Ok… so you’ve been lurking Toy Instagram, or more specifically #toyphotography, and you are feeling one or some combination of intimidation, intrigue, joy, and if you’ve discovered Jay Hernandez – downright disbelief; all of which is fair. While there are MANY Uber-talented artists out there like DarthDondada who not only stage incredible atmospheric photos, but also create elaborate set pieces and dioramas in scale with their figures. Not sure if you’re ready to take that kind of dedicated plunge? Enter Diorama Prints.
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Diorama Prints currently offers 18 different prints, most consisting of two walls and a floor, in scale with 6 and 7-inch figures, covering everything from seedy hotel rooms to abandoned space ships.
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The beauty of these super high-quality prints are that they are easy to store, not permanent, and incredibly easy to use. Simply trim the edges and tack them to some foam board or cardboard, prop them up in your light box or as the backdrop of your display, and you’re ready to go.
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Diorama Prints is giving burgeoning toy photographers a chance to dip their toes without much commitment – and it REALLY is that easy. We received a bundle from them and no exaggeration, had taken the photos you see here in about 45 min start to finish. You can see they work well with NECA, Hasbro, Jazwares, Storm Collectibles, and McFarlane Toys.
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The finish on the prints have a light gloss on them – which is great for basic lighting – and they’re on a great stock. Another thing of note here is that all of these shots were taken on an iPhone 12 and very lightly edited using the Lightroom app. Thanks to the folks at Diorama Prints for sending over these samples, we love them and can’t wait to keep using them with more figures in the future.
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Be sure to check out dioramaprints.com to see all 18 of their sets and get yours today!
2020 may be in the rearview mirror, but the global pandemic certainly is not. With this year’s cancellation of the New York Toy Fair, that left the Toy Association no choice but proceed with the first-ever all virtual TOTY awards. And while it didn’t have the same feeling as years’ past and left us jonesing for the annual plastic spectacle at the Javits Center, we were still happy to be able to experience it at all.
Before we get into the one piece of controversy from the award show, I wanted to shout out this year’s inductees into the Toy Hall of Fame – something that is always a part of the TOTY proceedings.
It was really great to see legendary heavy-hitters from the industry like Steiff, Rowland, and Killgallon who have contributed to lasting toy legacies like Steiff plushes, American Girl Dolls, and the Etch-a-Sketch [respectively] get recognition.
Onto the “controversy.” So McFarlane’s highly-anticipated, record-breaking, Kickstarter Spawn made the list, even though few have actually laid hands on it. Yes, at the time of writing this we are told that they have passed customs in the US and will beginning shipping out any day and YES – Dave and I are both beyond excited to get our hands on it. That being said, we’re both on board with it not winning the Action Figure of the Year award that went the one of two ways it should have; that being with Spin Master’s Batman figures, or with the #thankyouheroes line from Fisher-Price (which is where it landed).
Spawn did take home the People’s Choice Award to which we say, “fair.” No doubt an exorbitant amount of people voted for it, pushed by a campaign run by McFarlane Toys and due simply to the buzz the figure has been generating since May.
Below you can find the full list of winners from the show as well as a link to watch the presentation in its entirety.
Well wasn’t that something? The first of the virtual cons that ACTUALLY felt like a proper con – there were panels with interesting guests, product reveals, musical guests, and no technical mishaps to speak of. Since we’ve all been in the clutches of a global pandemic, many have tried to recreate the energy of a Con with varied degrees of success – Hasbro on the other hand has been doing with great success since they introduced Fan First Fridays a few months ago, culminating with the success of this past weekend’s event. Here are 5 highlights (in no particular order) of Pulse Con 2020.
The Guests
Often times getting to hear the inner workings of things from industry luminaries is part of what makes cons so special – Pulse Con was no exception. Whether it was hearing Frank Welker and Peter Cullen tell stories from inside the Transformers recording sessions (and of course, doing the voices live), Ernie Hudson talking about doing the Ghostbusters films, or a special musical performance (social distancing style) from Tenacious D, Pulse Con had a wide array of special moments to enthrall watchers in between the wallet-crushing product announcements. Speaking of…
Product Announcements and Preorders
Whether it was the Ecto-1, a look well into 2021’s Marvel Legends and Star Wars figures, the shock drop of Drizzt and Guenhyvwer, GI Joes, Power Rangers, or Transformers, there was no shortage of new products announced – and then made available for preorder same day. Most were available via hasbropulse.com and were easily obtainable – of course the store exclusives on Target and Walmart sold out almost instantly (sorry Joe fans).
The GI Joe Team
The Marvel Legends Team
Hasbro giving us a look into the future of products is always fun, especially when it’s the product designers themselves doing the talking. Big thanks to all of their hard work in making these awesome products.
Connecting with Fans
The #toycommunity is a massive online community that’s growing every day and Hasbro did not ignore that. Throughout the course of the two-day event, they took questions virtually, did live polls, and showed off toy photography (like you see above) and even crafted an entire “Mean Tweets” style segment cherry-picking some of the more, “flavorful” comments around the Marvel Legends product. This kind of engagement from a brand as massive as Hasbro is a great move – it makes the heavy-hitter seem more approachable, reachable, and shows that they’re listening. The virtual world is the ideal environment to tackle this too – given the disconnect our current world is forcing upon us.
Honoring Legacy
Two words: Mark Boudreaux. The legendary toy luminary retired from Hasbro earlier this year after giving us decades of incredible products – and even making something so iconic it eventually became canon. Twice during Pulse Con, Mark was given special segments detailing his Star Wars vehicle work and then his work on the Real Ghostbusters. It’s incredible to hear from someone as important as Mark, and I love that Hasbro took the time to really honor his legacy.
Crowd Funding
What do the Razorcrest and Heroquest have in common you ask? Three things actually. They are the next two Haslab projects over at Hasbro; they were both announced at Pulse Con, and they were both full funded in less than 24 hours. Yes you can safely back the 30″ x 20″ x 10″ Vintage Collection 1/18th Scale Razorcrest from the Mandalorian for $350 and join countless others enjoying the relaunch of HeroQuest for $100 knowing that you’ll get your product. With the exception of the 1:1 scale Cookie Monster (that can no longer even be found on the site) HasLab has been a great success for Hasbro bringing fans gargantuan products like Jabba’s Sail Barge, Unicron, and the Sentinel before.
Grab your Hasbro products on hasbropulse.com or start re-living Pulse Con 2020 below on YouTube!
AEW UNRIVALED Collection unveiled at Toy Fair New York featuring AEW talent The Young Bucks, Cody, Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega.
Hype is an interesting thing. Often things fail to live up to it. When they do, however, something magical happens. In the toy collecting world, this magical moment leads to something we rarely see. Sure, you see it around the holidays for whatever has taken the mantle of “this year’s Cabbage Patch Kids.” But how often do you see it in August? During a global pandemic?
Monday, August 3rd. That was finally going to be the day. The new hot brand is All Elite Wrestling. The commercial that aired during AEW Dynamite set the table. Head to your local Walmart for the first wave of the first new major wrestling figure brand in decades. The collecting community was beyond ready. Especially because the Ringside Collectibles exclusive Chris Jericho had already arrived for those who pre ordered, and it was awesome. Especially because Jazwares has Jeremy Padawer involved, who innovated the genre at Jakks. Especially because AEW has been great so far. Ringside Collectibles was even shipping preorders as soon as they arrived on August 1st. Excitement was at an all time high.
Cut to 7 AM on Monday, August 3rd. Most Walmarts had empty shelves, save a few AEW rings and championship belts. Very few collectors found figures. Word started to spread that someone said “maybe later in the week,” or “maybe next week,” or even the dreaded “nothing new is coming.” Hype quickly turned to disappointment. Thankfully, Jeremy Padawer provided the community with an amazing level of transparency. Not only would they be coming, but a really awesome shipper would be coming. Commence hype!
As the days and weeks went by, single cases and eventually shippers began to arrive at stores. Collectors of all ages were dialing in to walmart.com or their favorite inventory checker of choice for figure availability, lining up before 7AM with the hope of being able to purchase these new wrestling figures. Just like our parents did whether we were part of the LJN, or Hasbro, or Jakks generation of collectors. Just as our parents before us, supply did not necessarily meet demand.
The chase was on in an almost cinematic fashion. People power walking to aisles in the middle of the day. That was how I met a father looking to pick up the wave for his child’s birthday. Yes, I really was going to defer to him if the figures were actually available. They were not. That’s also how I met this week’s guest on the Podcast, Zombie Sailor. Same day. Different Walmart. You can hear all about it on this week’s episode. Cheap plug aside, I finally saw the figures the next morning. I was 4th in line to see one case go to the people ahead of me. The figures looked awesome, though. The packaging is great and reminiscent of the Jakks Classic Superstars.
I finally found them a couple of weeks later, early on a Saturday morning. I found Cody, Jericho, and Kenny Omega at one store. I found the Young Bucks at another store. That was a good story too. I asked an employee if they were in. He said he’d look. Another employee had told me they weren’t in stock. Just as I was about to leave, the employees told me don’t go anywhere because they found them. It was awesome to see a full shipper. I snapped a picture for the Instagram, grabbed the Young Bucks figures, and called it a morning.
The level of excitement around the AEW Unrivaled collection is, well, unrivaled in the modern days of collecting. It’s awesome to see the collecting community of all ages looking for these figures. And with the chases out there, the hunt will always be on. Don’t let your excitement turn to frustration, the figures are out there. Thank you to AEW, Jazwares, Jeremy Padawer and everyone involved for making an awesome product. I’m looking forward to more waves, more accessories, and more fun.
San Diego Comic Con’s virtual adventure has come to an end – and even though the venue was certainly something different this year – the events still brought to the toy world MANY an announcement. While a lot of collectors were caught up in the whirlwind that was scalpers swooping in and/or broken and beaten down websites, there were a TON of wow moments from brands, big and small. In no particular order, here are 5 announcements that blew us away during this year’s Comic Con at home.
Hasbro
It’s no surprise with the plethora of IPs that the folks at Hasbro manage that they had quite the showiing. All of their exclusives were revealed, but won’t be available until September through Hasbro Pulse, and whether it was the Star Wars, GI Joe, Marvel Legends, Transformers, or Power Rangers announcements, they covered a lot of ground.
Mattel
I hope you like wrestling – and if you do – I hope you’ve been saving up! WWE basics, elites, and ultimates were all shown off in various stages of development. Notable highlights were all things Bray Wyatt (including the Ringside Collectibles exclusive set), the incredibly detailed ultimate Rock, Hollywood Hulk Hogan, and Fiend, as well as a ton of new faces like Rhea Ripley coming to the line for the first time.
McFarlane Toys
Since McFarlane Toys snatched up that DC Multiverse license, they’ve been getting a lot of feedback from collectors – many saying that the scale and deco is a little “off,” and that their Batman-centric lens has been frustrating; the latter of the two sets of critics will not be pleased with what Todd and Co. had to show off, but it’s hard to argue their new offerings aren’t a MARKED improvement over their early waves. Rounding out the Dark Knights Metal crew, introducing the Flash and characters like Red Hood, many thought the brand, “stole the show.” Also announced were new additions to the My Hero Academia line, as well as DOOM, and a new RAW10 line of monsters.
NECA
Turtles, turtles, turtles, and tension. While NECA revealed more of their Alien, Predator, and final shots of their upcoming Back to the Future figures, it was obvious that the focus was on the TMNT. With their movie realism two-pack of Casey Jones and Raphael unable to stay stocked at Walmart (at the time of writing this) and their con-exclusive Mutagen Tour 4-pack depicting the TMNT in their 90′s concert glory selling out in mere seconds, NECA’s announcements were both parts exciting, and maddeningly frustrating. That being said, they responded quickly to the backlash by announcing the upcoming Tokka and Rahzar two-pack will be subject to pre-order window – something brands like Super 7 have had a lot of success with.
The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast
Not to be left out of the fun, the pro-wrestlers and action figure aficionados Matt Cardona and Brian Myers of the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast had their own slew of announcements during SDCC – firstly they announced that they, as podcast personalities, will be getting Super 7 Ultimate figures – insanely awesome ones at that – and those will scale with Super 7′s other Ultimates like what they’re making for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Secondly, they announced 4 sets of Ringside Exclusive REMCO-style vintage figures in their likeness, along with a ref, and Smart Mark Sterling himself.
