By now, we’re all used to getting glimpses of stuff in upcoming blockbusters via merchandising. Licensed LEGO sets are always a good bet for a couple of spoilers, as are action figures at trade shows and foreign market advertising material. None of which makes it any less amusing that we’re getting our first full body look at Thanos, the Mad Titan and scourge of Avengers: Infinity War via a novelty cup topper.
Though they’re understandably a bit cheap-looking, they also have a decent amount of detail to them. The set we have below encompasses Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Teenage Groot and Thanos. Obviously, we’re already pretty familiar with how the first three look in the MCU, so there are no surprises there. However, the Teenage Groot and Thanos ones are worthy of some more examination.
Firstly, Thanos looks ready to wreck some poor superhero’s day. While his design is pretty much ‘yer basic tough guy in a wife-beater and army boots, there’s a sense of intense smugness and confidence in his expression. This is no doubt going to make it all the more satisfying when one of our favourite superhero stars wipes that grin off his big purple face.
It’s also neat to get a good look at Teenage Groot, who comes across as the very model of grumpy adolescence. The innocent cheeriness we saw from Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is gone, to be replaced by a tree-man who looks on the verge of rolling his eyes, stomping to his room, slamming the door and yelling a frustrated “I AM GROOT!” It’s also neat to see that they’ve incorporated the space-Gameboy he had at the end of Guardians 2.
As the release of the film gets ever closer, we’ll no doubt be seeing even more of these characters. I guess one of the few downsides of Avengers: Infinity War is that we’re already extremely familiar with the vast majority of heroes/villains in the movie, meaning there’s few surprises as to how they’ll appear. Still, we like to pay attention to the details here, and even novelty cup toppers can give us a couple of clues about a movie’s direction.
