What Toy Fair Showings Have Caught Your Eye?

[Quiller-Bee]

Here are a few lines that I'll at least be checking out when they hit the pegs. While I haven't seen a thing that even remotely approaches the sheer greatness of Xevoz, there do appear to be some sweet offerings for the upcoming year.

Here are a few of the ones that I'm most looking forward to at this point:

Transformers: Cybertron and Transformers: Alternators
tformers.com/ig.php?mode=album&album=4258&dispsize=800&start=0

When beast-mode Transformers were finally laid aside to make way for the return of more vehicular TF's, I was hopeful. Robots in Disguise came through with some cool offerings, but I wasn't always crazy about the characters' robot modes. Energon was supposedly going to blow Transfans away, but when the toys were finally revealed, the Transfandom let up a collective groan. I hated Energon. Armada showed some improvement over Energon, but I still was far from impressed.

Cybertyron, however, is a different story altogether. Optimus Prime looks amazing, and will definitely be added to my collection of Primes. While I won't collect the entire line--Megatron looks kinda sucky, IMO--there are a number of other TF's that I might be picking up from this line . . . .

G.I. Joe: Sigma Six
photos.figures.com/photo/1/showgallery.php?cat=2318 Updated link!

Although all I've seen at this point is one very small picture of Storm Shadow (shown in link), I'm hopeful for this line. I loved the Joes and their (at that time) innovative 3 3/4" figs back in the day, but they just don't stack up against today's standards . . . not enough for me to collect. I've felt for a long time, however, that if a new, larger-scale (not the dopey lookin' 12" figs either), better-sculpted, slightly more stylized line were to be intoduced, I would be on 'em like flies on $#!t. G.I. Joe: SIgma Six may prove to be this very thing. I hope . . . .

Micronauts: Evolution
toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=175&itemid=6149

The Micronauts heyday was a little before my time, but I managed to get my paws on them thanks to older brothers. While I'm fascinated by and interested in Takara USA's Microman line, SOTA's reinvention of the original characters has me pretty stoked.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I'm patiently waiting in the wings in hope that Mr. Stinkhead will report some good news regarding our beloved Xevoz . . . .

[Grayfox]

For me it's TF: Cybertron and Alternators and the new GIJoe series too.

Not much else has been seen until now anyway.

[Squishee Slinger]

Transformers - I was dissappointed by the lack of new alternator product. I love Prowl but where were the other cars, planes and trucks? A police car is nice but that alone is not going to maintain my interest.

Invader ZiM - I loved what I saw from series 2. Palisades is a great company and this show is one of my all time favorite cartoons. It like Xevoz was under appreciated, screwed around by the company that produced it and ended much to early. To bad Palisades is only doing one series a year.

I was interested when I heard Micronauts were getting a restart by the makers of those really nice Street Fighter toys. However, as a fan of the late 70s line these fail to impress me. Where has the building and swapping creativity gone. Baron Karza design looks like it's going for a homo erotic appeal. The lobstron or whatever looks like puke sculpture. At $20 a piece they just crapped out what little interest I had for them; they definately aren't Micronauts from my youth. The only thing close to those gems of yesteryear were Xevoz and we all know what they did to them. If I were to get into anything in this genre again it would be with microman. I think I'll just stick with buying old Xevoz though...

Looks like from what I've seen so far from Toy Fair 2005 that I'll be saving a lot of cash.

~SS~

[Quiller-Bee]

Okay, now that I've seen new pics of the G.I. Joe: Sigma Six lineup, I can safely say that I will own all of the figures shown. The articulation looks good, and I love the sculpts.

I'm pretty disappointed that no trucks or planes have been shown yet for the Transformers: Alternators line as well. Even though I'm getting a little tired of car alt modes only, I will probably pick up Prowl. Although I like his robot mode well enough to own him, I think it's one of the weaker Alternator designs to date. (He's no Jazz, that's for sure.) Like I've said before, however, I'm not buying repaints, and I'm getting a little burned out on the car modes. Unless the planes and trucks come along soon, I might be laying the Alternators down for a while. Like you, my interest in this line is beginning to wane.

Invader Zim will be mine, because 1: the toys look cool, and 2: I loved the show and its characters. (Too bad it got the shaft.)

I respectfully have to part company with you on Micronauts: Evolution, however. I think these look like beautiful toys. Unless the figs don't look as good in person, I'll probably snag these. With all due respect, I don't really see anything homo erotic in Karza's design at all. He looks pretty wicked, IMHO. Lobros looks nice and disgusting . . . the "puke sculpture" is part of what makes him appealing to me, and I love the heavy use of texture for him. If we could have these alongside an updated Micronauts that maintained the interchangeability of the original 70's line, I'd be a happy guy.

[Xaolin]

I've been feinin for SnakeEyes and StormShadow since I first saw them. I haven't seen anything else that really looks worth buying. That green cargo plane Transformer looks kinda neat.

[Secter]

Never really been a big fan of collecting toys since my childhood, and I was never really into G.I. Joes or Transformer (got about a dozen original Beast War figs though). However, I think those new G.I Joes look very nice, and I am actally thinking about getting into them. Sorry if I missed it, but what is their scale btw? 8 inches?

Also, I am really digging those Micronauts figures. I will have to look into them more when they are released. They all look pretty good imo. The only downside to either line is the price which was mentioned, they would be a whole lot more appealing with a 9.99 price tag [/b]

[Quiller-Bee]

You know me, man, I have to agree about those price tags . . . they do seem a bit on the steep side to me.

The G.I. Joe: Sigma Six figs are indeed 8".

[Kapusta]

I am Buying every one of those Sigma 6 toys! Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes are the coolest. How much are they going for? Can't wait to see the show. Will it be a Cartoon Network show, or WB?
IMO Karza is sweet. I was not even close to being a thought in my parents heads when Micronauts came out, so I can't say if their close or not, but Karza way overdoes his old self. Diddn't he have a Horse? $20 is pretty steep. I'll maybe get Karza but I'll probably stick to spawn at 9.99.

[Squishee Slinger]

Okay, here's my Micronaut rant since I was a huge fan of these back in the day and these toys were a big dissappointment to me.

I don't see how this Karza hold a candle to the stainless steel and plastic 1977 version. That one had magnetic and removable ball joints in the legs arms and head that you could trade out with the heroic version of himself (Force Commander) and his awesome dark robotic horse (Andromeda). He even had a high powered missle laucher in his gut and forearms that lauched his fists.

Those toys were amped up on play value (much like our beloved Xevoz) and still looked good despite being back in the stone age of action figures. They had the kind of playability and interchanability that every new set set new ideas and contructions into motion. The wide range of vehicles, playsets and huge robots were very versatile and value packed.

If SOTA had just put half the play value in these, it would be a true descendant and evolution of the classic Micronauts line but instead it's just a shell of what those toys were. They just McFarlaned something great and made them just good (or worse) depending on the character. On the upside you get bigger figures (if you are into that), more articulation, with more detail for a high end price. You give up a load of interchangability, lose all the cool playsets, hulking robots and vehicles due to the much larger scale, no diecast parts, lower end cost, and a ton of playability. As it is, some of the generation of Micronauts just look like something nice to put the shelves and collect dust at $20 a pop. There's plenty of that kind of eye candy intended stuff out there and much or it is a better $ value.

~SS~

[triskela]

Good lord, what a lot of crap!

Lemme see, cuz I am looking at them right now, I have:
Acroyer
Time Traveller
Force Commander
Oberon
Baron Karza
Andromeda
And somewhere in a box I have Alphatron and Betatron, clown robots

Originals.

And I really dig the Centaur configurations for Karza and Force Commander. You might be amazed at how well these toys have aged considering I don't even take special care of them as such. Normally I just store them in a box loose, all banging around. Very sturdy toys.

I'll pass on this Micronauts redux. And BTW, is there some reason children - the ideal toy market consumer - would want these? What you have have in reality is consumers ala Millionaire Playboy buying multiples of MOTU just so that the line can ultimately fail - cuz kids don't want them - and be dumped on KB's online site. $20 for 5 figures and a Castle Greyskull - right now! Go look. It would seem to be the Greyskull that takes batteries and everything. I am not the expert there...

[Quiller-Bee]

I can fully respect and understand why you feel the way you do, Squishee. Perhaps they don't bother me in those ways that they do you, because I'm not really comparing them to the original Micronauts. (Which, I'll admit, would seem to be the only natural thing to do.) My view is this: I'm happy to have this new version of Karza stand next to the old, and have both toys serve different purposes.

If it were up to me, however, we'd have these in addition to a re-envisioning of the original Micronauts concepts that made the Micronauts so cool "back in the day". As much as I do like these new figures, I'd admittedly be three times more impressed by new-generation Micronauts. (And no, folks, even though I think that Takara's more recent Micromen do indeed look interesting, they just don't quite fit the Micronauts "re-envisioning/updating" description, in my book.)

Seeing as how SOTA is releasing these, the articulation for the final release figures should be pretty good . . . more along the lines of their Street Fighter figures, I would imagine. Karza doesn't look like his range of movement will be quite as broad as Space Glider's, but it still appears to be better than most figures you'll find. These will most likely be a good cut above McFarlane's static plastic statuettes.

In addition to the articulation, the beautiful sculpts are what cause me to appreciate the initial showing of these figures . . . they appeal to the sculptor in me.

The SRP for these bites. In the end, I don't see how it'll do anything but hurt the line. The planned price seems overly steep to me, but I'll give SOTA the benefit of the doubt for the time being and hope that there will be more accessories included with the figures than are being shown at Toy Fair.

No, they're definitely no Xevoz, that's for sure . . . but I can still enjoy the well-articulated, high-end sculpts for these that are quite a bit more difficult to employ on the scale used for figures such as the original Micronauts. These new guys look like they'd go nicely as companion pieces to my old figures. One thing's for certain, if I do decide to pick these up, mine won't become dust magnets.

triskela said:

. . . And BTW, is there some reason children - the ideal toy market consumer - would want these?

It's likely that you'll never see these at your local TRU, KB or Wal-Mart, Triskela. SOTA tends to focus more on adult collectors, so these will most likely be marketed in a manner similar to SOTA's Street Fighter line. In other words, kids probably aren't the target audience for this line to begin with.

[Kapusta]

S.S., these things aren't trying to be Micronauts. They are cool toys with micronaut names. It is just a nostolgic type thing. "Hey look, its Baron Karza,cool". I see what you're saying,you can't play with them, but that is not the intention. I still like Karza this way. SOTA is trying to come out of the shadows with 2 new Nostalgic retro lines, Street Fighter and Micronauts. I think that they are doing pretty damn good job. Maybe you won't buy these, you'll have to wait for whatever they try to tackle next.

[Lobsterman]

Quiller - your list looks pretty much the same as mine, with the addition of the ML 10 Sentinel.

Squishee - I see your point on the Micronauts. I had a lot of the figures when I was young, and agree that a lot of the fun was their customization factor. As much as I like the current line of Microforce, I'll admit they suffer greatly in the durability department, something the original die-cast figures had no problem with. As far as Evolution goes, I think they're really well-sculpted and nice-looking figures. If the quality of the SF line is any indication, they will at very least be solid, well-executed action figures.

[Squishee Slinger]

That's cool, guys. I just wanted to sound off on these toys since I owned a bunch of the original toys. To me they are essentially nothing like the old counterparts except they glomped their name. There's really nothing toy about them as far as play value. I'd rather plop down $20 on ebay and grab a vintage Hydrocopter that coverts from at helicopter, all terrain land vehicle or water riding tub toy.

~SS~

[Quiller-Bee]

Well, looks like I'm probably gonna have to make room for this:

1.)http://photos.cooljapanesetoys.com/showphoto.php?photo=177&cat=506&page=1

2.)http://photos.cooljapanesetoys.com/showphoto.php?photo=184&cat=506&page=1

and this:

1.)http://photos.cooljapanesetoys.com/showphoto.php?photo=178&cat=506&page=1

2.)http://photos.cooljapanesetoys.com/showphoto.php?photo=183&cat=506&page=1