Photos: Toy Fair 2009

2009 marked Geekanerd's first trip to the American International Toy Fair, held at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Toy Fair is a magical place where men and women in suits walk down endless hallways of brightly colored toys, with nary a child in sight - no one under eighteen is even allowed in the door. Hardcore.

Plenty of new toys were on display, including original painted prototypes of Mezco's upcoming line of 2-inch LittleBigPlanet figures. Good. Grief. The cuteness, it burns!

More Sackboy, plus Star Wars, Tim Burton, Simpsons, Qee, Watchmen, Umbrella Academy, and oh so much more, after the jump...


*Featuring color commentary in italics by Gnerd contributor, Sarah B....

Sackboy as an little angry cowboy. Again, this is an original painted sculpt, but it would be awesome if the vinyl figures can capture this much personality.

Sarah B: He looks mean.

Again, amazing paint job.

You ARE a PIRATE!


Plastic Sackboy key chains, including a Sackgirl. Girl Sackboy? Yeah. I don't think that one with the tongue sticking out really captures what this game is about.

You can pick which Sackboy you want on your keys. In late '09.

Lots of Hellboy stuff this year, including these figures by Mezco's Mez-itz line. I know this looks like a Web 2.0 photo shop job with the shadow and everything, but it's totally real. Nice paint job on the gun.

I'm not a fan of Count Dooku nor am I fan of the Clone Wars series in general, but this is a beautiful sculpt. Whoever lit this display should be promoted.

Ana's photo makes it look like Count Dooku is playing Don Corleone in a Godfather remake.

I have no particular affinity for Freddy Krueger, but I can safely say this piece by Gentle Giant was the best looking toy (sorry, Animaquette) I saw all day. The cartoony designs really capture the tension and energy of the scene - and bonus points for making the girl cute without going crazy with proportions, as toy makers tend to do. There's a wonderful sense of motion in this figure - from the girl's perky position ("Did I hear something?" she seems to say...), to the carefully balanced way Freddy is rearing back for the strike. And look, she's even got a little Jason plushie, and is wearing a Camp Crystal Lake t-shirt! $150? Sure, why not?

This looks scary and awful! Who would want this on their desk? I'm not buying vacation properties from a guy with this in his office, I tell you what.

A new line of Simpsons PVC toys. The even mildly observant fan will note these are all from the episode that shows how Homer and Marge got together; we've got Prom Homer, teenage Patty, streaking Barney, and middle aged-Abe. Barney is not anatomically correct, in case you can't tell, or intentionally averted your eyes.

This naked Barney really captivated me. So yellow.

These Uglydoll blind assortment figurines were also on display at Comic Con, but here they are again. I got to play with them this time, they've got a great sturdy feel, and the waist articulation is a really nice touch. I like how Wedgehead is best displayed upside down.

Ugly dolls made an appearance. naturally. They're like, we're here y'all.

A few Uglies got their own displays, for some reason, although it looks like Trunko is crashing the party. For those of you are love Ox as much as I do, please note that his description on the sign is SLIGHTLY different that the one that comes on his name tag.

OX is my favorite ugly doll.

Ice Bat busted out of the display case to take a coffee break.

He's got to limit his caffeine intake. It looks like he's dosing really high at this point. I've been there.


Oh my God! Real life Slurm! You probably want to buy this - well it's by Boston America Corp, but that website site seems to cater to retailers...but whatever, if you buy like, ten cases, I'm sure they'll negotiate.

We're now entering the Star Wars Science section, a new property by Uncle Milton toys. They've created all sorts of Star Wars-related science fair fare, including this old standard, the model Volcano. But wait- it's Obi Wan and Anakin! The volcano is Mustafar! You put a little orange dye in with that baking soda, and you're in for a seriously good time.

Why couldn't Anakin have just gotten control over himself?

Here's what I actually came to the Toy Fair to see....The Force Trainer. You may have already see video of this thing in action, but basically this toy teaches you how to move things with your mind. I'm serious. No, I'm serious. I did it. I have the Force. I'll be leaving to train as soon as I find a Jedi Master accepting students (tips@geekanerdblog.com, if you know someone).

That got levitated by Ana.

This is the official logo of Star Wars Science....but what is it? It looks a little like the Galactic Republic logo crossed with the Rebel Insignia, but with a star in the middle. Can anyone help me out?

These toys have really fantastic product design, in a distinctly Old Republic style. Apparently the Uncle Milton company designs everything, and Lucasfilm only gives approval and input. I wish I had spoken to a designer while I was there, but honestly I was a little shaken after learning I was Force sensitive.

Several toys are designed to be put together by kids so they learn about the inner workings of machines, in this case, Darth Vader's robot arm. Not this is not life sized, but about the size of a young kid's arm, perhaps the better to stick through your shirt. You can actually move the arm with controls on the shoulder side, and pick up and release objects. Excellent detail work.

The PR rep said that kids would build this themselves so as to learn about science. Did Darth Vader have to build his arm himself? Probably not because Palpatine probably had a storm trooper get him one from the store. So in conclu, kids will be more fierce than James Earl Half-arm, in a sense, if they put this together themselves.

Nightmare Before Christmas has turned out to be the little property that just won't die. This has to be the cutest rendering of Oogie Boogie I've ever seen.

This ghost appears happy to have shuffled off.

A life-sized replica of Kirk's chair, with tribble. There are buttons on the side, but they don't do anything. Could they have figured out how to mash a universal remote on there?

A guy next to us asked to sit in this chair. The Diamond rep said no, you have to buy it. The guy said, how much. The rep said 2200 dollars. The guy said, this would be a nice office chair. Then he said, but it would repel all women. The rep was like, yeah. The guy was like, this would be a magical women-repelling chair. The rep was like, but if you had enough money to buy it, you probably wouldn't have a problem with women. I was thinking, you guys are squares. But truefax, you could probably get a decently made-up trophy type chick if you had enough dinero to drop 2200 on a Star Trek captain's chair. But would she really understand you? Would she really care if you were doing fine or feeling sad, cause maybe you or Ice Bat spilled coffee on your Star Trek chair and the stain won't come out?

Excellent Umbrella Academy figures from Dark Horse that I "figure" will be flying off the shelves upon their release in May 09. The Umbrella Academy is the best new series of the last few years, and these designs by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba look absolutely perfect off the page.

Detail on Space Boy's head sculpt...

...and Krakken as well. That's a scary looking little knife.

CHUBSTER! Are Chubbys the new Mighty Muggs? I'll leave that to you, the consumer. Wait, $59.99? For serious?

All those shame-eaten donuts.

The Leia line of Chubbys...kind of funny they put her Boushh costume in there, as opposed to, oh, I don't know, WHITE DRESS AND CINNABON HAIR? Actually, having the Thermal Detonator in there is pretty awesome, so it's all good. These are by Gentle Giant via Diamond Direct, and are

Didn't need to see cutified, ovular slave Leia, didn't.

Can you stand any more of these? Look that at X-Wing Pilot...could it be...Porkins? I like to think so. Eh, I'm pretty sure it's actually Wedge. These toy designers have no sense of humor.

These are kinda cute though.

Just when I thought I would never have anything to do with Guitar Hero again, McFarlane Toys comes out with these adorable Rock Band avatar toys. Look at Izzy Sparks! His beautiful locks kind of look like a melted soft-serve. But that's okay; If the actual CG avatars looked like this and not half-baked polygonal warcrimes, I might take a break from Rock Band and get back to basics.

This photo doesn't do these sculpts justice, but I think you get the idea. These are the original models for the PVC line

These looked great in real life.

Everyone at Geekanerd loves Giant Microbes. Especially the dangerous ones. But these little guys don't look dangerous at all. They just want to make a baby, is that so wrong? They're in love!

The sperm's like I GOT A JOB TO DO. The egg's like, me? Ok.

Anthrax! Now that's what I'm talking about - dangerous! If I put this in an envelope and mailed it to someone, would I go to jail?

These microbes are really cute. The anthrax has sorry eyes.

This is just a 2-D mock-up of an upcoming keychain from Applehead factory. It's a TOFU ZOMBIE in case you can't tell, "cuted up" from his original, more terrifying toy design. I like it.

Great looking floor mat for the Watchmen movie...the first of many apparently kid-oriented pieces of Watchmen merchandise from Neca.

That Under The Hood book is without a doubt the best piece of Watchmen merchadise I've ever seen. Fantastic 60s cover design, and look how the corners are "aged" - this is genius. When I first saw it, I said aloud, "IS THIS REAL?". It's just a blank notebook inside but still - someone in the Neca design department must have some serious geek cred to come up with a toy based on such an obscure reference.

In the middle there, in plastic, are LiveStrong-style bracelets with the names of the different watchmen. For preteens? Also there's a lighter.

These lunchboxes are presumably for hipsters, and not actual grade schoolers. Because surely no responsible parent would let their child each lunch of of something adorned by the image of a hateful, reactionary, violently psychotic vigilante. And no Batman jokes, please, Rorschach is a totally different kind of crazy.

Dr. Manhattan doesn't eat lunch though, right? He looks sad here cause he can't relate to your need to eat a sandwich or taco every day at noon..

I love Qee toys, and I really love it when people imagine the anatomy of cartoon characters. Here's a cross-section of the iconic Qee Bear.

Also a detailed skeleton. Notice: no neck.

Some adorable Qee sculpts. They're available now, so go get em.

Cute eggs.

Nice looking custom Baby Qee, titled Splatter Bear. Toy2R is a great company, they had a pop-up shop in Brooklyn not to long ago...really sweet gift bags.

And because every convention at the Javits Center has to have a stormtrooper.....bang.

This storm trooper had his convention badge stuck to his back. Kind of slightly messed up the effect.

For more photos, high res versions, and more detail shots, check out our Flickr Set.

E3: Insane Media Overload Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of our coverage of everybody else's coverage of E3. Starting off, we've got a trailer for the hotly anticipated Super Mario Galaxy:

If you're in the mood for something a little more... intimate... Check out this developer talking us through a particularBEE neat level:


Hit the jump for the new Simpsons game, some Halo 3 action, a Wii trivia game called Smarty Pants, a new LittleBigPlanet video, a cheesy but thrilling Rock Band performance of Bowie's "Suffragette City", and more Metroid Prime 3.


Here's the Simpsons game:

It sure looks good, but I have to wonder: why are most Simpsons games about fighting? There's rarely any fights on the show, so it seems incongruous that that would be the go-to genre for Simpsons video game developers. Why not an adventure game that has you actually progressing through a hilarious Simpsons story, or a Bully-style sandbox game where you run around Springfield pranking people and carrying out specific missions for people? That being said, this game sho is pretty. Also keep an eye out for Matt Groening himself as the end boss, as reported by Eurogamer.

Here's Halo 3 in action:

Pretty.

And now Smarty Pants:

It's hard to tell if this will be fun or not. The only thing I do know is those chaps playing are grating. I like something as simple as the hand-raising motion to "get called on." I hope the emphasis is on trivia and not those little epileptic minigames they do a couple times.

If yesterday left you wanting more, here is the full LittleBigPlanet trailer:


From start to finish, some good (if silly) players running through a Rock Band song:


Yesterday's trailer was a little dry, but it's fun to watch this game developer walk us through a Metroid Prime 3 level:

This is the first time I noticed how good the game looks. It sure moves well, and has a lot of nice art direction touches.

E3: Insane Media Overload Day 1

All the legitimate gaming journalists are out in LA right now at E3, where some exciting stuff is being announced. Since neither AHR nor myself are legitimate gaming journalists, please accept this gift of videos and news we've stolen accumulated from other sites.

First off, Kotaku got to play with the finalized Rock Band drumkit so go read their impressions and gawk at their pretty pictures. These things look... expensive. I'm so excited/terrified for my wallet.

After the jump we have about a billion videos of cool (or at least interesting) games, including ones of Rock Band, Wii Fit, Metal Gear Solid 4, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, LittleBigPlanet, the Wii Zapper, Resident Evil 5, Mario Kart Wii, Metroid Prime 3, and Assassin's Creed.

Let's get this set started off right with Rock Band!

Like I said before, excited... And terrified.

A shiny commercial for "Wii Fit", featuring the Wii Balance Board, which appears to be a normal bathroom scale on crack:

First off, what the junk kinda name is Wii Fit? Is it supposed to be like "We fit!"? I mean, wouldn't Wii Fitness roll of the tongue better? Also, I question how naturally the board will feel in practice, because this video of Reggie and Miyamoto playing with it makes it look a little twitchy:

We'll see.

LittleBigPlanet is the only upcoming game that makes me wish I owned a PS3...

Can you believe how beautiful this game is? Really amazing stuff.

Now, the Wii Zapper being used with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles:

And here's a vid of it in raw, un-modelly action:

This really doesn't look very fun. Frankly, I think I would prefer the nunchuck be separate from the zapper. Having them in-line like this seems much less comfortable than being able to keep a hand at your side. Infendo says this thing will cost $20. Can't wait for the first game that utilizes this AND the Wii Balance Board!

Next up is Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Playstation 3:

Looks... Brown. Honestly, I'm sick of watching cut scenes from this and want to see some actual gameplay. Especially if the cutscenes continue being so boring. Though this one has a pretty sweet fight tacked onto it after the main titles.

Now, a Raving Rabbids 2 trailer:

How delightful. Too bad a couple of the minigame vids I've seen at IGN look to be stinkers.

Resident Evil 5 for Xbox 360!

I liked Resident Evil 4 so much it hurts, so while this trailer doesn't quite do it for me I still have faith that it'll keep up the fun times we had with the last game.

Reggie talks Mario Kart Wii:

We don't get to see too much gameplay here, but it doesn't look too different than what we've come to expect from the franchise. Reggie pulls out the Wii Wheel, which will come packed with the game and which he claims will make it easy for new gamers to pick up and play but which I claim is a useless hunkajunka.

Not much new here, but it's still Metroid Prime 3!

I really hope the controls work out for this, because if it turns out FPSs suck on the Wii after all the hype I'm gonna cry a thousand tears.

And to cap us off, the always impressive Assassin's Creed:

Somehow this was the least exciting footage I've ever seen of this game and I'm still excited to play it. Apparently Brian Crecente felt the same way, but he played it and has some great things to say about it. Especially of note is his description of the the free running / climbing dynamic: "You can free run through the city and head straight at a wall. As soon as you approach it, Altair runs up the wall and reaches for something. If there is anything jutting out within his reach he grabs on to it. And I don't mean he sorta clings to the wall near it, I mean his hand grasps the object jutting out of the wall. The effect is startling. After he's clinging to that position you just push the joystick in the direction you want him to move and Altair will reach out for another hold. It looks amazingly like real rock climbing."

That wraps us up for now, I'll update tomorrow with another megapost!