Toy Review: Groot / Marvel Super Hero Mashers (Hasbro)

When my son first started collecting Marvel Super Hero Mashers, the line was at what I thought to be a stand still.   There simply were not any new figures coming out as far as I could tell and, well, if you go back to my first review I actually thought that the line was discontinued and that was why they were at Five Below.   Now we had seen a few newer Mashers in stores- the Logan version of Wolverine was the first one that really struck me as being "new" though, as some of the others to me were more of a "Maybe I just hadn't seen them before" reaction.  

Walking into a Walmart (not the same one with the sweet, sweet Iron Man deal) and see Groot on a peg was something surreal.    My son and I both love Guardians of the Galaxy so having them in this line is a chance we will not pass up.   And what better figure to start with from the series than Groot?   As much as I enjoy mixing around some of the traditional characters and even Deadpool, I enjoy the guys who have a similar pattern across their whole body.   We don't have Iceman yet, for example, but being able to turn someone's arm or leg into ice seems cool.    So does being able to turn someone's arm or leg into a tree, which Groot allows for now.

So what do you need to know about Groot other than "I am Groot"?    This is by far my favorite Masher currently and not just because his body type (being all tree) represents what I feel is the best part of having Mashers.   Immediately after getting this figure, my mind started racing with ideas.   Would they make other Guardians of the Galaxy characters?  Clearly they'd have to, even though they don't do females.    When I got home and online I found a new series with Starlord, Rocket Raccoon and Ant-Man in it.   Whoa, this series of figures just took off for me in a huge way!  (I did at one point contemplate there being a "build-a-figure" sort of deal with the other GotG characters to create Rocket, but his size is made up for by his big gun)

As you may or may not know, my son loves the Imaginext Batman line of figures.   He has almost all of them, others that don't have name brands and then some of the Star Wars and Marvel figures which are of the same size but are actually made by Playskool.   I'm waiting- anticipating- Playskool making that set of Guardians of the Galaxy figures.   If the Star Wars line can have Yoda in it, Rocket's size shouldn't be a problem but rather it'd be more interesting to see how they'd handle the tallness of Groot.  

Still, my son has characters from the DC Universe, Marvel Universe, Star Wars Universe and non-name brands playing together, with new ones out there for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (he just hasn't gotten them yet), Transformers (he's not really into them yet), Jurassic World (they just came out) and on the horizon are Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.     Clearly this is something that the Guardians of the Galaxy would like to be a part of, right Playskool?