Competition Winner

And so the winner of the competition chosen at random is Maxime Gariépy from Montréal Québec, Canada..

Congratulations, the character chosen was Siryn.

I'll be in contact with the winner come the New Year to discuss costume/pose etc...

For those not familiar with the character here's a pick below.



That's it for today, everyone have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Tigra and the Reaper

Just a quick update this week as we're busy making sure we don't forget to finish magazines before Christmas. But I do have two sneak peaks to make up for it.

First up is Tigra. As you can see we went for her second incarnation as Tigra. Although very similar to her first appearance as the werecat, this 'costume' has her with a tail.



Our second preview is also Avengers based and is the Grim Reaper.



And just before I go, I want to say thanks to all who have entered the comp already, the deadline for entries is midnight on 23rd December, I'll make the draw and announce the winner on here on Christmas Eve.

So far lots of people have entered and I can't wait to see what character we end up with.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Competition Time

It’s time for the competition to choose the last character for this extension. I wanted this to be a competition that rewards those that have collected our magazine but wanted it to be a little challenging.

So here’s how it works.

Below are two images that have appeared in our magazine at some point. Your job is to track them down and e-mail me the issue number and page number that they appeared on in our collection.

IMAGE A


IMAGE B


Image A is a zoom-in, while Image B is a whole panel. The images chosen are from the first 100 issues. So only look in #1-100.

So once you’ve worked out where they come from drop me an e-mail at eaglemosscomp@gmail.com

You should put the answer in the subject line as such: issue/page, issue/page.
So if you think they come from Issue 2 page 3 and Issue 76 page 4 please put 2/3, 76/4 as the subject.

Please put your name and address in the e-mail. (These will not be passed on to anyone at all and will be deleted at the end of the comp). As well as your chosen character.

The comp will close on 23rd December 2009 and I will choose a winner at random from correct answers.

I’ll then contact the winner to let them know and announce the figure on the blog.

Apart from the above the rules for the competition are:
One entry per e-mail address only.
One entry per household only.
(Duplications will be deleted and each address needs to genuine, as the winner will receive a model of his/her chosen character, which may need to be signed for at the address provided.)
Characters chosen must be regular-sized figures (general rule is under 6’ 8”) with enough background/appearances to fill a magazine.

Well let the hunt begin and good luck.

The Old Order Changeth

Right, first things first, my apologies about the duplication of Machine Man on the main site, seems someone likes the robot a little too much. He’s still coming out at #110 and #115 will be Dazzler. I will speak to the people in charge of the main site again but I think there should be more figures going up soon. Unfortunately I'm not in charge of the main site but I will put some pressure on them.

As promised last week, I’ve got an updated running order to share with you. As you can see the main movers are Beta Ray Bill, Son of Satan and Black Heart. We’ve had a few problems with these and other figures, both with our production and Marvel. However, they will all be in the collection we just need to juggle it around a little.

116 Chameleon
117 X-23
118 Tigra
119 Jocasta
120 Jubilee
121 Jack of Hearts
122 Crimson Dynamo
123 Enchantress
124 Gladiator
125 Sunfire
126 Titania
127 Gorgon
128 X-Man
129 Ant-Man
130 Klaw
131 Grim Reaper
132 Annihilus
133 Drax the Destroyer
134 Son of Satan
135 Nomad
136 Snowbird
137 Wasp
138 Batroc
139 Scarlet Spider
140 Beta Ray Bill
141 Pyro
142 Silver Sable
143 Radioactive Man
144 Typhoid Mary
145 Marvel Girl
146 Quasar
147 Prowler
148 Firestar
149 Cannonball
150 Triton
151 Ares
152 Destiny
153 Balder
154 Wrecker
155 Songbird
156 Toad
157 Moondragon
158 Spiral
159 Comp Winner.
160 Black Heart


The figurine update I have for you this week is the paint master of Nomad. Now I know the character wasn’t on everyone’s list but I think the sculpt looks great. In case anyone is unsure, we’ve gone for the Jack Monroe version of Nomad in his first costume.



I personally think that the character is really interesting as he was essentially introduced to make Stan Lee’s revival of Captain America (in Avengers) make sense. As I’m sure some of you will know, when Cap was brought back in Avengers #4 it was explained that his golden-age adventures had occurred but he had died before the end of WWII. The only problem was that if he died before the end of WWII how did he appear in the ’50s fighting commies? (Which he did in his own comic.) Step-in Steve Englehart, who later introduced a new Cap and Bucky for the cold war. That Bucky was none other than Jack Monroe.

Anyway, I love the mess and characters that Captain America and his numerous retcons have made throughout the years (just think Winter Soldier, Nomad, Isaiah Bradley, female Bucky…) and think Nomad will look great next to Steve Rogers and Winter Soldier.

And finally to answer a few questions:

Q). Are Aurora and Northstar going to be made as a double pack special?

A). My plan is that they are our next true double pack special (Cloak and Dagger don’t really count, they’re on one base). But I can’t confirm when they’ll be out, if I get my way then definitely next year.

Q). Is Odin going to be a special?

A). It’s hard to guarantee things with the specials but he’s definitely on the ‘must be made soon’ list. My personal (not confirmed yet) list is: Fin Fang Foom, Cloak and Dagger, Blob, Odin and Aurora & Northstar. But things can change.

Q). What are plans for the comp to choose a figure?

A). I will announce these next week.

And just for you Slapstick :)
Q). I'm shocked that we still haven't had any members of the frightful four in the collection yet. Hydro man is a must !!

A). Hydro-Man will make any extension we get guaranteed but as for members of the Frightful Four, we’ve had Medusa and Sandman from the original group, that’s half the gang! Then if you look at everyone who’s been in the Frightful Four we’ve also got:
Titania
Absorbing Man
Taskmaster
Deadpool
Electro
Klaw

But I know what you’re getting at, and Wizard and Trapster (other two original) would make fine additions to this collection. There’s always next time.

Well I’m out of here, so have a good weekend.

Costume choices

Hello,

I’m back this week with a bit of a longer update.

First off, just want to talk about the specials. A few people have asked what characters make specials. For the purposes of the forum poll and as a general rule, if a character is 6’ 8” and over, then they’re likely to be a special.

Now I realize that some characters might be 6’ 9” but thin as a rake so it would seem unfair to class them in the specials category. However, if such characters are popular enough to be in the regular series, we’ll consider putting them in.

Obviously there is a limit to the size we can make certain figures and maintain a successful magazine. Our production team has told me that we’ve been making figures a little too big recently. In all honesty, when we first started the collection the Thing (Issue 4) only just made it in as he was pretty much considered a special due to his bulk. Since then we’ve attempted to balance the collection while trying not to compromise on size and complexity of the figures. The Beta Ray Bill figure was right on the cusp of becoming a special and I’ve fought to keep him in the regular line-up without compromising the original sculpt (which I think was awesome). Due to a few problems with him and a couple of other figures it looks like I’m going to be tweaking the running order from 119-160 in the next few days but all figures confirmed are still going to be made.

So, what I’m getting at is that although you may think someone like Ronan isn’t too bulky, at 7’ tall with a big hammer and possibly a cloak he just breaks the regular limit. We could perhaps compromise and reduce him down, remove his cloak, make him thinner etc… but personally I’d rather make an excellent sculpt at special size than one of the regular sculpts that people say ‘aw, he’s alright but could have been bigger and better’.

At the moment the collection is scheduled to end around the end of 2011 so we’ve got plenty of time for more specials. If we get extended again then we’ll have more on top of that. Plus you never know what’ll happen with double packs etc…

Speaking of double packs…

No, I’m afraid Pyro is not being pulled out and placed with Avalanche at this point. Despite the fact that I’ve actually been struggling to find decent reference for the figure (any ideas for good artwork much appreciated), we’re still planning on including him as a regular.

Right, with that aside I just want to say that the main site should be updated very soon, if not already done. We no longer do this update in house but have a couple of very good people working for us. They hear your comments and should be sorting it out.

Next I’d like to kick off a little debate on character’s costumes. We’re looking to start sculpting a few of the characters chosen in this new extension and a couple has been bothering me as to which costume they should be made in. While I’m sure the guys on the forum will be running some polls, I’d like to hear views in the comments section as well.

Rachel Summers (Marvel Girl)-
We think it should be one of two costumes.

Original hellhound red costume:


New Green and yellow tribute to mum (Jean Grey) costume with or without mask:


Cannonball –

Original New Mutants:


Flight Jacket and goggles (late New Mutants):


Most Recent X-costume:


Or if you think there are better costumes than those listed above, let me know.

And finally this week we have a sneak peek of X-23.



Being a modern character (and Wolverine related) I know she’s going to get some strong reactions from fans of the older characters but I’m happy she’s in the collection as I think it keeps it a little balanced. The pose we chose was based on some Mike Choi artwork from her second comic series and was chosen to reflect a sort of silent menace. After all, she is a deadly assassin but she’s also a lost little girl. Being a new character she has had a few costumes already but we chose this one based on it being the most X-Men-like and iconic. She has recently updated the costume with a mask (as part of X-Force) but we felt it’d be nicer to show her face.

Three Sneak Peeks

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of update last week, I've been a little ill recently and pre-occupied with a personal matter.

As I'm not in the office tomorrow here's this week's very quick update with sneak peeks of Fin Fang Foom, Son of Satan and Titania.

Magnificent Seven

Ok so the big day is here and I'm ready to announce the rest of Eaglemoss' choices.

Drum roll please...

Quasar
Firestar
Wrecker

Alright I admit these were leaked yesterday but the four that weren't are:

Scarlet Spider
Balder
Cannonball
Songbird

Altogether that gives us a list of:

Ares
Balder
Batroc
Cannonball
Destiny
Firestar
Klaw
Marvel Girl
Quasar
Radioactive Man
Scarlet Spider
Silver Sable
Songbird
Triton
Typhoid Mary
Wrecker

I've tried to make this extension a little more balanced than the last and I hope that everyone will find at least 2-4 characters in the list that they really wanted.

I know there are a few characters that people will be disappointed didn't make it in but it has been virtually impossible to get 16 characters that everyone really loves – as has been made clear by the discussions on the blog and messageboard.

But even if your biggest want didn't make it in don't give up just yet. The poll on the www.superherofigurineforum.com will be open very soon. You'll be able to vote for your favourite characters there and the three most popular will be added to the extension.

Plus we've still got the comp, which will be announced once the forum polls close.

On a related note, please can I ask that the comments section keeps relevant to the blog. I understand that there are some difference of opinions about the forum (which I'm not taking sides in) but please lets not have an open argument on here.

As far as I'm aware only four people have been banned from the forum and the mods will allow you guys to vote on the collection. However, if you're not happy to do this, I'm more than willing to have these four people submit their votes to myself.

That aside lets celebrate the fact that the collection is still going strong and there's plenty of characters left to fill another four extensions. Here's hoping we get them.

Gimme Five

Hi guys,

I’m sorry this is just a quick update this week but it should prove to be an interesting one.

Below are five more characters that have made it into the extension.

1. Typhoid Mary
2. Triton
3. Batroc
4. Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers)
5. Klaw

That leaves seven more to be confirmed by us at Eaglemoss, then we’ll have the superherofigurineforum.com choose three and I’ll sort out the comp for one collector to choose a character.

And a super-quick figurine preview, below is the near-final paint for Sunfire.



Tune in next week when I promise I'll reveal the final seven, we're still debating one or two in the office.

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of an update last week but hopefully I can make up for it today.

First I wanted to answer a few questions from the comment section.

Q): Are we going to get more double packs?
A): Yes, I’m pretty sure that the double packs have been successful enough to warrant more being included in the collection. When and who’s in them I don’t know. We’ve started planning the specials for next year and so far Fin Fang Foom will be first, most likely followed by Cloak and Dagger. After these two I’m unsure if we’ll do Blob or have a double pack next.

Q): Are we going to see team-packs with more than 2 characters in?
A): Not at the moment. While the prospect of getting more characters into the collection is certainly an attractive one, team-packs are not on the agenda at the moment. We have discussed making these but feel that the price for packs of four or more characters would make it difficult for everyone to continue their collections. We wouldn’t want to make this collection too expensive.

Q): Are civilians going to be included in the collection?
A): At this point I have no plans to put civilians in the collection. Certainly if we were extended to 200+ issues then we would consider having them in. The reason that we’ve not had them in so far is that civilian figures can look a little generic or boring. While I personally would rather have Tiger Shark or the Beetle in the collection before Mary Jane and Jarvis, I do see the argument for some characters such as Thunderbolt Ross and J. Jonah Jameson. These civilians have been in hundreds of issues and are actually integral to a lot of Marvel’s storylines. So they’re not in at the moment but don’t be surprised if JJJ or Ross get in if we reach issue 200.

Q): What’s going on with the competition to choose a figurine?
A): I’ve almost finalized the extension list (the ones that have been chosen by Eaglemoss), after this I will speak to the chaps at the superherofigurineforum.com and have them choose three figures. Once all of this has happened, we’ll sort out the competition so that whoever wins can choose a character knowing full-well which ones have already made it in. As for the details of the comp, I’ve not yet decided.

Right so hopefully that has answered some questions and I can now announce that the next two figurines in the extension are:

Destiny (well I did say she was a strong contender last time)
Silver Sable

I’ve chosen Silver Sable as I believe she’ll not only make a great looking figurine but also because she boosts our Spidey allies and females sections of the collection. Although not a ‘classic’ Marvel character in terms of her age (she made her debut in 1985), Silver Sable managed to hold her own title for 35 issues and has appeared throughout Spidey’s history.

And lastly this week, I present our nearly finished sculpt of Gorgon. Hope you enjoy.

And next up is...

A slightly earlier update than usual this week.

First I just want to say that I’m glad the news of the extension has gone down so well, with your support I’d like to think we can go even further but, as they say, only time will tell.

Anyway, I haven’t quite decided on the competition I’ll be running to choose a figure yet but I do promise it will be something that virtually everyone can take part in; definitely no custom sculpt comps.

And while we’re on the subject of the extension I thought I’d announce the next figure that is definitely getting in:

Ares.

Though by no means a new character in the Marvel Universe, Ares hasn’t really had much prominence in the (Marvel) comic world until recently. However, I think that there’s enough history to make a great magazine and an even better figurine.
We’ve not chosen all our characters for the extension yet so don’t think I’m just drip feeding you guys the list. At the moment it’s still all up for debate and believe me we’re still arguing in the office.

I’ve also heard some of the complaints about our regular website (not being updated regularly enough) and I will pass these on to the Internet designers. Unfortunately, I’m not in charge of their updating schedule but I will give them a little nudge.

And here’s this weeks figurine preview: Sunfire.



As you can see we’ve gone for the classic costume, not the modern (very similar to AoA) look. The pose for this figure was chosen to be a little more muted than some of the recent figures. We hoped to get the proud, stubborn and impatient attitude the character has into the pose, while making sure he fit nicely among the other X-Men sculpts.

What do you want first...

Right, this week I have good news and I have bad news.

First up the bad. I’m sorry to say that the Cloak and Dagger Special will be postponed until next year. I’m not sure when next year it will be out but it will definitely be after the Fin Fang Foom Special.

There are a couple of reasons that we’ve had to delay this figure. First is that Marvel have asked us to change the paint scheme of the figurine. We’ve been asked to paint Cloak as he was originally shown in the comics. So rather than being a dark colour with shading, we’ve had to go for the blue and black stripes look.

The second reason is that we’ve had a number of problems with the final production of the figurine. We’ve not been happy with some of the samples we’ve had in, which have had Dagger looking out of place and fragile as well as Cloak’s cloak looking a little disjointed.

Unfortunately the combination of these problems has meant we can’t produce a fully approved figure (that is up to our standards) in time for its release.

So with that aside I have some good news: we have indeed been given the green light for another 20-figure extension. The series will now run to 160!

This time round the extension is going to mostly be chosen be myself and the guys at Eaglemoss, however, I will be looking closely at all the wants lists on here and on the forums. I will also be talking to the chaps on superherofigurine.com and letting people vote on a few figurine choices via that website. I also hope to run a competition to let one collector choose a character and be involved in as much of the creation process as I can.

Obviously we’ve only just got the news of the extension so all of the above will take a little bit of time but I’d like to start the ball rolling (as well as a little controversy) by confirming the first figure chosen for the new extension as:
Radioactive Man.

And while technically not an official figurine update, I thought I’d show off our latest staff member to become a Marvel villain.

Behold Danim Zola (Art Editor).

I'm back!

Hello,

I’m back from my holiday and have finally found the time to update this blog.

I thought I’d start by answering a few questions.

Re-Dos
First up, the idea of re-dos has come up in the comments section. At the moment Eaglemoss will not be doing any remakes of our earlier figures. The reason for this is that it’s a bit of tricky proposition. I personally (and from the look of it a good number of collectors) think that it would be a shame to go back and make new models of characters already made, instead of producing new characters. Also, there’s the problem that remaking characters would isolate collectors who didn’t want another version of the character. If some collectors are happy with a figure, then putting a differently sculpted version in the collection may mean they stop collecting.

As a pure example I look at it like this:
If Issue 140 is a new character, say Tigershark, out of 100 collectors 80 will pick him up.

Vs.

Issue 140 is a re-sculpted version of Dr. Doom. Out of 100 collectors may be only 30 will want him.

And the less people who pick-p a figure the less likely we’ll continue and the less likely that the one character you think is missing will get in.

This is not to say that characters will never be re-done but at this time we definitely have no plans to put in re-sculpts. If the collection continues to be as strong as it is, then maybe when we get to issue 200 we can do a re-sculpt. Personally I love just having a hugely diverse collection.

Special variants such as Archangel, World War Hulk, are a bit of a different beast, and although we have NO plans to make any of these at the moment, they are more likely than re-dos as they offer a little more, in terms of variety.

Multi-packs & Mega Specials
Right next topic is Multi-packs and Mega Specials. I can officially confirm that so far we’ve done three mega specials: Galactus, Sentinel and Watcher. While the Watcher may not have had the Mega Special logo in some areas of our website, it did have Mega Special on the bag it came in and as far as I’m concerned it was designed to be a Mega Special.

Mutli-packs: We’re looking into these but at the moment we do not have plans to produce any.

Here’s a thought for you guys to ponder though: Would you be interested in buying standalone multi-packs (no magazine) that had re-sculpted figures in? Inspired solution or crazy rambling? Let me know what you think.

Other projects
I see that you guys have been thinking of other figurine collections, I’ve got to say some of the choices are genius. My favourite so far has been Capcom, simply because I love Street Fighter.

Anyway, I can’t say what Eaglemoss are working on at the moment for the obvious reasons that not all projects make it through their development and we can’t let the competition know what we’re up to. Needless to say, we’re always looking at new projects/ideas and trying to put out lots of different products for different markets.

Right, that’s my company duty done for the day, now it’s time for a quick figure update; below is the paint master of Ant-Man.



Catch you next week.

Enchanting

A bit of a shorter post this week (and a day early) as I'm actually away to the States for a couple of weeks from tomorrow.

First up I've seen a few comments asking us how we choose characters and how we choose poses. So here's a little insight:

Characters – When we choose which characters are going into the collection we look at a number of factors. We look at the character's popularity (within the collection as well as the comic world), we look at how many appearances and the importance of these appearances they've made and we look at how the character fits into our collection.

There's no strict set of rules except that a character must have enough appearances/back-story to make a good figurine and magazine. In the past we've gone for the A-listers first and then moved down through the ranks, while trying to keep the collection diverse. It's not the Spider-Man collection or the X-Men/FF/Avengers collection, so I'm always keen to have a healthy variety.

Now that we've got through pretty much all the 'big' characters the choice is a lot more subjective and it's very difficult to choose characters for extensions mostly because I can't decide who not to make. In the past few extensions, I've let you guys decide (on here and the forum) and I've let a few members of staff/contributors choose some.

I understand the need to complete teams and that is definitely something I want to do but if we just go for completing teams we've already started then we'll have pretty much an entire extension filled with one branch/area of Marvel comics. I know Alpha Flight/X-Men/Brotherhood are popular but it's great to have at least one character representing each area. I think there's a strong chance this collection will continue past 140 and each extension gives us the chance to fill/complete some teams and start new ones.

Pose – As for the pose, this greatly varies depending on the character. Some have very obvious, classic stances/poses that have to be done and others have great pieces of artwork that we can base a pose on. However, now that we've got down to some lesser-known characters, the costume and pose artwork can be slim. We'll try to order most of the comics a character is in and choose reference from these, we'll then ask our sculptors/artists to come up with poses and lastly we'll get Marvel's approval. We always try to capture a little something of the character in each pose, whether that's very subtle or a little over-the-top depends on the character.

At the start of the collection we went for more stoic, static poses that aimed to show the heroic (or villainous) nature of the character but without turning them in to action figures. As the collection has been extended and evolved over the years we've tended to make the characters more dynamic while keeping the integrity of the early models.

At the end of the day, it's for you guys to decide if we've done this well but we're definitely not slacking off. You wouldn't believe some of the arguments/debates we have in the office over the sculpt details.

Anyway, there's a little look into how we work (which made it a longer post than I had originally planned) and here's the Enchantress.



Enjoy!

Bob, Blob, Glob?

Hello everyone,

Well I'm glad to see that last week's blog update led to a bit more action in the comments section.

From all the comments I can see that there's a certain character that you guys really want for a special. What was his name? Oh that's right – The Glob.

Well fair play he's confirmed, let's have the Glob in the collection.

So that's the chap below confirmed for 2010.



OK, that was a bit cruel.

So the BLOB it is then. I've enjoyed teasing you guys with this one for a while but I think it's only fair to say (bar any catastrophes) that we'll have him in the collection at some point next year.

Right so that's two slots sorted for next year, begin the comments for another. The Glob anyone?

And lastly today, it looks like Annihilus got the most votes so here he is:




We went for the classic Annihilus not the new Annihilation (more insecty) one and made sure to include the cosmic rod on his chestplate.

Have a good weekend.

Mega Update

So I promised I'd be back this week and here I am with a slightly longer blog update than the last.

First thing I wanted to talk about was the specials for next year, which I know everyone is interested in.

So far I've started planning the first special for 2010 (due out sometime in Feb). We're going for an early Mega Special and one that may surprise you.

Drum roll please...

FIN FANG FOOM.

OK so why have we chosen the dragon lord? Well looking at the possibilities for Mega Specials/larger figures, Fin Fang Foom really stands out. For those of you who don't know, Foom is a character that appeared before the Marvel Universe really began (pre-Fantastic Four, even if it was just one month) and has in some capacity endured for nearly 50 years.

He's a great villain and will make a spectacular figurine. I know he's not the usual Super Hero/Villain spandex but I think Foom will look amazing standing alongside Galactus, Watcher and Sentinel. Other choices for Mega Specials included MODOK, Mojo, Onslaught, High Evolutionary, Celestial and Odin but I think a lot of these figures could be done at a slightly smaller scale to Foom, maybe something similar to the Gorilla Grodd figurine our DC counterpart produced. A character such as Onslaught or Odin (two of my favourite candidates for a special position) could be made at Gorilla Grodd's height and look amazing.

Plus, we really do have plenty of time to put more mega (and normal) specials into the collection.

So the main question to debate will be: 'Should Foom be wearing his trademark purple pants or not?'

In other news, we've been slightly rejigging the magazine format for a few characters. After the comments about removing the centre-page poster and putting back pages of the history article, we've decided to give it a go with Ikaris and Machine Man.

We've also just begun work on the Shang-Chi issue and below is the cover artwork our designer Dan has chosen.



Right, I think that's a little more to talk about this week. Be back here next Friday for another update and a sneak peek of a new figurine. I'll let you guys decide which you see:

Annihilus or The Enchantress

Leave your comment.

Super Quick Update: Madame Hydra

Hello,

As the heading says just a quick update with an image of Madame Hydra (also known as Viper). We went for the classic Jim Steranko look.

Hope you like it and as always please leave your feedback in the comments section.

More next week. I promise.

Cloak and Dagger

Hello,

Sorry for the delay between posts, as always I've been very busy recently.

Last week we said goodbye to the designer on the DC Super Hero Collection, Gary Gilbert, who has decided to leave Eaglemoss and spend some time as a freelance designer. He'll be sorely missed here as he helped develop both the Marvel and DC figurine collections and was a great mate.

Stepping up and taking over from Gary will be the more-than-capable Colin, who has worked as part of Marvel and DC collections since the beginning.

Anyway, with that aside I have a quick update for you with some images of Cloak and Dagger in a near final state. We still have a few tweaks to make to the figure but this is essentially the final product.

As you can see we went for a joint base with Dagger stepping out of Cloak's dark portal. Although they don't always appear together in the comics, my feeling is that a sculpt such as this really shows off the symbiotic nature of the characters. After all, Dagger's light does 'feed' Cloak and they frequently travel/fight using Cloak's powers.

I hope you like it.




Next up I have the rough stage for Ant-Man. We've gone for an early version of Scott Lang's costume. This was chosen because it was the costume he wore from the beginning (inherited from Hank Pym) and also the one that appeared the most.




Right that's your lot, have a good weekend.

Kill, crush, DESTROY

Hi Guys,

Another quick update but this time I will attempt to answer some of the questions from the comments sections:

“What's happened to Onslaught?”

Still on the backburners, we’ve not finalised the number or type of specials for next year but he’ll be on the shortlist. He’s one of my favourite candidates.

“Please please, PLEEEEASE, let the X-Fans know in your next post if you will be or won't be doing the Pyro and Avalanche double pack and the Blob special so we can finally get a rest and move on to other topics!”

Not the news you want to hear but as above (for Onslaught) we’ve not sorted out next year’s specials but once again Blob is one of the characters I don’t think we’ll be able to leave out. As for Pyro and Avalanche – well I know there’s been a lot of support for double packs but we’re still waiting to see just how we can put them together and how frequently we can offer them. At the moment Pyro is on the regular running order but that doesn’t mean he can’t be pulled out and made into a special with Avalanche. The only thing to remember is that double-packs would take the place of other specials making it hard to fit all the oversized characters in.

“Why oh why keep the centre spread, and axe 4 pages of info?”

Initially we decided to keep all features of the magazine intact so that it retained everything it previously had. We also slightly tweaked the format of the History section from 4 columns of text to 3, which actually gives more room for text. Plus we’ve cut down on sidebars unrelated to the character. This means that we didn’t really lose two-pages of history (text) but more like one. However, I must concede that we’re thinking of mixing things up a little and perhaps for characters that deserve more history, we’ll lose the middle pages instead. But I can’t say which (if any) characters this will be for just yet.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I am listening to feedback.

“Cloak/Dagger 1 base or 2?”

We’ve gone for one base and I hope to have preview shots very soon.

“Any chance of a sneak peak of Destroyer or Cloak and Dagger in the next update?”

Yep checkout the below image and leave your feedback in the comments section.



Have a good weekend.

The times they are a changin...

Hi guys,

Time for another figurine update but before we get to that I have some news regarding the magazine.

As I’m sure everyone is aware, the current economic climate is forcing all businesses to re-evaluate their strategies and products, from car manufacturers to newspaper and magazine publishers. Here at Eaglemoss we’ve been affected by the downturn as much as anyone else and the fall in the UK’s currency has led to a much higher increase in production costs, especially for our figurines. In order to keep to our commitment of providing a quality Marvel figurine and magazine without putting the price above £5.99 (per issue) we’ve deemed it necessary to reduce the page count from 20 to 16 pages.

The new page count will take affect from Issue 101 (War Machine) and will involve a reduction of pages from across the magazine to allow us to keep all the standard features.

As the editor of the collection, I want to assure you that the figurine quality will not be affected by the difficult economic climate.

I know some collector’s are going to be disappointed that we’ve had to make this cut but I hope that you understand the necessity of the change.

I hope you can see from the images I’ve posted in recent weeks, as well as today, that we’re dedicated to maintaining the high standard of figurines.

With your support I strongly believe the collection will weather this economic downturn and continue past our current 140-issue run.

As a side-note I would like to mention that the page count for the special magazines will remain at 20-pages.


With that announcement aside I’d like to post an image of a figurine still in development, I give you a work in progress shot of Blackheart.

I for one was a little worried about this character; with the inconsistent look from the comics I wasn’t sure if we could do him justice. I’m pleased to say that I think we’re heading in the right direction. We may need to shorten or calm down some of the spikes coming off his head (don’t want them breaking in the box) but he’s looking good.

Short but sweet

Hello everyone and welcome back for another figurine update.

As someone pointed out in the last update, I had posted an image of Madrox before (doh!) so to make up for it here are three new images of painted figurines.

I present Gladiator, Jack of Hearts and Jubilee.







As always let me know what you think in the comments section.

Have a good weekend.

Let's celebrate

Hi guys, I’m back for another update, my apologies for the wait.

First up I have the painted version of Ka-Zar and Zabu. Obviously these chaps aren’t wearing the usual bright coloured spandex that we’re used to but I think the more natural colours stay true to their comic portrayals and actually make them standout (in a good way) in the collection.



Next, I have the painted version of Madrox the Multiple Man. I know the costume choice was a little controversial at the time but I hope everyone will agree that the figure’s really got the ‘X-Factor’. You’ll notice that we didn’t put the M tattoo on his face. This was due to the fact that it’s a super-recent addition to his look and at the moment is a little story specific, rather than timeless.




As well as painted figures, I’ve also got a concept sketch of Gorgon.



And on top of that here’s the cover for our 100th issue – Banshee. I know some collectors were keen that we put in a special ‘one-off’ figure for our 100th, and the name Stan Lee has been mentioned. Doing Stan as a figure is an idea that I wouldn’t totally dismiss but I think if we did something like that it would come at the end of the collection, which happily we’ve not reached yet. Anyway, I hope you like the cover.



Finally, and I’m really spoiling you guys now, I have some news regarding Marvel’s 70th Anniversary. I’ve been thinking long and hard about how the CMFC can join in with the celebrations and we’ve come up with the idea (which I think a few have mentioned) of making a special of the Destroyer. He’s a Golden-Age character who made his first appearance in 1941 and is one of the first Marvel characters created by Stan Lee. While I’m still planning the magazine element of the special, I can say that it won’t just focus on the Destroyer but will touch upon many of the Golden-Age characters as well as Marvel’s entire 70 year history.

For those of you wondering why the Destroyer? Well, when you look back through Marvel’s earliest characters he’s one of the most recurring and popular outside the big three of the time: Captain America, Sub-Mariner and Human Torch. As we’ve already made figures of each of these characters (I know it was FF torch not Golden-Age but they would look similar) I thought we’d get another character in the collection rather than having another version of one already made. And for those of you worried about the special running order, we’re not losing any of the confirmed specials or giving away a slot for another character, the 70th Anniversary special will be an extra. We’re planning to slightly tweak the release dates for later specials so that the Destroyer can comfortably fit in; he’ll be out during the start of October (the official month for the 70th Anniversary).

Right that is your lot, have a great Bank Holiday weekend.

Man or Machine

Hello people, things have quietened down a little this week so I’m back for a longer update than the last one.

First up just want to say it’s great that this blog is generating so many comments and giving us a lot of feedback here at Eaglemoss. However, can I ask that everyone tries to keep a cool head and refrain from using any derogatory language. It’s hard to always get your point across on a blog or forum and some posts can be misinterpreted so let’s all remember to be civil and respect each others views.

Now enough from ‘old man’ Richard, time to answer some questions about the way we choose characters for the extensions.

Firstly I’ve noticed that a lot of discussion has been on X-Men characters (especially villains) and how many we have in the collection. Well first up, I promise you we’re not anti X-Villains here at Eaglemoss, in fact we're not really anti anything. Between the chaps who work on the Marvel project and some of our other mags we’ve got a large cross-section of comic readers.

Dan (Designer) is a big fan of Kirby characters and wants to diversify the collection as much as possible to include the horror elements.

Alan (previous editor) loves the Defenders, some of the old ‘50s monsters, and obscure Daredevil characters.

Gary (DC designer) is a big fan of the ‘70s characters.

And I personally grew-up on X-Men comics from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

When we do choose which characters go into an extension we spend a long time coming up with a list of potentials (the last one was 150 characters long) we then choose based on a number of criteria including:

Number of comics the character’s been in.
Importance to the rest of Marvel Universe.
How good the figure will look.
The comic fans' perceived importance of the character.
The Marvel ‘family’ they fit into.

And belief it or not, we always look at the balance of the collection, and try to make sure that we have a fair number of characters from the main Marvel families.


There might be a few groups that are slightly underrepresented but we always strive to fill any extension with characters that help complete sets (Inhumans, Alpha Flight, X-Men…) as well as starting new ones such as Thunderbolts, Eternals, Guardians Galaxy. We also want to have a solid mix of old characters and modern ones to keep everyone interested.

At the same time we’re keen to have the collection reflect the Marvel Universe, in diversity and make-up. What does this mean? Well one example is with female characters (which I think we’re all keen to get more in the collection). A quick look through the Marvel Encyclopedia (DK edition) shows that Marvel’s characters are predominantly male with only around 25% female. Looking in our collection we’ve got 31 females out of 140 which is about 22% so we’re not that behind Marvel. Obviously this is just an example and we don’t actually sit around all day using stats to choose characters but hopefully you can see the point I’m making.


All in all it’s a tough balancing act and I hope you can see we think hard about it and, more importantly, I hope you agree with me that we get it more right than wrong.

So the big question: who’ll make the next extension if/when we get one? Well you’ll all just have to wait and see. Last time we let you guys choose a lot of the characters and I’m happy to let you choose a few more but definitely not all of them.

Will there be more X-villains? Yes.

Will there be some new groups started? Yes.

Will I reveal anymore right now? No

And finally a figurine update: Machine Man.

Black Knight

Hello,

Just enough time this week for a super quick update.

I give you the Black Knight:



Have a good weekend.

Stormbreaker

Hello everyone, sorry for the once again delayed update to the blog, it has as always been very busy here at Eaglemoss.

From the comments posted I can see that the double-pack specials are very popular, with some great choices being suggested. I hope we can get as many double-packs into the collection as possible but we must remember that the double-packs do take the place of regular or mega specials in our schedules. So I’m going to have to balance them with the other specials.

I think the Pyro and Avalanche idea is very strong but I’m going to keep Pyro in the extended running order for now and see if we can get him into a double pack later on. So far our confirmed specials are:

Watcher
Kingpin
Ka-Zar and Zabu
Cloak & Dagger

That takes us up to the end of October so I won’t be able to confirm anymore until a little further down the line. But, characters aside, what type of special would you want next: Regular, Double-Pack or Mega?

Right I’ve got just enough time to tease you with a new figure, I present Beta Ray Bill. At the moment this is the only shot of the figure I have but I’ll try and put a couple more up next week.

Last minute sub...

Welcome back everyone.

This week I can announce who’ll be stepping into Ka-Zar’s place in the running order.

Drum roll please…

We’ve decided to go for Snowbird!

The reason I choose Snowbird is that as some people have pointed out we need a few more female faces in the collection and I also think it’s time to have another Alpha Flight member in the roster.

Destiny came a close second in my eyes (being a female X-villain) but looking through our reference, I found that there were more and better images of Snowbird. So sorry Destiny fans but I think she saw it coming! If we get another extension then Destiny will be top of my list.

Anyway…

I also wanted to stick-up the most recent running order 100-140. We’ve had to make a few shifts due to sculpting issues and hopefully to balance it out a little more.

101 War Machine
102 Hobgoblin
103 Baron Zemo
104 Taskmaster
105 Doc Samson
106 Madrox
107 Union Jack
108 Man Wolf
109 Ikaris
110 Machine Man
111 Shang Chi
112 Black Knight
113 Hellcat
114 Viper
115 Dazzler
116 Chameleon
117 X-23
118 Tigra
119 Son of Satan
120 Beta Ray Bill
121 Jack of Hearts
122 Crimson Dynamo
123 Jocasta
124 Gladiator
125 Sunfire
126 Titania
127 Gorgon
128 Jubilee
129 Ant-Man
130 Snowbird
131 Grim Reaper
132 Annihilus
133 Pyro
134 Prowler
135 Drax the Destroyer
136 Nomad
137 Enchantress
138 X-Man
139 Black Heart
140 Wasp


And finally a figure that no-ones seen yet:



I give you Zabu work in progress. And no he won’t be on the same base as Ka-Zar they’re going to be separate.

Enjoy.

Custom Comp winners

Welcome back to another blog update. This week I thought I would put up a few images of some custom Marvel Figurines.

Each of the figures below one their respective category on the superherofigurineforum, with Zombie Sue Storm chosen by the guys at Eaglemoss as our personal favourite.

Category 1 – REPAINT
The original CMFC or DC figurine has been repainted. NO original material has been removed, NO material (fimo, Das, clay, plastic etc) has been added…..just paint.



Category 2 – REMODEL
The original CMFC or DC figurine has had additional material added or original material removed (capes, weapons, wings etc)



Category 3 – RESCULPT
The original CMFC or DC figurine has been substantially altered to create a new interpretation. This will include all aspects of Categories 1 and 2 with the addition of limb/torso removal and repositioning, additional non-cmfc accessories added and / or complete re-sculpt from scratch using CMFC or DC as the “idea”.



Eaglemoss Winner:




To the guys who made these and ran the competition, thanks a lot and my apologies for taking a while to put them up.

I can also reveal some news on the Specials front this week. We have another double pack lined up after the Kingpin Special. The characters we've chosen for this double-pack are Ka-Zar and Zabu. I know we previously had Ka-Zar in the regular running order but it just didn't seem right that he wouldn't have his big sabertooth cat with him. I think the pair make a fantastic addition to the collection and are one of the most natural double-packs we could have put together. Lets face it, Ka-Zar simply doesn't appear without Zabu.

I hope to have some images of the sculpts ready in the next couple of weeks.

Obviously that means we have another free space in the collection, and I plan to have this sorted out by next week. I'll be looking at the recent character polls and discussing with all the guys who work on the project.

Right, have a good weekend everyone.

Questions, answers and the Kingpin

Hello again,

As promised, this update I'm going to do my best to answer some of the recurring questions in the comments section, while also giving you a figurine update.

But first, I just want to address some of the comments that have come up due to the characters that made the extension.

My goal as editor of the CMFC is to try and put as many characters from across the Marvel Universe in the collection as possible. I need to balance the different 'aspects' of Marvel (Spidey characters, X-foes etc...) with the modern characters, the old characters, the popular, the niche and the more bizarre characters. It's absolutely fantastic that this collection evokes such passion from its collectors and I'm thrilled that choosing which characters to immortalise in lead is such an exciting process. However, what we do all have to remember is that it's impossible to tailor make the collection for each and every fan. Some characters you may feel deserve a place in the collection, another fan may think are a waste of space. So it comes down to a delicate balance when choosing new characters for the magazine and I genuinely hope that everyone can look forward to at least one figurine from the recent extension.

In a way I also like to think that we (the guys working on the mag) can act as ambassadors for each and every character in the collection. So you don't like X-Man/Jocasta/Son of Satan etc, well it's our job to show you that these are great Marvel characters with a rich history (whether that be 50 issues spread over 40 years or 100 issues in the '90s) and that they make great looking figures. Hopefully it's something we can achieve and something we'll always aim to do.

So moving on, I want to break down answers into a few segments.

Magazine:

The images we use in the magazine come from a number of sources. First Marvel have a database that we can download hi-res images from. These images tend to be from more recent or recently re-printed comics. The second method for getting images is to buy the comic and then scan artwork.

For scanned artwork the resolution it is scanned in at varies depending on the size and quality of the artwork, and the size we want to use it at. In general, we scan in between 400-800 dpi and then resize in photoshop to the standard 300 dpi print size.

All scanned artwork is cleaned up in photoshop using many different techniques including: recolouring, boosting blacks, as well as different types of blur and sharpening effects.

Figurines:

I'm very keen to put up shots of the sculpting and figurine process, discussing techniques, materials etc... but as I'm not a sculptor myself I want to get the guys who do the work on board. I'm currently discussing it with them and we'll see what we can do.

Main site:

I know we're a little behind schedule with the main site updates but we've had a couple of the Internet guys leave recently. I'm sure it'll be sorted very soon and we'll get back to regular updates.

Specials & double packs:

So far, I can confirm that (as previously mentioned) the Watcher and Kingpin will be the next two specials, after that I'm hopeful to get a Cloak and Dagger special out followed by another double pack. We're also looking at producing a figurine to tie-in with the Wolverine movie the details of which haven't been decided upon. Perhaps a Blob figure (as he'll be in the film) will work but I can't promise anything yet.

Looking further ahead to later specials, the characters that are on my 'working list' (but by no means definite and NOT in a running order) are:

Blob
Northstar & Aurora double pack
Odin
Omega Red
Onslaught
Power Pack (special double pack)
Sasquatch
Sauron

Plus a nearly unlimited list of other double packs.

We don't have a fixed schedule for the type or number of specials that we're going to produce this year but I'm looking to get the correct balance so that we can get as many characters into the collection without it costing the world and without the specials becoming regulars.

As far as double packs go, I believe Prof. X and Lilandra was successful (and the demand is there for more) so I will be sitting down with our marketing dept. and bosses in the next few weeks to discuss schedules.

Right, I hope that's answered a few questions so I'll move to the figurine update: the Kingpin painted!




As you can see we've gone for the classic white jacket costume with purple pinstriped trousers. The pose was adapted from a number of different sources with the sculptor producing a final sketch. I hope you'll all agree it captures the ruthless essence of the character and looks fantastic.

That's your lot, have a good weekend everyone.

The complete line-up to #140...

Welcome back to another update.

This week I've got two pieces of news, the first of which is that we've finally picked all the figures for the latest extension (121-140).

The final eight figures were chosen on the superherofigurineforum and are:

Annihilus
Crimson Dynamo
Drax the Destroyer
Gladiator (Daredevil Foe)
Gorgon
Prowler
Pyro
Sunfire

They join:
Ant-Man
Black Heart
Chameleon
Grim Reaper
Jack of Hearts
Jocasta
Jubilee
Nomad
Son of Satan
Titania
Wasp
X-Man



So with those chosen, I just want to say a big thanks to the admins and mods on the message board for running the polls and making sure they are cheat free, and of course thanks to everyone who voted.


So with the extension now decided, I can begin work on the costume/pose choices and I promise to keep everyone updated as the figures go through development.


On to my second piece of 'news': with the overwhelmingly positive response to the Warlock image I put up, I thought I'd show you how we put together some of our front covers.

The cover in question is Nighthawk (Issue 96), which surprisingly caused us a little bit of trouble. As I've shown in the past, we do occasionally commission original pieces of artwork for covers, if suitable artwork is not easily available. However, sometimes we come across a character that has a lot of images that look great but none that really hit the mark when it comes to a cover. Sometimes the images don't fit the space well and sometimes we just can't get large enough copies of the images to use on the cover. With Nighthawk the magazine's designer (Dan) decided to make a cover using a number of different images for the background, logo and figure; here's how he did it...


First up we cutout an image of Nighthawk from the Last Defenders #1 cover.



We weren't keen on the background from Last Defenders cover (it highlighted too many other characters) so Dan chose an old Defenders issue for the background. This was knocked back to black and white and then rescaled for the magazine's front cover. A purple overlay was added to the cover to help the main Nighthawk image standout.



The logo we used was taken from a third comic (Nighthawk's miniseries) and placed on the cover to finish the artwork.



And that's really it, when no one image works for a character we tend to search the comic archive to find a few different pieces of artwork that can come together and make a good cover.




Hope you enjoyed the update, more figurine news/previews at the end of the week, and I'll answer some of the questions kicked up in the comments section.