Mcfarlane Toys seems to be taking an interesting approach to the selection of action figures (or parts of action figures) that they will be releasing early in 2009. In addition to their typical action figure releases, Mcfarlane seems to be leveraging their manufacturing to create more product releases with less. Here's what I mean. In my previous blog post, I told you about the new series of Halo 3 action figures. That's nothing new. The Halo figures have been amazingly successful for Mcfarlane Toys. What is interesting is that Mcfarlane is also releasing a line of Halo helmets. The McFarlane Halo helmets are small helmets that are about an inch tall. They are made to fit any twelve inch Mcfarlane Halo action figure. You can check out a few of the helmets in my Mcfarlane Halo helmets photo gallery.

In addition to the Halo helmets, Mcfarlane has also just announced the upcoming release of a huge number of Guitar Hero guitars. The first season of Mcfarlane Guitar Hero action figures based on the video games are expected to start shipping from retailers at the end of the month. The Mcfarlane guitars are 4 inch action figure accessories for the Guitar Hero figures. The guitars be customized with a number of stickers that come with each guitar.

This is an interesting move for Mcfarlane, but it seems like it could be great news for action figure customizers. Being able to purchase quality action figure accessories at a fairly low price is a great benifit for collectors who enjoy making custom action figures. As far as I know, none of the other major action figure companies have released action figure accessories for individual sale. Are there others? Leave a comment to let us know.

Image Copyright Mcfarlane Toys

Halo action figures from Mcfarlane Toys continue to be some of the most popular action figures ever produced by Mcfarlane. The action figures based on the video game series are highly detailed figures that stay true to the video games.

I just finished reviewing the new third series of Halo 3 action figures. While I was looking at some photos of the Halo 3 figures something dawned on me that I have never thought about before. It's well known in the action figure industry that some manufacturers, including Mcfarlane, use 3-D scanning technology to guide their sculptors when making a new figure. For Mcfarlane SportsPicks figures, Mcfarlane scans the athelete in a number of different poses then this data is put into a computer program to create a virtual 3-D model of the figure to help guide the action figure sculptors. Obviously, for a video game action figure like the Halo 3 action figures, this isn't possible. It really points to the talented Mcfarlane Toys sculptors that they are able to keep their Halo 3 action figures line so true to the video game.

About a month ago, I told you about some upcoming Mezco Toys The Spirit action figures in this blog post. Well, it looks like Mezco isn't the only action figure company with The Spirit. Recently, Diamond Select Toys announced that they will be producing their representations of the movie characters as a set of The Spirit Minimates.

If you're not familiar with them, Minimates are small two inch tall block-like figures made by Diamond Select Toys. Some collectors are more familiar with Medicom Kubricks. Minimates are essentially the same type of figures that are about as tall as the 100% Kubricks.

Recently, the hype around The Spirit movie has been growing in the action figure industry with the announcements of these new action figure releases. As hype like this grows before a movie is even released, it always makes me wonder what happens if the movie bombs. As for The Spirit action figures, I guess it probably won't matter for some collectors. From what I can tell of The Spirit action figures... at least the Mezco figures, they seem to be cool enough to garner some attention from collectors even if the movie isn't great. Do you have any favorite action figures that were great, but that were based on a horrible movie? Leave a comment below or hit up our action figure forums to let us know.

Image copyright Diamond Select Toys

The Cult Classics series of action figures by NECA is composed of some of the best horror movie action figures on the market today. Recently, NECA added to their Cult Classics line with a new figure based on the 1970’s horror movie, The Exorcist.

The fact that NECA added the Exorcist action figure to their Cult Classics line isn’t surprising. It fits well with other figures from the series based on movies like Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Beatlejuice and The Lost Boys. What is surprising is the amazing creativity that the designers at NECA put into the Exorcist figure. Getting an action figure to stand up is a challenge in itself for action figure sculptors, but NECA did something pretty amazing with their Exorcist action figure. They added a staircase diorama that is sold with the figure. The action figure is made to be balanced in a pose on 2 different steps to recreate the freaky “spider walk” scene from the movie. By utilizing the hair from the Exorcist figure as a point of contact to balance the action figure, they were able to create a unique mirage that the figure is actually in midair. That’s just plain awesome. Check out my NECA Exorcist action figure review for a picture. You'll see what I mean.

Also, I would love to hear your comments on your favorite action figures that were creatively sculpted like this one for a specific display pose. What’s your favorite?

Mcfarlane Toys is pumping up their first series of Guitar Hero action figures. The series was originally scheduled to include a paltry four action figures based on the characters from the video game. Now, Mcfarlane just announced that they are adding a shocking seven additional variant and exclusive Guitar Hero action figures.

The additional figures in the series all take advantage of the original Guitar Hero action figure sculpts, but they feature a number of different paint jobs. Two of the figures are Toys ‘R’ Us exclusives that can only be purchased at Toys ‘R’ Us stores. The other action figures will be more available.

In the long run, it seems to me that some of the variants, particularly the Johnny Napalm variants, might be figures that action figure collectors should keep their eyes on. In the short term, these figures will be widely distributed and available, but as stores sell out these figures may begin to increase in value. To top it off, Mcfarlane has recently announced that there will be a number of additional series of Guitar Hero action figures following this first series. If the Guitar Hero figures catch on with action figure collectors, these first figures could be a great investment. For a number of long running action figure lines, the first action figures produced in the line have had a nice history of increasing values.

For the first time since 2004, Mcfarlane Toys has added a third series of NFL action figures to their NFL Sports Picks figures. This is great news for action figure collectors, but it just got better. Mcfarlane just announced that they will also add a Brett Favre action figure to the series! The fun part about this action figure is that the Brett Favre figure will be dressed in the New York Jets uniform.

I could almost hear the panic spread through the halls of Mcfarlane Toys when football fans finally found out that Brett Favre will be playing for the Jets this year. The announcement came late in the year and after his legendary career in Green Bay, it would be a shame for Mcfarlane to have missed the boat on making this Brett Favre action figure. They must have really scrambled to get this action figure planned for 2008. Let's be honest. Brett Favre is getting close to the end of his career. If this turns out to be the last season for Favre, the Mcfarlane New York Jets Brett Favre action figure will probably become a pretty rare collectible. Other Brett Favre action figures and collectibles depict Favre in his Green Bay Packers uniform so the Jets Brett Favre figure could be a good choice for collectors. What do you think?

Photo © Mcfarlane Toys

In a number or my action figure reviews that I have written in the past few months, I almost always take the time to review the sculpt and paint of an action figure. I always intuitively knew how important the paint and paint details were to the overall look of action figures, but this new NECA Harry Potter action figures feature really drove the point home.

The action figure feature by NECA includes pictures of a number of the unpainted action figure prototypes for the second series of the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix action figures. It's a great way to get a clear look at the sculpting details of the NECA Harry Potter action figures. Although the sculpture details of the action figures are great, I was surpised that the sculpts of the figures looked fairly simple compared to the final painted action figures. I was amazed at how many details are not included in the action figure sculpts. Most of the details are added during the painting of the action figures. The Harry Potter Professor Dumbledore action figure is a perfect example of this. Almost all the details in this figure's clothing and beard are added during the painting of the figure. It's actually pretty amazing! To see what I mean, you can check out the unpainted action figure prototype of the Harry Potter Dumbledore action figure here. Pictures of the final painted Dumbledore action figure are here.

Overall, action figures and politics don't seem to mix, but in an election year it's not surprising that politics and action figures have collided head on. I was recently researching some Barack Obama action figures that are making their way into stores and realized that this was a little more confusing than I first thought.

The Politics:

My article started out harmless enough, but it quickly snowballed. I was almost immediately engulfed in a whirlwind of politics. The title of the final article says it all... Jailbreak Toys Votes Obama in '08. From what was just going to be a nice little Jailbreak Toys Barack Obama action figure review, quickly became a lot more political.

Jailbreak Toys, the manufacturer of one of the new Barack Obama action figures is unapologetically Democratic. In fact, they are donating one dollar to the Barack Obama campaign for every Obama action figure sold on their website. I wasn't expecting much, but I searched their site to see if there was any sign of a Jailbreak Toys John McCain action figure. Nothing. After a little more digging, I was a bit surprised to find that Jailbreak Toys did make a John McCain action figure that is being sold at a number of retail outlets. They just weren't doing any press on the action figure, so I decided to get in touch with Jailbreak to get the whole story.

The Story:

A great story it is! In my interview with the owner of Jailbreak Toys, Jason Feinberg, he cleared up the questions about the John McCain and Barack Obama action figures, but that wasn't the surprise. He had a great story about the beginning of Jailbreak Toys. For more than five years, Jailbreak Toys was a one man action figure company, or more accurately a half man action figure company (Jason was working full time as an English teacher, too). Today, after years of hard work, Jason is the full time owner of Jailbreak Toys and they have just added their first employee. No matter what your political views, that's a great story! For all the detail, check out my Jailbreak Toys interview.

Mcfarlane Toys has always been revered as a leader in the action figure industry when in comes to detailed and life-like action figures. Now, we can get a glimpse into the inner workings of Mcfarlane. Recently, Mcfarlane Toys and Major League Baseball released this short online video documenting the making of their Mcfarlane baseball action figures. From how Mcfarlane decides which atheletes to include in each sports figure line, to the final packaging of the action figures, it's all in the video.

Although you probably won't be able to whip up an action figure after watching the video, it's a fun look at how Mcfarlane works (and what it would be like to work at Mcfarlane).

Get a first look at some great new Mezco Toyz action figures based on a new blockbuster movie expected to hit the big screen in December! The new movie called The Spirit is about a hero born, murdered and born again. It's directed by Frank Miller (Hellboy and 300) so it looks like it has the potential to be a great winter movie. Obviously, I haven't seen the movie, but the Mezco Spirit action figures look really good! The colorful cast of characters from The Spirit make great action figure subjects. The action figures are a series of 7 inch articulated figures based on the characters from the movie. My favorite Spirit action figure is the Pathos action figure. The face on the Pathos figure is great. You can check out a quick preview of all the Mezco Spirit action figures in my Spirit action figures photo gallery.

In addition to the Mezco Spirit action figures, it looks like DC Direct also has a license to make some Spirit figures. I'm not sure, but at this point, it looks like the DC Direct license only covers 12 inch and larger statues without any articulation.