Post-Comic-Con Toy Announcement Thoughts

The San Diego Comic-Con showed off some new stuff in the toy department. There were a lot of cool announcements, displays, and previews. What my attention was focused on however was mainly Hasbro and Mattel's respective comic-based lines, Marvel Universe and DC Universe Classics.

more pics at toyark.com

DCUC Is supposed to be ending at wave 20. I'm not too sure on if they are just rebranding the line, like they did a few years back from DC Superheroes to DCUC, or if it's done completely. Some think they'll just be relaunching the line focusing on the whole DC Comics relaunch in September, where the whole line of comics gets a semi-reboot for a newer generation. But what is happening is Mattel is starting a DCUC Club subscription service on their website mattycollector.com. You pay $30 up front, which gets you an exclusive over-sized club figure (think almost Collect and Connect size, but maybe a bit smaller), and signs you up to automatically buy a site-only DCUC figure every month for a year. The first three revealed figures for this service are Starman, Jay Garrick Flash, and Red Lantern Atrocitus.
This in itself is good enough reason for me to join, but a lot of people still have reservations. But chances are good that this is the only way these figures will be made at all. So if not enough people sign up, Mattel won't go through with it. Which would suck because I desperately want Atrocitus. On the other hand, if it does go through, you can still brave the site itself for these figures even if you don't sign up. Just don't expect them to not be sold out for long.

again, more pics at toyark.com

Anyway, back to DCUC wave 20, the last one. We get Reverse Flash, Hawk, Dove, Brightest Day Green Arrow, Red Arrow, and one other figure (I've heard White Lantern Barry Allen, which may be the Reverse Flash Variant, and also a proper Sinestro Corps Sinestro). But all together they come with pieces to form Nekron, main baddie from Blackest Night.
With my little interest in waves 18 and 19 (read: none at all except for Sandman in 19), this wave will probably be mine, mostly because I want that Nekron. But we'll see if I can't find him on ebay when it hits.

Marvel Universe has become my only Marvel figure collecting line, but that will probably change soon, as Hasbro has brought back the Marvel Legends line of 6-inch scale figures, where MU was only 3.25 inch scale. I was a huuuge fan of Marvel Legends back when Toybiz had the licence, but Hasbro picked it up a few years ago and made a handful of waves that really weren't bad but not as amazingly crafted as Toybiz was.

more at cooltoyreview.com

But now they're back with a launch lineup of Steve Rogers, Hope Summers, Klaw, Extremis Iron Man, Constrictor, and Danny Ketch "Heaven's on Fire" Ghost Rider. They all come with parts to build Terrax. Hope and Ghost Rider are likely my only picks right now. Future waves will include Bucky Captain America, Thunderball, Madame Masque, and Arnim Zola. I actually don't have much interest in this line; I don't think I have the space or money to go back into it (past Hasbro waves cost $15-$20 retail).

But the Marvel Universe figures they showed off are right up my alley. I am for the most part an X-Men collector, and these next waves are very kind to me. We've got several mutants showing up, including Psylocke, modern age Beast (finally), Iceman, Astonishing Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Ultimate Magneto, and a two pack with Gambit and Sinister. Several other figures were revealed such as She-Hulk, a new not incredibly sucky Punisher, new Daredevil, Bullseye, FF Spiderman, and many more.

Who else called the re-use of the Colossus mold for this guy?

There were many other companies showing off their stuff to check out, including Hot Toys, Kotobukiya, and many many more. But before I wrap this up I wanna give a quick look at Square Enix's Play Arts Kai figures. I recently picked up their Ichogo figure from their Bleach line and it impressed me. Back when they did regualr Final Fantasy Play Arts I was a fan as well, but didn't know about this new suped up line. Well, they have had the rights to make Metal Gear Solid figures for a while, and now they've revealed prototypes for figures on Ninja and Solid Snake from the original playstation MGS.

To this all I can say is that they look fuckawesome and I will for sure be getting them both.

But I didn't even scratch the surface of what was shown toy-wise, so check out toyark.com or cooltoyreview.com or any other place you can think of for waaaaaaayyyy more.