ComingSoon.net and its sister site Superhero Hype! spent a good part of the day up at the Javits Center in New York City, and we have a boatload of pictures of movie, comic and other genre-related toys, action figures and games that we saw while there, everything from Dragonball Evolution to Star Trek and lots more!
First up, we have Bandai America’s line of toys that tie into 20th Century Fox’s upcoming Dragonball Evolution movie, which will feature seven of the characters from the live action movie that you can collect, each which will include a piece to build Gozu’s monster form of Oozaru. Bandai is also making three larger figures with punching and kicking motion parts. All of these are scheduled for release in May, just one month after the movie opens on April 8. (You can also see a couple pictures of a few toys based on the anime series, which are seven “capsule figures”, which have been ported in from Japan for release in this country.)
Check these out in our Dragonball Gallery.
Next up, we have our Star Trek Gallery! There’s a lot of anticipation to see what J.J. Abrams does with Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek franchise, and wisely, toy and game manufacturers have been scrambling to have tie-in products available for its release in May. Playmates has the main license to produce toys and action figures based on the movie likenesses, the one exception being Funko’s “Quogs” based on the Chris Pine Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto’s Spock and a green Alien Slave Girl, which are pretty easy to distinguish from the more lifelike figures. Playmates’ line includes both 3 3/4″ and 6″ figures and though they only had a few on display, they provided ComingSoon.net with group shots of the full line. Those who buy each of the individual figures will be able to collect pieces that can be used to build onto the first two playsets they’re releasing, the Transporter Room (with a very cool transporting effect for figures put into the transporters) and the Enterprise Bridge. Playmates is also developing a full line of new electronic Phasers, Tricorder Communicators, and a new electronic toy based on the U.S.S. Enterprise, all of which make the suitable sounds that fans will be expecting. Interestingly, it’s been nearly 11 years since Playmates developed toys and action figures based on the “Star Trek” characters.
Those looking at what looks like a full-size replica of Captain Kirk’s command chair wondering what it is… that is exactly what it is! Those crazy dudes at Diamond Select actually built a lifesize piece of replica furniture, just for those Trekkers who won’t settle for a La-Z-Boy. The command chair in May… and no, we didn’t even ask how much it will go for. If you’re crazy enough to want one, then surely it doesn’t matter… but it’s roughly $2200. (Diamond Direct is also releasing statues based on the classic “Star Trek” characters.)
Lastly, Star Trek fans might want to check out USAopoly’s upcoming “Star Trek Continuum” version of Monopoly, which covers the entire Star Trek universe up until the new relaunch, using a lot of the mythos as part of the game. They also have upcoming Monopoly games based on the original ’80s “G.I. Joe” cartoon and comics out in June and another based on Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen out in September, both which are still in development. (USAopoly’s previous “Transformers” version of Monopoly was based on the cartoons rather than on the movie.)
All of the above can be found in our Star Trek Gallery.
Playmates is also doing the toys for Warner Bros.’ upcoming Terminator: Salvation directed by McG, but they’re still working on some of the sculpts and likenesses, so they wouldn’t let us take any photos of the action figures and roleplay toys they had on display. (And don’t expect to see any John Connor action figures that look like Christian Bale right away, for other reasons we can’t really get into!) Either way, Playmates will have a full line of 3 3/4″ and 6″ figures based on the characters and robots in the movie, as well as a few select 12″ figures. All of the figures are in scale so that the T-600 is actually a little bigger than the human characters. We mainly saw the different sized T-600 toys (one of which had an accompanying “human mask”) and one based on Sam Worthington’s Marcus. They’re working on nearly 20 figures in various waves of the smaller scaled figures, which they hope to release over the next year. They also have a vehicles based on the Hunter-Killer and the A-10 Wart Hog that can be used along with the 3 3⁄4″ figures, as well as a Moto-Terminator with John Connor, face conveniently covered by a bandana. As far as “Terminator” role play, they have a T-600 mask which creates a cool effect of having the usual Terminator red light-up eyes, though anyone wearing it can still see out using a series of mirrors. (Those hoping for a toy based on the Harvester toy will have to wait a bit longer until the fall, since it was changed in the movie, and they had to go back and redesign the toy accordingly; ultimately, the Harvester will be to scale to use with the 3 3/4″ humans.)
Playmates has promised to have pictures of all of the items mentioned above for us by the end of the week, and both their “Star Trek” and “Terminator” toy lines will launch on April 19 at Toys R Us.
Fortunately, we were able to get some shots of Funko’s Wackly Wobblers that tie into the movie which feature two different T-600 Terminators; you can see those in our main Toy Fair Gallery along with their Wacky Wobblers for the new “Wolverine” movie.
We’re big fans of New Jersey’s own National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc. (NECA), because they make some of the best-looking and heavily-detailed action figures and merchandise based on some of the coolest movies, bar none. As those who regularly follow our Toy Fair coverage will know, NECA acquired the rights to make action figures and other merchandise based on the Harry Potter movies a couple years ago, and they always have a lot of cool new toys and prototype sculpts on display for the upcoming series based on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince including our first look at the newest character to the mythos, Fenrir Greyback. (The Sirius Black statue is actually from Gentle Giant.)
You can see all of these in the Harry Potter Gallery.
Since last year, NECA is also responsible for making action figures and other merchandise that ties into the movies based on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, and they had a lot of it on display at Toy Fair, but the key new things NECA is preparing for this year is a two-pack of 6″ figures of Edward and Bella, as well as a 6″ figure of that popular vampire cutie Alice Cullen.
You can see those, as well as get a good example of some of the tons of merchandise NECA to offer in our Twilight Gallery.
Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is less than three weeks away–hard to believe, huh?–and we found a few companies doing figures and other merchandise to tie into it. DC Direct has the full license to produce action figures, statues and collectibles based on the characters, many of which are already available. NECA is releasing a ton of tie-in merchandise featuring the characters, including lunchboxes, tote bags, buttons, bracelets and “color-changing thermal mugs” for those who need to have souvenirs from the movie they can look at whenever they want. (Yes, that’s an actual Doomsday Clock, and no, we’re not sure what happens when it hits midnight the first time you plug it in. Guess you’ll find out what happens at midnight.)
You can see a lot of these in our Watchmen Gallery.
You can go here for over 250+ more pics of other cool stuff we saw at Toy Fair ’09! Also, don’t miss our previously-posted photos of Hasbro’s “G.I. Joe,” “Transformers” and “Wolverine” toys here.
