NEW YORK, NY (Jan. 19, 2009) — The second action figure in The Undersea Adventures of Capt’n Eli’s Mego-style Commander X collection will debut at New York Comic-Con on Feb. 6.This new 8-inch “1950s Commander X” action figure is the first variant since the original “Golden Age Commander X” was released in Dec. 2008.Look for this new figure in Nemo Publishing’s Booth 1927.
Commander X is an integral character in Jay Piscopo’s new all-ages Undersea Adventures of Capt’n Eli graphic novel series, published by Nemo Publishing and distributed nationally by Diamond Comic Distributors.
The “1950s Commander X” Mego-style action figure will be in a special package designed exclusively for New York Comic-Con and will not be available to the public until after the show so this is a unique opportunity for convention-goers.
This figure was created in a nostalgic style reminiscent of figures made by the Mego Corporation in the 1970s.“Dr. Mego” – Paul Clarke – consulted with Piscopo on this figure and Clarke’s company EMCE Toys manufactures the Commander X action figure line for Nemo Publishing.Clarke is a Mego expert and is the foremost reproducer of parts and accessories for collectors, Twisted Toyfare Theatre, and Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken.
On Saturday, Feb. 7, Clarke will participate in the “Mego: Past, Present, and Future” panel along with Mego’s founder, Marty Abrams; Joe Sena of EMCE Toys; and Chuck Terciera from Diamond Toys.This panel will be hosted by Justin Aclin of Toyfare Magazine.
Look for the Capt’n Eli crew in Booth 1927 where Piscopo will offer free convention sketches and hand out limited edition collectible card games, collectible pins and mini-comics.
On Sunday, Feb. 8, Nemo Publishing will also have a special Kids Day booth and, at noon, Piscopo will lead an interactive “Kids Draw” panel with artists Jamal Igle, Ruben Procopio, and Chris Schweize.
It’s been a fairly good toy week. I wasn’t even looking hard and found most of DCUC 6 today, and had to really hold myself back from looking at any Targets because i don’t want to stumble across those clearance deals like $3.48 Marvel Legends and $35 Millennium Falcons. I’m trying to scale back, and sales always make me break down like a 6 year old girl in a free pony store. I didn’t see a Shazam!, Black-Suit Superman, or Dr. Impossible. But what I got has made me pleasantly surprised.
First, though, I want to point out that our old friends Shocker Toys has released pictures of the factory production pieces of their first Indie Spotlight wave. I’ve given Shocker a pretty hard time or the years (albeit very well-deserved), but on the flip side I need to point out when they’ve done something right just as much as berate them for doing everything else wrong. These sculpts and paint jobs look pretty good. If I ever see them in a store, there is s light chance I might pick one or two of them up. Considering my attitude toward the company and its product lend themselves to me torching a store carrying their toys, this is a surprise indeed. Heck, I’ll go so far as to say that if Shocker wants to send me a set for review I will go out of my way to be fair.
Back to DCUC: I gave Mattel a hard time just in my last post. Wave 5 was just a mess, and we’ve been hearing about them switching to a new factory and that they’re looking into the problems for so long now, it really sounded like a broken record designed to brush off collectors. I’m happy and amazed, though, that DCUC 6 actually does go a long way toward fixing problems!
To start with, the plastic has a harder durometer than previous waves (although to be fair, wave 5 also was nice and hard). Unlike wave 5, the joints are definitely not frozen on any of these. Someone finally got the memo to make sure every joint was worked good before packaging, because now the problem is that some of them are slightly loose. But I’ll take that any day over potential breakage. Most of the paint is nice and crisp, and the C&C figure, Kalibak, has great snap together joints that seem to fix the "bad leg" problems plaguing earlier figures. In fact, Kalibak’s joints are so tight he can easily stand on one leg while waiting for that last piece! And the paint is not only nice and crisp (only found the one set, and those were all as nice as can be expected) but they are finally starting to get all the colors right. In past waves, there have been many unexplicable shifts from the paint masters to the production figures. I hope this just keeps getting better. Bravo, Mattel!
One complaint, which may be big or minor depending on what you care about: the "paint wash" on these guys is pretty bad. Mainly because its not a wash, but rather a quick once-over with an airbrush, and on only one color on the figure. It makes them look dirty, instead of added depth. And even if they continue this process (my advice would be to save money and drop it is they can’t do it right) they should go with a slightly darker shad of the base color, not this almost black wash. It needs to be subtle, not in your face.
One last complaint: I hate these formed inner bubbles in general, but this wave they are so bad that you have to nearly break the figure to get them out, especially Hawkman and Killer Moth, whose wings have to be cut free. Why can’t we go back to simple carded figures? Is theft really that much of a problem? Speaking of Killer Moth’s wings, mine were put in slightly too high, making them lean forward on his back. But again, a minor complaint when you get a Killer Moth figure to begin with! Now bring on the 60s Batgirl to go with him.
I just posted a feature over in our newly launched toy archives of Mattel’s Masters of The Universe Classics New York Comic Con exclusive FAKER figure. This figure will first be made available to attendees at New York Comic con the first weekend in February and then will be available on MattyCollector.com at a later date.
Silvermain is a swashbuckling adventurer and thief travels the world with his friends looking for adventure and new lands to discover. A romantic dreamer who always looks over the horizon for his next adventure, Silvermain struggles with his devotion to his friends, the quest, and his love for carefree travel.
Taken from the pages of the comic Tall Tails and the stylized visions of long time independent comic artist Daphne Lage, Dream Weaver Press in conjunction with Erick Scarecrow’s ESC Toys, present the first in a series of roto-cast vinyl toys that will bring the world of Tall Tails to life.
“Silvermain” will come in two color-ways True Life, and Glow-In-the-Dark (GID) edition limited to 250 pieces.
The figures are roto-cast vinyl, will measures 8.5” tall and feature 3 points of articulation. The True Life will be available through Dream Weaver Press and specialty retailers at $54.95. The GID will be $64.95, and will be available only through Dream Weaver Press directly.
The prototype of the Silvermain figure will be on display at the Dream Weaver Press table at the 2009 New York Comic Con, with the finished product slated to drop in early 2009; however Dream Weaver Press is currently taking preorders for both versions.
The legendary slasher of Camp Crystal Lake strikes again in the all new Friday the 13th film. The newest Friday The 13th film is a terrifying revision of the iconic horror franchise. The Jason Voorhees figure is crafted with incredible detail and comes with an array of weapons used in the film. Each figure stands over 7 inches tall and is fully articulated.
Expect Mezco Toyz Jason to slash his way onto stores shelves around February 13th.
Matty from MattyCollector.com and ToyGuru Jr. sent us the answers to our latest round of questions.that AFI readers have posted in our forums. There are some very interesting hints and reveals in this installment, so read it carefully and let the speculating begin!
Q1: The JLU Gotham Criminals 4 Pack looks cool. I can’t wait to pick it up. Question: is it too late for you guys to tool some little boot fins to glue onto Harley Quinn’s ankles to make her a little more accurate? It looks like she has an amazing head sculpt and new arms/hands that look great. I think that two little bits of plastic would round her out nicely and make the figure quite fantastic.
A1: Tooling Harley was a big choice we made at Mattel. We knew we only had the budget to tool either new legs or new arms. In the end we made the choice to go with new arms as this would help bring out her character the most and her legs could be done with paint ops easier then her arm changes. And for additional info, it costs the same amount to tool up a boot cuff as it does a cape and cowl. It is not the size of the tool that increases costs, it is the number of parts. So a small part to change a figure is the same cost as a large part. Hope that helps!
Q2: Will the "Crime Scene Evidence" continue with the new Movie Masters figures? If so can you let us in on what will be packed with them? Will we get any variant heads on the Goon? Will figure-scale accessories be included with any of the new releases? Is Harvey a chase version of Two-Face? Will either of the chase figures from the first two waves be shipping again in any upcoming cases?
A2: Wow, lots of questions in one question on this one. Lets see if we can get them all: Crime Scene Evidence will continue with the MM figures, but we will also look at adding new in scale accessories as well. We do have new goon figures in mind. We are releasing the Joker as a goon in Wave 4 with others possibly later in the year. Harvey Dent is indeed a chase version of Two-Face and yes, current figures will continue to ship in new case assortments with new figures.
Q3: I know you can’t control this or have predicted it, but an advice for folks that have not been able to find the Unmasked Batman Beyond and Cyborg DCUC KBtoys exclusives now that KB has gone bankrupt? Did they already receive the full quantity of their orders for those figures?
A3: Yes KB did receive there full order for these figures but we will look into brining them back, perhaps at one of the summer conventions or on MattyCollector.com if there is enough fan demand.
Q4: Around the time of Comic Con you had mentioned that Wal-mart would be able to reorder their exclusive DCUC wave (Wave 5) and it would not just be a one time rush to get the figures. Is that still the case? Does that seem like it will happen?
A4: We are still shipping there initial order so if you have not found Wave 5 figures yet, know that more are still shipping.
Q5a: Can you please stop with the dynamic in-package poses? Please scale it back a bit. The potential for warped figures is just too high. Abin Sur is essentially battle damaged with arms and legs so warped he looks like he just broke them in the plane crash.
A5a: We will definitely pass this comment on to our quality control department to ensure the figures you receive are of the highest quality. While not every fan likes the dynamic poses, they do a great job of showing off the range of articulation and help tell a story in the pack. We will do our best to balance this with any “warping” of figures limbs. That is the last thing we want to do!
Q5b: Can you guys look into the packaging for JLU as well? My theory is that the packaging techniques currently used (along with the softer plastic in the figs themselves) warps the limbs, despite their static poses.
When I got home last night there was a box from our friends at Mattel with a bunch of new goodies in it for us to drool over.
First up let’s take a look at the upcoming MattyCollector.com exclusive Justice League Unlimited "Gotham Villains" 4-pack.
When I first saw the mailer box/sleeve I thought it was a box of the JLU stands they are currently selling on MattyCollector. It wasn’t until I picked it up that I realized what was inside. The 4 carded figures are shrink-wrapped and packed in this sleeve.
These are 4 much needed figures in the JLU line. It is the first time we are getting a Clock King figure, and this set marks the first time we have gotten figures of these versions of Scarecrow and Bane.
Scarecrow is an all new sculpt.
Harley is the standard female body with new arms and head.
Clock King is the Two-Face body with a new hand and head.
Bane is the same body as Captain Atom with a new arm and new head.
Click on the names or pictures below to see full features on each figure
Man, Mattel really makes it hard to be a Mattel defender.
I like a lot of what they try to do, but between concept and execution, something just goes missing. Do they need to hire an engineer? Or fire the one they have and hire a good one? I’m really hoping that everything I’m hearing about wave 6 being the start of a new beginning is true.First, a bit of good news: although I have yet to see any of the Walmarts I frequent in Dallas carry DCUC, I did finally see an empty peg space today with tags for DCUC and DCIH! And there were A LOT of empty pegs in the toy section, leading me to believe that the new reset is right around the corner.
The bad news, though, is that even after searching abunch of Walmarts while on vacation in San Antonio and finding the four sets for me and other AFI guys, I still was a loser at DCUC Roulette. It doesn’t matter how nice these look in the package: when I opened them Black Lightning’s arm fell off (I didn’t even touch his arm, either!) and Amazo’s elbow peg wasn’t pushed through his arm, leaving it hanging at the elbow. And of course Metallo is fantastic…as long as you don’t move his legs. All the joints were fine, but the hip pegs won’t stay in the torso, much like the problems with Metamorpho back in wave 1.
Speaking of Amazo, he appears to be the smallest one in the assortment! I say appears as he uses the same body as Atom, I think. But visually he does look like the shortest one. I just can’t understand how 5 assortments in to this line, and there isn’t a single basic beffy body to use for these larger characters. This was the same short sighted thinking that led to Superman, Atom Smasher, Amazo etc. being tiny in JLU, but you’d think by now Mattel would have been past that particular learning curve and thought toward the future right off the bat. Ah well. At least I found a set, which is better than most collectors.
Recently I needed to make a bunch of Trophies for a internal project at work, based upon two execs in my company. I sculpted some custom heads, but had no idea how to make that make copies, or what bodies to use for them.
With the help of the amazing SpyMagician (who cast all the heads I needed and sent them back within days) I ended up choosing Kilowog as a base body. He had no sculpted details, making him perfect for a "generic superhero body", but more importantly, nobody wanted this single carded monstrocity so I thought it would be easy to pick up the 20+ Kilowogs I needed.
Little did I realize, but the Targets near me only yielded one or two of the ‘Wog per store! I became increasingly desperate as I drove all over Dallas until I stumbled in the motherload at Parker & 75: there before me was greatness- easily 25 Kilowogs, shining from the pegs, untouched by human hands!
So, in the end, I did clear a few Targets of the bane of JLU collectors, and whittled down the "Kilowog Graveyard" quite a bit. With any luck, those stores will restock sooner than later with all new JLU singles.
No need to thank me, just doing what any responsible citizen would in a time of crisis.
Two web exclusive new items went on sale today at MattyCollector.com. 
Matty from MattyCollector.com and ToyGuru Jr. sent us the answers to our latest round of questions.
