Showing posts with label DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC. Show all posts

Monday, 30 April 2012

Opinion/News: Mattel SDCC Exclusive Reveals part 2

So, the other day I talked about the He-Man exclusive for San Diego Comic Con and today I'll have a little chat about what I think of (some of) the others.

First up is the Ghostbusters figure, Dana Barrett as Zuul. When the Ghostbusters subscription was cancelled for 2012, Mattel said that four figures would be released this year - 'Ready to Believe You' Venkman, The Rookie (which was previously supposed to have been the subscription exclusive), Dana and a fourth unnamed figure. With Dana now moved to SDCC this leaves Ghostbusters fans in a quandary: is this the last figure Mattel are releasing? After all, no one has seen or knows anything about the promised fourth 2012 figure. Maybe they're dropping it altogether. Maybe moving Dana to SDCC means that there are still 2 'regular' release slots available, possibly to allow for the release of the two remaining courtroom figures?

At this point no one knows, and we probably won't know until SDCC when Mattel show - or don't - any new figures.

As to Dana herself, I find her a little disappointing. She has a neat feature where the top half of her body detaches, meaning she can either be placed on standing legs or sitting on sitting on a bench. The fact that she's an all-new sculpt is possibly why she was moved to SDCC, in a hope of maximising sales. She suffers, however, in that she's basically a statue. If the photos are accurate, there are no points of articulation at all on the figure which is a bit rubbish really.


DC fans don't do very well at all this year. The toys are a DCU Tiny Titans set, Polly Pocket DC Villains & a statue of Death (from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series). As a Sandman fan (and who isn't?) I find Death the most interesting, however, she's a statue. If this had been an action figure it'd have been an instant buy, but as it is I'll be saving my money.

Saturday, 22 October 2011

Toyologist Review: Batcave

Boots are big at the moment. Wellingtons, UGGs, Waders, and Reboots.

No, not the fantastic 90s animated series, but taking a franchise and starting it over fresh.

Bond's had a go. Star Trek sort of did it...while also not (it's technically still in continuity with the previous things). Spider-Man. Planet of the Apes. Superman...

It all began (more or less) with Batman Begins, which (almost) made up for the travesty that was Batman & Robin.

shudder

And last month the entire DC Comics universe has rebooted.

(Batman is part of the DC universe, for you poor non-comic fans out there).

While I read a lot of comics ('how much did you spent on comics this week, Mr Johnson?!' 'Um, not too much, Mrs Johnson. Quick, must hide the receipt...'), I don't read a lot of DC ones. Obviously I've read all of Sandman and (most of) Preacher, but they're probably not a great basis for a child's toyline (but then there was an Aliens line). Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run was a favourite, but that's the closest I've gotten to mainstream DC Universe.

The idea of rebooting is to refresh something old and bring in a new audience(/readers). DC's reboot has kinda worked, as I'm now buying Swamp Thing and Animal Man.

And so we come, via a semi-relevant route, to the rebooted Batcave.

 

Okay, so it's not a 'reboot' in the technical sense, it's simply a new version of the Imaginex Batcave.