This is the main event for the toy industry every year. For weeks now, companies have been blitzing us with reveals and teasers in a PR campaign to gain position in the minds of the public. I’ll be attempting to cover as much news as I can this weekend. This post will be preserved as an index for all Toy Fair related news. As I write and update articles, this post will be updated with a link to each story.

Toy Fair 2011: NECA debuts Gremlins 2, Gears of War, Bioshock, Duke Nukem and more
Toy Fair 2011: Mattel’s DC products; DCUC, Young Justice, JLU, Batman Legacy Line
Toy Fair 2011: Barbie and Ken back together again
Toy Fair 2011: Thundercats from Bandai
Toy Fair 2011: Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC)
Toy Fair 2011: Optimus Prime gets a parking ticket
Toy Fair 2011: BifBangPow! teases new Venture Bros. figures and more
Toy Fair 2011: GI Joe SDCC 2011 Exclusive Starscream Skystriker with Cobra Commander
Toy Fair 2011: Hasbro Event Presentation

Pre Toy Fair Announcement and News
Toy Fair 2011: Pre Toy Fair reveals for Hasbro’s Transformers
Toy Fair 2011: Pre Toy Fair Announcement of Walking Dead action figure line
Toy Fair 2011: Bandai press release for upcoming Thundercats products

You may remember a little known PC game by the name of Battle Chess. When you went to capture your opponent’s pieces, the game showed a battle animation. Sadly, you couldn’t control it, but it was fun to watch. What if you could control the battle however? For one thing, your queen would never be taken out some pawn of knight. Several years ago, there was a game with such a concept, Archon. Designed by Paul Reiche III and Jon Freeman (with the programming being done by Freeman’s wife Anne Westfall), Archon had a similar look to chess, although there were several dynamics in play that made it different. First of all, each piece has its own set of powers to use. When two rival pieces entered the same square, they engaged each other in combat, and players could control both pieces. Also, depending on what color the square was, one piece could gain an advantage over the other. While the game received a few sequels and remakes, it’s this 2010 remake that stands out. Archon Classic adds a number of new options. Power-ups during battle, new animated pieces, a campaign mode, new maps, and pieces that level-up during the game are but a few of the new additions. Best of all, you can turn off any of the new additions as you wish and play with classic graphics, the new updated look, or somewhere in-between. Up to four players can play against each other. Unfortunately, there is no true online multiplayer besides hot-seat play. Even so, Archon Classic gives gamers a new way (and new incentive) to experience this classic game, especially for its price.

We have some more news about the upcoming Thundercats product lines coming from Bandai. Among the pictures included with the release are photos of Panthro and Tigra figures from the new show. We haven’t seen those before now. Just Lion-O and Cheetara. We also get our first look at some of the Thundercats Classics line. Not too bad. Hoping we get a classic Thunder Tank for that line as well. The new one is just missing that influence of the original design’s simplicity. Note that you can see Snarf’s head poking up from the cockpit. Also, Panthro’s head on the 4 inch figures looks pretty terrible, but these probably aren’t the final product anyway.

Press release after the jump, along with many more pictures!

[Read the rest of this entry…]