Toy Fair 2013: Playmobil Pandemic!

Now our pal, Travis Denman, must have seen my Playmobil Advent Calendar coverage from last year because while he was on his recent New York Toy Fair trip he generously snapped me pictures not only of two brand new advent calendars for 2013 (which I'll show at the end), but also all sorts of other crazy Playmobil stuff. Thanks, Trav and Vinylmation Kingdom!

Now, I'm not for a moment suggesting that this hold much interest for the adult collector, but if you have kids then you'd be crazy not to delve into the eclectic, vivid plastic worlds that Playmobil creates. What child wouldn't enjoy the hell out of this insanely fun dinosaur park? Some kind of sissy child, probably. Check this out!

Of course this set up consists of multiple sets but those are some fantastically designed, colourful dinosaurs for your kids to bash each other over the head with. Not to mention that rocking volcano. I need to start picking up some of this stuff as gifts. I can think of at least one new Dad who I know that needs a pink anklyosaurus painfully buried in his bare foot first thing in the morning. I can make that happen, bro!

Join me after the jump for some cool crap plus those new calendars....

Toy Fair 2013: Star Wars Lego!

More Toy Fair 2013 coverage, this time combining two of my favourite things in the last thirty plus years: Lego and Star Wars (just narrowly coming in behind beer and boobs). But first I really can't thank our pal, Travis Denman, and Vinylmation Kingdom enough. They certainly don't owe us anything, and are out there on the frontlines doing all the hard work while I'm stuck on the other side of the globe in a former penal colony. So thanks heaps to those guys for the pictures (which I am going to pick and choose from) and let's begin with my biased commentary. Beginning with the best Lego minifigure of all time...

Holy. Crap.

That there is the first ever minifig of everybody's favourite piano playing space elephant, Max Rebo! The only thing missing is he modesty-protecting underpants! Lego, you ingenious Danish bastards, you have once again out done yourselves!

And to find out what else those crafty characters are up to, join me... after the jump!

Toy Fair 2013: Star Trek Enters The KRE-O Universe!

Not only is KRE-O tackling GI Joe this year, they are also throwing down the gauntlet with the most obvious answer to Lego Star Wars... KRE-O Star Trek!



Launching along with Into The Darkness will be a solid series of Star Trek building sets and some blind-packaged minifigures. For the most part, these are pretty small sets with the exception of the Enterprise shown above. Lots of cool and unique minifigures in there as well.

Click through the jump for images (courtesy of the wonderful Travis Denman and Vinylmation Kingdom) and thoughts (courtesy of me!).

Toy Fair 2013: KRE-O GI Joe Coming This Month!

I'm sure you've seen the KRE-O Transformers (pretty cool, especially the sweet minifigs) and KRE-O Battleship (a little meh, mostly because it's Battleship), but did you know that Hasbro is extending it's in-house brick building line to include GI Joe? And it's the classic GI Joe that we all (a/k/a me) know and love.

It's an exciting time for block lines. It used to be just Lego with a license or two each year. Now Lego, MegaBloks and KRE-O all battle for the top licenses, and we're seeing more and more of our favorites pop up in block form. So... how do these hold up to the competition?

They actually look really cool! The figure style is a little wonky, but KRE-O is taking a pretty ballsy approach with their choices of characters and the amount of non-vehicle based playsets. I'm always a fan of an environment based set to house my figures, and 3/8 of the upcoming sets are environment based. Being a fictitious military based license, there are some sweet vehicles as well. And finally, the minifigures. So many good characters in what looks like 3 different series of blind packaged Kreons. (Did you know they are called Kreons?) 

These are expected to release this month and prices are very affordable at just $2.99 to $39.99.

Click through the jump for images of all of it, and once again big thanks to Travis Denman and Vinylmation Kingdom for the images.

Toy Fair 2013: Hasbro's Star Wars, Including the Black Series!

New York Toy Fair 2013 is already a buzz as toy giant Hasbro displays their wares. Good friend of the site, Travis Denman is on the ground and we must thank him, as well as the good folks at Vinylmation Kingdom for helping us with images (be sure to check out their own coverage!).

So one of my own most anticipated Toy Fair reveals is more of the 6 inch Star Wars Black Series for distinguished man-children (we recently saw X-Wing pilot Luke). Three more figures were revealed today, including this one familiar filthy-toothed hell-clown...

To see a lot more images, and read unabashed opinons, please won't you join me... after the jump!

ToyFair 2013: Skylanders SWAP Force Mixes Customization & Collecting!

Skylanders has been doing things right for a while now.

First there was the multi-platform Activision video game that required toy figures to play as specific characters. This was marketing gold, but also a lot of fun. Instead of an in-game purchase, it was an in-store purchase. Players would buy physical object that looked cool on their toy shelf but also doubled as a part of their game. You could technically play the game without the characters, but they were divided into a bunch of factions (wind/fire, etc). Areas within the game required characters from certain factions, and with each character having unique attacks, movement and abilities... having a variety of characters was very helpful. This may sound annoying, but it was quite the opposite. Have you ever heard of a positive experience in spending money? A few games have tried to do this, but Skylanders did it best. Proof: The first Christmas of its release you couldn't find a single figure on the store shelves.

Then they took things to the next level in Skylanders Giants with massive oversized figures that could do a lot more damage on screen (and to your wallet). But it was still cool. Nothing groundbreaking, but bigger usually means better. Especially with kids.

Now, for the third version of the game, Activision is intruding Skylanders SWAP Force. 16 new customizable figures that continue to blur the lines between the physical objects and their digital representations. Each figure has a mid-point that allows the player to make their own brand new character on the spot. The character will visually change, but their in-game effects also change. Depending on where you are in the game, you can modify your character to have two varying attacks, which can be very helpful. Customization makes everything better in video games, and adding this to the physical product tops that. The design of the characters may suffer a bit as everyone needs a common center shape, but having more control over your character is exactly where Skylanders needs to go.

Check it out:



More ToyFair 2013: http://www.fruitlesspursuits.com/search/label/New%20York%20Toy%20Fair%202013

Toyfair 2013: Lego Iron Man 3 Leak Spoils Stuff!

While we wait for New York Toy Fair 2013 to get fully underway, let's bide our time with these spoileriffic Lego sets from Iron Man 3. (We do so much Iron Man news we should change the site to Ferrous Pursuits). (Get one of the older kids to explain that one to you). There are three sets that are leaking all over the interwubz, jamming up the cyber-tubes, and although most of the pictures are small and pixellated we can certainly begin to speculate on some of the weirdness that's set to occur in the film.

Like look at this tomfoolery...

I'm going to tell you everything I think about old man Beardy Ben Kingsley attacking Iron Man with a weaponised street sweeper... after the jump!