Guardians of the Galaxy: Five Big Takeaways From ToyFair

With a trailer expected this week, fans are about to start getting a taste of Marvel Studios' promotional push for Guardians of the Galaxy, one of the most anticipated--and arguably riskiest--films they've ever made. James Gunn's science-fiction adventure story sees Peter Quill, a human who calls himself Star-Lord, leading a motley gang of rejects trying to beat some very nasty people to one of the famed Marvel Studios MacGuffins that will apparently build to an Infinity Gauntlet story down the line. You see the object--a glowing blue orb--in Star-Lord's hands in a number of the promotional images--and according to the synopsis, there's an element of the heist movie to this: "From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team–the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits–Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand -  with the galaxy's fate in the balance. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is presented by Marvel Studios. The film releases August 1, 2014, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures." That, at this point, is all the official information we have on the movie. So what can we take away from the toys and their accompanying promotional images that rolled out over the weekend at ToyFair in New York?

Rocket Raccoon and Animal Testing There's been some hints that Rocket Raccoon would be the subject of some unsavory animal testing in the movie version, and here we see a first look at the character with...some kind of metal plate seemingly attached to his head. That wasn't there in the Comic-Con trailer as far as we remember, or the purported concept art that leaked earlier this week. "[Rocket] is most representative of the Guardians in the fact that he's this little mangled beast that was taken and experimented on and torn apart and put back together, and we have to feel that character's soul," Gunn said in a recent magazine interview. "If we see his plight, and see why he's such an angry little guy, then the movie will work." Check out the video below for a nice, clean look at it.

It's worth noting, though, that in the image above this entry, the action figure doesn't appear to have those patch/plate-looking things. Maybe we're reading too deep into it? Or maybe that's some kind of psionic control device related to the giant mess-you-up gun he's carrying in the talking toy? Groot: Look at that "Battle Ready" stuff from the comics The lights that are threaded through Groot's body (at top) are pretty familiar if you've been reading the comics. Take a look at this image from the launch of the new series last year:

Looking back at old appearances of the character, or even at promotional art for the movie or recent appearances in other media, he doesn't appear to have had this particular "feature" in the past, and those lights sync up with tech that had been incorporated into the rest of the Guardians' uniforms.

Road to Planet Hulk? The Sakaaran Trooper action figure which will appear in the movie's 3.75" action figure line is an interesting addition. As noted in our previous story on the Sakaaran, the race appears in Planet Hulk, a story that has been widely speculated as a strong basis for an Incredible Hulk solo film. At one point not long ago, Marvel movie rumor-mongers Latino Review actually claimed they had internal confirmation that Planet Hulk and World War Hulk were set to be adapted eventually, although Marvel has strongly denied that. Of course, denials until you're ready to announce are the name of the game in this rumor-happy day and age. The Sakaarans, who were previously cut from Thor: The Dark World and seem from the image above to share a design sensibility with that film's Dark Elves, are clearly a race Marvel wants fans to be aware of.

Did they license that Walkman? On the Star-Lord action figure, there's a Sony Walkman, which appears in the film because he was taken to space during a time period when that would have been a thing. But did they officially license a Sony Walkman? How accurate is the toy going to be?

Marvel House Style This is something we touched on above--but Ronan the Accuser, the Sakaaran and Korath (seen above) all look very much like something that could have walked right out of Thor: The Dark World. They're giving Marvel Cosmic a house style, a bit like the Star Wars universe, so that even seemingly disparate movies and properties could eventually mesh together if they and their villains had to share screen time.