Poe’s Point Special > Toy Fair 2010

It would be impossible and way too much work for me to cover all the awesome stuff coming out of this year’s Toy Fair. The awesomeness seems to be hearkening back to the good old days of the early 2000s…anyway, instead of trying to list everything, I’m just going to hit the highlights of the stuff I’m excited about. But feel free to use this as the catch-all Toy Fair discussion thread.

Masters of the Universe Classics

Of course we start here. We’ve had hints and suggestions of all the stuff that was revealed, but frankly, I was never really 100% sure we were going to see Tytus or, even more insane, Gy-Gor–who looks much better than I’d imagined he would as a Gorilla Grodd repaint. Anyway, the reveals were:

• Tytus (12″, Q2 bonus figure)
• Gy-Gor (Q3 bonus figure)
• She-Ra (with interchangeable heads and removable tiara) Club Eternia – June)
• Count Marzo (with amulet and sword)- Club Eternia – July
• Keldor (with twin power swords and acid vial) Bonus Figure – TBA
• Whiplash (with classic and 200X heads)- Club Eternia – August
• Mo-Larr & Skeletor Robot Chicken SDCC 2-pack
• Lex Luthor vs. Skeletor 2-pack
• Weapons Pack

Wow. Where to start with all this?

Let’s start with Tytus. He looks awesome and even comes with his “people snatcher” or whatever that is. I’m wondering if he’s at least partly rotocast, judging from the lack of bicep swivels. Incidentally, you can check out his bio here. Apparently he built Castle Grayskull. Badass.

Then there’s Gy-Gor. I’ve said I wasn’t totally on board with the re-use of Gorilla Grodd as Gy-Gor, but I have to say that with all that new armor, the new-sculpted head and the weapons, he looks incredibly badass…possibly my favorite of all the new reveals. And let’s stop and think a minute–how insane is it that we’re getting a figure of a prototype figure that was not only never produced, but hardly heard of even by diehard fans? Everyone knows about He-Ro and Eldor (and I’m now much more certain we’ll see Eldor eventually), but Gy-Gor? Even I didn’t know about him until I read the Roger Sweet book. And the great thing about Gy-Gor is I can see a lot of DCUC fans working him into their collection as well…

As for the rest…She-Ra looks great, and I’m glad we’re getting her this year and POP fans don’t have to wait too long after Adora. Count Marzo’s cool–I’m not one of those diehard Marzo fans, but he looks good. Keldor‘s head sculpt is excellent, and I like the “normal” hands, boots, and cape…I may even have to get a second one to put that cape on Skeletor. But the regular Power Swords, instead of the crazier ones from the 200X cartoon, are a wee bit disappointing.

I’m very pleased with Whiplash. He’s one of my childhood favorites, and they’ve gone the extra mile with him. The sculpting is fantastic; I particularly like the sculpted shoulders. Both heads look good, but this is one case where the 200X head will be tossed forever in the accessories box–I never liked that cartoonish look. It’s great he comes with both the vintage and the cooler 200X weapon, however. I’m curious to see how the tail works.

MOTUC is probably the closest I’ve ever come to being a completist on a toy line, but the Mo-Larr and Skeletor 2-pack has broken that. I guess it’s a neat idea, but I really don’t need an Eternian dentist or another regular Skeletor who’s missing a tooth. Add the difficulty of securing any Mattel SDCC exclusives and this will be the first major MOTUC product I’ll be passing on. The Lex Luthor/Skeletor 2-pack is mildly tempting because of the comic Skeletor repaint, but it’s probably not a radical enough repaint to warrant the purchase. (That said, if I see it at TRU I doubt I’ll be able to resist buying it.)

Finally, there’s the weapons pack. I would easily have been able to skip this–electric pink and blue weapons? That’s way too retro, even for me–if not for the damned Tri-Klops sword repaint. I mentioned in my review that I wanted that sword, and now here it is. Some of the other weapons are pretty good too, honestly–the Lochaber axe, the mace, the blasters and the short sword, for instance.

And that’s it for MOTUC. It looks like Mattel is really committed to offering fans an incredible variety of characters from throughout the history of MOTU…but damn, it’s going to be an expensive year to be a MOTU fan.

NECA

For me, the best NECA news was the reveal of a Predator figure from the first movie. I’ve been waiting for this figure for ages; I’ve never loved any Predator design as much as I did the very first one. There are three different heads–unmasked closed-mouth, unmasked open-mouth and masked–and I’ll have to get at least two. They’re also making the Elder Predator from the end of Predator 2, but no sign of the main Predator from that movie.

Moving on to Terminator 2, we’re also getting the T-1000 in a few different versions and a couple more T-800s. As Rustin Parr pointed out to me, this T-800 is clearly a shot at McFarlane’s mediocre version from Movie Maniacs, when they lacked Arnold’s likeness rights and so they had to savage the face until it was unrecognizable.

Finally, NECA announced the Borderlands license for their Player Select line–and specifically promised a Claptrap with sound. No photos of it yet, but Dr. Mrs. Ghostal was very pleased with that–she loves that little guy. I had my fingers crossed for this one, and I’m glad it’s come to pass.

Futurama

Speaking of Dr. Mrs. Ghostal, she and I are also pleased that Toynami is still going with the Futurama license. Photos showed Morbo, wooden Bender and URL.

(On a side note, DMG’s 30th birthday was this weekend. She loves those Kidrobot Futurama blind-boxes, and I told all our friends that if they wanted to bring a gift, get one of those. She now has all but two or three of them–plus three Nibblers and three Benders. No other doubles, though. She even got a Slurms, who’s rare and goes for $80 on eBay. We’ve given up hope of ever seeing a Robot Devil, though.)

Bif Bang Pow!

I’ll admit, the Mego-style Venture Bros. figures look better than I expected (except Brock, who looks like Lurch), and I like the Dude figure. The Lost figures are still good old-fashioned nightmare fuel, though.

Robot Chicken

Apparently Jazwares is making Robot Chicken 3.75″ figures (no photos yet). What do people think? Could these be any good? Despite their mediocre history, I did like Jazwares’ 3″ Sonic figures, so maybe they’re improving.

JLU

JLU fans finally get Lobo. Bask in it, folks. But remember, by buying this figure you forfeit the right to ever say the words “Holiday Hal” again. (Kidding!)

Ghostbusters

On the 6″ side, the only reveals here were slimed Peter (who does have new trouser legs) and TV commercial Ray. Slimed Peter comes with a new Slimer who actually looks pretty good, but won’t get me to buy Peter. I’m waiting for the non-slimed version. The Ray would be worth picking up only for the gadgets and the ghost.

Universal Monsters

Finally, Diamond Select announced they have the Universal Monsters license, and their plan includes Mego-style figures, Minimates and even Marvel Select-style figures. The latter resemble the old Sideshow 8″ figures but look even better, in my humble opinion…I’m definitely onboard for the whole set, especially the Creature. But according to the tags next to the figures, it looks like some of them–like the Wolf Man–won’t come out until September 2012. Which sucks.

DCUC

I’m not up on my DCUC as much as I should be these days, but was anything announced or shown that we didn’t know about already?