It’s been another New York
Toy Fair so it’s another chance for me to point and say ‘I want that one’ a few
times for some of the stuff that was on show. If you’re new to the concept, New
York Toy Fair is the main toy fair for America thus it’s the main toy fair for
the western world; most toy companies from specialist importers to Mattel and
Hasbro show off their wares and it’s a good way to plan your expenditure for at
least the next 6 months if you’re a toy enthusiast.
I’m just gonna talk about
the things that I’m definitely buying when they come out (or when they show up,
the new Deadpool wave of Marvel Legends is allegedly out but I haven’t seen
shit, I want that Cable and Domino) with a little paragraph recapping what else
the company put out so this post has some actual use if anyone who stumbles on
it, for full coverage you’re better off checking out The Fwoosh,
ToyArk, Toy News International and Ringside Collectibles.
All pictures 'borrowed' from ToyArk except that Ghostbusters picture which was once on ToyNewsi but seems to have mysteriously disappeared. So are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin:
Great Garloo
ReAction Figure!
Super7, 10th
of Never
I have absolutely no reason
to trust Super7 when it comes to 6” scale collector’s figures but they seem to
be semi-reliable when it comes to ‘all other junk’ - which is good because all
of their reveals this Toy Fair were ‘all other junk’ and a lot of it was pretty
exciting, but for me personally nothing is going to top a Great Garloo action
figure. The Great Garloo was a remote-controlled kaiju released by Marx (I’ve
seen some sources claim Marvin Glass & Associates developed it but I can’t
confirm that) way back in 1961, for me he’s on the of the coolest looking toys
of all time (not bad for a bloke wearing sandals) but really if you weren’t
convinced of Garloo’s coolness by the phrase ‘remote-controlled kaiju’ I feel
there may be no pleasing you and I’m wasting my time. It seems Super7 are going
to be doing both the big daddy himself and the Great Son of Garloo, a small
wind-up toy released in ’62 and I’m down for both, possibly for multiples of
the Great Son. I’m over the whole ReAction thing and it seems like most people
are, that’s why Funko dumped the brand and Super7 picked it up, but I don’t
care if it’s a ReAction Figure, a Star Wars Black Figure or a Figuarts limited
edition release, I shall own a posable Great Garloo.
We got nothing new on the Masters of the Universe
Classics front, still Super7 haven’t shipped the first wave so not showing us
the third might not’ve been a bad idea, they did show off two sets of She-Ra
based M.O.T.U.S.C.L.E. that look swanky, although it seems like Super7 are no
longer paying for the M.U.S.C.L.E. licence as all of their upcoming
mini-figures are going to be released under the generic (and copyright free)
Keshi name in Japanese style boxes. And the vintage style He-Ro and Eldor are
back on show as upcoming releases so it looks like they got that sorted out and
we’ll get some toy-dreams-come-true figures in the next decade. Ghouls ‘n
Ghosts are getting a line of ReAction figures and I’m very excited for their
Astaroth, we’re not getting Princess Prin-Prin though which is a bit of a
bummer - new Planet of the Apes ReAction Figures were also shown off, including
the Lawgiver Statue which I’m totally down for, oh and PeeWee’s Playhouse too,
shan’t be buying them. This big reveal though seems to be that they’ve got the
Universal Studios Monsters licence, so that means another round of ReAction
figures but more importantly they’re reissuing and expanding the Super Soakies
and introducing a new line of collectible licenced Halloween pails dubbed
Super-Buckets, Megatron, Voltron, the Xenomorph and four Universal Monsters
(Wolf-Man, Gill-Man, Frankenstein’ Monster and the Mummy) are pending licenser
approval, I’m more than interested in both line but I’m waiting for prices, which
of course weren’t revealed because it’ll be two years before these things go on
sale.
Savage World!
Funko, TBD
This is the one; this is
the thing that’s going to be costing me the most money in the year to come.
Funko are going to be making 5.5” action figures in the style of the vintage
Masters of the Universe line (like Super7 are doing) but they’re going to be
doing it for Jason Vorhees, Freddy Kruger, Conan the Barbarian, Leatherface,
Michael Myers and THE THUNDERCATS. We already knew they were doing Mortal
Kombat characters, which was nice but THUNDERCATS! Firstly I’m just pleased to
be getting any new Thundercats figures after the failure of the last cartoon
and MattyCollector’s Thundercats Universe being stillborn but to finally have
the ‘cats and Mutants in scale with vintage He-Man figures? That’s just, that’s
just something I never thought would happen and yet here Funko are, taking a
break from making castles with all their Pop Vinyl money to make this a
reality. I think this is one of those ‘you don’t understand, you weren’t THERE,
man!’ things so I’ll elaborate on why this is exciting: LJN made the vintage
Thundercats figures, they’re very good and I have a complete set but they’re
huge, out of scale for everything except maybe Sectaurs (dear Funko: you know
what your new Savage World figures need? Sectaurs) so while I could and did
spend many an afternoon teaming up He-Man and Lion-0 it had the look of teaming
up Hornswoggle with Andre the Giant when it should have been Hulk Hogan and Macho
Man Randy Savage; it wasn’t a big deal but it always there. Now we’ll have
Thundercats figures that blend seamlessly with MOTU and I can put them through
the trap door in Castle Grayskull with ease, I mean, put them on the same shelf
– because I’m an adult collector and not a five year old, yeah, that.
No seriously fuck that,
first thing I do when these get released is drop Panthro through that fucking
trap door.
Funko had hundreds of things on show – amongst the
upcoming Pop Vinyls newly revealed or otherwise are: Grease (I’ll be buying
Danny), Care Bears (out this month, I’ll be buying them all), Jurassic Park
(I’ll be buying all the dinos and Ian Malcolm), Bob Ross (so down for that),
the Twisted Ones version of the FNAF animatronics (I’ll be buying the wolf),
Rainbow Brite and Twink (so down for that), Doug!, PeeWee’s Playhouse (because
apparently it’s been long enough now that we’ve all forgotten about the arrest
and are comfortable buying merch again), Gossip Girl, Ouran High School Host
Club, Garbage Pail Kids (I’ll be buying Adam Bomb), Destiny 2 and the new It film
plus more Marvel, DC, Halo, Yuri on Ice,
Nickelodeon, Disney, One Piece, Dragon Ball and Rick & Morty –
actually if you like Rick & Morty you’ll be well happy with this year’s
Funko stand, pity I don’t. No new wave of Five Nights at Freddy’s action
figures were on show (just make the Toy Versions already Funko!) but the new
Funko Racers look adorable, fun and you can get Chica’s Cupcake in its own
little car. The other big news for me though is that Buffy and Harry Potter are
getting the Rock Candy treatment, the Luna is amazing (Yuri on Ice is also
getting Rock Candy figurines which has solved a few Christmas present problems
for me this year thankyouverymuch).
Crash
Bandicoot!
Neca, Q2 2018
Damn these are coming out soon
- even though they’re still ‘pending Licensor approval’. There’s a lot of choices
on this list that are here for the same reason and that reason is ‘FINALLY!’ Eg:
finally! A proper collector’s figure of Crash Bandicoot is here! Taking the final
fate of Neca’s Video Game Series Simon Belmont into account it’s probably not
just toy companies that are to blame for us getting so little retro toy goodness
when it comes to collector’s figures but it is still a largely untapped well of
licences that I feel they should be exploiting when they can - and Neca is doing this (pending Licnensor
approval) and I am very excited – although maybe three Crash figures in a row
might be a bit much, I’d’ve maybe thrown in a Cortex or Tiny in-between to
space out the variants but Neca need the part reuse to make it financially viable
and I doubt anyone’s going to complaint about Rocket Pack Crash – except me of
course. I’ll be buying regular Crash and waiting in hope of a Ripper-Roo.
Neca also had new Team Fortress and Portal figures on show;
I couldn’t give a flying dog’s bollock about Team Fortress 2 so I’m not the
person to ask about ‘em but the new Portal stuff looks very nice.
Ultimate
Pennywise!
Neca, Q3 2018
At Last! How has it taken
until 2018 to get this? Presenting to you a
full-on-no-bullshit-swanky-as-fuck-fully-articulated-with-multiple-swappable-parts
collector’s figure of Tim Curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown from the Stephen King’s It TV movie!! Even though
he looked completely different to how the book describes him (the new It film
is a lot closer, one of the only things in that movie that IS close to the
book) the TV movie’s Pennywise, this Pennywise, will forever be how I imagine
It’s clown form looking and sounding and I’ve wanted a figure of it, this
figure, ever since I first saw the film, on VHS, rented from Vidbiz, which
means I’ve been waiting about 120 years or more for this to come out. He even
comes with a balloon – that floats (because they float, the ooooorrrrl float)!
My complaints are two in number: 1) he doesn’t come with Prince Albert in a can
2) he’s coming out Quarter 3 which is after my birthday but too early for
Christmas, so I’ll have to pay for him myself or wait, and I ain’t waiting. So
really, I have no complaints at all
As it’s their bread and butter, Neca had a whole bunch
of other Horror stuff on show - though I’m having trouble remembering what’s
been shown previous and what hasn’t. We’ve got release dates for the first
Guillemeto Del Toro figures, Santa from The Devil’s Backbone is coming out
first (Q2) while the Pan’s Labyrinth stuff is for Q3 and Q4. There was a couple
of new Mego-style figures on show including a Herbert West (Q3) and the captain
from The Fog (Q4) and some new Freddy Kruegers, I’m tempted by The Fog figure.
New Waves for Alien and Predator were shown off
[http://news.toyark.com/2018/02/17/toy-fair-2018-gallery-neca-alien-predator-286793#images]
including some new Kenner Aliens characters, the Snake Alien is a must-buy for
me but otherwise I’m not feeling it for the regular figures. The packs based on
Capcom’s Aliens vs Predator arcade game however, that’s a different matter,
Dutch & Linn two pack (Q4) needs to come home with me but Neca two-packs
ain’t cheap, there was also a bitching throne of skulls for your Predators on
show, it’s shit hot but if it’s anything lke the Trophy Wall it’ll be
expensive, hard to find and easily broken. A second wave for Ash vs The Evil
Dead was on show, plus a bunch of Ultimate figures which seem to be doing good
business for Neca (I’ve bought a few, their Terminator 2 Sarah Conner is the
sex) we’re getting an Ultimate Gremlin (Q3), Ultimate Elder Predator (Q4),
Ultimate Part 2 Jason Vorhees (Q3), Ultimate new film Pennywise (Q3) and an
Ultimate Evil Dead 2 Ash who’s gonna come in a two-pack with Evil Ed (Q2)! I’d
say it’s gonna be hard not to buy them all but I’m sure it’ll be easier once
I’m in the shop and looking at the price,
I can’t see me passing on the Gremlin and the Part 2 Jason though.
Marvel
Legends Spider-Ham & Scream!
Hasbro (Marvel
Legends: Venom Series), October (I think?)
A little tear to came to my
eye when I saw him, I tear of pure joy. Spider-Ham is getting an action figure
and I’m gonna be alive to see it, bless you Spider-Verse, it was so worth
putting up with all your Silk Mary-Sue bullshit now it means that I’ll have a little
plastic cartoon pig dressed as Spider-Man. Scream meanwhile is just a personal
favourite of mine, hailing from the old Venom: Separation Anxiety
mini-series/story/multi-media event I’ve just always been enamoured with her
look, I have her Toy Biz figure from way back whenever but this’ll be her first
collector’s figure and about damn time too. It really is worth paying attention
to Marvel Legends, even if you hate most of the output like I do (the new
Doctor Octopus is revolting, the new Dagger is as bad, the Venom from this wave
has a ginormous head, The Thing is a disappointment and the Silver Surfer is
meh) because you can usually find one diamond amidst the slew of shit – as well
as these two there’s the new Carnage which has an awesome unmasked head, the
upcoming Cable and Domino that was revealed last SDCC, a comic-accurate
Malekith the Dark Elf and a surprisingly nice Spider-Man Noir.
I don’t even know where to start with recapping the
Marvel Legends on show so I’ll just do the stuff I’m certain of: the second
wave of Black Panther figures include Killmonger and Agent Ross; the Venom
series is going to me Venom, Carnage, Spider-Ham, Scream and Anti-Venom; the next
Deadpool wave will be Deadpool in his pants, X-Men Outfit Deadpool, Omega Red,
Lady Deadpool and Bishop with Sauron as a build-a-figure; the next Spider-Man
wave will be modern Daredevil (black outfit), modern Scarlet Spider, House of M
Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, Cloak & Dagger and Elektra and the Ant-Man
& The Wasp movie wave will include Ant-Man, Wasp plus comic book versions
of Malekith the Dark Elf, Black Knight and Gladiator, none of whom have any ties
to Ant-Man in the slightest, plus a two-pack of Astonishing Ant-Man and Stinger
is coming out. The Riders series of figure and bikes will be Logan, Black Widow
and Danny Ketch Ghost Rider. Plus they’re
doing a whole range to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe under the name ‘Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years’ and that
is going to cost me a lot of money: single-boxed versions of Ronan the Accuser
(Guardians of the Galaxy), Iron Man (Avengers Assemble), The Red Skull (Captain
America: The First Avenger), Hulk (The Avengers: Age of Ultron) and The
Hulkbuster Armour (Avengers: Age of Ultron) will accompany two-packs of Iron
Man & The Mandarin Trevor (Iron Man
3), Iron Man & Pepper Potts (Iron Man 3), Ant-Man & Yellowjacket (Ant-Man),
Tony Stark & The Original Iron Man Armour (Iron Man), Thor & Sif (Thor:
The Dark World) and Captain America & Crossbones (Captain America: Civil
War). I shall own that Pepper Potts.
Real
Ghostbusters!
Diamond Select
(Ghostbusters Select), TBD
Did Diamond throw a hissy
fit and have all the photos of these taken down or something? Because I know I
saw pictures of protos for the four Ghostbsuters and Slimer but Toy News
International’s page is now gone and I’m not turning up anything on Google
Images – good job I saved a picture innit? I’m excited but I’m not as excited
as I should be, I wanted screen accurate Real Ghostbsuters but it looks like we’re
gonna get a kind Masters of the Universe Classics Real Ghostbusters instead, mixing styles into a new one –
fuck knows why Diamond have chosen to do this but then Diamond’s track record
with figures is so up and down it could be a Trials HD track. Apparently these
are scheduled to come in two three-figure waves so I’m assuming it’ll be two
Ghostbsuters and a third figure (Slimer for one and someone else for the other -
Janine? Boogeyman? Sam Hain? Someone like that) for each wave and I’ll be
buying them all, they’ll be Wave 9 and 10 I think.
No idea what else Diamond are releasing because
apparently you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement before you left their
stand or something because there’s bugger all coverage, Pulp Fiction Wave 2 is apparently
cancelled though but I got that from a forum it could be bullshit.
Honourable
Mention: King Kong of Skull Island!
Mezco, Summer
2018
This is getting an honourable
mention simply because it’s by Mezco and they’ve not released a price for it
yet. Mezco seems to have found a gap in the market with their 1:12 Collective
figures – essentially Hot Toys for the 6” scale fans and thus I now assume everything
they release with be expensive for its scale so until I know how much this is going
to cost I’m not 100% down for it but to have a figure that actually looks
something like the original RKO King Kong is very enticing. Incidentally this
is the 7” version, they’re going to produce an 18” version too but the
headsculpt is wank, this one looks at least slightly like O.B. sculpted it.
And this isn’t even
touching on the Star wars Black stuff I want but will probably never buy because
that happens for just about every Star Wars Black figure (they’re making the
Gamorran Guard and R5-D4!)
Anyway I’m off to sell some
organs, thanks for reading, see ya later.
