by Erik Weinbrecht
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.
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