Hasbro just released the official images of the items revealed during their press event. Among them was the big announcement of a brand new Skystriker jet. Further they announced that this year’s San Diego Comic Con exclusive would be a repainted version of this jet to look like Starscream with Cobra Commander as the pilot who will carry a gun that is Megatron in gun mode. Its kind of a big deal.

I thought this image needed its own post. And it does.

Please, please, please don’t let there be another Sgt. Slaughter massacre on HasbroToyShop this year.

The weekend has kicked off in stupendous fashion with a news explosion from the Hasbro event held at New York Toy Fair 2011. If you were there, you knew you were in the right place because Optimus Prime was parked outside, trailer and all. (See above)

Image from Poe Ghostal’s Twitter feed.

I’ve been watching things from a far on my twitter feeds and blogs, so I’m going to do my best to recap all the relevant news and information coming out of the event. Read on after the jump to see all the details!

[Read the rest of this entry…]

EDIT: Several sites are reporting this animation is from a scraped movie 2 years ago. We’ll update when we know more.

Bandai and Warner Bros are hard at work on a Thundercats reboot. We’ve already seen the toys. Now take a look at the cartoon show expected to accompany them.

The clip features a young, inexperienced Lion-O training on his own until he is confronted by Slithe. Its very clear these are different characters than what we might be used to. Lion-O especially is completely re-written. What do you think of the animation?
(via Flixist)

Long before Fable, Peter Molyneux’s Bullfrog Productions produced what was considered one of the first “God” Simulators. And a God simulator it certainly was. You played as a deity out to guide your people towards prosperity….by bringing about the apocalypse and beating the crap out of the other deity. You flattened and raised land so that your worshipers can build houses to produce more worshipers. You also have access to several spells that can unleash disasters upon your opponents, such as earthquakes and floods. While it’s primitive by today’s standards, Populous is still a fun game that contains just enough strategy to keep players reeled in. A Nintendo DS update was released a few years ago by XSeed featuring new gods, new maps, and stylus play. It’s available for cheap, so if you haven’t experienced this classic, then there is no better time to do so.

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…]

Looks like McFarlane Toys dug deep and managed to score themselves the Walking Dead license. MTV Geek got the exclusive. Two lines will be released, one for the comic book series and one for the AMC TV series. The figures will be in the 6 inch scale. Human figures will have what sounds like limited articulation with some interchangable accessories. Zombie figures will have action features like interchangable body parts and ‘exploding heads’. It doesn’t sound like there will be any articulation on the Zombies, which is just a lost opportunity.

The full presser is after the break.

[Read the rest of this entry…]