Playing Mantis has got some big news coming next month from Toy Fair in New York. The company has gotten it's feet wet in the action figure market with Captain Action, Action Jackson and Mystery Men toys and has exciting plans to expand their presence in the action figure aisles.

Playing Mantis will be launching a new brand called Hyper Action which will include products similar to the Action Jackson figures currently available at KB Toys. They have also obtained licenses to produce figures based on Fangoria (the horror magazine published by the Starlog group) and X-Men: the Movie.

The Fangoria figures are said to have the "flavor of the magazine" and will feature creatures that have been seen in it's pages. As for the X-Men line, Playing Mantis is sworn to secrecy until Toy Fair. Playing Mantis has informed RTM that the current plans call for product along the lines of die-cast figurines, and possibly models and/or larger resin kits.

As holder of the master toy license for the X-Men movie Toy Biz will be producing the main line of action figures for the film.

You can bet that Raving Toy Maniac will bring you the whole story straight from Toy Fair 2000 next month!

[Updated 1-06-2000]