The PopCulteer
February 16, 2018
It’s Toy Fair time again. The big show doesn’t kick off until Saturday, but Friday morning is when the press releases start coming fast. This morning we’re going to run down just a few of the cool action figure lines coming your way, but we’ll be posting Toy Fair News all weekend long here in PopCult. Saturday should be a big day, and we’re going to skip The RFC Flashback this week, just to make things easier.
The big news is the drastic redesign of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles Line (seen right), but first we check in with an old friend.
The Original Action Figure For Girls
IAmElemental just revealed the company’s newest female action figure: the Series 2/Wisdom Warrior Core Power Figure, inspired by Alexandrian STEM pioneer Hypatia. IAmElemental created the toy industry’s first female action figures designed specifically for children. We covered them extensively here in PopCult, and interviewed company head Julie Kerwin two years ago, which you can see here…
The strong, healthy female figures invite girls and boys to develop their character by playing with “The Elements of Power.” The company’s Series 1/Courage figures, modeled on Joan of Arc, were launched on Kickstarter to worldwide acclaim in 2014. Series 2/Wisdom followed in 2016, with ancient Alexandrian STEM pioneer Hypatia as the muse.
Series 2/Wisdom includes seven 4” articulated figures: Creativity, Ingenuity, Curiosity, Logic, Exploration, Mastery and Oblivion. The series culminates in the release of the 6.5” Wisdom Warrior Core Power figure, which is a fusion of all Elements in the series.
“We are so proud of IAmElemental’s newest addition, the Wisdom Warrior Core Power figure. Like the Elements of Power before her, she is a strong, healthy female figure, carefully designed and engineered to encourage imaginative fun,” said IAmElemental’s Chief Elemental Officer, Julie Kerwin. “Our Wisdom Warrior is inspired by ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian warriors. She also celebrates the decidedly human superpowers embodied in modern superheroes like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose in Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi.”
The Wisdom Warrior Core Power Figure features more than 30 points of articulation and includes removable accessories including a helmet, armor, powerful bow and arrow, and Wisdom shield. The figure will retail for $24.99.
IAmElemental paved the way for a new catagory of toy, action figures for girls, and that path has since been followed by Mattel, with their DC Superhero Girls and WWE Girls lines, and Playmates Toys with their Mysticons, about which you will read more below.
Playmates Revitalizes The Turtles
If you spend time hanging out in the toy aisles, you’ve probably noticed an absence of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of late. The toy has not faded in popularity. It’s still one of the top action figure lines in the country, but the cartoon series is undergoing a major revamp, and the toys have been absent from stores for a few months while they work on the redesign.
The toys are being kept under wraps until Saturday, but we have images of the new cartoon designs, which are pretty drastically different from previous animated versions.You can see these at the head of this post and around these words.
These designs are the work of Andy Suriano, who was the design director on Samurai Jack. While your PopCulteer thinks the new designs look incredible and the new series sounds really interesting, I can see TNMT purists howling in disgust over the new look. It’ll be wild to see how they translate these designs into toys.
Playmates Toys is, of course, the longtime master toy licensee for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’ll reveal their all-new product line for 2018 inspired by Nickelodeon’s brand-new animated series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is also set to debut in 2018.
In this reimagined iteration of the popular franchise, the band of brothers discover new powers and encounter a mystical world they never knew existed beneath the streets of New York City. The extensive Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line is set to hit toy shelves in fall 2018, and includes action figures, vehicles, playsets and role play.
Key highlights in the all-new toy line include an assortment of highly detailed action figures that are uniquely sculpted and fully articulated. The collection features the four Turtles, as well as new characters Baron Draxum, voiced by WWE Superstar John Cena, Meat Sweats and others introduced in the series.
The Turtle Tank, the new group vehicle that will help get the Turtles to the action fast, also serves as the mobile command headquarters for the Turtles, when Donatello’s removable lab rises up in spy mode.
The 43″ Epic Lair Playset, the biggest playset ever from Playmates Toys, includes four levels of play and numerous features including an adjustable skateboard ramp, Raphael’s Weight Training Room, Leonardo’s Rotating Weapon storage wall, Michelangelo’s arcade and so much more. We should have good photos of these new toys before the weekend is done.
More From Playmates
In addition to the all-new Turtles toy line, Playmates Toys will expand its current lines based on the following animated series: Cartoon Network’s Ben 10, Nelvana’s Mysticons and DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender.
Ben 10
As the global master toy partner for Cartoon Network’s new Ben 10 animated series, Playmates Toys will expand its toy line in 2018 to include an all new assortment of action figures, feature-driven deluxe figures, Omnitrix-inspired role play and more. The Cartoon Network series is centered on the adventures of fun loving, 10-year-old, Ben Tennyson, who finds the Omnitrix, a mysterious watch that transforms him into 10 different heroic aliens, as seen below, it’s a pretty extensive toy line.
New additions to the line include the expansion of the highly detailed and articulated action figure assortment, which will now feature figures inspired by the Omni-Enhanced theme in season two of the animated series. The Omni-Launch Battle Figures allow kids to launch and transform their favorite Ben 10 alien heroes right from the Omnitrix, ready for battle! New Deluxe Action Figures transform from Ben to Alien with a quick and easy activation and new vehicles inspired by the Alien’s home worlds come with an exclusive basic action figure. And finally, the Alien Creation Chamber allows kids to create their own custom mini figures by mixing and matching alien body parts and fusing them together in the Alien Chamber.
Mysticons
Playmates Toys, the global master toy partner for Nelvana’s animated series, Mysticons, will be expanding its first-ever action figure collection for girls to include all-new figures and role play. The series premiered on Nickelodeon in August 2017, and tells the epic tale of four girls chosen to become legendary warriors to protect their realm from evil. The series can be found on Netflix.
The action figure assortment will grow in 2018, introducing new figures to the current collection of highly detailed and articulated 7-inch figures, the Lights & Sounds Figures, which bring each of the Mysticons heroes to life, and the Griffin & Figure Assortment. In addition to figures, the role play segment will expand with an all-new Light Up Bracer Assortment and a Dress Up Assortment, allowing girls to easily transform into their favorite Mysticons warrior.
DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender
Playmates Toys is also the master toy licensee for DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender, which is now streaming on Netflix, with season five set to debut on March 2. The line will continue to grow in 2018 with the addition of a classic line of figures and more. The series is a contemporary reimagining of the pop culture phenomenon featuring five young pilots of mystical robot lions that combine to form Voltron, the legendary defender of the universe.
New introductions for 2018 include the Classic Legendary Lion Assortment, which features five Classic Legendary Lions that combine to form a fully-articulated 16″ Classic Voltron figure with a chest that lights up and over 60 sounds from the original 1984 show. Additionally, the 12″ Defender Voltron, an all-new version of Voltron, features a projectile launching shoulder cannon and Voltron’s shield.
Since we will be back all weekend long with more updates from Toy Fair, we’re going to cut short the PopCulteer here. Check back for more updates, reports and links all about the toys for the coming year all weekend long in PopCult.
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