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Post by brutalis on Jul 26, 2016 15:24:54 GMT -5
How about a series of action, pulp, science fiction/fantasy figures? Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Conan, King Kull, The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, The Avenger, Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless, Buck Rogers, and others of their ilk? These would look splendid upon my bookshelves...
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Post by lobsterjohnson on Jul 26, 2016 18:38:34 GMT -5
How about a series of action, pulp, science fiction/fantasy figures? Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Conan, King Kull, The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, The Avenger, Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless, Buck Rogers, and others of their ilk? These would look splendid upon my bookshelves... I've wanted a good 6" Shadow action figure for a while. I do have a pretty good 1:6 scale Shadow figure, but I want one in scale with the rest of my collection. |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Jul 26, 2016 19:26:27 GMT -5
How about a series of action, pulp, science fiction/fantasy figures? Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Conan, King Kull, The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, The Avenger, Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless, Buck Rogers, and others of their ilk? These would look splendid upon my bookshelves... Funko did a Retro Action Flash Gordon line recently. I'm not sure if it's out yet:  I would love to see them expand into other sci-fi/fantasy areas -- Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, The Prisoner, etc. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 22:03:52 GMT -5
How about a series of action, pulp, science fiction/fantasy figures? Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Conan, King Kull, The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, The Avenger, Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless, Buck Rogers, and others of their ilk? These would look splendid upon my bookshelves... Funko did a Retro Action Flash Gordon line recently. I'm not sure if it's out yet: I would love to see them expand into other sci-fi/fantasy areas -- Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica, The Prisoner, etc. That's Biff Bang Pow, not Funko. It's run by Jason Lenzi (who does the Pod Stallions podcast I have been listening too lately) and the art director on that line was Alex Ross. THe line has been out for a while, and a some of the figures have already sold out. Aside from those, there was the repro Captain Action figures a while back that did Flash and Ming figures-I have the Ming.   They did a bunch of Battlestar stuff recently too (classic not new) Neca just did a few Buck Rogers figures based on the Gil Gerard show in the last year or two.   There were others, but the Galactica line has been retired and most of the figures are sold out. Here's the Neca Buck figures...  They too are mostly sold out and only available in the secondary market at collector's prices now. Zica also did them in 2010...  Figures Toy Company just did Kull, Conan, Solomon Kane and Tarzan (plus Jane, Korak and Meredith) in the retro-Mego style in the last couple of years too. A Phantom figure was done in this style by one of the lines too along with a couple of villains, it too has been retired and sold out and only available on the secondary market. The negative reception of the John Carter movie by Disney (despite several people here liking it) sabotaged any chances Disney would do a toy line, and they still hold the rights to the merchandising for John Carter so you won't see that for a good while. As for Shadow, Doc Savage and such, form what I understand the rights on those are currently a nightmare to navigate, so I wouldn't look for any of them to show up any time soon. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 22:45:31 GMT -5
*By rights nightmares for Shadow, Doc Savage and such what I'v heard is that some of the stories are public domain in some countries, others not, it varies from country to country. Merchandising rights are available for some countries not others, so if you buy the rights you are limited to what countries you can sell to, some have been license for certain types of products not others, trademarks are active in some countries, not in others, etc. Trying to figure out what is available and not available, where you can sell what to and where you can't etc. is more headaches than most small companies want to deal with, preventing a line of such figures from being viable. But I'll never say never as the re-Mego (i.e. retro-Mego) movement seems to have some legs now (it's been over six years and rowing it seems), and 3 3/4 lines of retro figures (such as those from ReAction for Alien, Firefly, and other properties) are starting to gain some traction too... ReAction Alien figure...  -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 23:04:46 GMT -5
ReAction is the Funko retro line, btw, which is where Shax may have gotten confused with the Biff Bang Pow stuff.
ReAction has lines for the following:
Alien
Arrow
Back to the Future
Big Trouble in Little Chine
Breaking Bad
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Escape from New York
Fight Club
Firefly
Goonies
Gremlins
Horror (Freddie Kreuger, Ghostface, Michael Myers, Jason, Leatherface, Pinhead, Sam, and The Crow)
Jaws
Nightmare Before Christmas
Predator
Pulp Fiction
Rocketeer (1 figure only not a line)
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Scarface (1 figure only)
Star Trek (classic Trek only)
Taxi Driver (1 figure only)
Terminator
Terminator 2
The Fifth Element
The Flash
The Karate Kid
Tomorrowland
Universal Monsters
-M
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Post by brutalis on Jul 27, 2016 8:12:04 GMT -5
Hasbro needs to get their butts into gear and connect with the current crowd of sculptors. Collectors would go wild on more sculpted figures which look like the comic book versions of their characters. Sculpted ROM and Dire Wraiths, sculpted Micronauts of Acroyear and Baron Karza and Force Commander (both in and out of centaur form), sculpted G.I. Joe of Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Destro, Baroness, Cobra Commander, Zartan and more. The simplified versions have been fine but as cost to create/buy goes up and sales go down they need to rethink what will sell.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2016 13:13:03 GMT -5
Hasbro needs to get their butts into gear and connect with the current crowd of sculptors. Collectors would go wild on more sculpted figures which look like the comic book versions of their characters. Sculpted ROM and Dire Wraiths, sculpted Micronauts of Acroyear and Baron Karza and Force Commander (both in and out of centaur form), sculpted G.I. Joe of Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Destro, Baroness, Cobra Commander, Zartan and more. The simplified versions have been fine but as cost to create/buy goes up and sales go down they need to rethink what will sell. Except there is a significant portion of the fanbase for those characters who only want toys that recall the original nature of them, not updated modern sculpts and won't support updated line. And since the big appeal o those lines is nostalgia rather than current fans, so the question they fac eis will any line sell well enough to make it worth their while with a divided fanbase. Word is Hasbro dropped the price of the Micronauts gift pack SDCC exclusive form $49.99 to $34.99 after thier breakfast launch at the con because it moved very slowly and there was a lot of split feedback among the fanbases over the modern vs. retro feel of the toys and the execs came away a little worried there might not be a big enough market either way if they choose one or the other to make the line viable. Toys like that are not mass market for kids play anymore, they are specifically for collector's now, and that customer base is divided between those who want modern vs. those who want retro, and this affects sales on any line that doesn't cross into mass pop culture (ex. Star Wars too big to be affected) especially when the line is a revival of a retro/vintage line. It's all well and good for you to say the modern will sell, but that's one of two equally loud messages producers like Hasbro are getting form their customer base and the actual sales are suffering because of the divide, because you have a niche market divided into 2 even smaller niche markets, and that's going to kill sales even more. It may mean these kinds of lines just aren't going to be viable as a mass market affordable product and have to be overpriced limited run collectible products. -M |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 28, 2016 2:58:49 GMT -5
I'd like to see a line of Marvel/DC figures based on specific artists interpretations that actually get it right. I'm thinking a Thor line based on Simonson, Batman on Aparo, New Gods based on Kirby, Avengers on Buscema, Teen Titans on Perez and X-Men on Byrne. I could go on forever. I know they've done this to an extent in the past, but rarely do the sculpts look like the artists to me.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2016 3:31:15 GMT -5
I'd like to see a line of Marvel/DC figures based on specific artists interpretations that actually get it right. I'm thinking a Thor line based on Simonson, Batman on Aparo, New Gods based on Kirby, Avengers on Buscema, Teen Titans on Perez and X-Men on Byrne. I could go on forever. I know they've done this to an extent in the past, but rarely do the sculpts look like the artists to me. The DC Comics Designer series based on Darwyn Cooke designs looks pretty good so far. Only Supergirl has been released, but I've seen the pics of the rest of the first wave and they all look pretty dang close to Darwyn's conceptions of the characters (the only one I don't like is the Harley Quinn figure, which uses the new Suicide Squad look filtered through Cooke's design-it looks like a Cooke design, I just don't like that iteration of the character at all, so I will pass on it, but likely get the others. -M edit to add pic of Wave 1  and Wave 2...  |
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jul 28, 2016 8:43:01 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of Cooke's art in the comics, but strangely I'm not that interested in those figures either. If I had to choose my dream series it would be a Walt Simonson Thor set. Thor of course would be great...but could you imagine his versions of Odin and Surtur done right? Byrne's FF and X-Men are a very close second.
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Golddragon71
Full Member
Immortal avatar of the Dragon Race The Golden Dragon
Posts: 343
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Post by Golddragon71 on Sept 1, 2016 2:50:14 GMT -5
Flash looks ok but his face looks Evil (Switch the red and Yellow and this would make a Great Reverse Flash to fight the previous New Frontier Flash) My biggest complaint is that the Rainbow Batmen won out over the DC Universe Online collection. For One Thing, I really liked the Cyborg that was offered for that line before it was cancelled (For another, I really wanted a second wave with Aquaman as he is in the Game!) Now no disrespect for Batman but I really would have preferred a new line in it's entirety to a line that was basically eight or so reprints of an existing figure. Besides that,.....the truth is that they should have used the Silver Age Batman Mold as opposed to the Super Friends Mold when it came time to move them from prototype to production model. (actually the Sprang Batman from the Batman Through the ages set would have been perfect for a recreation of this!....  |
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Sept 2, 2016 19:23:24 GMT -5
Maybe my tastes aren't demanding enough, but I always really liked this one:  One of the better figures to come out of that line. He looks like a flasher... This one I like for nostalgia sake, same with the Animated Series one but I find the face on it lacking.
Damn that Mezco Toys one looks sweet!
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Post by rom on Sept 19, 2016 14:22:31 GMT -5
Yes, there are a plethora of Action figure line(s) I'd like to see. Too many to list completely, but here is a portion of what I want:
A re-sculpted line of Crystar, the Crystal Warrior figures. These originally came out in the 1980's, but weren't that great due to the limitations of sculpting at the time. With the advances in sculpting, I'm sure a new line of Crystar toys would look superb.
A small line of ROM, Spaceknight figures - as they appeared in the '80's Marvel comic. I think they could make at least several figures in this line, including ROM (which would be far better than the P.O.S. 1979 toy), Dire Wraiths, etc.
A large line of Thundarr, The Barbarian action figures - based on characters from the classic '80's cartoon. If done properly, they should include not only Thundarr, Ookla the Mok, and Princess Ariel - but also many other character from the series, including: The Stalker from the Stars (alien vampire), Ape men, werewolves, blue-skinned Amazon women, Thundarr as werewolf, etc.
A series of Micronauts figures - based on the old Marvel comic. I.e., Bug, Baron Karza, etc.
A comprehensive line of X-files figures, focusing on the original TV series (1993-2002) and the two films. I envision a line that encompasses more than just the human characters (Scully, Mulder, cigarette smoking man, etc.) but also includes the cool mutants/aliens from the show & film - i.e., Flukeman, Eugene Tooms, The Great Mutato, gray alien, Rob Roberts mutant, two-headed dog (2nd film), etc.
A re-sculpted line of Sectaurs action figures. I liked the line back in the '80's, but don't have any of these figures anymore - and I've heard they go for big bucks on the secondary market.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2016 14:45:40 GMT -5
Most of the toy lines you cite you want based on the Marvel Comics are not longer with Marvel so will never happen. Rumblings are Hasbro has plans for a Micronauts and ROM line of toys but they will be based either on the current IDW comics or the movie projects they have in development for those properties and not on the Marvel Comics form 25 years ago.
There was a limited line of Thundarr figures produced about a decade ago, and they did not sell well enough to get a second wave.
As for Sectaurs, Crystar, both do well in the secondary market, but that rarely translates to success for current lines. The collectors want the vintage stuff, not modern reproductions or "improved" lines, they want the stuff that fires their nostalgia not imitations of it. And new consumers don't have the nostalgic connections to the lines to garner interest in buying new products, so new lines based on things popular in the secondary market please no one. The only exceptions is lines that have continue do make new fans over the years (tar Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers, etc. where the interested customer base is large enough to support both new lines and drive vintage sales. Go to any toy show and you will see there are 2 very distinct and separate customer bases-those who buy new toys based on stuff currently popular who will not look at anything vintage unless it ties into something currently popular, and those who buy vintage toys who won't really buy anything new even if it ties into stuff they like (with some minor exceptions like the Re-Mego audience, but that is a snake-pit of contradictions within the buying community that makes trying to figure out what they will or won't buy a marketing nightmare).
-M
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