Tag: Hasbro

Rumored Star Wars Black 6″ Wave 4 Line-up

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First off, as always, take this with a grain of salt. This is based on third-hand information. I just happen to find it compelling enough to pass along. While I generally try to avoid rumor-mongering, I think it’s worth giving preemptive feedback sometimes.

User WayneStarActionF at the Rebelscum forums has made what I think is a decently convincing case (based on what he claims is inside information) for the line-up of Star Wars Black 6″ Wave 4. WayneStarActionF also states that while Wave 4 is disappointing, Wave 5 is amazing and consists entirely of Original Trilogy characters. Continue reading “Rumored Star Wars Black 6″ Wave 4 Line-up”

Odds ‘n Ends > SRGM convention, Mini-Rigs, Alien: Isolation, ThreeA’s 2000AD

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  • ItsAllTrue has been running a bunch of 2013-assessment posts, such as It’sAllTrue.net’s Top Ten Action Figures of 2013 and NoisyDvL5′s 2013 Highlights & Disappointments. Definitely worth checking out.
  • The amazing ED-209 by NECA is now in stock at Amazon.
  • CollectionDX has announced a new convention, Super Robots Giant Monster (SRGM). It will take place in Lowell, Massachusetts on March 29, and I plan to be there. Check out this page for more information. I’ll probably put up a separate post about this later.
  • Phil Reed of Battlegrip is putting together an unofficial guide to Star Wars Mini-Rigs. This is the future – extreme niche coffee table books. Frankly, I’m psyched. I love coffee table books. I fondly recall whiling away many a study period paging through The Ultimate Guitar Book…but I digress. I actually picked up two Mini-Rigs recently, the MLC-3 and the MTV-7; however, my motivation for picking them up was because I thought they would make great generic vehicles for the Alien ReAction figures. If you’re interested in learning more about the Mini-Rigs, visit your local library. Kidding! Here’s a Starwars.com article about Mini-rigs. But you should visit your local library anyway. They’re awesome. You can read books for free.
  • The 1980s animation-themed magazine Cereal:Geek has a bunch of issues up for pre-order. I’ve read an issue here and there and it’s always fun reading, if you’re into the subject matter. Which I’m guessing a good number of you are. Because you’re here. Reading this website.
  • I haven’t gotten on the Instagram bandwagon yet, but I do like the funny “toyselfie” project they’re running.
  • Alien: Isolation might be the game to persuade me to invest in a next-gen system…but I don’t know. I’m not really a big survival horror fan. I absolutely hated Doom 3 and what it did to my beloved Doom gameplay. I loved the Dead Space games, but those were pretty action-oriented (and more so as the games progressed). I had hoped for a Dead Space-like Alien game, and Isolation seems close, and yet I find the first-person perspective really disappointing (and rather outdated, frankly). I’ll wait for the reviews before making a purchase decision.
  • I don’t watch The Goldbergs, a show about the titular family set in the 1980s, because life’s too short to watch dozens of television shows. But Dinosaur Dracula has catalogued the ridiculous amount of 1980s toys that young Adam Goldberg has in his room. Holy crap, is that kid spoiled.
  • ThreeA has announced that their 2000AD line will be 1/12th scale moving forward (i.e., 6″ scale). This doesn’t matter to me per se because I’m not a 2000AD fan, but it does remind me of the painfully cool 6″ Boba Fett we will never get to have. ThreeA is the only company who does fabric in this scale that I don’t hate.

Poe’s Point > Third-party Star Wars Black 6″ suggestions

Hasbro 2013 Star Wars Black Series logo

I’ve expressed my doubts about third-party toys in the form of licensed characters, but I have far fewer qualms  about third-party add-ons. There are some really cool third party projects going on for MOTUC right now, such as Kevin Kosse’s Horde Trooper helmets or the upcoming conversion kits by Mat Vige O’Toole, a.k.a. Zombihamma (who’s also a special effects make-up, prosthetics and storyboard artist with a pretty badass resume) – plus of course Joe Amaro‘s great stuff. Continue reading “Poe’s Point > Third-party Star Wars Black 6″ suggestions”

Gentle Giant to work on Funko Legacy 6″?

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As you may know, Hasbro has partnered with Gentle Giant in producing the Star Wars Black 6″ (confirmation of this can be found in this interview with Gentle Giant).

In an encouraging sign, it appears that Funko may be working with Gentle Giant as well for their 6″ line, which is scheduled to include figures from Game of Thrones and Firefly. In reply to a post on the Funko Fanatic forums (a post started by yours truly, actually, speculating as to who would sculpt the line), Brian Mariotti of Funko writes, “I think Gentle Giant is incredible….hmmmmmmmm.”

So I think it’s safe to say Gentle Giant will be helping to produce Funko Legacy. That doesn’t automatically mean Mal Reynolds will have the same quality of sculpting or articulation as SWB6″ Han Solo, of course; different decisions could be made regarding articulation and how much to spend on paint applications, quality of plastic, and so forth. But Gentle Giant’s involvement is a positive development – at least for those of us who are hoping for something close to SWB6″.

UPDATE: On a related topic, Brian is also promising SWB6″-like articulation on Legacy.

Perhaps this will be a situation similar to Legendary Comic Book Heroes, where two lines were worked on by the same people (ToyBiz making Marvel Legends, and later Marvel Toys making LCBH), which ensured the lines were completely compatible.

Star Wars Black Series 3 casepack revisited

Hasbro 2013 Star Wars Black Series logo

This isn’t the most thrilling story ever, but I find it interesting so I’m following up on it.

Phil Reed of Battlegrip.com puts forth the theory that if Chewbacca is in an upcoming wave (as is rumored), Hasbro may have wanted to make sure there were Hans on the pegs when Chewie came out. It’s possible. I was ready to blame the retailers, but Phil doesn’t think they’re to blame:

I’ve personally met with buyers at the large retailers and my opinion is that these buyers are professionals and know their lines far better than many collectors seem to think. They also track sales history and keep a close eye on demand, so in my opinion the retailers may have commented on case mix, but I doubt any retailer said “Stick Han Solo in this case or no!”

I still think two Stormtroopers, or a Stormtrooper and Boba Fett, make more sense for both Hasbro and the retailer. Throw Han in the actual wave Chewie’s in.

Another possibility is that this was a last-minute decision due to yanking Anakin from the third series, and there wasn’t time to produce more Stormtroopers so they threw in Han because he was already in production at the time. That doesn’t quite work, though, because that suggests they probably could have swapped in Boba Fett instead of Han.

So…I really have no idea why this happened.

Odds ‘n Ends > Mattycollector sale day, Grayskull thieves, 4H news, Star Wars 3.75″

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  • It’s another Mattycollector release day. Today’s sale includes DC Universe Classics Ra’s Al Ghul, John Constantine, and Elasti-Girl; Watchmen’s Ozymandias; MOTUC Geldor and stackable stands and a number of re-releases.
  • Castle Grayskull ships soon, but Pixel Dan won’t have an early review due to assholes who nicked bits off the display piece at NYCC.
  • In Four Horsemen news, rough cuts of the Raven arrived at 4H HQ, and they’ve also been running a feature detailing the creation of my personal favorite Power Lord, Sydot the scientist. I must say, the various exclusives they’ve done to this point are nice, but I think the Power Lords need to be fully-painted to really be appreciated. I’m hoping we get those, but I’m wondering whether funding is becoming an issue for this line. If so, why not hold another Kickstarter to make themselves more financially comfortable? I doubt they would need as high a budget target they did for the Raven. That said, I must admit I’ve noticed very few, if any Kickstarter projects for Glyos-related toys.
  • In the course of getting back into Star Wars via Star Wars Black, I’ve actually gone back and picked up a few of the 3.75″ figures – just my favorites. What’s been interesting about it is that some of the most definitive versions of these characters are nearly a decade old. For example, I picked up the Vintage Original Trilogy Collection Han Solo from 2004; it’s a great figure with great articulation and the best head sculpt I’ve ever seen in this scale. I also got the VOTC Chewbacca and Boba Fett. Each of these figures has been reissued at least once or twice and they’re not that hard to come by. I also picked up the Holiday Special repaint of Fett, because fun. The only other figure I picked up was the Vintage Collection (not “Vintage Original Trilogy Collection”) ANH Darth Vader. This was the only one I had to think about; the VOTC Vader had the better ESB design and a ball-jointed neck but cut rather than hinged elbows, and every other decent Vader Hasbro has made has cloth on the front of his outfit. The VC ANH Vader also has ball-jointed hips, which seemed novel, so I went with that. It bums me out he doesn’t have a ball-jointed neck, though. Not that Vader was constantly cocking his head in curiosity like Data, but I’d like him to be able to look up and down somewhat to add some character to his poses.
  • Another thing about Star Wars 3.75″ – the line seems to be on a sudden downhill trajectory, at least for collectors who want well-articulated, highly-detailed figures. The quality on the Star Wars Black 3.75″ appears to be pretty bad across the board, and the Saga Legends figures have only five points of articulation. It’s odd how a Star Wars figure made in 2004 is far superior to most of what’s being produced now. (Though the Vintage Collection just ended and seems to have retained that level of quality – again, this downturn seems to be recent.)

Poe’s Point > Why I hate MatthewK

I used to love taking photos for my reviews. It was exciting. I started out just taking them on my desk, then started to get concerned about things like lighting, so I made a custom light tent out of a cardboard box and some tissue paper. Eventually I got a real light tent and a nicer camera. And yet, for whatever reason, somewhere along the way I stopped enjoying taking photos. I tend to find the process tedious nowadays.

I have a few different ideas why this might be the case, but the main one is: what is the point, tell me, WHAT IS THE POINT when TheFwoosh.com‘s MatthewK is doing crap like THIS?

Or this?

Continue reading “Poe’s Point > Why I hate MatthewK”