Raving Toy Maniac

Babies"R"Us® Introduces "V.I.B." Program to Reward Parents With a 10% Bonus Savings on Baby Essentials

Very Important Baby Card Allows Moms and Dads to Earn Up to $200 Annually Toward the Purchase of Diapers, Wipes, Formula and Baby Food at "R"Us® Stores Nationwide

K'NEX Launches "Class of '92" Promotion in Celebration of 20th Anniversary

K'NEX Fans are invited to share their building memories!

February 27, 2012 - K'NEX, the only US construction toy company focused on Building Worlds Kids Love™, announced a new promotion to celebrate its 20th anniversary, "Class of '92", open to adults, 18 years and older, who grew up playing with K'NEX.

Fans wishing to become part of the Class of '92 are invited to share K'NEX related stories & photos on the Class of '92 page, found on KNEX.com. K'NEX is seeking memories from adult builders' own childhoods and anecdotes on how they have shared their love of building with their children. Class of '92 also invites K'NEX fans to share their memories on the K'NEX facebook page (facebook.com/buildknex) and interact with other adult fans.

February 2012 - CustomCon 31 (Spring 2012) is coming soon! The event itself will be held from April 30 to May 4, but the entry deadline is April 9.

For more details on including your custom action figures in this event, please check out the CustomCon 31 entry guidelines.

Mezco and the Raving Toy Maniac present the Mezco Toy Fair Keychain Contest...

The contest has now ended. Congratulations to the winners:

• Raven F., Spongebob
• Scott D., Spongebob
• Scott B., Domo
• James G., Frankenstein's Monster
• Eric D., Living Dead Doll
• Paul T., Living Dead Doll
• Anthony R., button set
• Jason G., button set
• Mary P., The Spirit
• Katrina T., The Spirit
• Doreen C., The Spirit

The fine folks at Mezco Toyz sent us a pile of keychains (the ones they handed out to booth visitors at Toy Fair!) to use in a contest! We had a poll on our front page, and you voted to make each item its own prize, to be awarded to a separate winner. After seeing that and realizing that we would have to pick six winners and mail out six prizes, we figured that a few more wouldn't be too terribly much more work, so we looked around for our box from Mezco's Mystery Box Sale from last fall, and found a few more items to include as prizes.

Here are the prizes, each item to be awarded to a different winner:

February 24, 2012 - The Four Horsemen are looking for sculptors and painters! If you have some experience and can get to Northern New Jersey, now's your chance.

The details of what they are hoping to see and how to submit your portfolio are at:
http://www.fourhorsemen.biz/news/2012/2/24/the-horsemen-need-help.html

February 24, 2012 - (Sponsor Announcement) - Online retailer Urban-Collector has several new items of interest to collectors:

This week we are featuring new pre-orders including Dark Knight Rises Icon statues, an awesome Amazing Spider-Man statue and Arkham City Deluxe action figures!

Featured Pre-Orders

• Dark Knight Rises Bane 1/6 Scale Icon Statue
• Dark Knight Rises Catwoman 1/6 Scale Icon Statue

Tim Bruckner Introduces the IconoCasts, A New Line of Garage Kits and Mini-Busts

February 2012 - Prolific toy industry sculptor Tim Bruckner (DC Dynamics, Batman: Hush) has launched a new, affordable line of garage kits and hand-painted mini-busts based on his own sculpts of famous characters from literature and history. Called IconoCasts, the first assortment of three characters includes The Monster from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," hopeless romantic Cyrano de Bergerac and a laughing portrait of famed composer Ludwig Van Beethoven titled "Ode to Joy."

Each stands approximately 5.75 inches tall, and is available in unpainted and unassembled kit form ($30) as well as a painted, assembled version ($50). You can order all three through timbrucknershop.com, along with larger-scale versions and other examples of Bruckner's produced and unproduced work.

http://www.timbrucknershop.com

DST x NYTF Round-Up: Mad Monster Party!

February 24, 2012 - Diamond Select Toys revealed a bunch of cool new licenses at New York Toy Fair, and one of the most awe-inducing reveals was the classic Halloween property Mad Monster Party! Based on the 1967 Rankin/Bass feature film, the movie featured all of the famous monsters in the studio's classic stop-motion style, and so will the action figure line from DST! The first assortment of 7-inch-scale figures should be out in September, and will include Dracula, the Monster and Baron Boris Von Frankenstein, based on the likeness of vocal performer (and horror legend) Boris Karloff! Check out these shots from the DST booth!

February 24, 2012 - (Sponsor Announcement) - Online retailer BigBadToyStore.com has something new of interest to collectors:

Mattel has just given us the go-ahead to begin preorders on DCU All Stars Waves 2 and 3.

Wave 2 contains:

Flask (JLA)
Red Robin
Supergirl
Superman (JLA)
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=MAT14397&mode=re...

Wave 3 contains:

Batgirl
Batman (JLA)
Hawkman
Steel with Hammer
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=MAT14402&mode=re...

All figures are available at $17.99 each singly, or $69.99 for the set of 4

Diamond Select Toys New York Toy Fair 2012 Round-Up: Mobile Action Xtreme

February 23, 2012 - We've got another batch of pictures from the Diamond Select Toys booth at New York Toy Fair 2012 -- and this time it's Mobile Action Xtreme! The rescue-themed Minimates line is back for a third go-round, and this time it's not Toys "R" Us exclusive -- that's right, MAX is going nationwide! In addition to showing off the third wave (with new Arctic and Night Ops sets, and new Soldier and Smokejumper paint schemes) DST showed off the updated Armored Personnel Carrier (now with battle station conversion) and debuted the second animated episode of Mobile Action Xtreme! Check out the episode and the new toys here! And for more on both, visit Minimates.com!

New episode hosted here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfOK_xqDOaE

First episode is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XZ9ctgRCS8