Last time, I promised some answers to fan-asked questions that I’d pose directly to Mezco & Mike Drake during my visit. Here’s what I found out :

- Will the Hellboy comic license continue?

While Mezco made two incredible waves of Mike Mignola-art styled Hellboy figures, Mezco has completely closed up shop on the Hellboy comic franchise after their SDCC 2007 Exclusive Abe Sapien figure. Sorry, guys! The movie figures look great, though. You should see the Angel of Death figure. It’ll eat your brain with awesomeness.

- Whay happened to some of the articulation on the Hellboy 2 movie figures?

For the record, we actually stood in the War Room and counted the articulation on a variety of the HB2 figures. Abe Sapien has 19 points, Hellboy has 18 points, Wink has 15 points, and Johann has 12 points. After seeing them in action, I’m confident that they’ll be able to do anything you want them to do, articulation-wise.

Here’s another little tidbit on the HB2 movie figures : they’ll be available at Toys ‘R’ Us, unlike all previous HB figures. While TRU usually balks at anything that mentions ‘hell’, or bears too much female flesh, the Hellboy figures will be on the shelves. This is possible because they’ll be packaged with the name ‘HB’ instead of ‘Hellboy’. Also, look for a soft drink tie-in, which will also eschew the use of the word ‘hell’ by calling Hellboy ‘Red’ and ‘HB’.

- Any word on more Mez-Itz?

Mez-Itz are Mezco’s cute-ish, mini stylized figures from a wide array of properites. Since they’re a signature item of the company, they will continue indefinitely, but there are no specific Mez-Itz planned for the immediate future.

- How about more from their ‘Living Dead’ zombie line of figures?

The Living Dead line is, for lack of a better word, dead. The same goes for the Popeye line.

- Are The Warriors figures still coming?

The short answer is ‘yes’. While we were in the War Room, I had the opportunity to play with the prototype tooling samples of the super-articulated bodies – so, that’s about how far along in the process these figures are. Do not lose hope.

- How about more hip-hop licenses?

As the properties present themselves, Mezco seems happy to work with them. It’s been exceptionally easy to deal with Biggie as a ‘property’ because he’s not ‘owned’ by a large music corporation – all you have to do is ask his mom, who I was told is a very pleasant woman. It’s not as easy to negotiate rights from corporate controlled entity. Also, it was interesting to note that Mezco was the creator of Miles Thirst – one time toy spokesperson for a series of great Sprite commercials. Not only was he an original concept, but a very limited number of Miles figures were made and given to Sprite employees. So you see, the possibilities are wide open.

- Would Mezco consider more literature-based figures like their Captain Nemo set?

Yes, but there’s nothing specific happening at the moment, with much energy going into the great array of stuff that they already have going on.

- Is there any info on the Heroes 4” figures?

There were no sculpts or prototypes around that I saw, but that’s likely because the release date isn’t until November. It’s still full-speed ahead, though!

- What is going on with Future Hiro and Future Peter (from Heroes)?

Both of these figures were removed from the waves that they were slated to be in. While Future Peter has no specific destination at the moment, he will still make an appearance. It will also be revealed here for the first time, anywhere, that Future Hiro will be this year’s San Diego Comic Con exclusive figure. I spied a copy of him in the photography room (where there was no photographt allowed, ironically), and he’s looking great. Also spied were two versions of a clean-cut Peter Petrelli in two variantly colored plaid shirts…..

With those questions suitably answered, my cohort and I hung out on the comfortable Mezco couches for a few minutes. We said hello to Mez himself, president of Mezco, as he walked past – and Mike Drake came back with an armload of toys for us. A stack of amazing proportions – zombies, cinema scenes, the not-yet-released Biggie Smalls from New York Comic Con 2008, Family Guy – more than could comfortably fit on the 7 train…. but before Drake would relinquish these goodies, he challenged me to a duel. Seriously. I’m not making this up.

After it became clear that I couldn’t hold my own in a swordfight, let alone walk up a flight of stairs without feeling faint, Drake took pity on me and just handed the toys over. He probably thought that I could pawn them for a pair of sneakers or an Iso-Flex. At the very least, he didn’t want me to have my inevitable heart attack on their clear floors.

So, we headed back down the charmingly ancient elevator, and as we walked back out into the cool April weather, Drake informed me that he had one more thing for me. Somehow secreted during the elevator trip and walk outside, he pulled a Hellboy prototype figure out from behind his back and handed it to me. Having one of the unique, half-unpainted, pre-production tooling samples from the Hellboy line of figures is probably one of the most prized, neato things in all of my Hellboy AND action figure collections, so I kinda walked a few blocks in a daze, clutching the tiny devil in my hands and just staring.

Many thanks to Mike Drake for having us over & the awesome hospitality that we received. Please enjoy a few more pics from our visit!

(A close-up of the NYCC Exclusive Jason, unmasked)

(The prototype on the right started to droop because the plastics making up the base couldn’t support the weight of the two figures. The prototype on the left now incorporates a metal rod for support.)

(The same figure as above on the left. The figure on the right is a rare 2-up figure, twice the size of the final figure.)

(And finally, Mike Drake himself, and the NYCC Biggie figure. Mike wanted me to remind the audience that he’s the one on the right.)

 

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Article Tags: action figures, Hellboy, Heroes, Mezco, toys, warriors

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 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.