Toy Fair 2014: LEGO Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ghostbusters, and LEGO Movie – Official PR and Pics

We caught the announcements of the first Guardians of the Galaxy set and the CUUSOO Ghostbusters ECTO-1 as they hit the interwebs as Toy Fair kicked off. LEGO was kind enough to send official press releases and hi-res pics for those sets and more. Some highlights from LEGO:

70810 IN_MA.indd

  • THE LEGO MOVIE is currently the #1 movie in America and additionally, we announced a new set coming out in March, MetalBeard’s Sea Cow. This massive, highly detailed set will be sure to turn heads as when built, contains 2,741 pieces and even includes Emmet’s iconic double-decker couch.
  • The LEGO Group and Lucasfilm announced new LEGO Star Wars sets based on the upcoming Star Wars Rebels television series, launching this fall on the Disney channel. Additionally, the announcement coincides with the 15th anniversary of the LEGO Star Wars collection, the first licensed property ever to come to life in LEGO form.
  • This morning, the LEGO Ghostbusters Ecto-1 set was unveiled for the first time. Be careful, your friends might start calling you after seeing that you have this set because of the realistic details included, like the paranormal detection equipment and proton packs!
  • The LEGO Group shared that they will have 3 sets based on the much anticipated movie, Guardians of the Galaxy coming out this summer. Right now we have only images and info for one of the LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy products, so please stay tuned for updates in the coming months.

Read on for the official releases and pics!

Continue reading “Toy Fair 2014: LEGO Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ghostbusters, and LEGO Movie – Official PR and Pics”

Toy Fair 2014: Square Enix Grows Play Arts Kai DC Presence with Watchmen, Arkham Origins, and More DC Variants

Square Enix is one of the companies I love to visit at the shows – their Play Arts Kai figures always amaze me, and I’m a big fan of their DC stuff in particular. At this Toy Fair, they introduced a couple more DC lines that look pretty solid right out of the gate. I’m a big Watchmen fan, and while I’ve been temporarily sated with Mattel’s recently concluded Watchmen 6-inch line, it looks like I’ll be collecting again with the Play Arts Kai Watchmen. Rorschach is the only one revealed thus far, but it’s a great start.

Since Square Enix has been in the game with Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, it’s not surprising that they’re in with Batman: Arkham Origins too. They’ve got Batman (of course), Robin, the Joker, and a really impressive Deathstroke on display.

Their DC Variants line, which features a broad range of DC characters re-imagined in Square Enix style, has been hit or miss with me – call me a purist. At this show they’ve added Hawkman, Joker, Harley Quinn, and Darkseid to the line-up. These will mostly be passes for me, but what do you guys think?

Photo credit: Comics Alliance – many more pics, including more DC and Appleseed

Toy Fair 2014: ThreeA Toys Reveals Dr. Doom, Iron Man Articulation

One of the toy companies I was most looking forward to is 3A Toys, who are at Toy Fair this year to increase their presence with retailers. They’ve generated a very dedicated grass roots fan base in the past several years producing toys based on the artwork of co-owner Ashley Wood. More recently, they’ve been branching out with licensed properties – and one of the ones I’ve found most interesting is their collaboration with Marvel.

The first 1/6 figure to come out of this collaboration is Iron Man – he’s currently available to pre-order at Bambaland (3A’s online store) in four different colorways. In addition to 3A’s unique styling for the character, Iron Man will feature mostly hidden articulation, via a thin skin covering joints that are usually exposed – in this case over the elbows and knees. I’ve been curious to see how this will look the more bent they are – the figures shown at Toy Fair show a little bunching with bent elbows, but not as much as I expected.

I think I would have preferred the joints to be exposed, like they are with Dr. Doom, the next figure that they’ve revealed. While the skin does make Iron Man look pretty sleek, he is after all a guy in a suit of armor, so joints wouldn’t be out of place. The WIP Doom looks pretty damn awesome. In previous Q&A’s Ash has said Spider-Man and Ultron are the next to come, but expect this line to have a slow burn, due to 3A’s meticulous design and development process. It took about a year from the initial Iron Man announcement to having the figure available to pre-order.

Photo credit: CoolToyReview.com – many more excellent pictures of 3A’s Toy Fair booth

Toy Fair 2014: Funko Announces Game of Thrones Legacy

Funko Game of Thrones Legacy - Tyrion Lannister

Sandman has been raving to me about Funko’s Game of Thrones Legacy figures. Apparently, Funko held back the official announcement for the line to land just in advance of the release of Season 3 of Game of Thrones on DVD (Tuesday, February 18) and Toy Fair this weekend – however, the announcement did not beat the figures to stores. Apparently, large wooden ships carrying the first assortment of action figures has already laid siege to Barnes and Noble, where you can find the first wave exclusively until it hits more broadly at retail in early March.

The figures look awesome and have some great articulation (we need to convince Sandman to take some pics) – no doubt thanks to Gentle Giant, the design studio that seems to be behind almost everything super-articulated and super-realistic these days. Early reports are that you should be careful with the joints, however, as there’s some brittle clear PVC that tends to break. Hopefully that gets addressed as production continues. We’ll be looking for coverage of the second wave, so stay tuned for more Game of Thrones.

Continue reading “Toy Fair 2014: Funko Announces Game of Thrones Legacy”

Toy Fair 2014: Masters of the Universe Classics Rio Blast, Club Etheria, and DC Super Powers Highlight Mattycollector Reveals

There’s no substitute for seeing the figures in person, but Mattel has been kind enough to share the big reveals from its Collector Event this afternoon via the Mattycollector site. In previous teases leading up to Toy Fair, Mattel promised a subscription in the likes of Club Filmation in 2013 and a send-off for DC Universe Classics – and they did exactly that. Club Etheria is a six figure sub that apparently will have some day of sales. The previously revealed Madam Razz and Broom land in this sub, which also features Double Mischief, Entrapta, and the club exclusive Light Hope. An additional accessory was shown for one of the unrevealed figures – if you didn’t guess it, Mattel provided a spoiler in the image file name.

As for the DC Universe Classics send-off, Mattycollector will offer 6 figures, 3 each in September and October – with an enticing Collect & Connect if you get all six. It’s a Super Powers send-off, featuring Batman, Superman (in 2 flavors, one of them in the fan-demanded light blue), Wonder Woman, Green Lantern as the Riddler, and Mr. Mxyzptlk. The C&C is Kalibak, in his Super Powers brown colors. It really is a fitting finale for the line, which Mattel and the Four Horsemen have said had its roots in the classic Super Powers line.

Finally, Rio Blast was revealed as the September figure for Club Eternia. For fans of the Spirit of Hordak chase figure, Mattel will repeat that in 2014, with a Kowl and Loo-Kee 2-pack. And in a licensing move that feels odd to action figure collectors, Mattel is making Hot Wheels from Marvel Comics. And there’s much more – read on for the press release and pics.

Continue reading “Toy Fair 2014: Masters of the Universe Classics Rio Blast, Club Etheria, and DC Super Powers Highlight Mattycollector Reveals”

Scroll Up