McFarlane Teases A Return To Their Roots
It’s been almost fifteen years since McFarlane Toy’s fan favorite ‘Movie Maniacs’ toyline came to an end in 2004. The line, which ran for seven waves from 1998-2004, gave collectors our first ever line of highly detailed figures based on a variety of horror films from all throughout cinematic history. It gave us our first highly detailed figures of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Pinhead, and they even the shark from ‘Jaws’! The ‘Movie Maniac’s line changed to landscape for what a horror collectible could be, and inspired such future lines as NECA’s ‘Cult Classics’ line and Sideshow’s ‘Now Playing’. And now after almost a decade and a half in hibernation, McFarlane is talking about bringing the ‘Movie Maniacs’ line back!
During a recent interview with IGN, acclaimed comic creator and owner of McFarlane Toys Todd McFarlane announced plans for a new ‘direct to consumer’ market strategy due to the loss of major toy stores and former retail partners that are no longer in the market. He was vague on the details of this new strategy and just how this new ‘direct to consumers’ approach would work, but he seems to be very gung-ho about the whole thing and bringing back a lot of their older defunct toylines. McFarlane said the following-
“We live in a brave new world now where you can go literally from production to the consumer, right? You can cut out all the middle men and we’re seeing that with Kickstarters and people doing direct, you know, dot com,So what we’re gonna do is, when we started McFarlane Toys twenty-plus years ago, we were built on the detailed stuff, doing all these cool monsters and all this sort of wicked stuff. Unfortunately, the stores we were selling to at that point, like Tower Records and Suncoast and Babbage’s and KB Toys, and all these other ones, they’ve all fallen to the wayside. So we end up having to follow the game plan of the Fortune 500 companies and having to do big brands. But we’re gonna just start selling more just direct to the consumer. So we’re gonna go back to our origins and we’re gonna go, hey, for all you people who like Tortured Souls? There’s gonna be more. For all you people who like some of the Movie Maniacs? There’s gonna be more. But even the new, the stuff we just created, like Dragons? More. Spawn? More. Twisted Tales? More. All the crazy stuff that we used to sell that we can’t because people just want brands now, the stores, I go so don’t worry about it. We’ll just sell it directly to you, the consumer. So that’s gonna be a big push for us.”
It certainly sounds like McFarlane has big plans for the future and the hopeful return to their former glory at the top of the toy game with the relaunch of these fan favorite classic toylines! We are hopeful for more information from McFarlane soon regarding their upcoming ‘direct to consumer’ sales strategy and the return of ‘Movie Maniacs’ and more!
NECA’s Got Horrifying New Reveals
While we wait for more news on the return of ‘Movie Maniacs’, the crew over at NECA has some fantastic new horror and sci-fi reveals for us for items that are definitely coming in the near future!
Coming soon to the ‘Predator’ toyline is the new ‘Ultimate Emissary Predator #1’! This figure is based on the Emissary Predators from the recently released ‘The Predator’, although apparently their scenes were cut from the actual release of the film! It’s worth noting that the fact that it’s labeled “#1” implies that we can expect a “#2” or even a few more a bit further down the line. It includes a rifle and both masked and unmasked head sculpts! This new figure is expected to be out in just a few weeks in November 2018! Check the full solicit from NECA below! 
From the new Predator movie directed by Shane Black! Although their scenes were deleted from the final cut of the movie, the Emissary Predators were military Predators who fought alongside the Loonies.
Emissary #1 stands over 8” tall and features 30 points of articulation. Includes interchangeable masked and unmasked heads, 2 pairs of hands, and rifle accessory. Comes in collector-friendly deluxe window box packaging with opening flap.
Item Number: 51574
UPC: 6-34482-51574-7
Release Date: Early November 2018
NECA also gave us a better look at their upcoming ‘Ultimate “Bride Of Chucky” 2-Pack’ that includes new ‘Ultimate’ versions of both Chucky and Tiffany! Each of them is super-articulated, and this figure 2-pack is fully loaded with every accessory you could possibly imagine needing for either figure including knives, a hatchet, shovels, the amulet, and so much more! This set is due out in December, be sure to check out the full solicit from NECA below!
From the hilarious horror film Bride of Chucky! The world’s most notorious doll is back on the rampage, but this time he’s met his match… his old flame Tiffany, who with marriage in mind rescues his parts from a police impound and breathes new life into the little guy.
This Ultimate action figure 2-pack includes Chucky and Tiffany, who features a fabric skirt and an extra set of removable arms so she can wear her iconic leather jacket. The set also includes tons of accessories to recreate the movie’s best scenes: 6 interchangeable heads, 2 shovels, 2 pistols, 2 knives, bottle, baster, necklace and more! The figures stand 4″ tall and have over 20 points of articulation. Collector-friendly deluxe window box packaging with opening flap.
Celebrate Halloween In Style With Super7
While we’re on the subject of extra spooky collectibles, the team at Super7 has launched a special new section of their online store featuring a number of Halloween themed items including the new Super Buckets that premiered at New York Comic Con last week, and new ReAction figures based on the ‘Universal Monsters’ license and ‘The Misfits’ fiend! Check the full lineup out below and buy them all here!
Super Buckets
‘Universal Monsters’ ReAction Figures
Misfits ‘The Fiend’ Halloween Edition ReAction Figure
“The White Wolf Has Rested Long Enough”
Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ may have come and gone already this summer, but the hype around the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t appear to be going anywhere! The team at Hot Toys has just announced the latest figure in their ongoing 1:6th scale ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ line with their all new Bucky Barnes! Bucky includes a machine gun, a dagger, a special figure stand, and a number of alternative hands! Check the full release from Hot Toys below!
Avengers: Infinity War- 1:6 scale Bucky Barnes Collectible Figure
“And a semi-stable 100-year-old man…”
Friend turned foe, and maybe back to friend again, Bucky Barnes remains under the protection of Wakanda. Returns as one of the most conflicted characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bucky is ready for another fight. Today, Hot Toys is very excited to present the new Bucky Barnes 1/6th scale collectible figure of the marvel-ous Avengers: Infinity War line up.
Masterfully crafted based on the portrayal of Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes in the movie, the movie-accurate collectible figure features a newly developed head with striking likeness, a finely tailored tactic suit, two highly-detailed prosthetic arms with one arm half turning into dust recreating the mind blowing scene, also with a number of weapons and accessories including a machine gun, a dagger and a specially designed hexagonal figure stand with the movie logo! Add the best friend of Steve Rogers from Avengers: Infinity War to enhance your Earth’s Mightiest Heroes collections!
