Marvel Tsum Tsum

This is a weird one, so get ready.

In 2013, Disney created a new line of plushies in Japan called Tsum Tsum. The name comes from the Japanese word tsumu, which means "to stack", because Tsum Tsums are designed to be stackable. (Note: pictured are plastic ones that were introduced later; the originals were plushies, as seen in the next image.)

Over the next couple years, they expanded the line to include Pixar, LucasFilm, and Marvel. The Marvel ones specifically debuted in September 2015, and that first wave basically included everyone you'd expect: most of the movie Avengers (minus Scarlet Witch, Falcon, and Hawkeye), the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Chitauri, Loki, Ultron, and Ronan, plus a few surprising choices like a Hydra agent, an AIM agent, and Venom.

A year later, Marvel - for some reason - released a four-issue miniseries called Marvel Tsum Tsum. Issue #1 came out in August 2016. The premise of the series is that a crate of these Tsum Tsums are en route to The Collector (from another dimension, I believe, but I could be wrong about that), but they end up on Earth. And not only are the Tsum Tsums alive, they consider themselves to be the real heroes and Earth-616's heroes to be strange imposters!

It's a bizarre plot, to be sure, but it seems like a lot of fun and an interesting way to use the brand.