a part (even a small one, see: Carnage, in his USM episode) in the show, they could pop up. All it would take is an episode where HYDRA is trying to harness some power or another and they end up summoning a demon, which wouldn't really be that crazy for HYDRA. :P I do think Mephisto is fairly unlikely, though. Hobgoblin would be really cool, and personally I'd like to see him, but I'm pretty much always cool with new villains/heroes in this theme.

Unless said lesser-known character factors into the TV show, somehow. I mean, it's not like Hyperion is on Marvel's A-list. I'd say the same about Beetle, who we got a figure of a few years ago.

Must've missed that when I was skimming through the last page thinking "Wait, what?" :P Didn't realize Clone O Patra was one of our informants, either. I'm behind on everything I guess!

Where'd all this Ghost Rider talk come from? I know it came up (many) pages ago, but IIRC J2G's response was "Never gonna happen." Now everyone's talking like it's a foregone conclusion, despite the relative dearth of information on summer wave sets.

I'll second asking j2g if he can confirm the presence of Black Panther. Based on what we know so far, BP being available is literally the only other detail I care about in the winter/spring waves.

I assume they meant short as in "Not the generic long female hair we've gotten with Scarlet Witch/Supergirl/Storm/Every other female superhero fig," which would have gone better with her classic Ms. Marvel outfit, whereas the spiky sleepy head hair might indicate her newer outfit. I wouldn't get my hopes up, considering this year they skimped on double-molded legs in the cheaper sets (Batman didn't have them in the batboat, Spidey didn't have it in the Juniors set). Deathstroke had them, but if we got a variant of the fig in a more expensive set (like we'll be getting with Cap and Spidey next year, I assume) the cheaper versions didn't get the fancy new legs.

No question there. As far as the Lego chess sets go, though, this is probably the biggest offender in that area (at least from what I've seen). That said, the others are generally Castle which has the advantage of containing a lot of the basic components that chess pieces are based on.

Even as a chess set it's less than ideal with pretty mediocre/difficult to discern rooks/bishops/knights.

Unfortunately I can hardly see the point of the chess set when they cheaped out and didn't give us actual bluecoat infantry for pawns. What the heck are these guys without hats or backpacks (or even the otherwise ubiquitous epaulets?!) supposed to be? Not one of the better chess sets we've gotten, not even much use as an army builder since I have little use for a bunch of additional torsos without matching accessories.

There's always future waves. Keep in mind that until this winter's wave of sets, it was very much NOT the case that every other hero had one villain from their series. :P (And it's still not -strictly- true; we don't have any of Hawkman or Green Arrow's specific nemeses yet).

Nicely done, and (having seen the real thing several times in person) a fine likeness.

I think it looked like you were providing a link answer to his question about the box pictures. :P

I'm sort of doubtful we'll see another Hulk next year, considering we just got a variant this year. I don't see them pushing out another bigfig version while the previous year's sets are (likely) still on the market. Honestly I'm somewhat dreading next year's sets. I worry we're going to see all AoU and not even get an Ant-Man or Yellowjacket figure, let alone Daredevil. Don't get me wrong, I want Ultron, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as much as anyone, but I don't need more Iron Men or Thors or the like.

No Fred Meyer here. Yeah, was trying to avoid buying online. I really prefer buying in store when I can, but as far as I can tell the local Walmarts/Targets don't even have any intention of stocking the new sets.

So is anyone else having trouble finding the new Superheroes sets? Walmart and Target are totally devoid of any summer stuff in Central Texas, and their websites say "In limited stores" and "not sold in stores," respectively, when looking at the GotG or X-men sets. :(

I've been wanting to make a Crimson Empire style Imperial Guard (got the comic with Carnor Jax vs. Kir Kanos on an impulse at the grocery store when I was a kid freshly introduced to Star Wars, so a lot of nostalgia there!) and couldn't figure out how to do the torso. Deadpool's parts never occurred to me. Absolutely genius, looks perfect. Definitely using that idea! Love the red TIE interceptors, too.

I'm curious where you got the shield the lead knight is carrying.

I'm really looking forward to this set. Star-Lord's helmet actually looks pretty cool, better than in the preview shots I saw. I don't really mind Drax being grey either, considering how great his printing looks. I really love the Lego skull tattoos, especially. Ronan looks cool, Gamora looks cool, and most of all the Milano looks awesome. I love the big interiors we're getting this wave between the Milano and the Blackbird, hopefully it sets a precedent going forward. Really wanna see some more sets where we can actually put all the included figs (or in this case, the included ones plus some) in their proper vehicle. Also Star-Lord's blasters are really sweet, looking forward to using them for some other sci-fi setups.

Toilet bowl cleaner can be pretty harsh. Wouldn't soak anything printed in it, personally.

I've said it a hundred times before and I'll say it again: In a post-Avengers (and even more in a post-Winter Soldier) world, I generally have a lot of faith in Disney. That being said, in a world after Star Trek 2009, I feel only despair when I see a beloved franchise put in JJ's hands. I said after Star Trek 2009 that JJ was more suited to Star Wars type space-opera than to making Trek movies, but after Into Darkness I just wish he'd stay out of the genre.

Actually not a bad idea, though not one I'd thought of. The Jedi Interceptor canopy feels really "big" to me though, might necessitate scaling the model up slightly overall. I think that's been something of a trend for Lego in general lately. As I mentioned before, the newest AT-TE, and the AT-AP. There's a lot more pieces going into the basic structural integrity these days from what I'm seeing.

The walkers, in general, have been either getting smaller or not a lot bigger but increasing piece size by a lot. If the AT-TE and AT-AP are any indication we'll have an incredibly sturdy incarnation of the AT-AT (though I don't really know how sturdy or flimsy the last versions were, never bought the previous ones- I just know the newest AT-TE and AT-AP are huge structural improvements over my older ones). Lack of interior does kind of suck, though. But that seems to be coming with that sturdiness, there's virtually nowhere to put a decent number of troops in the AT-TE. Just a few in the very back. Pretty sure they're not due out 'til August.

Too bad the Rebels sets don't have new, high quality picture (that I've seen anyway). Kind of excited about some more "new" stuff that's not just the same old PT or OT ships- enjoyed that part of the CW sets. Also, I'm not crazy about the B-wing. Seems like the S-foils don't really close as tightly as they should.

I generally like them, especially for larger sets. Are they really necessary for smaller ones? Nah. I just laughed at the fact that the A-wing had 3 for less than 250 pieces. If you don't like them though, I don't really get why you'd complain. What's stopping you from just ripping open all the bags and pouring everything in a pile anyway? They're there if you want them and easily circumvented if you don't.

Just a note (because I've seen a few reviews of this set mention the 'dial' and the lack of controls): that dial -is- the control panel.