Toy Bender

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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Here’s the final and third part of the Toy Fair Star Wars coverage. Thank god.

Star Wars Clone Wars

There are scheduled to be a minimum of 23 Clone Wars figures dropping in 2008. Collectors will might note that some of the figures will sport some sort of gimmicky action feature. If you take a look at that horrible arm on Yoda, you’ll know what I mean.

Obi-Wan Clone Armor

Here’s the animated version of Mr. Wan in his clonified armor. Nice.

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There was a lot of new Star Wars info that came out of the 2008 Toy Fair. In order to make sure I got everything, this is the first part of the non-clone related Star Wars news. Part two will follow shortly. Now let’s get to it!

Star Wars Legacy Collection

The Legacy Collection is the waves that contain figures either seen in the films or variations of characters seen in the original films. Wave one will street on 7/26 and consist of the following 8 characters.

Wave 1

Han Solo

Hasbro went with a neat theme on this one, the main characters are from a scene in Return of the Jedi that got cut. Where can you see it? Not on the DVDs, because George Lucas is an asshole.

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I saw that SOTA toys now has a statue of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most terrifying Elder Gods, the great Cthulhu up for pre-order. In case you’re not familiar with Lovecraft’s work, he wrote some twisted horror tales that regularly feature beings from an forgotten time that are so terrifying that they just might drive you mad with the very sight of them. Cthulhu is pretty much top of the pile of horrible horribleness found in Lovecraft’s world. This statue is selling for 250 bucks and will be available in June of 2008.

SOTA has really outdone themselves. The statue looks amazingly awesome, except for one small detail.

His wiener:

Uh, yeah. If I did want this (or could afford it), good old Cthuluhu here would be forced to wear a diaper. It’s just… more Cthulhu than I’ve ever wanted to see.

In super awesome news, Big Bad Toy Store has shown what we can expect to see in wave five of the G.I. Joe comic two packs via their pre-orders. It looks like Hasbro moving away from mostly just a collection of repaints to putting out some pretty unique characters. Sweet.

Wave 5 Comic Two Packs
-Destro & Iron Grenadier
-Cobra Commander Vs. Tripwire
-Lieutenant Falcon Vs. Nemesis Enforcer

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If you’re a G.I. Joe fan and haven’t had enough Toys R Us exclusive news, this last week Hasbro announced three sets of figures that slightly resemble the Order 66 Packs. These multi-packs consist of three figures one Commander, a slightly lower ranking officer, and a grunt.

Senior Ranking Officers 1

Oh boy! Another Cobra Commander!! If you already have the Cobra troops in this pack then I really don’t see any need to get this one.

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In some super exciting news for G.I. Joe fans, Sideshow Collectibles has announced that they are getting the G.I. Joe license to make 12″ scale figures (i.e. fancy man dolls). More details are expected to be revealed at the upcoming Toy Fair. You can see an overly dramatic teaser video here if you feel like watching a bunch of muscle dudes in shadows.

As much as I like the idea of a higher end G.I. Joe toy, I don’t have high end collectible money so I’ll be sweating bullets when the time comes to make the big decision when the release the inevitable Storm Shadow.

What do you guys (and possible gals) think? And what figures do you think would be in wave one? I’m betting on Duke (boring!), Cobra Commander, Snake Eyes v2, and Storm Shadow.

Hasbro revealed images of Wave 8 for the 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe last week and I’ve finally had time to put them up here. However, you can see the pictures in their full sized glory on G.I. Joe Club.com. There’s some pretty cool figures in the line-up and a couple of mehs, but enough of my rambling. Why don’t you decide for yourself?

Flint (Tiger Force)

Flint comes back as a Tiger Force varient. It’s pretty cool to see the return of the sub-line. If you haven’t found the first Flint then this might be a suitable substitute. Especially since this Flint has gloves and shorts sleeves, like he’s supposed to have.

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Moments ago there was an official post by Justin Aclin aka Willy Wampa on the Wizard Universe boards that he will be stepping down as the Senior Editor of ToyFare magazine. Justin’s departure is another big loss for Wizard owned properties after several shifts in staff, including the controversial departure of Rick Marshall (who I think is a great guy as well).

Justin has been the Senior Editor for about six years and readers will most likely recognize him from his appearances in the “Welcome to the Monkeyhouse” section of the magazine. Personally, this is semi-depressing news since Justin is pretty much the reason I joined the Wizard Universe boards, because of his interest in my This Month in Toyfare posts (of which I’ve feel a bit behind). Because of my involvement on the boards I’ve met some cool online peeps, made it into Quick Hits, and a G.I. Joe retrospective, was able to cover a couple of stories for WizardUniverse.com at the 2007 San Diego Comic-con. Without Justin’s initial interest in this site, I don’t think any of that would have happened.

I say I’m only slightly depressed, because I think Justin has something great lined up post ToyFare. Either that or he’s one hell of a positive person. He’s also promised that he’ll still be involved with Twisted ToyFare Theater, so the mag won’t be 100% Wampa free.

Still, it’s sad to see him go. I wish Justin all the best luck and continued sucess.

First of all, I’d like to say that this is a 100% pro-Cloverfield website so all you anti-Cloverfieldians are warned. Anyway, it looks like that the Cloverfield monster is going to appear as a toy from Hasbro. Of course, there’s no picture of the toy since the movie has only been out for a few days. This is a pretty classy move considering these days everything is leaked the instant someone even thinks about something.

Hasbro promises the monster will feature “70 points of articulation and incredible life-like detail”, “Authentic sound”, “14” tall”, “10 parasites”, “Two interchangeable heads”, “Statue of Liberty head accessory”, and “Special Cloverfield collector’s edition packaging”. All of this for the low, low price of 99.99. Uh, yeah. I’m sure this thing is cool, but it’s odd that a higher priced collectible like this is being made by Hasbro. I’d expect Sideshow or NECA, not Hasbro.

Either way, as soon as a picture hits I’ll post it.

Hasbro released some images of the newly announced Wave 7 of 25th Anniversary figures and I’ve got them here for review. Hold on to your butts, this is going to be a mild ride.

Duke with Jet Pack

This Duke matches the red white and blue that once coursed through John Wayne’s blood. Just looking at this fills me with capitalistic patriotism of untold of levels. That being said, I’m not going to buy it, unless to us use the flag pole to hoist up a Cobra flag on it.

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As reported by me way back in August, NECA had gotten the license to make Gears of War figures. Now after long months of waiting, we finally get to see how they turned out. Big Bad Toy Store has this image on it’s pre-order page:

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