By Chris Troy
Another Chris-written article, which means you should expect this to be super-hero toy heavy. In my defense, 90% of the articles Loran have written as of late have been Transformers based and FPNYC IS a comic shop, so my topic is warranted, given our average customers interest. And I do talk about the occasional Revoltech and statue from time to time. Anywho, “My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic” is apparently the new hottness, as “Bronies” (This is a legit nickname apparently. I think there’s a article up on Wired.com that confirms such) are going bonkers over the latest version of a cartoon that aims for little girls, or women who grew up with the original series. Regardless of my personal taste, we have a selection of MLP toys in, which apparently are hard to find on most toys shelves, so if you’re into Ponies, we have them. Feel free to come and lie to our cashiers that their for your daughter/niece/sister or some such (EDITOR’S NOTE: like how the rest of us say that these action figures are for our nephew. I try not to throw stones when my own house is made of nerdobe).
Speaking of children’s cartoons and the man-children who love them, the first wave of Young Justice action figures have hit the shelves. They stand in at about 3 & 3/4 inches each, and sport about 4-5 points of articulation each. The first wave consists of YJ members Kid Flash and Aqualad, Speedy (before he changes his identity to the much cooler sounding Red Arrow) and the villain Icicle Jr., which is a terrible name for a super-villain in my opinion. Each figure comes with an accessory of sorts- Icicle Jr with a glacier sword for cold-stabbings, Aqualad with a water-katana, Speedy with a bow and Kid Flash with….fast food….which is a terrible joke and an odd accessory. Also the 3 hero characters each come with a piece of the Hall of Justice, which if you buy the entire line, you have a backdrop for the figures. A cool little twist and the build-a-figure formula. These figures are a cool spiritual follow up to the Justice League Unlimited line and I believe are in-scale with them as well.
Young Justice isn’t the only new DC Comic figures on our shelves. 2 different DC Direct toy lines have their second waves drop in the last week- Brightest Day and Batman: Arkham Asylum. The 2nd BD wave consists of the king of retconned origins Hawkman, fan-favorite character Firestorm, Mera (who’s received 2 figures in under a year! It helps to be written by Geoff Johns), and the Martian Manhunter, who’s now rocking some snazzy pants. On the Batman end, there’s yet another Batman figure released, this time based on the unlock-able Bat-armor from the game, Poison Ivy, Bat-dropkick victim Mr. Zsasz who was literally in the game to get taken out by the Bat via a in-game tutorial, and a massive, massive Bane figure, which looks like it’s going to break out of it’s package any second now. Both waves sport the usual DC Direct 10-20 points of articulation each, and much like most DC Direct figures, are well sculpted, doing their respected franchises justice. And of course, you can find them on the Forbidden Planet shelves for about $20 each!
