NICDIP Revisited (Updated)

After my last post about NICDIP (“Now I Can Die in Peace”) action figures, I decided to throw the question out to a number of reviewers and collectors from other websites.

So again, the full question is, “What action figures would you need to get before you could say, ‘Now I can die in peace’?”

Michael Crawford of mwctoys.com:

One of the biggest for me has finally made it – the 1966 Batman show. Of course, I won’t be completely happy until I have the Hot Toys Batman, Robin and Batmobile in my clutches, but the Mattel toys were a nice start.

Others for me, in no particular order:

• Blade Runner. I want these in sixth scale, high quality. Just Deckard is fine, but a series of five or six would be ideal.
• Firefly. Another series that really needs to be done in sixth scale to be done right.
• Duckman. I loved this cartoon, one of the few that managed to be funny and touching at the same time. They also did the all-time best Star Trek parody. Something done by Mezco would be nice in the usual 6″ scale.
• Zorro. We’ve had a few nice pulp characters in recent years, but my favorite has yet to be made. A whole line based on the Disney show would be great.
• Lost in Space. Yes, I know we’ve had a decent 9″ line, and a slightly less so 12″ line, but neither were complete. A great 6 – 7″ sculpted line would be fantastic, including a bunch of the cool monsters and a B-9 that lights up and talks.

Here’s the sad part – if the Gods smiled kindly and gave me these five,
I’m sure I’d be able to come up with five more.

Sculptor Jean St. Jean:

• Planet of the Apes
• Batman ’66
• Logan’s Run
• Hammer Horror

Sculptor Joe Amaro:

1. The rest of the G1 Dinobots as Masterpiece editions
2. 6″ Condorman action figures with vehicles
3. ElfQuest 4″ Figures and wolfs to be in scale with most 6″ figures
4. Updated 4″ Macross / Robotech figures. With a proper scaled Valkyrie / Veritech fighter that fully transforms in to the three different modes.
5. 4″ Dragonlance figures with proper scaled articulated Dragons
6. Updated 4″ M.A.S.K. figures with transforming vehicles
7. Updated 6″ Buck Rogers in the 25th Century figures with proper scaled Thunderfighter

Nathan Newell of Dork Dimension:

I thought I’d limit myself to toys that could be reasonably produced and that I could realistically purchase to keep myself from imagining something like a gigantic properly-scaled 3.75″ AT-AT with all the bells and whistles that could never really exist (although too late, I guess… I just imagined it). Anyway, here we go!

• 24″ Modern Godzilla – Godzilla is a character that demands a big toy, and as a kid, there was nothing cooler than the 24″ Shogun Warriors toy. We’ll never get a Godzilla that’s properly scaled to a 3.75″ action figure line because it would be insanely huge, but I need a new Godzilla that’s at least the biggest toy on the block… and reasonably priced. A few years ago a Japanese company called Concorde released an 18″ Heisei Godzilla that almost fits the bill. It’s too expensive and I’d prefer something a little larger, but it’s close. Also, remember the Ultimate Godzilla figure from the GINO days? That toy was spectacular… easily the best thing to come out of that movie. Hopefully they’ll do something similar for Godzilla 2014.
• Diamond Select Toys USS Prometheus – I eagerly read all the Diamond Select Q&As in the hope that they’ll reveal the next ship in their Starship Legends line. I’m sure we’ll get some really awesome ships before the line tanks out, but I’d love to see the USS Prometheus. You might remember it from the Voyager episode “Message in a Bottle” (or you might not, considering the reception Voyager gets these days). In the episode, it’s a cool arrow-shaped prototypical ship that can split apart into 3 sections for a “multi-vector assault mode”. This would be a great ship for display, especially if there were three stands included so the pieces could be displayed separately. Fans seem to dig the Prometheus as it gets a lot of requests. I think it’s a long shot because it’s relatively obscure and there isn’t another version of the ship that the mold can be reused for, but I’m hoping for the best!

Justin of GeneralsJoes.com:

Originally I thought maybe you were talking about existing “holy grail” figures, but this is a whole different animal. Love it. Here are my thoughts:

1. Cobra La Pythona. Even as a kid in 1987 I somewhat scoffed at Cobra La in the G.I. Joe animated movie, but I’ve grown to appreciate their weirdness and Pythona’s place in the G.I. Joe lexicon. She was a huge part of that ‘87 film and was made completely bad ass, and to not have her in action figure form seems like a bad oversight even nearly 30 years later. Modern style sculpting and articulation with a removable cloak would be a bonus.
2. Four inch “modern G.I. Joe” scale/style Metal Gear Solid figures. Pretty much the video game that defined early 2000’s video games for me, Metal Gear Solid provided a wealth of excellent designs, terrific characters and a unique universe built. Yes I have the MacFarlane Toys versions which are not nearly as poseable as I’d like (and don’t match my preferred scale) and just the idea of Solid, Liquid, and the associated personalities co-existing in a G.I. Joe universe is totally awesome.
3. G.I. Joe: Renegades Roadblock and pretty much everyone else. A highlight of G.I. Joe story telling, one might argue G.I. Joe: Renegades developed the universe and characters better than either live action film, yet was mercilessly canceled before it had a chance to shine, and only a fraction of the characters were made in toy form. We need a Roadblock worst of all to round off the G.I. Joe team, but I’d love a Destro, Baroness, Dr. Mindbender and pretty much every single other character from that rich universe.

If I think too hard I’ll come up with a lot of others…

Julius Marx of Action Figure Insider:

As a DC fan I used to say “as long as the line gets to Animal Man I’ll be happy”, but now he’s a bit more mainstream and we’ve been getting Animal Man figures (DCD, DCUC, DCIH, JLU, Heroclix, Eaglemoss) I’ve moved the bar farther up and now say “As long as they get to Dr. Destiny I’ll be happy.” So far only JLU has reached that goal.

I still want someone to make at least the 2 larger version of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

And maybe a good 6-7″ Dave Bowman from 2001 (in space suit)

Then I can die in peace.

Brian Adams of Cool and Collected:

I’ve said it before, but I would love to see a line of Red Dawn figures. As I think about it, it might be kind of fun to have a line of figures based on John Hughes movies.

Our own Doc Thomas:

Many of my NICDIP figures have already been made, including the amazing Invader Zim action figures by Palisades, NECA’s sensational Valve and BioShock action figures, and now the expanding 6″ Star Wars Black line. (Perhaps a RE5 Albert Wesker should also be a part of this, but I know how unlikely that is so I bought a pretty-good custom figure from eBay, sating that desire with a figure perfectly in scale with NECA and Palisades’ excellent pieces.)

My own additions to this would echo some of the other requests, including a properly detailed and articulated 6″ Indiana Jones and more Masterpiece Transformers including the Dinobots. One thing I’d expected to see requested more was a proper Ripley in a Powerloader from Aliens, though I guess NECA has been sating so much fan demand for Aliens that that’s probably an eventuality.

Something I’ve seen crop up in other articles like this is a demand for Final Fight figures, for which you can most definitely sign me up! Ideally in the identical scale to SOTA’s Street Fighters, so I can have Mike Haggar, Guy and Cody in the same line.

My #1 NICDIP line would be Silent Hill, as described in my article here. Considering the popularity of the games in Japan, and the Japanese desire to make PVCs and all-sorts of absolutely everything imaginable it is amazing to me that we’re only recently seeing plastic incarnations of Pyramid Head and other iconic Silent Hill creatures. Here’s hoping that sooner or later, a company like NECA will take a shot on the licence and bring some of these characters to the shelf.

I’d like to add the phenomenal but sadly unproduced Palisades Sesame Street line. Those prototype sculpts and packaged pics, they make me insane; the concept of having the street itself a build-a-diorama with each toy including a part, as well as having a number or a letter, is genius, and as a follow-up to the Muppets it would have cemented Palisades as one of the best action figure companies of all time. (Had that not played out the way it did, of course.)

John Kent of Toyfinity:

I read this e-mail when you first sent it over, and I had a hard time answering this question. There are so many things which I would have ranked high on the list once upon a time that have been beaten into irrelevance by overexposure – Aliens and Predator, for example. Movie Maniac-styled figures have gone into hundreds of different directions that one could never have imagined circa 1995. This has happened to the extent where I’m not really shocked by anything a company announces.

Transformers has shown that they will do any character that will make them money, so the once-upon-a-time “we need new Bludgeon/Whirl/etc” is more of a waiting game now. Even classic Kenner styled 3¾” is something coming back – I’m waiting for them to announce JAWS, which was one of my top wants before the days when everything got a toy line.

There are missed opportunities – a Kenner Dropship and APC for their animated Aliens line would have been top-level pieces once upon a time. A Kenner Cyborg Superman to wrap out their versions of “Reign of the Superman” characters would have been awesome – but these aren’t things that have much relevance to me now. It would have been nice to have a new Micronauts line, but I don’t have full faith in Hasbro to pull it off after seeing so many of their recent 3 3/4 lines.

It was only this line of thought which led me to an actual answer. There are four things I’d like to see toy-wise eventually, even if it requires I pick up the licenses myself:

• An actual honest-to-goodness Rom figure in 3¾”, scaled to the Horsemen Power Lords. He’s one of the only things from my childhood that has never seen so much as a reboot/better version/rehashing (I know about Spaceknights from Marvel. That’s not Rom). As much as I like the original figure, I really want the Marvel Comics interpretation of the design on my toy shelf. Hell, give him Glyos joints for utter perfection.
• A Movie Maniacs style Doctor Detroit. Yeah, I know. I’m obsessed with some crap Dan Ackroyd vehicle from the early 80s. But it’s my list. Bonus points if it’s a two pack with his arch nemesis Mom.
• Along those lines, a Toonces the Driving Cat figure and car, 3 3/4 scale. My display would be simple – every month, he’d be running over a different 3 3/4 scale figure from some different franchise. Major props to the company who does this if they pump out a Tooncinator variant. I think it would be hilarious if a MonsterArts level figure was done of this character.
• And finally (and very specifically), a Glyos System line of Mega Man figures. My scale choice would be similar to Galactic Heroes – make Mega Man small, so the big villains can be really BIG. I’d sell them as two packs by game – pack one would be basic Mega Man with a beam blast and the first baddie you’re supposed to fight with the Mega Buster in that game and his weapon shot. Pack two would be Mega Man in the colors of boss one with a reused shot from that boss versus the next one you fight. Time has shown that people do want Mega Man figures, but perhaps not at mass-retail. A nice limited run line would get the character choices out there that Mega Man fans have wanted as toys for a long time. I’d probably do a series of black repaints just to reuse the tooling and give customizers something to mess with.

Ridureyu of Nerditis:

Well, I’ve put some thought into it, and although there are lots of things I would love to see – a King of Fighters line, proper Castlevania and Metroid toys, a full set from Final Fantasy VI, or all sorts of random movie monsters I really like (The Gill-Man from Monster Squad, the Zoanoids from the live-action Guyver), or about a billion versions of Hedorah; and not to mention the holy grails that have been made – Revoltech Jagi from Fist of the North Star, NECA’s Predators, Demon’s Chronicle, etc.; I guess one thing that really stands out would be a super-articulated, SH MonsterArts-quality Cyclops from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. I practically grew up on that movie, and I wold love to own something better than the large vinyl figures currently on the market.

And finally, NoisyDvl5 of ItsAllTrue:

I’ve been thinking about this off and on all week and I’m not quite sure. So much of the last few years has been amazing. The Super Powers homages in DCUC, the MP line, MOTUC, etc. I also feel like there should be a certain bar to an NICDIP, higher than figures I’d toss into my old most requested articles, but maybe I’m making it overly difficult. Then again, some of these NICDIP ideas are stuff that it is NEVER going to happen and that may be setting the bar too high.

For DCUC, there are a few oddballs I really wish they’d gotten to: Prometheus (Batman villain), Donna Troy (early Teen Titans), Perez Zatanna, & Warlord.

A MOTUC Warlord would also be a kickass figure.

More toy lines than single figures, but I’d love to see Captain Power, Cops N Crooks, or Starriors come back as toy lines.

I will have to buy a Hot Toys ’66 Frank Gorshin Riddler if they get to it. No doubt. And HT having the Ghostbusters license or getting back to the Back of the Future stuff would have me go crazy. And similarly Go Hero needs to get around to the Phantom.

I would love to see some Go-Bots updated, like Cy-Kill or Leader-1.

A Rocketeer, any Rocketeer. 6”, 12” etc.

And finally, a well articulated Keaton Batman in 6”.

Update: Sculptor Jason Frailey sends along his NICDIP selections:

My main answer would have been Ghostbusters figures, more accurately sculpted than Mattel did them, complete with proton streams and straining facial expression alternate heads, and the proton streams would have a curling twisted end that could fit a companion ghost figure. Also, any other characters from either of the films, such as the fish like blue ghost that comes out of the subway, the library ghost in both human and a post-demon form, Vigo from the second film, hell, I’d even get a Janine Melnitz figure (well, maybe).   I’d love to have worked on Ghostbusters figures.

Honestly, the Ghostbusters being done very well (and preferably by me, hee hee) is the only thing that actually bugs me, most toys don’t really fall into the “now I can die in peace” category.

I’d also love some original movie ninja turtles done at Neca or higher quality level.  I remember the 1991 movie Turtle toys were cool at the time, I think I had Raphael, but now it could be much better.

Other ones I’d probably laugh and have to buy if I saw (and they were fairly good quality) would be 3 Amigos, Pee-Wee on his bike (with the tongue out), Beetlejuice or Freddy mutations (they both have become cool snake monsters), Dolph as he-man and any of the enemies, Willow, goblins from Legend, more characters from Dark Crystal (Augra and all the Skekses), most creatures from Labyrinth, Evil Ed from Evil Dead 2, not to mention any relaunches of obscure ’80s toy/toon properties from my childhood.