TOYHEM! A toy doesn’t have to be old to get under your skin…
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Welcome to TOYHEM! For the fifth straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan
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By SCOTT TIPTON
There’s something special about getting in on the ground floor.
I was already a tremendous Avengers fan as a kid when the West Coast Avengers made their 1984 debut, around the time of Secret Wars. And right from the gate, this was a series tailor-made for me. Not only were characters like Wonder Man and Tigra among my favorite Avengers, but the Mark Gruenwald-created Hawkeye miniseries that brought Hawkeye and Mockingbird together was probably my favorite comic ever at the time.
Not to mention that after a lifetime of reading about all the Marvel superheroes running around New York City, finally my home state of California would be getting some superheroes to call its own. (I wasn’t an Angeleno yet, but the L.A.-based West Coast Avengers were certainly close enough for me to claim them as my “home team.”)
The success of the West Coast Avengers’ four-issue debut miniseries soon led to an ongoing monthly, and before long the WCA was as big a part of the Marvel Universe as anything else. But as pleased as I was, something was missing: action figures. Back then, no one held the license to make Marvel toys, with Mattel having given up the license after rapidly plummeting sales for their Secret Wars product line. I think the closest I found was a single Hawkeye lead figurine in Mayfair Games’ Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game.
Well, it only took a few decades, but the West Coast Avengers have finally hit the action-figure big leagues, thanks to Hasbro’s long-running Marvel Legends series, which has for some unknown reason seemingly decided to make the WCA a priority in the last 18 months or so. I mean, just look:
Never did I expect to be able to put together a lineup like this, including such relative Avengers oddities as Doctor Pym, the white Vision, Wonder Man in his safari jacket, and the USAgent.
Not only that, the recently released Hawkeye figure even comes with his skycycle, and since Clint made the skycycles standard issue for the WCA, I was unable to resist putting this together (with additional skycycles manufactured for me by request by the mighty John Sparkman).
Looking to put together a WCA team of your own? Hasbro makes it easy, with Hawkeye and a special West Coast Avengers 5-pack box set, both available now:
Now, if only Hasbro would put out a Firebird and a Living Lightning so I can finally put this team to bed…
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MORE
— The Complete TOYHEM INDEX of Stories and Features. Click here.
— MEGOS GET MINI! Dig The Groovy World of the COMIC ACTION HEROES Line. Click here.
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Scott Tipton is 13th Dimension’s longest-tenured contributor-at-large. He’s best known as the writer of scores of Star Trek comics published by IDW.
