003 Action Figure Sat-Toy-Day News, 28th November 2015

Issue 03 : Saturday 28th November, 2015

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Issue 03 : Saturday 28th November, 2015

Even more merchandise awakens Wow! What a week, not just for news but also for Toy Hunting. I had to plan this week intricately to ensure I picked up all the goodies I wanted. First up on Monday was a trip to Lidl to get the Imperial Troop Transport for Mini-Meph. Unlike many (sorry if you were unlucky) my local Lidl had 3 in stock and it was job done without much fuss.

Tuesday I was undecided as to whether to try and grab an Elite Darth Vader, in the end I didn’t - but as you will see further into the news that a lot of people did and it seems that unlike a number of the Elite series (Grievous) collectors are happy with Vader Wednesday was a day off, and I needed it ahead of Thursday. Thursday saw Aldi release their Xmas Star Wars offer and those intriguing 6” limited POA figures.

Thursday also saw the Empire magazine Kylo Ren figure edition over at Sainsbury's, and even though I am not a 3.75” collector this is the type of item that will genuinely be collectable in the future and a nice piece to commemorate the movie.

Did I succeed in getting these goodies on Thursday, well read on and all will be revealed…

- Mephitsu

Medicom announced a number of new product coming in 2016 to it’s Mafex line of highly articulated 1/16 figures.

First up will be 1/12 figures from the Dawn of Justice movie, with both Batman and Superman being released in the Mafex line.

On a trip to Toys R Us this week I found their latest Star Wars 3.75” UK exclusives. These Armour-Up figures are badged with the Epic Battles logo and you can pick up either Phasma or Poe Dameron in his X-Wing outfit.

These figure retail at the standard Armour-Up price of £15.99, and if you are hunting these down make sure you check the standard aisle as well as the main display.

Following the news of the DC figures, came one from Marvel - and that the Hulkbuster is coming in the Mafex line.

Also released in 2016, the Mk44 Hulkbuster armour will stand 270mm high - that’s 10.5” in old money.

Whether this release date will coincide with the already announced Mk43 Iron Man is as yet unknown. The Mk43 is due in June so we would assume the Hulkbuster will not hit shelves until at least Quarter 2, if not Quarter 3, of 2016.

Each figure will stand approx 160mm high and will retail for 5,940 yen in Japan. At today’s exchange rate that works out to about £32. However, Mafex don’t sell direct to the UK and you will therefore The armour will retail in Japan at 27,500 Yen have to purchase via an importer and will likely have which converts to £150 / $224. to pay in the region of £40-£45 in the YJ.

It seems that these Armour-Up figures won’t be the only Epic Battles exclusives on Toys R Us UK shelves.

Listed online this week, and due into stock soon, are two 6packs of 3.75” figures, retailing at £39.99 each.

Pack one is based on the Original Trilogy of movies and contains repacks of figures we have seen in previous releases. Chewie and a Stormtrooper represent A New Hope, with Luke Bespin and Darth Vader from Empire.

Endor Leia and a Biker Scout complete the set from Return of the Jedi.

Representing the Prequel Trilogy will be Qui Gonn Jinn and Darth Maul from the Phantom Menace. Mace Windu and Jango Fett come from Attack of the Clones, while Obi Wan and Anakin represent Revenge of the Sith.

Neither of these sets bring anything new to 3.75” collectors, however as a “catch up” set for both kids and collectors they are half decent price, working out at £6.66 a figure.

Issue 03 : Saturday 28th November, 2015

Moving over to the 8 inch retro figures, NECA revealed the head sculpt of their 2016 retro figures of Bill and Ted. Bill and Ted will be arriving with real cloth clothing and NECA are working on a packaging box modelled around the Phone Box used in the movie.

Last weekend saw the New Jersey Comic Expo, and as it was their local show NECA were promising to use the show to platform some reveals.

The NECA booth was rammed of upcoming releases, with of their high quality diorama in position to show off their December 2015 releases including their Home Alone Retro figures and the Alien vs Predator Predator wave who were displayed on the steps of the AvP zigurat surrounded by dispatched Aliens.

It appears NECA will also be bringing Weird Al Yankovic to their 8 inch Retro line.

NECA’s Ultimate range is winning a lot of plaudits right now - not least of all us here at the Mephitsu Archives - the next couple of Ultimate figures will see Sarah Connor join the Terminator line-up, whilst Jason from Friday 13th will hit stores in December.

Sarah Connor wasn’t evident at New Jersey, but Jason was displayed in a wonderful looking barn diorama.

Looking to be coming with alternative heads and an accordion, there are no other details at this stage as to when to expect Weird Al to grace our toy shelves.

CINEMACHINES Cinemachines is a name that was unknown before last weekend, but I suspect it will be big news in 2016 when NECA roll out this brand new innovative product line.

Based on movie vehicles and ships, this is a collectors based range of 6 inch vehicles. NECA describe this as a similar size to the Galoob Action Fleet range but promise much better sculpt and paint applications.

By their own admission, the possibilities in the range are massive - and NECA will kick these off in February 2016 with 4 vehicles taken from their highly successful Alien licence.

The three AvP Predators were also on display fully carded, as were the upcoming Alien Isolation figures (series 6) of Amanda Ripley and the Isolation Xenomorph. Fans will be hoping to see both of these waves before Christmas

The final reveal relating to NECA’s standard 7 inch figures were the first look at the Alien drones from Alien vs Predator who will make up part of the Series 7 wave of Alien figures.

We had seen a sneak peak of the “Grid” Alien earlier this month, but this was the first look at the standard AvP drone.

These Series 7 figures are due February 2016, and at the NECA presentation it was confirmed that the 3rd figure in S7 would be a concept Big Chap Xeno that was part of the concept art-work and props for the 1979 Alien movie.

Fans will be able to pick-up Cinemachine replica’s of the Derelict and Space Jockey from the 1979 Alien movie.

They can then fast-forward to 1986 and get both the APC and Dropship from Aliens, with the Dropship even coming with a spring loaded ramp and a miniature APC inside.

NECA believe they will retail these at the same price as their 7 inch figure range - so around $20-$22 in the United Status, and a similar number in £’s here in the UK £20-£22 Watch out for pre-orders starting very soon on these first four vehicles, and watch out for more news at New York Toy Fair 2016.

NECA already say they have 12 vehicles in the pipeline and it will be fun to see what they have in store for us.

Issue 03 : Saturday 28th November, 2015

Smart Move by NECA Not only were NECA making loads of announcements at the Jersey Comic Expo, Randy Falk was also giving away a number of hints on his Twitter feed also.

This week we have an eclectic mix of new reviews published over on the website.

Up first we have NECA’s Police Disguise T-1000 from Terminator Genisys. It is unfortunate that the Genisys range isn’t looking to be doing too well at retail as this figure does have loads of redeeming features.

He confirmed, much to fans delight, that the Series 9 Alien wave will contain a Smart Gunner.

Image courtesy of Richard B

More Cinemachines?

Well yes actually. Not satisfied with launching the line at Jersey Comic Expo (see page 3) NECA showed off some additional concepts for Cinemachines through the week.

On the planning desk are the ship from Predator and two Hunter Killers from Terminator 2.

Also reviewed this week, and from the NECA stable, was the Ultimate Commando collectors figure of John Matrix.

Tuesday 24th of November saw the 5th release in the Disney Elite countdown to The Force Awakens.

Release number five was Darth Vader, who took an age to go live on the Disney Store UK website, but is now available at the regular RRP of £18.95 We now have Boba Fett to look forward to on the 8th of December, and remember that like Anakin and Grievous - Boba will be limited to only selected Disney stores* Then on the 18th we will find out who the mystery figure will be - the good money is on a TFA version of C-3PO. * Oxford Street, Bluewater, Metro Centre, Trafford Centre, Glasgow, Cardiff, Liverpool

REVIEW : Aldi Star Wars 6” Stocks of the Aldi (so called) 6” limited articulation Star Wars figures hit this week.

I picked up a full set and my review is now live HERE with a full gallery of images.

Sadly, these do not live up to even their very low £6.99 price point.

What is unclear at this stage is whether NECA have secured the rights to release either Vasquez or Drake from the 1986 sequel, or if they will go down the route of using a Video Game Smart Gunner or perhaps even a generic character head like they did with Sgt Windrix.

Either way, Randy has said we “may” see the gun sooner rather than later, so watch this space.

Issue 03 : Saturday 28th November, 2015

The EMPIRE Strikes Racks One of the most intriguing, and frustrating, stories of the week was first announced on Tuesday.

Empire, a UK film magazine, announced a variety of covers for their Star Wars, The Force Awakens special. As well as a number of lenticular covers of the main characters they also announced an action figure variant.

Basically this was the magazine, specially packed with a 3.75” version of the 5POA Kylo Ren. The edition would be UK only and limited to 4,500 pieces and sold exclusively in Sainsbury's stores from Thursday the 26th of November priced at £11.99 As we hit Thursday it was clear from Social Media that the launch was less than smooth. Sainsbury's have something like 1200 stores in the UK, but not all of them had the magazine. This was obviously a frustration for fans as nowhere had the press release talked about “selected stores” A spreadsheet (HERE) was soon shared that detailed all the stores that were carrying the magazine. The spreadsheet revealed just 241 of Sainsbury stores had the magazine, and that worked out to about 18 issues per store.

As if things couldn’t get worse, it seems that the packaging for the magazine had caused a large number of them to get crushed and there was then varying stories of them being uplifted and returned to the supplier.

All of that combined left eBay prices spiralling out of control and a pent up demand amongst collectors.

Out of all the varying merchandise that we have seen to date that carries The Force Awakens logo, I think this is one of those pieces that will carry its rarity and value. To those who picked one up, take good care of it and take pride in owning something of relative rarity in this day and age of mass production. To anyone who comes across one of these in a Sainsbury's over the next few days (am sure there are still some out there) then don’t hesitate, if you want it then buy it.

“But if that wasn't enough, there is also an extremely Limited Edition special issue, for dedicated Star Wars fans only. Partnering up with Hasbro, we've included an official action figure of Kylo Ren with certain Force Awakens issues. Only 4,500 copies of this special issue will be printed, making it an instant collector's item.”

So did we get this over at Mephitsu Towers, well thankfully yes.

Due to some clever planning (finding a Sainsbury's that was next door to an Aldi) I managed to pick up both Thursday releases - this magazine and the Aldi 6” Force Awakens figures.

I did drop lucky as I was not aware at the time of shopping that this was only in limited stores, but it did take a while to locate them as they were on a stand at the very end of the newspaper aisle.

As we’ve mentioned, nearly all 15 copies that I looked through had some level of damage. I ended up settling on an undamaged front blister for display purposes. This did mean taking a box with a tiny tear on the top flap and a very slight crush to the side of the blister.

I intend to get this framed up for both presentation and to protect it.

Well done Empire & Hasbro, a great idea, but obviously with some bugs to iron out if you ever intend to do this again.

Issue 03 : Saturday 28th November, 2015

NECA Q-Scale IronMan As the internet went into a frenzy over the Captain America : Civil War trailer, NECA landed these promotional shots of their upcoming 18” Quarter Scale Iron Man Mk43.

“Check out these new updated photos of NECA’s upcoming Iron Man 1/4 scale action figure from the blockbuster movie Avengers: Age of Ultron!”

“IronMan Mark 43 stands approximately 18" tall and features a 100% new sculpt with over 30 points of articulation and plenty of movieaccurate details.

LED lights in the Arc Reactor and Repulsors (chest and palms) really bring the suit to life! Uses button cell batteries, included. Window box packaging. Ships to retailers in January 2016!"

This figure was first teased and discussed at SDCC alongside the giant quarter scale Hulk.

Bandai Captain Phasma Although the source is not yet clarified, The Fwoosh were passed the following image this week.

It shows the upcoming 1/12 Bandai kits from Star Wars, The Force Awakens. We had already seen details of R2 and BB8 as per last week's issue, but the interesting details on this image are that of Captain Phasma.

The Captain looks to be coming in a full metalised silver, similar in finish to Bandai’s C-3PO from earlier this year.

This will give 1/12 collectors who want Phasma in her full shiny armour another option vs the higher end SH Figuarts version, and also put the Hasbro silver effect finish to shame considering the Bandai kit will be at a similar, if lower price.

We will be watching how this develops.

Forbidden Planet, Doctor Who Deals As part of the Black Friday clearance, Forbidden Planet have significantly reduced two of the classic Dr Who 3 packs.

Up first is the Enemies of the 1st Doctor Pack which contains a 10th Planet Cyberman, Robo-man from Dalek Invasion of Earth and a “The Chase” Dalek with flame arm.

Originally retailing at £34.99, this is now down to £9.99 plus delivery.

Then we have the Enemies of the 3rd Doctor Pack. This one has a glorious Omega from the 3 Doctors with soft goods cloak. An Auton, and a brilliant head of a Drashig from Carnival of Monsters - which can also be used as a hand puppet. This one was £44.99 at release, and is now £19.99 Click on the images to the left to go to each deal. Stocks will be limited and prices were correct at time of publication.

Amazon Stormtrooper 4-pack was back in stock as of Black Friday.

This is on the US site at $79.99 and can also be shipped over to the UK.

*Available at price quoted as we went to press - subject to availability

With shipping and UK custom costs (which are paid in advance at check-out) this should be circa £75 to get it over to the UK.