By Nick Eskey
When it comes to collectible toys and popular media merchandise, Entertainment Earth has just about everything. The company first started nearly twenty years ago out of an office and a garage in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. Its founders, who were themselves collectors that knew the struggles of finding that particular toy, wanted to help the many others who had to hunt, or spend inflated resale prices.
Today, Entertainment Earth is now based in Simi Valley. It boasts a large warehouse that carries some of best selection of merchandise available. The website is jam packed with toys, figurines, television/movie memorabilia, and more. They even have their own production line called “Bif Bang Pow!” This allows Entertainment Earth to both house products from others and to produce the kind of merchandise that they themselves would want to buy. One thing they are quite excited for is their recent DC license: We are sure to see much in the ways of DC merchandise.
With such growth and offering so much, Entertainment Earth’s booth at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con is hard to miss, with a line of attendees waiting around to buy much of the items on display in their glass cases and on the posters overhead. It’s also one of the lucky few that stand at two stories tall.
Some of the fast moving toys this year have been the blue 20 inch Hologram Darth Vader action figure, the G.I Joe Desert Duel play set, the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler action figures, a variant black Power Rangers Megazord, and the Adventure Time lunch box; they typically sell out early each day. New and exciting additions to the company’s exclusives are always being added on. I few of my favorites are: the Kiss umbrella, Super Hero chair cape, and the Star Wars “Jabba’s Rancor Pit.”
The Kiss umbrella looks ordinary enough when closed. When it opens up, it reveals each one of the band member’s faces in full makeup and costume on the fabric. The umbrella’s pole is probably the best part, lighting up in neon.
Does your chair stand for liberty, justice, and back support? You can show its super status with a Chair Cape. They strap to the back of the chair with Velcro, and fit many sized backings. Right now they have the Batman and Superman Chair Capes available, with future additions in line like Bizarro.
A great addition to any Star Wars collection is this Jabba’s Rancor Pit. The boxed set comes with Luke Skywalker (complete with lightsaber), Jabba, Slave Leia, C-3PO, and a towering Rancor. There’s no guarantee on its availability, so buy while you can.
If you’ve yet to check out the Entertainment Earth booth, I suggest you do so. They’re collectors that cater to collectors. And for those that weren’t able to make it for Comic-Con, luckily Entertainment Earth will be holding back a certain amount of their exclusives for their website, as to give others a chance to still buy. Now if only more retailers did that.
