Mattel SDCC news

June 25, 2009 | Poe

Over on Mattycollector, Mattel has announced its panels for SDCC:

Comic-Con is coming!

For us toy collectors, the granddaddy of events has to be San Diego Comic-Con. The 2009 show starts July 23rd (preview night July 22nd) and runs through July 26th, and this year I’m bringing more cool stuff than ever before!

FAN PANELS
First off, we’ll have not one, but TWO fan panels at the show:

Mattel & DC Comics, a Powerful Partnership
Friday, JULY 24
11:00 AM – 12:00 NOON
ROOM 2

MattyPalooza
Friday, JULY 24
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
ROOM 2

NEW PRODUCTS
Then, visit me at Booth #2845, and you’ll find tons of new toys either just coming on the market or soon to come. We’ll have Ghostbustersâ„¢, DC Universe, DC Universe Classics, Infinite Heroes, Justice League Unlimited, Masters of the Universe Classics, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Disney/Pixar CARS, Toy Story, Hot Wheels, Scene It? The DVD Game, and the insane new Mindflex game — plus a few surprises!

PRODUCTS AVAILABLE AT COMIC-CON
Products will be sold starting preview night. Customer service and safety is our number one priority, so we’ll have a separate booth run by our Toy Club to handle sales. Lines will only be allowed to get as long as the designated roped-off area, but “fast-pass” tickets will be handed out to reserve your spot later that day. Limits on all exclusives will be six per person, per visit to the Mattel booth.

If you choose to wait in line a second time, you’ll be eligible to buy another 6 figures (there will also be a limit of six figures for online purchases after the show). It should all go very smoothly for the best buying experience yet!

We’re going to have plenty of gotta-get products available for sale, including (click each for all the scoop):

PRODUCTS AVAILABLE AT MATTYCOLLECTOR.COM
Can’t make it to Comic-Con? Fear not, fair comic fan! You’ll be able to get everything listed above on MattyCollector.com starting at 12:00 Noon on Monday, August 3rd, except these items:

  • SDCC variant He-Ro
  • SDCC variant Buzz Lightyear (with “Andy” on his foot)
  • SDCC Gleek (but the onder Twins without Gleek will be available)

Whew! That’s it for now, but stay tuned to MattyCollector.com, because I’ll have more news as Comic-Con gets closer.

—Matty

Wizard World Philly Roundup

June 22, 2009 | Poe

IMG_5018

First off, my immense thanks to Doubledumbassonyou for kindly taking some photos of the Four Horsemen’s WWP booth for you to enjoy. Let’s all thank him and, more importantly, click the link and stop by his blog for a spell.

There wasn’t a whole lot of toy news from Mattel or the Four Horsemen, as they’re saving that up for SDCC, but I was able to dig up a few nuggets of information here and there. They also had prototypes of Teela, Webstor, and DCUC Question on display, as well as Egon and Ray from Ghostbusters. (You can find some photos of Teela in the gallery below, and visit Pendragon’s Post for more). (more…)

“Dramaz” at Action-Figure.com

June 22, 2009 | Poe

Somehow I managed to remain completely unaware of this until this past weekend. I’d noticed the scarcity of updates on Action-Figure.com of late, and read Adrian Faulkner’s post about his plan to retire from the site and pass it on to others, but I didn’t know anything about the “Internet dramaz” he referred to.

Some of that drama was revealed last week in a blog post by Paul Nicholasi, a.k.a. Nomad. Nicholasi asserts that he had some sort of understanding with Faulkner that he would take over the site when Faulkner left, but then Faulkner turned around and sold the site to someone Nicholasi alleges Faulkner described as “a bit of an idiot, but he has money.”

You can read Nicholasi’s whole post to get the story, but here’s my first-read impression of what happened. Nicholasi mentions earlier in the post that at its peak, A-F “topped 3 million hits in a day” and “pushed through 40k in affiliate sales for Sideshow Toys.” That’s not chump change, and given that Faulkner had founded the site, I would guess–although I have no inside information here–that selling the site and getting some money out of it was a lot more appealing than just handing it over to Nicholasi, no matter how much work Nicholasi had done for the site over the years.

I can’t blame Faulkner for wanting to make some money off the site he founded. But all the stuff about “hacking” and “police investigations” and so forth casts a dark cloud of suspicion and negative impressions about the whole thing. It’s just ugly.

The sad truth is that Action-Figure.com hasn’t been a relevant force in action figure news for some time now, having been usurped by TNI and the various toyline-specific websites and blogs. Nicholasi’s plan to expand the site to other geek-related topics was ambitious, but given the strong competition in that market (IGN, UGO and Enewsi, just to name a few) it would have been a very tough road to hoe.

So what happens now? I have no idea. I hope Nicholasi lands at some other toy site and continues to provide his excellent brand of toy coverage. And I wish Adrian all the best with his family and health issues. But it’s a shame it had to end this way.

Four Horsemen’s Queen and Her Court Roundup (Updated)

June 19, 2009 | Poe

UPDATE: You can pre-order Biggara and Baddathiir here, Akkuli here, and Oktobria here. Will update with more pre-order links as they appear.

I’d booked a half-hour or so to put together a roundup of all the Four Horsemen’s various Queen figures announced in the past week, but FANtastic Exclusive user xrmc20 beat me to the punch and has very kindly allowed me to copy and paste his write-up here. So be sure thank him, not me–my only contribution was being lazy. (more…)

7th Kingdom Queen Updates – Part 3

June 17, 2009 | Poe

THE QUEEN AND HER COURT – PART 3

The past couple of days of “The Queen and Her Court”, have introduced you to a few of the warrior women from the Four Horsemens’ fan-favorite property, “7th Kingdom”. Today will be no different as we bring to you three more fatal female furies.

Each of today’s offerings will be made available through a different online retailer, toy news website, or action figure magazine.

First up we have the Bengal beauty to be offered through various Wizard Magazine: Wizard World conventions (http://www.WizardWorld.com) later this year – D’zwirra.

Next we have the steel siren – Ccora. Ccora will be carried by online toy retailer, Corner Store Comics (http://www.CornerStoreComics.com), and like all of the other exclusive variants, will be extremely limited.

Our final lady for today wields the coldest claws of any of the feline warrior women – Oktobria. Not only will Oktobria be offered through October Toys’ (http://www.OctoberToys.com) own website, but October Toys will also have her for sale at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con.

All three of these warrior women will each wield a deadly spear, and a razor sharp small sword. The price of each figure will be determined by each individual retailer in the near future. At a later date, all three of these figures as well as the five previously introduced figures will also be available in a complete set along with all of the other yet-to-be-revealed exclusive variants only through Store Horsemen (http://www.StoreHorsemen.com).

Be sure to check back tomorrow when we’ll introduce the final three femme fatales of the 7th Kingdom!

DCUC rumors – Atomic Skull?

June 17, 2009 | Poe

AtomicSkullBlog

So AFI reader hotrod77 found something interesting. In the Myspace blog of comics artist Matthew Clark (who has had runs on several major comics), there are artist turnarounds of DC characters, which–according to Clark–were done at the behest of DC Licensing. (more…)

More FANtastic Exclusive updates

June 16, 2009 | Poe

THE QUEEN AND HER COURT – PART 2

Yesterday, in part 1 of “The Queen and Her Court”, you were introduced to Queen Alluxandra of the Bluddmane Clan and Isadorra of the Ironspynne Clan, the first pair new of figures from the Four Horsemens’ fan-favorite property, “7th Kingdom”.

Today you’re going to be introduced to three more feminine denizens of the 7th Kingdom, each to be offered through a different online retailer, toy news website, or action figure magazines.

First up is the blue hued feline warrior – Akkuli. Akkuli will be available through Action Figure Xpress (http://www.ShopAFX.com), and if she lasts long enough, will also be available at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con.

Second is the gleaming elemental – Kromius. Available through The Fwoosh (http://www.TheFwoosh.com), the extremely limited Kromius will go fast.

Last up for today is the first of two exclusives to be carried by Big Bad Toy Store (http://www.BigBadToyStore.com), the fair-furred feline fighter – Biggara.

All three of these warrior women will each wield a deadly spear, and a razor sharp small sword. The price of each figure will be determined by each individual retailer at in the near future. At a later date, all three of these figures as well as Queen Alluxandra and Isadorra will also be available in a complete set along with all of the other yet-to-be-revealed exclusive variants only through Store Horsemen (http://www.StoreHorsemen.com).

Be sure to check back tomorrow when we’ll introduce the next three warrior women of the 7th Kingdom!

While I’d like to order the entire set of these, as of right now I just can’t afford them all. But I’m definitely getting two: Kromius and the mechanical one, once she’s revealed.

MOTUC Orko confirmed for 2010

June 15, 2009 | Poe

orko

Tucked away in Action Figure Pics’s Q&A was the revelation that Orko will be a part of MOTUC in 2010.

I know that won’t excite all of you, but since there seem to be a good number of He-Fans around here I thought I’d mention it.

The question is, how will he be available? As his own figure? As an accessory to a figure or Battle Cat? In a two-pack with Kowl? As a special incentive for subscribers?