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!

Imagine my surprise when I arrived home today, after just waxing poetic about the dangers of ‘Megatron With Orange Plug Thing’, only to find a brand new Optimus Prime waiting on my doorstep. Clearly, the forces of light and dark are toying with my soul of some cosmic scale to rend me in twain so. Should I join the Autobots or the Decepticons? Which side provides better dental is the real question here.

After seeing a vast array of roboty goodness in Hasbro’s NYC showrooms during Toy Fair, I’d become pretty psyched about the upcoming Transformers movie, due in theatres on this upcoming July 4th. My interest in the Transformers and their legacy is nascent at best, but it grows with each subsequent exposure. We weren’t allowed to photograph a majority of what we saw in the Transformers showroom (which included a brief walkthrough of the Transformers : The Movie video game), but images of these items have slowly been leaking their way out in controlled press releases from Hasbro, from the plush Softimus Prime, to their lines of traditional action figures, all of which will appear in stores on their official release date on June 2nd. Which will probably be a day that will live in infamy and permanently scar many Toys ‘R’ Us employees.

Those toy release things can get intense.

What I had delivered to me was a Transformers Optimus Prime ‘Leader’ figure, roughly 10 inches tall, and with the new ‘Advanced Automorph Technology’. What is this technology, and will it help me score? Read on to find out.

Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and hero to millions, is a formidable figure. In robot mode, Optimus has all kinds of articulation, given the fact that many of these joints are use both to pose the figure and as foldable, collapsable and expandable transformation points. You can always tell a quality toy by how its hands are articulated, and Optimus has first-knuckle joints for each of his fingers, and even a ball jointed thumb. While certainly imposing as a robotic entity, the main gimmick of the Transformers toy line is their ability to transform into other things, so Optimus transforms into a truck. He’s a very solid figure, made almost entirely of durable plastic, all of which endured even my most misguided twistings and proddings. In fact, he weighs about 1.5 pounds.

His flamey decals might not be canon, but they’re hot, and very well applied. If you look very closely, the entire figure is not only painted in dark blue and red, but a very slightly sparkly dark blue and a sparkly red. Use these details to convince your girlfriend to allow you to purchase this figure. Also, say that it comes with lipstick and an issue of Cosmo. No, darling, of course you don’t see them in the box… you need to TRANSFORM the big scary robot into… effeminate mode first.

After about 20 minutes of squinting at wordless instructions where every part looks exactly like the next part, I managed to turn robot Optimus into truck Optimus. I’m sure that a majority of the more dimensionally minded out there wouldn’t have the same initial frustrations that I had, and most people also probably remember to put their car in park before they lock it and start to walk away from it and wonder why it’s following them. I’m not one of those people. The packaging lists Optimus as ‘Conversion Level 4’, which is as high as the scale goes. While I’m not sure if that refers to ‘difficulty’ or ‘degree of awesome’, it pretty much applies on both counts. I did, after all, major in Difficult Awesomology when I went to college. On the moon. Very prestigious place. The good news is that I didn’t even need the instructions the second time I tried to transform the figure.

Optimus is also passable as a truck, and all of his various parts shift together nicely. A button on the front of the rig creates some flashing lights in the cab and a honking noise, but this button is deactivated in robot mode.

The ‘automorphing’ feature is designed to make the last step of Optimus’ transformation back into robot mode exciting, so when a lever is pressed on his chest, his head pops out, his chest splits open and more flashing lights are seen, along with some laser gun noises. Don’t be mislead into thinking that ‘automorphing’ is a magic button that you can press to transform the whole rig from one mode to another, any more than I can call my mouth ‘autoeating’. You know, after I chew each bite, and digestion is aided by the chemical processes of saliva and my food is moved into my body through peristalsis. It’s still a neat feature, though. An additional action feature is his basic ‘missile projectile’ feature, which is located on his right arm.

So, Optimus Prime is not so much a movie-based figure (as his appearance will be significantly different in the movie), and it’s not so much a classic Transformers toy (as he’s never appeared exactly like this in any comic or cartoon), but it’s a movie-excitement-related-toy, and a great reason for Hasbro to pump out robotic products like we’ve never seen before. Suggested retail on this item is $40, and it’s very likely a must-have for any Transformers fan, or anyone with a penchant towards iconic robots of the last century.

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!