rHodas: 'Avengers' Assembles At Toy Fair

Monday, February 20, 2012

'Avengers' Assembles At Toy Fair

MTV News got hip-deep in action figures, accessories and more at the Hasbro showroom.
By Josh Wigler

The display for "The Avengers" at New York's Toy Fair
Photo: MTV News

NEW YORK — Covering film, television and comic books in the geek-space comes with its fair share of perks. Free screenings, interviews with the stars — it's not a bad life. But of everything, there's nothing that reverts a professional nerd to their 12-year-old fanboy self quite like a trip to Toy Fair, the New York-based festival featuring more action figures, accessories and board games than any reasonable person could ever need.

I suppose that I am not a reasonable person, then, because I found myself craving nearly every toy I saw featured at Hasbro's showroom in the basement of Manhattan's TimesCenter. It doesn't hurt that Hasbro is responsible for the collectibles behind some of 2012's most anticipated flicks, of course: "Avengers," "The Amazing Spider-Man," "Battleship" and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" are among the movies Hasbro is connected to, and we saw a whole bunch of movie-related goodies as a result.

You can preview the toys for yourself in the video below, and keep reading for some of our favorites.

» Earth's Mightiest Heroes are flying your way this summer, and they're flying in style. Hasbro's upcoming "Avengers" S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier is a breathtaking vehicle to behold, big enough to fit the full action-figure lineup with plenty of space left over. There's even enough room for a Quinjet to land, which itself is not of inconsiderable size.

» In other "Avengers" awesomeness, the role-playing items are where it's at in 2012. Those foam Hulk hands you've had for years are out of date by now, so why not upgrade your equipment with a pair of the Jade Giant's "Avengers" modeled mitts? Even better, Hawkeye finally proves his usefulness to the "Avengers" roster with a Nerf bow that's bound to drive your enemies nuts — and by enemies, I mean your roommates.

» Captain America and the gang aren't keeping all the fun to themselves. Spider-Man was right there with them at Toy Fair, featuring all sorts of web-slinging action of all shapes and sizes. It's really better to see these toys in action than to read about them, so click our video and see what Hasbro's cooking up for your friendly neighborhood toy-collecting needs.

» "Battleship" and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" are two of the other big movie-related toy lines coming up from Hasbro. With the former, a new version of the classic board game is on its way that allows players to control an alien armada for the first time in the franchise's history. With "Retaliation," the accuracy between the forthcoming action figures and their flesh-and-blood actor counterparts is so stunning that it even caused actors D.J. Cotrona and Adrianne Palicki to take pause at the likeness. Needless to say, my bookshelf is going to be filled with seven different versions of Dwayne Johnson's Roadblock before 2012 is over.

What are your favorite toys from Toy Fair? Tell us in the comments section and hit me up on Twitter @roundhoward!

For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.

Related Photos