Whew! I put my Christmas vacation time to good use by dragging out the ole camera and tripod and getting up pics and reviews of my entire DC Superheroes collection. So, check out the DC section of the site to see the entire DCSH library!
CLICK HERE to see DCSH Series 1 - 7!
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In celebration of Christmas, I got involved with a ‘Secret Santa’ gift exchange with a group of online toy collectors at TheFwoosh. I knew my giftee was a fan of Northstar, so I wanted to try my hand at making him a fitting Marvel Legends style custom figure. And, because no Northstar is complete without his sister Aurora, I had to craft the duo. I opted to go with their ‘modern’ look, since it’s a good chance that we’ll be seeing classic versions of these characters as standard releases from Hasbro in the near future. Expand the post for more pics.
While the heart of Christmas shopping season is behind us, there are probably a lot of you (like me!) who tend to wait until the last minute to pick up certain items. Apparently, toy manufacturers recognize this, because they’ve been pumping out a lot of product here in the final couple weeks of the year. The fifth series of GI Joe 25th Anniversary singles has been showing up at Wal-Marts around the nation - this is the wave with Snow Job and Flash. And now there are early reports that the first wave of 25th Anni Comics 2-Packs have hit retail. Add to that the reports of people finding the variants from HML 3 the Brood Queen series, as well as the newest series of Transformers movie toys, and it seems that Hasbro is really trying to get a jump on the new year. But the most exciting recent development in toy availability is that online shops received their cases of the first series of DC Universe Classics from Mattel today! So expect to start finding those on Target and TRU shelves any day now (the word on the street is that Wal-Mart won’t be carrying DCUC, so don’t waste your time there!). So, get out there and get toy hunting!
Shocker Toys has been working on their ‘Indie Spotlight’ line of action figures of independent comic book characters for a while now. While progress has been a little slow (by insatiable action figure collectors’ standards) Shocker is finally seemingly delivering the goods. They recently released this prototype image of their rendition of ‘Scud the Disposable Assassin’ (click for an image of Scud from his comic). The proto is featuring what is now industry-standard articulation, a comic-accurate sculpt, and basically just a nice overall feel. I look forward to seeing this guy painted up and on store shelves some time in the near future! Check out Shocker Toys’ website to stay up to speed on their development of this line.
Hasbro has released promo images of its next set of comics 2-packs from the GI Joe 25th Anniversary line. Tomax and Xamot - the evil twin leaders of the Cobra Crimson Guard - are the stars of this series, but we also get a set of ‘battle damaged’ Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow as well as a pairing of a Cobra Trooper and Crimson Guard soldier to help with army building. Each 2-pack will also include an all-new comic book written by renowned GI Joe story-teller Larry Hama. You can see pics of all the figures from this series at GIJOE.com.
EDIT: Check out the new pic of Ace and Wild Weasel!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the big news for next summer on the Marvel front is Favreau’s live action movie take on the Iron Man character. And, as comes with any blockbuster superhero movie, there’s an action figure line in the works. I didn’t really expect to see packaged pics of the first wave of Iron Man movie figures from Hasbro quite this soon, but nevertheless, here they are. I have to admit, I’m really impressed. These figures are six inch scale and all feature true superarticulation - double knee pins, double elbows, bicep cuts, thigh cuts, etc. I can’t wait to see these on store shelves!
NECA has updated their site with a new picture of their Leonardo prototype from the upcoming TMNT line. What you’re seeing here is a sure-fire candidate for ‘Toy of the Year’ - before the year has even begun! The articulation is spot-on - Ball shoulders! Bicep cuts! Ball hips! Thigh cuts! Double-pin knees! Ankle rock and tilt! Pure superarticulated perfection! And that’s just the icing on top of the cake that is this figure’s mind-blowing sculpt and flawless paint detail! Unfortunately, these guys aren’t scheduled to hit store shelves until some time in the spring. So you’ve got a long time to foam at the mouth before you finally get to taste the sweet sweet nectar of their toy goodness!
Two big bits of news on the GI Joe 25th Anniversary front today - Hasbro has released promo images of the fifth series of single packs! Click over to TNI to see pics of Snow Job, Flash, Iron Grenadier Destro, and Crimson Guard soldier! Also, Hasbro announced the line-up for the third series of 25th Anniversary Comics 2-packs. They are as follows:
- Tomax and Xamot (w00t!)
- Crimson Guard and Cobra Officer (eh…)
- Battle-Torn Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (meh…)
- Ace and Wild Weasel (double w00t!!!)
I finally lucked up and found the rest of the Legendary Comic Book Heroes figures I’d been hunting, so you can find pics and reviews in the Indie section.
Legendary Comic Book Heroes Twin Packs
Legendary Comic Book Heroes Series 2 - Monkeyman Series
Since it’s early in this year’s holiday season, I found it prudent to share a feel-good story I came across earlier today. You’ll notice that my last post was about NECA’s uber-awesome upcoming TMNT line. But now I have another uber-awesome thing to tell you about this company. Apparently, they recently stepped into the fray of a messy toy design company versus toy manufacturing facility quagmire to pull out a fellow toy design company’s valuable steel molds. That probably doesn’t make much sense, but after reading this story, it will. Basically, the designers stuck in the muck were none other than the illustrious 4 Horsemen who were struggling to get their FANtastic Exclusive figure produced. The factory they were working with went belly-up on them in the middle of production and then attempted to slip out the back door, leaving the molds that the 4H had already paid thousands of dollars for to fall through the cracks. Well, NECA happened to also have a stake in this factory’s misdeeds, so they flexed a little of their toy muscle to procure 4H’s steel molds for them along with their own. It’s nice to see guys in the toy industry sticking together to help each other out like this. NECA’s good will toward fellow toy men has warmed my holiday heart!
