Hasbro has made hundreds of Marvel action figures over the years, but when you’re dealing with a comic universe of thousands, there are plenty of deserving heroes and villains who can slip through the cracks. Here are a dozen and a half Marvel characters—some obscure, some overdue, and some shockingly excluded—who need the toy treatment a.s.a.p.
1) Ms. Marvel
Self-explanatory. Kamala Khan is just the best new superhero Marvel has created in at least a decade, and is popular enough that we’re scratched our heads over why she doesn’t have an action figure already. Frankly, we don’t just want Kamala Khan toys, we want a whole range of merchandise.
2) Sam Wilson Captain America
Now that the former Falcon is wearing the shield of Captain America, he needs a figure, pronto. Besides, you know, taking the mantle of one of the main Avengers, his outfit is sweet. Of all the figures on this list, he’s the most likely to actually be made over the course of the next year.
3) Agent Carter
The fact that I cannot buy an action figure of Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter is a goddamned crime. That is all.
4) Classic Runaways Box Set
It’s been a dozen years since Bryan K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphna created the Runaways, the children of the supervillain group known as The Pride, and they’re just as beloved as ever. Give us Alex, Nico, Chase, Karolina, Molly, Gert and Old Lace. Look, if Hasbro can make a five-pack of random Dr. Strange characters and sell them in a box set as a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive, an SDCC exclusive Runaways box set would do at least as well.
5) Spider-Woman (New Outfit)
The problematically costumed Spider-Woman finally got a new outfit last year, which was both practical and stylish. It would be great to get more female superheroes in their modern duds.
6) The Jackal
This Spider-Man villain looks utterly ridiculous, which, given Spidey’s rogues, is saying something. But even though he looks like a full-size Gremlin, he’s one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes, who lives purely to mess with Peter Parker’s head. He’s the one who not only kicked off the infamous Clone Saga, but gave everyone in Manhattan spider-powers in Spider-Island. The dude has earned it.
7) Jane Foster Thor
Much like Sam Jones is currently Cap, long-time Thor love interest Jane Foster is currently worthy of carrying Mjolnir and doing a damn fine job of it, too. The current Thor comics are fantastic, and it would be so worth it to see this character in toy packaging not labeled Lady Thor, not She-Thor, not Thor-ita, but simply Thor.
8) Silver Samurai
Seeing as this X-Men villain played a major role in The Wolverine and looks completely awesome, he’s at least as worthy of a figure as many of the C-listers who have managed to make their way to toy stores. To be fair, a Silver Samurai figure was planned for Marvel Legends, but then never released, which is like it not existing at all but more infuriating.
9) Lady Sif
Ahem. Star of two Thor movies. Guest star on Agents of SHIELD. Current star of the Journey into Mystery comic. Lady with a sword. Total badass. Someone at the Marvel action figure planning committee has clearly fallen asleep at the switch.
10) Moon Knight (Suit)
Warren Ellis’ recent Moon Knight revival didn’t last very long, but it did give Marvel’s extra-insane version of Batman his most stylish costume ever—an all-white suit and mask. Why does he wear all white? Because he wants the bad guys to see him coming.
11) Jessica Jones
So Jessica Jones is worthy of starring in her own Netflix TV series but somehow not having any toys? Admittedly, Jessica is best known in her plainclothes outfit, and not her rather generic superhero costume back when she was Jewel or Power Woman. So really, this would just be a figure of a woman in modern, practical clothes, which is probably a hard sell in Toys “R” Us. But it’s not our problem. Just make her.
12) The Beyonder
Given that Secret Wars is still rampaging through the Marvel Universe, and the Beyonder was the dude who instigated the first Secret Wars, he’s due. Please give us the Beyonder in his Secret Wars II, David Hasslehoff-esque, jheri-curled glory, although it would probably literally take someone with the power of the Beyonder to get a Marvel character this ridiculous made.
13) Namor
The Sub-Mariner had a figure in the early days for the Marvel Legends line, but it was of him in his black pants and black vest outfit, which Namor has worn for maybe… 10 or so minutes of his 80-year comics career? Everyone knows that Namor wears green Speedos and nothing else, and he deserves to be sculpted in all his nearly-nude gory.
14) Kate Bishop
The co-star of Matt Fraction and David Aja’s unbelievably great Hawkeye series is just as much Hawkeye as Clint Barton is, to the point where Clint is relegated to the name “Hawkguy” to differentiate the two. Look, just give us a Hawkeye, Hawkguy and Pizza Dog three-pack, and we’ll be content.
15) Galactusbuster Iron Man
Personally, I have no idea of this armor, seen on the cover of the Secret Wars tie-in Armor Wars, ever made it into a Marvel comic. I don’t care. The fact that Tony Stark has designed an armor specifically to fight Galactus makes me unbelievably happy, and owning a figure of it would make me happier still.
16) Nebula
Hmm? Oh, she’s just the daughter of Thanos, one of the main villains in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and one of the many female Marvel characters that inexplicably don’t have figures for some reason.
17) Squirrel Girl
Not the classic, but the current design currently eating nuts and kicking butts in the excellent Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comic. Obviously, Doreen Green would need to come with Tippy-toe her squirrel companion, and her Deadpool trading card guide to supervillains. Also, if she came with her “armor” made entirely of squirrels, I would be okay with that.
18) Nextwave Box Set
Since Warren Ellis’ mind-bogglingly great Nextwave series ended after 12 issues in 2007, it has become a cult classic, and deservedly so. The team consisted of Monica Rambeau, Elsa Bloodstone, Tabitha Smith, Machine Man and Captain @#$%, and chances are if you’ve even heard of Nextwave you’re already throwing money at your computer screen, desperate to somehow make this happen. San Diego Comic-Con 2016, Hasbro. You know what you need to do.
Contact the author at rob@io9.com.