Four Horsemen acquire
their first licensed property…
Forty-two years ago the space race between the United States and Russia was in full swing, and a full wave of action figures known as “The Outer Space Men” was released that caught the imagination of a generation. Although the initial salvo of characters was well received, the characters that were to be part of the second wave, collectively referred to as “The World of Tomorrow”, never made it into production and currently only exist as elaborate prototypes / production samples in the homes of a couple of fortunate collectors.
Last year, we featured eighteen Most Requested articles asking for figures from all over the toy kingdom. The requests ranged from cancelled lines to current lines, from 2" Minimates to 8" Hellboy figures, and we even threw in a juice drink for good measure. At the end of the year, we started our first annual tradition, a runoff between those requests to see which one was really the Most Requested Figure of 2009. Our readers chose Mera (DC Comics) for that honor. This year (with a little help from Geoff Johns) Mera is getting her first action figure from DC Direct.
Last year, Bandai’s Soul of Chogokin line produced a Big O figure. It is undoubtedly the best figure that Big O will ever get. The only downside was that it was very expensive and difficult to obtain for those outside Japan. But as a truly dedicated, or according to my girlfriend, an insane, Big O Fan, I had to have it. But I wasn’t done. Bandai also offered an exclusive accessories pack to the people who ordered their Big O figures through the Chogokin website. This made the accessory pack equally expensive and even harder to obtain for us non-Japanese citizens. Of course, I still had to have it.
The MOTU Weapons Pak. I never had one as a kid. A black marker and the sacrifice of Zodac's gear was the closest I ever got. When MOTU Classics took off, I hoped Mattel would resurrect the idea of a weapons pak. One of the main reasons was because I hoped it would include an orange shield and axe for Faker. This first weapons pak, labeled Heroic Warriors, doesn't have those, but it still has plenty of cool pieces. Still, how do you review 19 weapons? We weren't sure. They're all sturdy and painted well. What else? Well, when we can't be informative here at IAT, we turn to cheap humor. Here's 15 Minutes at the MattyCollector Weapon Shop.