Marvel Vinylmation: What it means for us

by M.C.

Exciting news today around the internet. Seems like our dreams have come true. Although not officially confirmed, Vinylmation Kingdom has reported that it looks like we're going to see a Marvel Vinylmation set soon. It looks to be a blind boxed 12 figure set, just the the good old days. But what does this mean for Vinylmation?

Some of you might just see this set as just another set. Maybe you feel it's just like previous movie sets such as Toy Story, Alice or Lion King. I disagree. I think this set will change Vinylmation. We've seen Vinylmation as a hobby from in the last 5 years. Many of us got in on the ground floor and have continued to watch it grow, through good times and bad. We've seen chasers and variants. Sell-outs and sales. Scrappers and eBay sellers. But though it all, I think Vinylmation has continued to be a niche item at heart.

Don't get me wrong, it's gotten wide spread appeal. With the Star Wars series, Disney latched onto a huge new audience that had never seen these little vinyl toys before. But I think Marvel is something more. I think Marvel will lead the hobby into new, yet unseen markets and the hobby will gain more momentum. The Avengers movie was the biggest comic book movie of all time. And that means a lot more then just the fanboys watched it. Marvel is on everyone's minds and on everything you see. Tapping into that audience for Vinylmation is opening the flood gates to people who have never seen vinyl, and hopefully will love it and try to get more.

I also think that the combo of vinyl and Marvel will set new standards for cross company promotion and synergy. This coupled with Disney's new found love of vinyl, from the new Disney Radio award to the upcoming web series involving them... this hobby is about to blow up. I just hope it does so in a good way. (Can you blow something up in a good way?)

My hope for the series? Lets keep these sets simple. Avengers first. Then X-Men. It won't be hard to fill the sets, and since Wolverine is part of both, you won't be missing the key favorite in either set. Also, lets do a great John Byrne inspired Days of Future Past set for the release of that movie in 2014! More about all this later...