Ron, Author at ActionFigurePics.com

Q: What’s Worse for an Action Figure Collector than Moving?

A: Installing new carpet.

One of the new piles that came from “Staging Area Two”

I left myself a little space I could still sit and play Batman: Arkham Asylum

New shelving cubes that replaced “Staging Area One”

If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been putting up as many reviews / pictorials recently, it’s because we’ve been getting ready to put new carpeting in the house. To make a long story short, a leak in one of the bathrooms became the impetus to do a mini-remodeling of the bathrooms and bedrooms. There goes the action figure budget – I guess I should cancel my eBay bids for a Hot Toys Iron Man Mark III.

Both my wife and I are collectors (maybe the better term is “packrats”), so the house is filled with crap that we should have probably thrown out years ago. For example, I had three stacks of carded figures piled as tall as my wife behind one of the bedroom doors – those stacks were affectionately known as “Staging Area Two” because I bought all of it as trade fodder over the years.

What’s worse is that right before we discovered the leak, I had just set up new shelving cubes in what was once known as “Staging Area One” – the pile of plastic storage bins where I kept loose figures and customizing fodder. My wife had finally had enough of my whining about not having enough shelf space that she devised a new setup for that space, and I had gotten partway through planning and setting up my display. I had to box up a whole bunch of loose figures and customs that were already in disarray to begin with.

The upside – before we move it all back in, I’ll pick out some more figures to put in the Free Stuff pile!

Any moving stories you want to share? Leave a comment! 😀

AFP’s Ask Matty Round-Up for 9/1/9

Here is the latest set of questions and answers from Mattel. Thanks to Mattel and Toy Guru!

DC Universe Classics

1. Now that you have a paint mask set up for the Romat Ru, what are the chances for a larger Sinestro? Any chance that Sinestro could be redone using the slim buck you created for Deadman?

We are looking at ways of re-doing Sinestro in the future.

2. You’ve described in the past how the team makes character pics for DC Universe Classics waves. How is the process different for retailer exclusive waves? How are the buyers from the retailers involved for those?

The process is the same for all waves: we discuss all waves or box sets with our retail partners, and we work with Mattel design and marketing, as well as our license partners, to choose the figures.

Continue reading “AFP’s Ask Matty Round-Up for 9/1/9”

More Pics of Hot Toys Marvel Movie Masterpiece Battle-Damaged Iron Man Mark III

Saw these first on TheFwoosh.com in the Mark III Iron Man Battle Damaged thread, from a Chinese blog called Plastic Enemies.

Looks like the battle-damaged version of the Mark III Iron Man will have the same guidance flaps like the first Mark III, a flip-up mask like the Mark II Iron Man (versus interchangeable Stark head like the original Mark III), a removable chest plate, and an articulated panel on the forearm. Oh yeah, the battle damage too.

I’ll probably have to pick one of these up, even though I kind of want to wait to see what Hot Toys does with the Iron Man 2 armors.

via PLASTIC ENEMIES’S BLOG – PLASTIC ENEMIES – Yahoo! BLOG.

Disney Acquires Marvel for $4BN – Web Round-Up

WolvieMickey — Mickey Mouse as Wolverine (credit: The Wolverine Daily)

Mystery artist “dR g0Nz0” was oddly prescient when he submitted fan art of Mickey Mouse as Wolverine to the Wolverine Daily blog about a year ago.

Unless you have no access to any kind of media (and if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this), you’ve probably heard that this morning Disney announced its intentions to acquire Marvel for around $4BN in cash and stock.

Now, I’m going to guess that there wasn’t a lot of rumblings in the market about this deal beforehand, as most news outlets are still just rehashing the press release and not providing a lot of opinion. But I’ve scoured the internet (read: googled it) to bring you some of the early thoughts and opinion from around the interwebs.

Disney and Marvel held a joint press conference shortly after announcing the deal. Comics Worth Reading provided the best summary I could find about that call.

The news is so fresh that not many news outlets have made the connection to the Warner Bros. acquisition of DC forty (!) years ago. Kudos to the iPhone Blog of all places for reminding us that a Disney and Marvel would be better positioned against Warner Bros. and DC.

Gawker’s Defamer blog also gets points for mentioning Warner / DC, with the realization that with the Disney / Marvel combination, those two powerhouses had their hands in every major movie tentpole this summer. “What a tangled web” indeed!

Everyone knows that this deal is about the movie business, but what about the rest of the Marvel businesses?

Comics fans, in addition to Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter keeping his job, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada checked in to let his Twitter followers know that all is well in the comics biz. “Everybody take a deep breath, all your favorite comics remain unchanged and Tom Brevoort remains grouchy.”

MTV speculates about the video game possibilities. Marvel characters in Kingdom Hearts, anyone?

BudgetTravel notes that this sets up an excellent twist in the Theme Park Wars, since Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, featuring Marvel characters, is DisneyWorld’s biggest competition in Orlando.

And what about the toys? As you might expect, there’s not a single mention that I could find anywhere, but MarketWatch points out what those who already read the fine print already knew – all existing licensing deals will be honored but will be reevaluated when they expire. For those keeping track, that means we still have two more years remaining on the Hasbro / Marvel deal. [Correction: I was reminded that Hasbro and Marvel re-upped their agreement at the start of the year, so their deal lasts until 2017.]

So, how are people reacting to the acquisition?

Gail Simone tried to calm the twittering masses, saying “I have dealt with Disney several times in the last couple years. I think this will probably be a good thing for Marvel and comics.” in under 140 characters.

Jonathan Berr at DailyFinance likes the deal, saying it gives Marvel the needed scale to compete in the blockbuster movie business. He also owns Disney stock.

But the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Corkery makes the suggestion that Disney overpaid, reminding us that a couple of weeks ago, Marvel was fairly valued at $40 a share, while the Disney deal values Marvel at $50 a share.

Some, like GlobalNerdy‘s Joey deVilla, despise the combination, thinking a High School Musical / X-Men crossover is a foregone conclusion.

Update: The guys at Woot list out the Marvel / Disney crossovers they want to see. My favorite is “Esmerelda vs MODOK: Can a hideous creature designed only for killing discover the beauty in himself through the love of a gypsy girl designed only for compassion?”

How do you feel about the Disney / Marvel acquisition?

NECA Adds Dead Space to Player Select

If you’re not feeling NECA’s new Batsu vinyl figures for Gears of War, rest assured that they are still making action figures. Dead Space joins NECA’s Player Select line with two Isaac Clarke figures that will feature light-up masks.

You can check out more NECA figures from San Diego Comic-Con here: San Diego Comic-Con 2009 | NECA.

Suit Up With Isaac Clarke

NECA’s premiere series to fill Dead Space on shelves worldwide

In Dead Space, it’s the 26th Century and you’re Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent to repair the interplanetary mining ship USG Ishimura, near the planet Aegis VII. Seems simple enough — another day, another dollar — until the whole thing gets shot to hell and you end up having to fight for your live against zombified Necromorphs while simultaneously uncovering a conspiracy involving the Church of Unitology and wondering just where your girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, who was assigned as a medical specialist to the Ishimura could have got off to.

Sounds like the makings of some serious trouble, but fortunately ol’ Isaac’s got a pressurized suit that along with keeping him alive, goes great with his plasma cutter, flamethrower and ripper. The EA game was a Game Informer game of the month and has picked up numerous awards for its sound design, atmosphere and overall quality. NECA is proud to reveal two new figures of Isaac Clarke based on his appearance in Dead Space.

Both the standard Isaac with the plasma cutter and the bloody variant with the ripper come with a light up LED mask and back and over 20 points of articulation. With ball joints at the neck, shoulders, wrists and ankles as well as ball hinges at the knees and elbows, left swivel biceps, a swivel waist and T crotch with hinged swivel hips, Isaac has the flexibility to take on whoever — and whatever — he might encounter aboard the Ishimura.

NECA’s Dead Space figures are available September 2009 in stores and online at our own Amazon storefront. Stay tuned to necaonline.com for more info on this and other lines from your favorite games and movies.

via www.necaonline.com || National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc..