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2-26-2007

Before I get into some of the other stuff that came up last week, and over the weekend, I need to wrap up the Toy Fair coverage with Gentle Giant.  I kept putting this off as I kept re-writing it, never quite getting the anger out of the post.  Well, it is what it is.

Gentle Giant

You like exclusives?  Well GG is the company for you.  In 2007 we will see something like 9 exclusives!

First up are the CLone Commanders.  Gree, Cody, Bly, Neyo and Bacara will make the convention circuit this year starting at Celebration IV with Gree.  Cody will be exclusive to San Diego Comic-Con while Neyo goes to Japan and Bly to the UK.  Bacara's destination hasn't been announced yet but will probably be on GG's blog sometime after they get back from Toy Fair.

GG already announced a CIV bust before Toy Fair and that will be the Knights of the Old Republic Darth Malak.

Going to all of the conventions that GG attends this year will be an animated maquette of Yoda and R2-D2 from The Empire Strikes back.  It's a cool looking maquette with two of the most popular characters from the Star Wars franchise.

Also going out will be an animated Clone Wars maquette of Mace Windu.  It's being reported as a shopstarwars.com exclusive bringing our total to 8 and counting.

Shown at TF was a new Chewbacca with gas mask from the ESB scene inside the asteroid.  It's not known yet if this will be exclusive or wide release but since it's a variant on a figure that just came out I could see arguments for an exclusive.  Could this be the fan club gift for sending them your $50?

Not pictured at Toy Fair, except in shadow, is an Emperor's Royal Guard bust.  If it's not unveiled sooner, we can probably look to CIV for it's official announcement to the public.

Bust-Ups

Not to be outdone, the Bust-Ups line will have two convention figures this year as well.  It appears that the two, Han and Luke in Stormtrooper armor, will be sold as the Vader figure was last year.  They should be at each con that GG attends.

A pack of animated Clone Wars figures featuring several Clone Troopers and Saesee Tiin wre announed prior to Toy Fair.  Debuting at the show, though, was a new line of Bust-Ups vehicles.  Word is that they're kind of goofy and each one will include a piece to build a figure of  R2-D2.  Obviously I'm hoping for a Republic Gunship!

Statues

Besides items we've already seen like Yoda on kybuck and the Jabba Palace, Mace Windu will be an exclusive and I think we might be seeing an animated Han Solo maquette.  Photos of the Stormtrooper maquette show what looks to be Han in the background but without photos to confirm, and no blog update, we aren't 100% on that yet.

There will be a Han Solo statue, though, and a few of the shots from Toy Fair shown an unpainted proto.  People in attendance also talked about seeing a blue Senate Guard statue from the prequels but no real answer if it's the ROTS version which is basically an ERG in blue (repaint?) or if it's from TPM or AOTC where they have a much more unique helmet.

Star Wars Classics

Finally, there will be a new line called Star Wars Classics which will be somewhere between the mini-bust scale and the Bust-Ups scale.  Only Kit Fisto and a TIE Fighter Pilot were shown and they were, apparently, very nicely done. More on this later in the year.

It's probably not complete for the year, but I've started to put together a checklist of the GG items for 2007.  Be sure to check it out.

Hasbro

Over the weekend several new 2007 exclusives popped up in the Toy-R-Us computers.  Joining a new shipment of AT-AT's and X-Wing's (which is now a shared exclusive with EntertainmentEarth.com) we have a Gold Leader Y-Wing ($29.99), TIE Interceptor ($34.99) and something called "Geonosis Creatures" for a hefty $59.99. 

TRU is also going to get two exclusive Titanium Ultra vehicles, TIE Fighter and Jedi Starfighter.  These should be the final two items in the cancelled line.  According to the TRU web site they may also get a shot at the X-Wing and Republic Gunship Utra vehicles.  I'm assuming they're the same as the Wal-Mart exclusives from 2005 but we'll have to wait for pictures.

Speaking of TRU, last Sunday and Monday they offered a Buy One, Get One Free sale on their Star Wars items.  I picked up the TSC X-Wing and Republic Gunship.  Using a $10 coupon via the new Google Checkout got me the entire thing for about $50.  Couldn't beat that.

Rumors on the comic book 2-packs came in from R2DToys.com and included Republic Commando/Super Battle Droid and Lt. Jundland/Lt. Shan.  Be sure to check the updated TAC Checklist.

The Target Battle Packs hit in force last week with the Ambush on Ilum selling very slowly while Betrayal on Felucia has pretty much sold through.

Acme Archives

Hopefully you didn't miss out on the new Slave Leia Character Key.  It went up for sale last week on Acme's site, as well as other e-tailers, while simultaneously debuting at NYC Comic-Con. 

It's sold out on Acme's site but if you shop around on the various vendor web sites you can probably still come up with one.  And watch Acme's site, if they had left over keys from Comic-Con they may pop up. 

Kubrick

Like Kubrick figures?  Who doesn't.  Well Blister.jp will have a 400% Shadow Stormtrooper later this year.  It'll be limited to 1000 pieces.

Also in the 400% scale is a new Return of the Jedi Boba Fett.  It'll be limited to 2007 pieces with 500 selling at the Winter Wonder Festival 2007 and the rest selling to the Medicom Collector Club.

Celebration IV

Official Pix made two updates to their celebrity guest list last week.  The two big announcements so far are Carrie Fisher and Anthony Daniels.

The other guests are mostly people we've seen at a lot of cons including Dave Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker and Richard LeParmentier.

Barrie Holland and Gerald Home are coming back to Celebration as is Ian Liston.  Two that I'm looking forward to are Lightning Bear and George Roubicek. 

Besides Fisher and Daniels, Bear and Roubicek are the only ones I'm definitely in for.  It'll be interesting to see who else gets added.

Keep an eye on the celebrities page at the Official Pix web site.

2-16-2007

I put together a listing of the 2007 offerings from Gentle Giant but it turned into a huge, incoherent post that rambled on for pages...so I scrapped it.  I'll  re-write it and have it up later.

Pre-Orders

First off, before I get into the Toy Fair stuff, just a reminder that today is the day for the Priority Pre-order for the Dejarik table at 1:00PM.

Also, in case you missed it, the pre-order for their new Obi-Wan and Anakin statue went up yesterday.  It's $179 and will ship later this year, probably 3rd quarter.

Not to be outdone, Star Wars Shop also has some items up for pre-order.  First up are two items that actually went up a week ago, the next two Character Keys from Acme Archives, C-3PO and R2-D2.

Both are slated for a March release and, per Chris from Acme, there will be two more keys in the line after these two, making a total of 16 keys before the line winds down.

StarWarsShop.com also debuts a new maquette of Boba Fett.  It's done in the Lego style as the previously offered Stormtrooper and Darth Vader.

If all that's not enough, poking around StarWarsshop.com will probably also turn up some orders for the new GG Jawa bust and the Koto Concept McQuarrie Duel. 

Lego

To get into the TF coverage let's start with Lego.  We've already seen several sets for 2007 but making a debut at TF was an incredible UCS Millennium Falcon.  Coming it at around $500 it's the largest set Lego has done.  It even dwarfs the Death Star and in size and parts.

Although we had some sneak peaks at them, we finally got official announcement of a new Jedi Starfighter with hyperdrive ring and the MTT droid carrier.

George Lucas was inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame at this year's Toy Fair and to honor it Lego displayed a really nice bust of the maker.  Plenty of cool stuff coming this year and making it even better are the six current sets that are priced under $20 (and are constantly sold out at Target!).

Attakus

Attakus showed off their awesome Millennium Falcon diorama as well as statues of Oola, Sandtrooper and Probe Droid, among others.

Although they look great, the price puts these out of the reach of most collectors.  I didn't see any photos of it from TF but they are also working on their next diorama, the Dagobah swamp.  If you have a couple extra thousand dollars laying around check them out.

GI Joe

25th Anniversary

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the GI Joe - Real American Hero line of figures and Hasbro is pulling out all the stops on a set of 25 figures to commemorate it.

With new super articulation not seen before in the Joe line, the first 10 figures were previewed about two weeks ago.  They will be issued in two 5-packs with the Joe team consisting of Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Gung Ho and Roadblock.

The Cobra pack will have Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness, Storm Shadow and a Cobra Trooper.

There will be 15 other single carded figures released and, while there hasn't been official word, rumors have surfaced for the following 10:

  • Storm Shadow v2
  • Snake Eyes v2 w/ Wolf
  • Cobra Officer
  • Cobra Commander w/ Hood
  • Flint
  • Beachhead
  • Serpentor
  • Buzzer
  • Lady Jaye
  • Cobra Trooper

I'm thinking that if that list is correct Zartan will probably be in the 5 not listed.  Other possibilities would be Stalker, Major Bludd, Crimson Guard and maybe a Viper.  Maybe even a B.A.T.?  We'll see.

Sigma Six

The Sigma Six line will be coming to an end as we know it as will the cartoon.  The newly combined offerings in the 8" anime styled line will include Commando, Combat Squad and Adventure Team and each figure will have new Kung Fu Grip.

The Commando line figures will come with accessories that fit their specialty.  The Combat Squad figures will have more true military styling in their outfits and accessories.

The Adventure Team makes a come back with sets like Temple Adventure and Croc Adventure.  The same list that leaked some of the nine waves of Star Wars figures also included the Joe line and you can read more on the checklist I put together.  Everything on that list is subject to change but some of it sounds interesting.

2-15-2007

Toy Fair 2007

I've had a couple of days to go through all the press releases, photos and reports from Toy Fair and it's looking like mostly good news for 2007.  All of the license holders showed some cool items while some of it was less than earth shattering.

With the Internet what it is, many of the items shown were already leaked either as lists or actual photos.  There were no huge surprises but confirmation of what we heard confirmed the good things.  So, let's get to it.

Hasbro

Action Figures

A couple weeks ago a list leaked out that had all 9 waves of figures on it.  Many of the figures in the first 4 waves have been confirmed and were shown at Toy Fair.  Wave 9, on the list, includes Force Unleashed figures and were also shown.

The list of figures can be found here:  2007 TAC Figures

First up, the McQuarrie figures.  Shown at Toy Fair were the first wave's Stormtrooper along with Boba Fett, Darth Vader and Chewbacca.  Darth Vader and Chewbacca look really great and are very close to the art that we all know and love.

To go along with the Boba Fett figure, which we saw about a month ago, is a Holiday Special Boba Fett.  I really like this figure and it's actually one of the only things to come out of the Holiday Special that is still in demand today.

A great piece of news is that the cantina aliens in 2007 will come with round pieces of the cantina bar.  Pictured were Elis Helrot and M'iiyoom.  While only Helrot was shown carded, I believe they both will come with the bar section.  It looks as though you may need 2 or more to make the full end of the bar.

Also coming with a large accessory is Umpass Stay, the drummer from Jabba's Palace.  The drum which will be packed in is huge and, apparently, only half of it.  It's unknown if we'll need to buy two figures to complete the drum or if a second character from the Palace will come with the other piece.

One thing to note with most of the figures shown is that they all have really nice articulation and detail and many come with incredible accessories.  Even figures like wave 4's Luke Skywalker, which is a kit bash, comes with a moisture vaporator pack-in.

While we don't know all the details about Force Unleashed yet, we do know that the figures from that wave will be insane!  Darth Vader will come with removable armor which leaves you with a totally battle ravaged figure.  The Samurai Jedi looks really well done as do the two Stormtroopers we saw.

While the initial list included Stormtrooper 1 and 2 along with a Heavy Stormtrooper, only 2 were shown.  I think the third was replaced by a really nice female Imperial Officer.  The last figure on the list is Maris Brood and for now we're assuming that it's the skimpily clad female figure shown with the rest.  The wave looks solid all the way through and I'm hoping for good things from both it and the video game.

The vintage style figures coming this year definitely do not disappoint.  The Bespin fatigue Luke Skywalker, one of my favorite vintage figures, gets a really nice update as does Han Hoth.  Apparently Han will come with his hood down and a removable hat but you can swap it out for a hood up look with goggles.

Leia gets a turn in her Return of the Jedi poncho outfit from Endor.  With removable helmet, belt, poncho and blaster this looks to be a very nice version of Leia.

The Imperial army builder for this year's set will be a new Snowtrooper with nice articulation, paint apps and soft goods.

Rounding out this Empire Strikes Back heavy wave of figures are two bounty hunters; Bossk and IG-88.  You wouldn't think that they could improve on IG-88 other than paint apps but Hasbro pulls it off.  Along with some nice articulation, the figure dwarfs the others in the line.  He comes with one rifle and some other tool, ammo belt and paint apps that really bring him to life.

Improving slightly on their Saga release with this Bossk, Hasbro gives us some more articulation and upgraded outfit detail.  I don't see anything in the face sculpt that improves over the two previous versions but it is a good looking figure. 

The mail away offer for this year's VTAC figures is a set of 7 coins.  Six of them will represent the figures in the line while the 7th is a special 30th Anniversary coin which attendees of Hasbro's Toy Fair booth received as their free gift this year.

Vehicles

Besides the figures on that list, Hasbro showed off the Sith Infiltrator and V-Wing Fighter.  Both will be in the $20 Starfighter line later this year.  The V-Wing looks brilliant and the Sith Infiltrator, which leaked out on an eBay auction last week, has plenty of play features to make up for its lack of size.

Galactic Heroes

There were several new Galatic Heroes figures shown off including Leia as Boushh with a Han in Carbonite, Emperor's Royal Guard, unmasked Vader, Durge, Obi-Wan in Clone armor and some cantina aliens like Hammerhead, Snaggletooth and Walrusman.

Unleashed

The Unleashed Battle Packs are going Original Trilogy in 2007.  We've seen some of the sets already in photos but they include Jawas with droids, Stormtroopers, Scout Troopers, the heroes like Luke, Han and Leia as well as Tatooine aliens like Greedo and Garindan.  There will also be Force Unleashed characters showing up in the Battle Pack line in support of the video game that will be coming out later this year.

Transformers

Although photos of a couple Transformers were leaked earlier this year, one new vehicle shown was the AT-AT.  It transforms into an AT-AT Driver so I was pretty psyched to see it.  We'd already seen the Gunship (also looking forward to it) while a Jedi Starfighter with hyperdrive ring, Snowspeeder and Vader as the Death Star round out the line shown.

Titanium

There weren't any new ships shown, that I saw, but the Titanium line will continue in 2007 and I'm sure there will be

Attacktix

The Attacktix line seems to be rolling along quite well.  Besides expanding it to include Transformers and now the Marvel license, the original Star Wars line will take a trip to Hoth.  There are several Hoth Rebels and Imperials including Han and Leia, Snowtroopers, AT-AT Drivers and Vader.  Other ESB characters include Lando and Dengar and there are also some prequel figures included.

Sideshow

Sideshow didn't show off anything we hadn't already seen but it was the first chance for attendees to see Asajj Ventress and the new Jabba creatures in person.  Also shown was their new Dejarik Holochess table which will go on sale Friday, February 16th.  It's a Priority Preorder so get your order in if you want it.

The new 1:4 Darth Maul was also pimped out at Toy Fair quickly followed by his Priority Preorder which started on Tuesday the 13th. 

In the VCD line we will be getting an Emperor's Royal Guard later this year. 

Two big announcements came out this week as well.  The first was at TF and it's that Sideshow will be getting into environment statues.  The first offering that was shown is an Obi-Wan and Anakin piece with them dueling on Mustafar.

The second announcement came after TF was over and it's that there will be 2 exclusives at Celebration IV this year.  They haven't named them yet but said that they will be dropping clues on their web site.  I'm thinking that one will be a 1:6 piece but the other may not be but we'll see what happens.

Master Replicas

Looking through the photos I don't see a lot of new stuff from MR this year.  They have already announced the Yoda FX saber and I believe a new Luke Skywalker saber from ANH is on tap.  The rest of the stuff they showed included helmets that are being done using the original Riddell molds.

They had several helmets on display but I'm not sure if any of them were announced before or not.

One thing that did appear to be new was their Studio Scale X-Wing Fighter prototype. 

Now that they have merged with Corgi and Cards, Inc. it'll be interesting to see what we get from those parts of the company.  Corgi is known for their die cast vehicles while Cards, Inc. put out the really cool Medalionz coins in 2005.  They were shown at Comic-Con last fall and again at TF so it's anyone's guess, till we hear directly, whether or not they'll make them available in the US.

More to come

There are plenty of other pieces of news including Gentle Giant and Lego and the 25th Anniversary figures from the GI Joe line.  I'll get to those tomorrow as, if you've ready any of the news already, I have a rant coming for GG.

Toy Run

I was able to find the new Scar Cylon Raider and Anakin's Modified Starfighter from the Titanium line at the Binghamton Wal-Mart this past Saturday while on my way to the Scranton area for a PSWCS meeting at Essential Comics.  At Toys-R-Us I spotted the new AT-TE and Dewback Titanium pieces but passed them up. 

The Wave 9 figures have been around a couple times locally at Target and I've got all the ones I want.  Time to bring on the Wal-Mart exclusives.

2-12-2007

Toy Fair

Well, things do change.  In the end I passed on the Toy Fair trip Sunday so, no first hand updates.  There is a ton of information to sort though, however, and I should be posting some of that later on.

It's always easier to collect all the various info into one, easy to read, synopsis.  I'll see what I can do.

2-9-2007

Toy Fair

To follow-up my announcement on Tuesday, things are looking good that I'll be attending Toy Fair on Sunday.  If so I'm hoping to be able to post some updates from the convention itself.  I set up a Blog page for easier access.  Check it out:

Toy Fair Blog

Hasbro

Toys-R-Us has been rumored for a while to be offering a new Bantha figure this year and it seems that pre-orders for it are now up on the TRU web site.  It's going to set you back $45 and there are no pictures yet.  It's been a while since this was available but the POTF2 sculpt does hold up well.

Sideshow

Sideshow has unveiled first pictures of their Premium Format Darth Maul and it looks really cool.  It's even on the cover of the newest Tomart's magazine.


Star Wars PocketModel

WizKids

WizKids has announced a new Star Wars game called Star Wars PocketModel.  It's a trading card type game similar to the Pirates of the Spanish Main where the vehicles will punch out of cards to be assembled.

Each pack will contain four to 8 vehicles, game cards, dice and instructions.  Packs will run about $4.99 and should go on sale in June.  They are planning a debut for them at Celebration IV in May, however.

2-6-2007

Toy Fair

We're just about 5 days from Toy Fair and I'm looking forward to what's going to be shown off by Hasbro for both the 30th AC line as well as their 25th anniversary GI Joe line.

I may even have a special treat from Toy Fair if everything works out.

Hasbro

Wave 9 finally dropped into the local Target.  I found the Elite Corps and Combat Engineer Clone Troopers last Saturday.  Yesterday I found the rest of the wave, 1 each, plus doubles of the Engineer and Elite figures.

They were all on trashed cards but it looked as though the case got squished.  I picked up Ob-Wan holo, Appo, R4-K5 and Yarael Poof.  All pretty good looking figures but Obi-Wan sure is made out of weak plastic.  One of the arm joints is already showing white stress marks so I'll have to take it easy on that figure.

Now if I can spot that Wal-Mart exclusive wave I'll be able to put the finishing touches on the TSC collection.

 
Sith Infiltrator Proto

Photos of a prototype Sith Infiltrator showed up on eBay over the weekend.  The auction has been pulled down, probably because it got a little too much heat.

Hasbro should be showing off this 2007 vehicle at Toy Fair this coming weekend.  We knew it was going to be under scaled so that it would fit into the $20 Starfighter line and it does look kind of small in the second photo. 

There were additional photos showing an opening cockpit and opening front wings that unveil some weapons.  It's small, but it should be cool.  It would totally rock if Hasbro threw in three Sith Probe Droids but I don't have my hopes up.

Sideshow

Sideshow announced a new environment piece, a 1:6 scale Dejarik Holochess Set.  Photos popped up in the new "Tomarts" as well as the latest "Insider."  Priced at $40 it's kind of high but it is very cool looking.

Hopefully at Toy Fair we'll see some photos of the figures to go with it.  Could we possibly be seeing a Chewbacca figure?  Maybe R2 and C-3PO?  Count me in for any of those three.

By the way, the Dejarik set goes on sale on February 16th.