An AFI Exclusive--
The Tim Bruckner/Todd Shorr Project
DC Direct sculptor Tim Bruckner just completed a side project sculpture based on a painting by artist Todd Schorr called Under Autumn's Tentacled Spell. The sculpture and the original painting are currently on display at the Jonnathan LeVine Gallery in New York as part of a show featuring works by Kathy and Todd Schorr called: The Golden Age of Hypocrisy. Its a limited edition bronze. How limited? Only ten. That's right, only TEN! It was shown to the public for the first time Saturday, April 30th. Its assembled from 19 pieces and is 12 1/2" tall.
This particular one is a prototype bronze finished resin done for the show. The painting and the sculpture will be on display at the gallery through May 28th.
 
   
This piece is a real departure for Tim, but the results are stunning. If you would like to see more of Todd Schorr's art you can view it at the link above. Todd has also had a booth at Comic Con International in San Diego for the past few years.
The Future of Law Enforcement
NECA unveils their latest 18" masterpiece, the future of Law Enforcement..ROBOCOP! The ROBOCOP 18" Talking Action Figure features the most detailed movie accurate sculpt with loads of articulation including ball jointed neck, shoulders, and hips, ROBOCOP also sports bendable elbows & knees, swivel wrists, and pivoting ankles with working pistons!
ROBOCOP "speaks" many key phrases including:
"Thank You for Your Cooperation", "Wrong Move Creep" and more!
Comes complete with Auto-9 pistol!
Available this September.
Suggested Retail $39.99
"Even with high material costs we feel that it is important to offer a great product at a great price" says NECA President Joel Weinshanker.
Pepsi Brings The Force To Bear On Retailers Following up their initial foray into the world of life-size premiums, Pepsi is bringing out the big guns to tie into the opening of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith with a fighting mad life-size Yoda statue! Beautifully sculpted by Gentle Giant Studios, this solid resin sculpture weighs in at a whopping 80 pounds. Unlike the characters made for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, this Yoda has not cloth or real hair. He does come with a nice replica lightsaber, and is a featured raffle item at grocery stores. You can find him as the centerpiece in a massive display featuring the return of Pepsi's R2-D2 cooler and tie fighters and AT-ATs made of Pepsi boxes. Click the thumbnails below for a look at Yoda and the in-store displays.
 
 
 
SCOOP WEEK- DAY V
Justice League Unlimited Three-Packs Wave III
Coming in June Mattel will release the next wave of Justice League Unlimited 3-packs to stores. These new 3-packs which will retail for about $10 a piece will be at Target, Toys R Us, K-marts and Kay Bee Toys.
Following the model of the previous waves we get at least one new character in each 3-pack and more of the original team. There are no accessories in the 3-packs. Mattel breaks new ground giving us four DC Comic characters that have never been made into action figures before: Hawk, Dove Booster Gold and the JSA's Atom Smasher. Each of the figures have the standard five points of articulation: neck, shoulders and hips. Some of the figures still have the issues with the feet being warped in the package, but that can be correct be heating them with hot water, re positioning them and dunking them in cold water.
Let's take a look at the new 3-packs, their card backs and some group shots of the line some collectors are calling "the second coming of Super Powers"
The Flash, Green Lantern and Atom Smasher- From Episode #474 "Panic in The Sky"
  
   
Wonder Woman, Hawk and Dove from Episode #453 "Hawk & Dove"
 
    
   
Superman, Martian Manhunter and Booster Gold from Episode #458 "The Greatest Story never Told"
    
    
 
The Bad Guys-
 
Card Back- The filth assortment coming late Summer/Fall brings us Sinestro, Waverider, Metamorpho, and Wildcat.
  
  
Group Shots
   
      
Mattel has even more cool new JLU stuff to show off this summer at Comic Con...and who knows.. you might just get an exclusive sneak peek at some of that if you keep your eyeballs here on AFI!
Thanks to Mattel for being so generous for AFI's first ever scoop week!
STREET FIGHTER SERIES 3-LATEST IMAGES
April 29th, 2005 - With Street Fighter Series 2 figures now available in stores, SOTA Toys is proud to show you the latest shots of Street Fighter Series 3 figures. The third series of Street Fighter figures consists of Guile, Adon, Gen, Balrog and Sakura.
These photos not only show the latest look of the figures but also give a glimpse at some of the accessories and alternate heads that will come with the figures. But many more are yet to be revealed!
Street Fighter Series 3 is set for release in Late July 2005.
  
  
MEGA GIR (TM) unveiled
Palisades unveils the ultimate GIR collectible
 Elkridge, MD (April 28, 2005) - One of the most beloved characters from Nickelodeon's cult hit Invader ZIM, is ZIM's lovably simple robot sidekick, GIR. While the rest of the Irken invaders are given SIR units - robots whose function is to assist in invasions - Zim is given a GIR unit, made from spare parts and loose change. GIR, of course, proves to be less than useful to Zim's "conquest" of Earth, where GIR "blends in" with his green doggy suit and spends most of his time watching television.
Palisades Toys celebrates all things GIR with the release of the ultimate GIR collectible - MEGA GIR!! MEGA GIR stands roughly 12 inches tall from his feet to the top of his antenna. And, as an added bonus, he comes complete with a removable plush doggie suit, so that you can display him in his Irken robot mode, or in his "doggie disguise" mode.
MEGA GIR will be released this fall, and will have an SRP of $29.99 each. For more information, please visit www.Palisadestoys.com .
AFI SCOOP WEEK - Day IV
The "Lost" 6" Batman wave(s)
By now everyone knows the sad strange tale of the 6" Batman line. It burned brightly for several waves. In the first four assortments we got Batman, Robin, Joker, Mr. Freeze and Killer Croc among the other Bat-variants. We also got Superman and Nightwing in the series of 2-packs.
Collectors complained that there were too many variations on Batman hanging on pegs and the villains were only one or two per case. Mattel was quick to respond to collectors wants by introducing the harder to find characters and villains into the 2-packs and creating exclusive 2-packs for Wal-mart and Diamond. They even went to far as to give comic shops an exclusive mix of figures in a case.
However, when it came to picking up the next waves of figures the major US retailers only wanted to pick up lines with a major media tie-in like a TV or movie. So, the 6" Batman line, with two other waves already manufactured became an "overseas" line. The most recent wave containing Scarecrow and Bane has been picked up for distribution by Diamond Comics for US distribution.
There are what look to be three waves of figures that didn't make it to the states the revamped Zipline wave, the Bruce Wayne/Nightwing II wave and the Acid Blast Joker wave (depending on how you count assortments as opposed to how Mattel does). There are also two new Deluxe figures that never made it to the states.
Below is a sampleing of these "lost" assortments of figures.
  
Zipline Batman- With retractable Zipline and Disk Launcher.
     
Battle Armor Nightwing- with shield, fighting stick and shoulder cannons
   
Acid Arsenal Batman- with Acid Armor, Acid pack and Acid Blasters.
   
Sling Strike Nightwing- with sling strike weapon, harness and and battle armor.
   
Shield Strike Batman- with shield and wing armor.
   
Crossbow Batman- with crossbow and attack wings.
   
Acid Blast Cannon Joker- with acid blast cannon and hammer.
    
There's more scoops to come. Stay tuned!
MARVEL SUPERHEROES KUBRICKS WAVE 4
Also on the horizon are the inevitable Batman Begins movie tie-ins. This initial assortment consists of Batman, Ra's Al Ghul, and Scarecrow. Kubricks may not be everybody's cup of tea, but you'd be hard pressed to finder better facial likenesses on their movie toys. And that Scarecrow is a cute li'l dickens!
| Wednesday- April 27, 2005 |
12" Roto-cast VENOM
This new 12" rotocast doll (with 27 points of articulation) is the latest plastic adaptation of the Alien Symbiote known as Venom, introduced during the first SECRET WARS. It seems while battling on "Beyonder World"-- Spidey's familiar red & blue costume was in tatters-- and he found a little dab of black goo that spread onto him into a new black and white Spidey suit. The suit responded to Peter's thoughts-- and could become something as simple as an innocuous leather jacket-- or become his super-hero duds. Little did Peter Parker know that the malleable costume was actually a sentient being-- and upon his return to Manhattan, the "suit" would take Peter out for a Spidey Spin while he was asleep.
  
Eventually, Spidey had to use sound (actually ringing church bells) to ungraft the black costume symbiote from his system (depicted in Web of Spider Man #1). Spidey thought the symbiote dead, but it actually just slithered away, merging with small time crook Eddie Brock-- becoming the entity known as VENOM. Seeking revenge on his former "master" who spurned him, Venom clashed with Spider-Man several times. Spider-Man always emerged victorious.
 
Venom would waffle from deadly villain to occasionally anti-hero-- and would even produce a mass-murdering symbiote "offspring" known as CARNAGE. Carnage merged with serial killer Cledus Kassidy-- and Cledus-- well-- continued to do what serial killers do. Only he did so in a creepy red symbiote costume. Not everyone's a Carnage fan though-- most of his storylines ran around the controversial and generally loathed Ben Reilly "Spider-Clone" saga, and most hardcore Spider-fans generally want to forget that whole era of storytelling. That said, we later learned that Venom was from a planet of symbiotes-- aliens in all sorts of rainbow colors-- and a handful of the symbiotes were even adapted in 6" form in the late 1990s as part of the VENOM: PLANET OF THE SYMBIOTES line from Toy Biz.
 
Venom remains a popular Spidey Villain, primarily because of his cool design. In the Ultimate Universe, Venom was actually a scientific experiment conducted by Peter Parker's dad Richard Parker along with the father of Eddie Brock, Peter's childhood friend. The hope was that the two eggheads would create a "suit" to heal people, which was unfortunately unsuccessful. Years later young Peter and Eddie would discover the experiment-- and the "suit" merged with College Student Eddie Brock, forming ULTIMATE VENOM.
As you can see-- this 12" rotocast Venom (sold in the same case with a new sculpt rotocast Spider-Man, not pictured) is in scale with most 12" dolls-- or can be used as a hulking plastic presence to intimidate 8" figures.
 
   
  
AFI SCOOP WEEK - Day II
Mattel's Justice League Unlimited
Here is your first look at the finished product for the next assortment of Mattel's Justice League. We saw the hand painted prototypes for these figures at Toy Fair and now we're proud to bring you an exclusive first look at the new figures. Arriving in stores this June, this assortment features: Amazo, Anti-Amazo Superman, Anti-Amazo Flash, and Starman. All single carded figures come with appropriate accessories (now found with he corresponding figures in the 3-packs).
 Amazo- This release of Amazo is repainted gold to reflect his appearance in the episode "The Return" where Amazo blast a path of destruction through Oa and the Green Lantern Corps and returns to Earth, evolved.. and he's come back to destroy his creator- the recently "reformed" Lex Luthor. Can the combined minds of Lex Luthor and Ray Palmer, The ATOM, stop his powerful creation?
   
  
The single carded Amazo comes with several accessories to mimic his absorption of the League's powers: Hawkgirl's mace, a bat-a-rang and Superman's heat vision. I dig the heat vision effect. It's a clever addition to the figure and something we've never seen before done with the DC license. The heat vision effect only fits Amazo, you can't fit it on Superman's head.
   
The Confrontation
 Starman- This is the second release of Starman. The first was in the second wave of 3-packs. The single carded release is the same except he comes with his trademark Cosmic Rod.
   
 
 
 Anti-Amazo Flash- As you will recall if you saw this episode a LOT of heroes were trashed trying to stop Amazo from touching down on Earth, so if putting on some extra silver bits and carrying a big lightning bolt makes the Flash feel safer going into this suicide mission... well, the more power to him!
Seriously, you know not every figure in every assortment will be for collectors. Mattel is trying to balance the cool new (and some times obscure) characters with repaints of the main team to keep kids and mom's happy with the line. If these variants are not your bag don't worry. They have PLENTY more cool stuff coming.
 
 Anti-Amazo Superman- Superman also gears up in some silver threads to fight the approaching Amazo threat, but this time he brought his "S" shield in case things get dicey.. and they do as hero after hero falls. If the combined might of the Green Lantern Corps can't stop him what hope do the Justice League have?
The Card Back- The card back of this assortment shows the three waves that will round out 2005.
    
   
    
Tune in later this week for more exclusive Justice League Unlimited coverage.
AFI- SCOOP WEEK- Day 1
Marvel Studios- Doctor Doom!
We are kicking off a week of exclusive scoops and features this week with the news of a new Wal-mart Exclusive.
Turns out the Marvel Studios line is not completely dead as rumored.
Coming this summer to a Wal-Mart near you- The Marvel Studios Dr. Doom figure, based on the character's appearance upcoming summer movie The Fantastic Four.
This figure will be fully posable with the Marvel Studios base body, and a cloth outfit. This figure will come in the regular masked edition and a variant unmasked edition. The variant figure features the laser scanned likeness of actor Julian McMahon.
Below are pictures of the prototype. The actual figure is now in production and will be in stores this summer around the time of the July release of the film.
Thanks to Toy Biz for the news and images.
Masked Dr. Doom-
  
Unmasked Variant-
  
Check back all this week for more news and exclusives!
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