SDCC Toy News

Mattel had some surprising and not-so-surprising news at ComiCon this past weekend. Both of its major DC Comics lines are ending! With Justice League Unlimited, it's been a forgone conclusion for a while. The cartoon series that inspired it has been off the air for YEARS. The line struggled at retail. The last few announced waves were canceled! Mattel has graced fans with a Final Seven boxed set that will be offered through their website which will provide the final seven characters that were depicted on the cartoon but that had yet to be produced as action figures. And they seem to have done a nice job with them. We get Gypsy the last member of the Detroit League and from the Golden Age, Dr. Mid-Nite, Johnny Thunder and his Thunder Bolt, niftily rendered in clear pink plastic and the Crimson Avenger, plus The Creeper and in a surprising move (somewhat) Teen Titan Speedy who guest starred in the episode paying tribute to the Seven Soldiers of Victory. I don't consider Speedy a Justice Leaguer, but I know a lot of fans wanted him because he did pop up in that one episode, so it's nice that he's there. IF this set sells well, Mattel says they will try to offer the other sets that got pulled from retail release, which helps further fill-out the Legion of Doom.
JLU's demise was already in the cards, but the real shock was Mattel's announcement that DC Universe Classics would be ending with Wave 20, which they revealed at ComiCon. It's a Blackest Night-themed wave with a Nekron C+C, Sinestro, Hawk & Dove, Green Lantern in his Smallville inspired costume, Red Arrow and Reverse Flash. I mainly want Hawk & Dove. They also unveiled a Crime Syndicate of Amerika boxed set, which looks super sweet and is a must-have!
Here's what went down. Earlier in the week, news leaked that Mattel would launch an on-line subscription service and offer 12 exclusive figures that would only be offered online, but ONLY if enough people subscribed. Fans went BATSHIT! First of all, no one had any idea which characters were going to be offered. I CORRECTLY guessed that it would be a way for them to fill out more obscure teams that they'd begun like The Metal Men and Doom Patrol and offer more off-beat characters that would struggle at retail. The Metal Men and Doom Patrol characters that HAVE been released at retail haven't done well.

What no one suspected was that the retail line was being canceled all together and that this would be the ONLY way for DCUC to continue. The only figures they've revealed are Jay Garrick the original Flash, Starman from the Legion of Super Heroes/Justice Society and Atrocitus the leader of the Red Lanterns. They are offering one figure that will only be sold to subscribers and allowing fans to vote for who it is, Shaggy Man, Rocket Red, Black Lantern Swamp Thing or Metron and his giant chair. I can't imagine anyone but Metron winning.

They haven't confirmed it, but what is likely to happen, is that DCUC will be replaced at retail with a line that reflects DC's big upcoming revamp. Booooooooooo! FUCKING BOOOOOOOOOO!
So, I signed up for the subscription. Starman doesn't do much for me and I absolutely don't want Atrocitus, but I want Jay Garrick and a bunch of additional characters so I'm hoping things work out and the line is able to continue in this capacity.

The thing is, though, even though I want additional characters like Vixen, this toy line gave me a pretty much complete classic Justice League PLUS the Wonder Twins, the ethnic Super Friends AND characters plumb made up for the Super Powers toy line, not to mention a bunch of characters that were planned for the SP line but un-produced. I mean, I can't be mad or even sad about it possibly ending, because right there, I pretty much already have the awesomest toy line ever!
Marvel unveiled a slew of new figures, many of which I want, many of which I don't. It's a bit refreshing after all the DC dramz. With Marvel, you can cherry pick and choose who you do and don't want. they don't have C+C pieces so you feel like you have to buy all of an assortment. Just buy what you want. And they showcased a TON that I want, like classic Luke Cage (Power Man) and Iron Fist above, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk, Dr. Strange, The Falcon, Wonder Man, Quicksilver... just a bunch that I consider essential additions to my collection.
Masters of the Universe Classics now has the rights to produce the Filmation characters/version of characters and the biggest announcement was the much clamored-for Shadow Weaver... but alas, she is the Masters subscription exclusive, meaning you have to sign up to buy EVERY Masters figure this upcoming year to get her. FUCK that! I'll just pay whatever I have to on eBay. I hope it's not more than $100!
Swift Wind, She-Ra's winged unicorn, is rendered in his eye-catching cartoon colors. (The toy version was originally all pink.)
The Sorceress is sporting her falcon-inspired cartoon look.
For me, a bigger shock than Shadow Weaver were the Star Sisters! All three Starla (above)...
Tall Star...and Jewel Star are being released TOGETHER in a boxed set along with their falcon, Glory Bird:
I have always hoped that they would produced these figures that went UN-produced in the original toy line, but I'm stunned they came so soon, before such stalwarts as Glimmer and Angella and Frosta! But the fact that you can get them all at once and not slowly over time just makes me swoon! I'm just THRILLED! I can't wait!

I've also bitten the bullet and bought a few Masters figures I didn't get the first time around. Well, I DID by He-Man, but I just re-bought him. It's the re-issue version that does NOT look like he's wearing rouge. I also got Skeletor, Battle Cat and Hordak. And I just ordered Orko and Prince Adam. I'm a sucka. But that's kinda my cut off with Masters. If they reissue Man-At-Arms, I'll get him too. But that's all. I don't want all the others, which is why the subscription thing doesn't appeal to me. Even bigger name characters like Fisto and Kobra Khan who were announced don't appeal to me. (I will be getting The Sorceress, though and the new Battlefield Evil Lyn, colored in her cartoon color scheme with white skin and a purple, blue and black costume.)

Yep, it's gonna be an interesting year!

Which Avengers Will They Add In The Sequel?

This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog where I discussed, what is currently just a rumor, that Thanos will be the villain in the Avengers movie. Like I said, I doubt this movie will include Loki, The Skrulls AND Thanos all in one story, so my guess is that Thanos will just pop up at the end and tease the sequel. And as I also said, The Avengers are gonna have to do some recruiting to stop him, because Hawkeye and Black Widow are toast. So who should join the team in the sequel? Here are some picks...

The most controversial omission, is of course The Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, one of two founders in the comics that are left out of the movie. Jan's been a constant on the team over the years and even led them. There's really no reason she should have been completely left out and I'm sure the producers will make it up in the sequel. They'd better!

And of course, The Wasp was, in the beginning, the partner of Ant-Man, Hank Pym. There have been constant talk of an Ant-Man movie. Maybe it'll come out after Avengers and lead into his (and The Wasp's) addition to the team in the second movie.
Keep in mind, Hank also used his size-changing powers to become Giant-Man. In case two tiny heroes are too much.

Powerhouse Ms. Marvel gained her powers from the alien Kree, the galactic mortal enemies of The Skrulls. If The Skrulls are in Avengers, couldn't The Kree easily pop up in the sequel?

And Captain Marvel a.k.a. Photon also gained her powers from an alien source. Her energy powers would look fantastic onscreen and would certainly come in handy against a nearly all-powerful alien god!

Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch... okay, not much to do with Thanos or aliens in general, but the mutant speedster and mistress of probability were two of the earliest recruits in the comics and Scarlet Witch in particular has remained a constant on the team over the years. It would be a shame to induct later members before these two stalwarts.

The same goes for SW's husband (ex?), The Vision, who has also been a constant on the team over the years. He doesn't have any specific ties to Thanos, but he SHOULD be in the movies. He and Hank Pym DO have ties to another big Avengers baddie, Ultron... maybe a sequel will feature him. Hmmm?

Black Panther... okay, not going to be very useful against Thanos. He falls in the same category as Black Widow and Hawkeye in terms of power, but like with Ant-Man, there's been constant talk about a Black Panther movie for years. Wesley Snipes wanted to play him after he wrapped up the Blade movies but so far it hasn't happened. But should it happen after Avengers, I don't see any reason he shouldn't be added to the lineup in future installments. Plus, they've been shoe-horning the character into anything Avengers in the past couple of years, for, ahem, some reason. (Psst, because Black Panther isn't just his name.)

Hercules! Hercules! Hercules! Hey, a Norse god was a hit in theaters, why not a Greco-Roman one? Hercules is as powerful as Thor, has a mace instead of a hammer but drinks a lot more and bangs more women! What's not to love about this God-Gone-Wild?

Luke Cage is a recent addition to the team. He also has had a movie in the works for a while now, rumored to be directed by John Singleton and possibly starring Tyrese Gibson. He's super strong and if he does get his own movie, like Ant-Man and Black Panther, he should be added to The Avengers.

Everyone likes She-Hulk better than The Hulk, don't they? It'd be super easy to work her into the movies' continuity. Super strong party girl/lawyer? Who wouldn't pay $15 to see that in 3D?!

And now a few characters who have no shot in hell of ever appearing on a movie screen... or do they?
The Guardians of the Galaxy... that's right, a team-within-a-team, this pack of futuristic space adventurers joined the team during the Kree/Skrull War so there's your opening! Why wouldn't they had SEVEN more characters into the movie? It worked so well for the Batman franchise.

Starfox is Thanos' brother! See the resemblance? Anyway, he can fly and has super strength, but his real power is his super pheromones which make him irresistible to women. See how that would come in handy during a cosmic super hero space battle? Point against him: Starfox is apparently a well-known video game property, so Marvel would probably want to avoid confusion there. (Yeah, because THAT'S the reason he won't be in the movies!)

Mantis was raised by a group of Kree priests and became a master martial artist, so skilled she could defeat super powered beings, as she is shown here kicking Thor's and The Scarlet Witch's asses... AT THE SAME TIME! She was the "Celestial Madonna" of the Kree's religion and was supposed to give birth to their savior... it's... really complicated. It would probably require its own movie and since Wonder Woman doesn't even have her own, good luck to a Vietnamese, ex-hooker with antennae (that, to my knowledge don't do anything), that runs around barefoot and may or may not have had sex with the android Vision, some cosmic deity and The Silver Surfer. Oh and may or may not have turned evil at one point. Yeah, license to print money, this one is.

After Thanos killed her parents, Thanos' father rescued Heather Douglas and took her to Titan and raised her to become the powerful space telepath Moondragon! So, if when Thanos lands on Earth in the movie and blows a car up with a young girl getting thrown clear, you know where that's leading! I like Moondragon. She's bald and a complete bitch to everyone around her. That adds some spice.

Other than the Silver Surfer, Quasar is probably Marvel's leading cosmic hero. For a while, they were playing him as their answer to Green Lantern. He wears these two quantum bands that grant him loads of energy powers. Other than being cute, though, I've never been that interested in him. He's kinda vanilla. Stick with Ms. Marvel and Photon, Marvel. Even so, I'd say out of all these long shots, he actually has the best shot of ever appearing in a movie, even if it's playing second fiddle to a more successful character like The Silver Surfer.

Jack of Hearts, real name Jack Hart!, was the son of a human father and alien mother and was caught in an experiment that involved some alien super fluid and suit of powerful armor and became of the D-Listiest heroes to ever join the Avengers, where he got blown the fuck up by the insane Scarlet Witch, taking the second Ant-Man, Scott Lang, with him. I think 3D Man has a better shot of starring in a movie, but who knows...

So there are some ideas, Marvel/Joss Whedon! Hope that helps!

Weekend Extra - Marvel Universe Toy Line

I was going to write this yesterday, but... just... didn't get around to it.

Anyway, Hasbro has the license to Marvel Comics' super hero characters, including the movie versions. This was the first wave, which came out last year.
Being a DC, not a Marvel, this didn't do a whole lot for me, but they just happened to arrive at a point where nothing else new was coming out so I bought some. The nice thing about Hasbro making them is that they are in scale with their existing toy lines, GI Joe and Star Wars, so you could theoretically mash them up and have the Silver Surfer flying alongside Darth Vader's Tie Fighter or The Punisher could team up with Snake-Eyes and fight some ninjas.

I will say this though, there were some RUFF quality issues. The paint on them looks like it was applied by Jackson Pollack's talentless nephew... with cataracts. And the plastic used is softer and more rubbery than that on the GI Joes I grew up playing with. Also, and it's hard to tell by the picture, but The Punisher and Black Panther, for whatever reason, have completely different body types than the others, with more limited movement. On the Punisher, #1. I don't care because I'm not a fan, but #2. He's not necessarily the most flexible character out there, but The Black Panther IS! That's his sole shtick, being super acrobatic! So why is he LESS poseable than The Human Torch?!

Speaking of The Human Torch, he was the biggest misfire in the batch. (Get it? Misfire? Okay, sorry.)He was released like this, as plain ol' Johnny Storm! They did a variant "Flame On!" version which was the rare chase version. Who wants the Human Torch un-Torchy?! Plus, the figure looks like ass on top of that!
The variant fiery Torch LOOKS cool in the pic, translucent and all, but it turned out pretty shitty in real life too, so I passed. I wasn't going to pay extra for a rare alternate figure when I didn't even LIKE it!

So I quickly realized, "Yeah, not collecting these!" But I was still willing to pick up a few here and there, if they were characters I particularly liked or were big names. I realized as more of them were released, usually the first batch to hit stores were always jacked up and shitty. You had to wait for suckas to buy them and for follow-up cases to arrive to get ones that were worth owning.I was quite happy when early on they released Ms. Marvel, not just in her modern costume, but also a variant version in her first costume!
Luckily, mine does not have a jacked up mask like this one! Also, I think I lucked out and found both in an actual store, so I didn't have to order them and pay extra. But by and large, I backed off this collection.

Then, recently... I guess nothing else was coming out again, so I bought a couple more.I found a two-pack of classic Thor and The Enchantress. Thor's a biggie and I didn't have him and the one I found had a nice paint job, so I bought it. When I opened it, though, The Enchantress was BROKEN in half! (I snapped her back together, but still!) I think my reaction was, "God these suck ass!"It was annoying when they made A Spider-Woman figure, it was of the one no one liked, Julia Carpenter, instead of Jessica Drew, the REAL Spider-Woman!
Even so, I guess ANY Spider-Woman is better than no Spider-Woman, so I bought that one too.
I wanted the two-pack of Storm in her 80s mohawk look with Nightcrawler, but like I said, the first batches always look like shit, so I couldn't bring myself to buy it until I found it later and it was better painted.

I love Storm, so I'm glad to have her in any look, but I am glad that they've revealed that a version of her is coming out in her classic costume. Jessica Drew Spider-Woman too!

Hey, look at my stormy, stormy ass!

And then, AW HELL, I just started buying them all! Well, not ALL, but bunches and bunches!
It was like, "Well, I GOTTA have Dr. Doom! He's the Big Bad of the entire Marvel Universe!"
"Magneto! I gotta have Magneto! And Cyclops! I have all these other X-Men, I need Cyclops!"Then it was like, "A decent Human Torch? I need that! And now I have almost all of the Wrecking Crew, so I need Thunderball... or Powerball or whatever his name is." Fuckers!

I will say, one of my favorite things about these toys is the attention to scale.
I mean, in the comics, all the characters aren't the same size, but in most toy lines, they are. The Hulk is a massive monster and Spider-Man is usually drawn really skinny and wiry and then Captain America has that typical muscular super hero body, but then you have like Thor who is larger than that, but smaller than The Hulk or The Thing!


They actually pay attention to that in this line, so you have figures of The Hulk and The Thing who are just massive and hefty and chunky. You have the normal muscular Captain America.
In between, you have Thor and Colossus. Also, while it's not always consistently depicted, Wolverine is supposed to be really short, like 5'5" or something and that's accurately depicted in this line. And Spider-Man and the Human Torch are leaner than Cap and some of the other males.

This line is clearly marketed to adult fans. I kinda think ALL action figure lines are nowadays. I rarely see kids buying action figures, but I see adults rifling through the Star Wars figures all day long. Plus kids don't read anymore, so they don't know who a lot of these characters are.

This is totally an adult collector thing. They make Henchmen.
This is a random AIM Soldier. Early on they made Hand Ninjas.
I think there are also Agents of Hydra out there. They even sell them in boxed sets, so you can send an army of them against your super heroes. That's the idea anyway. It's not something I'm into, but I know other collectors are. One thing I find kind of annoying about them is that they are heavily packed because they expect collectors to want a bunch of them, but I don't think they sell well, so they kinda clog up the pegs and sit there and of course stores don't reorder until they're all gone, so the newer figures don't arrive because these suckers are taking up space!

Oh, back to the matter of scale, they did the COOLEST thing. They issued an in-scale Galactus figure!

They even did a version that simply came on a backing card like the rest of the toys! (I didn't get that version. Mine came in a box.)Just THE!! NEATEST!!!

One thing I'm starting to notice is that given time, they will release every version of a character a fan might want.
I bought this modern version of Luke Cage, because I figured it would probably be the only one they made, but nope! They're also doing classic "Power Man" Luke Cage and Iron Fist!
Which makes me glad I passed on the modern Iron Fist when he came out.
I like The Sub-Mariner, so I'd buy any version of him they did. As expected, the mass market Sub-Mariner is wearing his black costume, but they did a classic nearly-nekkid version as part of an exclusive boxed set.
I managed to buy one from someone who bought the boxed set but was selling off the figures piecemeal!

On problem now is, which VERSION of the big TEAMS do I want. Like, I bought Archangel but most of the rest of my X-Men figures are from earlier in the 80s, so he doesn't fit. Kitty Pryde and Colossus are in their modern costumes, but they look enough like their 70s-80s costumes, that it's close enough for me. I bought modern Havok, but I haven't even bothered opening him, since I don't have any more modern X-Men characters. Jean Grey was released in her 90s costume (and looks like shit, so PASS!). They're issuing a 90s Cyclops, but I'll probably pass on him, too. I want a Rogue, but which version of her will they make? Hopefully one that will fit in with the rest of my figures! I'd also like a Professor X, but he might be a hard sell.
I want The Vision from The Avengers, but he's selling for like $40 and up! Fool, you is straight trippin'! He came out after I'd sworn off them and was part of a poorly distributed assortment that I don't think stores ordered many of, so now he's hard to find. Boo!

Now it's a waiting game for them to get around to making certain characters. Like right now, I have the Fantastic Three, since they haven't yet issued the Invisible Woman.

Look at my nearly invisible ass before it disappears!

And yeah, I could just pretend she's there and invisible but that only gets you so far.
I have The Hulk, Sub-Mariner and The Silver Surfer, so now I need Dr. Strange to complete the four core members of The Defenders.Of course with my love of obscure characters, there are a few I am hoping they make but I'm not holding my breath. I'd kill for the other three regular Defenders, Valkyrie, Hellcat and Nighthawk. Especially Hellcat! She's one of my faves!
I'd love the female Captain Marvel as she appeared in the 80s, with that giant-out-of-style-even-at-that-time afro. Her most likely shot at getting made would have been the Secret Wars two-packs, but I think they're done with those, so her likelihood of appearing plummeted. They may make her, but it'll probably be as she appears now.
Also, she's apparently now part of the "no code names" club. Lately, she's been listed as simply Monica Rambeau in her comic appearances.

Foxy Brown. I mean, cyborg detective, Misty Knight.She and her partner Colleen Wing are like the female Luke Cage and Iron Fist! Make it happen Marvel! (Also, if they made the classic Captain Marvel, I'm sure they can tweak her head to reuse as Misty's!) Also, I think her cyborg parts were made by Tony Stark! Does that mean maybe she can be part of the Iron Man franchise? That would KICK ASS!!!Speaking of two-packs, if I ruled the world, I'd already have a set of Dazzlers, in her 70s ferocity and...

...Let's Get Physical 80s look!

Well, I said I wasn't holding my breath, but considering they've made Mary Jane Watson, Union Jack and TWO Captain Britains, I wouldn't say anything is out of the question with this line! Well played, sirs. You have me!