Pictures by Thomas Tinneny; Words by Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net/SuperHeroHype spent a good portion of today at the Times Center on 41st Street for Hasbro’s 2011 Collector-Fan Media Day, an annual event that has grown by leaps and bounds in the five years since we first attended to the point where dozens of movie sites have joined us for the presentation. You can read a little bit about some of the cooler things we were shown below, and then click on the respective gallery for a combination of promotional photos and our own pictures taken on the Hasbro show floor.
PHOTO GALLERY: Click here to view our full Hasbro 2011 Toy Fair gallery!
The most exciting toys Hasbro are producing are the ones tying into the Marvel Studios’ upcoming Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger movies, joining Hasbro’s all-encompassing “Avengers Assemble!” line. Incidentally, Hasbro are already working on the toys for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers even though it hasn’t even started filming yet, though they were exceedingly tight-lipped on who that line might include.
The first wave of the Thor line will be available in just a few short weeks on March 1 and the role-play items they’re offering includes a lot of cool items to allow kids (and grown-ups) to become their favorite Asgardian Thunder God with the highlight being the actual-size Thor Lightning Hammer (retailing for $19.99) that lights up with thunder sounds and shooting lightning bolt projectiles. They also have a Thor Helmet and foam sword and shield, but the coolest thing is a $9.99 smaller-scale foam version of Mjolnir that is sure to have parents cursing the name “Hasbro” for years to come as their kids proceed to hit everyone and everything with them.
They’re also releasing a series of movie-related 3.75″ action figures that include a number of different versions of Thor, Sif, a Fire Blast Destroyer, Loki, Odin and the Warriors Three as well as an exclusive for Heimdall. Their larger electronic toy “Lighting Power Thor” will be similar to the electronic Iron Man toys from the last few years.
Launching on May 11, over two months before the release of Joe Johnston’s movie, Hasbro’s Captain America line will also have a number of cool role-play items including a mask and a large-scale Disc-Launching Shield (also retailing for $19.99), which shoots miniature foam disks out of its faceplate. They also have a smaller Captain America Throwing Shield, essentially a Frisbee with the handles.
The 3.75″ Captain America figures will include a number of different incarnations of Cap, as well as Captain Britain (!) and a few characters from the comics including U.S. Agent, Crossbones, and Winter Soldier. Unlike Thor, who has his own method of transportation, Captain America will also have a number of related vehicles including the Strikefire Transport (suggested retail of $29.99) with launching projectiles, a motorcycle and its own 3.75″ Cap figure.
Fans of Hasbro’s venerable Transformers toys should be looking forward to Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Bay had been working closely with Hasbro on the toys–he even provided them with a statement about how the threequel will improve on the inherent problems with the previous installation. Most of the movie-related toys were already revealed here. They’re divided up into a couple different lines called Mechtech, Cyberverse and Robopower, but the coolest thing we saw was the Cyberverse Autobot Ark (retail for $29.99), a spacecraft that folds out into a Battle Station playset complete with electronic lights and sounds.
At the presentation, they announced that High Moon Studios who produced Activision’s Transformers: War for Cybertron game last year will be producing the video game that will act as a preamble for the third film. That will be followed in 2012 by the sequel War for Cybertron 2.
Hasbro will also launch new toy lines based on the recently-launched “Transformers Prime” animated series (Exec. Produced and created by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci) as well as for the “G.I. Joe Renegades” show that began last fall on new cable channel The Hub. A couple of the showrunners/producers were on-hand at the presentation to show some footage and talk about the respective shows, which are faithful to the original cartoons with new twists on the characters.
A big 2011 release for Hasbro will be the launch of their cool Kre-O construction kits on August 1 with 12 Transformers Sets that range from $6.99 to $59.99 for the amazing three-in-one Optimus Prime kit, which is over 500 pieces that can be formed into three different incarnations. These are really cool model kits using Hasbro’s own version of Lego bricks that will allow fans to build their own Transformers, both in robot and vehicle forms, plus they’ll all come with anywhere from two to four miniature Kreon figures. Hasbro will eventually be expanding Kre-O kits into their other brands, but they look like a cool introduction to model-building for those who don’t want to let their kids anywhere near the rubber cement.
Some of the most exciting things we saw are going to be exclusives at San Diego Comic-Con and they have nothing to do with Marvel or superheroes, but they are two action figure packages for George Lucas’ beloved “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” films. With the six movies in the former re-released on Blu-ray in September, Hasbro are putting out a line of 3.75″ “Revenge of the Jedi” figures, and they’ll be offering an exclusive 12-pack of all the figures in custom Death Star packaging with two mini figures of Salacious Crumb and a Mouse Droid that will only be available to the lucky few who get to Comic-Con early. Hasbro will also have a similar box of six 3.75″ figures that were part of the unreleased “Lost Wave” of Indiana Jones action figures.
Look for all of the above and more over the coming year, and check back later this week for more from the 2011 Toy Fair, including pictures from Mattel’s counter-line of action figures tying into DC Comics.
Click here for the full gallery, including toys in the G.I. Joe, Marvel Universe, Star Wars, Kre-O, Iron Man, Harry Potter and X-Men categories!
