Every year, the hardest part of Toy Fair is scouring the thousands upon thousands of unique offerings to decide which will appeal the most to collectors. An item might be exceptional, but would someone want more than one of it? Does it come in variations? Does it lend itself to display? Would multiples of this thing make its inherent value, aesthetically or practically, increase?
I’m at a crossroads, so I’ve been becoming extra particular. Toy Fair makes that very, very difficult. Plastic seductresses at every turn, luring me onto the bone-crushing edges of folding tables and drowning my resolve. I’m a fat man set adrift in a sea of bacon and Twinkies.
Here’s the ‘everything else’ of Toy Fair 2009, with apologies to all of the omissions I’ve made for the sake of brevity and not appearing like an overexcited puppy.
BANDAI! Bandai is all about the Kamen Rider, Dragonball (both animated and live-action), Ben 10, and Power Rangers. Every one of these things lends itself to collectability – forming color-coded teams, completing sets of alien transformations, and in the case of the live-action Dragonball figures, completing a big, blue, translucent figures from parts contained in the packages with every other figure in the line.
Most of these are properties that have been brought over to the US from Japan (except for Ben 10), but like most Japanese-to-US interpretations of things, they’re tweaked for wider acceptability to the US audience – though I noticed two things from Bandai that 
defy this trend. First, the upcoming Dragonball Z gashapon sets, which for all of their popularity and collectability in Japan, rarely see success in the US. These are little, plastic sets of pieces that are assembled into a highly detailed statue, diorama or character, and I’m a huge fan of the genre. I think that the overarching opinion of these is that kids in the US don’t have the patience to put together their own toys, and I wouldn’t totally disagree. Second, the Japanese ‘Mugen’ series of keychain toys, which I’ve blogged about previously. I don’t know if the Mugen Pop Pop makes silly noises in Japan, but at least the theory remains in tact.
I’m a huge, dorky fan of Japanese TV show monsters, with my own collection of kaiju toys, so the more bizarre monsters I get, the better. Much of what Bandai produces is all about the heroes and their transformations – I’d love to see some of the creepy, foam rubber monsters that have appeared in these shows – seams and all. Click here for the Bandai Gallery.
NECA also produces a whole bunch of great-looking toys that are just beyond the cusp of what I actively collect. Most of their properties are video game related, with a focus on giant, ugly, terrifying monsters from Resident Evil, Gears of War, and other figures from violent or scary games. They also are continuing their ‘Cult Classics‘ series of figures, which are all about movie monsters – both classic (like the various possessed forms of the girl from The Exorcist) and modern.
Most interesting to me is the continuation of their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures, which are based directly on the art from the original comics, as opposed to the films or cartoon. So far, we have the four Turtles and a pack of convention exclusive Mouser robots, but NECA was displaying the sculpts for April O’Neill (who, debatably, is not based on original comic art), Shredder and Krang, and a bad guy grunt. Anything based on the work of a specific artist is always attractive to me. Also, anything that involves a creature that’s a malevolent brain. The NECA Gallery is here.
Mezco (who are one of my favorite companies) was also present, having skipped NYCC one week earlier, but 
was not permitting photography. Their biggest announcement was the Little Big Planet property, based on the amazingly creative PS3 video game. As it naturally lends itself to customization and variety, it’s a natural fit with the whole toy scene. A wide range of figure sizes are planned, starting with a series of costumed Sackboys and Sackgirls, including a very awesome robot & devil – two themes that I tend to collect.
Mezco is also continuing with their many stylized versions of horror movie icons Freddy, Jason and Leatherface – plush, 3.75” (Star Wars sized) figures, 12” figures, with my personal favorite being ’surgeon’ Freddy from the 6” scaled line (whose many costumes are always great), and of course, the giveaway, Toy Fair exclusive 3.75” ‘glowing mask’ Jason.
Figures and props from the upcoming Wolfman movie were also debuted, as well as a whole series of products based on the ‘Goosebumps‘ series of children’s books. Bookmarks, keychains, plush, and my favorite, the M.U.S.C.L.E.-styled ‘Pocket Horrors’, which are mini, unpainted figures of various monsters and beasts from the series. These should go great with Hasbro’s ‘Handful of Heroes’ minis and your generic army man, as there seems to be an industry-wide return to basics.
I’m also a fan of Hexbugs, being a lover of both robots and bugs. These are small robotic creatures that are programmed to skitter around, and respond to light, sound, or touch stimulus by adjusting their movement to either move towards or away from said stimulus. The newest Hexbug is the Inchworm, joining the original 
cockroach-like bug and the Crab. The Inchworm differs by being actually radio-controlled, so you can direct its movements consciously, instead of just watching it bump into things. For a robot of such a tiny size, it’s an impressive feat, and I cam imagine a whole handful of these operating together in some kind of tiny robot rumble. Not out yet, but on the horizon, is the Ant – which runs around at a breakneck speed that has to be seen to be believed, and is engineered to thwart that most heinous hindrance of small moving toys : the carpet. It’s a little terrifying and thrilling, and it’ll probably freak the brains outta your cat.
Schleich is a well-known name in unarticulated figure production, most notably for their Fairy and Smurf lines, with many older or exclusive Smurf figures going for high prices on the secondary market. Smurf dedication is kind of epic, rivaling the intensity and complexity of even Pez collecting, and books have evolved around the figures in Schleich’s Fairy collection, so both properties are something to watch. The Schleich Gallery is here.
My award for ‘Nicest Guy at Toy Fair’ goes to Micah Linton, creator of Weebeasts. With an extremely small number of original, creator-owned booths at Toy Fair compared to past years, I was really curious to see who made it this year. Micah’s Weebeasts are a unique concept, as they combine a series of books with a surreal, almost-Bosch-looking doll. His books wordlessly chronicle the evolution and progression of his Weebeasts as a species, and are done entirely in pastels and pencils, calling to mind the aesthetics of primitive, ancient recordings or cave painting – all while still detailing a very clear, very methodical progression. This set of three books (so far) were packaged in a handsome slipcase, and came with a Weebeast doll. His display included a whole bunch of Weebeasts dressed in costumes made by family and friends throughout the world – at least a few of them probably generated by his whirlwind library tour.
We talked about art and publishing a whole bunch, and I was inspired by his organic, ‘art for the sake of art’ approach to his whole property. So, Micah, not only were you refreshing to talk to, but I wish you lots of continued luck as you spread the Weebeasts around.
If there was a definitive trend at this year’s Toy Fair, it was ‘toys that go online’. Many, many different properties incorporate an elaborate (but kid-friendly) online environment into regular hands-on play, from Bella Sara introducing flocked mini-horses to their existing online world, to my favorite new discovery, Freaky Creatures, which are full-sized action figure that all have online components for care & battle. With a system of cards, flash drives and really interesting character designs, I’m excited to play with some of these soon – especially because they has a cthulhu-based figure that they let me take home, name Cthonus.
Sometimes, I like to think that they schedule Toy Fair to fall on Valentines Day because they know I’d be tremendously lonely and depressed otherwise. The free swag that accompanies the day is certainly a bonus. Instead of chocolates and kisses, I go home with free dolls, keychains, pens and action figures. What more can the lonely geek ask for?
Aside from the gentle curves of a woman.
