Our friends at Hasbro sent over this update which is guaranteed to make any army builder seethe with the Dark Side. Envy leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. You know the rest.
I felt lucky to get four Stormtroopers – this shot has fifty! I sense much envy in you.
Hello, Star Wars fans!
This morning, Diamond Comics feed debuted the latest (and we think greatest) variant cover to Marvel’s eagerly anticipated new comic, STAR WARS #1: the HASBRO PREVIEWS EXCLUSIVE VARIANT
The variant cover was photographed using Hasbro’s STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES 6-inch figures, including Darth Vader and Boba Fett, the upcoming Emperor Palpatine, Bossk and IG-88 figures, and 50 Stormtroopers!
STAR WARS #1 will be available from Marvel in January 2015, featuring the all-star creative team of Jason Aaron and John Cassaday with a story that picks up shortly after the events of STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE! For more information on how to order copies, including the HASBRO PREVIEWS EXCLUSIVE VARIANT cover, contact your local comic shop.
There’s almost 500 action figures on sale during TFAW’s Gray Days of November Sale, which is on right now. I’ve found prices there start a bit high to begin with, so it takes some exceptional discounts to make it a good deal. So you may not find the prices that you’re looking for in their Hasbro (with Star Wars and G.I. JOEs as the bulk of the items) or Mattel DC sections, but look through and you will come across some gems.
For example, the excellent Ultraman, Power Ring, and Superwoman Crime Syndicate figures from DC Collectibles are under $13 each, and the Danaerys and Ned Stark Game of Thrones figures from Funko are under $14 each. I just did a quick run through, so there’s probably more deals worth pursuing that I missed. Happy shopping!
From time to time I get questions from readers on where to find stands. Back in the day, McFarlane sold them online, but stopped several years back. Pro Tech stands have been the de facto stand-in, but start at 44 cents a pop, although they get cheaper in big quantities. But at 24 cents a stand, the EE deal is pretty damn good; the cheapest the Pro Tech stands get are 33 cents each, but you have to buy over 500!
EE has got five color options – clear, white, tan gray, and black. These should work with all your Hasbro 4-inchers – G.I. JOEs, Marvel Universe, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones (although I don’t know many who have these) – and 4-inchers from other lines, like Playmates Star Trek figures.
Hopefully we’ll see some better deals as the week progresses, but for now, cheap stands are a decent start. Happy shopping!
I’ve been a fan of ActionFigurePics.com for a few years. I’ve mostly kept up with news and pics of Marvel Universe 3.75 figures as they were issued. What inspired me to do my own custom was a post on editing the Magneto figure that came in a 2 pack. I have that figure as well and plan on making my version soon. As you already know, too many of the Marvel Universe figs have first issues that have stunted or deformed bodies. Wolverine was my choice for my first custom because I still believe they have yet to make a completely satisfying figure of him. They are either too small or hunch-backed with a stunted torso.
Christopher Ibbitt contacted me last week to share the Kickstarter campaign he is working on with Gemma Tovee – a collector’s guidebook for Hasbro’s Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light toy line. Although a much younger me was happily collecting G.I. JOE when this toy line existed, way back in 1987, I never encountered Visionaries. According to Christopher, Visionaries was marketed that year with the same marketing fervor as Joes, just in the fantasy genre instead of military:
Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light was a toy line produced by Hasbro in 1987. The figures, vehicles and accessories prominently featured holographic or foil stickers to represent the characters ability to invoke magical powers or adopt animal forms.
As was typical with many children’s properties of its time the toylines launch was accompanied by a comic and cartoon series of the same name, produced by Star Comics (an imprint of Marvel Comics) and Sunbow Productions respectively. Both of which were ultimately cancelled with the discontinuation of the toy line as a result of rising production costs.
Guidebooks for toy lines are labors of love. I backed Philip Reed (of battlegrip.com) in his successful Kickstarter for Transforming Collections (covering unofficial Transformer toys, not from Hasbro), and would like to see this project come to fruition. The Visionaries guidebook campaign is in the funding stage until November 28. They’re nearly 2/3 of the way to a very modest target of around $3,500 (£2,200). Check it out!
