During these dark times of collecting, it’s always a treat to see images of good upcoming figures that will be worth tracking down at retail.
Our friends at Jeditemplearchives have been able to get their hands on several great pics of the next round of figures from The Black Series – check out their pics here, and be be sure to share thoughts on these figures in our forums.
The next installment in The Enloe Trials photonovel series is almost here, and we’ve got some brand new previews to share!
Head on over to the forums for a closer look, and to share your thoughts!
All the rage with the kids in the toy aisle lately (outside of LEGO, of course) seems to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Kindergartners up to adults are devouring these at retail – and there’s some things here that seem to fly in the face of what Hasbro’s doing with their action figure lines these days… these figures are highly articulated, various creatures support the main characters, new vehicles are integrated into the line, and the granddaddy of them all? The line features a huge playset! Oh and one other minor detail – these bigger, more articulated figures cost consumers less at the register than most of Hasbro’s product.
Could Hasbro learn a thing or two from Playmates? Or is Hasbro’s new direction for action figures a better model? Share your thoughts after the jump!
The folks at Galactic Merchants have shared another outstanding update showing further progress on the upcoming display environments they are offering to the fan community. Check out the full image they’ve shared in the forums!
Earlier in the summer, we posted an SDCC wishlist that unfortunately didn’t come true, but since that time, forum moderator localgotal has been sharing some amazing mockups of figures that blow nearly all of Hasbro’s offerings for 2013 out of the water.
Check out the latest examples that he’s put together in the forums, and join us in scratching our heads as to why Hasbro wouldn’t launch The Black Series with figures like the examples above rather than packing Wave 1 with 2x per case of figures like Biggs Darklighter and Episode II Anakin Skywalker… because any of the above figures, packed at even 3x per case would be better than much of what’s in Hasbro’s launch wave.
Now… if we can just get him to mock up some playsets…
Although I’ve never been a huge fan of The Clone Wars styling, I have to admit, seeing a Clone Wars animated rendering of my fan fiction photonovel character, Rykrof Enloe, blows me away (and suddenly I find the styling a lot more appealing)! Check out the full rendition that forum member jedimasteradi created by clicking here!
Lo and behold, Toys”R”us employees have come up with an alternative to taping the bubbles back onto The Black Series figures… a few well placed staples will do the trick as I witnessed today. Before getting upset with retailers for this, remember – this is a manufacturing issue on Hasbro’s side; not the fault of stores that receive faulty packaging from Hasbro.
The latest Yakfinities Customizing Challenge continues through the end of September, which means there is still plenty of time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on a custom submission! Or, kick back and check out the latest custom figures submitted in the Yakface Forums!
With Hasbro’s new lineup, I was optimistic that we’d see some real positive changes. And while we might not be drowning in new product like we were with Hasbro’s over-zealous 2012 launch, it’s hard to walk by much of Hasbro’s toy sections these days without yawning.
That being said, I hope that the hobby has better days ahead and we will return to the glory days of 2005-2009 when Hasbro had a better grasp on demand and had a broader selection of impressive figures available at retail. That was all before bandwagon trends like Fighter Pods and Angry Birds became such a priority for them.
I think it’s time to go back to the bread and butter and pull the collectors back in like Hasbro has had to do a couple times in the past and realize that in 2012, they abused the license and pushed kids away… and now most of them moved onto something else. And they won’t be back until Rebels launches.
As for catering to collectors, I’m not sure they are really doing that with their launch to The Black Series. Angry Birds isn’t going to interest anybody – not kids or adults. It’s a lame crossover that has been overplayed. Yet they’ll invest in this instead of some 3.75″ environments. Seriously?
Do you agree? Disagree? Read my full rant and share your thoughts in the forums!
Work is underway for the next installment of The Enloe Trials photonovel series as Rykrof Enloe leads a strike force to recover an ancient Sith artifact on the hostile world, Dathomir.
Over the coming weeks we will have some previews and behind the scenes custom updates for the next chapter — until then, be sure to catch up with Chapter 3: Revelations.