McFarlane Toys

You already know that ‘Where The Wild Things Are‘ is now a feature film directed by the amazing Spike Jonze, and with every visually stimulating film comes collectibles.

While Medicom is releasing beautiful statues and figures and Kubricks of the characters in their movie appearance, what you may not know is that McFarlane Toys released storybook accurate action figures almost a decade ago, completely true to the meticulous cross-hatched style of Sendak. While they originally sold for around 12-15 bucks each, the soon languished on discount racks for years with nothing but nostalgia to support them. If you look on eBay today, you’ll notice that a complete set has suddenly started to sell for hundreds of dollars, sealed or opened.

One other thing worth nothing is that while the book was written and illustrated in 1963, the monsters themselves did not receive names until around 1980, when they were incorporated into an opera based around the book. McFarlane’s release of the Wild Things figures was actually the first time that these monsters’ names were made more widely known, as the audiences who read childrens books and attend limited engagement operas don’t regularly coincide that often.

While it’s never wise to invest in toys, these made a miraculous leap into the spotlight. I’m currently embroiled in my own attempts to offload a whole mess of sealed 25th Anniversary GI Joes on eBay to try and pay off a new car, and let me tell you, it’s rough out there. Toys that were worth a hundred bucks a year ago and dropped to almost 25% of their peak value, and it’s a little scary to have your backup plan buckle out under you.

All of this leads to one thing : buy the things that you love. Don’t buy to invest. Eventually, and this takes a whole lot of patience, your love of these things will be mirrored by the rest of the world when the collective consciousness comes around, and you’ll have return on your original investment.

But back to the original point : when it comes to entertainment collectibles,  you never know where they’re gonna go. A football player gets tied up in dogfighting and his action figures lose all value – OR, if the figure is still in production, production stops and the figure becomes scarce, increasing its value. If I had a good ol’ time machine, I’d sure as heck go back to Toys ‘R’ Us in the year 2001 and buy up all of the $2 Wild Things figures. I didn’t, because I loved (and proudly displayed) the set I had, and still have.

For those of you interested in the newer Wild Things aesthetic, Medicom really does make some beautiful stuff, and Funko has some pretty nice bobbleheads. For now, I’ll keep it oldschool.

My little town in upstate New York has a few things that we’re proud of; the Revolutionary War was fought around here (I still hope to find me a rebel skull in the backyard), Thomas Edison stayed in a house in our state park for a few months, we’re one of three US super-hotspots for extraterrestrial activity, and Babe Ruth hit a few balls in our town park once. So, while I have no particular affinity for baseball, the transcendent pop culture significance of Babe Ruth doesn’t escape me.

Nothing about sports escapes toymaker Todd McFarlane, though. In addition to helming the most revolutionary action figure company of our time, McFarlane is also a sports paraphernalia collector. Most notably, he’s the proud owner of Mark McGwire’s $3 million 70th home run ball, which he parades around mercilessly. McFarlane Toys has based numerous series of figures around various sports personalities also, spanning Hockey, Football, Basketball and Baseball – all displayed in dynamic action poses, and sculpted with stunning accuracy.

Because these figures are based on real people with real lives and team changes, they naturally lend themselves to outfit variations. Hey – if the jocks can call my action figures ‘dolls’, I can call their matching uniforms ‘outfits’. I’ll also be renaming the traditional football ‘tackle’. From now on, it’s called a ‘fancy power hug’.

By way of example, while there might be a huge number of Brett Favre figures in his usual Green Bay Packers uniform, McFarlane would also hypothetically release a Favre in his new Jets outfit also. The same goes for variations in home and away colors, as well changes in team numbers, and changes that occur to team uniforms over time. While it’s impossible to cover all of the bases, no pun intended, these figures that represent the occasional variation in uniform are very sought after by collectors, and when you combine the fervor of sports fans and the awkward passion of toy collectors like myself, you get a frightening level of excitement.

McFarlane has just announced a second Babe Ruth figure, to be released in their 6th Cooperstown Legends line. Two versions will be released : one in his Red Sox uniform, and one in his Yankees uniform. While almost all of these Yankees Ruth figures will represent one appearance of Babe Ruth, McFarlane is producing five Ruths that are different. Just five, for the whole world – and two of these are going to be stored away in the McFarlane archives. So, out there on some mysterious toy shelf somewhere, you might find the rarest action figure ever ‘mass produced’. Keep an eye out for a dark blue Yankees hat, and the package itself will be sealed with blue tape along the back.

Previously, McFarlane had released a variation of Jets player Teemu Selanne. While most of his figures featured his usual number ‘8′, 13 limited figures were released that featured his rookie number ‘13′ – and the secondary market price exploded up to $8500, so even if you’re not a sports fan, keep an eye peeled for ol’ Babe Ruth in a dark blue hat.

Since the scope of Toy Fair is larger than what any one human brain can sensibly absorb, here’s a summary of everything else worth noting from the halls of the event. Click back for a few weeks’ worth of recollections.

First, BanDai! BanDai’s strongest presence is in overseas markets, where they make all manner of tiny (and large) awesomeness, but their US branch is not without its awesomeness also. I’d like to note anyhow that they’ve always been one of the friendliest companies I’ve had regular communication with, and have always been willing to make time to see me when I come a-callin’. This years licenses include a return to Dragonball Z, and the continuation of Ben Ten, Power Rangers and Tamagotchi items. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed in the showrooms.

Tamagotchi continues its online presence with the new Version 5, which my niece was pining for last time we went to Toys ‘R’ Us. With this new version, you play caretaker for a whole family of digital creatures, who evolve into different types of families depending on their treatment (until you inevitably forget about them in your backpack and they take their UFO back to their home planet). In addition to this new ‘family’ aspect, the game interacts with an online presence via a collection of passwords that can be exchanged between the game and the website, used to obtain new items & stuff. Finally, a chance to construct a family that doesn’t yell every word that they say and doesn’t let the dog lick the dishwasher clear. Seriously, guys, even hillbillies know better.

Ben Ten’s neatest item is the Alien Creation Chamber, a device which contains a collection of alien parts that are mixed and matched at the press of a button, with additional Alien Combination Figures sold separately. Making your own misbegotten alien creatures is a hobby of mine. And while I don’t claim to understand Power Rangers, (Red Ranger – TRIDENT WEAPON! Yellow Ranger – … dumptruck hands?), I love kaiju stuff. The neatest item to come out of the Rangers this year is the Jungle Fury Mission Helmet, which is a wearable role-play item that transmits secret missions, lights and sounds into your kid’s spongey head. Not only do you get secret, fun missions to play, but the device can be hooked up to a computer to download more missions, so the play value is constantly renewable. Clockwork Orange-style brainwashing is highly unlikely. But would be gnarly.

Huckleberry Toys is a relatively new addition to the action figure field, and their first products are a set of McDonaldland toy reproductions from the days of old. They’re expanding upon this original line of toys, though, with additions of various Ronald McDonalds, Mayor McCheese, Birdie, FryGuys, Chicken McNuggets, The Hamburglar, The Professor, Captain Hook, Big Mac, and even an upcoming Mac Tonite figure, who no one seems to remember but me. He was the piano-playing guy with the moon head, and he was BEAUTIFUL. I’m glad to see these pop cultural artifacts, especially in a world that’s embracing such an anti-fast food attitude. I grew up watching these brightly-colored, character-driven commercials, and I even ate McDonalds food occasionally (though I’m a Wendy’s guy myself), and I didn’t get eight kinds of heart disease by the time I was eleven. All things in moderation – especially fried foods and action figures. I’m working on the latter.

Shocker Toys is a well-known name in the world of action figures, though mostly for the notoriety that their fearless leader, Geoff Beckett, has brought to the entity. The company takes a very modern stance of ‘radical transparency’, which means that they openly talk about and reveal every step of the figure making process – something that the collecting public hasn’t been properly familiarized with. This open discussion of contracts that have fallen through, revealing unfinished figures, and the huge lead times between when a product is conceived and actually released has created some ill-will from collectors, who have yet to see any full-sized figures released from Shocker.

Where Marvel Toys’ Legendary Comic Book Heroes struggled in the mass market and failed after two waves, the far smaller Shocker Toys is trying to continue the existence of a line of similar figures from other independent comics and creators called ‘Indie Spotlight’. The first wave of their efforts was on display, with a potential release date of early June. This set will include fan-favorites like Scud, Katchoo, Shadowhawk, Kabuki, and The Maxx. In addition to these 6” figures, Shocker also has a line of ‘Shockinis’, another entry into the crowded world of mini block figures. These also address the same properties, along with The Tick and other things I’d love to see sooner than later. Here’s hoping I can play with these soon, Shocker!

McFarlane Toys also made an unexpected appearance at Toy Fair, after not attending for at least six years. They had a handful of 2-ups, or double-sized figural sculptures, on display – including a few figures from their upcoming ‘Warriors of the Zodiac‘ line, which consists of dynamic, bizarre interpretations of the various zodiological icons, like the sultry Virgo, and the warrior-like Scorpio. Don’t even ask about Gemini, which is some kind of double-ended tooth-worm. McFarlane isn’t exactly known for their subtlety. Their long-running Dragons line has ended after eight sets, and has given way to a follow-up line called ‘Legend of the Blade Warriors‘, presumably figures from what happens after the Dragons have been eliminated from the ancient landscape and humans begin to dominate. McFarlane’s revolutionary figures usually come with stories packed inside, but they’re so fraught with grammatical problems and cliché that it’s usually best to not partake. Let the figures be figures, not overwrought characters from some high school fantasy novel.

And we can’t forget about Diamond Comics, who produce and distribute a large number of modern science fiction licenses – mostly notably, Star Trek. While they continue to produce 7” figures from the original Star Trek movies, their Next Generation figure line will be ending shortly, after a fairly basic run addressing the main command crew and many variants of each – leaving us without neat aliens or any kind of real ‘enemy’ characters in the set. Diamond will, however, continue their new Deep Space Nine set, hopefully addressing the myriad aliens that pass through the space station in addition to the main crew. Can I have a Ferengi family, some Dabo girls, Morn, Gul Dukat, and a whole mess of Klingons, please? Diamond will also be continuing a series of Borg figures that Art Asylum started many years ago, and these will come with parts to build a light-up regeneration chamber. Which is almost enough to make me forgive them for giving us a Reginald Barclay, but not a Q in judge’s robes.

These Trek characters will also manifest as Minimates – tiny little blocky guys that are both cute and universal – meaning that your Captain Picard Minimate can go and meet your Professor X minimate and they’ll be in the same style and size. You can relive those awful pages of Star Trek meets X-Men that we’ve all tried to block from our memories. The Minimates don’t end at Star Trek, though, with Diamond picking up strange movie licenses for films like Desperately Seeking Susan, Platoon, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, and For a Few Dollars More. It seems like a pretty obvious move by Diamond to obtain a ton of fun celebrity semi-likenesses which can then be dissected by fans to make characters and situations from other movies, since Minimates are so easily pop-apart-able.

Diamond will no longer be producing Marvel polystone items (like busts and statues), leaving the main license for that with the impeccable Bowen, but Diamond will still be producing their ‘Marvel Select‘ line of figures – slightly larger versions of Marvel Legends, produced in far smaller numbers. In this line, Hulk and Iron Man were on display – tapping directly into movie fever.

TV geeks will also enjoy the Jack Bauer figures from 24, both in 12” scale and as Minimates. If you’re into that kind of thing. Also, Diamond will be releasing Mego reproductions from Planet of the Apes and the original Star Trek, and 7” figures from Battlestar Galactica (modern) and Stargate Atlantis… you geeks. To add to the greatness, most of Diamond’s figures come with bonus parts, which you can build vehicles and scenery from. Who doesn’t want a massive Stargate? Besides people with girlfriends?

So, Toy Fair is over, and I’m just recovering from the annual wallet-splosion that it tends to be. The allure of seeing untouchable toys only serves to aggravate my desire for them, so go out and stimulate the economy with me, folks. That big ol’ tax refund announcement didn’t coincide with Toy Fair just by coincidence.

While there’s a far greater likelihood that I’ll assume a Jabba-like stature before I’ll ever assume that of a mighty Klingon or a barbarian, I can still live vicariously through the fictional warriors of old. Yes, I’ve watched Hercules and Xena : Warrior Princess, and sometimes, I even stopped looking at the pretty girls and listened to some of the story. I’ve read the books of Gor, and I’ve played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I’m all about the thickly-built warriors, in the most heterosexual way possible.

Which is why I love Robert E. Howard’s Conan. He’s a barbarian, he’s a Cimmerian, he’s a conqueror and a king and an avenger and a… freebooter? Seriously? That sounds more like a jaunty endzone dance than anything a warrior would sensibly do, but whatever Conan does, I’m sure he totally owns it. To the max. And he’s also killing dragons and making out with chicks at the same time.

Conan has been around since the early 1930s, during the revolutionary days of Weird Tales and the emergence of the Lovecraftian and Cthulhu Mythos – a very strange a beautiful time in the evolution of fiction. In fact, the correspondence between Lovecraft and Howard actually precipitated into the intermingling of the Cthulhu mythos and Howard’s world of Cimmeria – essentially making Conan a tangential part of the Lovecraft story cycle, which thrills me to no end. Howard’s character is widely recognized as being ‘the most popular fictional barbarian‘, and he’s also spawned a large number of collectibles over the years, outside of the original series of books written about him and Weird Tales magazine – which are collectible themselves in their earlier editions, and fetch hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.

In 1975 (and again in 1979), the Mego company released their action figure version of Conan – the earliest articulated figural depiction of Conan, who would not appear again in a superhero-based line of toys until 2007’s Legendary Comic Book Heroes from Marvel Toys. That’s not to say that there weren’t a lot of Conan toys in the interim, but they existed in lines by themselves, including Hasbro’s 1992 efforts, and 2 whole lines of stunning Conan mini-statues released by McFarlane Toys in 2004 and 2005. McFarlane’s line was the very first collection to feature the all-important warrior princesses, monsters, and slave girls that made the Conan series so darned alluring. Dark Horse also released a small Conan statue to coincide with 2007’s Conan video game release, for XBox and PS3.

This Conan video game was the sixth video game to bear the mythos and name of Conan, being preceded by a handful of PC games, and two notoriously awful, but marginally rare, NES games. The popularity of Conan was only aided by the two movies of the same name, starring Arnold Schwartzenegger, both of which were wildly divergent from the original Robert E. Howard tales. A third Conan movie, unrelated to the previous two, is currently being developed, and follows the original storyline more accurately. Sure. the whole Conan franchise also lost a little bit of depth and credibility with the introduction of the questionable Mr. Schwartzenegger to the fray, but the legitimacy of the franchise is being slowly reclaimed.

Conan was also an award-winning Marvel Comics character for a while, beginning in 1970 and illustrated by the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith and John Buscema. The Conan series, as well as its eight spin-off comics, spawned over 600 issues to read and collect. In 2003, Dark Horse comics took over the character, and has been faithfully publishing (and re-publishing) Conan’s continuing comic book tales.

Add busts, high-end statues and trading cards to the array of available Conan items, and you have yourself a generous smattering of bare-chested, heaving paraphernalia. Let’s see Danielle Steel generate THAT.

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