So, at the beginning of February, online retailers erroneously reported that their shipments of cases of the second wave of DC Universe Classics were scheduled to show up the very next week. I, of course, got uber excited and went all “teh OMG! they iz almost heer!” and spread that misinformation to you guys. Well, week to week since we’ve all been waiting and hoping. But, Mattel finally stepped in and gave us a firm release date - March 31st. Ouch! We went from the beginning of February to the end of March… Oh well, at least we know they’re coming. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up a little before that. Mattel tends to be conservative with their release dates. So, the long and and short of is they’ll be here next month!
Tags: dcuc2
Well, sort of. The twelve-inch Iron Man movie figures are out now. They’ve been spotted at Toys R Us stores. These figs are basically just 2-ups of some of the Iron Man armors from the first series of superarticulated six inch figs, minus some of the articulation and with lame action features worked in. The first series of six inch figures is scheduled to hit stores on March 23rd, so we’ve got a few weeks left to wait. But, since the bigger figures are already out, it wouldn’t surprise me to see some stores stocking shelves a little early. I’m really eager to get my hands on a couple of these. The early pics I’ve seen make them seem like they’re considerably smaller than their six inch Marvel Legends counterparts. But, most of Hasbro’s figures have been a little smaller than what I’d expect (Ahem. HML3 Cyke. Ahem.), so I guess that’s just par for the course…
Tags: hasbro,
iron man
A friend of mine forwarded me this rather interesting article that recently ran on Variety’s website. It’s a nice little piece that acknowledges the adult collector as a major player in today’s action figure market. Aside from throwing out some monetary figures - likes sales for action figures being up 8 percent this year from last - the article also makes a rather bold statement about who is actually buying mass-market major toy lines these days. They say the ratio is more like 60/40, kids to adults. That’s a much closer margin than what the big companies would have us believe! Read the entire article here; it’s good stuff.
Tags: business
So, these new McFarlane Halo 3 figures nearly slipped under my radar for a couple of reasons. 1. I don’t ordinarily buy McFarlane Toys. I think they’re great, and I’ve picked up the stray Spawn figure here or there, but for the most part, McF figs are un-articulated and I’m just not into “staction figures” (statue/action). 2. I’ve never played any of the Halo games, and really didn’t even realize these existed until I saw them on the pegs at Wal-Mart. But, after giving them a try, I fell in love. The Halo 3 figs are true superarticulated action figures - each boasts upwards of 30 POA! Check out my full post and review in the Indie toys section here.
Tags: halo 3,
mcfarlane
Okay, so at Toy Fair Hasbro dropped that they would be having the Fin Fang Foom (it’s Fin, people, not Fing) BAF sold at SDCC this year as a con exclusive. There was some confusion as to what this actually meant. It seemed like Hasbro was selling Foom all by himself as a completed figure. Well, that’s not the case. They released a statement today along with some of the box art that the SDCC exclusive is just a full set of all 8 single carded figs from the two Hulk Marvel Legends series. So, apparently, the only thing that makes this unique as a con exclusive is that you get him before everyone else. Which means the second series of Hulk Legends isn’t scheduled to hit retail until some time after the con in July. That’s a long ways away. Check out MarvelousNews to read more about this.
Tags: fin fang foom,
hasbro,
hml,
sdcc
Well, yesterday was Mattel’s big press day at Toy Fair. They didn’t really show anything new, but they did have all of DCUC2 and DCUC3 on hand, as well as the 2-ups of Wonder Woman and Cyborg from DCUC4. TheFwoosh has a ton of great pics of all these figs. It’s excellent to see the whole waves grouped together. Gives me an idea of how excellent my DC display is going to look in just a few short months! The more pics I see of her, the more I think Wonder Woman might be the best female action figure… ever! And Robin from DCUC3 is absolutely perfect. He’s just the right size. I’m having a hard time waiting for these figs to hit retail! Check all the pics in TheFwoosh’s photo galleries.
Tags: dcuc,
mattel
Hasbro is really committed to saturating the GI Joe 25th Anniversary market in 2008! They have a TON of stuff planned. There will be a lot of 3 3/4″ figures and we’ll see some new 12″ figures as well. Hasbro is giving us vehicles, battle packs, two-packs, single carded figures, mail-in exclusives, etc. With a new movie in the works for 2009, it looks like GI Joe is really poised for a action figure rennaissance! Expand the post to get a rundown of everything shown at the fair. (more…)
Tags: 2008 ny toy fair,
GI Joe 25th Anniversary
The news for smaller, independent toy lines was a mixed bag of great and not-so-great. The saddest news was the official cancellation of the Legendary Comic Book Heroes line by Marvel Toys. While losing LCBH was a pretty sad (albeit, expected) blow, there are still plenty of smaller collector-oriented companies ramping up their superarticulated offerings this year! Expand the post to find out all about it. (more…)
Tags: 2008 ny toy fair,
hellboy,
tmnt
Mattel started off by showing some Comic-Con exclusives from the DCUC line - a repaint of Mr. Freeze, and re-releases of Knight Shadow Batman and Black Costume Superman. Meh. See those here. But then… Wizard showed us this video that takes a tour of each manufacturer’s booth. When they get to the Mattel booth, get ready to pause the video and check out the glimpses of DCUC product on show! Expand the post to read my run-down of everything shown so far. (more…)
Tags: 2008 ny toy fair,
dcuc
This weekend is the 2008 International Toy Fair in New York. It’s a media/retailers event where toy companies show off their product for the upcoming year to entice retailers to pick up various lines for distribution in their stores. It’s not like a comic-con, so it’s not really focused on fans/collectors. Nevertheless, we do get to see some exciting toy prototypes and here some big news from the major companies about what they’ll be producing this year. TheFwoosh has nice galleries of images covering everything that has been show so far. Expand the post to see my rundown of the highlights of the fair. (more…)
Tags: dcuc,
gijoe,
hml,
lcbh,
marvel legends
