Hopefully, you’ve been reading along as I’ve detailed what we saw during Toy Fair in the Javits Center, and the earlier presentation by Hasbro. Allow this segment of this series of Toy Fair entries to detail some of the lovely companies that produce ‘high end’ collectibles - those things that are designed for a more mature audience that understands the delicacy of certain objects. Those adults whose love of collectibles and pop culture are quietly addressed, without any hint of incredulity, and with an actual modicum of respect. These items, which all appeared at Toy Fair this year, are made with this adult collector in mind - even if some of them are wearing tight spandex or have flashing lights and sounds.

First on this list is Tonner Dolls, a company that only came into my sphere of awareness when they started making collectible DC Comics superhero and superheroine dolls. Their doll products are roughly 18 inches tall, so they defy any commonly used miniaturization scale, and are designed for display over play. While these are articulated dolls, and usually run around $150 each, the focus of these is on fashion and carefully constructed clothing - one thing that bridges the awkward and often-misspoken gap between ‘dolls’ and ‘action figures’. It’s a very difficult line to explain.

Among their DC Comics offerings are dolls of Batman, Batgirl, The Joker, Harley Quinn, Aquaman, Poison Ivy, Supergirl, and a few different versions of Wonder Woman. Aquaman’s looking especially doll-like, with his graceful swoosh of handsome, rooted hair and a mesh shirt that covers a second shirt which reflects the whole spectrum. Us figure collectors don’t usually get any rainbow-hued heroes in our collections. Also notable is The Joker, whose scary, inhuman appearance is a very strong nod to the original appearance of The Joker within Batman issue #1 - something that I couldn’t really identify until seeing it in person. Other pop properties that Tonner has made (or is making) dolls for are Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Spider-Man 2, and Dick Tracy. Hints were given (and please note that this is my own interpretation of things said) that Tonner might soon start announcing more Marvel Comics characters, and a second visit to the Batman doll as a summer convention exclusive, this time with handy Bat-accesories.

The Tonner homebase in Kingston, NY, coincidentally, is pretty nearby to my hometown.

Corgi and Master Replicas are also two related companies that have a strong focus on the adult, disposable-incomed collector. In the past, they’ve shown up on my nerd-radar by making die cast Marvel superheroes statues, as well as a great series of 1/24 scaled Batmobiles (and a few villain vehicles) that drew directly from every era of Batman comics. They’re also responsible for small and large Star Trek starships from every incarnation of the series, but this upcoming year promises to be a very exciting one.

With the highly-desired 007 license, they promise to make three series of 7” action figures from the property, including a line of different Bonds, different Bond girls, and of course, the awesome bad guys. The enthusiasm expressed by the gents at the display was infectious, and while there were no Bond toys on display, it’s a perfect opportunity to get figures of different Bond characters, especially since Sideshow Collectibles’ 12” offerings dried up long ago. In terms of other Bond items, the 1:1 scale replica Golden Gun stole my heart - not only because it’s radiant and unseemly, but because I have fond memories of playing Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 for hours in my college dorms. The Golden Gun was the single item that could invariably smoke your opponent in a single, quiet shot - and while my opponents favored grenades and proximity mines, I preferred the stealth of the Golden Gun. To own a realistic one is the definition of sexy.

The companies have also ventured into the smaller-scale action figure realm by creating 3.75” scale action figures for both The Golden Compass and Harry Potter movies, including playsets and vehicles for both. They’ll be making figures from an upcoming animated film called ‘Igor’, but I’m most excited about seeing the Super Mario Brothers figures that they’re importing from Japan. As a gashapon series that’s been going on for many years within Japan, hundreds upon hundreds of Nintendo characters have already been made in this solid-plastic 2” size, addressing all manner of Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Podobos, Bob-ombs, Birdos, Princesses and Bullet Bills. What remains unaddressed, however, is my sad ability to name just about every one of these from my twisted, useless memory. Larger, articulated figures of Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and more are also on the way and should be arriving any day now at specialty retailers and game stores. There’s nothing better to decorate a classic gaming entertainment center with.

I’ll wrap this up with Kaiyodo’s Revoltech, a Japanese company which produces action figures of above-average quality and, as a result, slightly-above-average but-still-reasonable prices. Your typical American action figure in a 6” - 7” scale might cost around $10 to $15 dollars, but Revoltech’s quality demands a price of roughly $20 to $25 per figure, packaged beautifully in window boxes, painted flawlessly, and with a ridiculous amount of articulation. These things can bend every which way, like nothing you’ve ever seen (unless you’ve really plumbed the depths of the internet, you sickos), and the combination of this ability with great sculpting is the holy grail of the action figure collector. Hell, I bought a handful of these recently without even knowing who the characters were - just because they’re that beautiful.

Since Japan toy culture is partially focused on customization and creating new things out of existing things, a fine art with entire magazines dedicated to it, Kaiyodo’s Revoltech figure joints can easily pop in and out of their sockets, all while being held firmly when need to be. These joints can also, apparently, be purchased separately. The name ‘Revoltech’ seems to be a reference to these unique joints, and the idea of figural parts being completely capable of ‘revolving’, or moving. Almost all of the booth’s catalogues and explanations were written in Japanese, so my information is limited - besides the fact that there are truly awesome.

What all of this spells out is that as a collector, my resistance to the products of this upcoming year is being seriously tested like never before. It’s one thing to sit at home and view product shots of these beautiful things, but it’s another thing entirely to walk around them and see them in person - an activity that’s always dangerously alluring. Unfortunately, Sideshow Collectibles, my favorite producers of things that I can’t afford but buy anyway, opted out of Toy Fair this year and relegated their ‘presence’ to a few new items on their website.

Next time, we’ll take a look at some more DC Comics items made by DC Direct and Mattel - things that truly short out my nerdometer.

================

Gotta Collect? Then You Gotta Connect - Join our Collectors’ Community!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under collecting fyi, events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.