Today sees the release of the next DC Animated movie, Justice League: Doom.

A couple of quick things.

1. This is Dwayne McDuffie’s last movie, the last thing he wrote before he died.  I hope his family gets something out of this.  Knowing he is gone makes me more sad that we never got Static Shock the series on DVD and never got toys of that show.  Dwayne, know that you are missed by even those who knew you only through your writing and producing of animated shows like Justice League Unlimited and Ben 10.

(more…)

Share:

Two years ago, almost to the day, I wrote a piece for Men of Action in which I gave, in no uncertain terms, my opinion of Diamond Select Toys’s handling of their three sci-fi action figure lines: Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Stargate. Unfortunately, I can’t say much has changed for any of those DST properties, but geek culture has. (more…)

Share:

OK, this is just kuh-razy. This past week I posted a blog about my vintage 3 3/4″ mini-collections. In the last paragraph I alluded to the fact that I continually hunt for the rare LJN Magnum P.I. Ferrari and action figure. Its been a white whale of mine for a while. You know, one of those items you have a saved search for on eBay that you check religiously every morning when you get to work. After you make your coffee. Actually, this is a two-saved search item: “Magnum PI” and “Magnum P.I.” Yeah, it makes a difference. (more…)

Share:

As frequent readers know, I’ve posted a bunch of stuff about WizKids HeroClix gaming miniatures figures and the game itself. It might be a safe bet to guess that I like the miniatures and the game. And you would be right. But I have a complaint about an upcoming product that I wanted to share.

The recent sets have focused on one main character and sometimes a few sublines. Web of Spiderman. Captain America. Superman. Incredible Hulk. Galactic Guardians is going to be more widespread in focus. Then we get to Avengers Movie and Marvel’s Chaos War. When is the next DC set? Batman is going to be the focus of 2 upcoming sets, but before that we get Justice League. What is wrong with that? The size of the set.

Justice League is reported to be a 20+ size set. That means individual figure boosters and probably a preset box of 6 figures. The focus is on the Justice League in the new DC Universe. We have seen so far Deadman, Zatanna, Madame Xanadu and the Enchantress of the Justice League Dark title. So what is wrong? The fact that there are hundreds of characters that could be included in a full set. The Superman set had 54 pieces. The Incredible Hulk set had 45. Why can’t WizKids give us 52 pieces of the new 52 DC Universe?

(more…)

Share:

He-Man and I have had a rocky relationship.

Wait. Can we go back? I just… Crap. OK.

In a past post, I asked you to decide which of The Big Three is the all-time biggest non-licensed action figure property; G.I. Joe, Transformers, or Masters of the Universe. Opinion was typically divided, but no one disputed those three properties are, indeed, The Big Three. Joe, BotsnCons, and He-Man have been part of geek culture since the early 80s and, in one form or another, are as powerful and influential as ever.

In one form or another…hmmm… (more…)

Share:

Hey! Have you heard that Mega Bloks will be producing sets based upon the super-successful MMO World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment? Yeah, I may have mentioned it once or twice, or more ’round these parts.

Well, our friends at Mega Bloks are running a contest to rev up the buzz before the sets are released to retail. The contest is called “Channel Your Inner Thrall“.  Thrall, of course, is the iconic orc…former Warchief and current shaman and one of the most popular characters in the Warcraft universe. To enter all you need to do is go to the website (using either the link or the image above) and upload a pic of yourself either a) posing with Thrall, b) posing like Thrall, or c) posing as Thrall. (more…)

Share:

Last year there was a thread in the General Toy Talk section of the Action Figure Insider forum called: Whats Your Pride and Joy? It was a cool topic and I remember posting: “I think right now my Pride and Joy is my humble collection of 3 3/4″ scale vintage figures.” Since then I planned on blogging about that answer. But, of course, there were collections that happened to be a piece or two away from being complete. “I’ll do the blog as soon as I get one more TRON frisbee,” the refrain would go. Finally I came to terms with the fact that I will always have a little collection that’s not quite complete. So, here follows a series of portraits of my Pride and Joy, as it stands right now… (more…)

Share:

One of the amazing things about WizKids HeroClix is the ever increasing variety of teams/armies you can make to play against your friends (or opponents in tournaments).  The NECA/WizKids gallery does a good job of showing the packaging, but does a poor job of showing the potential of the game.  To add to what they showed, I’d like to show off some of the teams my son and I have played recently.

The League of Assassins

(more…)

Share:

Well, yet another Toy Fair has come and gone and, despite all my (misplaced?) hopes and anticipation it was antoher ho-hum showing at the biggest event in the toy industry.

Now, to be fair I need be mindful of the fact that the American International Toy Fair is for the entirety of the toy industry, not just the small category of action figures. So, I think it’s safer to say, for me, the action figure showings at this Toy Fair were lackluster, if not downright disappointing. (more…)

Share:

This is the last of my admittedly self-indulgent series of Pre-Toy Fair articles looking at the lines that I’m most excited about. Toy Fair kicks off tomorrow with the Hasbro presentation, and then gets into full gear on Sunday. I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the news to start coming in! (more…)

Share:

Mega Bloks is going to be releasing construction sets based upon Blizzard Entertainment’s hugely successful World of Warcraft MMO game. I’ve covered this before in my blog here at AFi, so it should be no surprise that I’m really looking forward to this line. Let me be clear. I’m REALLY excited about this line! (more…)

Share:

Mars Attacks is making a comeback in 2012, and as a fan of vintage sci-fi, I’m pretty excited by the imminent invasion. (more…)

Share:

As we prepare for Toy Fair, NECA and Wiz Kids are not taking a break.  Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday they have been previewing more pieces from their upcoming sets of HeroClix.  Star Trek tactics – which involves ship battles has just released.  The big push now is Galactic Guardians, their next upcoming major release.

Master of the Mystic Arts (follow the link for more details!)

More Strangeness after the jump! (more…)

Share:

The Han Snowlo Project: part II.

So I started this goofy experiment in my last blog entry.  Over the course of Thursday through Sunday, I tracked the rate of snowfall using a broomstick and my son’s Han Solo.

You can see the progress of the snow below, along with the anguished plastic cries of the non-carbonite frozen Corellian.

(more…)

Share:

As a player of video games, I was so happy to see Unimax launch their Gamestars line last year. While the 3-3/4″ revolution was going on strong at a variety of toy companies and with a variety of properties, it seemed video game-based action figures were only being made in the 6-7″ scale, with the exception of McFarlane Toys Halo lines which started at 5″ and later bumped up a bit with the release of the Halo: Reach line.

But then along came Unimax. Seemingly out of nowhere the Crysis 2 figures started showing up in Targets around the country. Nicely sculpted and articulated they caught the attention of a lot of 1:18 scale figure fans like myself. While I’ve been a fan of Unimax for a few years now with their Bravo Team, Dino Warriors and Ages of Action lines, I couldn’t get myself to pull the trigger on any of the Crysis 2 figures. No fault of Unimax’s, I just didn’t care at all for the look of the Crysis characters. At all. So, I passed on the assortment.

But, that little Gamestars logo up in the corner got me thinking that maybe, just maybe, Gamestars would prove to be an over-arcing brand encompassing multiple video game licenses. Sure enough, that’s exactly what came to be. Soon we found out about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Red Faction: Armageddon with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon yet to come. What fantastic news! I really dig the Assassins Creed line, and from pictures I’ve seen Red Faction looks pretty sweet, too. It just hasn’t shown up at any stores around me yet.

Recently, online retailer Big Bad Toy Store posted some product listings for upcoming Gamestars assortments. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon is still on the way, but it seems we can also look forward to some assortments based on a couple of upcoming Capcom properties: Dragon’s Dogma and Asura’s Fate. Plus, there’s more Assassin’s Creed coming, which I’m excited about.

But, the big one that took my breath away? Starcraft II. I played the original Starcraft back in the day, and loved it. I love Blizzard Entertainment and the worlds and games they’ve created. Starcraft would make an excellent, excellent toyline. Now, I did a little checking and the BBTS listing may be a bit premature, but from what I understand, Unimax and Blizzard are wrapping up negotiations for the license. I’ve got my fingers crossed all goes through as planned.

What I’m really hoping for, and there’s no signs of this happening – so this is just rampant fanboy conjecture – is this new found relationship between Unimax and Blizzard (again, assuming all goes well) could maybe, just maybe, lead to a 1:18 line based on World of Warcraft. Now, that would be truly awesome.

I’d also love to see Unimax tackle a 1:18 Gears of War line. The NECA figures are beautiful, sure, but they refuse to do smaller scale figures.

But, all wishlists aside, we’ve got some great stuff coming from Unimax and their Gamestars lines in 2012. I can’t wait!

Share: