Toy Fair is such a monumental event that even after four days of exploration and thousands upon thousands of words of reminiscence, I’ve barely scraped the surface of its presence. So here’s the rest of it, in record time, with what are sure to be grievous omissions which I’ll apologize for later.

In the past few weeks, I’ve described the offerings of Hasbro, Mattel, DC Direct, Sideshow Collectibles, and a handful of others, as well as posted a large photo gallery of my findings.

Often while traversing the floors of the Javits center, we’d be easily distracted by some other luminous bastion of awesomeness between us and our destination. One such surprise was the Attakus booth, a company based in Montreal which specializes in large-scale statues of Marvel and Star Wars characters, as well as a few smaller statues of the ‘erotic’ and fantasy variety. I’d never seen an Attakus piece in person, since importing things from elsewhere is never a cheap endeavor, but their quality and scale was impressive. We spent quite a lot of time circling their booth, photographing everything, including the awe-inspiring Millennium Falcon replica that was in scale with Hasbro’s 3 3/4” scale figures. Of course, it was only a half-replica, cut down the middle like a spaceship-dollhouse for easy access, but it included every internal and external detail down to the Dejarik Holochess set, with the entire display set up to look like the Rebel escape from the Death Star in A New Hope, complete with the Obi Wan and Darth Vader duel. Reps from neighboring booths were constantly streaming over to take another look inside the Falcon. Our photos of their booth can be seen here.

We also visited Marvel Toys, formerly Toy Biz, and saw their wonderful Legendary Heroes license. They’ve decided that if they can’t do Marvel characters anymore, and DC has the licenses to their own characters tied up in themselves and Mattel, they’d dip into the quirky third-tier of comics and tap the independent publishers for characters, which they’d then execute in their notable, revolutionary style. The initial lineups include both familiar and unfamiliar characters to me, but the first two waves will continue the popular Build-A-Figure theme. If you collect all six figures, you can build a large, unusually complex seventh figure from the extra parts included - a gimmick that has done very well for them over the past few years in their Marvel Legends line. The first set will include a huge Pitt figure from Image Comics, and the second wave will include a Monkeyman (with one of the figures being his partner, O’Brien). People might recognize Savage Dragon, Judge Dredd and Witchblade among the figures, as well as a Conan the Barbarian, but many of the characters elude even a hardcore geekonerd like me. It’s like the 90’s exploded all up in there, but the figures are at least visually interesting enough to support the line. I’m all about Mike Allred’s Madman, this time. Scope out their wares here.

There’s been some contention between Marvel Toys and Shocker Toys, as both sought to pursue licenses from ‘indie’ publishers and creators at the same time, often butting heads and having contracts slip out from each others’ grasps. Shocker Toys has oft been at odds with the toy world in general, being the very apotheosis of the underdog toymaker, fightin’ his way to the top. Their PR model differs greatly from the tried and true traditions of the toy industry, as Shocker has been revealing their hopes and aspirations, figure sculpts in every stage of completion, and sending out brutally honest (and sometimes emotional) statements to the press. The usual model states that toy companies will only talk about things that are 100% secure properties and only show off near-completed items, but Shocker is more organic in their approach. In laying the process bare before any of his touted products have even hit retail, Shocker Toys’ owner Geoff Beckett has created some discomfort for everyone involved. In meeting with him at Toy Fair though, I found him to be a very amicable guy, enthusiastic to a fault about his work. On display were his own series of Indie Spotlight figures, including Scud : The Disposable Assassin, Shadowhawk, and Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise, as well as an in-progress sculpt of my personal favorite character ever, The Maxx. With any luck, I convinced him to include Maxx’s love interest, Julie, in the first set of figures and a Mr. Gone sometime in the future. While these items still have work to be done on them, it’s a good start to what can be a great companion piece to Marvel Toys’ stuff (especially since Maxx and Pitt once battled / teamed up). Shocker Toys also had their in-progress GWAR figures on display, and discussed their rights to make figures of both Metalocalypse and Venture Brothers figures. If they can pull it off, their licenses have more appeal to me than what Marvel Toys has announced. Time will tell if the figures match up to the hype. We have a few photos here.

Bif! Bang! Pow! was a complete surprise with their presentation of some purely beautiful Flash Gordon action figures, designed by photorealistic comic artist and Flash Gordon fanatic Alex Ross. Toy Fair marked the debut of this company and their products, well, anywhere, and they blew us away with these perfect figures, their rights to produce any character in the movie for future waves, and their 12” scale Big Lebowski figures. They’re still looking for more support, so if you want to see these Flash Gordon guys, speak out!

And speaking of 12” figures, we encountered the UK-based Product Enterprise also. The first question out of my mouth was about their Space Vixens line, which has been put ‘on hiatus’ for now, I was informed. Choking back tears, we explored the rest of their booth to see a heavy Dr. Who focus, including an awesome 12” figure of the Tom Baker Who, crazy-ugly scarf and all. In addition to that, they are producing a line of Daleks - or, Dalek-shaped figures as re-painted by a variety of designers, a la Bearbricks and Dunnys - including the urban artist who identifies himself as, coincidentally enough, ‘Dalek’. A desperately needed synergy between art and sci-fi has been reached. Okay, it’s always been there, but no one really talks about it. Character Options had their array of regular 6” Dr. Who figures on display also, representing characters from the newer incarnation of the show.

Finally, we wandered down the ‘urban arts’ / designer section of the Fair before we called it a day and encountered even more items from the growing world of artsy-cute plush things and cute-scary vinyl figures. Most inspiring was UNKL’s booth - a company that recently exploded onto the art toy scene with a staff of only four people, they’re a real inspiration to aspiring toy creators such as myself and my fellow photographer that day. Of course, it inspired talk of ‘let’s quit our jobs!’ and ‘damn the man!’ and ‘let’s go get a sandwich!’ for the rest of the day, but the truth is that they produce some clever little figures (check out their Unipos), and the booth chick was totally cute.

Of course, Toy Fair is only about 5% action figures, but you wouldn’t know it from how I go on about ‘em for the past two weeks. We were stopped by the excited owner of Potty Monkey, a professional pediatric urologist who’d written a book and created a doll to promote good toilet habits. He also offered us a banana, but we declined. That kind of inventive excitement and energy is what makes the fair really come alive. The appearance of the creepy-but-catchy Alien Creole Band bouncing through the main floor and playing music, taking our photos with Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, the life-sized Batman made of Legos, and the display of cleverly animated and assembled wooden kits were only a scant few of the great things that I wish we’d had more time to explore.

But there’s always next year, too.

New York Comic Con has begun today, but before any of that can be processed and photoshopped, organized, recovered from and foot-blisters gently soothed, there’s still a good handful of Toy Fair to get through, so expect NYCC coverage this Wednesday. If we manage to get in the doors, and if we aren’t ushered out by fire marshals, and if Peter David doesn’t start eating people at his booth. Which really isn’t that much hyperbole.

Mezco Toys has stood out in my mind for the past several years due to their completely flawless handling of the Hellboy figure lines, from movie figures and into the Mike Mignola designed comic book figures. Somehow, Mezco Toys (one of the smaller action figure companies) had managed to merge form and articulation in a perfect mix beyond what and major company was doing, and still went severely underappreciated. They are a collector company, staffed by incredibly talented fans and toy enthusiasts.

Check out the full Mezco gallery here.

Unfortunately, there are no future Hellboy products planned at this time except for the comic line’s Abe Sapien, which is a beautiful thing. Alas, it will be a San Diego Comic Con exclusive item, because (and say it with me), “Dammit, SDCC gets all the cool stuff!” We were told that it would likely also be available through Club Mez, Mezco’s online collectors club, which I’m still trying to justify shelling out 40 dollars for. Action figures for the next Hellboy movie have not been determined yet, and figures based on the animated movies are not being handled by Mezco. Though they should be. I’d trust them with pretty much anything.

They will continue with their popular South Park and Family Guy figure lines, which have thrived for a few years now. Bringing cartoon characters into three dimensions has always been a challenge for toy companies, and both the successes and failures could be seen throughout Playmates’ hold on the exhaustive Simpsons license a few years back. Mezco’s holding strong with unmistakable renditions of both core and auxiliary characters from both shows, with an Eric Cartman variation planned for every South Park wave. Admittedly, it’s a visually unappealing show that revels in its 2-D-ness, but the figures remain popular. Some excellent fan-favorite cameos of Family Guy’s Peter Griffin as Bionic Peter, Lando Griffin and Astronaut Peter are also planned, most of which appeared onscreen for about ten seconds total. Also included will be the creepy Performance Artist, Chris on a treadmill, Quagmire in a robe, the Black Knight, Bonnie Swanson and Diane Simmons. Creepy old man Herbert was released as a Club Mez exclusive this past year, to much acclaim (and griping that he wasn’t released to the general public). Mezco is also planning a box set of miniature figures in a Drunken Clam pub playset environment. They continue to bring animated characters to life with their upcoming Underdog line of figures, which has nothing at all to do with the regrettable live-action movie of the same name. Pure classic animation here, which will hopefully sell better than the failed Pink Panther line made by Palisades Toys before they folded.

What we also saw, but could not photograph, was a line of Goonies action figures, done up in realistic style, and featuring an enormous Sloth, and amazing renditions of Mikey, Mouth, Chunk and Data. Needless to say, we were giddy. More news and images will surely be forthcoming.

Mezco also dips liberally into the ‘horror’ end of things, being responsible for the popular Living Dead Dolls, the next series of which will feature the theme of ‘bad luck’. Collect all five and you’ll be able to assemble a creepy little charm! Also, that Texas Chainsaw Massacre babydoll thing is probably the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. Maybe not so much the idea that a small child could obtain a My Size working chainsaw and go on a killing spree, but that they’d have the concentration to be able to sew a mask out of their victims’ skin. In addition to that horrible fare, Mezco presented the usual array of 7” action figures of horror classics, including a tuxed-up Freddy Kreuger and various Texas Chainsaw Massacre figures. Add to that an array of mini-dioramas of horror movie scenes, horror character dolls, more 7” zombies (including a bowling woman and a guy who looks like a preacher, both covered in blood and brains), and you have Mezco.

NECA carries things in a very similar vein and quality, also addressing cult properties in both horror and fun varieties. The first thing that caught my eye was the display of Nightmare Before Christmas figures, which will be entering their 6th and 7th waves of four figures each. At this point in the evolution of the line, they’ll be revisiting Oogie Boogie (previously only available in a box set), Jack Skellington (this time, with his desk), and a third Sally (with cauldron), with the addition of a 2-pack exclusive Sally in Santa suit. Fans of the line will also note the Creature from Under the Stairs (which had three seconds on screen, literally), the Melting Man, and the Corpse Boy & his mother. As usual, these figures will be packed with great accessories. It won’t be too long before we see every single character brought to figural form. Can we see a deluxe Hanging Tree, guys?

The rest of the NECA gallery is here.

NECA has also just released the first four figures from the movie 300, again with the same tremendous attention to detail that they’ve shown the Pirates of the Caribbean line. While no future 300 figures were shown (and the possibilities for figures seem large, especially with army building characters), a few Pirates prototypes were shown, including a 2-up of Slo Feng from the upcoming third movie. Continuing with their movie properties, they’ll also be producing figures from the upcoming ‘Grindhouse’ films, which got the following reaction from me :

“Holy crap, does that chick and a … gun…. for a … leg?”

Yes, she does. And as far as the action figure goes, you can switch it out with her actual leg, which also comes with the figure. Which is a fairly powerful testament as to why I love action figures. As if I needed more convincing, there’s a Quentin Tarantino figure with an alternate head, featuring a gouged-out eyeball. Which I’ve wanted to do to him at least twice in my life, but now I don’t have to, because the action figure sates my bloodlust. This alone is enough to pique my interest in the clearly gory, pseudo-explotation film that this promises to be. And because it’s a natural progression, they’ll also be doing Harry Potter figures. None of them, unfortunately, will have their limbs replaced with deadly weapons, but at least the prototypes looked pretty scary accurate.

Finally, NECA continues to explore ‘classic’ items, such as David Bowie’s Goblin King character from Labyrinth, which is sure to be a ridiculous hit with the ladies, and should be followed up by a handful of Brian Froud-inspired goblins. The Player Select line will also continue to explore popular video game characters, such as God of War’s Kratos, and the ever-popular Lara Croft, all in the popular 7” scale. And all, of course, absolutely beautiful.

These are two companies who have taken figural quality to new levels and kept it there, creating interesting, accurate toys that appeal to collectors of both toys and movie memorabilia, spanning genres and audiences alike. So watch out for ‘em.

A vast majority of the photographs that I took at this year’s Toy Fair happened within the DC Direct showrooms, because I’m a complete DC Direct action figure junkie - even if a vocal part of the collecting community usually expresses a fair amount of dissatisfaction with DC Direct’s limited articulation and inconsistent scale between different series of similar figures. None of that stuff really bothers me, because while limited in poseability, the figures are almost unfailingly iconic, and a difference of a centimeter or two in size doesn’t matter. You know, when you realize that you could have really, really bad eczema or could be sent to a parallel universe where there was nothing to eat but marshmallow peeps or something. Your priorities change.

But the DCD gallery is here. (You can check out the main gallery page HERE for the rest of the images from throughout the Fair.)

No one, however, complained about what could be called ‘the big reveal’ of DCD’s showrooms - a set of five Marvel Family figures, including the evil Dr. Sivana (with tiny Mr. Mind), a classic looking Captain Marvel aka Shazam! (the fifth Captain Marvel figure, I think, but never enough), little Billy Batson & Hoppy, Captain Marvel Jr. and the very first appearance of Mary Marvel. Not only does this fully emphasize the iconic nature of this company’s figures, but it makes for a great display unto itself. They’ll be due out late this year.

While some other things were near-surprises, Wizard Entertainment gets the rare privilege of spewing Toy Fair spoilers a few days ahead of time, all over the internet, every year. Since they ARE the world’s leading comic and toy magazine consortium, there’s a certain fairness to it, but generally I prefer my stupefaction to come firsthand and not through web-compressed JPEGs. On the other hand, I’d rather be told some things ahead of time instead of finding a mysterious rash LATER, but I’m old fashioned that way. So, one thing we learned about ahead of time was the presence of a Kubert based Superman line of figures, which includes another Bizarro (again, can never have enough), the titular Superman and the first appearances of Zod and Ursa. These are also scheduled for a late 2007 release. Bless Bizarro, a man who goes around screaming exactly what he’s not thinking, all of the time. That makes for some awesome, right there.

I spoke briefly with one of DC Direct’s managers regarding their ‘Reactivated!’ line of figures, which has been re-releasing the company’s earlier, more difficult to find figures - sometimes with slight improvements or additions. Since the original Kingdom Come line of figures was a notorious disaster, including heads that were too big to fit onto neck-holes and peeling stickers instead of paint applications, I was assured that the future Kingdom Come Green Lantern will include painted on details. Which will make the one I have now, whose stickers have all fallen off inside of the sealed package, look like a waste of money. And no, there won’t be a trade-in program. Those were early days of DC Direct, and their improvements have been enormous since then. It isn’t too many companies that are willing to revisit such old projects (or pull new releases, as they did for the ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ line) in the interest of improving upon the quality for collectors.

Also on display, though not news, were the first few waves of the exciting DC Minimates, finally re-managed from within the sweaty grasp of Art Asylum. Until now, licensing had prohibited individual Minimate figures, instead creating a compromise where they were packed in with LEGO-like building sets called ‘C3’ (which often were missing pieces, had high prices and poor character selection), but these initial re-offerings explore almost all facets of the DC Universe instead of concentrating on movie properties or core characters. We’ll get the entire Justice League, an array of rogues, Deadman, Spectre, Hawkman, Red Tornado, members of the Justice Society… and even Ocean Master, all smartly packed out in two-packs featuring related characters or arch-nemeses. Gone are the early days of Minimates where we had to suffer through blind-packed figures, exclusive figures wedged into huge sets of figures that we already had, and eighteen thousand Wolverines. Art Asylum’s finally got some Minimate smarts in ‘em, making the line collectible again, instead of just aggravating.

Also for the first time on display was DC’s deluxe 13” Batgirl figure in classic duds (with an exclusive retailer-incentive alternate costume version, also). That, in addition to a classically attired Batman, make some great additions to a line that already includes Superman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Shazam!, Martian Manhunter, Lex Luthor and Two-Face. They’re out of scale with just about every other figure in existence, since they’re an inch taller that 1/6th scale, but they stand alone. DCD does extensive fabric research and comparison to get these costumes as realistic as possible, going as far as purchasing a huge quantity of fabric from a NYC retailer and shipping it to their overseas manufacturer to make it available for production. This attention to detail is akin to what Sideshow Toys introduced me to at my first Toy Fair, so it’s wonderful to see it spread throughout the industry. Now, just give me a Wonder Woman and I’ll name my first child after you guys. I can hear it now…. ‘Dinnertime, Time-Warner AOL CNN HBO New Line Cinema Dr. Frankenstein David! You can play later!’

They’ll also be introducing the Ame-Comi line of figure-statues, which feature DC heroines as anime characters, appropriately disproportional and revealingly-clad. The initial line will include Catwoman, Power Girl, Supergirl and Batgirl (all with huge eyes and brimming with discomforting buxomness), but will continue on into Poison Ivy, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman. I can’t help but be continually unsettled by anime-type statues that feature women with exceptionally young female bodies and faces displayed as such, but that’s me just getting old and uptight, I bet. DCD is no stranger to working with Japanese aesthetics though, since they’ve been importing Kaiyodo and Kotobukiya’s DC-based statues and figures for a while now. This year’s new statuary offering will be a Koto Catwoman, retailing at around 70 dollars, if trends hold.

Beyond their usual superhero fare, DC announced that they’ll be branching out into non-comic properties under the banner of DC Unlimited, and their first figures will include a wave of four characters from the new cartoon Afro Samurai, and four figures from World of Warcraft. While vastly different from their typical offerings, the company explosively showed off the action and artistry that they’re capable of, displaying figures akin to those of McFarlane or SOTA Toys. This comes right on the heels of Sideshow Toys announcing their intention to make their own World of Warcraft items, marking what is certainly a strong pent-up desire for the game’s plethora of players to make their online world into a physical one.

Stay tuned for the rest of Toy Fair, conveniently crammed into two short bloggings! And after that, New York Comic Con!

Mattel has the only license for articulated DC Comics action figures, based on the comics and the animated DC projects, besides DC Comics-owned DC Direct. That means they’re one of the few outlets for all of your Batman, Superman and Justice League needs, and if you’re anything like me, those needs are intense. And you have trouble with girls. And sometimes get choked up at the end of a really good episode of The Office.

Our experiences are catalogued in this gallery. So click ‘n’ see!
DC Superheroes, or DCSH for short, are one of the major toy lines of recent years. While Mattel only has the rights to Batman, Superman and their immediately auxiliary characters, their showing so far has been beautiful, giving us highly-articulated figures of Marvel Legends scale and quality. Of course, this leads to a lot of hope and debate regarding which characters are immediately related to Batman and Superman. Sure, we have Supergirl, but is Power Girl (Earth-2’s Supergirl) considered immediately related? How about Captain Marvel aka Shazam!? Such questions are shrouded in mystery and blister packaging. Batman has an awesome rogue’s gallery that could also stand some exploring.

On display were 2-ups (large scale, fully realized figures used in manufacturing) of an excellent Man Bat and Clayface, though the Cassandra Cain Batgirl from years past was not. The specifics of future waves wasn’t made available to me by the representative giving the demonstration, but it’s been rumored that the next, sixth wave will include a Cyborg Superman (with a half-robot face), a Kal-El Superman (in funky headgear), a black-suited Superman, and the long-awaited Mongul. While this might seem like one of those ‘let’s put a million silly figure variants into one assortment’ thing, I was impressed that all of these Supermen were comic-specific incarnations. This kind of attention to the actual literary character, and not trying to market a Rocket Launching Cyber Scuba BBQ Superman in neon green, marks a trend towards the collector market in action figures.

Also on display was Mattel’s other line of DC figures - the 3 3/4” scale Justice League Unlimited. Despite the fact that the cartoon has been off the air for a few years now, the figure line remains highly popular due to its Bruce Timm stylings and huge variety of both popular and obscure DC Comics characters. New on display were Joker, Blue Devil, Mr. Miracle, Fire and Ice, through an Hourman & Hawkman are also rumored to be in there, among the various core characters in unusual costumes and action features. None of the 10” figures were on display, though the Justice Lords are also rumored to be on the way. And for the record, my kingdom for some more Green Lanterns. I love those guys. Ch’ip? G’nort? Larvox? You know they’re awesome.

In addition to those offerings, Mattel has created the DC Super Friends line. Only similar to the Super Friends cartoon of old in name, these are chunky-styled Justice League characters similar in size and shape to Hasbro’s Spidey & Friends line. Designed with small children and safe play in mind, these figures undoubtedly appear to adult collectors as well, if only for the characters explored. We were informed that they all have action features, but also operate completely independently of their bases as simple figures. The initial offering will include 2 Batmen (one with a Batmobile), Superman, Flash, John Stewart Green Lantern, the oft-neglected Aquaman and villain Lex Luthor.

Though no The Batman or Legion of Super Heroes figures were on display. Mattel debuted their miniature battle game, Battleague. As much as we were forbidden from mentioning the word ‘Hasbro’ in Mattel’s showrooms, it was clear that Mattel was completing the unanswered DC Comics half of similar, existing toy lines - this one being a MUCH nicer companion piece for Hasbro’s Attacktix. While the game play appears to be similar, Hasbro’s Attacktix figures (featuring Transformers, Star Wars and Marvel Comics) suffer from grossly enlarged, cartoonish features and slapdash paint jobs. These Battleague figures are sculpted by The Four Horsemen, who are the Beatles of the action figure world right now, designing some of the most dynamic and accurate figures out there.

These figures also feature both missile and hand-to-hand combat features, but they look so much sexier doing it. I mean, we were already shown a Darkseid throwing a Apokalyptican hover device… that’s hot stuff right there. The figures will be blind-packaged, two to a box, and the starter set will actually convert into 3-D terrain. While 80% of all start-up games like this inevitably fair due to lack of support, at least these figures will look great, and were the highlight of the Mattel showroom. Battleague will not be inter-playable with Attacktix, though. Under penalty of DEATH. Anyone who’s read Toy Wars will know that if a Hasbro product and a Mattel product ever touch, even for a moment, a rip in space-time will create an unholy gateway into out dimension for Qwar’groth The Slippery, and it just gets worse from there.

In the interest of not making the world at large choke on my superhero fanaticism, we also saw the kid-centric Planet Heroes line of figures. Very similar in theme to the DC Super Friends line, these feature a set of ten characters who take their themes from the nine planets (yes, including Pluto), and a villainous Black Hole. These will also have bases and action figures, and I was really attracted to these… but then they showed us a trailer for the cartoon these would be accompanying, which instantly reminded me that I was 25 years old. And that Mars, apparently, has a Scottish accent. I thought that giving foreign accents to characters died out in the Phantom Menace Nute Gunray debacle, but it seems to still be goin’ strong. Nevertheless, the figures have a neat design.

And of course there were the Avatar : The Last Airbender figures. While the cartoon has been around for almost exactly one year on Nickelodeon, its success is immense, being one of the rare animations that follows a sequential storyline from episode to episode. The figure line has been popular, but continues to omit certain core characters (notably, the female ones), and future offerings on display seem to encompass only existing characters in animal armors. The upcoming trilogy of films by M. Night Shyamalan will likely create a whole new buzz about the property.

Our tour did not emcompass Barbie or Hot Wheels, but Mattel gave us a Polly Pocket (which quickly went to my niece) and politely ushered us out of their impressive showrooms, on to our next Toy Fair appointment.

On the initial Sunday of Toy Fair 2007, we arrived in the press room to discover that the registration computers were feeling rebellious and / or ornery, leaving us at the end of a long line of attendees from the press. Unfortunately, this was not remedied until we’d missed our appointment with the lovely BanDai, but it did afford us some time to watch the swingin’ Alien Creole Band that invades the Toy Fair floor every year and wander our way off to Sideshow Collectibles, a personal favorite of mine. Check out the Sideshow mini-gallery HERE.

Sideshow has the licenses for some of the most popular & cult characters in our time, including Marvel, Star Wars, Predator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lord of the Rings in multiple scales, including the unique Premium Format figure, which encompasses all statues over about 18″ tall, made with both solid sculpts and overlain fabric, and large maquettes. They also create full-scale 1:1 busts of the characters they possess and 12” action figures, as well as distribute figures from Medicom and statues from Electric Tiki.

Through no fault of their own, the Sideshow sprawl had a certain emptiness left where we would have traditionally been greeted by Diane Kamahele, who suddenly passed away this year. Instead of being social, we opted to dart around and excitedly take photographs.

Sideshow revealed a large number of great items this year, simultaneously offering them up for pre-order on their website.

Of special interest to Lord of the Rings collectors is the 1:1 scale Helm of Sauron, weighing in at 18 pounds and chock full of evil. Close inspection revealed an array of intricate gold leaf-looking spirals spanning the entirety of the helmet, almost impossibly detailed.

And while on the topic of 1:1 bust items, I finally got a chance to see Sideshow’s life-sized Yoda bust. I’m usually wary of anything that includes rooted hair, as we usually get that ugly ‘planted in rows’ look, but Yoda’s rooted hair wisps are so perfectly concealed that they almost look organic. The stock numbers on this are dwindling slowly, understandably so with the $550 price tag, but this has my in-person seal of approval.

Sideshow is also exploring the upcoming Spider-Man 3 film and the recently released Ghost Rider film with their collectibles, including imported 12” figures and VCDs from Medicom, which are cartoonishly proportioned, relatively small vinyl statues. Additionally, a full sized bust of Spidey in his Secret Wars black costume was revealed to accompany the regular comic bust.

My traveling companion was excited to see the Premium Format, 2-foot-tall Lord of Darkness figure from Legend. This figure in particular has been explored by McFarlane Toys in 8” scale, and SOTA Toys, who went up to 18” with their figure. None, of course, cast theirs in polystone and tailored clothing, though. After being imposed upon in person by the $350 thing, the price seems reasonable.

Also in the Premium Format, big-ass-figure category is the new Darth Maul. While he’s from the most hated of all Star Wars films and we dare not speak its name, Maul always had a pretty neat character design to validate his presence as a figure. Sure, we’ll NEVER see a Jar-Jar Binks (and if we do, he’ll be accompanied by bonfires and angry villagers), but Maul was also an impressive figure - again cast in polystone & real fabric tailoring.

While we’re on the subject of Premium Format figures, nothing new was announced in the Marvel category, but I think the Emma Frost will be enough to hold people over for a little while. I mean seriously…. what? What the heck? This figure is based on the artwork of Adam Hughes, also responsible for the busty Women of the DC Universe busts. Emma Frost also appeared on the second X-Men vs. Sentinel diorama piece, which was enormous and beautiful in person. Also, much more reasonably attired. This diorama is meant to be displayed in tandem with the previous Colossus diorama.

Also on display was the huge $845 Predator bust (always a pleasure to see that handsome guy), a handful of Buffy figures including an alternately-attired Premium Format Buffy, the Premium Format John Wayne and Elvis figures, and some 5th Element bobbleheads, which sparked continued rumours and dreams of a much-wished-for 12” scale figure of Milla Jovovich in her thermal bandages. Those dreams will have to remain in the pants of fanboys everywhere.

Unfortunately, no new Hellboy items were on display this year, marking either a temporary lull in the license as the next film is being made, or the end of Sideshow / Hellboy products entirely. While ferocious LOTR and Star Wars fans anxiously awaited the next 12” figure announcements from both categories, none were had, marking another company whose new offerings did not fall into their most strongly supported licenses. Sure, we got news of LOTR and Star Wars diorama statues in the 1:12th scale, but nothing can replace a 12” scale Chewbacca. For now, we’re just going to have to stick our cats in out Dejarik Holochess displays and hope that nothing gets eaten.