Canberra, Australia-based Nerf superfan Martyn Yang, who runs a popular toy blaster blog called Urban Taggers, was recently contacted by Hasbro with an offer of some free Nerf gear to give away to his readers. What looked like a great bit of PR quickly turned sour, though.

Instead of the promised swag, Yang received an angry letter from Hasbro's law firm asking him to take down a review of a not-yet-released Nerf gun he bought online. After he complied, he started getting threatening visits from private investigators hired by Hasbro's law firm, Baker & McKenzie.

After neighbors told him some strange people had been seen lurking around his apartment, he confronted the unwelcome visitors and explained that unreleased materials often pop up on eBay and Chinese equivalent Taobao.

Yang sent an email back to Hasbro, telling them the same thing he told the investigators, and then posted the whole story on his blog. His supporters have now started an online boycott of the company.

Meanwhile, Hasbro has issued a statement via Facebook claiming that the offer of free stuff was genuine, and not just a ploy to obtain Yang's address.

[boingboing.]

Time to Play has a first look at the Mattel toy version of Batman's new aerial vehicle, The Bat, from The Dark Knight Rises.

This is our closest look at The Bat since it was spotted outside of Pittsburgh last summer. But, more importantly, the toy actually launches a Batman figure through the air.

So Christmas-listed.

[superherohype.]

After much speculation about Loki's alien army in The Avengers -- are they Skrulls, or something else entirely? -- we have our first good look at one of Loki's soldiers, courtesy of a C2E2 presentation from toy company Diamond Select.

Diamond is marketing a 7-inch figure of one of the baddies, simply called "Loki's Army Footsoldier." It has grey skin and gold armor, and looks distinctly un-Skrull-like.

Fortunately, Joss Whedon himself has settled the ongoing debate about the invading army: they're the Chitauri, a shapeshifting race from the Ultimate Marvel Universe that has been referred to as "Skrulls" on some other planets.

So, they're not exactly Skrulls. More like Skrulls-plus.

[superherohype.]

Lego meets Neon Genesis Evangelion's EVA-01 and Gundam's RX-78 in this mecha creation by Gyuta K.

[ufunk.]

Lego builder Zachary Pollock is turning to Kickstarter to help finance a Lego recreation of Super Mario Bros.' entire World 1-1, at a scale of one brick per pixel.

The finished product, called "Epic Mario," will include more than 780,000 Lego studs, and, at 90 feet long, it could be the longest Lego mosaic ever created.

Pollock is seeking $26,400 to cover bricks and mounting materials, and he plans to cover the cost of transporting the mural to conventions -- including PAX, BrickCon and Bricks Cascade -- himself.

[boingboing.]

Vimal Patel's Lego Omniboat features a minifig pilot and floats on four of the water bottles used to package Lego's 2003 line of hockey figures.

Patel hasn't posted the details of the Omniboat's propulsion system, so we'll just pretend it's powered by the tears of Lego unicorns.

[technabob.]

Lego builder Peter "Legoloverman" Reid is vying to get his most famous creation, an awesome robot exoskeleton, approved as an official Lego set.

The Exo Suit, which holds a minifig pilot, is up for voting on Lego's crowdsourced idea site, Cuusoo. It currently has 350 of the 10,000 votes it needs to be considered for manufacture and release.

[boingboing]