042 Action Figure Sat-TOY-day News, 26th November 2016

Issue 42 : Saturday 26th November 2016

e r u g i f 2 s e i iZombie Ser e h t f o h t a r Gotham “W Villains” m o r f s e i d o o g s r a W r a t S More t s a E r a F e th m o r f s n i l m e r G e t a m i t Ul NECA

Diamond Select have confirmed, via Nerdist.com, the line up for the 4th series of Gotham Select 7" collectors figures.

When the first iZombie figure was announced and released by Diamond Select Toys, it was met with a lukewarm reception here in the UK where the series had failed to air.

Since that point iZombie has screened on Netflix, and with a cult following now at both sides of the pond Diamond will be expanding the licence with a 2nd Select 7" figure release of the main character Liv Moore.

While the first three waves have been quite plain and limited to "men in suits" etc, the fourth wave will follow the series into more "Superhero" or rather "Super Villain" outfit territory with the release of Theo Galavan as Azrael and Victor Fries as Mr Freeze. These two will come packed with a diorama piece that when combined will make an Arkham Jail Cell.

The full announcement (see below) confirms each figure will boast 16 points of articulation and character appropriate accessories. At this stage we don't really know what these accessories will be, other than Azrael will come with an alternative head so can be displayed as Theo Galavan or with the mask in place.

This time round the figure is based on her Series 2 look and is a much improved facial sculpt for lead actress Rose McIver. There will be a wealth of accessories and we would assume a diorama stand or base of some kind.

She is scheduled for a Summer 2017 release.

The third figure is the man who created both Freeze and Azrael. the wonderful Professor Hugo Strange. Hugo will be packed with his conditioning chair to make up a brilliant Rise/Wrath of the Villains Diorama.

Series 4 isn't scheduled until Summer 2017, leaving quite a large gap between Series 3 that is hitting now and the next figures.

Click through the image below to see the full Nerdist article and the whole gallery

Previews World this last week unveiled the final Marvel Select figure of 2016 from Diamond Select Toys, and boy is it a cracker Lady Deadpool, the future parallel Earth Deadpool, will be released in the Select scale and will be packed with diorama base, weaponry and Headpool!

A release date is not yet confirmed, but the article says the item will be available to order in the December Previews, meaning Lady Deadpool's arrival will most likely fall into early 2017 A Diamond Select Toys Release!

A Diamond Select Toys release! The Marvel Select line just got a lot more lethal! The Deadpool from parallel Earth-3010, Wanda Wilson is a part of the rebellion against a fascistic US government, but she’s just as deadly as her 616 counterpart!

This approximately 6.5” action figure features 16 points of articulation, as well as a diorama base and accessories including swords, a bazooka and Headpool!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Gotham! The critically acclaimed action figure line based on the hit Fox TV series serves up the Wrath of the Villains, with three new 7” scale figures of Gotham’s most dangerous men! Azrael, Mr. Freeze and Professor Hugo Strange each feature up to 16 points of articulation as well as character-appropriate accessories, and each comes with an awesome diorama piece inspired by the show! Hugo Strange comes with the conditioning chair from Arkham Asylum, and Freeze and Azrael each come with part of the jail cell from the Gotham City Police Department! Collect them both to build the diorama and put them in a cell where they belong! Packaged in the display-ready Select packaging with side panel artwork for shelf reference. Sculpted by Gentle Giant!

As is common with SH Figuart news, details of this new Chewbacca 1/12 figure broke via a scanned catalogue page.

It was followed up 24 hours later with the official images see the gallery below.

Chewie will be based on his appearance in A New Hope and will come with Bowcaster and Ammo Belt. The figure will come with two different facial expressions - one closed mouth, one open mouth. This is achieved via a swap out head option. Chewie should hit stores in April 2017 and is a general release. RRP is 6264 Yen - so £46 / $57.

The one criticism, based solely on these images, is that he looks a little short for a Wookiee. Compared to the Figuarts Han Solo and Chewie is considerably undersized.

Medicom already have two Darth Vader figures in the works for their 1/12 Mafex line - a Revenge of the Sith Vader will hit stores around March, with an exclusive Holographic version made available in limited numbers at a recent Trade show.

They are now adding a Rogue One appearance Darth Vader to the Mafex line. You will have to wait until August for his release, but when he arrives he will include a new helmet sculpt, improved articulation, lightsaber and interchangeable hands. RRP is 5220 Yen, or £37 / $46 Hobby Link Japan, amongst others, are taking pre-orders now

Another SH Figuarts announcement saw the reveal of this Anakin Skywalker figure which will be released as a Tamashii Webshop exclusive.

This mean the Padawan Anakin Skywalker, as seen in Attack of the Clones, won't be the easiest figure to obtain outside the Far East. The pre-order goes up on the 16th December with an RRP of 6264 Yen - that is £45 / $56 - but expect to add more for import and delivery, in fact add a lot more if you want to obtain Anakin.

Anakin is arriving with two lightsabers as per the duel with Dooku at the end of the movie. With Figuarts keen on releasing "linked" figures from pivotal scenes then could this indicate a Count Dooku is on the cards? Although not specifically shown in the images released, Anakin is coming with two head options. One is a more jolly looking Padawan, whilst the second captures that furled brow menacing stare of Anakin.

“Medicom's new Darth Vader MAFEX figure, based on his appearance in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," is about 16cm tall, and features a newly sculpted helmet, newly designed joints for improved posability, a lightsaber hilt, and interchangeable hands. A figure stand is included too. Add a bit of the Dark Side to your collection today!”

ToyNewsi have just broken the news that NECA are once again taking some of their 18" quarter scale DC figures and shrinking them down to their more popular 7" scale.

In 2014 this was the Keaton Batman, and last year we got the Dark Knight Joker, Christopher Reeves Superman and the original Adam West Batman.

Disney stores, as we reported online via one of our Store Reports, are already stocked with the new 11" scale Premium Elite Star Wars figures of Rey and Kylo Ren from the Force Awakens.

We are also aware that two Original Trilogy figures are coming on the 29th of November, and these will be A New Hope Princess Leia and a Darth Vader.

This image, captured in a US Toys R Us store, shows that this year fans are getting 7" versions of a Batman Begins Batman and an Arkham Video Game Harley Quinn.

Although there have been no press announcement as such for these, Randy Falk has been answering questions on these via Twitter. We do know therefore that these are the only two in the "wave" there is no other figures to turn up. And these are also restricted to US sales - so like the other 7" DC figures before them, there is zero chance of finding these for sale outside the US.

The following images initially leaked online indicating that Rogue One will also be included in this larger scale collectors series - with pictures of Krennic, Deathtrooper and a Jyn Erso. This was later backed up with a full release of promotional images courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. See a full gallery below.

Diamond Select have released a number of Marvel Superheroes in the retro 8" scale including Spiderman, Captain America and Deadpool.

The next addition to this range will be The Punisher, Frank Castle.

These Premium figures boast soft goods clothing, 30+ points of articulation and swap out accessories - all presented in a brushed steel effect window box. UK retail price is ÂŁ29.99

Like all the releases to date, Punisher will come packed as a white gloves classic Punisher. There will then be an alternative head with nose bandage and two other outfits. This will allow you to display the figure as it comes, or as a more modern leather jacket Punisher or a street clothed Frank Castle.

Checkout this link at Marvel.com for more details.

NECA have been releasing Gremlin product for a while now, but most are now difficult to pick up on the secondary market particularly Gizmo Fans will therefore be delighted that NECA are rolling all that Gremlin knowledge into an Ultimate Gizmo release for Spring 2017.

Ultimate Gizmo will come with an innovative swap out face option to allow you to display Gizmo in a variety of emotional states including one with his bandana from the final confrontation with Spike. The eyes are articulated behind this allowing you to pose the eyes underneath this front facial panel. He will also come with his Santa Hat, Candy Cane, Trumpet, Paperclip Bow and Pencil Arrow and String Rope.

The release will arrive in February in the usual Ultimate Box (design still to be finalised). Expect a UK RRP of around £25

After a period of relative quiet from NECA, this weeks #Prednesday was a couple of teaser images of what appears to be a 7" Scale Predator based on Broken Tusk from the Dark Horse Comics.

No more details are known at this time, but looking at the images and how far on he seems to be in production then you would expect a Toy Fair 2017 reveal.

“Broken Tusk was a Predator clan leader that went to the colonist planet Ryushi to hunt”.

“He, along with his clan, traveled to a small colonists planet called Ryushi in search of a good hunt. He was mortally wounded, but the colonists treated his wounds. One of his clan members kills a human child, which is against the Predators' law, so Broken Tusk kills him. Ryushi is then overrun by Aliens, and Broken Tusk joins forces with the last remaining colonist to stop the Aliens. He kills many Aliens before battling an Alien Queen, where he was fatally wounded. Before dying, he burned the mark of his clan into the surviving colonists forehead, so that she may carry on the clan name”.

Source : ComicVine

NECA have shown off the following image in their Facehugger Friday tease this week. It is an image of a juvenile Dog Alien from Alien 3 nicknamed on the image the "Bambi Burster" This is the young Alien that bursts from the Dog and would later develop to the larger Alien Runner Alien that we've already seen in the NECA 7" scale.

Following what NECA have done with smaller creatures up to now it is a good chance that this will be packed with extra accessories, or may be included in a deluxe release or box set.

For now, all we know is that this is down for a 2017 release date.

Review : Private Jenette Vasquez NECA, Aliens Wave/Series : Aliens Series 9 Released : October/November 2016 ÂŁ19.99 - ÂŁ22.99 Unlike most modern Blockbuster movie's where the merchandising is tied into the film, most movie;s made in the 70's and 80's had no such deal - particularly where they were never really seen as a kids movie. That has left NECA, the leader in releasing figures from cult 70's-80's movies, with a real difficult job on their hands when trying to expand a range like their Aliens series.

And yet the team at NECA continue to strive towards character licences, and we have seen them bring us some real key characters like Bishop, Hudson and even Ripley herself after negotiating directly with the actor and their representatives.

Series 9 is the cumulation of two further huge, and likely complex, likeness details with the NECA Marine stable expanded to include Private Frost, and the figure we are looking at here Private Jenette Vasquez.

Vasquez is packed, like all Aliens releases, in a clam-shell with dark backing card enhanced with a blue glow that is indicative of all the Aliens releases.

The Aliens logo sits top and centre, and then under this is the full window displaying the figure. The base of the blister contains the name card - detailing this as Private Jenette Vasquez, and aside this sits the circular Aliens 30th Anniversary logo that we see across the Series 9 figures - but also on the other 2016 releases including the Creature Pack.

The side panels are back on either spine of the blister, and the Series 9 theme down the right hand spine is a representation of the screens that we see in the APC scene while the Marines are searching the Alien nest. On the three screens we see atmospheric images of the Vasquez figure, overlaid with the HUD details including the mission time.

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The left spine captures the figure in an action stance firing the Smart gun. This same image is replicated around the card back and over the centre of this is a short bio. This bio talks about Vasquez back-story in the Marines, taken from several expanded universe books as it's never really explored in the movie. The base of the card back shows the usual "also available" slot with headshots of each of the Series 9 figures - the Albino Xenomorph and Frost sitting alongside Vasquez.

Out the box and you are presented with Vasquez front and centre. To the left as you look is her shoulder lamp, and to the right the Smart Gun itself - looking significantly more impressive than its first appearance in the Kenner inspired Space Mariner Ripley.

Taking the figure first, and Vasquez stands quite diminutively at 6 1/4 inches high. That puts her considerably shorter than fellow Marines like Hicks and Hudson, but is accurate to Jenette Goldstein's reported height of 1.6m. The likeness of Goldstein, or at least Goldstein as Vasquez, is exceptional. It is also not sculpted as a neutral look, but rather with a pouty scowl that represents the no nonsense focused look Vasquez has in most of the movie.

Her trademark bandanna is a sculpted detail on top of slicked back gelled hair and this head scarf tapers as it gets round the back to a very neat tied knot.

The paint applications really make the most of the sculpt with dark intense eyes painted over the waxy skin tone. The bandanna is also beautifully decorated with tiny designs on top of the base red.

Fans have already commented on the choice of not including the teardrop tattoo that Vasquez has under her right eye. For me this would have been too difficult to scale down considering how faint it is on the movie and I am not bothered by the omission.

The true beauty of the head is the equipment that NECA have intricately installed either side of her face as a headset.

Skipping back up to the torso, and it is here that Vasquez carries most of her armour and bulk. Under the chest piece you can see a sculpted camo vest which carries the same design as the trousers. At first I questioned the choice of camo on this vest as I always remember Vasquez's vest being a plain olive green. Turns out I was wrong and the olive vest is worn on the Sulaco as they wake from hypersleep and is replaced with a camouflage version for the operation on LV-426! Call myself a fan? Well done NECA for this attention to detail. Just visible on the neck is a crucifix, this is a sculpted relief piece and could have easily been left off, again well done NECA. The arms are both bare and cast in the waxy deep skin tone which gives them a sweaty look which is perfect for the scene in the movie. There are tied wraps on the biceps painted an off white, and Vasquez then sports fingerless leather gloves.

Most headsets on figures end up looking too clunky or at least oversized, on Vasquez they are perfectly in scale whilst holding a lot of detail. To the left of Vasquez head is the microphone for her headset, this loops down from a connection on the head band and sits under her chin. To the other side is the eye piece for the targeting system.

As you unpack Vasquez this is positioned away from her face. I didn't expect this to be anything other than a static sculpt, but the eye piece is actually articulated and swings in to cover Vasquez's right eye. From this eyepiece comes a trailing wire that connects to her chest unit, and this snakes down naturally and is flexible enough to move when the head does.

Vasquez is wearing the standard camo type trousers we saw on Hicks, Hudson and Windrix although perhaps a tad lighter. The camo design is neat and varied and most importantly natural looking, not a forced paint job you often see on military figures. Unlike the other marines,

The key part of the armour is the solid chest plate which is strapped over the shoulders and that then supports the Smart Gun. This is cast as a separate piece, indicating there is at least an option of another Vasquez in the future perhaps the Sulaco version, or the look at the end of the film when she and Gorman try and escape in the air ducts. Despite this it cannot be removed unless you are willing to cut some pieces away. The piece starts with a padded shoulder, that is coloured a matt black. Over this are two olive green shoulder straps that connect it to the centre chest piece. Two further olive green straps stretch under the arms to connect sideways. Hanging off the chest plate is a connection for the Smart Gun - we will look at this in a moment. The front of the armour is a black paint job, but I can see some level of dry-brushing at the edges with a very subtle silver that adds some sheen and a worn look.

The slogan "El Riesgo Siempre Vive" (The Risk always Lives) is applied as a decal on the chest plate and looks brilliant. The final part of the outfit is a combat belt, complete with ammo pouches, that wraps the waist and connects with a very detailed clasp at the rear, and this is again painted with a silver finish to replicate the metal buckle.

Vasquez carries no other leg armour on top of these trousers, so they simply tuck into combat boots at the ankle. These boots are a deep brown leather colour with sculpted laces and lace holes - both of which are painted, with silver eyelets and black laces.

The sole of the boots is also a different colour transitioning to a black and there is even tread sculpted under the sole - despite this hardly ever being on show.

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To the accessories now and the first is the shoulder lamp, an accessory we have seen on all the Marines to date. This should slot into a hole on Vasquez back and then sits up over her left shoulder. Anyone who has tried to fit one of these before knows it is not that simple as you need to line up the hole in the armour to the hole in the figure underneath otherwise the lamp fails to lock.

The piece is cast in matt black, but the base section is then painted in an olive green and the lamp lens picked out in a flat white.

The Smart Gun is a more complex affair than the version packed with Space Marine Ripley. The core gun is identical but there is a further armature supplied which brings the whole thing to life once assembled. Anyone who followed the early announcements of Vasquez and who paid attention to the promo images would have seen the "Adios" graffiti on the side of the Smart Gun. Sadly this has not made its way to the final production piece, and the decision to omit such a key on screen element is very odd when you consider other more subtle parts that have been included.

There are no clear instructions, but referring to the packaging and a little common sense let me figure it out. If you start with Vasquez you will first find the joint at the left hand side of the armoured vest is articulated and ends in a silver clamp. The armature, the piece with the wiring and with the hinged centre, slots into this and needs to be positioned with the wiring loom at the top not the bottom. The other side of this centre arm clips into a corresponding piece on the gun, but before you do this I would recommend positioning the gun into the hands. The best way is to get the left into the top handle and then slide the back piece into the right hand. With gun in hand connect up the gun to the arm and there is a left over cable which can be slotted into a whole in the gun, or back up under the chest plate.

This one however is an exception as they have taken the exact look of the Smart Gun firing and captured that in a sculpted plastic piece with a central stream of sculpted smoke, with 8 smaller plumes trailing off to either side. It isn't cast in a clear plastic either, but rather subtly painted in a smoky white with tinges of yellow at each stream end. It is optional, for those who still aren't keen, but fits into a corresponding slot in the end of the gun and holds itself in place quite well.

We've already talked about some of the intricate small scale articulation, the very delicate eye piece and the articulation on the Smart Gun support. But of course Vasquez also sports a full set of articulation that we would see in any NECA release. The head is ball jointed and can swing either side, taking the eye piece and microphone along neatly. The arms are ball jointed and being so slim have a full range of movement. The elbows are a 90 degree joint with swivel and the wrists a jointed peg. This allows Vasquez to hold the Smart Gun as we talked about earlier, and to be fair would you want her doing anything else on your display? It is a bit odd that the right hand is sculpted with a finger ready to sit into a trigger, something I can't find a need for on the Smart Gun perhaps another indication of a future figure?

There is no torso joint, but the waist isn't a simple swivel, you can feel a ball joint under there and this moves the torso to either side and gives some movement to lean Vasquez forward and backward. This work perfectly to balance the figure with the extent of the Smart Gun, a pose she has to achieve on the movie too when firing with just a touch of a lean back.

The legs are ball jointed hips which can swing to the side and the front. They won't go to a full sitting position, but do allow for a wider stance if your firing pose desires. The knees, beautifully hidden as always, are only a single joint but they do also rotate. Here the knee joint is more for stability and the slight bend you may need in a firing stance and not for sitting Vasquez down or kneeling. The figure is finally supported with a pair of ankle rockers, cut seamlessly into the boots, which helps the overall posing.

What NECA have produced here is a masterpiece of a figure in 7" scale with a sculpt and paint job worthy of a higher end collectable. The details are amazing with plenty of options to cut corners, like the crucifix, ignored in the pursuit of perfection. The Smart Gun, once assembled, works beautifully and even the firing effect is exceptional - but the Adios graffiti is a big loss. Fans will also argue over the lack of the teardrop tattoo - but to them I say try and spot it on the film and then tell me how it would scale down so small without looking ridiculous.

NECA have been including a number of firing or exploding effects in recent releases, and have done the same here. In the past I have found these firing effects to be very comical and never look realistic enough.

Vasquez is certainly something special and is already up there with the best of the best that NECA have produced so far in the Alien's range, if not across any of their ranges. Considering the price sits at just ÂŁ20 or thereabouts then there is no question that Vasquez receives a 5 out of 5 review score.

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