FAN EXPO Canada: Hasbro Marvel Panel and Interview
While at FAN EXPO Canada on Friday, Nerds and Beyond had the opportunity to sit in on the Hasbro Marvel panel and speak with team members Dwight Stall, who is the Senior Design Manager, and Ryan Ting, the Senior Manager Global Brand Strategy & Marketing afterwards.
All of the Hasbro panels were moderated by Greg Ferguson, who is the vice president of marketing for Hasbro Canada. At the start, they mentioned that the end of August marks the 80th anniversary for Marvel. During the panel, they stopped randomly to do trivia questions with the audience and gave out amazing prize packages. One lucky attendee got a vintage Hulk! One question was: “Besides Captain America, Hulk and Spider-Man, name another character that was in the first wave of Marvel superheroes 1990?” Do you know the answer? The answer is Punisher, Daredevil, Silver Surfer, and Doctor Octopus.
Going over the merchandise based on the films, they began with the ones that can be worn like an Ant-Man mask, not one but two different styles of the Power Gauntlet, a Punisher helmet, and a classic Captain America shield. When talking about wave three and the importance of trying to get the figures as close to the movie as possible, the example of Civil War Giant-Man was given. In the photos they received the boot flaps were out on the boots — they thought that was odd but continued using that reference. Turns out, the person didn’t have the suit fully assembled for the photoshoots, so in actuality there is supposed to be no boot flaps showing, and Hasbro modified the figure to make it film realistic. The next reveal included a two-pack of Deadpool in his suits, along with the monkey; the packaging has a very Miami Vice vibe to it. Now, this next reveal will make a lot of Avengers fans very happy…it is Thor, but not just any Thor. It’s Thor with his shaggy hair, beard, and robe, affectionately nicknamed “Bro Thor.”
Moving on to X-Men, they are making a three-pack that fans are going to laugh about and think is brilliant. The love triangle trio featuring Wolverine, Cyclops (with three versions of glasses), and Jean Grey (with interchangeable comic book and movie versions of her hair) is available for pre-order now on the Hasbro website. As of now the set is to scheduled to begin shipping in December 2019.
Some big things are coming from Hasbro Marvel in 2020. While there are not a lot of details on everything right now, they did mention some of what is going to be available. Wanting something Spider-Man based off of the successful PlayStation 4 game, two new Spider-Man figures are coming in the different suits that are available in the game. In terms of vehicles, Cosmic Ghost Rider and Squirrel Girl with three squirrels (yes, Tippy Toe is one of the squirrels) on her scooter are on their way in 2020 as well.
They ended the panel with a very Canadian superhero reveal of the members of a Canadian superhero team called Alpha Flight. It is going to be an Amazon exclusive, but in Canada, you will be able to get them at Toys R Us. The team members that will be available include Sasquatch, Guardian, Puck, Aurora, Northstar, Vindicator, Snowbird, and Shaman.
After the panel and the question and answer period, we had the opportunity to speak with Dwight and Ryan about their excitement from the announcement of Marvel’s Phase Four, how they got involved with Hasbro, and more.
Watch the interview below!