Toys are an inevitable piece of the business for any major tentpole film released in cinemas. Whether it's for the kids dying to get ahold of the new Yoda action figurine, or the grown film fan who has to add it to his collection, it’s a lucrative and essential part of the business in this day-and-age.

That notion goes double for when it comes to the Superhero movie genre with the toy manufacturing products an essential piece of the studio's revenue when all is said and done. Toy makers, from Lego to Hasbro, are let in through the doorway early into production so that they can create products that will match up to the finished film in break-neck timing for the final release.

They’re essentially given the keys to the castle when it comes to story twists, dramatic third acts, and surprise supporting characters; all of these are aspects that most superhero studios hold behind an Iron Curtain of secrets.

So what happens when these toy companies mess up and let the cat out of the bag way too early? Its happened, in fact, it's happened a whole heck of a lot, especially in this day and age where each website is looking for potential spoilers on the next big blockbuster and will scour any location to find it with that reveal spreading quickly like wildfire.

Sometimes those reveals have potentially devastating and ruinous consequences; so, let us take a look at them, or revert your eyes before it's too late!

25 Loose Lips, Sink Ships

via: cooltoyreview.com

At present, everyone knows and (pretty much) loves Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, a.k.a. the Merc with a Mouth, as a cinematic presence and persona in his solo film series. Yet, things weren’t always so peachy for the character, as observed from his first appearance in Wolverine: X-Men Origins.

Reynolds jumped at the opportunity to play Deadpool pre-mutation as the form of Wade Wilson, the quick-witted soldier-for-hire. His performance was enjoyable and one of the better aspects of the lackluster movie; that is, until the third act. Wilson is returned from being experimented on by the Weapon X scientists with his mouth sewn shut (the irony!) and seriously looking like Baraka from Mortal Kombat 2.

It was a total misinterpretation of the character that audiences (as well as Reynolds) boiled with fan-rage.

Anyhow, things turned around eventually... so no hard feelings? That whole last-minute switcheroo to the character was completely given away by the toy line, though; the final form of Wilson (and his lame blade hands) was made into an action figure with promo images released to the complete horror of comic book fans before the film released. Unfortunately, it was too late for the studio to dodge a bullet due to bitter fan reaction.

24 This Rumor Got Hulk-Busted

via: lego.wikia.com

Yes, you will see Lego a lot here with this specific subject since their toy expos tend to center themselves around major set-pieces from upcoming movies. Sometimes they embellish the specific scene (which has led to websites getting twists and turns incorrect), other times, such as here, they give away a pretty substantial plot detail well in advance of that movie's cinema release.

In this Avengers: Age Of Ultron toy set, we can see in the picture our favorite Hulk doing what he does, yet he’s fighting the Avengers? That’s correct, Tony Stark is in the Hulkbuster armor and taking the green meanie head-on.

In all fairness, this much was revealed by the trailers, but not the factor that it was Scarlet Witch's brain control powers that had Hulk in a raging frenzy, which also gave away the fact that the character also happened to be a villainess... at least for part of the movie.

It’s not on the level of revealing that Bruce Willis is a ghost at the end of The Sixth Sense or anything, but it’s enough of a pivotal plot point from the movie, especially from Marvel’s secrecy-shrouded Iron Wall, that it would be understandable the filmmakers would be annoyed that Lego would give away the ghost yet again!

23 A Spoiler To Leave You Breathless

via: medium.com

One of yesteryears' biggest comic book related hits was Warren Beatty’s adaptation of the old 1940s pulpy strips featuring hero Dick Tracy. The movie had a stunning visual style, plenty of action and humor, an insane supporting cast, and, of course, a trademark 90s Danny Elfman soundtrack. It was a huge deal at the time, although has sort of shifted into being forgotten as the years go by.

One of the biggest coups was the casting of that decade's biggest pop-stars Madonna (who was also Beatty’s at-the-time girlfriend) as the sultry Marilyn Monroe-esque character Breathless Mahoney. She has a trademark lounge singing scene and attempts to sway Tracey with her bad girl candor. It all payoffs quite interestingly though with the shocking twist that she was secretly the scary masked vigilante The Blank, the whole time; a big shake-up of the comic's plotline.

Well, looks like toy companies where making just as many flubs with comic book movie spoilers as they are now since they dropped a toy of the Blank with a removable mask that shows… hey! That’s Madonna underneath.

At least the internet was hardly a household item in those days, since the big reveal could’ve been way more widespread today then back in 1990.

22 Marvel Should Have Ironed Out The Leaks

via: brickspartiesandmore.com

Lego strikes again! This time giving away another substantially large piece of the superhero movie's plot at their expos.

The plot of Iron Man 3 was infamous for the several twists and red herrings it threw at the viewers. Throughout all the promo run, the film had shown that Tony Stark’s comic nemesis The Mandarin would finally be the live-action central villain (played menacingly in the form of Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley). That all ended up being crushed in a left-field twist that had fanboys enraged, and the true nature of the villain was eventually revealed, as that of Aldrich Killian (played by Guy Pearce in the movie) being the big baddie.

This artwork depicts Iron Man and War Machine taking on the possessed evil form of Killian in a boat set action scene; which never happened, mind you.

The whole build-up to his identity is a major and crucial plot twist that only occurs in the third act though. By giving it away here, they were sort of making that entire thread moot since most websites caught on and threw it out to the public. I'm sure Marvel had to have stern words with the company afterwards; not cool Lego, not cool.

21 The Doctor Is In

via: generalsjoes.com/

Did you know G.I. Joe started out as a comic book from the 1940s? Yep, of course, Hasbro’s toy line and cartoons were the most famous aspect of the brand, but that was a super-powered rebranding of an age-old franchise; so, it’s getting a spot on this list.

Weirdly enough, even with the franchise's intricate ties into toy manufacturing, it still managed to spoil a major third act plot-point with its promotional imagery for its action figures.

With the 2009 live-action adaptation G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra, Joesph Gordon-Levitt’s role was a surprisingly low-key during filming; all we knew was he was playing a colleague of Channing Tatum’s hero, named Rex Lewis.

Well, this toy sort of let the cat out of the bag when it showed the character in a villainous get-up and the moniker Rex 'The Doctor' Lewis... not exactly an all-American hero? The Joe experts on the internet speculated his real identity since the none of the series featured anyone called 'The Doctor' before, and why would a big-name actor be featured in such a thankless role? Observing from his masked profile and the fact that major villain Cobra Commander had yet to be announced in the cast write-ups, most figured this ominous figure would likely turn out to be the culprit... they turned out to be completely right.

20 Everyone's Hulking Around

via: flickeringmyth.com

This is a recent one concerning Avengers: Infinity War, so refrain if you're one of the two people on the planet who hasn’t seen the movie and doesn’t want SPOILERS.

Okay? Alright, I'll move onwards...

Well, Hulk in that film receives the beat-down of all beat-downs from Thanos in the film's opening five minutes. The world-destroyer played by Josh Brolin doesn’t even break a sweat as he decimates the green meanie and sends him running back to earth. Then, Bruce Banner remains a constant supporting character but is unable to transform back due to... performance issues?

Yes, it’s a blatant and non-subtle joke throughout the movie, but that doesn’t mean Banner is going to sit back for the film’s finale as Thanos launches an all-out assault on Earth via Wakanda. Instead, he sports the Hulk-Buster armor; a suit of mechanical covering that Tony Stark built to take on Hulk when he went meltdown (coincidentally also in Wakanda) during Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

Here, the toy line has basically given up the goods that Hulk is in… his own Hulk-Buster armor? Yes, plot-logic is darned since the big monster could never actually (or need to) fit into that set of metallic suiting, but it did have lots fans speculating exactly why would he need the extra armor boost during the Infinity War story.

19 Even The Smallest Detail Counts

via shop.lego.com

Marvel and Lego don’t have the greatest track record, do they? Anyhow, another day, another third act villain and set-piece ruined by Lego’s lovingly method recreated important plot points. This one isn’t as severe as some, but it did give away some solid nuggets for the Ant-Man movie's climactic third act.

Paul Rudd’s thief goes superhero in this surprisingly effective superhero comedy. The final act features him going head-to-head with Corey Stoll’s villain, who also happened to be the nefarious comic baddie Yellowjacket.

In the Lego promo shot released before the movie, we can see Yellowjacket in his revamped battle suit ready to take on our favorite ant-sized hero.

Doesn’t seem like they’d be any problem with this, right? Wrong, all that was released about the film’s villain was that Corey Stoll might be portraying him, but that fact that he was Yellowjacket was a Marvel secret. Also, the image basically gave away the clear-cut visual form of what the villain was going to look like when decked in his bad guy armor.

To a lesser extent we can see a giant-sized Ant in display too, which was one the film’s best little moments... but yeah, we can’t hate on Lego for wanting to replicate that.

18 What A Super Life-Story

via: unleashthefanboy.com

So, every comic book fan worth his salt knows of Superman’s origin; Krypton is dying, Jor-El (his dad) sends him to earth to survive, etc. Also, most people who have grown up on the 1970s original movies would be very in tune with its memorable opening.

Well, Man Of Steel was designed to introduce Superman to a modern age and an entirely new demographic on the celluloid screen; it was a reboot, in short. The opening was a crazy blend of heavy metal magazine and Hollywood extravagant sci-fi as Russell Crowe highjacked the movie for his brief screen time as Jor-El and things played out as they needed to go, with several fresh new audience members surprised at his quick demise... or were they?

On Jor-El’s action figure box, his entire character bio is basically spelled out in ballpoint his entire supporting role; with such choice quotes as “In order to save Kal-El from the impending destruction of their planet and subsequent chaos, Jor-El and his wife Lara sent (Superman) in a spacecraft to earth.”

So it basically explains his entire character arc in Man Of Steel from beginning to end. Was that really necessary, folks?

17 Keep It In The Family

via: ebay.com

Another day, another Marvel movie spoiled by toy promotional materials. This one wasn’t a blatant plot twist from the actual toy, but a case of people reading the small print that held spoilerific consequences.

In James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2, Chris Pratt’s roguish hero finally discovers who his father is: Ego, the Living Planet, played by Kurt Russell, nonetheless.

For anyone who’s watched the movie, they know it's not the hearty family reunion it might feel like on paper; by the third act, the two of them are going blow-for-blow due to Russell not being the nicest guy/living planet.

It was a gradual build-up to this point though, and a major switch in Russell’s conventional good-guy persona, one that Gunn and Marvel definitely wanted to keep as a surprise for its viewers.

Unfortunately, the toy's gave up the goods in subtle ways, as observed by the two-pack action figure box it reads; “Ego and Star-Lord share many qualities of father and son. But when it comes to defending the galaxy as each sees fit, their approaches unquestionably differ.” You have to read between the lines, but the info is there regardless.

16 I Wonder If That Ruined The Movie?

via: lego.wikia.com

Lego is great at spoiling a superhero movie's third act, and just to prove that they don't discriminate, they also gave DC’s film department just as many headaches as Marvel.

Here, we are focusing on Lego promotional materials for the tie-in toys for the 2017 Wonder Woman movie. The critical hit set Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman on the battlefield of World War 1 where she took on Danny Huston’s one-note German baddie.

Wait, why is she fighting some mythological looking dude in this image?

Anyone who remembers the movie's final twist knows it had revealed that quaint English actor David Thewlis was actually Ares, the god of war, and was secretly the true villain pulling the strings. He then altered himself into his true battle-form and him and Miss Wonder got into a cumulative smackdown.

The only problem with this is that Ares' identity was purposefully pulled back from the promotional rounds due to the filmmakers wanting to keep his reveal a last-minute twist. Of course, Lego didn’t get that memo, and the internet greatly speculated the final outcome.

You’d think at this point, film studios making superhero movies would put some kind of clause in their contract with Lego by this point. They make awesome toys, but can’t hold onto a secret if their bank account depended on it.

15 Here's A Massive Reveal

via: cbr.com

We all knew Ant-Man was going to make an appearance in the much anticipated Captain America: Civil War; heck, the post-credit sequence of the Ant-Man movie basically spells it out. On the other hand, what was meant to be under wraps was that Ant-Man became Giant-Man at some point in this movie. Unfortunately, Hasbro and their toy line thought different.

That specific power has been a long used trait of Ant-Man in the comic books; that he can shrink to insect size but that he also that he expanded to King Kong behemoth mass as well That sadly never did happen in the Paul Rudd-starring first entry of the thief turned superhero. Most fans were bummed that he didn’t, but accepted it due to possible budget and live-action logistics that it was left out. "Maybe for Ant-Man 2?" they all thought.

Well, Hasbro let the cat out of the bag that it would come much sooner than that, with the Civil War toy line blatantly having Ant-Man’s figure much larger than the rest and named Giant-Man. Yep, it was a pinpoint description of the action scene that commenced during the superhero smash-up at Berlin airport where Rudd goes Godzilla on everyone. And the internet pretty quickly got there first by observing this explanation way before the movie ever graced cinema screens.

14 Shining A Lantern On Spoilers

via: amazon.co.uk/

It’s crazy to think in retrospect that the live-action adaptation of DC’s Green Lantern was highly anticipated; Ryan Reynolds' star was rising and landed the hero part, it was the first time DC had invested some proper cash in a superhero movie that was Superman or Batman, and it also would represent the first movie in a DC Expanded Universe. Then it flopped with that notion quickly rubbed out in favor of a new universe established by Man Of Steel.

Amongst the pre-release hype, the press knew that Peter Sarsgaard was playing Dr. Hector Hammond and Mark Strong would be appearing as Sinestro, so the bad guy rooster was pretty full-up, right?

Wrong, as the toy line revealed Lantern facing off against the glowy yellow thing, a.k.a. his sworn nemesis Parallax.

This was another last-minute twist that had been drawn back from all marketing materials yet was given away via action figures. Still, the disappointment of ruining the surprise hurt less when compared to actually witnessing Parallax’s portrayal in the movie; that’s correct, the actual use of the villain was so mediocre and painful to witness that this toy reveal is the last of Lantern fans' worries.

13 Should Have Kept The Mask On

via: lulu-berlu.com

The 90s weren’t as relentless about superhero movies as we are now. Plus, spoilers were harder to come by due to the limited and slow-end ability of the internet. Regardless, there's absolutely no excuse for this major secret a toy line revealed for the big-screen animated movie Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm.

The plot has Batman/Bruce Wayne fight a ghostly vigilante on Gotham’s city streets named the Phantasm, who's also adamant in ending the Joker. Coincidentally, a new love interest also comes into Wayne’s life around the same time; guess what? They’re both related, since his love interest is Phantasm.

Of course, it feels obvious when it's spelled out for you, but the movie did a stellar job at conveying the mystery, build-up, and devastation of the twist in this fantastic Batman movie. The film is good enough for it not to be hampered by a spoiled twist, but it would certainly rob the audience of the stories involving main mystery regardless.

Not according to this toy company, who released the Phantasm action figure with the character's true identity plastered in the wide open for all to see. The choice to go this way with the toy line is utterly baffling, still to this day.

12 Batman's Got A Bullet For Superman

via: lego.wikia.com

Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice brought forth the exciting proposition of Superman and Batman finally sharing screen-time together, also as the title suggested, they would inevitably fight one another.

Director Zack Snyder was quite adamant that the fight itself would take major inspiration from Frank Miller’s similar show-down in comic, where a grouchy elderly Batman takes Superman down in an effective suit of armor, and with Green Arrow helping Bats by shooting a sly Kryptonite arrow to weaken Kal-El mid punch-up.

Sure, the hopeful ones maybe assumed Stephen Amell from Arrow would show-up in his lame ‘aged’ make-up from that weird future episode of Legends Of Tomorrow. More likely, one could assume Snyder would play that scenario fast and loose, regardless Kryptonite would have to become part of it somehow if Batman to have any form of a chance against the bulletproof alien. But how?

Lego was here to answer away with their spoiler-filled toy showcase; Batman (in armor similar to the one he wears in TDKR) is busting shots with his trusty Bat-Rifle filled with... Kryptonite bullets? Yep, that quite definitely answered our question. Seems like nobody is safe from spoilers.

11 Would Quicksilver Make A Fast Exit?

via: toywiz.com

This one’s a case of some reverse thinking on behalf of the internet journalists; as the promos rolled out for the much-anticipated sequel, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, all eyes were on the new members of the team Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.

So when the eventual toy figures were shown off, there was an odd feeling going on that one of the brand new members was getting woefully underrepresented; that’s correct, Quicksilver’s action figure quota was way below par then the rest of his Avengers, even in comparison to his sister.

This led to lots of speculating and brainstorming about why? Could Marvel not have that much faith in the character? Was he just not appealing to the younger audience? Or… perhaps, he ended up perishing in the movie?

Yep, that last assessment was spot on and around the only time in a Marvel movie (before Avengers: Infinity War, of course) that there were some major causalities on the heroes' side of the conflict. It wasn’t a major slip-up on the side of the toy makers, more like the persistent intuition of the press that managed to add up the elements and make a spot-on guess about major consequences in this Marvel superhero movie.

10 Too Fast, Too Fury-ous

via: playandcollect.com/

There’s plenty of inspiration from Norse mythology that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby got when creating the hero Thor and the complex world that surrounds him and his comic book storylines. The creators would take things they liked and stick close to the origins, while other elements they would play fast and loose with.

In the original Ragnarok prophecy, it featured an all-out war with the Gods and all nine realms.

It commenced in a brutal battle that would change the universe forever. Surtr, the fiery guardian of the realm Múspell, would do devastating battle with god Freyja that would result in both their ends. In the Marvel version, he was renamed Surtur and looks like a massive fiery demon, who was a creature that would be a constant antagonist against Odin, with his desire to decimate Asgard on a constant basis. He was prophesied to instigate the apocalypse on Thor's planet; and in the comic storyline Ragnarok, he did just that.

It was a big question if the character would finally make his live-action appearance in Thor: Ragnarok, since the movie spelled no plans of his character during the production stage. This leak came from, out of all places, a promotional image of a big old cuddly version of the vicious world-ending opponent... looks kind of cute, doesn’t he?

9 Spider-Man Goes Prehistoric

via: amazingspiderman.wikia.com

The Amazing Spider-Man was the Spidey reboot that no one really wanted, and didn't have all that much of a chance before sputtering to an end after two movies. It’s a shame since Andrew Garfield was fantastic as the lead, as well as Emma Stone as his love interest, yet the films themselves were same-y and average.

For those that were excited about the initial reboot movie, though, this Lego box gives plenty away concerning the finale. Namely that Spider-Man would have a dramatic conclusion with a villain, who would be… the Lizard? Yes, the marketing campaign had revealed that Dr. Curt Connors would indeed be in the film, but if he would transform into a giant lizard was still a mystery. After all, in the Tobey Maguire series, the character had appeared as a mentor figure to Peter Parker and not much else.

Regardless, here the jack was out of the box and it confirmed Lizard as the main baddie, but also the look and design of the creature too; going for a more dinosaur/humanoid feel instead of the cartoony lab-coat look from the comics. The image didn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination for the film's marketing campaign that was trying to carefully build hype around the creature's reveal.

8 Lex-Convict

via: capedcrusades.com

Back to mining Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice for toy-related spoilers, then; that movie sure had a lot given away by toy's promos.

Zack Snyder’s casting of Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was a left-field choice that had many scratching their heads. The stance was he’d be a modern reboot of the character with the casting a sly way of twisting the character in a more Mark Zuckerberg-style persona. Most were confused, but considering the unorthodox casting of Michael Shannon as General Zod in Man Of Steel was one of the rare things that everyone could agree was great, people remained hopeful.

The final results of the later movie, though, were polarising, to say the least, with Eisenberg just not channeling the character in any manner both personality wise or physically.

The final act, though, had the character go into prison and receive an infamous hair-trim that had him appear much closer to the comic book villain everyone knows and loves. This all happens in around the last five minutes of the movie, so it was considered fairly secretive. What does the toy line do then? Make an action figure featuring not only Eisenberg's Luthor in a prison jumpsuit, giving away his fate, but also sporting the famous haircut.

7 This Storm Will Ruin Your Day

via: amazon.co.uk

Say what you want about G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra, but Ray Park as Snake Eyes the mute ninja was a superior shining light amongst all the silliness. His plotline following him vowing revenge on his fellow ninja student Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee) was a part that really worked, and leads to the two of them having a dramatic showdown on top of an exploding tesla coil thingy.

Shadow falls through nasty scorching electric currents before hitting ice water; it’s safe to say we’re not going to see him pop up in G.I. Joe 2.

Not in Hollywood, as it was considered the strongest part of the last movie (even though all other supporting characters where jettisoned). Storm Shadow was resurrected via some goofy plot-points and was back as the adversary for Snake Eyes in part 2.

This revelation was leaked as early as its upcoming toy line reveal, which showcased Storm Shadow back in business and sporting his trademark white ninja outfit for the franchise follow-up G.I. Joe: Retaliation. At least that film left his fate open, so that they don’t have to cook up another explanation for the upcoming Snake Eyes spin-off movie.

6 A Shocking Revelation!

via: mephitsu.co.uk

What an exciting moment it was for long-time superhero fans when it was officially announced Spider-Man would become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Spider-Man: Homecoming (finally a sub-title that makes sense!).

Yet, with the five proceeding Spider-Man movies having utilized so many of the heavy-hitting villains, who could they find from the rogues' gallery to make the set-up interesting? Heck, the proceeding movie even managed to (unsuccessfully) introduce no less than three famous villains into its plot.

Well, Marvel landed the coup of casting ex-Batman Michael Keaton as a superhero baddie the Vulture and all fans rejoiced. Little did we know that director Jon Watts had a little ace up his sleeve for another famous Spidey antagonist, with a secret introduction and supporting part for Logan Marshall-Green (and then Bokeem Woodbine) as the Shocker.

Actually, it was meant to be a surprise appearance for filmgoers, if the action figure promo hadn’t blatantly shown off the character and its exact costume design and everything. It wasn’t a major plot revelation, yet the fact that the promos and synopsis keep his live-action appearance a low-key matter spells out that’s the way Marvel of liked it kept; this is why we can’t have nice things, people!