More Toy Fair photos — Day Two

Back at Toy Fair yesterday for some more photos — our battery fucked up so these kind of suck, but we’ll use them as a platform for some commentary. It was a busy day on the floor, and at least some orders seem to have been written here and there. A lot of people felt that Toy Fair was kind of “so so” this year — basically all the news is on the internet weeks before, and the sense of “here’s the new thing” has been missing for a while. However, several people told us that while they have cut back on their trade shows in general, Toy Fair stays on their list to attend because it has a decent “buzz” factor. As far as toys go, San Diego is now just as important a stop for the toy business.

If there was one thing we noted, it was the lack of, well, new toys for grownups. There were more Batmans, Spider-Mans and Darth Vaders — more and more and more — but very few toys from newer franchises or even cult properties. There were some new Venture Brothers toys — see below — and even a Dexter toy, but we’d trade in a few Yoda tchatchkes for, say Mighty Boosh toys or a Steve Zissou doll. Maybe we were just looking in the wrong place, but it seems like even our cult nostalgia has stopped at a certain place.

PS: I know I took some heat for not remembering Bioshock yesterday, but as I think I’ve said here a few times, if I allowed myself to get more into video games, there would be no Beat, because I find them so addictive. Don’t ask, don’t play.

Anyway, these aren’t great photos but apologies. Above, some of the Blackest Night toys from DC Direct which look great.

DC DIRECT

More Blackest Night figures.

There is a nice line of 75th Anniversary figures from DC.

More of the 75th Anniversary figures, with older character designs sculpted in modern style.

And some more.

The second series of Adam Hughes cover girls.

An the first — love that catwoman.

An excellent Batman sculpt.

And Jonah Hex.

DC Direct has licensed True Blood for figures and neon signs.

The Ami-comi series — they tried doing Batman in this series but it didn’t sell as well.

A sweet Green Lantern diorama.

Closeup of the freestanding Joker figure.

A really bad photo of the adorable Amanda Conner line.

These Snow White and Bigby Wolf figuresfrom the Fables line look fantastic.

TRIAD TOYS

These photos blow, but this site has much better photos.

Dexter

House figures

BIFF BANG POW

This smaller company is doing some newer licenses in the Mego style.

The Big Lebowski

These were marked as not final and the sculpts on this Lost line need a little work. Ben Linus.

Jacob and the Man in Black.

The much awaited Venture Bros line, again not final. Our pals at UGO have better photos.

Back to Lost, Hurley and Locke.

Todd McFarlane hanging out, drawing on his Wacom. We had a nice chat with Todd about various topics. He mentioned that all his kids had wanted to be artists until “they figured out you have to sit in a room for 12 hours by yourself to do it.”

DIAMOND

Excellent Groovy Ghoulies toy.

This Mickey Rourke/Whiplash bobble head is excellent.

TONNER

Sadly, the Tonner Jacob doll was wearing a shirt in this display, but you can take it off in the privacy of your own home .

Tonner’s dolls are famed for their detail and character, as with Power Girl.

And the Huntress.

And Wonder Woman.

The toys in the original Sinister Circus line are truly gorgeous. Supposedly a graphic novel series based on the line is in the works.

And that was our Toy Fair. More links coming. Special thanks to Marc Patten and Frank Battista for rolling with us.