Two New Figures

Hey guys I’m back with another update this week and as I missed last Friday I thought it only fair to announce two characters.

Into the extension:
First we have The Puppet Master. Classic Fantastic Four villain and alongside his step-daughter Alicia has contributed hugely to the FF Universe.



Right our second entry today is Shanna The She-Devil.



Figurine Preview:
This week’s figurine preview is Omega Red. We’ve worked hard on this figure trying to catch the energy he has and make sure the tendrils look good. We’ve missed our cut-off point for the character as the next special so that goes to Ronan, but it does mean that Omega Red will feature at some point in the not too distant future.




A few points:
Multi and double packs: I personally love the idea of getting as many figurines out as possible as I would love to get every member of the Marvel Universe. The problem we have with multi packs is finding an ideal price point and making sure we’re not flooding the market with too many figurines. A lot of people are looking at their budgets now and making cuts, I’d hate to lose collectors due to them not being able to afford all the multi-packs and so stopping their collection – there are a lot of collectors who want to collect the whole series but at an affordable price. I am still talking to my marketing department about double packs and at the moment the conclusion seems to be that two normal sized figures may not be as successful as one normal and one special sized character. What do you guys think?

I also wanted to address the issue of Fin Fang Foom breakages. First off, I can only apologise if you’ve received a broken figurine. When we first start the sculpting process we do consider if a figurine is going to have problems later down the line. We often check with the sculptor to make sure we can package the figure effectively, while retaining the pose and detail we want. Obviously some figures are going to be more problematic than others, but once we’ve sent the figure to the factory we do get it back in the packaging. Often we’ll throw the box around and put pressure on it, if we think it can be better or needs ties to hold the figure in place we make the changes.

There’s always the chance that something will get broken in the mail, but I am dismayed that after all we go through some figures end up with a high breakage rate. I’ve passed comments on to our production team and I’m hopeful that we can limit the numbers of broken figures you guys get. At the very least I will be testing the boxes more vigorously in the future.

Complete the Inhuman line-up...

Just a quick update this week to let you know that the next character in the extension is Karnak.



This probably shouldn't come as a surprise as he's pretty much the last Inhuman we need to complete the Royal Family (excluding Lockjaw).

Also just wanted to clarify the Northstar situation. If we don't get a double pack of the Alpha Flight twins, then Northstar will definitely be in this extension. So I guess that's two confirmed this week. Well at the moment...

More news next week.

Next up is...

Another Friday, another update – welcome back.

I really like the idea of announcing one character a week for the extension, so here’s this week’s inclusion – Hydroman.

And as far as I’m concerned there is really only one costume for this guy – check out below.



I know a lot of people are waiting for news on the double pack specials and especially the Northstar and Aurora pack. Unfortunately, all I can say is that at the moment this double pack is struggling to get off the starting line. We’re having difficulty sorting out certain elements, which I can’t really discuss. I haven’t given up hope but I want to make sure we get the best Beaubier twin-pack we can. I know it’s a bit vague and not the best news but be assured that the characters are not being overlooked. By the time the full list (up to 180) is announced we’ll have made a decision.

To answer some of the enquiries from French collectors, I’d just like to say that as far as I’m aware the collection is doing very well in France and should be following the UK all the way to 180 – including specials. I’ve asked my French counterparts to confirm this and I’m waiting for a definitive response. It’s true that the Specials are a little behind the English releases, but Kingpin should be out soon and I expect Fin Fang Foom to follow. Obviously I’ll update this blog if I hear different.

So on to this week’s figurine preview. I present the Scarlet Spider for your consideration.



Despite being a product of the Clone Saga (which had its critics) he was technically introduced to the Spidey-verse back in Amazing Spider-Man #149 (1975). I think he adds an interesting element to the Spidey mythos, and is one of only a few costumed allies of Peter Parker’s that are exclusive to his universe and well recognized. As far as the sculpt goes, we quickly decided that it was important to make sure he matched our original Spider-Man in terms of size (well duh! He is his clone, I hear you say) so we got the sculptor who produced the original to make Scarlet Spider as well.

We also decided that as a clone of Spidey, Scarlet’s pose needed to reflect the first Spider-Man sculpt but be a little different as well. It’s always hard to sculpt Spider-Man standing-up – in comics he’s always jumping around, clinging to walls or web-swinging. Our first Spider-Man sculpt was supposed to emphasise the power and responsibility of Spidey. I like to think that the subtle differences in the Scarlet Spider’s sculpt show the character differences between Ben Reilly and Peter Parker. Ben was more reckless (at least at first) and lacked Peter’s experience, he also has a less-polished fighting style and enjoyed brawling more than Peter (hence the raised fist).

Right, have a good weekend everyone.