action figures
Shelf Porn Saturday | Toys and TPB’s in Texas
Hello and welcome to Shelf Porn, where we give fans the opportunity to show us their collections. Today’s shelves come from Jesse Dobson, an English teacher in Texas who shows us his collection of trades, toys and more.
If you’d like to see your collection here, drop me a note at jkparkin@yahoo.com. Let’s make it happen!
And now here’s Jesse:
SDCC ’12 | Saturday programming schedule released
Saturday’s programming for this year’s Comic-Con International continues the grand “big movie panels” tradition typically associated with the third day of the con. Both Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios are on the schedule for Hall H; no doubt Marvel will have more than just Iron Man 3 to talk about at that 6 p.m. slot. Warner Bros., meanwhile, will talk about Man of Steel in their panel, which will also include The Hobbit and Pacific Rim.
Comic publishers are well represented, with BOOM!, Marvel, DC Comics, Archie, Archaia, Dark Horse, Image, Top Cow, Drawn & Quarterly, Skybound, Vertigo, Top Shelf and more scheduled for various panels on Saturday. CCI also puts the spotlight on Mark Waid, Morrie Turner, Klaus Janson, Stan Goldberg, Gary Gianni, Jim Lee and many more creators, and celebrates anniversaries for Funky Winkerbean, Love & Rockets, Bob the Angry Flower, Courtney Crumrin and the Gays in Comics panel. And don’t forget about the always entertaining masquerade.
Here are some of the comics-related highlights below; visit the Comic-Con website to see the complete schedule.
Shelf Porn Redux | Karl Heitmueller’s ‘dusty work of art’
It’s been awhile since we had any new Shelf Porn to show you … and it looks like it could still be awhile. We do, however, have some brand new pictures from a collection that we first ran back in 2009. Cartoonist Karl Heitmueller wrote in to tell us that he recently had a professional photographer, his friend Gary Ashley, take some photos of his walls of action figures. Karl was kind enough to share them with us; you can see some of them after the jump, and the rest of them over on his blog.
I thank Karl not only for sharing the photos but also for giving me an excuse to make the pitch for more pics. I’d love to start posting Shelf Porn entries again, so if you have some shelves of comics, action figures or other related collectibles you’d like to show off, send me a write-up and some jpgs at jkparkin@yahoo.com. And hey, if you sent in your collection once before and would like to share some updates, those are welcome as well!
Now let’s check out some more of Karl’s shelves …
Aw yeah, the Tiny Titans SDCC-exclusive boxed set
This should lift the spirits of readers still mourning the end of DC Comics’ Tiny Titans: Cool Toy Review and Fwoosh have the first looks at Mattel’s Comic-Con International-exclusive boxed set featuring five figures — Robin, Raven, Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy — based on the character designs from the Eisner Award-winning series by Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani. As you can see from the image above, the package is actually a Sidekick City Elementary bus driven by principal Slade Wilson and bearing the slogan “Convention or Bust.” On the back is a comic strip by Baltazar and Aureliani depicting the five pint-sized heroes, including a cosplaying Beast Boy, at the convention.
Check out more images below, and at Cool Toy Review and Fwoosh. The set will be available at the Mattel booth at Comic-Con for $20, and at MattyCollector.com later.
First look at Comic-Con DVD-exclusive Joss Whedon figure
There have been action figures based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Marvel’s The Avengers and even Firefly/Serenity, but there’s never been one been one of the man behind them — until now.
That’s right, Joss Whedon now has his own action figure. Or, rather, figurine, as Entertainment Weekly notes it doesn’t have moveable joints. But whatever you want to call it, you can get Whedon as one of four mini-figures packaged with the collector’s edition of Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope. Spurlock, Stan Lee and Harry Knowles are the other three.
The Whedon and Spurlock figures will be available with the DVD exclusively at Toys ‘R’ Us beginning July 10, which means fans may even get a chance to have them signed by the filmmakers themselves at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Wait, that means you’d have to take them out of the package — so just have them sign the plastic case.
Mattel reveals Tiny Titans, Death San Diego exclusives
Tiny Titans
The operative word for Mattel’s San Diego exclusives this year would be “cute,” if the three DC Comics items they posted on their MattyCollector site today are any indication. As you can see above, they’ll be offering a set of Tiny Titans collectible figures with a display base. And if that’s not enough of a cute overload for you, click below to see the Death figure and the Polly Pocket Comics Villains set, featuring a trio of Bat villains, labeled “A” for “Adorable.”
They also announced some Masters of the Universe and Ghostbusters exclusives as well, so click on over if you want to check those out.
Marvel’s lawyers toy with humanity of mutants
Marvel’s lawyers want you to know that the publisher’s merry mutants are in no way human — at least when it comes to toys.
According to a recent Radiolab Podcast, in order to get a 5.2-percent tax cut on Marvel’s imported action figures, the company’s lawyers successfully argued the toys represent “animals or other non-human creatures (for example, robots and monsters)” as defined by the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, a tome that determines tariff classifications for all goods imported into the United States.
Confused? There’s a lot of legalese involved, so here’s the way it breaks down: There’s a distinction between two categories of products imported into the U.S. “Dolls” are toys representing humans, whereas “toys” represent non-humans. While dolls are taxed at 12.8 percent, toys are taxed at just 6.8 percent. Two shrewd trade attorneys noticed the distinction and successfully argued to U.S. Customs officials that Marvel’s licensed products don’t represent human beings.
Shelf Porn Saturday | End-of-the-year shelves!
Hello and welcome to Shelf Porn! It’s been awhile since we had someone’s shelves to feature, and what a great way to end 2011 by posting someone’s collection.
Today’s shelves come to us from, simply, “The Dork,” who blogs regularly over at The Dork Review. “This is a collection of my stuff (minus the Yoda stuff; which is my wife’s) that I have been collecting since I was a kid,” he told me via email. He had previously posted it on his own site, and you can see that post right here.
If you would like to contribute some shelves, it’s easy — just send pictures and a brief description to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
And now, onto the shelves!
Bruce Banner and Doctor Strange take an ‘Incredible Drive’
Toyota has teamed with Marvel for “The Incredible Drive,” a four-part stop-motion animated adventure promoting the car manufacturer’s Yaris model. Created by the crew behind “Marvel Super Heroes: What The–?!” — Ben Morse, Jesse Falcon, Alex Kropinak and others — the first short features a Yaris-driving Bruce Banner forced into therapy with Doctor Strange, who suggests all he needs for his anger-control issues is a road trip. With him.
Yes, the guy who transforms into a 7 1/2-foot-tall monster drives a subcompact car — but, hey, it’s no weirder than him rooming with the Red Hulk or seeking mental-health advice from a magic-wielding neurosurgeon (apparently Doc Samson isn’t covered by Banner’s HMO). Strange’s Monarch-esque voice is a little much, but it’s definitely worth sitting through for the Marvel Universe-themed destination billboards and the late addition to the unlikely road-trip crew.
By Blackest (Friday) Night, no bargain shall escape my sight …
If you’re like me, instead of heading out to the mall to face the hectic Black Friday crowds (some of whom are apparently armed with pepper spray), you’re sitting at home nursing a turkey hangover and looking for good deals on the internet. Here are a few places you may want to check out for your gift-giving or personal shopping needs, and if you’re up for adventuring outdoors, Bleeding Cool has a great roundup of shops holding sales today.
Blackest Friday
ComiXology has a bunch of digital comics for 99 cents today. DC Comics is holding a Blackest Friday sale, allowing you to buy each issue of the Blackest Night crossover for 99 cents each. Marvel has Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four issues on sale for 99 cents, while IDW has their Star Trek comics on sale.
Batman, Joker get BLOXed in new vinyl figure line
Batman Blox
Funko, the company whose Pop Vinyl figure line includes everyone from Mickey Mouse to Yoda to Spider-Man to the Ramones, has a new line called BLOX that features “2D-image ‘thickened’ into a boxy 3D-figure.” The figures stand seven inches tall and feature Batman, Joker, Gene Simmons and several cereal mascots.
You can see all of them in all their glory over on the Funko site, or head to Entertainment Earth to pre-order them.
Green rabbit from Marvel’s Star Wars comics competes to become an action figure
Jaxxon ain't no rodent
Back in the 1970s Marvel Comics was saved by a little film called Star Wars, according to Jim Shooter. As Marvel’s editor-in-chief at the time notes, Marvel’s adaptation of the film “sold and sold and sold” no matter what format they released it in.
And after Marvel adapted the film into six-issue series, they continued to tell tales set in the Star Wars universe. Issue #7 sported a cover promising new stories about Han Solo and Chewbacca, as the duo appeared in a “Seven Samurai” style tale with a whole bunch of new characters, including a big green rabbit named Jaxxon. While Jaxxon only appeared in a handful of Star Wars comics at the time, he made enough of an impression to achieve a sort of cult status with some folks. IGN ranked him as #97 in their top 100 Stars Wars characters, while Bully the stuffed little bull advocated that they should have replaced Jar Jar Binks with Jaxxon in the prequel films. And he even appeared in a webcomic at TheForce.net.
And now the Bugs Bunny tribute character is up for the ultimate form of recognition, as Hasbro and Star Wars Insider magazine are holding a “Fans’ Choice Poll” where fans can vote on which action figure Hasbro will make next. Jaxxon is going up against some other “expanded universe” characters and the expected “Hey, weren’t they on the screen for five seconds? Make a figure!” characters from the films.
The polls close Dec. 1, so head over there and show your support for the rodent, er, rabbit.
NYCC hangover | A round-up of additional news from the show
Age of Apocalypse
News and reports from the New York Comic Con rolled out even after the lights were turned off on Sunday; here are a few of them, as well as some tidbits we missed the first time around:
• Marvel announced an ongoing Age of Apocalypse series by David Lapham and Roberto De La Torre, spinning out of the current “Dark Angel Saga” storyline in Uncanny X-Force. [CBR]
• Designer Chip Kidd is writing a Batman book called Batman: Death by Design with art by Dave Taylor. It’s due out next summer. [ComicsAlliance]
• USA Today spotlighted Captain Brooklyn, due next May from Jimmy Palmiotti, Frank Tieri and Amanda Conner. The three-issue miniseries will be published by Image Comics. [USA Today]
• Following the convention, Marvel has released pages from the Prep & Landing story that will appear in a few of their upcoming November comics. [CBR]
Shelf Porn | Comics, statues and a No-Prize!
Welcome to another edition of Shelf Porn, where Robot 6 proudly shares the shelves and collections of fans around the world. Today’s collection comes from across the pond, as Robert Menzies shares his statues, comics and even a Marvel No-Prize with us.
If you’d like to see your collection here, send a write-up and some jpg images to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
And now let’s hear from Robert …
SDCC ’11 | A roundup of Friday’s announcements
The Massive
Friday was a busy day in San Diego, with a full slate of announcements capped by the Eisner Awards in the evening.
• Image Comics will resurrect the classic television show MacGyver as a five-issue miniseries written by MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff and Doctor Who writer Tony Lee, and illustrated by Becky Cloonan.
• Brian Wood’s newest project was announced — The Massive, about environmentalists who survive the last environmental collapse. The comic will start its run in Dark Horse Presents #8 in January.
• Vertigo Executive Editor Karen Berger confirmed that Scalped will end with issue #60.
• Marvel teased the return of the Scarlet Spider.
• DC Comics released more interior art for several of their “New 52″ titles, including Aquaman, Mister Terrific and more.