New Toys Tell All on ‘Captain America’ and ‘Transformer’ Sequels

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Both Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures are being hush-hush about the details of their respective upcoming tentpoles, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Transformers: Age of Extinction." Hasbro, however, has never been good at keeping secrets, as a sneak peek of the action figures and accessories give us a pretty good idea about what we'll be seeing in the new movies.

First up, the new Optimus Prime for next summer's "Transformers" installment. It isn't meant to be so much a reboot but an introduction to a 'second trilogy'.

Optimus's vehicle mode in the original trilogy was a Peterbilt Model-379 truck, before that was upgraded to a Western Star 4900 Custom semi-trailer truck, a sleeker and less bulkier model.

That description carries into his robot mode, as we now have a somewhat 'skinnier' and more athletic-looking Optimus. His sword and shield have also gotten upgrades — the weapons now have a more organic design, and look like they'll definitely come in handy when Optimus faces whatever new foe awaits him in "Age of Extinction" (Galvatron?).

Cool, Hasbro. But now bring on the Dinobots!

As for next spring's "Captain America" adventure, we now know — thanks to Hasbro — who will be joining the Winter Soldier in providing antagonism for the red, white and blue hero. We also know more about Cap's updated look...

His new costume pieces offer some details as to what we can expect from Steve Rogers of the 21st Century. His sleek new helmet contains some impressive S.H.I.E.L.D. tech, including a missile-firing projectile rocket launcher above the left ear but which can be moved and connected to three different points. The visor also lights up at the touch of a button, because why not?

We also love the upgrade on Cap's trademark shield, referred to here as a 'Stealthfire Shield.' The pull of a handle reveals four hidden dart launchers (NERF darts here; probably non-NERF in the movie) that — get this — automatically retract after all four darts have been fired. Well done, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents of Hasbro!

If that's not enough, it looks like Cap's dealings with the nefarious organization known as Hydra (lorded over by Hugo Weaving's Red Skull in the first movie) aren't over, as one new action figure is a Hydra Soldier. The days of WWII are long gone as the uniform has been considerably upgraded for modern times, skin-tight to show off its wearer's physique and complete with bug-like eye pieces. Fans will recognize the green and yellow as the contemporary colors of choice for Hydra, with the Hydra logo displayed on the weapon that, in true action figure style, is almost as big as the guy holding it.

In fact, if it weren't for the logo on the weapon and the 'H' on the chest, you might mistake a Hydra soldier for one of the good guys. Yellow and green doesn't traditionally scream "Villain!," though maybe that's the point, especially in a film that's so far been described as a morally ambiguous journey where the line between 'right' and 'wrong' is rather thin and blurry.

The new Mandroid is a suit of power armor chock full of various weapons. In the comics they were developed by Tony Stark for use against formidable foes, though in the Marvel Cinematic Universe we first saw them in "Iron Man 2" as the inventions of Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), designed to take out Stark but later destroyed by Stark and Rhodey.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" will hit theaters on April 4, 2014, followed by "Transformers: Age of Extinction" on June 27.