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AIC NEWS: 2026 Marvel Legends March Madness Round 1 Results Are In!!!
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Welcome to AICNN (Adventures in Collecting News Network) where toy news matters! On this very special extended edition of your AIC News Brief, we're covering the kickoff of the 2026 Marvel Legends along with a recap of the round 1 results — who were the big winners and losers, what surprised our anchors, and what's next?!?
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
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Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction and Focus on Toy News
00:00:05
Speaker
AICNN, where toy news matters. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting on a special edition of your AIC News Brief.
Marvel Legends March Madness Launch
00:00:19
Speaker
We, of course, are kicking off our tournament, our Marvel Legends March Madness. This is our third annual. It will be the first year that we have a new winner because the first two years were won by Mephisto, and Mephisto is now...
00:00:34
Speaker
off the board as he is due out a little bit later this year. But ah round one is in the books. So we have the results. We are going to reveal them here for the first time. So hang tight. We will get to them shortly, as well as news as to when round two um will be beginning.
00:00:52
Speaker
So before we do that, of course, just a little bit of housekeeping. So um it is a new month. It is March. This is the first time we're coming at you ah this month.
Giveaway Announcement: Spawn Elite Edition
00:01:05
Speaker
And we have a giveaway. So the giveaway this month, we are partnering with, ah collaborating, if you will, with our friend, Praternia. to give away a Spawn Elite Edition from the Image Comics Founders Series. So um you can head on over to our Instagram at AIC underscore podcast, where you'll see all the rules that you need to follow in order to enter yourself to win. um Of course, last month's giveaway was the bloody Stone Cold Steve Austin. So ah that is...
Tournament Rules and Character Selection
00:01:39
Speaker
shipping out actually i just boxed it up so to the winner if you are listening it's gonna be on its way in the coming days so i'm keep an eye out for that but like i mentioned the other big piece of news this month is our round one of the marvel legends uh March Madness.
00:02:02
Speaker
So this is a ah big deal here at Adventures in Collecting. And just a couple of things about it before we hop into the actual results. So if you are new here, we do two tournaments a year.
00:02:19
Speaker
So we do our Archie tournament to crown what you feel is the best toy line of the year. And then ah in March, we do Marvel Legends March Madness. We pick 64 characters that i or or variants of a character that have never been ah in the Marvel Legends line at all.
00:02:41
Speaker
i Those 64 characters were determined now almost three years ago, that initial list. We did a a Google Forms situation where people got to submit. um I will say we've had a lot of questions as to why this character or why that character, you know, ah why they're not on there.
00:03:02
Speaker
um Let me address that real quick. i We had an overflow list. And figures can get dropped off the list ah in two ways. One, they are announced or made.
00:03:16
Speaker
So if Hasbro announces a figure, it is obviously not eligible for the next year's list.
Character Elimination and Overflow Process
00:03:24
Speaker
So we have a little bit of an overflow. The other way that you get knocked off the list is if you do not receive um at least 10% of the votes in the first round.
00:03:33
Speaker
And I can say with confidence this year that not a single character will be eliminated that way. So everyone got at least 10% of the vote. So um in order for these characters to change, Hasbro is going to have to make some figures off the list. So fingers crossed. Hopefully, you know, that happens between now and and next year. However, um things do change. Sentiments change. Characters become more popular than others. So we have decided that after this year's tournament, we are going to put that Google form back out into the world.
00:04:06
Speaker
um and we're going to allow people to nominate characters for the next list. And we will we will take that into consideration for 2027
Voting Process and Matchup Generation
00:04:18
Speaker
list. But ah this year, like I said, the voting is already well underway. um Before we hop into those results, our field of 64. So we have 64, like I said, 64 characters. This is a single elimination tournament. um The voting takes place in our Instagram stories i for the span of 24 hours. So you have 24 hours to vote for the character in each of the matchups. um
00:04:51
Speaker
And it's randomly generated, so nothing is is seeded. If a character does win the tournament and they are not made, so in the case of Mephisto, Mephisto did have, he won in 2024, which means he was the number one seed in twenty twenty five so um If that does happen with a character this year and that character is not announced, um we will of course i make that character the number one seed next year. um
00:05:27
Speaker
Another question that we've gotten Again, real quick before we get into the results, I promise we'll get into them and we'll go through them one
Protocol for New Character Announcements
00:05:34
Speaker
by one. um Is what if a character is announced by Hasbro in the middle of the tournament?
00:05:42
Speaker
um That is something that has never happened before. ah If it does happen, my suggestion would be just don't vote for that character. We can't suddenly swap it out in the middle of the tournament.
00:05:56
Speaker
just not fair you know going for the the the characters of that character or characters um may have beaten in previous rounds people might want to listen we'll address we'll cross that bridge when we get to it hopefully um we don't have to get to it. Hopefully that just is not something that happens. So let's all keep our fingers crossed. But ah yeah, we do have 64 individual characters, all of which in the form that they are listed representing
00:06:29
Speaker
the Marvel universe from movies, TV shows, comics, animation, video games.
Diverse Character Representation
00:06:36
Speaker
i We have characters kind of from every category.
00:06:39
Speaker
So um bear that in mind as we go through this. i There might be a character on this list that means a lot to somebody but doesn't mean anything to you. That's the way that Marvel Legends works, right? It's a very big ocean of characters. So um we did our best in crafting this list initially three years ago um to represent as much of the community as possible. So um you may not see your favorite character or the character that's on the top of your personal list of Marvel Legends wants, but um we want to let you know that we hear you.
00:07:12
Speaker
We want to get that feedback into next year's list. So hopefully, all of those disclaimers aside, we can now um comfortably hop into ah into the results.
First-Round Results and Notable Matchups
00:07:25
Speaker
um Because it was a very exciting first round. And there were some there were some really, really cool things happening. But ah yeah, let's ah let's start talking results. And now, your first round results for Marvel Legends March Madness!
00:07:50
Speaker
Even when he can't be with us on a specific episode, he's he's always there. thanks Thanks for the energetic intro there, Dave. doing Doing some heavy lifting on the voice work. So, um like I said, there are 64 characters, which means there are 32 matchups. And we're just going to go through them real quick. So, um I think I'm starting at the end here, working in reverse order, but that's fine.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah. I'm at the end. Okay. So we're starting with match 32 and working all the all the way up. So ah Man Spider cleaned MCU Echo's clock with an 81 to 19 advantage. Not the biggest deficit, though. One of the biggest deficits, but not the biggest one. We will. You'll see.
00:08:37
Speaker
um Hulkling beat out Death Adder. You guys just really do not want to complete the Serpent Society. Something something that I'm learning about about all of you. But Hulkling, obviously a hugely popular character.
00:08:53
Speaker
Haven't really touched that area of the new Avengers. So Obviously, a cool choice. And as a Hulk fan, I'll take any Hulk. ah This one surprised the heck out of me, if I'm going be honest. Hellcat beating out Adversary by a huge margin, you know, with 70% of the vote to Oh, and that's also something else too, as we're going through this, we are just showing the percentage of votes. It's just easier that way. We didn't have any ties, so we don't have to get into the nitty gritty about individual voting numbers. I will say um every time we do this, we set the bar higher and higher.
00:09:32
Speaker
i think if I remember correctly, the total votes was like well over 12,000 individual votes across all 32 votes.
00:09:43
Speaker
ah Yeah, 12,000 votes. Over 12,000 votes, we'll put it that way. Next up, sorry Craig, the gibbon is still not going to happen, at least according to the wants and needs of the Marvel Legends community, but Atuma, classic comic Atuma, put up 73% the vote. Yeah.
00:10:06
Speaker
um MCU The Void, a very easy repaint of a figure, um could not beat out Carrion, who is a a staple of the Maximum Carnage storyline that is still ah very criminally underserved.
00:10:22
Speaker
We'll put it that way. ah Juggernaut, MCU. So one of the few MCU characters that made the cut here. um He squeaked out ah or eked out Prodigy with 53% of the vote.
00:10:36
Speaker
um Personally, that MCU Juggernaut or Deadpool 2 Juggernaut, whatever you want to say, is ah pretty high on my list. um Close matchup. Oh my goodness. 49 to 51%. Wizard beats out Ghost.
00:10:49
Speaker
ah the wizard it beats out ghosts crazy that's another one that's just crazy to me that it was so close um and that ghost lost was just but hey he's he's a classic villain right um vengeance beats out madam webb with 54 of the vote i think this one's going to be controversial for a lot of people but um something that has rung true in this tournament since 2024 that
00:11:22
Speaker
Ghost Rider fans are out there and they want more figures. They want more characters um and and Vengeance is among the ones that they want. And there's another one that made, or another two that made this list that you'll see advanced into the next round. So, Madam Web, yeah, I mean, that's it that this is one of those ones where it's a little bit of a Sophie's Choice for me. Personally, I know Dave, it would be an easy vote, Vengeance all the way, but I want both of these, so um One of the other MCU characters that made the cut here, i Gambit from what we're saying the MCU, but it's Deadpool versus Wolverine. Gambit beats out Kindred.
00:12:04
Speaker
Thunderbolt Ross loses to Johnny Blaze. This was like the battle of just dudes. um But, ah you know, this is this is mullet Johnny Blaze from the 90s. Beats out Thunderbolt Ross with 62% of the vote.
00:12:18
Speaker
um This is another one that I thought was kind of surprising. and Again, people have been clamoring for a classic Mandarin. And when the Extremis 2-pack came out last year and it had a version of Mandarin...
00:12:31
Speaker
people were very split. Some people were like, this is great. I'm happy to finally have a comic accurate Mandarin of some kind. And then other people were like, this is not the Mandarin that I want. I want the classic Mandarin, green robe, maybe even some green skin, like the sorcerer Mandarin.
00:12:50
Speaker
um But once again, Robbie Reyes, Ghost Rider, who made it all the way to the semifinals last year, um maybe even the finals, I'd have to double check on that. But he he made it really far in the tournament.
00:13:03
Speaker
A figure that you could have had
00:13:08
Speaker
With his car.
00:13:12
Speaker
Gah! But he's he's the last one of the the ah the engine of vengeance HasLab characters that has not found and snuck his way back into a mainline or subline release.
00:13:26
Speaker
um We're made to order, right? Because we we have everyone else that was in that set made it into some version of figure form except for Robbie. So if people still want Robbie, you could have had Robbie.
00:13:38
Speaker
um Another really close matchup. So Werewolf by Night from the MCU loses out to Iron Hammer. Malekith from the MCU. One of the MCU villains we have yet to have a figure form of loses to D-Man.
00:13:55
Speaker
Sure. ah Annihilus, one of the top picks, top dogs in the tournament. Absolutely.
00:14:06
Speaker
annihilated titanium man who is a a massive fan favorite from the iron man universe and you know a villain that we so we've i think we very desperately need for our iron man collections but annihilus just took him took him to town man um annihilus is is personally that is the one that i think is going to win this year um making that i made that call kind of privately um you know outside of the tournament and conversations with people but i'll just make it public annihilus is my pick to to take the whole thing um and i think especially with the diamond select annihilus figure being now kind of off the table with the collapse of diamond select toys um it is wild that hasbro has not jumped in on annihilus for marvel legends it's it's truly truly remarkable um
00:14:58
Speaker
Classic Nebula beats out ah Kid Loki with 63% of the vote. Flag Smasher beats Shockwave with 58%. Vermin beats out Steve Rogers Nomad with 55% of the vote.
00:15:12
Speaker
Zax, one of the Hulk villains that I am hoping for most, beats out the MCU version of Cassilius, of course, from the Doctor Strange films. What a close matchup. This was back and forth.
00:15:26
Speaker
There was never a moment where this was more than a percent or two apart. um Regent loses by 2% of the vote ah to the MCU version of Abomination.
00:15:40
Speaker
This was another one that was just insanely close back and forth the whole time. Matt Fraction Hawkeye loses out to Doc Samson. Doc Samson picked up 51% of the vote there. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur beats out Bi-Beast with 65% of the vote.
00:16:00
Speaker
I'm guessing that would have to be like a made-to-order situation, right? Because Devil Dinosaur is... Pretty big and depending on how you wanted to make it, he gets bigger. So, or it gets bigger.
00:16:14
Speaker
Forget it, whether a Devil Dinosaur is a boy or a girl. um Speed beats out Maximus with 74% of the vote. Another one that was just wicked close the whole time. 51 to 49% stick beats out MCU's Whiplash.
00:16:30
Speaker
I'm beginning to think that we are never going to get that MCU Whiplash figure. I have given up with Mickey Rourke being Mickey Rourke. um I have given up on the kind of prison pants racetrack version of ah Whiplash, but I would love...
00:16:47
Speaker
the final act version. Do it the way that you did Vulture. ah Don't worry about the likeness. Just stick the the lid on his head and call it a day. big Whip arms. um It would be great. ah Tinkerer loses to Shard.
00:17:03
Speaker
Shard picks up 67% of the the vote in ah in that round or in that matchup. Leech, newcomer to the tournament this year, takes 70% of the vote over the Ancient One, the MCU Ancient One.
00:17:17
Speaker
Weapon H loses to Armor, and Armor is the other one that you should probably watch out for this entire tournament. There are tons of comments. There are tons of shares, all um pulling for Armor.
00:17:30
Speaker
So this is another one that would be, i would imagine, would be a so a pretty significant engineering challenge for the Marvel Legends team. Let's make figure inside a figure but both of them need to be pretty limber um yeah would be very interesting to see a translucent shell exocell exoskeleton sort of thing happening there but uh yeah armor takes 66 of the vote in that matchup um This was our biggest margin of victory, I believe.
00:18:00
Speaker
ah Death, also newcomer to the tournament this year, i almost eliminated poor MCU's Justin Hammer with 85% of the vote going to Death.
00:18:13
Speaker
Another one that was just close, so close the whole time. But Wiccan eked out a a W over the Spider-Man the Animated Series Punisher.
00:18:24
Speaker
Of course, that's the blue Punisher with the gray um trench coat. a Swarm beats out MCU's Elsa Bloodstone with 65% of the vote.
00:18:35
Speaker
The Dark Elf beats out Force with 72% of the vote. Another one that was close, The whole time Exodus pulled away at the very end, um Exodus over Mantis with 55% of the vote.
00:18:51
Speaker
And then Stegron beats out Dust with 55% of the vote as well. So that ah that is the results in a nutshell.
Round 2 Matchups and Engagement Encouragement
00:19:03
Speaker
um Where does that leave us in terms of what round two of the tournament looks like? And I have ah that answer for you right here. So um I will say round two of the tournament will start on Tuesday.
00:19:20
Speaker
um So that is Tuesday, ah March 10th. So round two, 16 matchups, because now we have halved our field.
00:19:32
Speaker
um So our first matchup will be Stegron versus Exodus. then Dark Elf versus Swarm, Wiccan versus Death, Armor versus Leech, Shard versus Stick, Speed versus Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur, Doc Samson versus the MCU's Abomination, Zax versus Vermin, Flag Smasher versus Nebula, Annihilus versus D-Man,
00:19:59
Speaker
Rest in Peace D-Man. Iron Hammer versus Ghost Rider's Robbie Reyes. Johnny Blaze versus MCU's Gambit. That'll be an interesting one to watch. The Battle of the Trench-Coated Dudes.
00:20:12
Speaker
ah Vengeance versus Wizard. MCU's Juggernaut. Deadpool 2's Juggernaut versus Carrion. Atuma vs. Hellcat. And Hulkling vs. Man Spider.
00:20:24
Speaker
So those are your 16 matches to look forward to Voting will begin um either, I will say, either very late Monday evening. So...
00:20:36
Speaker
look for the voting to go live East Coast time, you know, maybe like 10 ish PM or it will, it will be live at some point on Tuesday, but we will make sure that we post on social media when it does go live.
00:20:51
Speaker
Um, The voting and the stories are all manual. So it really, i i just need to carve out a section of time to post everything. um And these first two rounds are always the trickiest. It's just a lot of back and forth between screens, multiple times, setting things up. It's, it's,
00:21:10
Speaker
It's tedious, so just bear with me, but ah it will either start tonight. So as this is this is airing Monday morning, um it will either start tonight late on March 9th or look for it first thing or at some point on Tuesday. I won't say first thing Tuesday, but at some point on Tuesday, 10th.
00:21:31
Speaker
And look for that post on at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram. That is the only place to vote. um it is It is the only place that you are that you are voting um in in this tournament.
00:21:47
Speaker
So i just keep an eye out for when that post goes live. And... Get your votes in and share it. If there's a character that is headed down the wrong path for you and you want to kind of bolster that character and maybe get some more votes for it, share the story. Get involved. Get out there. Campaign for your character. um You know,
00:22:11
Speaker
we we We are operating simultaneously with our friends over at SWTBC. They have their Star Wars The Vintage Collection March Madness happening as well. Voting is is kind of in parallel. Hasbro is paying attention. know, we've seen...
00:22:31
Speaker
there was There was two years of lots of votes for Mephisto, and what do you know? Mephisto got made. We've seen um roughly 20-ish characters from the list that have ranked pretty highly. um 20 of those characters have been made over the last two years.
00:22:50
Speaker
I am not claiming that this list is influencing Hasbro in any way, but I do know that they are looking at this kind of stuff and they want to hear from you. So this is a great way to make your voice heard. um And if you are a Star Wars, the vintage collection fan, go visit at SWTBC on Instagram. Like I said, they're doing their vintage collection, March Madness. Um,
00:23:15
Speaker
a tournament that I also very much so care about and inspired us to do the Marvel Legends
Future Matchup Excitement and Predictions
00:23:21
Speaker
March Madness. So i yeah, if you're a Star Wars fan, definitely go check that out. Get your votes in, made your voice make your voice heard over there as well. um With that,
00:23:32
Speaker
I am so excited to see what happens with round two. Hopefully we have as many as as many exciting matchups as we had in round one. um And I can't wait to see what people vote for. it it It always surprises me. You guys always manage to surprise me. And i I no longer have any expectations except for, like I said,
00:23:51
Speaker
Watch out for Annihilus. Watch out for Armor. I think the two of them are are headed for each other. I'm trying to look in the i in the bracket here to see when the first time they could potentially meet.
00:24:05
Speaker
um I think, yeah. All right, so they are on opposite sides of the... um of the bracket, which means that if they win out, we could be looking at a final of a Nihilist versus armor, which would be, i think, incredible.
00:24:23
Speaker
um It was completely random that that was not ah set up or designed that way. The randomizer chooses all paths. It's like the watcher.
00:24:34
Speaker
um Yeah.
Conclusion and Sign-off
00:24:37
Speaker
So ah with that, This has been your extended AIC News update, your update on Marvel Legends March Madness, and until next time, get out there, vote, true believers.
00:24:55
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablaui. This program and many others like it on the Non-Productive Network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.