By Chris Troy
SHAMELESS PLUG OF THE WEEK: From January 5-8, 2012, my ass will be at the MAGfest X (Magfest.org, which stands for Music and Games Festival) down in Maryland, and I highly encourage you hit the festival up as well! Nobuo Uematsu, the genius behind many a awesome Final Fantasy soundtrack, will be there performing with his new band, Earthbound Papas, as well as many other talented folk (like John St. John, the voice behind Duke Nukem!) , and most importantly, an 8-player X-Men arcade cabinet. It’s a good way to start up 2012, so make sure you register online before the 16th!
So it’s now December, which means shelves everywhere are filled with toys. Forbidden Planet NYC is no exception, as we have a ton of new merchandise in stock, most likely relevant to your interests if you’re reading this website. And yes, after selling out a few times, we currently do have My Little Ponies in stock again.
First and foremost, new model kits, we got them in stock! We’ve restocked Gundam SEED, WING, Unicorn, and Zeta kits, and we finally got the first wave of Gundam Age kits in. In addition to all the new Gundam stuffs, we also have a few model kits based on the various ship from the Shonen Jump hit One Piece. These kits are more Gunplay-like in assembly than say actual model boats, and offer something different to build instead of more mecha (although there is nothing wrong with building mecha. Nothing at all). Kits start at $25 and go up from there, depending on the kit and scale.
Since my shameless plug of the week was video game related, it’s only fair that we discuss some new VIDEYA GAME toys that have been released. The first wave of Gears of War 3 figures in, consisting of main character Marcus Fenix, supporting character turned Gear Anya Stroud, and the 3rd brother of the ill-fated Carmines, Clayton. Each figure is about 7″ in height and has about 30 points of articulation and comes with a small selection of weapons packaged with them.They’re good figures, but Anya’s face could use some work. That aside, they’re still pretty good figures for less than $20. The 2nd wave should be hitting shelves soon.
On the Square-Enix side of things, the Play Arts Kai line has released a Master Chief figure to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the franchise (as well as the recently 10th anniversary game). This is the first time the Chief has seen a Play Arts figure, let alone one based on the first game, and it’s really quite impressive. The 9″ figure comes with a small arsenal of weapons and alternate hands, is fairly articulated and is the best version of the classic Chief to date. We also have a few of the NYCC Spartans in stock, which is essentially a repaint with a few exclusive weapons, and is fairly rare as the con went down nearly 2 monthd ago. The figures are a little more costly than the average Play Arts, but well worth it if you’re a Halo fan. And if you’re not, don’t worry, some Street Fighter IV Play Arts are dropping soon.
Rounding out the new video game figure releases we come to Jazzwares’ Mortal Kombat figures, based on the newest version of the long-running fighting game that was released this past spring. I’m not the biggest fan of these figures or the games they were inspired by, but oh man, these figures look hilarious. They’re big, bulky and limited to about half the articulation that NECA’s Gears figures. I’m also a HUGE fan of Johnny Cage’s “Come at me Bro” sculpt. These figures go for about $15, making them quite cheaper than the Gears and Halo releases. They also make Sonic figures, which actually look pretty good.
That’s all for the video game releases, but I’ll be back later in this week to brag about all the other cool/hilarious toys we got in recently.
That aside, they’re still pretty good figures for less than $20. The 2nd wave should be hitting shelves soon. face could use some work.