Do you guys and gals ever get tired of reading up on all the cool new toy news every week? Yeah, the crew here at ScienceFiction.com doesn’t either, which is why it’s our esteemed pleasure to welcome you to an all new weekly edition of Toy News Tuesday! The one weekly column that fills you in on all the awesome new toy announcements and general toy industry news you need to know! This week was fairly light on news, but there’s still some cool sneak peeks at things coming to us down the road from some of our favorite toy companies like Funko, Hot Toys, and Hasbro! Let’s take a look at the news for the week of June 10th, 2014!

Transformers Evolving

Over the last few weeks, toy shelves have been bombarded with a vast array of new Transformers toys based on the upcoming film ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’. With all the cool new figures hitting around the same time, it’s easy to miss some of the exclusives! The official Transformers Facebook page shared this image of an all new Toys R Us Exclusive Transformers Evolution figure two-pack that should be hitting stores now! Each pair of figures include the new movie designs of a fan favorite character, as well as a Deluxe or Voyager Class figure of the characters new movie design! The image that was posted was of the Grimlock two-pack, but there are also confirmed two-packs featuring Strafe and Slag available as well. These sets should be hitting Toys R Us stores now, with others potentially soon to follow!

The Knights of Unicron Set to Rock SDCC

Arguably the most ridiculous SDCC reveal so far this year, Entertainment Tonight recently revealed Hasbro’s plans to release an all new Transformers box-set featuring several fan favorite characters redesigned as the 80s style hair-metal band ‘The Knights of Unicron.’ Yes, you read that right, they’re making a Transformers hair-metal band box-set.

The ‘Knights of Unicron’ box-set will include redecos of the ‘Transformers: Generations’ toyline’s Optimus Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, and Jazz Deluxe Class figures that were based on their physical appearances in the ‘Fall/War or Cybertron’ video game series. Also included will be redecos of the Laserbeak and Ratbat musical instruments (Guitar and Keytar respectively) that were originally released as a part of the ‘Transformers: Animated’ toyline. On top of all these awesome figures, the box-set is expected to include a veritable cornucopia of great ‘Knights of Unicron’ accessories to help ring in the 30th anniversary of the ‘Transformers’ franchise in style! The set is expected to be priced around $184.99 and will be sold exclusively at SDCC this July!

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Transformers brand, this Special Edition collector’s set transformers your favorite characters — Optimus Prime, Megatron, Smooth Jazz and Soundwave — as you’ve never seen them before: hard-rockin’ robots in the universe’s greatest band, the Knights of Unicron! Also joining the tour are Laserbeak, who converts into a note-shredding electric guitar, and Ratbat, who converts into the funkiest keytar this side of Cybertron.

The Transformers 30th Anniversary Tour Edition Action Figure Set is packaged in a concert-cool “roadie case,” packed with special edition posters, stickers, a concert ticket, All-Acess VIP pass, and tell-all history booklet depicting the journey of the Knights of Unicron, from their humble beginnings and formation to their stellar hits and “look” (glam rock deco, metal band hair), band infighting (the titanic egos that once tore them apart), and triumphant return to the stage. With KISS and Iron Maiden-inspired album art (and perhaps a little Spinal Tap thrown in for good measure), the Knights record Look What the Bot Dragged In features such smirk-inducing tune names as Circuit Breaker, Laser Phaser and Rust Without You. (Ages: 8 & up/Approx. Retail Price: $184.99)

 

Hot Toys Teases Guardians

While one of this summer’s most anticipated comic book adaptations is still a few weeks away, that doesn’t mean Hot Toys can’t give a little peek at some of their upcoming offerings based on ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’! Hot Toys hasn’t released much information regarding these figures, but they did offer this first glimpse at the full team of heroes based on their appearances in the upcoming Marvel Studios film! Check out the full post from Hot Toys official Facebook page below:

Marvel Studios’ upcoming summer blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy, will expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos! The space adventure film will follow Starlord Peter Quill and a team of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer to save the galaxy!

Following the release of the film’s latest TV Spot, Hot Toys is excited to share with you all a peek of the range of collectibles that we are developing based on this action packed movie!

Electrify Your Hot Toys Collection

Even though ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ has been web slinging in theaters worldwide for a few weeks now, Hot Toys is still keeping the hits coming with a look at their all new Electro 1:6 scale figure based on the hit film! This figure looks to perfectly capture the essence of the character as portrayed by Jamie Foxx in one of this summer’s biggest blockbusters! What makes it truly unique, is that it will feature built in LED lighting functionality to properly carry the characters glowy-blue look from the film to your toy shelf! The full announcement from Hot Toys is below:

“Let’s catch a spider!” The amazing Spider-Man has jumped back into action recently and brought a cast of new villains along with him! Originally an ordinary electrical engineer, Max Dillion has gained super powers in an accident and transformed into Electro who is bent on killing Spider-Man! Today Hot Toys is delighted to present the 1/6th scale Electro Collectible Figure from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The movie-accurate Electro collectible is specially crafted based on the image of Jamie Foxx as Electro in the movie which features a detailed head sculpt, LED light up functions that capture the unique appearance of the villain, highly detailed costume, and a dynamic figure stand ideal for aerial poses. Fans of Spider-Man villains don’t miss the chance to pre-order this “electrifying” Collectible Figure!

Funko Re-Activating the Classics

Funko’s ’ReAction’ toy line is arguably one of the most interesting-yet-simple toy concepts in recent years; with the toyline taking characters from fan favorite classic films and making 70s and 80s style figures based on the characters in the general style of Kenner’s classic ‘Star Wars’ figures of the era. While many toy companies have opted for high-detail, high-articulation figures, Funko has taken a step back to bring fans the figures they wish someone had made back when they were kids! This week they’ve given a look at some of the upcoming figures based on classic films ‘Escape From New York’ and ‘The Goonies’!

While the ‘Escape from New York’ line is fairly limited with only one character being released at this time, we are still getting two different figures of Kurt Russel’s iconic Snake Plissken character. One version will feature the character in his iconic leather jacket, while the other has him in a sleeveless shirt. The jacket-less verison also has the sculpted wrist-timer from the film, as well as an additionally sculpted leg holster. Both versions share the same accessories.

The figures based on ‘The Goonies’ appear to be the same line-up of characters that were selected for Funko’s recent POP! Vinyl Goonies figures, with the set including Mikey, Mouth, Data, Chunk and Sloth! Each figure comes with character specific accessories, including Mikey’s skeleton key, Mouth’s treasure map, Data’s gadgets, and Chunk’s Baby Ruth candy-bar!

That about covers it for this week’s Toy News! While there wasn’t a whole lot going on this week, the few things that were revealed are certainly some good ones! Do you plan on picking up any of the items we talked about in this week’s Toy News Tuesday? Let us know which ones in the Comments Section below! Until next week… Happy Toy Hunting!