BY
Dave
Once
again social media has improved my ability to bring you pictures of
the new stuff shown at Toy Fair. Most toy companies maintain some
sort of presence on Instagram or their own blogs online and seem to
recognize the importance of showing their new products directly to
potential consumers. I don’t know if this means the collectors’
market is more important than ever or if it’s simply evolving
business, but whatever the reason I’m glad it’s happened.
As
always I highly recommend you follow Action Figure Attack on Facebook
and Instagram
for some excellent press photos. Toy
Ark
once again provided thorough coverage and is the site we used for
reference to record this Friday’s Toy Fair episode of the Needless
Things Podcast. For the full list of links to Toy Ark product pages,
click
here!
Reveals
didn’t seem to start as early this year, but once they started they
stayed strong all weekend long. Rather than one standout, I had
several contenders for most impressive company this year. There’s
very little in the way of innovation, but mixing classic licenses
with vintage styles seemed to be quite the fad.
Read
on to see some of my favorites from the show and of course, listen to
this Friday’s episode of the Needless
Things Podcast
to hear me, Ryan, Jay, and Josh discuss all of the hottest reveals!
This
year, rather than doing a huge mega-post I’m going to dole out
bite-size posts focusing on small groups or individual companies.
NECA is one of my favorite companies and always has some exciting reveals, so let's check 'em out!
NECA
has become one of the most internet-friendly companies. Every year
they do a great job of providing official pictures of their Toy
Fair/SDCC/whatever offerings.
I
have to admit that they were a little light on exciting reveals this
year, but there’s still plenty of stuff that’s going to put a
dent in my wallet.
Pennywise
the Dancing Clowns
NECA
is releasing two flavors of everyone’s favorite psychopomp –
classic and new. These seem to be Ultimate-style – meaning they
include tons of accessories. I’m glad NECA is embracing that box
set type of figure rather than giving us a bare bones version and
then revisiting it years later.
Both
clowns come with multiple heads and hands, as well as
appropriately-colored balloons.
Aliens
Series 13
The
Kenner-inspired waves have been some of my favorites and this one is
no exception. Apone looks just right and, unlike the Kenner Ripley is
not a store exclusive. The snake Alien is one of the creepier
varieties, but I’m not sure I trust NECA to engineer it well enough
to stand up like that. The Scorpion Aline, on the other hand, rocks
me like a hurricane.
Kenner’s
original Scorpion was the first Alien figure I ever owned because it
was the one that looked the most like a regular Alien. I can’t wait
to get NECA’s version.
Possessed
Ashy Slashy Puppet
This
is a pretty easy re-tooling (re-felting?) job. Although I’m pretty
sure this puppet was possessed the whole time, fangs or not. I’ve
already got the regular release and it’s excellent – a must-have
for any Evil Dead fan – but I don’t think I feel the need to have
two varieties of this guy.
Retro
Buddy the Elf
From
the greatest Christmas movie of all time and one of the best family
movies ever in general! My family loves Elf.
We watch it at least once every year at Christmastime. It’s
incredible to me that Jon Favreau was able to create such a magical
movie that fits right in with all of the traditional favorites. It’s
nice to have a modern comedy that I’m not embarrassed to watch with
my parents or my son.
Buddy
will be the ONLY elf on a shelf in the Phantom Zone.
Retro
Herbert West
NECA
revealed this figure before Toy Fair, which I’ll admit left
everything that happened over the weekend feeling somewhat
anticlimactic. This is the Re-Animator figure I’ve been waiting
years for and I can’t believe that NECA actually got the license to
do it. There have been many false starts on a Dr. West over the
years, but it seems that this one might actually make it to retail.
The
Jeffrey Combs likeness is tremendous and the included accessories
couldn’t be better. I can’t wait to bring this home later this
year.
Retro
Tuxedo Freddy
There
are too many Freddy Krueger figures in the Phantom Zone already, but
what are you gonna do? How could you possibly pass up Freddy dressed
to the 9s?
Ultimate
Friday the 13th
Part 2 Jason Voorhees
Sack
head Jason has grown on me in recent years. I used to be all, “No
hockey mask, no sale” which is why I missed out on NECA’s retro
Part 2
Jason. Now I’m happy to see something so different – not just the
burlap sack mask, but the overalls that are a nice change from the
grey pants and green shirt that every other Jason seems to have.
As
with all Ultimate releases there are a ton of accessories, but the
best by far has to be Pamela Voorhees’ shriveled head.
Ultimate
Golden Angel Elder Predator
This
is a younger version of the Elder Predator that gives Danny Glover
the flintlock pistol in Predator
2. Dark
Horse released a comic book detailing the story of how the Predator
got that pistol (because of course they did) and now NECA is
releasing it as a figure. I’m good with that. I don’t buy all
of the Predator variations, but I certainly appreciate their
existence.
I
sure would like a Danny Glover figure, though. Maybe for Predator
2’s
30th
anniversary in a couple of years.
That's
all I've got for now! I'm sure there's plenty of news that I didn't
come across over the weekend or neglected to cover, so be sure to
tune in to this Friday’s Needless Things Podcast for even more Toy
Fair goodness!
You
can follow Phantom Troublemaker on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram for
all the latest on pop culture!
No comments:
Post a Comment