Somebody get Marvel on the phone!

Over on our message board, The Loafing Lounge, every so often the conversation turns toward how we want a figure of Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. For those not in the know, Jamie is a mutant with the ability to create living duplicates of himself. If you saw X-Men 3: The Last Stand, he was the guy in prison for robbing five banks at once. It's a really cool ability, but it presents one obvious problem right away:

Portraying his powers.

In toy terms, Multiple Man is a great figure. He's an instant troop builder. Anyone who knows the character is going to want at least two of him, which means he'd sell to fans despite being completely unknown to casual toy buyers. But as a single figure? He's a guy in a weird suit. Kind of boring, to be honest. But fans want the guy, so what's a company to do?

• Option 1: make a Multiple Man box set. Four or five of the same figure in a box. Yes, some people would buy it, but would Wal*Mart or Target really want to give shelf space to something like that? No, probably not. So that idea's out.
• Option 2: Put him in Marvel Legends. It could work, but then anyone who wants more than one of the guy is going to have a pile of spare BAF parts, and that happens enough already. Anybody want an extra Sentinel crotch? No, that's what I thought. So that idea's out, but it leads to...
• Option 3: Make Multiple Man the BAF. That idea's even worse. Then you have to buy an entire case yourself to get more than one figure. Forget that. And there's already enough bitching about how BAFs have gotten too "small," so no.
• Option 4: Marvel Select. The specialty line. The line aimed directly at the peope who would love a Jamie Madrox figure. Give us one Marvel Legends-sized Jamie, with decent articulation. Instead of a base, give us two unarticulated Jamies in the same costume. Bang: every time you buy a pack, you get one "high quality" figure and two lesser ones to put behind him and fill out the scene.

Option 4 solves the recognizability problem, and making him in (or close to, if that's still a problem) ML scale will up his appeal. And if Origin Wolverine can get three wolves and a giant tree trunk, Jamie should have no problem including a couple nice dupes. Just make sure they're all Marvel Legends size, and we're golden.

We're running a poll on our message board to determine which costume fans want. If you're not a member of our forum, feel free to post your choice here.

Oh, and if it matters (ie, if someone from Marvel is reading this and is worried), we promise to treat this just like DC Direct's Elseworlds or Mattel's Bizarro repaint - ie, we'll unashamedly point out that we're responsible for the figures, but in no other way lay legal claim to the idea. A "thank you" would be nice, or some free toys, but we're not going to push it. We just like the idea for this figure, and we want to see it made.