It’s not a competition, but my mind does tend to evaluate who “won” Pulse Con every year, meaning, which brand that I follow showed me the most stuff that wowed me. I think for the first time since these started G.I. Joe Classified didn’t win it for me as the Marvel Team was speaking my language with the Secret Wars releases.
They did start off with something I don’t particularly have a connection to, the Spider-Man animated two-pack o Vulture and Spidey, but there are some things to recommend in that set for sure. I especially like the very classic feeling head for Spider-Man and the collapsed mask and the Vulture design is so different from the regular comic version that I’m familiar with, so it’s a little more interesting than these usually are for me.
I think I have a brown costume Logan that I’m pretty happy with, but the mask shape and the smirk is selling me on this take.
The Spider-Man is based on the Amazing Fantasy figure and I love the more lithe and less muscular base body for the character. It’s also great to get the squinty eyes though I do wish the eyes on the main head were more like the character art on the lenticular shield.
The Cap hits that exact blue I’m looking for in him, but rarely ever get, so I don’t mind the double dip on this base body. The new heads are pretty great too. While I appreciate the reference to Cap’s Shield being destroyed in the book, it is kind of ironic that they released two classic Caps recently without a shield. I do have a ton of Cap shields, but I’d really like one the size and paint scheme of the 20th anniversary figure without the damage.
It feels like just the other day I was asking for roller skate accessories for the many Iron Men I own, so I was so stoked to see them on this, my favorite version of Iron Man. I still have vivid memories of getting this figure as a kid, so this one is hitting me especially hard in the nostalgia with that lenticular shield and the classic gun, so hard that I don’t really mind buying it for a 3rd time. I never really used that gun with Iron Man as a kid, so I’ll be giving it to Kang for sure.
As much as love the re-dos of the classics, the highlight of this show were the new characters. Titania feels way overdue and presentation really works for me. Even the art on the lenticular shield feels like Mike Zeck and fits right in with the old line.
I may have grown up playing with the Secret Wars figures, but I didn’t really read that first miniseries until later on. My first Secret War was II so I have a soft spot for jump suit Beyonder. He’s one of the cheesier character designs that I love and never really expected to get in figure form. Reveals like that can make a show for me. It was also really fun seeing these card backs. I’m not normally a carded guy, but I might need at least a carded Iron Man.
They apparently showed off the ROM test shot in the pre-show, but I never got the link to that so I missed it. Whump whump. I do stay away from the rumors for Legends so while I had heard rumblings of a Secret Wars wave, I knew no specifics so outside of Wolverine these were nice surprises. Overall I felt like this Pulse Con had fewer reveals on average per brand, but this wave was hit after hit with me so Hasbro handily won the show. Not that it’s a competition.
