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.

Here’s how the story goes :

Take a brutally heavy, gory, ridiculously popular death metal band called Dethklok. Now, interpolate the fact that their music and epic performances drive their rabid fans completely insane with adulation, insofar as said fans sign waivers should they actually be killed at a Dethklok concert, which they often are when the pointy, metal stage displays go awry and eviscerate them.

But here’s the other half of the story : the band is composed of five completely harmless man-children who, despite their power over the entirety of the world, remain oblivious to their power and the destruction around them. Add in a completely amazing soundtrack by author, animator and comedian Brendon Small, and somehow you have the makings of a perfect comedy. Do you laugh at and ridiculousness of the brutality of bodies being torn apart by giant crab robots, or do you laugh because these five men can’t seem to operate a VCR between them all, despite the chaos around them? Oh, and somehow, their union as a band is a prophesied symbol of the apocalypse.

It’s probably a combination of all of the above, and after one season on the air, Metalocalypse is one of the star shows in Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] block on Sunday nights. The first season was released on DVD yesterday, and a limited run of mini-statues were produced by Shocker Toys this past summer, but last week, the Dethalbum was released. Not so much a soundtrack as a hypothetical album by the imaginary band, it comes complete with an assortment of actual songs performed on the show, but in their full glory and largely uninterrupted by sound effects and dialogue. I’ve never listened to death metal or black metal before, nor have I ever even given it consideration, but this is a musically sound album - even if it does just come from a cartoon.

Even more surprising is the skyrocketing price of the deluxe version of the album, which features a red cover and includes a bonus disc with a few extra songs, a music video, and a video of the premiere episode of the second season (which aired two weeks ago).

Only a week or so after release, copies of the deluxe version of this album have reached over 125 dollars at auction, and are almost impossible to find at retail, online or otherwise. Such a quickly escalating price for a mass-produced CD is almost unprecedented, but most interestingly, this rabidity for the CD is a realistic mimicry of the fictional rabidity of the animated Dethklok fans. You know, without the splattering brains and electrocutions.

It’s an interesting psychological case for collecting. Why are fans paying an extra hundred dollars for a few extra songs that they can likely download, and an episode of a TV show that Cartoon Network actually posts online for free viewing? Could it possibly be that the momentum of the manufactured, animated Dethklok fans actually spread into the real world? Or could it simply be that the disposable income generation NEEDS to scoop up a physical Dethklok souvenir? Sure, in the cartoon, sales of Dethklok’s albums are almost the sole thing that determines the value of world currencies. Countries rise and fall and are destroyed by demons based on Dethklok’s fumbling record releases and unintentional antics - but in the real world?

Until I can find a copy of the album for less than a week’s pay, I’m relishing a copy of the album I’ve borrowed from a friend. A deluxe copy. I’m sure that William Murderface wouldn’t mind.

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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.