Issue 10 : Saturday 23rd January, 2016
Issue 10 : Saturday 23rd January, 2016
A nice compact issue this week, but sadly no new reviews at this stage with real life work getting in the way a little. Don’t worry, this week I did get a number of photo shoots completed and I will be bringing you at least 4 new reviews across the next week or so - with figures from NECA, Diamond and Funko. Talking of NECA, and I am getting very excited for their next few Alien figures particularly after seeing a couple of BIG reveals this week - you can read all about them on page 3. Star Wars continues to bubble along, but we do seem to have hit another period of leaks and rumours as we count-down to Toy Fair US - a similar situation to what we experienced in the Force Friday buildup. The UK Toy Fair kicks off this weekend (24th) so keep it tuned to our Social Channels for the key news around Action Figures. And please say thank you to our sponsor of the UK Toy Fair coverage by visiting Figureland’s website and looking at their great catalogue of Action Figures and high end statues and collectibles…
Mephitsu
Black Series Rumours? US Toy Fair is now less than a month away, and we already seeing a number of pre-announcements and also the expected leaks and hints. Amongst them this week was an article by Jedi Temple Archives who have published details of some upcoming Star Wars Black Series 6” figures. Their source is unnamed, but is listed as reliable and JTA have a good track record - we assume from this same source. First up was the bit we already knew... in that Darth Revan, Sabine Wren from Rebels and Princess Leia from A New Hope will be part of the next wave(s) after we clear the Ahsoka wave. Also rumoured to be part of this, or at least around the same time, is a 6” figures of Ben Kenobi from A New Hope.
Who knew that announcing a new 3.75” was such big news nowadays? Well it seems that there is a distinct push by some of the larger US publications to have that honour nowadays, and this week we saw USA Today bring us the news that Princess Leia is joining the Hasbro 3.75” range. The UK is only just seeing her Rebels debut today on Disney XD (23rd) but over in the US she debuted on Weds 20th. At the same time she was making her Rebels debut, USA Today were breaking the Action Figure news. Carrie Fisher's original-trilogy character — a princess in the first few movies and now a general in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — is getting a new toy based on her appearance in tonight's new episode of the Disney XD animated series Star Wars Rebels (9 ET/PT). The 3¾-inch action figure from Hasbro is priced at $7.99 and arrives in stores this fall. Leia’s Rebel figure will hit stores in Autumn and over in the UK she will be at the standard 3.75” single figure price of £9.99. It will be interesting to now go to Toy Fair in a few weeks to see if Leia is part of a wider Rebels release or if the strategy is to continue scattering Rebels figures into the Force Awakens packaged range - i.e. Ahsoka, The new Inquisitors and Captain Rex.
Imperial Army Builders will also be jumping for joy as also included in the report are the AT-AT Driver and Snowtrooper from Empire Strikes Back.
The other three figure that are referred to by JTA are a little more cryptic - although I expect the Tertiary Hero Droid is most likely the Red Armed C-3PO. ● Tertiary Hero Droid ● Shark Leader ● Shark Trooper Yellow
Issue 10 : Saturday 23rd January, 2016
The NECA news just kept coming this week, with what felt like a brand new reveal every day of the week. First up was the boxed sample of the Bat Gremlin, who is due to hit UK stores around the end January / early February. MIB collectors will be really pleased to see that NECA have gone with a windowed box and that the figure is on full display as opposed to other deluxe releases recently who have been hidden in the box - ED209, Aliens Power Loader etc.
NECA’s Alien Series 8 will be fully themed around the 3rd Alien movie, and we already know that it will contain a 3rd version of Ripley - and it was confirmed this week that the Ripley figure would indeed be the bald headed “prisoner” version with the release of this image of the wax head sculpt in progress.
NECA will be returning to the 1990’s Kenner range in their upcoming Predator range, Series 16. The 3 figure Series 16 will see 3 tributes to these 1990 Kenner figures, and we got a sneak peak at one of those this week - albeit a Work in Progress. Although no name was attached to the reveal, it was clear that this is likely to be the Clan Leader. The Hateful Eight movie has been in cinema’s a few weeks now, and this week we got to see the full lineup of NECA’s 8” Retro styled figures. The figures are apparently being released separately and also in an 8 figure box set. Only 3000 of each figure will be available worldwide, and these should hit stores imminently.
The second figure in Series 8 is already confirmed as the Weyland Yutani Commando and we published the image of him last week. The third figure in the series is yet to be revealed, but on previous form my personal expectation is that it will be a Xenomorph rather than another human character, perhaps even a rerelease or tweak of the Dog Alien.
NECA’s innovative Cinemachines range continues to grow, and we haven’t even had one on the shelves as yet. After showing off the Aerial Hunter-Killer from Terminator last week, this week we saw the ground version as seen in Terminator 2. Each Cinemachines vehicle will be around 6 inch in length and a mix of diecast and plastic. First models are up for pre-order already at Forbidden Planet for £22.99 and with a due date of March 2016 Yet NECA still threw us a curveball on Thursday with this picture of what appears to be a Queen Facehugger, which was part of a deleted scene from Alien 3. Ash vs the Evil Dead has had a cult following for a while, and the new TV show has seen NECA return to the licence. We have seen a number of teases of the AVTED figures, which will be in NECA’s 7” scale. But this week we got the full painted sculpt of the lead character, Ash. Looking splendidly serious, the figure captures the likeness perfectly of Bruce Campbell. We are currently still waiting for a more accurate ETA on these hitting the stores.
We would assume, as this seems to be a finished piece, is that this could be included within one of the Alien 3 Series 8 releases - most likely with the Ripley. Apparently we will find out more at Toy Fair.
Issue 10 : Saturday 23rd January, 2016
A few weeks ago we took a look at the SH Figuarts Captain America 1/12 figure from Civil War. Diamond Select have picked up a number of exciting new licences for 2016 release. As well as X-Files. Ghostbusters and Gotham we will also be seeing 7” scale Muppets figures from DST. This promo image shows off the first series, with each pack containing at least 2 muppets. Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo will all be included in the launch wave and are expected to retail at the standard DST price of £22-£25 per pack.
Marvel Legends, Civil War We already know a Captain America Comic themed wave of 6” legends figure is coming in Spring 2016. This week we started to see what Movie based figures we can expect to see to tie-in with the May release of Civil War. The first three figures announced are the titular Captain America, which appears to be a repaint/tweak of the Age of Ultron release. The Mark 46 Ironman also likely re-uses parts from the AoU version - but for the first time comes with repulsor blast effects for each hand. The exciting inclusion is the 6” Movie version of Black Panther. As yet this is only part of a picture, as these three figures will certainly be part of a larger wave and more than likely include some form of Build-a-Figure. Whether fans will get their Movie versions of Vision and Scarlet Witch is unclear at this point. My bet is for the wave to include a tweaked Winter Soldier, Warmachine and maybe, just maybe the new Spiderman - who will possibly be kept under wraps till after release.
At the same time we were promised images of the corresponding Iron-Man figure - but sadly the images never materialised. Until now that is. This scan of a Japanese catalogue shows the both Cap and the new Mark 46 Iron-Man with the usual ridiculously pose-able articulation that comes with any SH Figuarts release. Our expectations is that these will set you back circa £40 in the UK considering they will have to be imported