Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010...12:58 pm

Post-Toyfair Post, 2010!

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I’ve been back from Toy Fair for a week, and finally have all of my pictures uploaded. I’m still sorting through my memories and trying to make some time to come up with a good, cohesive Toy Fair Report (only a week late! Har!)

One common question bandied between collector sites at Toy Fair is “What good stuff have you seen?” (or “So what’s good at Toy Fair?” or “What’s new?”) In a similar vein, my husband asked me what was most exciting at Toy Fair this year.

Well.

Judging from how I reacted in person, the most exciting news was Hasbro’s My Little Pony [ASM link]. Specifically, the return of mermaid ponies/hippocampuses (albeit in the miniature PonyVille line) and of course the new Lauren Faust-designed My Little Ponies, including a princess pegacorn with glittery wings, Spike the baby dragon, and my own personal favorite, APPLEJACK! Admittedly, the hayseed/Daisy Duke depiction isn’t quite what I had in mind for Applejack, but I’m just thrilled that she isn’t portrayed as masculine just based on the “jack” part of her name.

When my husband showed me these pictures, I loudly squeed in excitement, despite being in line at Kinokuniya Books.

So that’s definitely something that I found exciting at Toy Fair.

The other thing that had me completely losing my composure and hopping up and down in glee was Evolvems. You may remember them from last Toy Fair, and the number of times that I’ve linked to them in the past while. It is so amazing to see a small toy company debut at Toy Fair and then *actually make it big*, or at least make it into some stores. I was so relieved when I saw that ThinkGeek.com was carrying their “transforming” plush… and I was excited to see that they not only returned to Toy Fair, but also brought along TWO NEW PLUSHES!

Proailurus to Smilodon is cute, but regrettably has a kind of same-y feel due to the fact that kitties are pretty cat-like no matter what. But props on the interesting coloration for the “saber tiger”!

Eoraptor to Tyrannosaurus rex. Oh my goodness, look at those little bitty T. rex arms!

I asked Avi (the Evolvems guy) if they got a lot of backlash from creationists and intelligent design supporters, and I was massively disappointed to find out that EVERYONE asks him that. I liked my husband’s suggestion that such people should just buy two of each plush and display them as two separate creature/toys.


A note: this year, I started suggesting that we get pictures of people holding their products, so we can get a good idea of scale.

Here’s Avi holding his Evolvems.

Here’s Chris Gann with the freakin’ adorable Totem Tribes, a line of plush totem pole-y tiki-ish guys who can be stacked atop each other on a patent-pending pole. Seriously, click around and check them out, they are SO cute. And have a turtle. A TURTLE!

The reason that I suggested this was because it really is hard to guess at scale whilst perusing Toy Fair pics. I saw a few posters advertising that Toy Fair goers could get a Vamplets t-shirt or collectible plush doll for donating blood… but until I went to the Vamplets booth, I didn’t realize the actual size of these baby vampire plush dolls.


Other things that excited me!

From Bif!Bang!Pow!: VENTURE BROS’ ACTION FIGURES. MEGO-style, just like their LOST figures and their Twilight Zone figures. Check out the pictures on ASMzine! I think the MEGO style is a perfect match with the retro-70s Boy Adventurer feel of the Venture Bros, and I know that I at least want to get The Monarch and Dr. Venture. These are being sold as $40 two-packs (Entertainment Earth has The Monarch/Dean and Dr. Venture/Brock Samson up for preorder, shipping in August) so I guess I just committed to buying two two-packs right there.


From LEGO: A whole lot of board games. We are not a major board game household, but oh my gosh those tiny monsters. And this pyramid game! And this pirate treasure thing with the skellington! And of course we need Creationary.


From Wallace and Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions… cracking contraptions. Including a paper airplane launcher. Mostly kid-science projects, so I’m simultaneously tempted and aware that these will be aimed at a rather younger crowd.


From DC Direct: 1/6-scale deluxe Jonah Hex [ASM link].
I first discovered Jonah Hex via an episode of Batman: The Animated Series that quite improbably features him. I was pretty thrilled to see him return in Justice League Unlimited. And I was hooked once we got a giant paperback collection of his original run of comics. Basically, it’s a wandering samurai story. Featuring a scarred seemingly-tough-as-nails seemingly-amoral bounty hunter who wears a Confederate uniform. I think I appreciate the balance of grit/angst/cowboy drama and, well, the fact that Early Jonah is not nearly as tough-as-nails as he’d like everyone to believe. The newer Jonah Hex stuff is a little too dark for me, but the old stuff is terrific in a cheesy sort of way. So I’m looking forward to spending a little too much on this figure.


From Toynami: TIKITZ blind-boxed tiki mask figurines, plus Skelanimals and So So Happy monster plush! [Toy Vey Gallery link] [Significantly better pic of TIKITZ from my husband at ASMzine]

I know, I know, I keep swearing off blind-boxed figurines, but the TIKITZ are cute enough that I’m sure I’d be happy with whichever guy I got. Each color is supposed to represent a specific kind of wish or luck you will get by having this charm. My Japanese soul loves that kind of thing.

I’m also very impressed by Toynami’s Coldblooded line of polyresin reptile statues. These are born of the Toynami President’s love of reptiles, and his belief that the reptile show circuit needs to realize that there are better options for reptile-themed statues and chotchkes.


From Tonner: The Tonner Gallery at ASM has better pics of pretty much everything in the Tonner Gallery at ToyVey.
But. OMG AWESOME FISHGIRL. I am so enamoured of this fishgirl, from their Sinister Circus line of 16″ fashion dolls. I am tempted to get her to be a companion for our giant 18″ Abe Sapien figure, but they really wouldn’t be in scale to each other. But… she’s SO pretty!


As for my pre-Toy Fair predictions…

Judging from stuff we saw at the Giant Microbes booth, it looks like vinyl and plastic figurines are still considered the In Thing. Shocker Toys’ Mallowz Hong Kong Vinyl-style figures are picking up steam and even have some Funimation licenses like Dragon Ball Z and One Piece and Full Metal Alchemist.

I didn’t see as many DIY vinyl figures as I expected, although I am very excited about Skelanimals DIY Vinyl Figures, which include the Bulldog and the Bat. There is apparently a decorate-your-Skelanimals contest in the works!

The other big trend (not photographed by me, but plenty visible in ASM’s Wanderings at Toy Fair Gallery) was “really quirky plush, especially plush based on children’s drawings”. A related genre was rag-doll-style interpretations of classic characters like the Justice League and Alice in Wonderland.

Oh, and I’m not sure if this counts as a trend, but Beetlejuice sure is back. Living Dead Dolls has two Beetlejuice figures, and I know I saw more Beetlejuice stuff elsewhere.

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