Thanks to Matty Collector.com you can now order these pieces of pop culture goodness, including the D-list DC characters B’Wanna Beast and Animal Man (as a Justice in the Jungle 2 pack), a 12″ General Zod from Superman II and a 12″ Egon Spengler Ghostbusters figure. The last two come with real cloth costumes and nifty accessories. Go here to see these figures and others including Skeletor and a kiddy Hawkman.
There’s always a dragon’s horde of goodies at Comic-Con, and this year promises to be no different. The list of exclusive toys, comics, posters, novelties and such like is up now. It’s a wonderful collection of stuff you can’t get anywhere else, including Dark Avengers Minimates, a pink Darth Vader helmet, a 12″ Baroness figure from the new G.I. Joe film, a Luke and Han as Stormtroopers combo, a Phantom designer action figure and a bronze statue of Marcus Fenix from the awesome game that is Gears of War. The exclusives list is being updated so make sure to check regularly. Of course, if you’re not going to the Con, then check e-Bay afterwards, or ask a nerdy friend that is going to grab something for you. Because nerds are nice.
At last year’s Comic-Con I picked up an exclusive Masters of the Universe figure of King Grayskull and a Peter Parker with Spider-Sense face Mighty Mugg. This year I might just pick up one of these puppies. Tying into DC’s x-over event, Blackest Night this Green Lantern box set includes Hal Jordan in his usual duds, as well as a member of the Blue, Red, Orange and Yellow Corps. The limited figures will be available at the Graphitti Designs booth at the Con, with one coloured figure being made available on different days.
DC’s solicitations, for new products arriving in September, are now up. I always tend to look to the more unique stuff first, such as the statues and action figures and such and then work my way up to comics and Trades. Below are a few novelties that caught my eye. Not that I’d buy them, but they do look cool. You can see figures of Superman in his blue electricity power costume and Aquaman during his morose amputee phase. Ah, the 90s. How I love thee! There’s also the Joker and Harley Quinn figures from the Mad Love Collector Set and new anime inspired Batman and Robin figures, from the Ame-Comi series. Hopefully Grant Morrison doesn’t get any ideas! All these bad boys go on sale in February.
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I just picked up Smallville Season 6 because it was cheap. I was never a fan of the show when it first began, with its boring baddies of the week premise, but as it started to expand its mythology and bring in more DC guest stars it piqued my interest. Once the rest of the seasons become cheap I’m sure I’ll pick them up too. It was great seeing actor Justin Hartley in the Neal Adams designed costume from the comics in an episode with a fancy dress party opener, and he does Oliver Queen justice, I gotta say. The doco on the history of the character is a nice feature too. And I saw a neato episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold this morning which featured a Bats and GA (in his classic outfit) team up. AND to top of the emerald archer goodness, here’s a pic from DC’s latest wave of Classic action figures.
Cool, huh? The others in the Mattel series are Deadshot, Black Canary, Black Adam,Mantis, Parademon, Wildcat and Classic Guardian and a build-a-figure Chemo. You can see all of them here.
Who ever thought a biker with a flaming head, and a devourer of worlds could look so cute? I saw these in the display at Comic-Con and wanted every single one of them. Considering I’m mainly a DC devotee, that just goes to show you how adorable they are. These unique Mighty Muggs from Hasbro have limited articulation, and some come with character specific accessories. I picked up the Con exclusive Peter Parker/Spider-Man one and now it makes all the girls swoon. You can check out the larger range here of these arty interpretations, and sample some of my faves from the new wave below.
Just try and resist, I dare you, as you park your peepers on Captain America, Ghost Rider, Thor, Wolverine and Venom.
Previews. What a joyful gift it is each month. Almost 500-600 colour pages of pop culture glory. It’s basically a phone book sized catalogue including comics, action figures, novelties, posters, books, magazines, collectibles, games and DVDs. Stuff you would generally not find anywhere else. It’s all good stuff. Well, most of it. Both comics shops and their customers order from the same catalogue. If you see something you like in there, you tell your favourite comics outlet, they’ll order it for you and then you wait two months (or longer) for it to arrive. That’s not because it’s coming across the seas on a viking ship manned by short-limbed asthmatics. That’s because, well, I don’t know why really, but it gives fans plenty of notice. 90% of the items in every Previews will be available 2 months later, so July’s stuff will reach us in September. I give my Previews away each month after I’m done with it (after I’ve torn out anything that would make a nifty poster) It’s a great blessing to those who are interested in pop culture and you’ll discover all the latest TV and movie toys way before your less informed friends. This advance warning will allow you to mock them relentlessly I’m sure. Each issue has an introduction on how to use it, a few nice articles and interviews and a Top 100 Best Sellers list. (Unsurprisingly April’s top comic was Marvel’s Secret Invasion #1) This month the theme is horror, with a few top picks of the genre. Each of the major comic publishers have their own section – Dark Horse, DC, Image, Top Cow, Marvel and magazine publisher Wizard. Their most popular books have a page each, with the creators listing, cover art, story summary, page count and price and maybe a preview of a page or two. Oh and Marvel get their own little catalogue inserted into Previews. Cause they like to be different. Previews is distributed by Diamond, a company who pretty much has a monopoly on distributing English language comics and related goodies worldwide. If you’re curious about this whole comics things, Previews is a good place to start. It’s cheap ($4.50 US) and stored up near the front counter. If you see anything of interest, ask your friendly comics shop worker-drone to order it. If you don’t find anything, you’ll at least have lots of nice pictures to drool over.
Let’s dive into the current issue, shall we? Skipping past all the comics for now, let’s go to the Magazines section towards the back. I have to order Back Issue #30. This ish is all about the Saturday Morning Heroes, ie, TV and ‘toon superheroes, like the 70s Captain Marvel show and Space Ghost. The highlight for me would have to be the Super Powers feature, which was an awesome cartoon/action figure tie-in from DC Comics. In Books, The Ten-Cent Plague leaps out at me. It’s a 400 page look at the most interesting period in comics history, when they were public enemy No. 1. Those rascally publishers had apparently gone too far and churches and governments shut them down. This’ll be a fascinating read. The Toys/Statues/Models section is usually the first one I go to each month. Where else could you find a life-size Thor hammer, a cute Admiral Ackbar (exclusive to Previews) or a vampire skull?! I could make a great movie with those three props. Star Wars fans have the best pick of novelties though. For example, a talking Darth for your PC/Mac and a cuddly Chewie for your back.
There’s a little intro into the world of comics via the world of Previews. Later on in the week, we’ll take a gander at some cool comics hidden in the depths of July’s Previews.
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