Saturday, July 13, 2013

My SDCC 2013 Exclusive Favourites! Lego! Ackbar! Venture Bros! MORE!



San Diego Comic Con 2013 is looming and that means that a crap-ton of convention exclusives are jumping up and down, hollering, and vying for our already stretched thin attention. I, of course, will be isolated on the opposite of the world while all this is happening, so I can either satiate myself by looking at these pretty pictures or pay premium prices on eBay. And there's about a billion things to choose from, so I'm going to share with you a hand-picked selection of my most favourite collectibles that have been revealed for the weekend...


Marvel at my refined tastes... after the jump!


I goddamn love The Venture Bros. and have reviewed some of Bif Bang Pow's retro Mego reminiscent figures already. This year they've teamed up with Entertainment Earth to bring us an exclusive Death's Head Monarch and Dr. Mrs the Monarch, complete with murderous Pupae Twins, Tim-Tom and Kevin. Plus it's all packaged in a lavishly illustrated tin box. It's $60 from booth 2343. Grab me six of them.


Those ingenious Danish bastards at LEGO have revealed four exclusive minifigs for the convention. No one knows yet how to acquire these but its safe to assume that it involves some sort of sacrifice at midnight. Probably a first born. 

First up is the Green Arrow from the television series Arrow. A show that failed to pique my own interest but must have hit for someone because he's now been immortalised in blocky, Danish plastic. And I have to admit, it looks pretty cool. The production values alone are about ten times better than the show...


Next is a black suited Superman. Sure? Why not? I can't help feeling that you may be able to cobble this one together yourself out of existing figures though...


Then we switch to direct competitors Marvel, who bring us an "alternative suit" Spider-Man which I'm pretty sure is based on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie suit. Should've given us an Electric Boogaloo Electro!


And finally is a Spider-Woman. Handy for when Spider-Man wants to settle down and make Spider-Babies I guess? A new character at least!


Now for perhaps my favourite of all. The 8 inch "Magnitude" bust from Gentle Giant, based on the artwork of Steven Daily. FEAST.... YOUR EYES... ON THIS...


Holy crap! That is my favourite space lobster Admiral Ackbar all decked out like a moustachioed admiral of olde! It's classy, distinguished, and it comes stored in a beautiful antique looking box. I'm a massive fan of Admiral Ackbar because I find him incredibly inspiring. If a lobster can grow up to be an admiral then anyone can do anything, right? Next thing you know, women will be allowed to vote! It's fantastic!

There's a catch, of course, these eight inches are going to cost you $175 from booth 3513, and you can't pre-order him online unless you are a member of Gentle Giant's Premium Guild, which is an additional annual cost. And the eBay prices already will have you hollering, "It's a trap!" He's awesome though. I will have to be content with admiring him from afar with tears in my disappointed eyes.

Speaking of Star Wars, Hasbro has an exclusive figure from their soon-to-be-released 6 inch Black Series (more about them here, and we'll be reviewing them once they hit). It's a highly articulated, screen accurate Boba Fett complete with Han Solo frozen in carbonite...

There's been a lot of buzz about the Black Series and I have a feeling that Boba here will sell out faster than it takes me to think up an amusing simile. If you're quick you can grab him for $44.99 from booth 3329.

Back to Gentle Giant (I'm so efficient) they also have an exclusive Galactus Mini Bust. It's not that I love this piece exactly but I do love the world devouring Galactus and his audaciously impractical Kirby headgear...


Anything that big and purple can't be a bad thing! And he is being circumnavigated by a tiny pewter Silver Surfer who is about the size of a penny. Galactus will happily devour the contents of your wallet for $120 from booth 3513.

Now what's Mattel up to? Oh yeah! Now that the 1966 Batman television show can be merchandised, everybody is rushing to merchandise the hell out of it. But this has to be my favourite piece by far... Sixties Batman, dancing the Batusi, and packaged in a television designed by one of my favourite artist Shag (I have a lot of Shag prints in this very house!)...

Oh Mattel! Why do your publicity images have so much damn white space on either side of them! It looks like I fell asleep on the spacebar! Furthermore, why am I too lazy to crop them in Photoshop! It probably would be quicker than writing these sentences! You can get Batman for $30 from booth 3029.

And also from Mattel, these Classic Masters of the Universe minifigures, showing Skeletor and He-Man in tiny, super-deformed style. Here's another huge white gap, courtesy of the marketing department at Mattel...


And another! Hey! I know! Wouldn't it be great if that image had a closer view of the figures as opposed to being 60% WHITE SPACE!? Just a thought, Mattel. Keep at it.

Still, I have a soft spot for MOTU (I'm of that age, folks) and I also like bizarre, stylised figures, so these are a win for me. They're $20 and also from booth 3029.

OK enough of this American crap! How about some ye olde Doctor Who!? I had a lot of fun with the first wave of Titan Entertainment's vinyl Titans figures, and is cool to hear that the second wave is debuting at SDCC, a month before it's regular release in August. This time around it's a 10th Doctor focus and it features plenty of memorable characters. You know, like that guy, and skull man, and squishface...


I enjoy both Doctor Who and blind-boxed vinyl so I eagerly await this actual release! But for god's sake make some companions! Where's my tiny vinyl Amy Pond, I bellow, filled with piss, vinegar and self-entitlement! They're $10 a pop from booth 5537.

OK back to America. And something for the ladies. Or the fans of the ladies. Or people impersonating ladies. I got nothing. Except for this exclusive three-pack of Super Best Friends Forever (SBFF) Action Figures from DC Entertainment. These are based on the wildly popular web series and although they might look like little PVC figures here, they're actually around 6 inches high.

I love the designs but never realised how wildly incongruous they were before. Check out Wonder Girl's stick insect hips compared to the curves that Super Girl is packing. Super Girl is very curvy. Why do I feel funny? You can initiate this threesome for $49.95 from booth 2315.

And last of all, another lady, this time Sylvanas from World of Warcraft, who Blizzard Entertainment is also giving the super-deformed mini figure treatment...
Despite playing far too much WoW, I don't think I can tell you anything useful about this character, but I do like the aesthetic and I'd be curious to see how they interpret other characters should the line continue. She's $18 from booth 115 (or about $70 on eBay). Better pick me up one of these as well.

What are you excited about? Anything? Nothing? Nobody ever says anything anyway. What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? Never learned how to type? Hello!? Hello? Is this thing on???



No comments:

Post a Comment