The Marvel Legends line has turned so many of Marvel’s biggest and lesser-known characters into action figures, and that roster continues to expand each and every month. Whether you’re huge names like Spider-Man and Thor or cult favorites like Speedball and Maggott, there’s seemingly a place for you in Hasbro’s incredibly popular toy line, at least if you’re not this one Spider-Man villain. That villain is none other than Cardiac, who is a personal favorite, and he’s also a favorite of Valaverse President Bobby Vala. Vala is behind the popular Action Force toy line and is also a former designer for Hasbro, previously working on the Legends line. In his new video, he reveals the real reason why Marvel has never made a Cardiac figure.
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Vala has been discussing and spotlighting some of the Marvel Legends waves he previously worked on, and in his new video, Vala focuses on the 2019 Marvel Legends Kingpin Build-A-Figure wave. That wave ended up including Spider-Man (Symbiote Suit), Scarlet Spider, Night Thrasher, Black Cat, Silver Sable, Red Goblin, and Tombstone, but Vala reveals he pushed for Cardiac, both in this wave and the other Spider-Man wave he worked on.
In both cases, Marvel said no to Cardiac, and here’s why. “When you’re picking the stuff, I’ve talked about this before several times on podcasts and stuff about how like you weren’t allowed to do…you know the whole library wasn’t available, the whole Rogues gallery. Some things were like off-limits certain years, and that’s like because Marvel didn’t want to pay certain creators royalties,” Vala said.
“So each year we would get like, know about who was off the no-fly list. The one character…my all-time favorite Spider-Man villain is Cardiac, and I pushed for him every wave, the two waves I did. And we got told no every time, and to this day he’s still a no, they haven’t done Cardiac,” Vala said. “And I think because whoever the creator is, maybe Erik Larsen, they don’t want to pay a royalty to. So that’s why you can’t do Cardiac.”
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Cardiac was co-created by Larsen, David Michelinie, and Randy Emberlin back in 1990, making his debut in Amazing Spider-Man #342. Technically that was his first appearance in civilian form as Dr. Elias Wirtham, but he would make his full costumed debut as Cardiac in Amazing Spider-Man #343, which was released in November of 1990.
Cardiac has been both a villain and an ally to Spider-Man over the years and sports a design that screams ’90s and yet I adore it. The blue and white are instantly recognizable, and he could actually do some damage too thanks to an artificial heart that allows him to control the output of electrical energy through his hands or through a power staff, and the concussive force was able to take down some big targets. Cardiac even worked Vibranium into his suit, so he wasn’t a pushover in the least.
At this point we’ve had so many of Spider-Man’s villains turned into figures, so it’s a shame that we might never get a Cardiac added to the roster. Granted, not every Marvel character has a figure yet, but with deep-cut characters like Kaine and Marrow getting figures in the past few months, Cardiac certainly deserves some shine.
The video also brings some surprising insight into the Kingpin Build-A-Figure, which was initially met with some resistance behind the scenes. It turned out to be incredibly popular, so it all worked out, but it’s still interesting to know some of what goes into bringing some of your favorite characters to the toy aisle. You can check out the full video above.
Do you think we’ll ever get a Cardiac figure, and who is the figure in Marvel Legends that you are still waiting for Marvel to make? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things Marvel and action figures with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
