SDCC: First Glimpses, First Reactions

SDCC has started with a bang! Thanks to the glory of the Internet, who needs to be there to stand in queues (that’s what we call lines in Australia) with the sweaty hordes when you can get a great view from your lounge room anywhere in the world? (That, of course, if code for “I am sooooo jealous of anyone who can actually be there I need to pretend I don’t care that I can’t!).

There are great sites doing a fabulous job of comprehensively covering the Con, as mentioned in my last post, so all I’ll be doing is giving my own reactions to what we see each day, in typical AFB fashion. Preview Night certainly gave us alot to look at, so here’s my highlights, lowlights and downright scarylights.

DC Direct seemed to come out with a great deal of new product. The highlight is clearly History of the DCU Series 4: SA Martian Manhunter, Classic Captain Atom, Superman as Nightwing, and Kobra!! The figures look fantastic and it’s encouraging to see DCD seeming to make a real commitment to the line. It would have been nice to see what the female buck is going to look like for this line, but this is pretty impressive character selection, so I’m hardly complaining.

Just to prove that DCD is still DCD, we also saw a glimpse of their first version of the much-requested Reverse Flash figure, and it’s in the JLA Classified McG bodysculpt style. Oy, oy, oy. Even more frightening is what appears to be a 13” Poison Ivy. Happy to see a new character in the line, but she looks more like a Tonner reject than something that belongs in the DCD 13” line. The females in this line look bad enough, but this is a new level. Let’s hope she gets some major retooling before she gets released. Have I mentioned that I really hate the thigh cuts on these figures? I really hate the thigh cuts on these figures!!

On the Marvel side, I’m sure there were 6” collectors slitting their wrists in the aisles on Preview Night. First off, a whole swag of Marvel Universe figures were premiered, from Secret Wars 2-packs to regular figures to exclusives, and just from a glance, they include a slew of characters that we’ve been desperate to see in Legends, including Enchantress, Ultron, Classic Sunfire, Piledriver and more.

Even more cruel, Hasbro put 19 new Legends sculpts on display, of which we’ll see only six in plastic in 2-packs of the course of 2010. Even worse, we only get to pick three, at the poll which is live now at http://www.hasbro.com/marvel/en_US/discover/poll.cfm – I’m voting for Brother Voodoo, Valkyrie and Madrox, but with X-Force Wolverine, Hulk and (ugh) Paper Bag Spidey in the running, who knows what will happen. What kind of company puts all these gems in front of you (Bi-Beast! Nuke! a much better Black Widow! Classic Ms Marvel!) and then doesn’t make most of them??

MOTUC fans got to see the new Webstor and Battle-Cat on display. I had a number of He-Man toys as a kid but have tried to avoid being drawn in to the new versions, but they’re just too damn good. I caved in on Man-at-Arms and have now signed up for the 2010 subscription which has gone live at Mattycollector.com.

So, alot of excitement on Previews night with the usual serious toy collector’s anguish mixed in. It was a surprise to see so much out before the Con has officially started – hopefully these companies have more to reveal, and of course we haven’t seen any serious Mattel reveals yet, which means much more excitement to come!

You can join in the discussion at the AFB Forum, and don't forget that by commenting on this or any other July post you can enter the July Comment of the Month Contest!

Until next time!