In case you missed it the other night during “America’s Got Talent” here is the 4 minute super preview to this Summer’s ‘The Amazing Spiderman” film.

One of the world’s most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012.

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

The Elite, a team of super-powered antiheroes, is renowned for killing their enemies. Despite the acclaim and approval the Elite enjoy, Superman knows they are in the wrong, creating more harm than good by their methods. Tensions between them finally culminate in a mass showdown on Jupiter’s moons, when Superman is forced to prove that violence is never a positive.

This item will be released on June 12, 2012.

You can preorder a copy of ‘Superman Vs. The Elite’ on DVD and Blu-ray by clicking the link.

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

I’ve been asked to participate this week as a guest judge this weekend at the Los Angeles UCB theater and their “Tournament of Nerds” show.  Turns out that show creator Justin Donaldson is an AFi reader from the begining and he very graciously asked if I’d participate.  So if you are in the LA area this weekend and you don’t turn back into a pumpkin at  midnight then come on out and have some nerdariffic laughs with the gang at the Upright Citizens Brigade!

Here’s the info on the show:

Tournament of Nerds!

Have you ever wondered who would win in a fight, Superman or Gandalf? Are you a fan of Comic books, Sci Fi, Horror, and Fantasy? Do you like to see nerds engage in passionate debate? Then come to the “Tournament of Nerds!” Nerds square off in heated debate to decide which heroes would win in a fight, as they battle to get through a March Madness type bracket… ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE!!!

Hosted by Hal Rudnick & Justin Donaldson

May 19 Judges

Jim Rash (Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Descendants, Dean Pelton on Community)
Kyle Dunnigan (Reno 911!, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Howie Do It)
Daniel Pickett (“Julius Marx” of Action Figure Insider, co-host of Geek Shall Inherit)
Marc Andreyko (Captain America, True Blood, Manhunter)

May 19th Nerds
Mike Carlson
James Ross
Jason Sheridan
Matt Manser
Roger Barr
Dax Herrera
Andie Bolt
Greg Jones
Richie Root
and
Nick Wiger as Skeletor

And here’s the link to buy tickets – http://losangeles.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/1798

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

Twice a month the gang from Mattel are kind enough to answer five questions from AFi readers.  The Mattel marketing and PR team, have replied with the answers to our latest round of questions that AFi readers have posted in our forums.

If you have Mattel  questions make sure to post them in the thread for the next round.

Today is also the 15th of the month so Mattel has another round of brand new figures on sale over at MattyCollector.com.   The DCSC Golden Age Flash and MOTUC Stinkor have already sold out, but you can still get Slush Head, The Mighty Spector and the snake mountain stands.

Let’s get to the questions and the answers!

Q1.  With the retail restrictions limits removed, can we now see the possibility of larger BAF type characters over the average 8″ size into maybe 10-12″ scale? Maybe even see a limited release of the ultra rare gigantic Anti-Monitor.

A1. Yes, there will be 3 oversized figures as part of the CIE subscription on 2012 that could potentially be of any larger size but that will be based on tooling as well. There will not be any 100% tool’d figures in 2012 due to the low sub sell in rate.

Q2.  In the past there have been some pieces/accessories that are exclusive to people buying the exclusives at the show.   Are there any SDCC bonus’ for buying this the exclusives at SDCC instead of after the con?

A2.  There will be a non toy item as a free gift with purchase for Vykron.

Q3.  Do you have release dates or the order of release for the JLU 3-packs that we’ll be getting later this year?

A3.  This will be confirmed at SDCC. The first pack will go on sale in July and will be Mongul. After that it is every month until they are done! Future Static is in Aug.

Q4.  I’m going to do my best to not turn this into a rant, but I’m a VERY Unhappy Ghostbusters fan.  Today’s reveal shows Dana as Zuul is now a SDCC exclusive. I signed up for the 2012 edition of club Ecto-1 only to have it unceremoniously droped while all focus was on saving the DC superheroes subscription. At SDCC 2011, Dana as Zuul was announced as part of this subscription. When the Sub died, Dana as Zuul was directly stated as being the 3rd figure of 4 for this year.  Now today, she has gone from being the $22 regular release to being a $25 exclusive that extra hoops have to be jumped through to obtain.
So  is the SDCC Exclusive Danna as Zuul now counted seperately from the “4 Ghostbusters figures being released in 2012″?     After the Rookie figure, what Ghostbusters figures are coming?     The Rookie figure went from being the Club exclusive figure, to being a regular release…why was he not held back as being the SDCC exclusive?
What is the status of the “Thank You” for the 2012 club ecto-1 subscribers?
I am hoping for some positive sign out of this, but Mattel has to realize that this is not the news Ghostbusters fans were hoping to hear.

A4.   At the end of the day, it all comes down to sales. If Ghostbusters had sold in the vol. of MOTUC or even DCU CIE we would be able to continue it. The only figure that performed at expectations is movie 1 Peter (with proton stream). We simply can not make figures for a line that is not selling, as much as we are all GB fans!

Beyond the four movie 1 figures, it is hard to find a market for secondary character. Even Vigo, one of the most demanded characters did not sell to expectations. There are a million factors and fans/customers can point out many things that can be done different, but at the end of the day, with the current system, MOTUC and DCU can go on as they have enough customers, GB can not. We can’t produce figures at a loss, no matter how much we like the property! Perhaps in a movie year a larger fan base will come forward and we can start up again.

But for now, GB has met it’s demand and there just are not enough customers to keep the 6″ line going past 4 figures (including Dana) in 2012. The final 2012 figure will be revealed at SDCC.

We still have a “thank you” item to those who bought a sub and had it canceled. But it takes 12-14 months to go from concept to production. We started the “thank you” item in Aug of last year when the sub was canceled and are still in the middle of the development cycle. Once it is done we will share with former subscribers all the details!

If you’d like to ask a question for the  June 1st submission then feel free to post your questions in our Mattel Q&A question submissions thread!   Remember they can be about any Mattel product including MOTUC, Ghostbusters, WWE any of the Mattel DC lines, Voltron and Cars. Twice a month we draw our submission question directly from the ones that AFi readers post.

You can submit new questions in this thread.

You can find our past Q&A’s here.  And you can discuss the answers on our Mattel board.

Thanks again to the team at Mattel for taking time to answer our questions!

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

Our friends over at BigBadToyStore.com let us know about a few new items that may be of interest to you:

New Bowen Statues & Busts – a great selection this month with Savage Hulk, Magneto, Red Spider-Man Statues, and Maestro Hulk Mini Bust
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=bowen

Revoltech Spider-Man – we can’t post any images on this one yet, but its going to be an awesome figure!  Preorders available at $54.99
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=KAI10432&mode=retail

Hot Toys New Arrivals – DX Joker and Black Costume Spider-Man have just arrived
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=hot+toys+1%2f6

Mattel WWE – we’ve listed about 30 new case assortments – basically the full Mattel lineup for future WWE releases
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=mattel+wwe

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

The folks at DisneyXD have given fans an early look at the first full episode of the highly anticipated new animated series Tron: Uprising -  You can watch the full episode below -

GET ON THE GRID WITH THE DISNEY XD PREVIEW OF TRON: UPRISING! — THE SERIES PREMIERES THURSDAY JUNE, 7TH AT 9/8C — ON DISNEY XD.

Beck is a young mechanic living in Argon City, a growing metropolis in a far off corner of the grid that has just been occupied by General Tesler, a henchman of the notorious Clu. After his best friend Bodhi is ruthlessly derezzed by Clu’s army, Beck seeks justice for his lost friend and launches a crusade against the regime. His rebellion captures the attention of Tron, the greatest warrior The Grid has ever known, who sees the potential in Beck and trains him to be his successor. Labeled with the moniker of The Renegade, Beck sparks a revolution to fight for the freedom of The Grid.

To get on the grid with TRON: Uprising, go to http://www.DisneyXD.com/TRON.

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

AFi:  Traditionally Mattel employees have adopted nicknames/screen names for their on-line interaction with fans (Walker Texas Ranger, Boy Wonder, Fangirl 2.0, ToyGuru, etc.) have you given any thought to yours yet?

Matty Justice League: The DC product development team answers questions on Matty as Matty Justice League. Multiple people will answer under this name to make sure that we address questions.

AFi: Can you tell us what else you have done for Mattel before jumping into the DC properties?

Matty Justice League: I came from Hot Wheels Basic Cars and interacted with collectors on Hotwheelscollector.com as HWC JohnF.  Before that, I interned in Games.

AFi: Are you already comic fans, or have you been catching up once you got on board the DC team? And is that even a relevant question with the new direction?

Matty Justice League:  Actually, this is a funny story. I interviewed for a cross-department job change into Batman (before taking over all of DC Mass) and made the change a year ago. When I first learned about the opportunity, I looked around my house and realized that next to the life size 3D Darth Maul and Yoda were tons of Batman stuff, from Action Figures, to DC Comic coffee books to Six Flags capes. So yes, I was a fan before, but not just of the comics, but all mediums and honestly, everything that was/is an action figure – ever heard of Saint Seiya?

AFi: Do you see fan outreach as part of the job, or is it an addition to try and do outside of your workday?

Matty Justice League:  A little bit of both. I wish I had time for more as I love interacting on the boards.

AFi:  Have either of you been to Comic Con before?

Matty Justice League:  Yep, twice. I went in 2007 as a Games intern and again last year as the Batman Manager.

AFi:  What happened with Young Justice?   I’m sure it was a tougher sell when it was on Friday nights, but it seems like once it moved to Saturday mornings on the DC Nation block it would be getting a lot more kids eyes on the show.

Matty Justice League:  We actually just published a story on Matty and a lot of answers have been provided on the Matty boards. Essentially, we’re really bummed. The show is great, but unfortunately, the toys didn’t work. Sometimes, it just happens that moms/kids love the show but don’t buy the toys.

AFi: It seems as if Walmart is really cutting back on the amount of toy lines it carries at retail.  Is that having an effect on what gets made?

Matty Justice League:  That’s hard to answer right now. At the moment, we aren’t seeing that.

AFi:  There is a tendency to romanticize each new line and want to extend it indefinitely, but looking back over the past 20-30 years most action figure lines lasted 3 years, tops. Do you see this as a natural reboot of the DC properties, or is it an attempt to extend the existing product line in some form of continuity?

Matty Justice League:   If you look at the past 20-30 years, the top brands have always remained in some form or another. Hence, this is more of a reboot to make sure that it is fresh.

AFi: Can we ask about a few other properties that haven’t been mentioned lately when it comes to the new division of labor?
Batman Legacy
Action League

Will we continue to see 6″ DCUC-style sublines for major DC movie tie-ins like we have seen in Batman: Legacy and Green Lantern Classics?
We know Danielle aka Fangirl 2.0 went off to work on the upcoming Superman movie retail line.  How does that that tie into the other work you guys are doing?  Is she part of the retail team?

Matty Justice League:   Fangirl 2.0 actually works for me at the moment under the mass DC team. As for the other pieces, it’s too early to comment at this moe =ment.

Thank you to the new Mattel retail team for answering a few of our burning questions.  We look forward to hearing much more from you guys.

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

The MOTUC 30th Anniversary line has been a bit controversial in its introduction, and it has taken a while for some fans to warm up to it.   The original premise that Mattel put together for the 30th line was to approach big name creators in the worlds of comics, toys, movies and TV that were childhood fans of He-man to take a stab at creating characters in that universe.   Unfortunately that didn’t come to pass, as almost all of the creators approached wanted money and/or rights/royalties to any characters they would have created.   The exceptions were DC’s Geoff Johns and The Four Horsemen.  That left several slots left open.  That’s how we got “The Mighty Spect0r.”

The Mighty Spector is a character created back in the 80′s by MOTUC brand manager Scott “Toy Guru” Neitlich as his submission into the MOTU “Create A Character” contest. The contest that Fearless Photog went on to win.    Some fans think Scott has overstepped his bounds by putting his own creation in the line.  Some fans think his time traveling super-spy is out of place and doesn’t fit into this universe of anthropomorphic mosquitoes, transforming rock men, and firemen with mechanical elephant heads. And some fans think it’s a great Cinderella story of a life long fan of the line growing up, getting a job in the field, climbing the ladder of success to run the Renaissance of the toy line they loved and can now see the crayon sketch they did 30 years ago finally become articulated plastic.  I fall firmly in the last camp.  One of us, collectors, fans… made it.  To the top.  To where a lot of us wish we could be some day.  One of us broke through at one of the 800 lbs juggernauts.   That’s no small task, and Scott is one of the small handful of guys that are carrying the MOTU torch at Mattel.   A little collector line like that with numbers as few as the make, shouldn’t be given any resources at a company as big as Mattel.   But Scott and his team have shepherded it into profitability so much so that it is approved to keep going year after year.

Last week Mattel posted a great interview with Scott that gave fans a little more insight into the character as well as some new fan art of the character.   You can read that here.

Ready to clean evil’s clock at a moment’s notice, King He-Man’s Time Agent dedicates his life to defending the royal household and protecting the time stream during the Eternian Time Wars. The third figure in the MOTU 30th anniversary Series, this all-new character is designed by Scott “Toy Guru” Neitlich and sculpted by The Four Horsemen. With these accessories, he fights the good fight whenever, wherever he’s needed.

I think my favorite detail on the figure is the missing plasma pellet on his thigh bandolier… it gives the character more of a story with the idea of “one in the chamber.”   Spector also has some  Kirby-esque circuitry on his harness.   He has the standard MOTUC articulation.  He comes with Cosmic key wrist controller, plasma knife and his blaster.

You can get your own “heroic master of time” starting at noon (est) tomorrow on MattyCollector.com.

12►

This sample was provided by Mattel.

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

Here it is, at long last! Our Avengers show! We’ve seen it and we are dying to talk about it. However on the off chance that one of you haven’t seen the film yet in it’s 19 day stop to accumulation $1 BILLION at the worldwide box office, we break the show up into two parts and talk about everything else for the first half (two thirds really) and then for the second part we give our spoiler-riffic thoughts on the film. If you have seen “The Avengers” listen away! You haven’t, seriously? WE’ve only been waiting our whole life for this movie, AND it’s really good! I’m not even sure why are are reading this. GO NOW!

• Happy Mother’s Day (yesterday) to all the moms, step moms, grandmothers, etc! We give some of our favorite mom stories. Mentioned in the show is the poem “The Lanyard” Here’s a link if you want to go read it.
• Free Comic Book Day – Where did you end up? What did you get?
• Talking Dead and Comic Book Men picked up for 2nd season on AMC
• Did Jason FINALLY watch “The New Girl?!?!”
• “TV Outside the Box” exhibit at the Paley center
• Robot Chicken doing an all DC Comics special
• Lego Batman 2 video game coming in June
• BifBangPow’s SDCC exclusives

And then…
Avengers anyone?

All that and MORE on episode 23 of Geek Shall Inherit!

You can listen to it here or on iTunes!

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off

Integrates Physical Toys with Digital Gameplay

Hillside, N.J. & Cary, N.C.—May 14, 2012—Leading entertainment conglomerate, National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) alongside game creators Wizkids and Icarus Studios, wholly-owned subsidiaries of NECA, today unveiled HeroClix TabApp™, an upcoming action-based iPad game, and the first in the TabApp™ series, integrating physical miniature toys with digital arenas. HeroClix TabApp™ is set for release this fall.

Featuring real-time combat, HeroClix TabApp™ integrates NECA’s vast array of licenses to bring popular characters commonly featured in NECA’s product lines to the game.

To play, physical miniatures are placed on the iPad device, the “digital game board.” Utilizing Icarus Studio’s xScape Platform figure recognition technology, exclusive content and game maps are unlocked based on the miniature selected. With a swipe of a finger players can move along the virtual board and take part in high-action battles against a multitude of evil villains.

Game Features Include:

• One dozen physical super hero miniatures
• 50+ virtual enemy figures
• Over two dozen digital maps
• Real-time combat

“Technology is changing the way in which consumers interact with toys and collectibles,” said Joel Weinshanker, President and COO at NECA.  “TabApp™ takes gaming to the next level, offering players an all new way to experience their favorite collectibles, toys and games in a portable (digital) format that fits their lifestyle.”

HeroClix TabApp™ is slated for release this October and will be available for iPad devices free from the iTunes store. Physical miniatures will be available at participating hobby and comic shop retailers.

For more information on HeroClix TabApp™, visit www.heroclixtabapp.com.

(more…)

Share:

Posted by JuliusMarx • Comments Off