Category: News Page 1 of 88

black and silver semi automatic pistol on brown wooden table

Toys and real-life guns

black and silver semi automatic pistol on brown wooden table
Photo by Derwin Edwards on Pexels.com

Toy companies seem to be shying away from real-life guns.

Diamond Select’s Rocketeer andWestworld figures either didn’t have guns or they were glued into their holsters (despite coming with hands with trigger fingers) and their John Wick figure has one dinky pistol (though the “Casual” version does have a shotgun).

The G.I. Joe public relations team refers to guns as “blasters” and the new Classified figures have sci-fi-style guns. Apparently the new movie Marvel Legends Deadpool comes with two removable sci-fi guns and has two real-life Desert Eagles glued into his holsters (which can be easily removed with some heat).

The only Hasbro figures that have had real-life guns recently have been online exclusives. (I’m really curious to see how the Punisher w/ motorcycle gets distributed – wouldn’t be at all surprised if he were a fan channel exclusive.)

(Hell, I even noticed the Youtube stars my kid watches, Lankybox, always refer to guns as blasters when they play Roblox.)

I assume this is a post-Parkland phenomenon; that particular mass shooting seemed to change the conversation around guns, moreso than other recent tragedies. It doesn’t appear to be a policy Hasbro or Diamond want to make a big deal out of, as they’re likely hoping to avoid a PR debacle on either side of the debate.

UPDATE: In assuming this was a Parkland-related issue, I thought the reason that exclusives could have real-life guns was because their online availability meant they were solely directed toward the adult market. However, after a user on our Facebook page pointed out that the Target exclusive Black Widow figure has fairly realistic guns, another possibility occurred to me: the international market. Gun culture overseas is not what it is in America, and I can imagine there being some complicated customs laws around representations of firearms in some countries. Why bother with it when you can just use your own patented NERF designs?

When is a gun not a gun? It reminds me a bit of the famous X-Men “nonhuman creatures” legal case.

Aside from mass shooting-related sensitivity and international customs compliance, I can think of at least two other explanations. It’s possible using real-life weapon designs require some sort of licensing from the manufacturers, which makes using original creations such as NERF designs cheaper. It’s also possible Hasbro has plans for some corporate synergy by repackaging their full-size NERF weapons under the G.I. Joe brand.

I would be very interested to hear from any industry types as to what’s going on here – feel free to email me at poe@poeghostal.com if you have any insight to offer.

Raw-10 Fren-Z

UPDATE: You can preorder the Raw-10 figures, including Fren-Z, here: https://www.walmart.com/col/959852712

A day or two ago, I came across a news post on a toy website (or maybe a Facebook group – can’t recall) mentioning that McFarlane Toys had teased a new Cy-Gor figure. For those who don’t know, Cy-Gor was a really cool cyborg gorilla (get it?) from the Spawn comics. He got a number of cool figures from McFarlane in the 1990s before fading into action figure obscurity.

The news of a new Cy-Gor intrigued me, especially since McFarlane had recently impressed me with some of their more recent offerings, such as their Mortal Kombat and DC Multiverse lines, which feature a good amount of articulation as well as some great sculpting (at 7″, they’re disappointingly large and more NECA than Marvel Legends, but they’re still good figures).

Then I read the article and learned that this was not a new Spawn figure, but rather he was part of a new IP called “Raw-10” which would have minimal articulation and–sorry, once I read “minimal articulation” my brain checked out.

And then I saw someone post THIS.

Holy crap, that thing rules. Miminal articulation or no, that’s a huge cyborg shark.

And guess what, friends – it has a BIO.

FREN-Z is the king of the ocean–every ocean. He is a mix of robotics and the DNA of a Great White Shark combined with the prehistoric Megalodon Super Shark for extra terror. FREN-Z was created to be the prototype for a new breed of aquatic weaponry. But the dangerous minds at Robotic Animal Warrior (RAW) labs did their job too well, and FREN-Z escaped. Now he stalks the oceans, an unstoppable hunter–part-shark, part-machine, all-deadly.

I don’t know about you, but it disturbs me a bit to learn that this is what our tax dollars are going toward in the Robot Animal Warrior labs. (I had a friend who interned there and whenever you ask her about it she just gets this thousand-yard stare for five minutes.)

Anyway, I think the big announcement for these figures will be tomorrow, hopefully followed by online preorders, but in the meantime they’re evidently popping up at Walmarts.

UPDATE: Apparently these will be Walmart exclusives.

What Do You Mean The Phone Is Off.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v ...
My feelings on Walmart exclusives

PGPoA is going on indefinite hiatus

poefaviconblue3

After six years, I’ve decided to take an extended break from running Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation.

I’ve been considering this for years now. I could provide a long list of reasons – or perhaps more accurately, excuses. But really it all comes down to two: interest and time.

Funko says Legacy QC issues will be addressed

Just an update on my earlier post regarding the quality control issues on Funko’s Game of Thrones Legacy Collection: in a comment, Funko’s Shawndra Illingworth wrote,

Funko has been made aware of these QC issues and our factory has been informed of what changes need to be made on future waves of Legacy. Thanks so much!

Great news, provided politely and in a timely fashion on a blog that didn’t even contact them directly about it. That’s great collector relations. And while I won’t be collecting the Game of Thrones line myself, I can’t wait to see their Firefly line in the fall. Hopefully we’ll see some prototype photos during Toy Fair.

The Invincible Tin Man

1390932939_b-MCO-invincible

Today’s Teefury shirt. I know these geek-culture mash-ups have gotten tired, but this one is a great idea and the art is fantastic. Someone needs to make a custom Marvel Legends figure of this pronto.

 

Legacy Collection Game of Thrones Official Pics & Wave 2 Line-up

GOT Tyrion GLAM

UPDATE: By the way, you can order these on BN.com.

Funko president Brian Mariotti posted official photos of the first wave of the Legacy Collection Game of Thrones figures, along with the following note:

Funko is proud to announce of first ever line of premium action figures.

It’s a shame we could not release this information the correct way, but things happen.

I will let you all in on a scoop, that is series 2 will be shown for the first time at Toy Fair. So you will see a New Daenerys(mother of dragons outfit), Khal Drago, Jamie Lannister, Robb Stark, Arya and Brienne!

For the next 30 day[s] only Series 1 will be exclusively at B & N.

Funko Legacy 6″ Game of Thrones release date – Saturday the 15th?

Logo_Game_of_Thrones

So user punksraven at the Funko Fanatic forum did some research:

Hey guys, I’m new here. After those ebay pics surfaced, I did some investigating. Got a UPC off the Hound’s box in the ebay pics. It’s 849803039127. They’re in TRUs system but no stores in my area have them yet. I’ve also called three barnes and noble stores in my area. They all are telling me that these aren’t in stock in those specific stores (or any in my area) YET, but they have all said they have a very strict RELEASE date of 2/15, which is Saturday. They told me they will probably get them later in the week, but wouldn’t be able to sell them until then. Of course, if the shipping boxes aren’t labeled, or a worker just happens to miss that date, they’ll obviously get put on accidentally. Judging by others finding/buying them, it doesn’t seem like the registers are flagging them with the release date, so if they’re on the shelf, shouldn’t have any issue purchasing them. Hope this helps guys!

That makes sense and matches with Brian M.’s comment that the figures would hit the exact same time as Toy Fair. I think the idea was to have a big flashy reveal of the figures at Toy Fair and then be able to say, “And these are on sale RIGHT NOW!” – which, you have to admit, is rather awesome and practically unheard of in this day and age (and still is, of course, thanks to the leaked photos).

I still wonder if BBTS and EE and perhaps Amazon are sitting on these things in their warehouses, waiting for the release date. But it’s quite possible B&N has some sort of temporary exclusive deal. We just don’t know.

Bandai would very much like you to buy the S.H.Figuarts Super Mario

And who can blame them? It looks awesome.

You can pre-order from BBTS or Amazon.

MAFEX 6″ Star Wars?

Oh good lord. Are MAFEX 6″ Star Wars figures coming?

wf14w241

 

Image from CollectionDX. Example of a MAFEX figure here.

While I love Star Wars Black, if the first figure is Vader or Boba Fett, I don’t see how I can possibly not get it.

Funko Legacy Game of Thrones Revealed (via eBay)

UPDATE: Looks like these may be already on shelves at retail! Check your local Barnes and Noble!

Trust old eBay to provide us with the first photos of Funko’s 6″, super-articulated Game of Thrones figures. These were going to be revealed in about a week anyway, so really they did a pretty good job of hiding them until the last minute. These should hit stores within a month or two (maybe even sooner). The auction states that Tyrion Lannister is also part of the wave, but not available for sale.

I think they look pretty good. The likenesses aren’t perfect, but they’re as good as SWB 6″. This makes me even more excited for Firefly.

What do you think?

(Thanks to Preternia for the heads-up.)

Page 1 of 88

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén