On Tuesday, more Marvel characters will join the toy lineup of Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes. Fans can pick up figures of the trickster god Loki, as well as Falcon, a Marvel hero with more than 40 years of history in that universe.
The flying hero Falcon, who can be seen above in action in Disney Infinity, first appeared in Captain America's comics in 1969, becoming a series staple through many runs. He also appeared as part of the Avengers for a short time, as well as in the Ultimate Spider-Man TV series.
When Avalanche Games, the developers of Disney Infinity, began working on Falcon's design, Disney suggested using the last series as inspiration.
"When we create any Infinity figure, we want the most iconic and appealing version we can find of that character… the version we think the fans of that character will appreciate the most," said Jeff Bunker, vice president of art development for Avalanche Studios. "We have found over the many figures we have done that when we listen to the creators of the characters and make them happy, that we will ultimately make the fans happy."
Many fans might wonder why Falcon's military-inspired costume, as seen from Captain America: Winter Soldier, wasn't the chosen outfit.
"There was some desire, for me personally, to do the Captain America 2 version of Falcon, because I thought they did a great job on the design of his film costume. It was hard to justify though, because although cool, he didn't fit into the three Marvel families (Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy) that we were already supporting in the game," Bunker said, noting that players can change Falcon's costume with the Ultimate Falcon power disc."
While plenty of heroes in this version of Disney Infinity have the power of flight, Falcon's wings posed an extra challenge for the development team, especially as characters are given the consistent, simplified look that is standard throughout the game.
"It was really difficult for us to figure out the right balance for his wings," said Bunker. "We tested his wings in two ways -- one version had the wings coming from his arms and one version had them coming from a pack on his back. We landed on the pack so we could make them look like more realistic wings from all angles."
Making the wings a translucent red was also a first for the series, and something Butler says took "a lot of extra R&D."
Falcon's appearance in the game doesn't necessarily indicate whether or not he'll make an appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron, although a few sites have pointed out the actor who portrayed him in Winter Soldier, Anthony Mackie, appears on the movie's IMDB page.
Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes is available for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, Wii U, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3.