.

The first Captain America film was focused on the character’s roots in the ’40s, but for his second time out, Marvel tapped more heavily into later stories for the character.  The main story was, of course, drawn from Brubaker’s run, but the supporting cast was filled in with mainstays from the ’70s and ’80s, including setting up a few more of Cap’s not-Red-Skull-antagonists.  One such character was Brock Rumlow, later known as Crossbones, who I’m taking a look at today, alongside another variant of the main character!

2014 was a somewhat crowded year for Marvel films, with not only two MCU entries, but also two from outside studios, making four additions in total.  Kicking things off in April of that year was one of the MCU’s best regarded films, the spy-thriller Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  As was often the case, the Minimates provided for the best overall selection of characters from the movie.  I’m kicking things off today with a look at the film’s two title characters: Captain America and The Winter Soldier!

“The evil android Ultron has taken over Earth from his home in the distant future, and Iron Man, Nick Fury and the rest of Earth’s heroes must travel through time to defeat him. But their history-changing mission also affects the fabric of reality and a Heavenly warrior named Angela is pulled into their universe!”

Before it was an Avengers sequel, “Age of Ultron” was a comics event that ran in 2013.  It’s ultimately not terribly memorable, but it did have a catchy name, I suppose.  It also got a whole boxed set of Minimates (and a TRU-exclusive two-pack) based on it, which is probably the best that can be said of it.  Hey, let’s look at that set today!

Toys R Us closing in 2018 brought their exclusive Marvel Minimates assortments to an end…a little quicker than DST anticipated, in fact.  While TRU’s last official exclusive assortment was Wave 25, there was one more assortment produced and ready to go when the chain went under.  Fortunately for us Minimate fans, Walgreens stepped up to the plate and took the assortment on.  It does, however leave us in the precarious position of just how to refer to the assortment.  I kinda like Smashmaster went with “The Lost Wave” which works just fine for me.  Today, I’m taking a look at the wave’s Spidey-themed set, Iron Spider & The Spot!

In order to tie-in with 2014’s Captain America: Winter Soldier, the Marvel Minimates line gave us a comics-themed Captain America assortment, with some loose ties to the film, as sort of a lead-in to the more proper film tie-in.  This included a few of Cap’s recurring foes, with today’s all hailing from Hydra, who would prove quite central to the film, even if these specific characters didn’t.

They’ve both played the role of Cap’s successor, and their both going to be starring in an upcoming Disney+, but back in 2014, we were just getting a taste of the cinematic takes on Falcon and Winter Soldier, starting with this comic-based lead-in for the two of them!

Released in early 2014, Wave 54 of Marvel Minimates definitely had a theme.  All the figures in this wave were based around Captain America, in order to somewhat tie-in with the then upcoming movie.  This review focuses on variants of Cap and his arch nemesis the Red Skull.

Even in these times of uncertainty for the line, Marvel Minimates has a fairly steady stream of new product always coming from at least one retailer…provided you can actually find any of that new product.  Walgreens has been great for getting lots of new ‘mates on the books, but in 2018, they started kind of having a bit of a back-up in their distribution process, and two years later we’re still kind of feeling it.  Officially hitting at the end of last year, Wave 11 has a decent mix of things going for it, including today’s set, Captain America and Peggy Carter!

For years, one of the more persistently demanded teams yet to grace Minimate form was the ’90s incarnation of X-Factor.  After giving us most of the characters in other, non-X-Factor forms, DST has finally given us the core team, each paired alongside one of their predecessors from the original X-Factor line-up.  Let’s kick things off with the two teams’ respective leaders, the brothers Havok and Cyclops!

In the ’90s, Marvel was big into anti-heroes, and in a lot of cases, that meant refitting older villains into a newer role.  The popularity of Venom outside of even his main hero pushed Marvel to take that slightly more heroic angle with him, with a prominent anti-heroic role during “Maximum Carnage,” where he and Spidey are forced to team up to face down a common foe.  Over on Carnage’s side, he was building his own team of villains, which included a remnant of a prior crossover, the Doppelganger, who’d been brought into existence during “Infinity War” and had a whole in his schedule, I guess.  Those two are the subject of today’s review!