While I usually go on endlessly about action figures in this exploration of Toy Fair 2008, it’s important to note that these figures are but a very small part of the whole event. However, the event is so massive that it’s necessary to try to find your own focus as you walk inside, as even throughout four days, the miles and miles of aisles must be traversed quickly in order to try to see a bit of everything.

I don’t find myself completely limited to action figures, though, as this gallery of the Javits Center demonstrates. Anyone prone to distraction by and kind of sound, bright lights, or moving parts, well - they wouldn’t make it down the first aisle before being sweet-talked into abject adulation (and often, equal amounts of incredulity) towards what they’d seen.

One common theme during this year’s Fair was robotic toys. While the Robosapien made a big splash a few years ago, the general robot model has been improved upon and dissected into submission, allowing the user to more easily construct electro-animals out of this Bioloid kit. Sure, it’s painfully expensive, but stepping boldly into the future isn’t a cheap endeavor. These robots moved around with more stability and grace than any I’d ever seen in person before, and they’ll surely go somewhere great if they offer themselves at a slightly more affordable price.

OWI Toys offered up a great set of solar powered robot monkeys, car and boat kits. Despite solar power being one of our greatly unrealized, renewable and harmless natural resources, it remains underused in the world at large. These small items packed a surprisingly powerful kick under a small solar lamp. I’d imagine that the solar racecar would need to be reigned in somehow lest it get lost at breakneck speeds into the middle of a busy intersection. This same booth offered beautiful, but functionless, aluminum bug kits that gave off a very strong robot vibe.

Continuing in the theme of eco-friendly toys, the Javits Center was crawling with great ideas that reduced plastic waste, toxic batteries and paints, and harmful work conditions for the manufacturers. One gentleman who was most passionate about this was the creator of Tree Blocks - a charmingly super-organic kind of building block made of wood from renewable forests, packaged exclusively in recycled materials. These are so organic that the bark is still on them, and yet, they seemed to fit together to make study structures. Little figural pieces were also made form wood and clothed in simple cloth outfits. The whole idea was super-basic, but that’s what the word needs more of. Despite access to a computer and all manned of Barbies and video games, my own niece prefers the possibilities of building blocks and Legos.

Also eco-friendly were the Ecotronic Toys, which took the idea of saving the environment one step further, as all of their electronic toys run on nothing but kinetic energy storage, not unlike the watches that one shakes to recharge, or the flashlights that require a crank mechanism. With a few friendly barbs at American waste, the English gentleman sold me on the idea of his Ecotronic toys. Not, though, that the robot head’s coils were malformed after some confusion at the factory between inches and centimeters in the blueprints.

I also loved the ecology of Fascination’s self-sustaining ant farm, called AntWorks. While these aren’t completely new, the idea if that your colony of ants remain nourished by the clear gel within the farm, as they’re made extra-visible by its transparency and illumination. No easy solutions have been formed about how to replace the ants or gel when they naturally die out, so you’d have to buy a second one to enjoy the rich cycle of life again.

The same company also had some eerie and effective magnetic levitation devices on display, which included hovering silver spheres, globes, and an Asian relic statue.

As always, Lego pulled out all of the stops outside of their Forbidden Booth, giving viewers a view of the almost-life-sized Indiana Jones, C-3PO and Clone Trooper statues - made entirely out of thousands of Legos. Unfortunately, this was all that I got to see, as I’d not made an appointment to see them this year. They invited us in so warmly last year - but the ritual, sadly, was not repeated, and we were turned away.

In terms of figural things, I always have a love of Zoomorphs as they add more and more animals to their collection. The ability to pull apart brightly-colored animals from all walks of life and make your own cruel hell-beasts out of them has an appeal to me, but let’s not dig too deeply into that. One can choose from all kinds of mammals, fish, lizards and dinosaurs, birds, and even mythological creatures, and it’s a LOT of fun.

Stikfas were also present - another kind of small man-shaped toy that one can pull apart and put back together again. The surfaces of these, as well as their plentiful accessories, are designed to be cut apart, painted and customized into whatever you’d like, though. I spent long hours in my dorm room creating Stikfas versions of Batman and The Joker, so it’s good to see that these sturdy little guys are still around. The company is also venturing into the crafty territory with a new product called Korkis, which are exactly what they sound like - craft baggies full of corks and pipe cleaners, also meant for imaginative repurposing into creatures and structures.

Artists were also set up among the various booths, including a Gus Fink - whose extensive collection of mini-figures, all cute and creepy, will have a large appeal to the urban vinyl crowd. We chatted with him a bit, expressed our own desire to do precisely what he’s doing with his life, and promised to destroy his patience with us by asking a thousand questions.

Also, check out Scruncalli Dunchie, a small, artistic company which makes large statues of samurai and smaller, unpainted busts of Greek gods. The sculptor, Rocco, has been employed by various toy making companies, but his own sculptures remain what he’s most passionate about. Check them out, as they’re pretty well done and caught my eye from across the showroom floor.

Finally, we saw Musical DNA. In terms of a simple explanation, it’s a highly evolved Rock Band / Guitar Hero kind of game that runs on your home computer. Using a MIDI hookup, you can attach your drums, guitar or keyboard to the program and see your music come to life on the screen, in beautiful patterns of lines and colors. One can play freehand, use it to learn music as a game, or just watch the pretty colors spiral upwards. As a visual person with some degree of synaesthesia, it’s like seeing my brain come to life and make sense on a screen.

And while I won’t mention any specific toy, there were more than a few that defied any kind of fun or logic by their very nature, and seeing someone try to sell the idea of it was an uncomfortable experience. Most awkward of all were the discount-rate booths in the back, forgotten corner of The Center, lovingly dubbed ‘Inventor’s Alley’. All I could do was try to see what these guys had invented without making eye contact and being forced into a conversation, standing in the grimy aisle and trying to be kind. Word to inventors : do not ever, ever, ever sell your game with a slogan that relates to ‘hating the game’. I’ve actually seen way too many games sold on the idea of evoking hatred for the product but a love of victory, and it just doesn’t work. When someone says ‘hate the game’, I’m inclined to agree. Also, don’t change around letters in the spelling of a common word just to make it funky and different - it degrades us all.

Stay tuned for some very specific coverage of Tonner Dolls, Mattel, Mezco Toys, Corgi and Master Replicas, DC Direct, Diamond Comics, Amok Time, NECA, Shocker Toys, Revoltech, Huckleberry Toys, and McFarlane Toys, among lots more!

So, as Toy Fair 2008 ends, I come to you with my report from the first day of the Big Event. On Saturday, February 16th, Hasbro hosted their ‘Collector Event’ in their rented showrooms near the Javits Center in NYC, and preceded that with a handful of powerpoint presentations at The Times Center regarding their upcoming and continuing toy lines. We got free popcorn and water, and afterwards, we even got a cookie. Which was delicious - even if it was printed with the Hasbro logo. If Hasbro tastes like sugar cookies and white chocolate, feed me more.

Sure, ToyFair hadn’t even really started yet, but Hasbro likes to get ‘the nerd herd’ out of the way. It goes something like this : they shuffle us into a maze of displays, we crowd like so many camera-wielding lambs to slaughter, and we struggle to get suitable shots for our own sites around the wide stance of that annoying guy from that Transformers fan site. Seriously, guy, you don’t need 15 shots of Optimus Prime’s nostrils. I’d just like one of his chassis, please. The difference between nerds and lambs, though, is that lambs have a sense of direction and are soft, whereas nerds depend entirely on their elbows to make their oblivious treks right smack into your nether regions.

Can you tell that I was more than a little perturbed by the claustrophobia of the showroom? To top it all off, one of the new American Gladiators was standing in the doorway to greet us. You know, pecs bigger than your head, glistening, making us all regret every decision we’ve ever made in our nerd-lives, called something like Kickface or Hemorrhage or something such. I’m much more of an American Gladiola.

But I digress. For the first half of the afternoon, no recording devices of any kind were allowed. We sat in a comfy theatre as toy planners and execs told us about Hasbro’s’ plans for 2008, all revolving around their “boys’ properties” of Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Hulk, Star Wars, G. I. Joe, Transformers, Marvel Comics, and Indiana Jones - all of which have a movie or TV show of some sort coming out this year. The great things about Hasbro’s properties is that Hasbro capitalizes off of them in as many ways possible - so while the Iron Man movie might be hot, they’ll use this momentum to delve into Iron Man comics and fan-favorite history stuff to make more products that collectors AND casual fans would love to see on a toy shelf for different (and still all valid) reasons. G. I. Joe fans will see classic stuff revisited, and Indiana Jones fans will see figures from ALL of the Indiana Jones movies - not just the new Crystal Skull one.

Now listen up, collectors - there’s a lot of dates I’m going to drop on you for when you can find these toys, and what you’ll be looking for.

- IRON MAN will see seven basic 6” scale figures, which will arrive on shelves on March 22nd, preceding the movie release, scheduled for May 2nd. Expect a ‘first appearance’ Mark I Armor, a Mark III armor, and Titanium Man, among other action-featured Iron Men - as well as a funky Iron Man roadster, ‘cause every hero needs a vehicle. Especially when they can fly. The movie’s designs are based on the comic cover artwork of Adi Granov, which is a great nod to the comics themselves. There will also be a beautiful, deluxe 12” figure, and at least two sets of Superhero Squad figures - which are 2” tall, kid-friendly, cartoonish plastic hunks of neatness. These will be Iron Man related, but not movie-centric at all - including Hulkbuster, First Appearance, Silver Centurion, War Machine, Unmasked and other neat armors. Keep an eye out for an additional Iron Man armor included with the Hulk Superhero Squad packs!

- THE INCREDIBLE HULK MOVIE will be the kind of movie that says, “You know what? We never made that Eric Bana one. Let’s start over & do it right!” The toys will drop on May 1st, and the movie is released on June 13th. The 6” scale movie toys seem to be a whole lotta very similar Hulks with action features, an Abomination figure (not shown at Toy Fair), and a few army guys - nothing incredible. What collectors SHOULD take note of is the ‘Marvel Legends’ style figures that’ll be coming out at this time also - again, not movie-centric, but very much related to Hulk comics. The first wave will include Savage She-Hulk (pictured at left), Wendigo (a more accurate one than the other Marvel Legends one), Absorbing Man (returning, after being impossible to find a few years back), and ‘The End’ Hulk. A second wave will come shortly after this, and if you collect all eight figures, you can build a genuinely huge Fin Fang Foom figure - the dragon that fans have been clamoring for for YEARS. I’m psyched. (One will also be able to get all 8 figures, along with Foom, in a ‘Collector’s Box’ at San Diego Comic Con this year). As mentioned earlier, there will also be at least two Superhero Squad packs, all comic related, including Green Scar, Silver Savage, and a few other Hulks.

- SPIDER-MAN is getting a new animated show on Saturday mornings, and Hasbro’s toys will release on March 1st, capitalizing on that great animated style that I recently wrote about. While there’s no new Spider-Man films on the immediate horizon, Hasbro will be releasing a ‘Spider-Man Classic’ line, which will feature comic characters that we haven’t seen yet, including Tarantula, which will drop on August 1st. All of these are 6” scaled, so everything is compatible with everything else, as Hasbro’s learned their lesson from the ill-fated 5” Spider-Man line of late last year that no one seems to be buying.

- MARVEL LEGENDS are going to have an odd year, with only 2 waves of single-packed figures this year, which run from 5 to 8 figures per wave. No figure or Build-a-Figure plans were revealed for these, but the year will also see eight 2-packs, which makes up for the figural absence otherwise. These will include Ultimate Nick Fury & Ultimate World War II Captain America, and Elektra & Ronin. Fans will note that these are all new, current characters that are important to current storylines, and even better, Marvel Legends will start coming with relevant accessories again, including alternate heads and hands. An Elektra with a Skrull head? YES PLEASE - but it all still means that we’re going to be shorted on buildable, huge figures.

Also planned for 2008 is a San Diego Comic Con exclusive 3-pack under the ‘Savage Land’ theme, which includes Shanna the She-Devil, Ka-Zar and Zabu. I hate the sound of the word ‘exclusive’, I hate that San Diego gets almost all of them, and I hate trying to find them for fair prices - but at least HasbroToyShop.com has offered these to online buyers in the past.

- SUPERHERO SQUAD will see, in addition to the aforementioned Hulk & Iron Man packs, twenty-four more 2-packs, and eight more 4-packs, which will include Hobgoblin, Psylocke, Shang Chi, Nighthawk, Carnage, Ares, and other figures that are so obscure it’s ridiculous and awesome. The new MIGHTY MUGGS line, which feature generic, cartoony, urban vinyl-styled bodies done up in different decos, will have 16 new marvel figures this year, including Thing, Doctor Doom, Hulk, Venom, Iron Man and a bunch of other good choices. SDCC will have an exclusive (shudder) Iron Man Movie figure.

- MARVEL UNLEASHED, a line of extra-sized, super-articulated, premium figures will see four more waves, starting with Iron Man. These can be equated to ‘a step up from regular action figures without breaking the bank’. MARVEL TRANSFORMERS will also begin, mixing Hasbro’s properties up into a myriad of neat things. They start off with an Iron Man and a Hulk that turn into vehicles, Transformers-style! And speaking of mixing properties, there are strong rumors of a Star Wars-scaled Marvel figure line… and who doesn’t want to see Darth Vader and Doctor Doom duke it out?

As big a nerd as I am, my knowledge of G. I. Joe and Transformers is next to nothing, so I regret that almost all of the information about these two properties went right over my head, not knowing many names or which toys have come before. I can mention that a second Transformers movie is starting to film (though no toys were shown), a kid-friendly Transformers cartoon is starting up (with a few figures shown), and a G. I. Joe movie has also started filming. I also went out after this presentation and bought my first three Joe figures. Note, please, that every company I’d talk to this weekend had their own 3.75″ scale line brewing, and ergo, everything would be compatible with the tiny Joes.

- INDIANA JONES promises to be a hot property, with Hasbro delving into every IJ movie, answering fan pleas that have echoed annoyingly for years. On May 1st, all of the toys are going to appear. We have an initial offering of seventeen 3.75” (or ‘Star Wars’) scale figures, with plans to expand the line into at least twenty-nine figures by the end of the year. There’s a lot of lost time to make up for, and they’re doing it well. Each figure will come with a ‘relic’ from one of the movies, amassing a great little treasure trove. There will also be a 12” line, more Adventure Heroes (much like the oft-mentioned Superhero Squad), a ‘Taters of the Lost Ark’ Mr. Potato Head, more Mighty Muggs, and even a classic mail-in program for every line. One can collect 4 proofs of purchase to earn an Adventure Heroes Indy on his horse, a 1/6th scaled Ark, or a 3.75” scale mystery figure that was not revealed to us due to its importance in the new movie.

And finally STAR WARS! As if there wasn’t already an information overload, there’s a ton of SW stuff coming. On July 26th, ‘The Legacy Collection’ will drop, which will include Stormtrooper helmet packaging and will include 30 figures. One week later, The Clone Wars Animated figures will happen, on Clone Trooper helmet packaging - so that fans can distinguish between the two. This will include 23 figures. All of these will include bonus parts to build a few Droids similar to R2-D2 and C-3PO.

These early offerings will include an ‘Episode Six Deleted Scene’ theme, with our classic Star Wars heroes in desert gear for the first time. Now, most exciting for me out of all of Toy Fair was catching a glimpse of Yarna D’Al Gargan (pictured above) - one of Jabba’s Palace dancers that was never made into a figure, and who was featured more prominently on the screen than 90% of every other Star Wars character ever made. The reason that she’s never been made is her semi-controversial feature of ‘having six breasts’, but FINALLY. Finally we can complete out Jabba’s Palace cardboard dioramas with Yarna.

Beyond these basic offerings, there will be comic 2-packs, with characters from throughout the non-canon history of the Star Wars comics, including Cade Skywalker, Darth Talon, Dengar & Fenn Shyshd. There will be four ‘Evolutions’ themed 3-packs, including a trio of Rebel Pilots from Episode 6, and a triple-pack of a Padme Amidala from each movie that she appeared in. And the line extends into even more Mighty Muggs and ‘Galactic Heroes’ - which are the same thing as ‘Adventure Heroes’ and ‘Superhero Squad’.

And, of course, Hasbro had a large Cloverfield Monster on display. For many people, including those who saw the movie, this is the first clear image that they’ve ever seen of The Monster. I’ll refrain from spoiling the movie for you by posting a picture here, but CLICK HERE if you’re curious and want to know more. It’s 14″ tall, touts 70 points of articulation, and comes with a handful of accessories. Itis currently available for purchase through Hasbro’s website and nowhere else.
The showrooms were packed with nerds who had no awareness of anyone who was standing around them, and I was inadvertently groped a handful of times. And I do mean ‘handful’. Hasbro, I love you, but you need bigger showrooms - especially when your sweatiest clientele will all be meeting there at once. I had a claustrophobic moment or two, which prevented me from seeing half of the showroom. You’ve shown me that I’m not elbowy enough to be a ‘reporter’, that toys turn grown men into animals, and that it’s going to be an expensive year. Stay tuned for more Toy Fair this weekend!

For now, CLICK HERE to see a full gallery of Hasbro images, and enjoy!

… or what’s left of it.

Toy Fair begins again this year on February 17th and runs through the 20th. It all happens in NYC, on the far West Side at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, as well as a few showrooms scattered throughout nearby locations. Don’t think of showing up here, though - it’s only for retailers, vendors, and reporters. It’s no secret that I fashioned my own news outlet about five or six years ago to worm my way past the screening process, and it worked. I’ve come back every year since, under more reputable means.

In that first year, it was an overwhelming explosion of everything I’d ever wanted to see and had read about in toy magazines. My fellow writer and I wandered the convention floor wide-eyed and faking our way through it pretty convincingly. Until recently, it was THE PLACE to see everything that your favorite companies were going to release over the next year, and companies reserved their new products and surprises for opening day.

As the years have been progressing, Toy Fair has been shrinking, and it was never more clear than last year’s adventure to the ‘Toy Towers’, a popular location for smaller showrooms. They’d been almost abandoned, with showrooms locked, vacated and falling apart. During this time that Toy Fair was shrinking, companies have also been vanishing and shrinking. Palisades Toys suddenly closed up shop, and ToyBiz-turned-Marvel Toys doesn’t seem to produce anything anymore. I don’t know what this says for the toy industry, as I’m no industry analyst, but the landscape of toys is changing.

This year, don’t expect to see the amazing Sideshow Toys booth reported in photographs, as their Toy Fair attendance will be entirely online, as will SOTA Toys’. Seeing Sideshow Toys’ stuff in person was usually what motivated me to spend exorbitant amounts of money on their stuff for the subsequent year, too. Still, shipping all of their new (and often very heavy) product to New York, renting a crazy-expensive Javits booth, and shipping everything back home is surely a painful expense to have to absorb, especially when there’s no actual money changing hands - just the potential for future sales.

Many of these companies have now taken to holding onto their ‘big reveals’ until one of the two major Comic Cons in New York and San Diego, where the fans can see things in person and the impact on the potential purchaser is more direct and unfiltered. Where Toy Fair in the US is fading, Toy Fairs in the UK and Hong Kong are picking up steam. I’d love to see the amazing Toy Fair in Asia, surely filled with beautiful things that we might not regularly hear about over here. Asia has a very different toy market, which actually acknowledges adult collectors.

This isn’t to say that our Toy Fair still doesn’t have a ton to offer and a lot of crazy, fun things flying around the convention floor. While potentially boring licensing stuff takes up a lot of the floorspace (like, let’s stick Spider-Man’s face on this trampoline, this ice cream scoop and this pair of underoos kind of stuff), inventors make up the rest of it - small ideas gaining momentum, some of them inspired and some of them insipid, but it’s all interesting. There’s still so much to see that I almost find it necessary to narrow my focus to action figure stuff, or else I’d never make it down a single aisle, what with all of the bright colors and flashing lights and samples to play with - which is exactly what moves the toy industry, at its core - so maybe things aren’t so bleak after all. Just for us adults who can’t let their toys go.

So, what does this whole turn mean for action figures? For one, prices are going up. The oil needed to make the toys themselves, and then to deliver them, is more expensive than ever - and it would seem that this weeds out a lot of smaller companies hoping to make limited runs on things, and major companies are absorbing more and more licenses from smaller companies. So, the field is narrowing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean better figures and quality control - just less options. There are a few outstanding action figure lines, like Mattel’s DC Universe Classics, but this quality is usually generated by collector feedback, not plain ol’ marketing research. A certain model of transparency and interactivity is being adopted by these companies, which also explains the increased interest in fan events over media events. Everything is still ridiculous leaps and bounds above what we saw at Toy Fair 15 years ago - which amounted to lines of chunky, static action figures that didn’t do anything and only barely looked like who they were supposed to be, and the idea that a few good companies are working to increase every possible figural quality (instead of just cranking out licensed junk) is enough to keep me positive about collecting.

Now, if we could only get these toys consistently enough into stores to prevent high auction prices when they’re scalped up to be re-sold by that greasy guy who’s banging on the doors of the Toys ‘R’ Us at 9:58, demanding to be let in. I hate that guy - but he doesn’t get to go to ToyFair, so I win. At life. And hygiene.

Stay tuned all week for images & news from Toy Fair 2008.