This week is Toy Fair, or more specifically,Winter Toy Fair. This is traditionally the opportunity for the toy makers to get their goodies out in front of the retailers and press, and make all kinds of big announcements.

The power of Toy Fair has diminished in recent years. This started with Toy Fair being split into two shows a couple years ago – a fall show designed primarly for the big retailers, and the more traditional winter show for smaller retailers and press. And then the San Diego Comic-Con started to erode the importance, first by duplicating much of the info, and then by supplanting the show entirely. This year it’s more evident, with important announcements of late year releases by even large companies like Hasbro and Mattel being held for SDCC.

But Toy Fair is still important, especially for smaller companies. With retailers continuing to dry up at an alarming rate, Toy Fair may be the only chance smaller companies get to convince those remaining to carry their product. I’ll be doing a ‘state of the industry’ column once again this year in a couple weeks, and I’ll be discussing the changing face of Toy Fair more then. But for now, let’s just say it’s still Toy Fair.

I didn’t go this year. My twins birthday is the 12th, which landed smack in the middle of this years dates, and as much as I love toys, I love them a whole lot more. But the coverage of Toy Fair by a wide variety of websites gets better and better every year, so let’s chat about what I (and you) have seen so far.

Sideshow Collectibles

One of my favorite companies, Sideshow always uses Toy Fair to the best advantage. They’ve announced over 30 new items through their site, and you can go there to get the full coverage right from the horse’s mouth.

Unfortunately for the sixth scale collector’s, there’s not much Sideshow product so far. They are announcing a number of Medicom and Hot Toys figures though, including the uber cool (and probably uber expensive) Aliens Power Loader. Premium Format collectors get a crack at Elvis Presley, a new Buffy, and the very cool Darth Maul. And Sideshow is also showing off several of their new ‘diorama’ statues, including one for Star Wars and one for Lord of the Rings.

Mcfarlane Toys

McToys hasn’t been at a Toy Fair in the last 4 or 5 years, but they are returning this year. They’ve discussed the Simpsons movie line, but have yet to show any images. Likewise, they announced they’ll be doing figures for Beowulf, a new film based on the epic poem, but have no photos yet. However, they are showing several of the Lost series 2 figures, including Sawyer, Ecko, and Sun. While you can get some of the info at the official Mcfarlane site, I recommend Figures.com for shots of Ecko and the regular upcoming Simpsons figures.

Mattel

The big boys have a big showing this year, and Mattel has some great Four Horsemen sculpts in the DC Superheroes line, including Clayface (who you can see at Action Figure Insider) and Man-Bat (who you can see at Toy News International). Unfortunately, they aren’t showing much for Justice League or The Batman, but they have some other surprises, like Ratatouille. Action-Figure.com has a pretty good coverage of the overall Mattel line up.

DC Direct

While DCD is announcing several DC themed lines, their big announcement is around DC Unlimited, a new brand that will be covering non-superhero lines. They’re first two announcements are big ones – Afro Samurai and World of Warcraft. Wizard Universe has great shots up of both lines.

Diamond Select

DST has lots of new Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, and Stargate, but they’ve announced some new cool stuff too. There’s Mouse Guard, Back to the Future mini-mates, Marvel Zombies, and even Office Space! That’s sure to be the cubicle figures of the year.

NECA

NECA has some big licenses this year, including 300, and Harry Potter. Let’s jump back over to Figures.com to check out a ton of photos of all their lines. I’m particularly happy to see how great the Harry Potter stuff is looking. There’s also some good additions to the Pirates of the Caribbean and Nightmare Before Christmas lines, both big licenses for them.

Marvel Toys

One of the most anticipated lines this year is the Legendary Comic Book Heroes, from Marvel Toys. You know Marvel Toys…they used to be Toybiz back when they made Marvel toys. Now they’re Marvel Toys, and don’t make Marvel toys. Yea, I know.

But they are making a fantastic set of action figures based on independent comic books, old and new. Check out Wizard Universe for some terrific photos and info. Many of the things we saw with Marvel Legends, including great articulation and Build A Figures, will continue with this series. Fans of books like Pitt, Monkeyman and O’Brien, Savage Dragon, Madman and others are going to be thrilled!

Mezco

For fans of Family Guy and South Park, Figures.com has some photos of the upcoming series. Mezco didn’t have much in the way of new announcements though, but at least we’ll be seeing the Hellboy animated Abe Sapien, and another wave of Attack of the Living Dead. They’ve also picked up New Line Horror line, and they’ll be doing a caricaturized version of old favorites like Freddy and Jason.

Hasbro

Marvelousnews.com has lots of coverage up of Hasbro’s Marvel lines, although far less was shown than many would have liked. The 12″ Dr. Doom in the Marvel Icons line up looks good, but that’s about it at this point.

That’s about it for the highlights so far. As the show progresses through today and tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled on the above sites for additional coverage.

Comments: None