At Toy Fair 2011 NECA unveiled one of the greatest things I’ve in a very long time – plans for a minimum of four waves or four figures from Gremlins 2: The New Batch, one of my very favorite movies ever! The first two waves were revealed to consist entirely of the different Mogwai, will balljointed articulation just about everywhere they could get it and even articulation eyes! While the line is slated to hit stores in late summer/early fall, it was launched with a sort of “preview” figure of Gizmo exclusive to the San Diego Comic Convention.
With NYCC a few days behind us and Toy Fair a few days ahead, I find myself caught up in the tumultuous whirlwind of being a collector and fan of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics toy line. Wave 9 was revealed at NYCC, which is actually quite darn remarkable considering the series only launched little more than a year ago. However, despite its clear success, DCUC has been plagued by two issues almost from the get-go. In riffing on Toybiz/Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line, not only did Mattel come up with some inventively clever nomenclature (Classics vs. Legends, Collect-n-Connect vs. Build-a-Figure – “what marketing whiz came up with that one,” asks Mr. Seinfeld) they took up the mantle of poor Quality Control. And while I often must buy and return multiple figures before I get a decent enough paint job to open/keep, the real thing that’s got me going tonight is their so-called distribution.