021 Action Figure Sat-TOY-Day News, 16th April 2016

Issue 21 : Saturday 16th April, 2016

k e e w s i h Also t w o r r A n e e r Mezco G n a m t a B e r a Nightm x e f a M m o r f s r a W r a t S A New 6� 5PO Figures

McFarlane are of course returning to their 7 inch scale in 2016.

These new collectors figures are across a number of franchises including The Walking Dead & Fear the Walking Dead.

McFarlane have just posted this first look at the #4 figure from the Red wave. Madison will arrive in Summer and will be priced in the US around $18.

Other figures in the Red Wave include Rick Grimes and Michonne from The Walking Dead, Travis Manawa from Fear the Walking Dead and (who else could it be) but a brand new 7 inch scale Spawn figure. The Red wave is also down to include figures from Titanfall, Attack on Titan (Eren Jaeger), Gears of War, Tokyo Ghoul (Ken Keneki), Assassin's Creed and Naruto.

Remember those basic articulation 6" figures from Aldi before Christmas?

Well it looks like Hasbro has made more.

These are showing up at Discount stores in the US. The packaging has been amended to something similar to the Jakks larger figures.

Vader is same as the last lot, but Han and Jedi Luke are new. There is also a Kanan (not pictured) Are we to see these in the UK anytime soon?

Did Aldi sell enough to make them go back for more?

Sculpted in her outfit worn in Season 1 of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead. Collect all of the various popular entertainment properties in McFarlane Color Tops."

The figures themselves are not a new reveal, we saw them fully at Toy Fair in February. But these new “in packaging” shots reveal what we will expect to see come summer when these Mattel 6 inch Ghostbuster figures hit the stores.

Mezco's teasers for their One:12 Collective DC range has now reached the Green Arrow. After a period of Marvel reveals, Mezco have released these images to show the planning behind Green Arrow and a couple of very nice atmospheric shots.

There will be NO Sat-TOY-Day next week (23rd April) as we are taking a week off to “go on assignment”.

Green Arrow is due to hit stores later this year and will be priced circa $80 in the US, so around £65-£75 in the UK.

"Green Arrow is a vigilante superhero who fights crime using archery, martial arts, and technology. His secret identity is Oliver Queen, a hot-headed social activist living in Star City as a wealthy playboy with progressive political agendas.

I'm excited to share with you some behind-the-scenes images of the progress we've made bringing the Green Arrow to life as a One:12 Collective action figure, part of our DC Universe lineup.

The Green Arrow will be available for pre-order in the upcoming weeks. Enjoy!"

Sat-TOY-Day will be back with issue 22 on the 30th of April with some pretty spectacular store reports and reviews if all goes to plan.

In the meantime Please stay tuned to our Facebook page for the usual news and store reports.

As well as the standard release, Mezco are producing this variant One: 12 Collective Spock figure as seen in the original pilot for Star Trek, The Cage.

The figure will be limited and released a the 50th Anniversary Convention in Las Vegas, and then sold exclusively by Vegas Dead Dolls.

Another addition to the Medicom Mafex 1/12 Batman vs Superman range....

Nightmare Batman will be the 5th figure - the others being Superman, Batman, Armoured Batman and Wonder Woman

The 50th Anniversary convention runs from the 3rd to 7th of August. It seems unlikely that there will be an easy avenue for UK fans to obtain this figure, particularly with Vegas Dead Dolls not shipping internationally.

No more details as yet other than these images doing the rounds on social media

The One:12 Collective The Cage Spock Limited-Edition Variant Features: - Hyper-realistic episode-specific portrait - Episode specific fabric uniform Included with this figure: - Fists (L & R) - Posing hands (L & R) - Laser holding hand (R) - Communicator holding hand (L) - Laser with episode specific sculpt - Communicator with episode specific sculpt - Away Team harness - Away Team jacket - Display base with posing post Zavvi have reduced a number of 6 inch Black Series Star Wars figures down to £14.99 with free delivery.

Each figure is packaged in a deluxe, fifth panel window box featuring character specific artwork and a translucent acetate slipcover.

Click through the image to go direct to Zavvi for a look...

Designed for collector convenience, the packaging has been especially engineered to allow for both maximum protection without sacrificing ease of removal for display.

SH Figuarts have released the full details of the Jango Fett 1/12 figure arriving around September 2016.

Jango will come with his two pistols. working gun holsters, working wrist grapplers and his jet-pack.

Price is stated as 6,264 Yen - this equates to about £40, but you will more likely be paying £50-£60 with import and delivery from Japan.

This image turned up this week originating in Italy. It is the first look at the Disney Elite Series Prototype Boba Fett in packaging.

The packaging appears identical to the original releases - but check out the extra sticker that states "Star Wars Day".

The figure will hit stores on the 4th May 2016, and whilst there is no news as yet of a UK release, the fact that this one has hit Italy indicates a worldwide release on Star Wars day.

We've seen a few images of the smaller 3.75" scale Game of Thrones figures from Funko, most recently at Toy Fair in New York.

Funko have now announced these officially via their blog, confirming that these figures will be hitting stores in June 2016. We also get a good look at the packaging, which is quite impressive albeit reminiscent of Hasbro's older Black Series cards. Each figure is only 5 points of articulation, so with that you would expect the price to be sub £10.

These are not a Reactions line, and have much more detailed sculpt so may appeal to Game of Thrones collectors although for those who invested in the 6" range it is a bit of a slap in the face.

The first wave is almost predominantly based on The Night Watch and The Wall.

Should Funko go with themed waves it may take collectors a while to get the figures they wanted, and this may not work in Funko's favour

Game of Thrones – Funko Action Figures & The Wall Display Set. Funko’s latest figures stand at 3.75” and have five points of articulation!

This behind the scenes photo shoot image was released by NECA this week and quoted as being for Series 17 of their Predator range. A new Elder Predator takes centre stage, with at least 7, probably 8, other predator’s behind him. Assuming that the shot takes in figures already released in Series 14 and upcoming in Series 15, then the Elder Predator will be one of 3 new figures and all will be Alien vs Predator based. That will make Series 17 the third wave based on AvP and the release schedule for these broken only by Series 16 (Kenner homage).

NECA are bringing Freddy Krueger to their Quarter scale 18" line. This tweet has just been posted alongside this image…

"The man of your dreams, he's coming in Q Scale & fully articulated too!”

There are no other details at this stage but RRP is expected to be around the £80 mark for the UK, and based on previous Tease to Release timelines then I suspect this is a 4th Quarter release.

The first wave features Jon Snow, Samwell Tarly, Ghost, Ygritte, Tormund Giantsbane, Rattleshirt (aka Lord of Bones), Magnar of Thenn, a White Walker, and The Night King!

In addition to the individual figures, Funko is also releasing The Wall Display Set, which stands at 13” tall with 15” tall scaffolding to feature or interact with up to 25 Funko Action Figures! This display set comes with an exclusive Tyrion Lannister Action Figure!

Collect the whole set this June!

Here at the Mephitsu Archives we will be taking part i n Alien Day with a top 1 0 countdown of the NECA Alien figures released to date.

Review : Kanan Jarrus (Rebels) Star Wars Black Series (Hasbro) Wave/Series : Figure #20 (Phase 3 Wave 6 / Wave 2 2016) Released : April 2016 Price : ÂŁ22.99 It is a testimony to the success of Star Wars Rebels that the 6th wave of Black Series (phase 3) includes 2 characters from the show, beating lots of other fan favourites from the first 6 films to store shelves.

Kanan has been a little overlooked in this wave to date, with fans clamoring for Ahsoka and with all the commentary that the Farmboy Luke is generating. Kanan kind of has nothing to lose and everything to gain in this wave, and as you are about to find out - he will most likely end up being the star of wave 6 when all the dust settles.

Kanan is number 19 in the phase 3 numbering system and is one of the three new figures in Wave 6 (wave 2 2016). As well as Ahsoka and Luke, the rest of wave 6 is made up with a re-release of the Episode 7 Han Solo from wave 5, and a kind of re-release (if you can re-release a figure never released in UK) of the Episode 7 Snowtrooper who is packed two per box.

The Kanan artwork on the box is the usual grey lined art, and is kind of based on the realistic version of Kanan we saw on the 2015 novel, A New Dawn. His bio, as always presented in 4 languages, is pretty cool when you read it as it talks about how Kanan survived the Jedi Purge of Order 66 and how he turned up years later as part of the Ghost crew and eventually took on Ezra for his Jedi training.

Out of the box is at the taller end of the 6 inch scale, standing at 6 1/4 inch high and therefore suitably taller than his peers such as Ahsoka. It is difficult to say that the facial sculpt is accurate as it is not based on the animated Kanan and is more a mix of the New Dawn cover with element of voice actor Freddie Prinze Jr mixed in. Either way he looks exactly as I would expect Kanan to look in real life and fits in really well with the other Black Series figure.

You certainly shouldn't sit there and think that he looks out of place in terms of being an animated figure in the Star Wars Universe.

The head is painted neatly and doesn't have the glossy look that Luke in the same wave suffers with. There is no real detail in the skin tone but the eyes, eyebrows and his beard are all neatly done with zero paint bleed. The hair is sculpted swept back and tied into his iconic pony tail and is painted a base coat of brown with almost ginger highlights swept through on a dry brush to bring out detail.

I always like Kanan's outfit in the show - that mix of Clone Wars armour and Smuggler was a perfect fit for Kanan's character, and all of this has been faithfully represented here. The base shirt is textured and painted a flat sage colour. There is a colour variation between the chest area of the shirt and the separate stomach piece, but only noticeable up close.

Over the shirt is a number of armoured panels with the larger shoulder armour over Kanan's right shoulder, and held in place with a large strap which is painted a flat black with metallic clasp there is a bit of paint bleed on this strap. The Armour has a very nice metallic sheen, and the rebel symbol is painted in white on the shoulder pad itself, but done in such a way that it looks scratched and worn - not freshly painted. The armour continues down the right arm, with a lower forearm piece also with the metallic finish. The left arm is uncovered and is a two tone colour with the underside the same colour as the shirt and the upper half a darker green, similar to the armour colour but in Matt.

Kanan's belt is black and silver and sits around the waist, and off this hangs a working holster for Kanan's blaster. The trousers, like the shirt, are textured and I detect the faintest of wash on these to give them a weathered look - but it certainly is very subtle. The outfit moves down to black knee pads and then knee high boots which like the sleeves are a two tone colouring.

Arms are ball jointed shoulders which move smoothly out to the side and up above the head on the left arm. The right is blocked a little by the armour but can still move out to the side and still gets fully above the head. The elbows are a single joint that also rotates. The elbows can only really bend to a 90 degree position, and that's enough for Kanan to hold his lightsaber with two hands if you wish. There is a peg on the wrist, and this lets then hands both rotate and angle forward and backward within the cuffs of the shirt.

The waist is fixed, so the next joints are the hips, which can move to quite a wide "splits" position and can also pivot forward to sit Kanan down or kneel him on one knee, albeit a little awkward looking. The holster has been attached to the belt with a flexible strap and this means that the holster moves with the leg and doesn't block any movement on the hips. The holster does however render the thigh swivel useless on the right leg. The knees are double jointed, with that joint hidden neatly behind the knee pad when locked straight. Ankles are the rotating joint, so Kanan's feet are easily planted flat in most positions - making him one of the easiest figures to stand that I have come across in the range. One very minor observation on articulation is that the hips feel a bit loose, this could cause issues down the line if they deteriorate any further and impact his ability to stand without sliding into the splits.

Kanan comes with his blaster and his light sabre. The blaster is cast in dark grey and really well sculpted, and for vintage fans is the same blaster you used to get with the 3.75" Jedi Knight. The blaster fits into either hand, and then also slots into the holster when not in use.

Kanan's articulation is really good and starts with the head which can move side to side and look down wards, although full movement is restricted a little by both the pony tail and the raised collars. The chest is jointed and the torso joint allows the top half of Kanan to rotate to either side, sadly there is no lean movement back or forth.

There is nothing on the packaging that indicates the lightsaber is anything other than single piece - but take that leap of faith as not only does the blade detach, but he hilt comes apart too - a feature we see prominently in the show. Once split, the larger piece slots into a hole on the back of Kanan's belt, and the smaller emitter into a section to his left hip - brilliant! Once assembled the sabre is quite long, but fits into either hand well enough. I would recommend Hasbro maybe want to shout more about these types of accessories as I suspect there will be fans out there that will never know it comes apart.

Kanan is pretty much exactly what I want from the Star Wars Black Series.

Well sculpted, well painted, good articulation and some thought around his accessories in terms of that light saber splitting up and attaching to the belt. You can almost forget the Ahsoka hype and look past the controversial Luke because Kanan has stolen the show for wave 6 for me, and I score him a perfect 5 out of 5.

I now look forward to getting Sabine and then hope Hasbro has the ambition to push through the rest of the crew as a minimum and perhaps also the likes of Rex, Vizago and the Inquisitors.

Review : Ed Nygma Gotham Select (Diamond Select Toys) Wave/Series : Series 2 Released : March 2016 £19.99 - £22.99 After a steady start, Diamond's Gotham Select range has reached wave 2 and will add Ed Nygma, Detective Bullock and Alfred to the collection.

The rest of the figure is pretty plain, but that is more the character design from the show than a flaw of the figure. Ed wears a buttoned up grey lab-coat, the highlight of which is a printed badge on the left side of the chest which actually includes a picture of Ed from the show. Above the badge are three coloured Biro's sticking out of his pocket - but these are a bit flat and soft in detail. The jacket is painted simply in a single grey tone.

Ed Nygma arrives in the oversized Diamond Select packaging, with the stunning left hand art panel filled with Ed's face. Round the back and there is a shot of the actual figure itself along with a couple of paragraphs of background regarding how Ed fits into the Gotham TV series, particularly his role in the first season.

Down to the bottom of the card is the usual visual check-list of the other figures in this 2nd wave.

Out of the box and Ed stands dead on the 7 inch height, and I was surprised to find him a touch taller than Gordon and considerably taller than Penguin. Thankfully the difference isn't so great as to look unnatural, but I hadn't considered Nygma was such a tall figure in the show. After some research it seems Diamond have got this spot on with Nygma (Smith) at 1.8m whereas Penguin (Taylor) is only 1.6m.

Many of the promotional images of Ed, and my own shots below, are not doing the facial sculpt any justice at all. The figure, sculpted by Gentle Giant, has captured the look of actor Cory Michael Smith perfectly - but more so captured that disturbed, almost childish grin that he sports in the show. The glasses do throw off this sculpt slightly as they sit a touch too low and are slightly too thick in both frame and lens for the figure. The head is painted well but quite basic and there is a smidgen of paint bleed where the hairline meets the forehead.

Under the jacket is an off-white shirt, and a burgundy tie. Like the hair the tie exhibits paint bleed if you look closely under the shirt collar. Trousers are a paint brown and shoes plain black.

So overall there is no real depth of paint application, but what there is it’s all fairly neat.

Articulation is good, and like many newer Diamond figures, feels like it is getting better with each release.

The head is ball jointed, and the fact you can pose it tilted really adds to the mannerisms of Nygma and looks brilliant. Shoulders are ball jointed and the arms can be raised out to the side and up above the head, with the shoulder retracing back into the coat when the arms are moved.

Elbows are single jointed with the ability to rotate. For Nygma that isn't a big issue, but I can see why many fans are calling for Diamond to look at double elbow joints to really help out the top half articulation. The wrists are on a peg and can rotate, but not really move laterally as they are held in place by the sleeves.

Nygma also gets a cup marked with a Question Mark. The cup is realistically done and is half full of coffee. It doesn't however fit all that well into Nygma's hand so he looks a bit awkward holding it, like he is about to drop it.

There is a waist joint under the rubberised coat, and Ed therefore can rotate his top half to each side. The hips are standard Diamond fair, with a hinged peg.

Unlike many they do feel a bit stiffer on Nygma (loose hips is a common Diamond issue) and with his coat being so short and flexible Ed can actually sit down if you want him to - although Diamond have potentially missed a trick by not giving him a chair to go with his desk. I am still not a big fan of the thigh swivel. I don't think it adds anything really and looks unsightly.

Knees are double jointed, so as well as sitting Nygma can also kneel. The ankles finish up the articulation with a ball swivel under the pant leg so the feet can be spread to the side to aid stability when standing and swivelled flat it you go for a wider stance.

Ed Nygma comes packed with a desk - and as a cost saving exercise it seems you will get an exact same matching desk with the X-Files Select figures. That being said the desk is fairly solid, is neat and angular and is painted quite well, with an almost polished reflective top. The drawers themselves do not open.

I am quite enjoying the Gotham Select figures, and Ed Nygma is certainly a step on from wave 1 with that facial sculpt being the best yet for the range. At the ÂŁ20 price point they remain value for money but you aren't going to get say a NECA level paint job for that price AND the bigger diorama pieces that Diamond are throwing in - and am not sure if I would rather see a more detailed paint application and lose the accessories. I score Ed Nygma a 4 out of 5, just let down by the minor paint bleeds and the slightly too thick glasses.