action figures Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Tonner strikes again! Elisabeth posted about the company's action figures last month, and now they're riding in on the fangirl insanity otherwise known as Twilight. Collider has posted pictures of the new figures, which you can pre-order now for shipment in the Spring of 2009.

But beware -- you'll be pre-ordering without a pricetag. "Pricing information to be announced at a later date." That's just bad form -- having people order without the price. Are they going to decide what it is once they see how many people pre-order? Nevertheless, methinks that won't stop fans from grabbing mini versions of Bella and Edward. Look at and order Bella here, and Edward here.

Am I right Twilight fans? Will you be placing your order and hoping for the best price-wise?

Happy birthday Star Wars toys! 30 years ago, you came into our lives, and 30 years later, we're all kicking ourselves for not hoarding you away, keeping you in pristine condition and eventually getting rich by selling you to the highest bidder. Fortunately, there are more of you being made today and the London Times has declared which of you recently released, still-cheap items are likely to go up in value.

The spotlight is part of a list featured in today's Money Central section of the Times. Titled "The top 10 Star Wars collectibles," the list includes 30-year-old, super-rare action figures like Kenner's Darth Vader with double-telescoping light saber (currently valued at £5,000-plus, or almost $10,000 US) and this year's Lego version of the X-WIng Fighter (currently sold for £150, or $293 US). Coming in at #10 are the two-year old, "too cute" Galactic Heroes line of figures from Hasbro, which are currently only "the price of a rip-off sandwich" (£3, or $5.86 US).

Speaking of "too cute", I'm personally going for the plush SD Darth Vader (pictured) that the Times lists at #9. But I actually haven't learned anything from the past 30 years and so I'm going to actually play with it. Or use it as a stress reliever whenever I see articles telling us to invest in action figures. See, I believe toys are for playing with, comic books are for reading and collectibles made solely to be collectibles are a waste of space.

For images of all the toys listed in the Times article, check out the gallery below. I also included the unmentioned Galactic Heroes Darth Vader Unmasked toy, because it fits with the criticism that these toys are "too cute." What person who'd seen Jedi as a kid would have ever expected a cute version of the unmasked Vader/Anakin?



[via Fark.com]

Jakks has produced this line of 8-inch action figures based on beloved characters from all of the Rocky films. It's an amazingly extensive collection, though you'll note they're a little light on Rocky V. I guess nobody wanted to own "Badly Brain Damaged Rocky." And they've got this version of Adrian where she appears to be exploding, but where's my "Coma Adrian" from Rocky II? Where's the beef? Oh wait...we've got the beef. Yes, the movie merchandising world has hit a new low. You too can own...a plastic replica of the side of beef Rocky punched in the original. Oh, and it comes with a blood-covered smock. No, I'm serious. Go ahead. Click the link. I'll wait.

Imagine you're a kid waking up on Christmas morning. You eagerly tear open a beautifully wrapped gift to find an action figure labeled simply: "The Meat." Wouldn't you think your parents were pulling some sort of cruel joke? Who would buy this, you ask? Apparently a lot of people. Even at the outrageous price of $12.99, "The Meat" is currently sold out. Now, I made some stupid purchases in my youth. At one point, I owned six different Leonardo Ninja Turtles. They were all the same, except one could store swords in his shell, one had a mask and trenchcoat, etc. Admittedly, my money could have been better spent on Pixie Sticks, Fun Dips, and Pogs.

However, even as a dumb kid, I wouldn't have bought, say, a large rubber pizza for the Turtles to enjoy. I wouldn't have bought a plastic ham sandwich for Darth Vader to nosh on between executions. You've got to draw the line somewhere. I love the Rocky series with all my heart, and I suppose Rocky beating his meat (could have phrased that better) is an iconic film image. But "Meat" is not a character. "Meat" does not an action figure make. "Meat" is not...oh, who am I kidding, I want one of these right now.

Not that I have anything against Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but their Team America: World Police flick was a disaster, in my opinion. While I'm a huge fan of South Park, I could not, for the life of me, get past the first fifteen minutes of Team America without changing the channel. And I really wanted to love it -- had heard such good things about it -- but simply couldn't discover the proper vibe within myself to enjoy the puppets ... and the guns ... and the puppet sex.

Needless to say, newbie Edward McHenry will soon give us his take on the puppet gimmick with Jackboots on Whitehall, except he'll be using action figures to accompany some top notch voice talent. Comedy spoof will tell of a fictional scenario in which the Germans win the Battle of Britain during World War II, only to be defeated by the Scots ... and Ewan McGregor. That's right, McGregor has signed on to voice a "heroic Scottish farmhand who leads the resistance against the invaders and wins the girl." Joining McGregor in this latest round of casting is Richard Griffiths; he'll be playing the Luftwaffe leader Hermann Goering.

Also on the list of Brits playing Germans are Alan Cumming as Hitler, Tom Wilkinson as Hitler's propaganda minister Goebbels and Richard O'Brien as Holocaust-header Himmler. Rosamund Pike will play the object of McGregor's affection, while Richard E. Grant and Sanjeev Bhaskar have also snagged roles. Writer-director McHenry jumps from his popular short film, Baptism of Fire, to helming a feature film with an assortment of pretty big names. How did he do it? Not sure, but I'm positive the script (which won the Swipe Films Screenplay Scholarship) had something to do with it.

I've never seen Baptism of Fire, but apparently it utilizes a lot of the same techniques found in Jackboots. Brits as Germans, action figures instead of puppets and an unknown writer-director -- what do you make of this?

Are you a child of the '70s or '80s? Okay, then be honest with me now (part 1) ... how many Star Wars action figures do you own? Come on, you know you've got em, unless you were one of those losers whose mom gave away all their stuff. Now dig out the old plastic containers and start counting. Does it number in triple digits? I know it does for at least a few of you out there. And I'll bet (for you '70s and '80s kids), nearly all of them are from the classic trilogy. If you are reading this and thinking, "oh no, I only have the cereal box Han Solo in Stormtrooper costume and a broken C3PO, I feel so inadequate," you've now got (yet another) chance to shore up your collection. Hasbro, like they have done before, will be releasing a new round of action figures to accompany the re-release of the classic trilogy. It'll come in the form of collector's triple packs, and you can catch a peek at some here.

Right-o, kids, time for be honest with me now (part two) for you aging generations ... how many Legos do you own? Those suckers used to be everywhere, remember? Again, plastic boxes just full of the suckers exist in the backs of our closets. While Legos might not be as popular as they once were, they do still exist, and they really enjoy a good movie tie-in. Today's nifty Lego collection is an 860 piece set of the Arkham Asylum, which you can view here. Doesn't Batman look great in Lego?

Given that pretty much everything else has been Brokeback-ed (from Back to the Future to Legos), it was practically inevitable that the action figures would arrive eventually. And, though you can't yet have a Jack Twist of your very own, at least one set has now been created. According to a post at Pink News (who, frustratingly, never offer a link to the page of the actual creator), the figures were constructed by a guy named "Jedi Doug", a Canadian who made them out of parts of other, commercially available figures. So, really, if you're so-moved, you can make your own - you've got the recipe and everything.

Really, the list of source-figures is by far the best part of this whole thing: I wonder how Heath Ledger would feel, knowing that he's got Pedro's legs, and that the part of his head is being played by Pat Burrell.

[image taken from Pink News]

Okay, lovely Cinematical readers. Perhaps you missed it the first time around, but we're having a little contest here to celebrate Cinematical's first birthday. With prizes and everything! To refresh your memory, here's the dealio: all you have to do is enter is take a pic of whatever cheesy or super-cool movie memorabilia you have in your apartment, house or whereever you live. We know you've got some. Maybe you own every Star Wars action figure ever made, and you display them on your mantel. Maybe you have a collection of E.T. toys. Maybe you have a life-sized Spider-Man cutout hanging out in your living room. Maybe you're still hanging on to that Farrah Fawcett t-shirt you stole from your dad's dresser drawer.

Whatever it is, take a picture of it, and email it to james(dot)rocchi(at)cinematical(dot)com. We've extended the deadline to 11:59PM EST, Friday, March 31. So get that digital camera out, take a pic, and send it in already! First prize will be a $200 Amazon gift certificate. Two runners-up will get one of our snazzy Cinematical t-shirts.

Rules - boring, but necessary - are below the fold.

Unless you're talking to Sylvester Stallone, it's going to be very hard to find anyone who will deny that the Rocky franchise has gone rather precipitously downhill since its Oscar-winning origins. The depressing existence of a sixth installment, however, is made much easier to bear by the sudden arrival of a whole slew of Rocky action figures, covering all five films of the series.

Ok, it's maybe a little late for this sort of thing, but shut up for a second and check them out: if only because they recall the glorious times when Rocky was young, and his opponents weren't boring old real-life boxers, these things are fantastic. (And yes, the fact that the pieces are displayed on stands made of old electrical boxes adds considerably to their charm.) I mean, look at Hulk Hogan - as if Mason "The Line" Dixon would ever enter the ring wearing anything that silly. Please. Plus, there are a whole lot of Rockys and the best accessory of all time: small, plastic sides of beef.

[via PopWatch]