She is the person who gave the Avengers their name. Introduced in Tales to Astonish #44 by Stan Lee, Ernest Hart and Jack Kirby, Janet was the daughter of a respected scientist Vernon, who approached Hank Pym to work on a project with him. Hank politely refused, stating that it wasn’t his field of science. Vernon pressed ahead with the project but teleported an evil alien which killed him. Janet went to Hank for help, and he used his Pym Particles to give her shrinking powers as well as bio wings to fly. She was given the name the Wasp and defeated the alien. She would then partner up with Hank Pym, then Ant-man, to become a duo of heroes and she eventually fell in love with him. They would help found the Avengers, to which Janet was the one who came up with the name.

During a tenure with the Avengers, Janet married Hank but the pressure of being a hero caused Hank to have a breakdown eventually causing the two to divorce. After some time alone and dating other heroes like Paladin and Tony Stark, she was voted to become the chairperson of the Avengers, which she held for quite a while and made fans believe she was an excellent leader. She was also the leader of the Avengers during the first Secret War and The Under Siege arc. During the Crossing saga, Janet was injured, and Pym tried to help her only for her to be transformed into a humanoid insect creature, but she was changed back after the Heroes Reborn saga. She was one of many heroes summoned by Rick Jones during the Destiny War, in which she was made the leader.

Ironically, it was Janet’s fault that Scarlet Witch had the breakdown that led to the Disassemble arc, when she accidentally mentioned Wanda’s kids. Janet joined Iron Man’s side in the Civil War and after joined up with the Mighty Avengers. During the Secret Invasion, she learnt that she was made into a living bomb by the Skrulls and was believed kill. She survived by shrinking down to the microverse where she was stuck until rescued by the Avengers. She would go onto join the Uncanny Avengers, where she began a romance with Havok. They split after Axis where she would go solo for a while before joining back with the Uncanny team to help team with Ultron. She remained with the team until they broke up. She has also taken Nadia Pym under her wing as the Wasp, the name they both share.

Wasp has been a character that has been a pack-in / mini-figure more than she has been a full-size figure. She has had four full size figures, two by TB and two by Hasbro, but two of them are what is now her default costume and the other being a really obscure costume. There was also supposed to be a third TB figure but that wasn’t officially released. A few manage to get out of the factory, but those are considered the holy grail of collections and not worth looking for. However, Hasbro has recently remade that costume for people to buy so no need to track that TB figure down. Given how many costumes Wasp has (and it’s a lot to put mildly), it is surprising that we don’t have more of her.

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Have

Original Design

Recommend Figure:  (Micro) Hasbro Marvel Universe Original Avengers Box Set, (Small)Toybiz Marvel Legends Series 4 Pack-In, (Normal) Hasbro Pulse Exclusive Marvel Legends Avengers: E Beyond Earth’s Mightiest 60th Anniversary 2-pack – Janet Van Dyne (Wasp) with Hank Pym (Giant-man)

• Background:
  • The first costume that Janet wore when she was given powers by Hank Pym. While she didn’t wear it for long, it would go on to influence many of her costumes. It is also the costume she wore when she helped found the Avengers.
• Why you need it for your collection?:
  • As seen above, there have been a number of versions of this in many sizes. If you have the Gold Iron man and Hulk as well as Classic Thor and the Ant-man that came with both sets, then you should get this to recreate the original Avengers.
• Does it need a remake?:
  • No.

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Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars

Recommend Figure:  (Micro) Hasbro Marvel Universe Secret War Dr Doom and Absorbing Man 2-pack (Pack-in)

• Background:
  • Janet was the leader of the Avengers when they were teleported to Battleworld during the first Secret Wars. She was instantly kidnapped by Magneto who she had a strange romance, but was quickly rescued.
• Why you need it for your collection?:
  • I say straight away that this is not worth getting. Yes you could get it for a recreation of the Secret Wars but there are many characters missing from that series. Only get if you need all Wasp figures.
• Does it need a remake?:
  • Yes, in a full size figure, maybe a 2-pack line to celebrate the next anniversary of the Secret War or a new vintage line.

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Comics Interview #50

Recommend Figure:  (Normal) Toybiz Marvel Legends MODOK Series Wasp (Variant)

• Background:
  • This appeared on an issue of Comics Interview, where they interview Avengers artist George Perez.
• Why you need it for your collection?:
  • Not even worth it. Only get if you want something different from the default version below. Also, now extremely expensive.
• Does it need a remake?:
  • No. Only appeared shortly.

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Count Nefari VS Madame Masque

Recommend Figure:  (Micro) Marvel Legends Vintage wave 2 Wasp pack-in with Ant-man, (Normal)Marvel Legends Vintage wave 2 Wasp

• Background:
  • When the Avengers returned from the Reborn universe, they had a few things that remained unfinished since they never got around to it. One of these was when Madame Masque was kidnapped by a robot. This turned out to be a clone of Masque who was hiding from her father Count Nefarious. This eventually led to a fight with Nefarious, with Wasp wearing this costume.
• Why you need it for your collection?:
  • A bit of Trivia for you. When Toybiz did their last wave of Marvel Legends, the MODOK series, they had planned to release two variants for it. The red one above got released but the blue one was officially cancelled with only thirteen making its way out of the factory. As part of the Vintage line, Hasbro has decided to release this version for general release. If, like me, you are tired of looking at the default version below, then I would recommend getting this. I also recommend it if you are an Ant-man or Wasp fan, being one of the very few costumes of her we have, and she has alot. But otherwise, being a short-lived costume, this can be skipped.
• Does it need a remake?:
  • No. Perfect as it is and there are many costumes to wear.

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Perez’s Default

Recommend Figure:  (Micro) + (Small) Hasbro Marvel Infinite Series 1 Wasp, (Normal) Hasbro Marvel Legends Ant-man MCU Ultron Wave Wasp

• Background:
  • Wasp has worn many costumes over the year but this is the one that many people usually see her in as it has become her default costume in recent years. She even wore it when she became Giant size.
• Why you need it for your collection?:
  • This is the figure I recommend getting it you don’t have a Wasp figure yet. TB did one as well but that is really bad by today’s standard. If you want to show her growing and shrinking, you could get the 3 3/4-inch figure which also comes with a mini figure.
• Does it need a remake?:
  • No. Do something Else Hasbro.

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Needs

Below you will find a gallery of suits that still need to be made. Please let me know if I have missed anything.

I will do this eventually but there are so many costumes that it will not be done for a loooooong time. If you want to look at the costumes have a look at this site – http://www.wondrouswasp.altervista.org/ind-eng.html