SDCC News > Rustin Parr’s SDCC Report, Day 1

July 22, 2010 | Rustin Parr

Wednesday – 7/21

Preview night is always the worst and best day of the con. The first hour is being reminded of why you hate this place and how much better it used to be. Every company has a massive line for figures, the crowds are bigger than the Saturday horde a decade ago and all you can do is fight to survive. But once you find that first purchase (Batman and Joker Nlammoids for $3 each, in my case) the whole thing starts turning around. You get into the fun of the hunt once perusing seller booths and by gum you’ll see some really cool reveals at big companies. (more…)

ToyFare #157 & 2011 Club Eternia/Club Ecto-1 news

July 15, 2010 | Poe

The latest issue of ToyFare, #157, hit newsstands this week, and it’s chock (what’s a chock? anyway) full of news. News you didn’t already know. Or maybe you did, but I didn’t. Among the highlights:

  • The Four Horsemen’s new line is Symbiotech, which should be familiar to Fantastic Exclusive voters. Still early on in the production development, but they’re coming!
  • Fantastic Exclusives Scarabus and Raven are still coming–look for more when the Horsemen relaunch the FE website just before SDCC.
  • Mattel will be producing a 6″ Ghostbusters II 4-pack with removable Santa hats which will be available at TRU in October. That’s Toys ‘R Us, Matty haters. Relatively minor bummer: no slime throwers.
  • DCUC Wave 16 includes Jonah Hex and the Creeper, with CnC Bane. (Pics of all, plus Green Lantern Classics ’90s Kyle Rayner, included in magazine).
  • The DCUC Fan Poll candidates, the winner to be turned into a CnC figure, are: Blockbuster, Girder, King Shark, Nekron, Shaggy Man, and Wildebeest. Vote at Wizardworld.com. Nekron will win.
  • JLU is getting the Gray Ghost (might be old news?)
  • Gentle Giant is creating massive 12″ versions of the vintage Boba Fett, Stormtrooper and Walrus Man 3 ¾” figures.
  • DCD Arkham Asylum Bane is just as crazy as the videogame version.
  • There’s a full-page ad of Carnivus (no Whiplash ad, apparently), that says he carries the “Sword of Saz,” which is apparently a reference to the Filmation series–“Saz” was some sort of feline mythological hero.

Mattel also released official news on the 2011 Club Eternia subscription. It’s all-in, so those of you hoping for tiered subscriptions are out of luck, I’m afraid. The sign-up will go from 7/21 at 4 p.m. PT through 8/4 at 4 p.m. PT. The January figure, Club incentive figure, and map poster will be revealed at the Friday SDCC panel.

But wait–there’s more! Ghostbusters fans get their own subscription, Club Ecto-1. It’s $20 for six figures plus a club exclusive figure.

But to quote Geordi La Forge, don’t take my word for it–buy your copy of ToyFare #157 today! Then you get all the pretty pictures.

Outer Space Men Invade SDCC, Enact Strict Hygiene Laws

July 10, 2010 | Poe

(OK, I added that last part.)

From the Horsemen Four:

OUTER SPACE MEN INVADE SAN DIEGO!!

The Four Horsemen are excited to announce their Outer Space Men Comic Con 2010 exclusives!

Dubbed the “Alpha Phase Waves”, each exclusive OSM character will be done in a color that represents them as they utilize their “phase” mode to secretly invade Comic Con. These color versions are completely different from their upcoming regular edition versions!

(more…)

Interview > Matt Doughty, Part II (The Outer Space Men)

June 18, 2010 | Poe

You can read Part I of this interview, about the history of Onell Design, here.

PG: So tell me how Outer Space Men came about.

MD: I love toys that go all the way back into the 1920s. Anything that was a toy, I was fascinated. The Outer Space Men came out after Major Matt Mason…

And they were supposed to be kind of like those old Remco He-Man knock-offs–“plays with” Major Matt Mason.

Exactly. But what happens when someone “knocks off” someone else but they are superior to it? That’s sort of unprecedented now. Outer Space Men was so damned cool, it would replace playing with Major Matt Mason. (more…)

Interview > The Four Horsemen (Outer Space Men edition)

May 25, 2010 | Poe

At the beginning of this month, the famous toy design team the Four Horsemen announced their newest venture: a resurrection of the 1960s alien toy property “The Outer Space Men.” (For a detailed history of the Outer Space Men, check out the list of links at the bottom of the article.)

I got in touch with the Horsemen–Eric Treadaway, Jim Preziosi, Chris Dahlberg and Eric “Cornboy” Mayse–to get the official scoop on their first-ever licensed property. (more…)

The Annual Interview with the Four Horsemen

December 2, 2009 | Poe

4H10thLOGO1

In what has happily become an annual tradition here at PGPoA, the Four Horsemen graciously agreed to answer a few of my questions about DC Universe Classics, Masters of the Universe Classics and their own FANtastic Exclusive figures. Read on to get the latest from Santa’s not-so-little helpers, Chris Dahlberg, Eric Treadaway, Jim Preziosi, and H. Eric “Cornboy” Mayse. (more…)

Review > Isadorra of the Ironspynne Clan

September 8, 2009 | Poe

isadorra_3

It was ten years ago this month that the fearsome foursome known collectively as the Four Horsemen–Eric “Cornboy” Mayse, Chris Dahlberg, Eric Treadaway and Jim Prezioso cast off the training wheels of McFarlane Toys and struck out on their own to create the action figures they wanted. They were barely out of the iron gate when Mattel swooped in and contracted them to design a radical revamp of the company’s most memorable action figure property, Masters of the Universe.

Thus was born a partnership that would bring ecstatic collectors not only new MOTU toys but also Harry Potter, DC Universe Classics and the Ghostbusters (leaving only one burning question: where the hell are the Thundercats? But I digress).

However, the Four Horsemen were not content to rest on their Mattel-sponsored laurels. In 2005 they created FANtastic Exclusive, a yearly contest in which fans voted on all aspects of a Horsemen-designed character to be produced and sold the following year.

Of course, they’ve had a few bumps along the way. While the 2006 FE, Xetheus, turned out quite well, the Horsemen went through a long run of bad luck in producing the following year’s Ramathorr figure. But now, the FE is back on track with Scarabus (now in production) and this year’s Raven currently in the mid-voting phase.

In the meantime, to keep fans sated, the Horsemen offered Queen Alluxandra, a female figure from the Seventh Kingdom world shared by Xetheus and Ramathorr. Like those two, Alluxandra has had a host of variants.

I can never afford the complete set of variants, so, I look among the options and choose the one(s) I want. This year, it’s Isadorra of the Ironspynne Clan. (more…)

Magma Corps trailer

July 6, 2009 | Poe

poster

The Four Horsemen and the students of the DAVE School of animation have produced this excellent Magma Corps trailer (sorry, no embed available). I can easily see this as a Cartoon Network show.