Monday, July 27, 2009

San Diego Comic Con 2009 part 3 - DC Direct

More San Diego Comic Con pictures, taken from Michael Crawford's Review of the Week, Toy News International and Action Figure Pics. Looking at DC Direct items today.

Kotobukiya showed off way too much cool Marvel and Star Wars stuff to repost even the highlights, so I'll just link directly to Michael Crawford's Kotobukiya pics. I like Koto's stuff a lot, unfortunately I have neither the room nor the money to buy it, but I love the few pieces I have.

DC Direct is mostly known to me through their action figures, particularly the Superman/Batman line, but I'll cover action figures in another post, they also do some great statues and mini busts. Last year they did a Batman versus Joker Statue, and this year they follow it up with Batman vs Killer Croc. It's a really nice looking statue, very dynamic, though with Batman's splayed cape it'll take a lot of room. Not my room, of course, because I can't afford it, but somebody's room.

However, as nice as that statue looks, the one I really want is the Build-A-Scene statue. The idea is they take a big statue of a group of related characters, and break it up into three separate statues, so it's either more affordable, or so it's easier to produce, or something. Last year it was a statue of the new Justice League of America, two characters to a statue, Batman and Wonder Woman, Superman and Black Canary, and Green Lantern and Flash, each comes with a piece to build Red Tornado, who hovers above the others. I think the JLA statue looks really cool, and I wish I could get it. Each piece is around $150, so maybe if I save my money and try hard enough I could get each piece for $100 on ebay, maybe (some Gentle Giant statues have gotten really cheap when they came out, and some have stayed really cheap). Anyway, this year's statue is The Bat Family, and it's really cool and I really want it. The sections are Nightwing and Huntress, Commissioner Gordon and Batwoman, Catwoman/Gargoyle and Robin, assembling Batman.

Looks like there will be a Green Lanterns statue as well, which I'm assuming will be a Build-A-Scene also, with John Stewart and Guy Gardener, a Manhunter and Kyle Rayner, and Hal Jordan with two Guardians (one is Ganthet), building Alan Scott.

And finally (that I'm covering) a Wonder Woman vs Ares Statue. Ares looks really cool. The DCUC figure is great, but it is overwhelmingly blue (a nice metallic blue to be sure), but I really like the darker theme this one has, with silver trim.

And of course, DCD realizes that putting Batman and Superman on something isn't the only way to sell something, you can also use beautiful women, hence (or so I suppose) the Cover Girls of DC Statues and Women of the DC Universe Busts (har har). I spent a couple of years collecting the Gentle Giant mini busts, being smaller and cheaper than statues they were easier to collect, so naturally I like the Women of DC busts. I don't have any, because they're about the same price as GG busts (which I also don't collect currently), but they're even a little smaller. Also, there are a few my wife wouldn't be happy about me having, so if I can't have them all I'd rather not have any (until I can actually afford to buy a few). Anyway, upcoming Women busts: Raven, Hippolyta (who was the Silver Age (I think) Wonder Woman, which makes this third Wonder Woman bust), Batgirl (this is the second or third Batgirl bust), Vixen, Supergirl (second, I believe), Mera and Catwoman (also the third, I think). I like them all, and someday I may even get some of them.

All pictures of statues and busts from Michael Crawford's San Diego Comic Con Coverage.

I just noticed that Catwoman's base is a bag full of gems and jewelery and money. Very cool.

The Cover Girls of the DC Universe statues are based on actual comic book covers, featuring the title character in the same pose as the cover. They did a Batman, Superman and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) statue in a similar vein a couple of years ago, so it's a natural progression, but also seems to take advantage of the fact that Super Heroines are very well built in a physically appealing way, and better looking than the heroes. So far announced are Black Canary, Power Girl, Catwoman, Wonder Woman and Zatanna. I think the Wonder Woman is my favorite, but she's also my favorite character of the five, so I could be biased. I don't recall off the top of my head how much these cost (and the internet is unavailable for me to check), but I think they're around $200-$250, so predictably I won't be buying any anytime soon. Or maybe ever.

Apparently realizing that while sex sells, the Heroines aren't the only characters in the DC Universe that deserve busts, even if theirs are better looking, DC Direct have started a Heroes of the DC Universe line. Of course they're starting with the heavy hitters: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan, again), Aquaman, The Flash, Shazam and Green Arrow. In contrast to the Women of busts, wherein the subjects seem to be posing for us, the Heroes busts feature the subjects in action, Flash running, Superman heroically breaking chains, Aquaman looks like he's heroically fighting a giant squid or something, GL and Shazam are heroically flying, Green Arrow heroically shooting his bow. I think they'll be an interesting contrast to the more static, flirty and cheesecake-y poses of the girls when displayed mixed together. Unfortunately, it'll be a long time before I have any to display at all, let alone mixed together in interesting ways.

And of course, what is a Hero without his villain? Just a guy in some silly tights, that's what, so DCD is also giving us a Villains of the DC Universe line, currently consisting of The Joker and Darkseid.

Yet another line I'd like to collect, and actually the one I've come the closest to actually buying any of, the Ame-Comi statues. Anime renditions of DC Heroines. Already released we've seen Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Catwoman, Supergirl, Power Girl, Wonder Woman (Armored) and Cheeta. Wonder Woman is by far my favorite looking of the bunch, though I also like Supergirl and Power Girl quite a bit. Upcoming ones include Huntress, Harley Quinn, Hawk Girl, Poison Ivy, Batgirl (Cassie Cain), Catwoman (classic, cool boots!), Black Canary, Wonder Girl, Steel (Tasha), a new Wonder Woman, a girl Robin (as in The Dark Knight Returns and War Games), and a first Hero in the line, Evil Looking Batman.

I wasn't sure how I felt about Batman when I first saw the pre-sale photos, but with the pics from SDCC I'm really liking in. Steel has a very Spawn-esque thing going on, with the asymmetrical costume, particularly the One Big Boot. Something looks odd about it too me, I'm thinking it's her skin color. Maybe it's the lighting, maybe it's just my failing eyes, or perhaps it's even the actual paint, but it seems to have a greenish tint to it, which looks really strange to me. Or possibly it's the giant goggles on her head. Or maybe it's that taking a suit of armor that's supposed to make her invulnerable and turning it into a swimsuit with a Giant Boot and Giant Glove is so incredibly illogical that I can't accept it. Who knows. Or Who cares? It's not like I can afford to buy them anyway. These tend to run for $40-$50, and I'm still kicking myself for not bidding on the Wonder Woman (Armored) that went for $20 the other day on ebay, or having enough to buy Supergirl and Power Girl when they were on clearance at FYE for $18.

The new Wonder Woman is the most risque of them all, followed by Wonder Girl, and the first series Catwoman. I'm not sure how I feel about Wonder Woman, the outfit is odd, and yet kinda cool, her arm bracers are really neat, she's got that Spawn One Boot thing going on again, but the rest of it is really out of character for what I know of Wonder Woman, and even more ridiculously impractical that the swimsuit she normally wears. But she also has a cool axe and Medusa's severed head, so that's pretty cool. Evil, scary looking Batgirl (Cassie) is my favorite of the upcoming ones, but I more or less like them all. Anyway, on to the pictures (pictures by Michael Crawford, except Black Canary and Catwoman by Toy News International).

And one final item from DC Direct to talk about, from their line of Prop Replicas. They've done Superman's cape and belt, Joker's Cane, they announced Batman's utility belt (cool, but not what I want to talk about) and Wonder Woman's tiara and bracers (also pretty cool). But the one I would be most excited to get, is the Lantern Rings, containing a ring from each of the eight lantern corps. I love the idea of the various lantern corps, and a display with all the rings would be a highlight of my collection.

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

San Diego Comic Con 2009 part 2

Our good friend Michael Crawford's Review of the Week posted more pictures from San Diego last night. The guy probably kills himself during the day, fighting the giant crowd of filthy, unwashed nerds, and then rather than sleeping at night to prepare for the next day's battle, stays up to post all the great pictures he's taken. And so far, his are by far the best pictures I've seen, he's a great photographer, somehow managing to take excellent pictures despite what must be over 50,000 other nerds trying to look at/photo the same things he is.

All of his pictures can be found at the Main San Diego Comic Con 2009 page, I'm going to repost a few pics of what are the highlights to me.

Toynami has what appears to be a poseable figure of Christopher Reeve as Superman. Let me tell you, this is 12 kinds of awesome. The first image I saw of it (probably at ActionFigurePics) looked EXACTLY like him. Michael Crawford's pics make him look not quite perfect. There's something wrong with it, it looks a little gaunt to be Christopher Reeve, but it still looks cool. I have no idea about price, but I'm guessing it's out of my range.

To go along with Toynami's Christopher Reeve Superman, why not get Mattel's 12 inch Terrence Stamp General Zod? (pictures from Cool Toy Review)

Toynami is doing the two most important vehicles from Tim Burton's Batman film (1989), the Batmobile and the Batwing. I've alwasy loved the designs of these, so I'm quite interested in these. However, I don't have any idea what the price will be, or even what size they are, so I don't know if it's even remotely feasible or not for me to buy them.

Tonner makes some Barbie-like DC figures that run for a couple hundred dollars. I think the female figures look great but I'll probably never own one. Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, Super Girl.

After taking 2008 off from being collosal jerks, Genlte Giant jumped back on the exlcusive bandwagon, this time making it even harder to complete a h1ghly demanded, even more integrated group of characters than the Clone Commanders of 2007. This year's world tour exclusive: Delta Squad, from the popular game Republic Commandos. In 2007, the five Clone Commanders were available: three in the US, one in Japan (more limited than the rest), and one in UK. This year, they're each available in a different country, I don't think any are available in the US, but at least this time there are the same nubmer of each. There are/have been online stores that have offered one ore more of them for fairly reasonable prices (considering their exlusive nature), but since I don't have enough money to buy them at retail I haven't really been paying attention. I believe you can get any of the four at Entertainment Earth. Scorch and Sev are the best looking, in my opinion, but if money was no object I'd be gettin all four.

Hot Wheels recently started a line of die-cast metal ships from Star Trek. Already released (and owned by me, with reviews half written) are the Entprise D, the (TMP, WoK, SfS movies) Enterprise Refit, Reliant, and Klingon Bird of Prey. Upcoming ships include the Enterprise and Narada from the 2009 film. (pictures from ActionFigs.com)

Hot Wheels were also showing some sweet Batman vehicles, the ones of particular interest to me were those from the 90's Batman films. I'm going to have look into those and learn more about them, I've always wanted a Batmobile from the four 90's films, plus the shielded Batmobile from Batman and Batwings from Batman and Batman Forever, and if I recall the pictures I saw but didn't save, all of those were on display at SDCC.

One final thing for this post, when doing the last post with Sideshow Collectibles I forgot to put pictures of their Aliens and Predator statues. Behold.

I LOVE that statue of the crouching Alien, unfortunately, it's freaking $700, so even if I sold one of my kidney's I wouldn't be able to afford it.

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