International Toy Fair 2007

(Evidently, I don't feel like I have enough blogs. )

I've been wanting to start a new blog focused on toys and collecting for a while, and there's probably no better instigating event than this year's International Toy Fair, running now (February 11-14).

There's more going on than I'll do justice, but here are my highlights so far.

I mentioned in a previous post ("End of an era") that Toy Biz was becoming Marvel Toys, and, since they were jettisoning the Marvel Legends line to Hasbro, they're free to do other stuff.

Legendary Comic Book Heroes:

It showed up in a ToyFare a couple of months ago, but the new Legendary Comic Book Heroes formally debuted at this weeks fair. Continuing with the build-a-figure popularized by Toy Biz/Marvel Toys (for me the epitome was the "Sentinel Series"), the first series in the new line will be the "Pitt Series". This'll consist of Judge Dredd, Rip Claw, Super Patriot, Madman, and Savage Dragon.

I'm pretty stoked about this, because even though the only entry I was hyped about was Judge Dredd, Savage Dragon (no originally part of the first series) has been wisely moved up, Madman is one of those "I-don't-need-to-be-a-fan-because-the-sculpt-is-wicked-cool", and Pitt, as a build-a-figure (and like the "Sentinel Series"), is enough to get me to try to track down all 5 (and at least it's not like six or eight pieces, like the previous Marvel Legends series).

Series 2, the "Monkey Man Series", will consist of Stryker, Ann O'Brien, Marv, Judge Death, Darkness, and Star, with the latter 3 being my main interest. But that may change.

The Marvel Toys Conan stuff looks cool, too.

DC Direct:

DC Direct, like Marvel Select or Diamond Select, produces some good stuff. Unlike those latter two, the overall quality can be kind of hit-or-miss.

This year at the fair, they're pretty much "hit".

You can catch a slide show of this year's offerings over at DC Comics, but my favorites:

• Justice Series 6 Green Lantern, Batman, Scarecrow (figures)
• Lex Luthor and robot 2-pack (Justice League Unlimited) (figures)
• BATMAN: Series 1 Batman, Joker (figures)
• MINI-MATES: Series 5: Guy Gardner & Killlowog 2-Pack (actually, all the new DC Mini-Mates look slick)
• BATMAN BLACK & WHITE BY JIM LEE (statue)
• THE SANDMAN ABSOLUTE (statue)
• BATMAN BY ALEX ROSS (statue)
• DR. FATE HELMET (prop replica)
• AFRO SAMURAI: Kuma 6" (figures)
• All of the WORLD OF WARCRAFT: SERIES 1 (figures)
• All Ame-Comi Super Heroines (Super Girl, Bat Girl, Power Girl, Catwoman, and variants) statuettes are embarrassingly hot

I'm having trouble getting behind the BATMAN: Series 1 Ninja Manbat and Damian, or SUPERMAN: Series 1 anything. And I'm not really into statues (can't play with 'em), but the ones I mention above look cool.

Diamond Select:

Diamond Select is putting out a Marvel Zombies line of 7-inch figures. First up is zombie Spidey ("with a comic-accurate removable leg"). Even cooler, sounds like Diamond is going the way of the build-a-figure, and this series is -- Zombie Silver Surfer!

LEGO:

Star Wars was the first license for LEGO, and they're celebrating 30 years with the franchise. Releases including the Ultimate Collector LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon (largest LEGO model ever made available to consumers) and "nine new building sets that represent characters, scenes and vehicles from every Star Wars episode". There are also two release-related contests -- "These are the Droids You're Looking For" (find a special-edition metallic gold C-3PO mini figure; find one, and be entered to win something special); and a LEGO Star Wars Movie Making Contest.

Toynami:

Toynami rocks. They're releasing a bunch, but my favorite is the Futurama I-Men boxed set (Fry, Bender, Leela, Zoidberg, Professor Farnsworth and the Robot Devil).

Hasbro:

Hasbro's rebooting the 3.75" G.I.JOE figures -- classic looks with today's toy tech making. Which means oodles of articulation (and hopefully fewer broken thumbs). Looking at Snake Eye and Cobra Commander, it's going to be hard for me not to buy into these.

McFarlane Toys:

A bunch of announcements from Todd McFarlane, which is cool if you're a fan. I'm not a fan, because I don't consider most of his stuff "toys"or "figures". They're detailed, and pretty cool looking, but I think they're deceitfully marketed as "figures", because most are as articulated as rocks.

Mattel:

Mattel gets my "Worst-named Toy" award -- the "Easy For Me 1-2-3 Doll".

Wrap-up:

That's it for now. Maybe more later. And I'm trying to avoid any info or picts about movie tie-ins (primarily Spider-Man 3 and Transformers), because I don't like movies ruined for me.

Head over to places like Action Figure Insider and CollectionDX for more coverage.

And, no, I'm not going to buy all of this stuff.

This joke has probably been made, but are there in-action figures?