It’s
February and that means Toyfair
New
York Toyfair is officially over and all the sites having their coverage up, most
of the usual suspects had their displays out – Mattel, Diamond Select, Hasbro, Funko,
NECA, Figuarts, Kotobukiya, Square-Enix, DC Collectibles, Four Horsemen,
McFarlane Toys and Mezco were all waving their willies at retailers and
internet people. To keep that horrible metaphor going it’s been a generally
five-to-six-inch schlong year really, with only Funko, Four Horsemen and NECA
windmilling anything that would make Wil Smith feel inadequate and I can’t
afford to start buying Mythic Legions. Regardless I love NYTF, I love looking
at all the new shiny things I can and can’t buy, I like seeing things I like in
3D form, I like the excitement of the surprises and satisfaction of the final
and prototype versions of things we already knew were on the way and I like
that it allows me to pretty much budget one of my main (and most expensive)
hobbies for the next 10 months. This is just going to be AFB’s ‘best in show’
for the event this year, if you want proper coverage you should go on over to
Toyark, Toy News International and PixelDan’s Youtube channel ,
the reason I’m doing this is because I guarantee it will be nothing like anyone
else’s list of best things at Toyfair this year.
To
get on this list you have to be something I am going to flat out buy, not wait
until it’s in the sale, not um-and-ah over it, not put off, something that I
will walk into Forbidden Planet and buy outright. Or convince someone to buy me
as a gift, whatever. I’m not including Funko POP! Figurines in this because
there’s so many for the upcoming year but rest assured they were out in force
with pretty much everything we knew was coming and some we didn’t, Toyark have
a huge gallery that still only barely covers it here.
For my part I shall be buying at least Charley Brown, Snoopy & Woodstock
(where’s my Pigpen Funko?), Pac-Man, K-9, Wonder Woman & The Invisible Jet,
Voltron, Willy Wonka, the Oompa Loompa, The Cheshire Cat and maybe Rose Tyler
just so I can wind up my friend Sophie by placing it at random places around
her house and getting everyone to pretend they can’t see it. Anyway here’s the list with bonus ‘coverage’
in smaller font, so are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin:
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| Image from Toy Ark |
Harvey Bullock
Batman: The Animated Series
DC Collectibles, Fall 2016,
$28
I’ve
been so good resisting the TAS figures, mostly because they’re not that well stocked
anywhere – I’m still looking for the Mask of the Phantasm pack and apparently
the Mad Love pack is ‘out now’ too, I’ve not fucking seen it – anyway other
than those two items which I want but haven’t been able to buy yet, I’ve been
good, I even resisted the sexy Batmobile. That ends with Bullock, I want
Commissioner Gordon too but I think I might’ve been able to have gone ‘I’ll buy
him later’ and never actually buy him later like I often do with things but no,
I need Bullock, he’s screen-perfect, he comes with a ton of extra items
including those two most essential of items – a badass gun and a donut and
that’s all I need, if you ever quested Bullcok’s awesomeness, go read
Aftershock or No Man’s Land or Bullock’s Law, he is near the very tippy-top of
best Batman characters in my mind, perhaps. Of course this is awful because
I’ll have to have Gordon to go with him, and Batgirl to go with Gordon, and the
deluxe Clayface was also on show this ‘fare (Fall 2015, $40) and Animated
Clayface is my favourite Clayface so just by releasing Bullock they’ve sold me
four other figures – well if I can ever find them.
Also
on show was the special Christmas with the Joker version of the Joker, the
revelation that they’re doing Batman Beyond with a Batman & Bruce Wayne
2-Pack, the Animated-style Dark Knight Returns with their Legend sof the Dark
Knight 3-pack of Batman, Carrie Kelly and the Mutant Leader and their first
Superman: The Animated Series figures as Supergirl and Live Wire will be part
of their Girls Night Out 5-Pack of Batgirl, Supergirl, Live Wire, Harley Quinn
and Poison Ivy, that one’s a must-buy for me, all with a Fall 2016 release
date. Also on show was the March 2016 releases of Gordon, Ras Al Ghul and Talia
Al Ghul and more Fall 2016 single carded figures including Firefly, the
Ventriloquist and an Anti-Freeze Suit Batman and the utterly amazing Batwing
which I’m sure will be on everyone else’s list of ‘amazing things at Toyfare
2016’ instead of fat cop, Toyark gallery here.
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| Image from Toy Ark |
Darth Revan
Star Wars Black (6” Scale)
Hasbro, Fall (I think?),
Usual Price
I
was a bit disappointed with the Star Wars Black offering this Toy Fair, only
three figures shown that I didn’t know were coming out and none of them are
that exciting (it’s hard to get excited about Threepio I find) except Darth
Revan, The first Legends or Expanded Universe figure to make the line. Now he
was supposed to be coming but until I saw him at an official Hasbro booth I
refused to fully believe it was true, but there he is, and he looks good (WAS Kylo Ren inspired by his
design?). However he’s here more for what he represents than anything else –
because he means something very, VERY big – Star Wars Black is/is allowed
to go into the Expanded Universe and the prospects of that (a 6”
Darth Talon!) is almost mind-boggling, Obviously they need to make Jaxx asap or
else the fandom will riot but until then I suppose they could keep them happy
with nobodies like Darth Plagueis, Darth Talon, the Solo kids, Mara Jade,
Starkiller, HK-47, Thrawn and the Yuuzhan Vong, y’know just until that rabbit
finally hits.
Otherwise
there Sabeen from Rebels, a Snow Trooper, New Hope Leia and (at last) C3-Po but
honestly they’re nothing that spectacular, Leia has an entirely cloth outfit
and looks like a shit Mego, C3-PO looks great but he’s still Threepio, and
Sabeen is…well… she’s from Rebels, she’s cool and sexy and current and a girl
Bobba Fett an’ all but there’s a shit load of Clone Wars character I could do
with first, Asajj Ventress for one. They showed off Ashoka and Farm Boy Luke
(both absolutely must-haves for me), we’ve seen ‘em before but they look great
and they’ve really been the two figures that I’ve been waiting for to get me
into the line fully, I just couldn’t’ start a proper Star Wars Black shelf
without New Hope-era Luke at the centre to anchor it. I don’t give a fuck about 4”
Star Wars stuff but we are getting the first figures of young Leia (from
Rebels) and Maz Kanata, the crazy bar owning granny from The Force Awakens who
I thought was the worst (read: most Prequel-y) character in the whole
film. You can see their meagre pickings
here.
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| Image from Toy Ark |
Sister Grimm
Marvel Legends (6” Scale)
Hasbro, TBD
So
I don’t like Superhero figures, or rather I don’t like Superhero Collectors’
figures (I have draws full of Kenner and Toy Biz figures from Super Powers
Collection to X-Men: X-Force) I hate their ridiculous amounts of muscle
definition, I hate how they fail to integrate articulation, I hate the sculpt
style and I hate that everyone seems to think they’re fucking marvellous.
Hasbro’s Marvel Legends are on my shit list but I have been picking up the odd figure
since they improved their bucks, I still hate the thigh pieces though. BUT I’ve
noticed that what I’ve in fact been doing is building a kind of… action figure
harem, the last two figures I got were Spider-Gwen and Post-Secret Invasion
Mockingbird and the next figure I was down for was Jim Lee’s Rouge (also on
show), how nice of Hasbro to then reveal another essential member of my Harem –
Nico! Or Sister Grimm, an adorable bisexual Goth girl with a magic staff from
Runaways, the first volume of which is a big favourite of mine, it’s like
they’re encouraging me. The figure didn’t look so great in the official photo
but the Toy Ark shots of her on display have convinced me beyond any SHADOW of
a doubt that I must have her, she just looks perfect (ab crunch aside?) and
doesn’t use the horrible thigh pieces! Joy! Now if only Hasbro would do silly
things like tell us when she’s being released.
Hasbro
were mostly preoccupied with pushing the Captain America: Civil War line which
is proof you should never go by official photos as they made the Scarlet Witch
for it look absolutely nothing like her actress, but in Toyark’s pictures she
actually looks a lot better, so much so that I think I may invest in one for my
harem (I must find a Scarlet Johannsen Black Widow for that). Honestly if you
like the Cinematic Universe costumes (I mostly don’t) you’ll be well happy with
what they’ve got for you. Comic Book wise it was…well business as usual; most
of the male figures suck thanks to horrible body pieces – and I’m just not ok
with a Nuke figure somehow, Iceman though looks surprisingly badass, as does
Marvel vs Capcom 3 Dormammu (while most people will want this look because of
that game, I of course like it because it was used – debuted I think – in the
Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMattis Defenders mini-series), Phoenix and the modern
Cable though I just don’t want that costume (make me a Cable & The New
Mutants outfit already Hasbro!), Joss Whedon Shadowcat is let down by her awful
belt. Toyark has all the Legends stuff, both 6 and 3 & ¾ hnar.
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| Image from Toy News International |
Karai
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Playmates, late Q2-Early Q3,
a tenner
Karai
has been one of the best things about the Nicktoon TMNT series, she’s hot,
she’s sassy, she’s sympathetic, unfortunately she’s now a snake though and
Playmates just went straight to that form and skipped her human form (which she
can still take post-mutation because fanservice) but now finally we have her in
that form, it’s coming out and unlike Muckman it’s not going to disappear and
it’s a million times better than the standard April sculpt (luckily we also
have a nice Space April coming to make up for that pile of shit). It’s like
finally going for a crap after being constipated only for the crap to in fact
be sexy Alternative Japanese teenage girls…yeah that metaphor stank. Equally as
make-me-happying is the 11” Mutations reveal, the original Mutations line was
my favourite from the vintage era (the 1989-1995 line) and they did make Giant
Mutations then but… they’re so hard to find and didn’t come out in the UK I
don’t think and thus I’ve always wanted Giant Mutations and thus these are must
haves for me, in fact they’re the first must haves from the 11” line since
Storage Shell Donatello got remade as whatever it was they called him this time
around. I am so fucking excited by these, they only showed off Leo and Raph and
apparently that’s all they’re planning on for the moment pending good sales,
which is a bit of a bastard and did dampen my excitement to a dull roar but on
the plus side, they’re making Raphael he’s my favourite Turtle and I buy
Raphael in just about everything.
On
the Playmates TMNT front we’re getting the first ever figures of Lord Dregg and
Armaggon and they both look pretty decent, we’re also getting Mohzar (who looks
average) and Robug (who looks like a Micronaut), so long as the final figures
aren’t painted with penises like the last few releases, all but Robug should be
instant purchases for me. Muckman wasn’t on show (no surprise there) but
Pixeldan got a really boring man from Playmates to admit he’s coming Q4 so YAY!
Muckman! A year late but yay! The Creep and Savante Romero not so much though,
they and the sidekicks (Spike, Ice-Cream Kitty and Dr Cluckingsworth) are all
on indefinite hold and there’s no plans for Pigeon Pete either, boo! And so
much focus on cheap and easy Turtles variants, way too reminiscent of the 4Kids
days, I never thought I’d pine for the likes of Warriors of the Forgotten
Sewer, Mutant Military, Farmer Turtles and Sports Turtles but at least they had
effort put into their designs and new sculpts, and a tractor! There are a
couple of highlights there though Colour Change Turtles are the shit, based on
the same shadow-heavy artwork as the first Con Exclusive Leo, they change
colour in cold water and PixelDan’s walkthrough featuring the dullest dork Playmates could shove on their
booth showed a (broken) K.O.
Leonardo variant, I don’t know means we’re going to be getting a new Sports
Turtle line? He was next to what looked like a kind of ‘dark ninja Donatello’
so I dunno if it’s going to be Sports focussed like the vintage waves or if
it’s just ‘variant of each Turtle’, but both looked great and I shall be
picking KO Leo up for his connections to the vintage Playmates line – you see
Leonardo didn’t have a boxing figure in the Sports Turtles sub-line but he DID
have one (well technically it was Kickboxing but I always thought he was a
boxer) in the Smash ‘em Bash ‘Em Turtles sub-line and it was even in the same
colour scheme so I want that.
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Image from Toy Ark
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Spider-Gwen
Marvel Bishoujo Statues
Kotobukiya, July, $74.99
This
isn’t news, nor is it the sort of thing I usually buy actually, usually I just
stare at them in Forbidden Planet and touch
myself, but I will be buying
this, it was on show at Toy Fiar 2016 and it was the best
thing in the Bishoujo Statue cabinet and I’m really excited about it. It’s not
so much Spider-Gwen as it is just Gwen Stacy, I’m kind of obsessed with her and
have been since I was in senior school (8th Grade or so for
Americans) and I will buy any Gwen Stacy merch I can find but what’s so good
about SPIDER-Gwen (other than her beautifully designed costume) and her
popularity is that there’s now so much more to find, and she’s wearing tight
pyjamas in it all! And this statue is fucking gorgeous, I like my Marvel
Legends Spider-Gwen but it’s not a patch on this; see how the body is sculpted?
That’s how I want all my Superhero figures to look, not this high muscle
definition twisted bullshit that Hasbro keeps insisting on doing.
Lady
Deadpool (which I think is out now?) was also on show at the booth and it’s
pretty hard to resist, they’ve also got artwork for Lady Thor and Lady Loki and
Post-Infinite Crisis Wonder Girl plus these weird girl versions of male horror characters – Edward Scissorhands and
Chucky and Tiffany from Child’s Play have artwork up and they’re…I dunno, I
don’t’ think I should be attracted to Chucky. I’m not even bothering to LOOK at
the other Kotobukiya stuff because they’re so out of my price range it’s
upsetting. Toy Ark’s gallery for the
Bishoujo statues lives here,
take tissues and Vaseline and other such masturbation humour.
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Image from Toy Ark
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Simon Belmont
Video Game Appearances
NECA, Q2, Price TBD
NECA
are getting four entries on this list, because they had the most amount of
stuff that’s relevant to my interests, and this is a biased list so suck it
Mezco. This, for instance is a figure I’ve been waiting for pretty much my
whole life: I present to you a Simon Belmont accurate to the original
Castelvania on the NES (well technically the Famicom Disk System version was
the original…). Well ok it’s not exactly 100%
accurate it’s their old Simon Belmont from 2007 with some bits to improve the
articulation and a NES Sprite paint-job but it’s near as dammit is to fucking
swearing and you can’t see the post- Ayami Kojima flourishes are hidden by the
paint job so balls to you all, I’m happy (who IS fantastic, I just want my
Simon Belmont to be Pre-Ayami) and
it’s coming Q2 this year! That means I can get it for my birthday and don’t
have to pay for it! I will be buying the Contra 2-pack too I think but it’s
very much based on the NES game and it’s box art and not basing it on the
arcade game bothers me slightly, I’m also a much bigger fan of Hard Corps and
Contra 3 than I am of the original NES-era games but y’know I’m not gonna pass
up the chance of any Contra figures and my purchase goes towards convincing
NECA to keep at these, apparently they’re negotiating over a few other licences
for the line that’ll give them more late-80s/early-90s properties (please be
Mega Man!) and the people behind the scenes seem genuinely knowledgeable and
passionate about retro games so they get my support.
Honestly
NECA had a lot of good stuff for their usual suspects licences but not much for
their video game based stuff, other than Simon and the Contra couple it was all
modern tie-ins I don’t care about (well, except Little Big Planet, I care about
that I just already have a Sack Boy and don’t need any more); Uncharted 4 and
an Ultimate Kratos from God of War who looks… off model, as well as a Concrete
Jungle Predator, Toy Ark has a gallery for it all though
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Image from Toy Ark
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Sarah Bryant and Akira Yuki
Viruta Fighter
Figma, Release Date unknown,
$41.99
I’m
often priced out of Figma and Figuarts or alienated by them having licences I
don’t give a fuck about, I’m just not that into Manga and Anime or mascots for
voice synthesiser software, sorry, but occasionally they get me and these are
going to get me good. The amazing things you are seeing before you are Virtua
Fighter figures sculpted to look like the low-polygon count in-game models of,
by the looks of it, Virtua Fighter 2, how can you not think that’s great? Well
I suppose if you don’t’ like Virtua Fighter, don’t like video games or don’t
like action figures then you could, or if you do but have no soul or sense of
fun. I’m not that big a Virtua Fighter fan really, I prefer the Tekken and Soul
series as 3D Fighters but it IS a Sega franchise and there’s just not enough
Sega action figures (I’m still waiting on a Sega Ages style line encompassing
all their franchises that would sell on the ‘first time ever’ appeal alone) and
these are just executed perfectly, they’re the only Virtgua Fighter figures I’d
want and they’re just how I’d want them, basically. Each one is getting a
variant but I’ll probably stick with leotard Sarah and blue Akira, now of
course you know you have to do Dural right? And do a variant where she has a
fishbowl for head like in Virtua Fighter Kids right? And then do the whole cast
of Fighting Vipers, Siba AND Pepsiman right? Yeah? Figma?
You
can find Toy Ark’s Figma gallery, which includes their Table Museum series of
figures based on famous sculpture which I am SO down with and will probably be
buying at least the Venus De Milo (it’s a Chuck Berry thing) from and some
Metal Gear Solid, Metroid and Yu-Gi-Oh stuff (I think it’s actually the booth
for a distributor in the US? Or something like that, Good Smile Company), here.
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Image from Toy Ark
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Roton & Skelcon
Masters of the Universe
Classics
Mattel, 2016, Price TB Made Up
At The Last Minute
I
wanted to wait until there was some Mattel booth pictures up just in case
anything from MOTUC, WWE Elite or Thundercats Classics wowed me enough to put
on this list not thinking anything really would, there was a lot of good
new stuff – Filmation Clawful, Horde Wraith, Tuskador and Night Stalker are all
fantastic (and the Pumyra and Mummy Mumm-Ra prototypes are even better) but
these, these are just the shit. Not only is the Roton my favourite MOTU vintage vehicle but
it and the Road Ripper are the only ones I really have room for (Stilt Stalkers
etc notwithstanding) but as I still don’t own Panthor I think making room for
the Road Ripper won’t happen so really the previously teased vehicle could only
have been the Roton to get a purchase from me, so they made a Roton, made it
bloody brilliant, included a canopy ala the Monogram model kit and then they paired it with an astonishing Skelcon, probably my
favourite army builder from the franchise (they’re from one of those old Golden
Books) and the Four Horsemen have just produced the best head sculpt for him
haven’t they? All that work on Mythic Legions showing through with a
brilliantly bony and terrifying face. Some fans ain't to happy about the two coming together and packing an army builder with a vehicle does seem a bit counter-productive I'll agree but this is the line that made an army builder a convention exclusive so it's not much of a surprise.
Mattel's Mattycollector display was a mess; Vultak, Lord Masque and Filmation Evil-Lyn in the wrong displays, accessories mixed up, Crita and Panthro missing and someone’s broken off Evil-Lyn’s hand, and frankly they’re not showing much off for a major toy
company – the Monster High stuff is just a few C-listers with the new (worse)
faces and the only new WWE thing I could see was a second Defining Moments Sting
(which I will own) and that’s about
it for new stuff except some sub-par DC Movie stuff that DC Collectibles is
doing better, still you can check out Toyark’s MOTUC gallery and Thundercats Classics gallery and look at all the cool Four Horsemen work,, and TNI’s gallery for a
general overview of the Mattel display.
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| Image from Toy News International |
Megazord
Big Figs: Mighty Morphin’
Power Rangers
Jakk’s Pacific,
October-November, $60
That
is a Shogun Warriors Megazord and I
think I may have cum. I’m
also glad I waited and didn’t get the Imaginex Mega Zord, as good as that was,
it ain’t as good as this. And this is…this is…just… wow, it’s 31 inches tall! It
has a whole bunch of extra articulation points for a Big Fig (the exact number
wasn’t said but I can see 7 at least, I dunno if it has elbow & knee articulation,
I hope so)! It’s the fucking Dino Megazord, the best Megazord Power Rangers has
ever had (oh just admit it, they’ve never topped it’s design and it’s now
iconic enough to be considered iconic, yes that is a sentence, Dino Megazord is
best Megazord), no you know what it is? Its sixty dollars I won’t have in
November, I haven’t really had a chance to go into it but I’m a… massive Power
Rangers sad-o and even though there were better seasons (Time Force, RPM, SPD,
In Space) when it comes to merch I’m pretty much all Mighty Morphin’, all the
way (it’s a nostalgia thing, and also a budget thing), so this is the stuff my
merch dreams are made of, Power Rangers wise.
Actually
Jakk’s Big Figs have got some good stuff coming up, Dawn of Justice is getting
a wave of 20 and 31 inch, Batman and Superman are coming on both and Wonder
Woman and Mech Suit Batman are also getting 20-inchers, I actually really quite
like the film Wonder Woman costume but I disagree with so much of the film on
an ideological level I don’t think I can bring myself to buy any merch at
all. their Deluxe Batman and Deluxe
Darth Vader ($30, yeah, $5 more than a collector’s figure and he’s 20-inches
with action features) have squeeze leg action features – Darth Vader slashes
with his lightsabre while Batman flares his cape flares out like it’s superhero
mating season, both do this while lighting up and talking, so cool. Their comic
book 20-inch Batman meanwhile is going to be Tim Burton colours and Jim
Aparo/Neal Adams-era colours, I may just be able to resist the latter but that
all black Bats will be mine. Star Wars is getting a Rey, I’m in lov witgh Rey
but I’m iffy on her Big Figs head sculpt the Deluxe BB8 though? That I must
have, and I’m pissed off it’s coming out after a certain friend’s birthday
because she will go mental over this – hell it’s almost fucking life size. He
also talks and lights up and comes with the ‘thumbs up’ action feature and
it’ll be $50, both them and C3-PO are out in June, check Pixel Dan’swalkthrough for more Jakk’s,
including their World of Nintendo Line, or rather not their World of Nintendo
Line because apparently they ‘didn’t have enough room in the booth’ (seriously?
The fuck?) for most of it, still we’re getting more 8-bit figures apparently,
they’re not on show though, no room.
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Image from Toy Ark
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Wyld Stallions 2-Pack
Bill & Ted’s Excellent
Adventure
NECA, Q2, Price TBD
Excellent
*plays air guitar*. Sorry, sorry, but this is the best NECA news this show. I
honestly find these Retro Clothed Figures kind of annoying, unless you have a
collection of Mego figures or these Mego-Like Retro figures they’re really not
going to fit in with anything and that seems to be kind of specific in an
industry dominated by 12, 6 and 3 ¾ collectors. But this is Bill & Ted,
there’s nothing to connect them to anything else on my shelves or really anyone
else’s unless they own the vintage Kenner line. They’re their own thing and can
be in whatever scale or style they like. This two-pack is coming with a
cardboard Time Machine and Ted’s coming with a removable pink jacket meaning he
can have his, I feel, more iconic t-shirt and vest look, the likenesses are cartoony
but so fucking good and are smartly based on the first movie, Excellent
Adventure – a particular favourite of mine – but y’know NECA, we need a Rufus
now.
NECA
had a fantastic lot of stuff to show off this year, for the 8” stuff their
Hateful 8 line was a surprise to me but apparently they’re already a thing and
I’m just slow, such a weird licence – why would you make figures of a bunch of
such horrible people? Some of the likenesses are unusually bad too (Madsen
looks terrible, even Samuel L Jackson isn’t so great) but I might get a John
Ruth sometime. The other Q2 figures are Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Leatherface
(for the anniversary), a Captain Spaulding from House of a Thousand Corpses that
will make my friend Beth happy but it’s an easy pass for me and Weird Al Yankovic,
which is gonna get a lot of talk, in fact I think it already has (it was
revealed the week before Toyfair I think?) and it is supremely awesome but the
scale and style may actually put me off buying one, seriously, all my music
based figures (Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, first album-era Elvis Presley, Johnny
Ramone with a broken ankle…) are roughly 6” scale, they’re all going to be
towered over by Weird Al in real fabric clothes? Actually that’s kind of
fitting, maybe I will get one! He’s due out in May this year and the Toyfare
news is that NECA are working on 4 more Weird Al figures based on his parodies!
Toy Ark gallery is here.
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Image from Toy Ark
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Five Nights At Freddy’s Wave
1
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Funko, May, Price TBD
BEST.
REVEAL. OF. THE. SHOW! May 2016 is going to be FNAF month with Funko dropping a
metric fuck ton of Freddy merch as they go all out with their master licence,
Scott Crawthon must be in shock. Best of the bunch though is the upcoming 5”
Action figure range and the prototypes were on show at NYTF and I’m so excited
I may have peed! If my hugely in-depth look at its timeline didn’t tip you off
I love this franchise, Five Night’s at Freddy’s (the first game) is one of my
Top Whatever video games (I do actually have a list for that, NiGHTS Into
Dreams is number one and always will be), and the animatronics were perfect for
toys because they’re designed to be mascots, they’re designed to be characters
you want toys of! But there has been zero official merch – just fan-made stuff
that was way too expensive. But those days are all over with Funko, yes it’s
kind of annoying that they’re 5” scale and not proper 6” but they’re so damn good, Foxy’s probably the weakest with
his holes being painted on rather than y’know, actual holes (cheap bastards)
and the red’s a bit too bright on Spingtrap but holy shit we’re getting
Springtrap in wave 1! There was talk of some multi-packs including Balloon Boy
and the Endoskeleton but they don’t’ seem to be on display so maybe Funko’s
dropped them? I dunno, these six will do me nicely though, check out Golden
Freddy’s eyes! And Bonnie, Bonnie’s head sculpt is perfect! So is Freddy’s, and
they come with their instruments, and Chica comes with her cupcake! It’s worth
buying the figure JUST for that cupcake!
Amongst
the other items coming are the Plushies which are super cute and solve at least
two Christmas presents, the My Mojis freak me out, they’re disembodied heads
for fuckssake, and I hate anything that ties into an app on principal but I
wouldn’t mind a Mangle and sad Puppet from the (I presume) blind bagged vinyl
figures, the Plush toys are just freaky though. The Blind Box vinyl figures
look like they’re gonna cost me more than the action figures t as they’re
including all the Toy versions, the Puppet, Balloon Boy and Shadow Bonnie
(who’ll of course be a hard to find chase figure), I’m seriously considering buying
a box and selling off the doubles to ease the pain
expenditure. Though I might wait to see if they come out in the 5” wave 2 or
something (surely the next wave will be the Toy versions if it happens,
right?). They’re also doing pens, keyrings, glasses, t-shirts, but not, oddly
enough Dorbz or POP! Figurines it seems…weird. Toyark have pictures of it all
here,
also check out their ‘Misc Funko’ gallery as it has the Shogun Warriors style Bobba Fett that I want but I bet will be
WAY too expensive and the Garbage Pail Kids Adam Bomb Vinyl Figurine I still
need to own (is it out yet?), I quite like the DC Vinyl Vixens also.
Special Mention:
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Image from Toy Ark
|
Donatello
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
NECA, Q2, Expensive
I’m
putting this as a special mention because as a TMNT fan it is the most amazing
thing and even if you’re not as mad on the Ninja Trutls and especially the first
TMNT motion picture as I am you should be able to see how good quality this
thing is. But it’s also a Quarter Scale NECA figure which means it will be pricey and they take up shitloads
more space and it’s Donatello (who releases Donatello first?), as I’m already
down for Mondo’s brilliant 12” comic book style TMNT I have no idea if I’ll be
able to afford these or have anywhere to put them, they’re coming out one per
quarter and Donatello’s due out Q2 this year and fuck me that’s soon; I’ll buy
Raphael regardless and if they’re not too pricey I might be able to get Donny
and whoever’s Q4 this year as Birthday and Christmas presents, because these
things are absolutely fucking spot-on and made all the more desirable by
Playmates’ recent movie figures being utter dogshit. NECA are also going to be
doing a lot more with the Turtles licence apparently, including items smaller
and larger in scale and it’s all but confirmed they’ll be doing TMNT Video Game
Appearance figures and that makes me so excited – a complete set of Turtles
based on the original NES game would be amazing, all the enemies from the original
NES game would be amazing, the various colours of the Foot Soldiers from the
two arcade games would be amazing, all of the cast of TMNT: Tournament Fighters
would be amazing. I am very pleased by this prospect.
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| Image from Toy Ark |
Predator Series 16 and
Aliens Series 10
Predator, Aliens
NECA, Q2, Q3, Same Old Price
And
this because it’s SLIGHTLY cheating as Aliens Series 10 wasn’t on show at
Toyfair but as far as I know the first mention of its theme happened here but
y’know it’s still cheating. Predator Series 16 is the third Kenner Wave, with
all the figures based on toys produced by Kenner (who had no basis in anything
else in the franchise). Spike
Tail and Stalker are the two that I’m personally pleased to see (bear in mind
they’ve already made Hive Wars, Lava Planet and Cracked Tusk – three out of
four of my favourites, which is a point, where’s my Ambush Predator NECA?) but
their big deal is Clan Leader, a deluxe figure from the old line that’s now a
deluxe figure in theirs, it looks great and is the biggest Predator they’ve
made so-far but I’m not sure if I need him or not, I’ve always seen Cracked
Tusk as my ‘leader’ for the Kenner figures and I don’t know if I want to pay
deluxe figure money for a figure I never had nor wanted as a kid just so he can
be ‘the big guy’ at the back y’know?
The
last figure in the wave is something they’re calling ‘Ghost Predator’ and is
apparently based on a repaint, the closest I can find is the 1997 version of
Scavager Predator, still the Jungle Hunter looks good in white I suppose. As
for series 10 of Aliens? It’s also going to be Kenner themed! The first NECA
Kenner Aliens! At last! They’re scheduled for Q3 and no clues as to which
figures will be in it were given but I Imagine we’ll see the Scorpion Alien and
either the Kaybee or Hive Wars repaint of the regular Xenomorph (either way I
get a baby blue Xeno’ to go with my baby blue Predator- heaven!) so NECA can
get some part reuse. Quick top 5 Kenner Aliens I want to see made by Neca? 5.
Mantis Alien 4. Gorilla Alien 3. Kaybee Toys Warrior Alien repaint 2. Bull
Alien 1. Snake Alien – my favourite from the line, I want a
deluxe-fully-articulated-not-bendy-expensive-as-fuck-but-sooo-worth-it Snake
Alien please. Also a quick shout out for the Aqua Alien from Kenner’s Alien
Resurrection line, I’d love to be able to have Aqua and Battle Scarred Xenos
in-scale with all the others. An ATAX
and King Alien from NECA would be amazing too, their Queen Alien was gorgeous
(but I couldn’t afford it then, I’ll pick it up some day) so their King Alien
can’t fail to be a fantastic companion piece.
NECA
had a lot on show and promised a lot more; the Bat Gremlin was out but I don’t
know if I need it, Aliens Series 8 is all based on Aliens 3 and has a rubbish
Ripley (sorry boys, it looks nothing like her) and some Waylon-Yutani
Stormtrooper army builders, and a re-release of the Dog Alien, yay, how
unexciting. Series 9 (not shown) will be themed around Aliens (the film) for
its 30th Anniversary this year; they’re also doing a creature pack
with a to-scale facehugger and egg, that I might buy. Also there was the
Ultimate Terminator from the first film, where he looked like a dork, the
figure is as good as anything they’ve released but I don’t have the T2 stuff
yet so I’m not rushing out to buy a costume I don’t like when I don’t have the
ones I do, though I think I’d be up for a first film Sarah Connor, For the
latter half of 2016 though it’s back to T2: Judgement Day because we’re getting
a 25th anniversary 3D theatre re-release for the film (I am so there!). Of
course what they really need to do is complete the holy trinity and be making
some Kenner Terminator figures and give me collector’s figure versions of the
likes of Power-Arm Terminator, Meltdown Terminator, Endoglow Terminator, Cyber
Grip and Kromium – just imagine how amazing a NECA sculpted, 6” Scale Kromium
would be; complete with extra parts to extend him. Still they WERE all T2
tie-in toys technically so who knows, maybe I’ll finally get my Pink &
Black Terminator this year? Or possibly not, we’ll know at San Diego though. Also a mystery Aliens figure
is dropping in April and it’s going to be a random thing and a surprise in
their support of the movement to get an Aliens day for 4/2/16 (so 2/4/2016 for
everyone but America), it wants to be Interger 3 from Hive Wars but I’ll
probably just be a Ripley or Aliens variant. Oh and an Ultimate Gypsy Danger
with light-up features, that looks sexy. Toyark gallery for Aliens and Predator
live here,
for Pacific Rim here, for
Rocky here (oh yeah, new Rocky series for the anniversary this year, mix of new
sculpt and fan-demanded reissues) for everything else go here.
I’m
done, I’m all excited out and now have to lay down and stuff.
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