Raving Toy Maniac

The Maniacs did the Con for the first time this year, and we enjoyed it so much it looks like we'll be back next year. On top of meeting all the wonderful people both in and out of the comics and toy industries, the Maniacs conducted a workshop on customizing figures and participated on a panel about collecting Action Figures with Sarah Dyer, Chet Jacques, and the guys from go figure! magazine!

Playmates, Kenner, Toy Biz, and Moore Action Collectibles were the toy companies who had booths set up for display. Kenner showed Star Wars, Transformers, Batman, the final Total Justice wave, and the new Alien Resurrection toys. Unfortunately, all of it was locked in thick glass cases, which made it hard to take good photos. They were also running a videotape detailing the making of an action figure from start to finish.

Their web rep was there for a few days, and they were very friendly and willing to answer questions. Strangely enough, though, no Superman:The Animated Series toys were shown, nor new Adventures of Batman & Robin, save for the Mad Hatter. This was unusual considering that STAS/BTAS was the focus of many DC events and panels at the Con.

Of all the booths at the Con, the Toy Biz setup, which was part of the big Marvel display, was the friendliest and most fan concerned of them all. Toy Biz product manager Jesse Falcon and designer Damon Nee were more than happy to answer all questions, and put the fans first, even giving out the samples they brought with them in an impromptu trivia contest at the end of the show.

They unveiled new lines such as Street Fighter vs X-Men, Blade the Vampire Hunter and showed production samples of upcoming lines. Looks like it's going to be a fantastic year for Toy Biz fans!

Learn more about what they told us on the Toy Biz page.

Chet Jacques of McFarlane Toys fame was there both as a member of the action figure panel and holding a Spawn toy Q&A with the real Al Simmons.

Some of the things we learned are that McFarlane is in negotiations with the Spice Girls for a figure set (no joke). Additional names like Gwar and the Beatles were mentioned but there are no definite plans at this point. Chet and Al both agreed that Todd would no longer make figures that were not his creations or sole Image properties. This means half Image imprints like Homage and Wildstorm are out of the question. Chet also revealed that McFarlane had bid on the Star Wars license but didn't like the terms demanded by Lucasfilm. He implied that no bid would be made for the Star Wars prequel rights this year. At left is the exclusive red Al Simmons figure sold at the Con. Al let it slip that if the Spawn film does well, expect a sequel set in Hell.

Other notable tidbits from the McToys arena: Apparently, those stands that come with the new KISS figures (an individual letter comes with each figure) will soon be replaced with a replica of an album. It was reported that they are having problems with the molds for the stands and that production was being slowed down by having to wait for these stands. So if you want your KISS stands, you'd better grab your figures now before the change takes place. And no, the album replica will not be playable, so please don't try.

Don't look for any exclusive figure at the Spawn movie premiere. This persistent rumor keeps cropping up but was laid to rest once and for all by McFarlane Toys. The rumor started because a figure in a baggie was given away at the films showing at the Cannes Film Festival. No such giveaway is planned for the U.S. debut in August. However, McFarlane Toys did ship cases of regular Spawn movie figures to some theatres. These figures are identical to those in stores right now so no need to sleep in line for Spawn movie tickets....unless you are a really big Spawn fan of course.

Raving Toy Maniac made a lot of new friends at the Con, and gave away many neat things, like stickers, free copies of the up and coming Toymania fanzine, and 100 "Spirit of Chuck E. Cheese" gag figures (look for potential future Chuck related giveaways real soon. Apparently you folks really dig the little see-through rodent). In addition, the Maniacs donated a custom Parasite figure to the charity auction and some lucky individual shelled out quite a chunk of change for this work of toy art.

The panel and workshop went exceedingly well. The panel consisted of a free form Q & A session and some rousing chatter from the participants and the audience alike. Many r.t.a-f regulars were in attendance as well. It was nice to be able to put a face with the names we've known for so long now.

For our workshop, we had a standing room only crowd. We're very sorry if you were turned away at the door. The organizers promise that we'll have a larger space next year. They simply didn't anticipate this level of interest in this branch of the action figure hobby. The demonstrations included a quick recipe for a Total Justice Blue Beetle. Look for the recipe to appear in an article on the Custom Corner sometime in the future. However, things didn't go off without a few hitches. Our Martian Manhunter custom lost his head during the presentation and our head swap didn't turn out quite right due to a lack of sufficiently hot water. But foibles aside, it was great fun and an area of obvious interest for many fans. It just goes to show that you don't have to be perfect to have fun customizing your toys.

We also spent a great deal of time talking with other convention goers and attending what few presentations we could. We've been invited back for next year's Con so we'll be planning bigger and better things all year long. We hope you enjoy our coverage of the Convention. We realize that not everyone can attend shows like this so our goal is to bring a little bit of the fun to you.

Eric and Jason want to thank all the great folks at the con for the time they spent with us, in particular Robin Doig-Colls, Jesse Falcon, Damon Nee, Jason Liebig, Scott Parrish, Chris Overley, Linda Baker, Sarah Dyer, Evan Dorkin, Chet Jacques, Clayburn Moore, Dave Stevens, Ryan Brookhart, Ben Yau, Jim McCaslin, and a very special thanks to Stephen Flore for all his time and help.