Month: February 2014 (Page 2 of 5)

The PopCult Bookshelf will return next week. Today we’re going to bring you more of the best links to articles and photos from the American International Toy Fair in New York, which finished up yesterday.

Funko, the folks who make those nifty “Pop” vinyl figures you see everywhere, have unleashed ReAction, a new division devoted to making 3 3/4″ figures with limited articulation and simplified sculpts. The idea is to grab the nostalgia market for the 1980s, when such figures were plentiful and collectors were less discriminating. It’s not unlike what’s happening with the current retro action figures made to look like 1970s MEGO figures.

Aiming squarely at a meaty demographic for collecting, ReAction has snapped up a ton of 1980s licences to populate this line. “Escape From New York,” “Back To The Future,” “The Terminator,” “The Goonies” and more. Inside The Magic has a more complete listing. Toy Ark has a killer photo collection from Toy Fair.

Also working in a smaller scale, though with a more cartoonish look, is a new line of figures from Kasual Friday, one of a few new start-up companies headed by former Hasbro executives. They will be releasing figures based on “Army of Darkness,” “Invasion USA,” and “Rocky III,” plus they’ll have some King Features Syndicate stars like The Phantom and Flash Gordon. Toy Ark also has a great photo collection from their booth at Toy Fair.

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This week on the RFC MINI SHOW we dig deep into our vault, almost three years back, for a one-camera recording of an incredible duo performing at an open mic night at The Blue Parrot.

Sean Sydnor and Chad Foss performed together for a short time, and it was a wonderful blending of voice and guitar. Sean is one of the most accomplished musicians in town. After making his Radio Free Charleston debut way back on episode six as a member of Professor Mike, he’s played in bands with Chuck Biel, is currently playing bass in Byzantine. He’s also been spotted around town llately doing some low-key solo shows, trading sets with Spencer Elliott.

Chad, who is an amazing vocalist who’s performed in several bands, took some time off from music to raise a family. He is now ready to make music again and is looking for vocal opportunities. If you are looking for an amazing singer, contact me through PopCult or our Facebook page and i will put you in touch.

Chad and Sean take on Tom Petty’s “Don’t Fade On Me” and Keb Mo’s “Professional Blues Machine” in this great archival footage.

Since I can’t bring you detailed reports on every new toy at Toy Fair this week, I’m going to direct you to some of the best reports around the web.

Heidi MacDonald of The Beat brings us photo coverage of the showrooms that include Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, My Little Pony, Spider-man and more from Hasbro.

My favorite item that Heidi shows is the little-green-Army-men-style Star Wars Comand playset figures. You can see them at the top of this post. I think Hasbro is eyeing this format for other properties, too, and it looks like lots of fun.

Check out Heidi’s report here.

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Jazwares, the toy company that already brings us Regular Show, Adveture Time, Hanna-Barbera and NickToons toys, has acquired the rights to create a new Gravity Falls toy line. The new toy line, based on the popular Disney TV cartoon, will include figures, plush, role-play and play-set toys based on Dipper and Mabel’s adventures with Grunkle Stan, his mysterious journal, and The Mystery Shack. Jazwares will release the first wave of Gravity Falls toys in fall 2014 at retailers across the U.S.

This is a custom figure of Margaret, from “Regular Show” that was created as a gift for the actress who provides her voice on the show. If we’re lucky, maybe Jazwares will give us a mass-market version

Jazwares is also at Toy Fair pushing new toy lines based on the NBA and a line of figures that are also a game called Bungees. We have word that they are definitely continuing their Adventure Time figure line, and their exclusive-to-Toys R Us Regular Show line, but they are not allowing any photos of those products.

Gravity Falls is a top show on Disney Channel with kids 2-11, kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14, ranking #1 in its time period across the major youth demographics. The hit show follows the adventures of twin brother and sister, Dipper and Mabel Pines as they spend summer with their eccentric great uncle Stan in the wondrous town of Gravity Falls, Oregon where things are never as they seem.

“We are delighted to help bring the Gravity Falls story to life in toys,” said Laura Zebersky, executive Vice President Global Sales & Licensing, Jazwares. “More than anything, we’re great fans of the show and are excited to work with Disney on creating such a fun line for its audience to interact with its characters directly.”

The initial retail focus of the toy line will be in specialty stores, nationwide.

Jazwares will also be bringing out new toys based on Teen Titans Go and Yo Gabba Gabba, and we will have details on those as soon as we can pry them loose from Jazwares.

Grumpy Cat, the internet superstar, was at Toy Fair for two companies, Ganz and Gund. Both will be making Grumpy cat products, including plush. Gund produces the more expensive upscale plush, while Ganz produces Webkins, novelty plush and all sorts of other stuff.

If you are so inclined, you can check out Inside The Magic for photos and video over which you can “ooh” and “aw.” They also have some great pictures of the Ganz booth (like the one I swiped above). It looks like fun stuff, even if the window-sticking plush Grumpy Cat looks just a little bit like Mashy, the roadkill pup.

DC Direct, DC’s comic-shop toy line, announced their line-up for the rest of the year, and it seems that most folks are excited about the new figures based on Batman: The Animated Series. They may seem a bit pricey at twenty-five bucks a pop, but that’s pretty standard for DC Direct.

DC will also offer a full line of other collectible items, including wooden Superman and Batman figures, a porcelain doll of Death, from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics, plus an array of statues and busts.

Newsarama has the full list.

Mattycollector.com, Mattel’s struggling direct-to-collector business, has announced that they will close out their DC Universe 6″ collector’s action figure line with a concept that is both clever and foolish at the same time.

Ignoring the adage that In-Jokes are the kind of jokes most people don’t get, Mattycollector had decided (years too late) to cleverly replicate the packaging of Kenner’s fondly-remembered Super Powers line. They’ve also decided to replicate an odd South American variant of one figure, and created another oddity that nobody seems to be able to figure out. They’re also making these figures in the six-inch size, which is nearly twice as large as the original Super Powers figures.

WTF?

In Brazil, back in the 1980s heyday of Kenner’s Super Powers line, the Batman TV show was still popular. Kenner’s Brazillian licensee wanted to make a figure of The Riddler, but Kenner hadn’t included that character in the line. So the Brazillian licensee just took Kenner’s Green Lantern figure and painted a Riddler outfit on him.

WTF times two?

This was an amusing side note, but for some reason Mattycollector thinks that today’s collectors will want to see the same quirky cheesiness recreated as a six-inch figure. The Gold Superman is another head-scratcher. These figures will be fun to add to your collection in 2016 when they make it to Big Lots or Ollie’s for one-fourth of their original asking price.

If Mattycollector had gone with the Super Powers packaging from day one, they might not be winding up their DC series this soon. For a more enthusiastic take on these figures, check out Comics Alliance.

Hasbro unveiled its new TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION toy line Saturday at The American International Toy Fair in New York, marking the biggest reinvention of the TRANSFORMERS toys in the brand’s 30-year history. Inspired by the new movie TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (in theaters this June from Paramount Pictures and “director” Michael Bay) the new TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION line has been re-imagined to excite and engage a new generation of kids.

Kids can convert robots to vehicles — or, in the case of the somewhat controversial new DINOBOT characters, robots to dinos — in as little as one step with new fun actions, including flip-to-change and smash-to-change. Some long-time Transformers collectors are not happy with what they see as a “dumbing down” of the core concept of the toy.

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SpongeBob comes to building sets later this year

Mega Bloks has an ambitious slate of new products announced for 2014. They have expanded their relationship with Mattel, and will be offering a new batch of Barbie-themed building sets, as well as Hot Wheels that kids can build and race.

They will also be releasing an assortment of building sets based on SpongeBob Squarepants. Also, at Toy Fair, they announced that they will be producing sets based on the popular “Assassin’s Creed” video games. Those will turn up later in the year.

Mega Bloks will also continue releasing building sets starring Hello Kitty, The Power Rangers, Halo, Call of Duty, and Skylanders. For more details, you can check out this article at The Wall Street Journal.

Lil Bub invades the world of plush

The American International Toy Fair is in full swing in New York and news is dribbling out, and in some cases, gushing out. Rather than simply re-write press releases, we are going to act as a bit of a clearing house this year, and bring you highlights and links to the best articles on various toy news items from around the web.

“The Homer” actually leaked out in January and can be found now, if you’re lucky.

There are all sorts of cool toys in our future. “Batman: The Animated Series” is finally getting the action figure treatment. Hot Wheels will make cars based on “The Simpsons,” including the legendary HOMER, the car designed by Homer Simpson that bankrupted his brother. LEGO will finally create sets based on “Ghostbusters.” A full line of merchandise will be released devoted to Grumpy Cat, and competing internet meme-animal, Lil Bub will also show up in plush form.

This took long enough to happen

We will present a few long, detailed posts on some subjects, but in cases where other folks have already done the grunt work, we will link to what they did. There are also tens of thousands of images from Toy Fair floating around on various image sites, and we will also link to those.

Many of these toys will not be in stores for several months, so you have plenty of time to save your money and come up with convincing cover stories about how you’re really buying them for your kids or nephews or something instead of yourself. Check Popcult all day Tuesday and Wednesday for new posts.