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Sun 13 Aug 2006 |
DC Direct Con Exclusive John Stewart Green Lantern Mini-Mate
By Daniel "Julius Marx" Pickett
"In Brightest Day.."
That was the "phrase that pays" every afternoon at Comic Con 2006 at the DC Direct booth. The week before the con, DC Direct posted on their web site two different "secret phrases" that fans could walk up to the DC Direct booth and say and get something cool. For the morning it was "Who’s Who." That would get you one of the blind boxed series 1 Who’s Who sets.
In the afternoon if you walked up and said "In Brightest Day" you were rewarded with a sneak peek at DC Direct and Art Asylum’s upcoming DC Mini Mates line. And they were quite strict with people really saying the phrase. People that just walked up and asked for one were turned away, unless it was a child, and then they were given a few hints until they got it. They didn’t seem to ming bystanders helping others, but you had to say the phrase if you wanted a figure.
This fall Art Asylum relaunches the DC Mini-Mates without the C3 construction sets of last year. This time they partner with DC Direct and we have already seen a diverse character line-up including many villains and use of both the 2" and 3" Mini-Mates scale. Standard characters will be 2" scale (matching the Marvel and Indy Mates lines) and larger characters will use the 3" Mate body used for the Lord of the Rings and Star Trek Mini-Mates.
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Fri 21 Jul 2006 |
 What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been…
Well, we’re trying something a bit new this year here at AFI. After spending the past 6 or 7 years being beaten down by the glory and the chaos that is SDCC, I (Jason ‘ToyOtter’ Geyer) am staying behind to man the fort while our intrepid team (Daniel ‘Julius Marx’ Pickett, Cuban Zod, and Mike ‘SDComics’ Walker, along with a few friends and colleagues) will send back reports and pictures from the con floor. With any luck we’ll be able to update more frequently than if we were all there. Helping me tremendously in keeping the fort secure is the rest of the team: Ryan ‘The Superfly’ Prast, Jeff ‘Jeff’ Cope, and Darren ‘Dare’ Chia. So check back here throughout the four days of the convention, and take a gander at our special SDCC forums set up for all sorts of discussion. Daniel will also once again be moderating his famous toy panels, so if you hit the con be sure to go check them out!
For more good coverage and pictures, the only places you need to go visit are Fwooshnet, Raving Toy Maniac, Action-Figure.com, Rebelscum, and YoJoe.com .
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Tue 18 Jul 2006 |
Mattel Pre-Comic Con Update #2: The Batman ARKAHAM ASYLUM 6-pack
By Daniel "Julius Marx" Pickett
Mattel has given AFI another exclusive Pre-Comic Con sneak peek at the new products that they will be unveiling. Today we have a new 6-pack in The Batman line. This 6-pack called "Arkham Asylum" features a roster of bad guys including TWO new exclusive villians: Poison Ivy and the Ventrilloquist.
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Wed 12 Jul 2006 |
DOOMSDAY!!
A Closer look at the upcoming Target JLU 6-pack
The fine folks at Mattel have given us a few pre-Comic Con Sneak Peeks. Even though today is my birthday YOU are getting the present! Last week I had the opportunity to head over to the Mattel compound and see some of the new items that will be on display at Comic Con next week. And, they were kind enough to let me break some news and pictures of the new stuff.
I’m going to start off with the biggest "bang" because I just can’t wait for this set! AFI is proud to bring you the exclusive first look at the Target JLU 6-pack that contains Doomsday for the first time appearing in plastic in the animated style!!
The set should show up in stores around September and will be part of a special $20 gift end cap that Target will have going into the holiday buying season. You heard right you get the largest JLU figure and 5 other figures for just $20!
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Sun 25 Jun 2006 |
Marvel Legends Ultron- from Concept to Figure
Many posts and pages have been written on the topic of the Marvel Legends Ultron figure. From the first leaked pictures from Toy Fair 2005 to the "dog head" prototype pictures to the final product fans were wondering why this design was picked over a more classic streamlined look. Who was this new version? What was the design based on?
 
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Sat 10 Jun 2006 |
05/12/05
 Laerico asks: Hi Julius!! Your new site is amazing, congratulations!
Well, Kingdom Come will complete 10 years in 2006, and we know the first 3 waves sold really well, so, is there any hope of seeing one or two waves of Kingdom Come figures in 2006? C`mon, they could even include new versions of the big guns with each wave, like civilian Clark or farmer Clark, and exo-skeleton Bruce!
Julius says: Thanks. I can’t take credit for much of the look. I just bought a tabloid at the grocery store and showed it to Jason and said "kind of like that" and then he went to town and you can see the result! The first 3 waves of Kingdom Come did sell well for DC Direct and it does still feel a bit incomplete to many collectors. I have heard from reliable sources that Alex Ross himself has lobbied DC Direct to at least do a two-pack of the Spectre and Norman McKay if not another wave. I’d love to see those two and maybe Jade, Blue Beetle or Von Bach.
Chad asks: Any word of a animated version or another DC Direct Lobo in the works?
Julius says: You won’t be seeing an animated version of Lobo any time soon. Mattel has made the request of DC Comics several times to be able to make "the main man" as part of the Justice League Unlimited line and each time the answer has come back from DC that they don’t want to market that character to kids…even though Lobo has appeared on the show… which is marketed to kids. Yeah, I don’t get it either. I haven’t heard and talk of DC Direct re-release or updated version.
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Sun 21 May 2006 |
By Daniel/Julius
For any of you that have been to Comic Con and seen a hand painted 2-up prototype of a Marvel Legend figure you know that you have considered a bit of larceny to get something that cool into your collection. Well now Marvel Toys (Toy Biz) has taken everything they have learned from the Marvel Legends line, their roto-cast lines and their previous 12" figure lines to create a beautiful new line of 12" scale figures called "MARVEL LEGENDS ICONS." The first wave is just starting to hit stores and let me tell you these are worth tracking down!
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Tue 2 May 2006 |
By Mike "SDComics" Walker and Jason "ToyOtter" Geyer.
In the theory of better late than never, here are a good portion of the pics taken by AFI of the stuff shown at Wizard World Los Angeles, along with commentary on what was revealed by the always comprehensive SDComics! For SD’s full report including more pics and some of the local talent, check out this thread in our forum.
Mattel Toys
 As it’s already been stated, Mattel is restricted to just the Superman and Batman family of characters for the comic based line for 2007. They’re still talking to WB though, and they have hopes for 2008 so all is not lost.
I asked about the possibility of Silver Age characters like Composite Superman showing up in the 6" line, and Boy Wonder said the sky’s the limit. They won’t restrict themselves to one particular era.
Catwoman is a go for the 6" line.
I asked about the comic book pack-ins, and yes, that’s going to be ending soon. Because Mattel is on the opposite coast from DC, the logistics were a nightmare. It’s too difficult and costly to add them in.
The dioramas that will be included will be made of cardboard.
Justice Lords Hawkgirl will be showing up in the JLU line.
I mentioned those clear plastic stands that ToyBiz sometimes uses with Marvel Legends to Boy Wonder and asked him if Mattel might do something similar with the 6" line, and he said no.
It’s too soon to say if Mattel will be making toys based on the upcoming Wonder Woman and Flash movies, but Boy Wonder did confirm that yes, Mattel will indeed make action figures based on the new Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon. They haven’t started yet, but the designers are excited.
Boy Wonder introduced me to one of Mattel’s top designers, Mr. Ruben Martinez. Ruben was great fun to talk to. I could tell that he really, really loves his job and he’s having a blast. A few quick items:
We’re going to get another Huntress figure in the JLU line in addition to the one they had on display, and this time she’ll be wearing the Jim Lee inspired costume, the one with the white cross. Ruben worked very closely with Bruce Timm on this.
Ruben says one of his goals for JLU is to make every character that appreared in the old Super Powers line that they’re contractually able to do. Kalibak will be a challenge, but he wants it to happen.
We talked about articulation and tooling, and how cool the 6" line was for posing. I mentioned how cool it would be to have a Creeper figure to put in weird Steve Ditko style poses, and Ruben laughed. He said that Creeper is on their approved list of characters and they’re looking at him for ’07 or ’08.
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Tue 2 May 2006 |
MARVEL LEGENDS- MONSTERS Boxed set
By Daniel/Julius and General Zod
 
Man, whenever this impressive Marvel Legends train comes screeching to a halt, some toy geek is going to write volumes on what a comprehensive and brilliantly marketed line this has been. This on again, off again, on again set has finally become a reality.
And unbelievably, in a month where we get Legends Two-packs that feature a 1970s Leader, a 1960s style Baron Strucker leader of HYDRA, Toy Biz throws us ANOTHER unexpected blast from the past with CLASSIC MARVEL MONSTERS. I mean, what next? BROTHER VOODOO?
Comic-wise, these 1970s Monsters SHOULD have sucked. They were knock offs of the classic horror literature made famous by the Universal Films in the 1930s and 40s. In 1972, Marvel shrewdly realized that Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN and Bram Stoker’s DRACULA were now public domain. (And as werewolves and zombies were the stuff of legend, no legal issues there either!)
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Sun 26 Mar 2006 |
 Last year at Comic Con International I hosted a panel on action figure sculpting called “Under the Knife.” I had assembled a healthy roster of talent from Phil Ramirez who sculpted the 16” Toy Biz Galactus to Jason Carter who has sculpted many Heroclix for Wizkids. But the one thing I didn’t have on the panel was any women. One of the first questions asked by the audience was “where are the women?” The answer came back that there really only were a small handful of women currently working as sculptors in the action figure industry. But without a doubt the most well know and respected female action figure sculptor is Karen Palinko.
Currently working for DC Direct, Karen has finally been given the opportunity to demonstrate her range as a sculptor with DC Direct as they have allowed her to break out of just doing statues, maquettes and busts and move into doing action figures such as the Silver Age Batwoman and Batgirl 2-pack , the Parasite from the Alex Ross “Justice” line and a few of the First Appearance figures.
Talking about her early years before being in the toy industry Karen told me: “It’s really strange–I started out as a figurative sculptor. I don’t know how I got roped into sculpting Tweety Bird-type thingies. But you know how it is…you do one Tweety, someone sees it, and before you know it, thereyou go: you have a portfolio full of Tweetys.“
Many of you may not be aware that Karen sculpted the Alice Cooper piece for Art Asylum’s “N’ the Box” series.
Earlier this year Karen served as a judge for the Spectrum 12: The best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. If you’ve never picked up a copy of this yearly publication/celebration of art and sculpture you should make it a point to track down an issue of Spectrum.
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