Toy Bender

I just got a message from Mezco about their exclusive with electronics giant Best Buy for two exclusive South Park figures. I’m a big fan of their South Park line, somehow they are manage to capture the unique two dimensional look in a three dimensional toy. The figures are Motorcycle Cop Cartman and Frozen Kenny:

There isn’t any mention why they are going to have exclusive figures at Best Buy, which is a little strange since Best Buy usually only carries toys when they are part of a DVD or video game package. Since I’m a horrible reporter, I forgot to ask if they were a tie-in to anything. Yeah, I know I suck.

However, I did ask what Mezco’s plans were for this year’s San Diego Comic Con because I loved last year’s Butters as Professor Chaos figure. Mezco was mum on the subject. The only thing they could confirm was that there were exclusives, but not what they were or how many. Dang it! Foiled again!

The full press release follows the break if you really feel like reading it.

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The toy that made collectors balls’ blow off in awe a few weeks ago has been officially confirmed by Hasbro in their latest Q&A section. (Don’t worry, I’m working on collecting the questions for my usual round of Star Wars Nerd Questions.) Here’s a new picture of the Millennium Falcon to help satiate your lust for what could qualify as one of the greatest toys ever:

Why did Hasbro try to keep it a secret for so long? The answer is simple, they wanted to have the reveal in a super spectacular manner. With a toy so cool they thought it would be best to blow our minds when we least expected it. They still plan on having some sort of big reveal to those outside of the toy world, namely a prominent story in an upcoming Wired magazine, but since the cat’s already out of the bag they figured they might as well confirm it now. Their official response follows the break if you want to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth:

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If you plan on attending the Philadelphia Wizard World convention and you dig toys (and why would you even be on this site if you didn’t like toys?), the first ever ToyFare Hall of Fame Awards will be held there. For the first year’s inductees include Randy Falk of NECA, Clayburn Moore, and the Four Horsemen. For details on who each of these folks are, I’ve included the press release below.

I think this is a cool idea, although I’d think for the Hall of Fame that there might be a few inductees who contributed to the toy industry less recently. Where’s the guy who invented G.I. Joe? Or the one guy that… okay I really don’t know much about the people that created the toys that we collect (or play with) today, but there’s got to be some figures from the past that could get a nice nod. I asked Adam Tracy, Creative Director Wizard World Conventions, if this is possible and he said that the Hall of Fame includes all of toy history, so chances are that past legends can be recognized. The recognition could even be given posthumously, so toy creators who are either zombies or have turned into vampires or werewolves are eligible. Not directly his quote, mind you.

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The winner of the ToyFare Marvel Legends Fan’s Choice Poll, Sunfire from the Age of Apocalypse, is available now for pre-order from Hasbro Toy Shop.com.

I’m considering picking this guy up as I’m a huge fan of Age of Apocalypse. If you’re not familar with it, the quick and dirty version is that Professor X is murdered and history is radically altered. Apocalypse has taken over much of the world, the X-Men are led by Magneto, and there aren’t any regular Marvel superheroes. And that’s just the tip of the iceburg. I just finished reading volume three of the trade collection so I’m still riding high on the AoA loving. The only thing that would stop me is that I haven’t bought a Marvel Legends figure in I don’t know how long. I just fell out of love with them. Does anyone else still care about Marvel Legends?

McFarlane Toys has revealed their exclusives for the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and I’ve got them here. Hurray! or something.

SPARTAN SOLDIER EVA “HELLSPARTAN”

This is the figure that both Halo fans and Spawn geeks are going to need as this version of a Spartan soldier is painted to look like McFarlane’s money making machine. Gotta love the skull on the belt.

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This last weekend was the big old New York Comic-con and there were some updates for any He-Man fans out there. The toy news was a little sparse, but gave some insight into the future of everyone’s muscled up barbarian whose name isn’t Conan. The toy line will be independent of the new live action He-Man film in development (yes, I said FILM not movie) and will be called Masters of the Universe Classics with the first wave hitting stores this Fall. The Four Horsemen are again sculpting the line which will be in scale with the DC Universe figures Mattel is currently producing.

What should send He-Man toy fans into a frothy mess is that at this San Diego Comic Con there will be an exclusive He-Man figure, King Greyskull along with a King Greyskull statue. I’m not familiar with the character, but I do know that if you aren’t one of the lucky people attending the con expect to pay big bucks for him on eBay.

Other He-Man related news included info on the release of Volume Two of the 2002 He-Man cartoon on DVD and that Mattel is considering releasing the mini-comics that came with the vintage He-Man line in trade paperback form. That’s a graphic novel or a fancy comic book for those not into such things.

Thanks To: Toy News International for posting the image of King Greyskull.

*Yeah, I don’t know what the F is up with the title of this post, but it makes me laugh.

I’ve followed the development of the McFarlane Halo 3 toys from it’s beginnings and I knew at a certain point that I would stop caring about every single minutia of it. I’m interested in new figures as they come along, not an endless amount of variants. Well, that time has come as McFarlane toys has announced a crap ton of exclusive varient Master Chiefs.

Since I don’t care about getting a power blue Ross Dress for Less exclusive (I just made that up), I decided that it would be best to link to Digital Monkey Box’s breakdown of all the figure goodness which you can find right here.

The figure that stood out most to me in this line up is the Spartan Soldier Mark VI Silver, which is a worldwide exclusive… meaning it will be available everywhere in the world except the United States and Canada. They should really just call it the “Everyone In The World Can Get it at Retail Except for You, Chump. Yes, That Means North Korea Too”. Bizarre.

McFarlane is also releasing some free downloadable content on XBox Live. Check it out if you haven’t already. It became available on April 14 (Monday) and consists of a theme and picture pack.

Another picture of the Millennium Falcon has emerged on Galactic Hunter.com. Here’s the super small version, but you must go on their site and super size it for all the fantastic details:

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If you grew up in the late seventies to mid-eighties there’s a pretty good chance you remember running around your house with a big plastic Millennium Falcon in your arms while you did your best to mimic the sounds of space flight heard in the Star Wars films.

The toy company that made that classic Millennium Falcon had done such a great job that it’s been remade with only slight alterations off and on up to the present day by the company that now makes Star Wars figures, Hasbro. Lately though, there’s been rumors that Hasbro has had a new Millennium Falcon in the works. As much as the vintage Falcon worked with it’s myriad of features, it is simply too small to please adult collectors i.e. huge nerds like me. This new Falcon promises to be much bigger and better and if the image found on Galactic Hunter.com* is any indication, bigger is definitely better:

This Falcon looks like it can fit four figures in the cockpit, something that Star Wars fans have been wanting for decades. It also features new and improved interiors, missiles in the front, and a more movie accurate cannon on the top. Judging by the size of the seat there and the fact that most Star Wars figures are around 3 1/4″ inches tall, you can make your own guess on how huge this set might be. There’s also no indication so far that the back opens up, but if it does this set would be every Star Wars toy collector’s dream come true. There’s no word on price, either but judging on other large Star Wars releases in the recent past I’d say it’s well into the 150 plus range.

As exciting as this image is, Hasbro hasn’t officially confirmed that this image is 100% legit. Galactic Hunter says they got it from a trusted source, so only time will tell.

*If you go there click on the pic to get any even higher resolution.

Thanks to: Poe Ghostal of Poe Ghostal’s POA for the heads up.

After long weeks and lots of speculation, Hasbro FINALLY has new G.I. Joes to show us. Thank Krom, it’s been way too long. They debuted the images on G.I. Joe Club.com, but I posted the images here and provided my super important thoughts.

Hawk

I feel like I’m going to divide half my G.I. Joe audience, but I’m sorry. Hawk was always a secondary character to me. Growing up, Duke was the leader of G.I. Joe and Cobra had a number one single with “Cold Slither”.

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In the super nerd catalog Previews and now on Toy News International there was some Battlestar figures of note for fans of the show:

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After Mattel grabbed the license for WWE many were left wondering what Jakks Pacific was going to do. The answer if finally here with their announcement that they will be making American Gladiators toys that will be available in the Spring of 2009.

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Online toy retailer Big Bad Toy Store recently put up wave three of the Halo 3 action figures from McFarlane Toys, allowing us all a good look at the figures. Here they are in all their McGlory:

Brute Chieftain Weapon Class

What makes him a “Weapon Class” Brute? He comes with two weapons as opposed to a gravity hammer. If you want a Spiker grenade for your Master Chief then here you go. By the way, I love those things. They are so damn useful against idiots who run around in Ghosts.

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According to the Associated Press, a Los Vegas man took one kick ass mustang and turned it into a replica of Barricade from the live action Transformers film. Jessie Vigil made customized his car after returning home from Iraq (and the story mentions that he’s disabled in passing) and wanted to spoil the hell out of his son.

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Shocker Toys revealed their line of independent comic book based heroes at the New York Toy Fair and since there’s no other hot toy news out there right now let’s talk about it, shall we? (Also, their showing has created both positive and negative buzz so as long as people are talking about it…) And if you don’t keep up on such things you might be asking yourself right now, “Hey, isn’t there an independent line already from Marvel Toys aka the ghost of Toy Biz?” Well there was and now it’s dead thanks to almost no one buying them.

The first wave from Shocker Toys consists of five figures with a couple of repaints. Here’s their proposed first wave:

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