ADW art department weekly issue 86 Vol. 12
Fear, Do Not shown us the child, toy fair has. animatronic it is
mini BoArD in the neWs The New York Stock Exchange automatically halted trading Monday morning when the S&P, an index of 500 publicly traded large companies, dropped 7% minutes after the opening bell rang. While futures were heavliy influenced by Russia and OPEc causing oil prices to fall 20%, corona Virus uncertainties didn’t help. “No testing means no data. Mixed messages, lack of planning, and no numbers from Washington have brought us to this,” as New&Guts put it. So what’s happening away from Wall Street? I have a surgical mask on my front walk. Germs are everywhere but Betty could care less. Godspeed. —MV
@chrissimpsonartist picturesthatigoneanddone.com
Monday saw temperatures near 70, so Monday also saw Betty eat an unwrapped candy from a kid she just met at the park.
BAnneD gooDs share with us what you’re thinking about and creating on twitter @addubs or dubbsubs@yahoo.com
No bag is ever a “single use” bag in my home, but luckily I’ve received so many canvas bags in the past six years I don’t have to worry about grocery shopping. This picture alone has three from one school and three from one magazine, plus one more random bag. unfortunately, I can’t fill any of these bags with used cat litter... —MV
Art Department Weekly is published by Dinosaur Girly Productions, 184 Bay 26th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11214. The entire contents of ADW are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without expressed written consent of the publisher. ADW accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and/or photographs and assumes no liability for products or services advertised herein. ADW reserves the right to edit, rewrite, refuse or reuse material, is not responsible for errors or omissions, and may feature same in other mediums for any and all purporses.
Disney After DArK The best thing I found when looking for black boys socks was the new High School Musical apparel in the girls’ section. Luis was excited when I explained what he was looking at but then agreed when I said I think it’s really young for this new iteration (High School Musical The Musical The Series) where there is lots adult themed drama. The show generally pretends they are on premium cable. But, yeah, I guess there is a whole market of 7-year-olds whose parents believe they are tweens and it’s okay to watch all this because it’s on Disney Plus... —MV
D r A he
t r A n
r e v o
i
“What a dick sucking leeeeeeeech” -Stephanie
“Maybe I’m a natural” -donald
“She’s looks like a ’50s housewife” -luis
“I swear Benedict just belched as he power walked by” -laura
“That’s why you don’t take a 12-yearold to Italy” - Carly
“What the what” -Betty
WrAsslin’ roB Historically, I havent been the biggest Rob Schaumberger fan. I’ve been hard on his pieces as I thought they often looked like generic versions of the Photoshop poster edges filter. I recently saw a Youtube video of Rob working on four pieces at once and was floored. It was extremely impressive. I think his current work is superior to his work from even a year ago. Great color use and incredible likenesses. Simply amazing. —LV
“Low gasoline prices don’t do much for you if schools are closed, you cancel your trip or you’re working from home because of the virus” -daniel
March 10, 2020 • Art
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The Best Beys
EVER
According to Kal Xcalius X3
a new season
Orichalcum O3 Asteroid Zeutron Garuda G3
Beyblade Rise basically follows the same story as the other three seasons: we meet the main character, they join some team, the character is in a tournament by fifth episode. This season the main bleyder is armed with Ace Dragon, an attack type, but also creates it in two other modes—Glyph Dragon for stamina and Rock Dragon for defense.
Morrigna M5 What’s pictured above?
Orichalcum. It’s a double middle. I added that. I think it’s Astroid Zutron’s. So, the center and the eyes of the two halves of the Bey go red as the two halves push inwards into the bottom, making it much harder to burst. Then, once it’s stamina decreases, it enters its stamina mode which has a bit lower stamina than its defensive mode but it can still resist heavy blows.
I also got this box from Hasbro before the season came out, a little before the end of 2019, and it contained basically a small sample of what Hasbro was going to have to offer in Rise. With their new hyper sphere tips that grant the ability to climb the vertical drop wall, they’ve really switched things up from the other two seasons. Like REALLY switched it up. The bottoms are much fatter now, the structure of the middles is better. Rise is good. It’s had a couple changes on what happened in the other seasons, both on the show and in the toys. Including the vertical drop stadium. Other than that, it’s pretty similar. I have a friend who gets a ton of Beys from this Japanese company Takara Tomy (TT), and he also gets a ton of information on Rise from the internet. So, I know a ton of stuff for Rise much earlier than it happens here. For instance I know which Bey breaks Beys this season. I know a couple with really cool enhancements. I even knew names of two of the Beys Hasabro sent before I even set my eyes on it for the first time. That’s how early stuff comes in TT. I’m gonna guess months basicallybefore anything comes out in America.
Basically the defensive attack mode has more speed and defense. The stamina mode is the less powerful mode.
Watch the unboxing
Betty, Kal, Boom, and Streaky unbox and battle Hasbro Beyblade Burst Rise https://youtu.be/au5PnEfpieU
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The TT beys are stronger than Hasbro. They have a defense that’s always set to Orachilum’s defense mode. But they don’t. Just the shield doesn’t come down. Some of them have metal in them that increases weight and impact strength because of that. Also, they still come out with the old kind of bottoms and more speical tops than the Hasbro Rise series. TT makes their beys really high quality and detail-oriented. Boom says Turbo is his favorite season of Beyblade Burst adn Achilles is his favorite Turbo Bey. —KV
David J. Crewe/Toy Fair
toy fair 2020
hundreds of thousands of toys, games and entertainments by luis Vega Picture a football field filled with toys. Now picture eight football fields...
The 117th annual Toy Fair brought play innovators from 100 countries to the Jacob K. Javits Center to showcase incredible talent and playful spirit while also providing strategies to help businesses succeed in an evolving toy and retail market. Steve Pasierb, president & CEO of The Toy Association, the trade group that produces the show, said in their press release, “This year’s marketplace unveiled fresh product lines, innovative twists on classics, exciting new tech and interactive playthings, and licensed toys driven by digital and traditional media IP—all competing to top kids’ wish lists and vital to driving the $27 billion U.S. toy market and U.S. toymakers’ integral role in the $90 billion global toy industry.” “We met everyone from liquidators to independents to museum stores to Shark Tank,” Pia Colon Wurth, licensing director at Buzzy, Inc. said in the press release. Fans who weren’t able to get a pass could follow updates on Twitter and Instagram. Here we have Luis’ take on what he saw in person and online.
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wrestling roundup One of the hottest booths all weekend belonged to Jazwares. Since their acquisition of Wicked Cool Toys and the announcement of AEW figures, the wrestling toy collecting community has been abuzz. Their reveals did not disappoint. First looks at Jericho, Omega, Cody and the Bucks blew anything that Mattel revealed out of the water. The return of the Legends line, the blind box Beast Mode did not create the impact Jazwares did. Of course this all coud have changed had Mattel had a real version of The Fiend. Alas, they did not, they had the same cutout shown during San Diego Comic Con... this time colored. Let’s not forget to mention the AEW line is helmed by wrestling figure legend Jeremy Padawer. In this battle between AEW and WWE, this was a knockout win for AEW. Shaquille O’Neal and toy photographer Mitchel Wu cut the ribbon to open the 117th Toy Fair New York. They were joined on stage by (left-to-right) Basic Fun! CEO Jay Foreman; Skip Kodak, executive vicepresident of the Americas at LEGO Systems; Bob Wann, chief playmonster at PlayMonster; and The Toy Association’s president & CEO Steve Pasierb and Marian Bossard, executive vice president of global market events. (David J. Crewe/Toy Fair)
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golden girl DC Direct had the legendary Todd McFarlane on hand to walk buyers through the full line of his DC offerings. While there was nothing really new on display save for the Wonder Woman 84 figures, seeing the full scale of the figures gives me hope that DC finally has a legitimate challenger to Marvel Legends.
not roar Super 7 had a first look at their very impressive Thundercats line. Series 3 gave us a peek at Cheetara, which is absolutely stunning. While the price point is high, this is clearly aimed at adult collectors who will pay for nostalgia.
Characters parade through the show. (David J. Crewe/Toy Fair)
Red Bird from Angry Birds in the Crystal Palace. (David J. Crewe/Toy Fair)
Legendary assortment Play-Doh is entering the slime space. They have a half dozen new versions of slimein all different textures. These are going to be a big hit.
halo effect
A view of the Toys of the Year Awards dinner. (Courtesy Toy Fair VPO Room)
Nerf gave us a look at the Nerf Ultra 2, their handheld pistol version of the Ultra 1. Just as powerful but much more compact. They also showed the ever expanding Fortnite line as well as a first look at their collaboration with the new Halo game.
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child play While all the new reveals were great, the main event of the entire show was Baby Yoda. The animatronic version of him (available in December) absolutely wowed anyone who came into contact with him. While smaller than I expected (roughly a little more than a foot tall), I nearly lost it when he closed his eyes and raised his hand to use the force. It was also nice to see a further expansion of my favorite line, Black Series (which will also have a tiny 1.5-inch baby Yoda). Zorii Bliss and the Knights of Ren are high on my wish list. With this also being the 40th anniversary of Empire Strikes Back (the greatest movie ever made), Black Series is releasing a series of iconic characters in their ESB outfits with retro Kenner packaging. These look awesome. Not to be outdone, Lego had two of the biggest reveals of the entire show: Brickheadz versions of the Mandalorian and the Child as well as an amazing Lego Razor’s Crest... Both will be in my collection.
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Art Department Weekly • March 10, 2020
more than meets the eye Due to Boom’s infatuation with Transformers one of the places I wanted to visit most was the Transformers booth. Transformers completely wowed the audience with the continuation of the Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures line while also debuting the Earth Rise line which will showcase characters with up to three transformative states—Earth vehicle, Cyberverse Vehicle, and robot. These figures were spectacular with Sky Dive and Skorponok absolutely stealing the show.
Who you gonna call? Hasbro has multiple lines to support the 35th anniversary of Ghostbusters—a redo of the original Ghostbusters cartoon figures as well as Black Series-style 6-inch highly poseable action figures. There are also lifesize proton packs for kids to capture all the ghosts.
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Even more realistic than before
staying ahead of the curve Marvel Legends showed a wide array of new figures. Everything ranging from the obscure (The Sugarman) to the incredibly popular and accurate movie likenesses of Deadpool, Cable, Domino, Logan, Magneto, and Professor X with changeable heads (to go from McEvoy and Fassbender to McKellan and Stewart). This line continues to be the gold standard.
horsepower With the end of My Little Pont Friendship is Magic, Hasbro has redesigned the Ponies to have a more Japanese-inspired Chiibi design. Larger eyes, smaller snouts and larger hoofs are trademarks of the new design.
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The manufacturer really wanted to highlight the hidden balljoints on the knee of Old Man Hawkeye. With the proliferation of 3D printing it is now easier and more cost effective. It will also help immensely with poseability and figure photography which are huge in the ever-growing adult collector market.
down home royals I haven’t seen Frozen 2 yet, so I had no idea there were flashback scenes with Elsa and Anna’s mom. I fully expect the Elsa and Anna with their mother 3-pack to be a huge hit. Hasbro is also going to further expand the casual princess line that was launched in conjunction with Wreck It Ralph 2. A bevy of new figures, outfits and accessories will support a new series of animated shorts.
It’s classified My favorite toyline of all time is G.I. Joe. Hasbro displayed the new 6-inch scale G.I. Joe line. These are absolutely stunning. They didn’t show us the full lineup, just the first four figures, but these are among the best Joes ever. The Deluxe Snake Eyes (already up for pre-oder) has spectacular packaging and the figure is a work of art. Each figure contains a minimum of 22 points of articulation and each has tons of accessories. Absolutely perfect. We also got to see Duke, Roadblock and Scarlett. Hopefully we get a look at the Cobra lineup soon. The Joe’s finally have a line that can stack right up with the toy industry action figure leaders (Marvel Legends, Black Series, etc.).
cute, furreal The world of FurReal pets continues to expand in a big way after the success of Cubby the real bear. New to the line are a kangaroo and siberian tiger. The kangaroo will house two babies in its pouch whose genders will not be revealed until the joeys are unpacked. The siberien tiger will shiver and can only be warmed by your hugs and kisses. The crystal on its chest will change colors to indicate when he’s actually warm.
March 10, 2020 • Art
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five things On BOOm’S 8-year-Old BraIn
traNsForMers issue 52
This is crazy. What’s going to happen next? cats Percy and why doesn’t
he let me pet him. I want to hold all the cats. battLe cats I love that new
game. I wonder if I’m going to defeat bosses. buMbLebee cYberverse aDveNtures hot roD I’m
wondering when I get to open him. titaNs returN LegeNDs cLass gNaW It seems
pretty cool.
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