Those who know me well, know I have some problems when it comes to holding on to my money, especially when confronted with delicious, belly-warming movie merchandise. Seriously, it’s a disease – though not one I am actually particularly ashamed of – which hasn’t exactly cost me relationships, but has cost me a lot of respect at least. Over the past ten or so years, since I succumbed to the need to seek out and purchase these pretty treasures, I have spent thousands of pounds (remember I’m a Limey) supplementing my now vast DVD and Blu-ray collection with the best the market has had to offer me. Hundreds of those pounds went to securing (finally) all of the Star Wars Mr. Potato Heads that I foolishly chose to collect only when most of them weren’t bloody well available any more. That’s just how I roll. The idea of this column then is to share my obsession – to point out the greatest in new and legendary merchandise, and to suggest three essential purchases every week for discerning collectors and casual fans alike. Since Comic-Con 2011 has just closed its doors, leaving a vapor trail of teasers and pre-orderable goodies, it’s probably most appropriate this week to offer up three of the coolest items announced at the expo. They’re all improbably expensive, but hey, who needs food when you can have things like this instead…?

From the moment Marvel announced The Avengers and their vision for it, we knew it would be massive. There’s a baker’s dozen of major actors involved, and a healthy stockade of them will have super powers (or super suits they invented in a cave). There is also a lot of ground to cover to bring all those heroes together. Now, Chris Hemsworth has spoken to MTV and revealed his thoughts on the script, getting used to his co-stars, and the two characters that spoiler-ily get their Irish up against each other.

You’re well aware of what went down with Edward Norton and Marvel (or at least as in the know as someone who isn’t Edward Norton or Marvel can be), and the next question on the docket is who will step in as a replacement for Avengers. After all, Comic Con is next week, and someone has to sit on the stage with the rest of the gang. As it turns out, Marvel is way ahead of the game here. They’ve already been talking to Mark Ruffalo, and it looks like they may be inches away from signing him on.

In honor of no special holiday in particular, we take a look at a few film characters that need to dance with Mary Jane. I change my name to Dr. Roberts for the day in order to diagnose a few crazed characters and prescribe something good for what ails them.

I have always loved the animated Marvel cartoons, maybe because you can do anything with animated characters. Maybe it is because I am still a big kid at heart. Nonetheless, here are three awesome classic Hulk cartoons for your viewing enjoyment.

We decided to lock Cole Abaius and Rob Hunter, two of our most polarizing staff writers, in a room together and make them battle it out: one on the side of Ang Lee’s film being great, and the other on the side of it being a huge turd.

Recently I was at the movies in a packed house when they showed a trailer for the upcoming The Incredible Hulk. The resulting response from the audience was a collective “Huh?”

So it looks like the watered down marvel website for kids has brought us something for all ages. They have three awesome webisodes featuring, you guessed it, Iron-Man.

Ed Norton talks about rebooting the Hulk so that we can all forget about that Ang Lee fiasco.