In this post:
1. Highlights from The 107th Annual American International Toy Fair, part one.
So Toy Fair finally wrapped up, where I came, saw, and took many pictures. Unfortunately, I still don’t have my new camera, so please excuse the crap quality in advance, yet again.
Also, because I showed up fairly late to the affair, on Tuesday (day one was actually this past Saturday, for some odd reason), most of the following might be yesterday’s news, at least to those that visit Kotaky and Tomopop religiously. Yet going near the end had some distinct advantages, mostly no crowds to contend with, plus loose lips from bored booth attendees, as you’ll all see!
First stop, First 4 Figures and their assortment of Nintendo related statues…
… In addition to Zelda, Metroid were nicely represented…
… I’m still hoping to get my hands on that Zero Suit Samus statue, one day! Then there was this one of Ninja Gaiden that I had never seen before…
This Master Chief bust is simply “okay” in my book, but I’m sure Halo fans are drooling right now…
These Mega Man action figures were surprisingly decent!
… Apparently they’ve been readily available at toys stores for some time now? The same folks at Zoofy also produce a line of Sonic related toys, with the highlight being a Sonic The Werehog figure. Ugh, I know. But Metal Sonic here on the other hand is very much respectable…
Check out this totally bad ass Heihachi Mishima statue, from Tekken of course, by Triad Toys, a relatively new name in the biz (or simply one that I’ve never heard of)…
… There was also a Taki, from Soul Calibur, statue that was not nearly as good, so less said the better. Moving on, Square Enix had a ton of stuff, with a good deal of it based upon other peoples games, like Capcon and Sega, Unfortunately, my Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta pics didn’t come out too well (no big loss for that last one; sorry, but I find her character design to be overrated at best), and everything in general was hard to photograph due to how things were displayed, but Lighting with her horsey Summon can somewhat be made out…
In addition to figures, you also had FFXIII related jewelry…
And these rather hawt looking shirts…
… I asked the rep if these would ever be released in America, and he did state that everything on display, can be found via their online shop, with the exception of the shirts, where they’re looking for an American distributor.
I know it’s hard to make out, but here’s Terra Branford fro, Final Fantasy 6 as a collectable miniature…
… She’s part of a five (or was it six?) figure set that’s coming out in America later this year. Each was originally released in Japan individually in blind boxes, and when I asked if there’s any difference (despite looking the same, the Steel Battalion figures that came out in America are not nearly as well made as the Japanese versions, due to different grade of plastic used), was told that they?re the same exact ones.
So much so, that SE initially believed that it would be in their best interest to not include the Terra figure because that was the “bonus” or especially hard to get a hold of one from the original set. But the suggestion to leave her out, in order to avoid a sh*tstorm from Japanese collectors that had spent tons of money to get the entire assortment, was not an option, since EVERYONE loves Tera. Instead, some relatively obscure Summon from part 1 was left behind instead!
And here are some very nice Chrono Trigger mini statues…
Plus here we have Zenith from the upcoming Front Mission Evolved…
Finally, some Final Fantasy plushies…
Next up, Domo! Truth be told, I’ve never really cared much for the character, despite my strong affinity for practically anything from Japan. It’s not like I hate the character, I’ve just never seen what the fuss was about. But for whatever reason, I found these designer takes on him, by Dark Horse if I’m not mistaken, to be absolutely irresistible…
Time to check out the Kotobukiya booth! They’ve quickly become of one of my favorite producers of fine collectables, and their corner of the showroom floor had plenty of neat things to gawk at. Like their Lost Planet 2 line…
… I had initially thought they were statues, but they’re actually toys! Everything moves and the such. Though what Kotobukiya is mostly famous for was in full effect at Toy Fair…
… As previously noted over at Tiny Cartridge, it’s the girl from that manga about the video game dork and his hot-headed girlfriend!
And as also previously seen around here, though in unpainted form, which was somewhat of a downer…
Kasmui from Dead Or Alive Paradise! I believe these will be what folks who shell out the big bucks for the super deluxe version in Japan will be receiving. But which version?
Kotobukiya’s line of Marvel ladies, via the supremely talented Koei Matsumoto, continues to impress. Both regular Phoenix and Dark Phoneix got the biggest push…
I’ve already passed along his Rouge statue a million times already, so how about Psylocke instead?
The men of the Marvel Universe were also represented, but all I care about is Iron Man honestly…
When I first heard that Venture Bros figures were coming out, I got super excited! But when I finally laid eyes on them… I dunno…
… According to Big Bang Pow, their makers, they’re supposed to be “70s-style” figures. And even though I generally like retro, it just doesn’t work for me in this instance. Oh well.
At the same booth as Shocker Toys’ line of indie comic characters, and hey, it’s Scud The Disposable Assassin! Was just talking about the Sega Saturn version with Phil the other day…
Continued in part two!
