Issue 23 : Saturday 7th May, 2016
U C M n a m r Spide ‌ g n i m o c e r a s e r u g i f g n i d u l c n i , s w e N A C E N Chop Top! ? l l a c a n n Who ya go l e t t a M h c 6 in s r e t s u b t Ghos
McFarlane have announced that number #6 and #7 of their new 7 inch scale color top line will be Abraham and Daryl Dixon figures from the Walking Dead TV Series. The initial red top figures are due for release in July 2016 with a US RRP of $19.99 - the first UK pre-orders we have come across are at Forbidden Planet and are £16.99 and £17.99 which is not a bad price for a 7" scaled figure of this detail. Although McFarlane are yet to load any blurb for the Abraham figure, the following was posted alongside Daryl’s promo image. "Daryl Dixon’s ability to use whatever he has at his disposal to survive and protect his friends has made him a key member of Rick’s group. Even during a knock down drag out brawl in the first half of season 5 of AMC’s The Walking Dead, Daryl prevailed by ripping the head off a walker to knock out his combatant.This 7 inch figure comes equipped with a crossbow, knife and a Walker head with spine." Dixon and Abraham join Rick Grimes in the red wave. Also included are Madison Clark & Travis Manawa from Fear the Walking Dead. And Connor from Assassins Creed.
One of the most interesting reveals this week was via the Captain America movie Facebook page who announced, via a live unboxing, a brand new Marvel Legend 6 inch set coming from Hasbro based on Captain America Civil War. The set contains a Civil War Captain America who is an identical sculpt to the current wave release, but does have some battle damage deco. He also comes with unmasked Steve Rogers head. There is then a damaged Mark 46 Ironman, the damage looking to be exclusive to this set and a swapout Tony Stark head is included. Also included to go with the IronMan are some repulsor blast effects. The final pack-in is Spider-man, but sadly not quite the new suit and instead what looks to be a repack of one of the recent Amazing Spider-man comic figures. Spider-man does come holding Cap's shield which is also weathered and damaged.
The set is due for general release on the 1st August 2016 but there "may be opportunities to get this earlier". One potential opportunity may be that this set could be on early sale at SDCC 2016 - but we will have to wait and see. Hasbro Toy store will stock this in the US. So far for UK customers, Entertainment Earth has the item up for pre-order at $62.99 but shipping to UK is a whopping $50, that's £79 in total + custom charges
We knew that sculpts existed for C-3PO and R2-D2 since the very first announcement of Disney's diecast Elite series, with the droids being offered in the original Disney Expo mega pack back in 2015 under an original trilogy / prequel trilogy banner. As of today, Star Wars Day 2016, the droids have now shown up at a US Disney store single packed.
Various images of these figures are circulating on social media, but there is nothing listed as yet on the US Disney Store and there is no indication of these two figures translating to the UK or other territories although we would hope that Disney won't be that unfair, and they have granted Proto Boba Fett a worldwide release.
It seems that Disney have finally got round to offering the droids singularly, getting round the promised exclusivity by making the single releases Force Awakens themed, particularly in that C-3PO has his red arm.
US fans who have managed to buy these are talking around a release date of the 16th May? Not sure how that fits in - surely a May the 4th release would have made much more sense?
Diamond Select have just updated their Facebook cover page with this lovely image of the upcoming Civil War trio of Marvel Select figures and the build-able Avengers diorama background These figures are due to ship at the end of May / start of June. Pre-orders can be made at Forbidden Planet In other Marvel Select news, the latest AskDST has revealed we have two more figures to be announced for 2016 one of which is female and one is an oversized figure. Neither are apparently Movie based figures, so the early optimism for a Cumberbatch Doctor Strange is dampered a little - although a forum post from a DST representative said “who said we aren’t making a movie Dr Strange”. This could indicate Strange is a Disney Store exclusive, or perhaps due to the late release of the film he may actually fall into 2017.
We have known about the 2016 Ghostbusters figures from Mattel for a while, with the 4 new female Ghostbusters being released in figure form along with a couple of what we assume are principle bad guys. Images are now showing up that as well as the 2016 Ghostbusters, there is also a wave of 4 of the original Ghostbusters. These figures are repacks of existing Mattel (Mattycollector) figures and include Ray, Winston, Egon and Peter - and packed in each is a build-a-figure part to make what appears to be a glow in the dark Ghostbuster logo.
Following some behind the scene teases, the full details for the Mezco One:12 Green Arrow 1/12 collectors figure has gone live today as well as the following full details for the figure. The pre-order is limited to US customers at this stage, but UK retailers like Forbidden Planet will be carrying the line and UK pre-orders will go up in due course. Green Arrow has a US RRP of $75, and expect to pay around £65 in the UK. Green Arrow will ship in November 2016.
The 2016 figures are starting to hit US stores - no reports of these landing in the UK as yet. The 1984 Ghostbusters are currently showing up in Canada and as a Walmart exclusive. That could potentially mean an Asda exclusive in the UK?
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“The Green Arrow is a vigilante superhero who uses archery, technology, and martial arts to fight crime. The world knows him as Oliver Queen, heir of the Queen Industries fortune, but his heroic alter-ego is Green Arrow: protector of Star City. As a member of the Justice League, he relies on his unmatched archery skills, vast array of specialized arrows, incredible agility, and fierce hand-to-hand combat knowledge instead of super powers to uphold justice.”
Of course also arriving this year in the NECA Mego 8 inch figure range are Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted “Theodore” Logan.
The NECA range of 8 inch Mego style retro clothed figures will be expanded this summer to include Chop Top. Chop Top, played by Bill Moseley, was one of Leatherface's brothers and played a prominent part in the 1986 sequel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
As we get closer to the Summer release date, NECA have teased the current planned packaging for the figures. Unlike the clamshells used on other 8 inch figures, Bill and Ted will come in this electric blue boxed packaging.
Chop Top will be provided in the usual Retro style clam-shell and will be packed with tailored fabric clothing along with accessories including a razor, lighter and hammer. He will also have a removable wig and removable glasses. Chop Top will be offered to retailers this week, so expect pre-orders to come up soon. He will ship at some point Summer 2016, and here in the UK we would expect the price to be circa £27.99 - £29.99 depending on when and where you get your pre-order in.
The cool part is that within the box will be a card kit to allow you to build a phone booth that you can then display with Bill and Ted.
“The deluxe box set packaging has a special surprise – punch out the cardboard inserts and assemble your very own phone booth time machine!” “It’s the 30th anniversary of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and we’re marking the occasion with the first appearance of Chop Top in our retro clothed action figure line!
As it stands Bill and Ted are due to ship in July and UK pricing seems to be around the £59.99 mark.
From the 1986 film, Leatherface’s sadistic brother Chop Top stands 8” tall and is dressed in intricately detailed and tailored fabric clothing similar to the iconic toy lines of the 1970s. He’s fully poseable and comes complete with tons of accessories: wire hanger, razor, lighter, hammer, removable wig and removable glasses. Blister packaging with resealable protective clamshell features new custom artwork created by fan-favorite illustrator Jason Edmiston just for this release!”
Like other Ultimate boxed packaging, the figure will only be visible behind the front flap - with the flap and spine art being reminiscent of a 1980's VHS cover or similar. Whether this will cause any confusion for casual fans of NECA who may be expecting the T800 in glasses and leather jacket that they see on the front of the box. The Tech Noir will be followed with a 2nd Ultimate release based on the T800's appearance from the 2nd half of the film, particularly the Police Station Assault scene. Forbidden Planet also have this release down for July, but we suspect it may be later in the Summer.
NECA have released the final packaging art for their upcoming Ultimate T800 figure, the first Ultimate figure for Terminator based on the original 1984 movie. The "Tech Noir" Ultimate T800 is based on the Terminator's appearance in the Tech Noir nightclub in the first half of the film. He comes packed with 3 head options, swap out arms and various weapon options. Tech Noir T800 is due for release in July 2016 and is on pre-order at Forbidden Planet.
The latest NECA #FacehuggerFriday tease was this image of what look like some decals.
These images are coming out of the Far East from a recent Trade show and are a nice round-up of what Tamashii Nations have in store for Marvel fans in their 1/12 SH Figuarts range. Starting with Iron-Man 3 they showed their Tony Stark (Mechanic) figure, a piece we saw teased at the back end of last year that they said was planned to come with some form of Hall of Armor from Tony's basement. Pictured alongside Tony is the Iron-Man Mark 42 in that classic super hero landing.
While many jumped to the conclusion these were for a Kenner inspired or Video Game figure we had a suspicion that these were actually for use with the upcoming Weyland Yutani Commandos, and a quick look at the Alien 3 bluray confirmed as much.... take a look at the rear of the Commando's helmet. Using the decals there are four variants you can produce using the upcoming Series 8 Commandos. NECA’s series 8 Alien 3 wave is due to ship in June/July and contains an Alien 3 Ripley, two Dog Aliens and of course the Commandos.
Onto Avengers Age of Ultron, and it's a bit of a recap shot with figures of Hulk, Captain America, Iron-Man Mk43, Thor, Black Widow, War Machine and Ultron himself. Fans will hope the omission of the previously teased Hawkeye in this lineup is nothing sinister. A 3rd display concentrates on Iron-Man, but outside of any film constraints, with displays of what looks like the Mark 6, Mark 42 again, The Hulkbuster, War Machine and then the Iron Patriot. Finally we get to Civil War where we see Ant-man and Black Panther, but also an unmasked Civil War Cap going up against that Mark 46 Iron-Man armour. Some of these are already at pre-order stage - most recently the Black Panther who is a Bandai Webstore exclusive. Others we eagerly await more details on particularly how that Tony Stark will pan out with or without the originally planned diorama.