Friday 18 July 2008

It's a Special Day.

So I promised I'd have some figurine news and here it is:

We've finally sorted out the Professor Xavier fiasco!

If you've been following the saga of Prof. X on the figurine forum then you'll know a little of the history already but for those of you who haven't here's a quick breakdown.

We've always wanted to have Prof. X in the collection and he was originally scheduled for the first 60 issues, however problems with the initial sculpt led to him being delayed. We then had the problem with the size of the character, in his wheelchair he's a little too big for the regular issues but a little too small to be an outright special. So we have decided to go for a double-pack special.

This is essentially two characters on separate bases (with one shared magazine) in the same special. We really wanted the second character to have a shared history with Xavier, not just a somebody stuck in for no reason, and to be a character we probably wouldn't have in the collection unless we went way past issue 120. So, the guys on the forum have been voting frantically for over the last few weeks for their choice of character and I'm happy to say the overwhelming majority voted for Lilandra, who was actually my joint fast choice. I was also keen on Vulcan just to have the 'Third Summer's Brother'.

If you don't know who she is (shame on you), she's Professor Xavier's wife (although technically the marriage is now annulled) and former Empress of the Shiar.

Hopefully the double-pack idea will prove popular and we can add it to our list of specials (mega and regular). I'm personally very excited to see how the idea works, as it could be a great way to get some of the lesser known characters into the collection and also means that we're getting more Marvel characters into the series. For those of you worried about a shared magazine, I can assure you we'll be looking carefully at the magazine's content to make sure we have a detailed history on both characters.

I also have news of the upcoming specials, below is an image of the next regular special – the Man-Thing. He's coming out after the Sentinel mega issue (of which I'll have some images soon) and was sculpted by a very talented artist from South Africa, Aren Damiani.



And lastly I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who voted in the mega special poll. It would seem that Onslaught narrowly beat the Watcher, so I think I know what the next two mega specials will be after the Sentinel.

Keep watching this space and we'll have a regular special poll up very soon.

Rich

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great news on that the Professor X problem is finally sorted, when can we expect to recieve them roughly? Preusmably it's now put back for a 2009 release?

Man Thing looks stunning, cannot wait to get both him and Sentinel later in the year. Also you've made my day with that comment about Onslaught AND The Watcher!

Any latest on Jubilee yet?

Chris (Holy Wolf)

Ravenor said...

Great news about Man-thing and Pr Xavier.

We also enjoy the Collection in France: here is my Website:
http://figurines.marvel.free.fr

See you

Anonymous said...

Agreed, great news about Xavier and Lilandra. I would have prefered Moira, given that Lilandra could have stood on her own... but still, glad that we're getting both. Hopefully we will see more two packs in the future.

Man-Thing indeed looks stunning.

Here's hoping for another extention and some of the figurines that were mentioned in the last round of posts get some love.

cloysterpete said...

Great news about Prof X!.

Is it possible to speed up the release of the specials?, because unless the collection is extended to like 200 how are we going to fit them all in?.

There's Man Thing, Sentinel, Prof X & Lilandra, Onslaught and Watcher mega-specials plus we gotta have Kingpin, Blob and Annihilus sometime too.

king-chris - I'm hoping for Jubilee in the 120 - 140 bunch, fingers crossed.

Captain Taggart said...

That's fantastic news about Prof. X and Onslaught, plus all the rest. I think Pete has a point about speeding up the release of specials (like with the DC collection), although I appreciate it ust be difficult mass producing so many figurines quickly.

Here's an idea for future double packs:

The Young Avengers

I know they're relatively new to the Marvel Universe but they're quickly establishing themselves as integral characters and are so visually diverse they'd look amazing. Keep on going EM, there's many more to go yet!

Killraven said...

How about Killraven and howard the Duck. I would also like to see the Marvel monsters: Dracula, Werewolf, Simon Garth, Lilith, Satanna and the Living Mummy.

Killraven

Lee Warren said...

Just to reiterate a few other guys thoughts on here GREAT news on the Prof X and Man Thing has to be the best special to date.

Also with talks over TWO further Mega Specials is this a slight hint that the collection may indeed continue past 120? On another note seeing as My Mate Al has moved on to the DCFC (Another great collection that needs its own blog too BTW) it was documented in the past that he wasnt a Howard The Duck fan and as HTD is a character I have wanted in the collection for a LONG LONG time now do you have different views on him being considered in this collecion?

Come on Richy baby lets love a duck eh?

Anonymous said...

Man-Thing is looking absolutely fantastic! Thanks for keeping us up to date on both him and Prof. X... Although it strikes me, now that Man-Thing is confirmed and in production, surely we need Howard the Duck to go with him? :)

Anonymous said...

Hello. Awesome news on Professor Xavier/Lilandra/Watcher and best of all ONSLAUGHT!

The Man-thing looks wicked and I must say this is the most exciting collection I have ever been collecting. So many great characters/sculptures.

Also mate check out what I do to you DC figurine range haha!

http://acex51customs.blogspot.com/

Thanks again James (Acex51)

jarvis69 said...

Great news !! Prof X ...at last....
Thanks Richard

asura said...

What a shame that we cannot get Vulcan ! It would be great to complete the third brother of the Summers family. Can you also confirm that Gladiator (shi'ar version) will be made because I think you already announced it in the past.
Thanks

Sage said...

Great news about Prof X and Lilandra really looking forward to adding them to my collection. I hope the double packs will continue id love to see a Northstar and Aurora Double pack sometime in he future.

Im still hoping all us X-Men fans will get Jubilee too?

Thanks :)

Ricky said...

It's great news to see that the Professor Xavier issue has finally been sorted out. And good to hear that you know that you want two more Mega Specials after the Sentinel...Onslaught and the Watcher.

So hard to choose between them all as I would love to see them all be made ^^

But really, I already can't wait for Galactus to hurry up and get here in NZ and now hearing that there's, like I said, the Sentinel, Onslaught and the Watcher coming along the way, that's just real awesome news indeed.

Sire-bd said...

Thank you Richard for this excellent news !

In when the next soundings ? It will be on the duets or on the next 30 figurines?

The French man: Sire-bd

Unknown said...

1. please release the specials at a quicker rate.

2. sorry, but i hate my abomination stand.

3. can we have, OMEGA RED, SATTANISH(SPECIAL) , THE BEYONDER , X MAN , DRAX , RANDOM , STRONG GUY(SPECIAL), NIMROD ,STRYFE , BARON MORDO , DEATH & ETERNITY PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

4. ONSLAUGHT IS GONNA LOOK IMMENSE

5. BEST COLLECTION EVER. GO FOR 200+ FIGS. ILL BUY EM ALL.

fireyFred said...

Is there any news on a Kingpin special after the Man-Thing

MWB87 said...

The X-men are my fav marvel team, so the news on Prof X is great!!
I agree with what some of the others say about including Jubilee, not to mention there are many other x-men characters out there like, Sunfire, Warpath, Rachel Grey.......

Mr J said...

Lots of really good news, thanks!

I hope the Line continues for a long time yet and would really like to request one character in particular, shes been mentioned a few times so i dont wanna sound boring but it's.....

JUBILEE :)

Whenever i look at my XMEN collection its so obvious that she is missing i really hope that we will get Jubilee at some point.

Thanks,
Jason

Nick Kyme said...

Phenomenal stuff.

Personally, I'd love to see Cloak & Dagger as a special. These were two of the characters that I read about in my very first Spider-man comic, back when I was a young 'un. There's a lot of nostalgia tied up in them for me - oh, and the fact that they are undeniably cool.

I have a question for the editor: how do you go about choosing writers for the individual magazines? Is there a stable of professional authors/journalists/comic writers you draw upon or is it farmed out on a freelance basis.

As a writer myself (as well as a big Marvel/DC fan), I'd been intrigued to know how to get involved in a project like this; and if it was even possible.

Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated.

djfredski said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
djfredski said...

Hey i miss out on the Adam Warlock
poll. but i would like to see him with the bolt suit.
now to down to the real. i have 37 of your hero's and i love them all, but one thing i hate is that i can't get the hero's i want the most.
why is that?
oh ya!
you have already made them.
So can you help a brother out?