Because of the very brief time span between Toy Fair and New York Comic Con this year, a few companies decided to hold onto some ‘big reveals’ until NYCC and show them off to the public at large, instead of just members of the industry. This made for what some collectors have called ‘a disappointing Toy Fair’, but an exciting NYCC.

One such company was Hasbro, whose Marvel Legends line is the talk of the town. You know, if you’re talking about a town entirely full of XBox 360s and Doritos and people with breathing issues. Despite this popularity, they didn’t show off anything new at Toy Fair, but had the next two waves safely displayed and encased at NYCC, confirming rumors of future character lineups (which crafty techo-nerds had already gleaned from Wal-Mart stock charts and lost bits of HTML on Hasbro’s website). Wave three will include Bucky (the Captain America sidekick), First Appearance Captain America, Marvel Girl (and variant), Black Knight, Astonishing X-Men Cyclops, X3 Colossus, Danger, and a HYDRA soldier (and variant) with a Brood Queen Build-A-Figure tying them all together. These are pictured in the photos above and in the NYCC photo gallery. The late reveal of these might seem unnecessary, but the manner in which they were revealed presents a very collector-friendly stance that Hasbro is trying to make, in spite of allegations that figure quality has dropped significantly since they took over the line. I don’t care what anyone says - my Annihilus is probably one of the most awesome things to ever fall over onto me while I’m sleeping, excluding of course the array of clumsy but beautiful women that I find myself with.

DC Direct revealed series seven of Justice, a continuing series of figures based on the artwork of Alex Ross, but the showing was unfortunately confusing. Two of the figures included in this wave are Armored Superman and Armored Aquaman, both of whom were slated to appear in a canceled wave comprised entirely of armored heroes (along with Batman, the female Nightwing, and Flamebird). Both of these figures appeared to be almost completely solid colored, with no paint detailing. In addition to that, a Gorilla Grodd figure was on display that re-used the body of the previous Grodd figure, and a John Stewart Green Lantern that re-used a Hal Jordan Body and the head of another previous Stewart figure which looked nothing at all like the artwork of Alex Ross. Since series 5 only just came out two weeks ago, and every figure to date has been excellent, we can hope that the figures on display were only placeholders for the actual figures being sculpted and painted. If not, I have to say that this is the first wave of Justice figures I’m going to completely skip.

Mezco didn’t allow photography of their Goonies line at Toy Fair, where we saw them in their full, painted glory, but unpainted prototypes were on display at NYCC, along with a few replica movie props. As mentioned in the Toy Fair coverage, these still present exceptional likenesses. While Mezco sometimes pursues cartoon figures, or portrays properties in a cartoonish manner, but they’re more spot-on with likenesses than any other company producing toys.

WizKids also displayed at NYCC, revealing the entire line of DC Heroclix : Origins figures for the first time, and a few crucial figure game stats. I haven’t been this excited for a wave of Heroclix in a long time, usually just buying a case each wave to keep up on my collection for the next time I actually sit down and play. I recall discussing a DC Comics based Heroclix set with former brand manager Jason Mical at Toy Fair about two years ago, and putting in my formal argument to do a set based on Golden Age characters, or at least classic ones - mostly to satisfy my jones for an Alan Scott Green Lantern. Finally, my dream set is being released, and in only three days! It will feature such characters as First Appearance Batman and Superman, Mirror Master (with an additional sculpt depicting him in a mirror), Shadow Thief (with another additional sculpt depicting him in his flat and flexible alternate form), Doom Patrol’s Robotman, Mister Mind, Golden Age Sandman, Shazam (with a neat, but suggestive, sculpt of him transforming from little Billy Batson). Overall, very exciting to be able to add these characters to an army. The only Marvel Heroclix figure on display was the colossal Fin Fang Foom, two of which were being given away in gaming competitions during the Con. These are not available yet, but will become so during the summer convention season, much like Galactus and Spectre were in past years.

Next year’s NYCC will happen in April, increasing that divide between Toy Fair and itself, and giving companies more time to prepare their annual exclusives, so there’s hope yet to establish a higher volume of new items for sale by then. The Con will also have increased space, hopefully delaying (or preventing entirely) that good ol’ New York Shuffle, wherein you can’t really place one foot more than three inches in front of the other.

Overall, NYCC has become a convention worth attending, so if you’re in the NYC area, check it out. But don’t get in my way.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 4th, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under collecting fyi, events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.