While I didn’t speak to anyone at the NECA booth (everyone looked very busy), I did take some pictures of their action figures in HeroClix, Player Select video games, and movie license categories, excluding Harry Potter and Twilight. Sorry, fans of those two franchises – I couldn’t bring myself to do it. 😀
Continue reading “Toy Fair 2010 – NECA HeroClix, Player Select, and Movie Figures Pics”
Because we knew we’d get a lot of questions answered about our favorite Mattel toy lines at Toy Fair (click here for all our Mattel Toy Fair coverage), for this round of Q&A, we wanted to learn a little more about the person responsible for bringing them to all of us.
Scott “Toy Guru” Neitlich has stepped in to answer our questions this month! Scott is the Brand Manager working on Mattel’s DC, Ghostbusters and MOTU adult collector lines. Thanks to Toy Guru for this special edition of Ask Matty!
1. What was your favorite toy as a kid, and where is it now?
As a kid I was really into MOTU and Construx. Construx was a girder and bolt building system which until recently was still offered by Fisher-Price. I used to create whole worlds of military and space ships and still have the lead attack ship I built on my desk at home. My original He-Man is here at my office next to my Classics version!
In all the excitement about Toy Fair, I nearly missed this announcement about Brightest Day rings. The DC Comics promotion for Blackest Night rings was so successful that they are running another promotion for the upcoming bi-weekly Brightest Day series. This time they’ll be offering new Hal Jordan Green Lantern ring and Barry Allen Flash rings with the purchase of selected comic books.
I’m not sure if it’s the same this time around, but with Blackest Night, comic stores had to order a specific amount of comics, otherwise they wouldn’t qualify for the promotion. So if your local comic book store isn’t big enough, they might not have the rings available. Luckily, here’s a no hassle way to get these two rings in one shot.
Buy a Comic, Get a Brightest Day Ring FREE!
DC Comics’ Blackest Night Ring promotion went so well last year, they’ve introduced two new rings that tie into their Brightest Day event! Special-Edition The Flash and Green Lantern rings have been released, and you can get them–FREE–when you purchase The Flash #1 and Green Lantern #53.
Head on over to our Brightest Day Rings page, and you’ll see you’ve got two options: either buy individual issues without the rings, or choose the comics-with-rings options. The rings are free, but you will pay a little extra for shipping and handling (most U.S. customers will see a $.50 to $1.00 increase), because we can’t ship the rings in a flat package.
What do you think about the new Brightest Day Rings? Did any of you collect all of the Blackest Night Rings? Post your comments below!
Here’s a great feature from the MattyCollector.com store. Bill Benecke, Mattel’s Lead Designer on the DC Universe Classics line, tells us about his hunt for the figure that inspired the upcoming Cyclotron figure.
Behind the Design
The Cyclotron Story with Designer Bill Benecke
From the moment I first laid eyes on the print ad for the Super Powers figures (in an issue of All- Star Squadron, I think), I fell completely head-over-heels in love with the line. I collected most of the first two series over the next two years, calling every toy store in a twenty mile radius on a regular basis (daily, when I was trying to find the Red Tornado, my Holy Grail, for nearly a year!), then riding my bike over if they happened to have one of the guys I was looking for. The cross-sell photos on the back of the package were a constant source of wonder for me, as they not only showed incredible figures of my favorite heroes (The Flash, Green Arrow, Aquaman), but introduced me to brand new characters (Steppenwolf, Mantis, Martian Manhunter Robot)… I was on a mission!
Eventually, though, I’d found all the characters I’d been searching for and the idea that they might actually produce MORE of these guys seemed too much to hope for. As the months drifted by, I continued to scour the toy aisles in any store I happened to be in, but I resigned myself that more Super Powers probably weren’t in the cards. At least, until I was on a car trip with my parents to Northern California, and we made a stop at a toy store along the way… Walking down the action figure aisle, looking to see what strange and wonderful figures I might stumble across in this new and unfamiliar territory, I was floored to see a character I was COMPLETELY unfamiliar with, sitting amongst the other Super Powers: Cyclotron! I couldn’t believe my luck! I had never heard of this guy (and would learn later that he was created for the toy line, which explained why I’d never heard of him), but his yellow and green costume, red goggles, and removable face plate got to me immediately — what a cool toy! Even better, the back of the package showed an entire new series had been produced, full of an odd mix of supporting heroes, semi-obscure villains, and original characters… wow!
I spent the rest of the trip carrying Cyclotron in my pocket, and he has remained one of my favorite figures in the line to this day (yup, alongside Red Tornado). More than any other character, Cyclotron represents the “wonder” of childhood to me — the magic of meeting a strange new hero for the first time, the excitement of exploring the DC Universe, the passion for collecting that the line created in me, and the pure joy of a really cool toy — Cyclotron sums up all of that pretty eloquently, I think. And hey, he’s got a removable face! 🙂 Bill Benecke
Amidst all the Toy Fair news, it might be easy to forget that Tuesday is the MattyCollector sale date for February. You don’t want to miss Battle Cat and Trap Jaw!
2/16 Sale Reminder: Battle Cat®, The Justice Guild™ & More
Toy Fans,
Wanted to remind you our next sale is just around the corner on Tuesday, February 16th! It’s jam-packed with collector must-haves, including:
- Battle Cat®
- Man-At-Arms®
- Castle Grayskull® Diorama & Stands
- Trap Jaw™
- The Justice Guild 4-Pack
- The Joker with Missile Launcher
It starts at 12:00 noon Eastern (9:00am Pacific), so be sure to mark your calendar. I can also send you a reminder email, so if you haven’t registered yet, click here!
—Matty
2/16 Sale Reminder: Battle Cat®, The Justice Guild™ & More