Labor Day has passed and that means we’re back to work today after a lovely Monday off! That also means it’s time for another all new Toy News Tuesday! We’re the one weekly column right here on ScienceFiction.com where we seek out all of the awesome news you need to know about any announcements and cool happenings in the toy industry and put them all in one easy to find place for you! September is here and that means it’s officially the Fall season! It looks like some of our favorite companies are starting the season right with some fantastic new releases being announced from the teams at Diamond Select Toys, Funko, Hot Toys, and more! The news may be light this week, but it’s all a case of quality of quantity in the Toy News for the week of September 4th, 2017!


New From Diamond Select Toys

Our good friends at Diamond Select Toys are starting off the fall with a number of cool new items that hit shops this past week! If you’ve not stopped off at your local retailer yet, be sure to check out your favorite shop to try and find some awesome new Vinimates vinyl figures based on ‘Caddyshack’ and ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, plus the highly anticipated ‘The Iron Giant’ Minimates set! Diamond Select recently sent out the following release for these awesome new items you won’t want to miss-

It’s an exciting week at comic shops, as three exciting Vinimates and two exciting Minimates arrive in stores! Whether you’re a fan of sports comedies, sci-fi animation or stop-motion horror, there’s something for you at your local comic shop!

With the release of Ty Webb, our fourth character from Caddyshack, and two more characters from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas – Santa Claus and Zero – the Vinimates line is growing like crazy! Each 4-inch vinyl figure is sculpted in the Minimates block-figure style and strikes a pose straight from the film the character appears in. But each figure also has an articulated head so you can customize that pose!

Also out this week, DST’s two-pack of 2-inch Minimates mini-figures from The Iron Giant is great on its own, or paired with the Iron Giant Vinimate! Approximately 2-inch Minimates of Hogarth Hughes and the Iron Giant features 10 and 14 points of articulation, respectively, and can strike a variety of poses straight from the movie.

Reserve yours at your local comic shop, or order online from your favorite online retailer!

 

Best Buy’s Got A Real Set of Balls

The late 80’s and early 90’s were home to the “gross-out” toy genre, which is one that is often looked back upon fondly by the nostalgia driven generation that grew up in that era. Few toys from that time gone by are as beloved as ‘Mad Balls’, a series of super gross looking sculpted balls that kids played with and featured highly detailed and disgusting designs on them. The original line is still highly sought after by collectors (especially if they’re in good condition, as you can imagine many of these balls took a beating), so you can only imagine the excitement from the collecting community when Kid Robot announced that they had acquired the license to make new ‘Mad Balls’ collectibles!

The team at ToyArk are reporting that the already popular new ‘Mad Balls’ line from Kid Robot is expanding to release a new horror and sci-fi wave of balls featuring some of your favorite iconic characters! This new series will be exclusive to Best Buy stores for the low price of just $9.99 each, with the series being comprised of six fan favorite character themed balls include characters from ‘Friday The 13th’, ‘Alien’, ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, and more!  These are set to hit stores any day now!

By The Power Of Super7!

It’s no secret that the team at Super7 have a great love of the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ license, which is why it’s such a fantastic opportunity that they were chosen to shepherd the brand moving forward after Mattel decided to end their long running ‘Masters Of The Universe Classics’ line. Now, we are only a few days away from ‘Power Con 2017‘, the annual convention and celebration of the ‘Masters Of The Universe’ brand that takes place in Los Angeles on September 9th and 10th, so the time seems right for Super7 to unveil the official list of Power Con 2017 convention exclusives!

 

This year there are a number of new offerings, including new ‘Masters Of The Universe Classics’ figure multi-packs, a new wave of M.O.T.U.S.C.L.E. Slime figures, and a few new vinyl collectibles! Check out the whole line of Power Con 2017 Convention Exclusives from Super7 below!

Super7 will be exhibiting at Power-Con once again in Los Angeles! The big celebration of all things Masters of the Universe takes place next weekend (Saturday, September 9th and Sunday, September 10th). Of course, it wouldn’t be a MOTU party if Super7 didn’t bring MOTU exclusives to the show.

First up, created as Power-Con Exclusives, are the MOTU Classics 3-packs! Pack 1 features 8″ mini-comic variants of Stratos, Trap Jaw and Prince Adam while Pack 2 has 8″ figures of Terroar, Plasmar, and Lord Gr’asp. Both 3-packs were offered to Power-Con attendees to order as made-to-order / pre-order items. These figures are only available through Power-Con.

Next up we have the Power-Con exclusive Slime Green M.U.S.C.L.E. Trash Can! Each can contains all 12 figures from the second wave of the MOTU M.U.S.C.L.E. and comes with brand new artwork featuring everyone’s favorite magical jester covered in slime – Gross! This item will only be available at Power-Con.

And for the toy connoisseur with a refined palette, Super7 is bringing our trademark soft-vinyl figures from Japan. At Power-Con you will be able to tackle the 2-inch Clear Green Micro He-Man and Skeletor AND the eye-popping 5-inch Green Fiend Beastman and Purple Reign Skeletor vinyl figures! They are all the way from Japan, man.

We hope you are as excited as we are about these great toys and are looking forward to hanging out with the MOTU fans again. See you at Power-Con next weekend!

No Rest For The Wicked

This week the team at McFarlane Toys pulled back the curtain to reveal an all new Claptrap Deluxe Box Set from their new ‘Borderlands’ line based on the hit video game series of the same name! Upon the release of the first game, Claptrap quickly became the series unofficial mascot, so it’s great to see him getting some love with this new figure!

The new Claptrap Deluxe Box Set includes a bunch of weird accessories to dress up your Claptrap however you see fit including several different hats, a magic wand, a pistol, and more! The figure, which will stand around 4.5″ tall, will also come packaged with a display base featuring the ‘Borderlands’ logo. The new Claptrap Deluxe Box Set from McFarlane Toys is expected to hit the market sometime around Spring 2018.

 

He Just Really Hates Sand

With everyone still freaking out about all the cool new ‘Star Wars’ merch from Force Friday this past week, the team at Hot Toys has decided to delve into the past of the franchise for their newest figure with their all new 1:6th scale Anakin Skywalker figure! This new Anakin Skywalker figure is based on the hero’s appearance in the final chapter of the prequel saga, ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith’! It comes packaged with a number of film specific accessories (included the late Count Dooku’s lightsaber!) and a special figure stand! Check out the full release info from Hot Toys below-

Star Wars EP3 – 1/6th scale Anakin Skywalker Collectible Figure

“My powers have doubled since the last time we met, Count!” – Anakin Skywalker Playing a core and decisive role in the Star Wars galaxy, Anakin Skywalker had the potential to become one of the most powerful Jedi ever and was believed by some to be the prophesied Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force. Despite being a hero of the Clone Wars, Anakin’s fear of loss would prove to be his downfall and lead him on a path to the Dark Side.

Today Hot Toys is thrilled to officially present our incredible movie masterpiece – the highly anticipated 1/6th scale Anakin Skywalker collectible figure from Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Masterfully crafted based on the appearance of Anakin Skywalker in the movie, the 1/6th scale collectible figure features a newly developed head sculpt with impressive likeness, a meticulously tailored Jedi outfit, an interchangeable mechno right arm, a LED light-up lightsaber, an additional Count Dooku’s lightsaber, and a specially designed figure base. This new Anakin Skywalker collectible figure will surely be a phenomenal masterpiece to add to all Star Wars fans’ collection!

 

The Funko Forecast

Get ready for the Funko Forecast! This is where we’re going to be showcasing all of the cool new announcements and reveals from Funko! With all of the awesome that consistently seems to be flowing out of those guys, it shouldn’t be hard to keep this section alive each and every week!

Funko NYCC Exclusives Round One

We’re about a month away from New York Comic Con 2017 and the team at Funko has officially begun announcing their massive amount of NYCC convention exclusives for this year! So far we’ve got a number of new POP! Vinyls from various fan favorite brands like WWE, ‘Game of Thrones’ and DC Comics! From WWE fans can look forward to Zack Ryder, while ‘Game of Thrones’ fans will be excited to hear we are getting our first POP! Vinyls of Lady Mormont and Jaqen H’gar! On the DC Comics front, we can look forward to new POP! Vinyls of ‘First Appearance’ Superman, Chrome Metallic Batman, 8-Bit Batman, plus a Dorbz ‘Batman 66’ villains 3-pack with The Riddler, King Tut and Mr. Freeze, and a special limited edition Blue Batmobile set for their 3.75″ retro-style ‘Batman 66’ line!

These will all be available exclusively at New York Comic Con 2017 in October!

Winter Is Here

Last week we saw HBO’s hit high fantasy series ‘Game of Thrones’ wrap up it’s penultimate 7th season! So it stands that Funko waited a few days to announce what is sure to be a high in demand new POP! Rides set based on the final moments of the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season Seven finale! Early next year you will be able to add the new Nights King with Viserion POP! Ride to your ‘Game of Thrones’ POP! Vinyl collection! This set is expected to hit stores in January.

WITNESS ME!

While these feel like they might be a little late to the party, it’s better late than never! Witness these awesome new Funko products based on the smash hit of summer 2015, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’! We’ve got a Furiosa Rock Candy, a wave of Mystery Mini blindboxed figures, plus a veritable ton of new POP! Vinyls including Max, Furiosa (with chase variant), Immortan Joe (with chase variant), Nux, Valkyrie, Capable, and The Doof Warrior! There will also be a few exclusives like Nux with Goggles (Funko Shop), Unmasked Doof Warrior (Target), Missing-Arm Furiosa (Hot Topic), and Cage Mask Max (Walmart)! These are due to hit stores this Winter!

Furiosa Rock Candy

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Mystery Minis

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ POP! Vinyls


And with that, we bring this week’s Toy News Tuesday to a close! What do you think about the new items announced this week? Do you plan on picking up anything we mentioned in this week’s column? Are there any lines or brands you’d like to see more coverage of? Let us know in the comments section below!