Toys based on video games is still a woefully untapped and underserved market. Even massively popular lines like Halo 2 from Joyride don’t make it much further than stores that sell video games (even Toys R Us stocked them near the Xbox games).

Metal Gear Solid 4 may not have a release date, but the 12″ Solid Snake (picutred) will be out in November. He’s pretty detailed, and employs some advanced action figure technology to keep his body in realistic posts, which sounds nice but its really a shady way of saying he’s not getting double jointed limbs. Couldn’t find a price point, and Medicom is a Japanese toy company so be prepared to pay brutal import prices.

NECA has a handful of figures already out based on Eidos properties: Tomb Raider Legend, Hitman, and Legacy of Kain. They also announced at Toy Fair they’ll have some Resident Evil figures out by September, and Castlevania in October. Simon Belmont will be based on the NES box art, but Alucard, Dracula, and Succubus will be styled after Symphony Of The Night.

First 4 Figures has a Metroid license, but seem intent on making statues too expensive to buy on a whim. Zero Suit Samus will retail for $109. An excellent likeness, and sure to be the pride of your basement collection. They’re also stamping out Zelda statues. Why not make me a proper 6″ Varia Suit Samus Aran action figure and some Space Pirates, F4F?

SOTA Toys will have some Darkstalkers to add to their Street Fighter line. Dimitri and Lord Raptor will be out late spring 2007.

Its really frustrating that theres still no line that conforms to a scale and offers more than the most obvious characters as figures. Getting ONLY Snake or ONLY Lara Croft seems odd. Even Mario brought some supporting characters to Happy meals.

Theres a fair number of Marvel fans and a fair number of Transformer fans around here. Both should be pleased to hear this: The long rumored crossover book between the Avengers and Transformers is a reality.

Comics Continuum reports:
“Stuart Moore and Tyler Kirkham are the creative team for the Transformers/Avengers crossover between IDW Publishing and Marvel. Look for more on that book soon here in The Continuum.”

Direct and to the point. No word on whether this is a “team-up” or a “versus” or what. This is of course, not the first time Transformers have found their way into the Marvel Universe. The original comic series was published by Marvel, and issue #3 guest starred Spider-Man.

Thanks to Shiv’kala for the tip.

The New York Comic-Con reached the end of its first day, and there’s been a flurry of newsbits, largely focusing on World War Hulk for Marvel, and Countdown for DC. Here’s the rundown:

MARVEL:

• World War Hulk will bring us a number of minis including World War Hulk (this being the main series)…
• World War Hulk: X-Men, written by Cristos Gage, art by Andrea DiVito – In it, the Hulk hunts for Professor X, despite (because of?) the fact that Xavier wasn’t there at the meeting where they decided to boot the Hulk to space.
• World War Hulk: Frontline – This will be very much like Civil War: Frontline, only I imagine the quality-of-storytelling gap between the two won’t be nearly so vast this time around. Again, it will be written by Paul Jenkins with an army of artists at hand.
• World War Hulk: Gamma Corps & World War Hulk: Young Avengers are also announced, but lacking details.
• The new Thor series will launch in July of this year. JMS is still on as writer, with Oliver Coipel on art.
• As has been announced previously, a New Warriors book will be coming out, starting in June. Writer will be Kevin Grevioux, art by Paco Medina.
• MarvelousNews.com has images up of Spider Man 3 movie figures, Fantastic Four 2 movie figures, Spider-Man 3 Minimates, Marvel Zombies Minimates, Marvel Legends Icons Wave 2, and the Hasbro Marvel Legends Wave 3. Not pictured are the previously announced X-Men III Colossus, WWII Captain America, WWII Bucky, and a Hydra Soldier.

DC:

• There’s really only 5 big points to hit on from the DC panel from today, and they can all be capsulated in image form. Images mirrored from Newsarama’s coverage.

Meandering across message boards, as I do, I happened upon a link to a couple of cool customs. These customs were made from scratch and are based on the Transformers Generation 1 cartoon versions of Wheelie and Cyclonus. Check them out! They are surprisingly faithful to the original concept.

 

I went by my local comic shop on Wednesday to pick up the final issue of Civil War and the new Immortal Iron Fist and to my surprise, I found DC Minimates! While I didn’t pick any up on this trip, I did manage to score a free poster showing some of the upcoming figures and when they are expected to be released. Start hunting DC and Minimate fans!

• There’s minimal to report at the moment – just lots of room to speculate – but Warner has hired Kiernan and Michele Mulroney (who and who?) to write a script for a Justice League movie. I wonder, if they actually get those Wonder Woman and Flash movies out the door, are the leads (like Brandon Routh and Christian Bale) going to be up for parts in it? I’d imagine the budget couldn’t allow for it, but it’s fun to think about. Ooh, but if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get Giffen, Dematteis, & Maguire’s Detriot League! (Dare to dream, friends, dare to dream.)
• In case you missed that animated Invincible Iron Man movie, you have a chance to see it for free on Cartoon Network on Saturday, March 3rd.
• Again we turn to Cartoon Network, which will be premeiring the second Hellboy animated feature, Hellboy: Blood & Iron on Saturday, March 10th. I missed the first one, but hopefully I’ll be a little more on-the-ball for this one.

Year Zero, the new album from Nine Inch Nails has a teaser trailer.

Yeah, that spooked me too.

The viral marketing campaign to get the word out on this has gone above and beyond youtube videos or strategicly placed lite brites. Following tour dates in Portugal and Spain, NIN concertgoers have been finding USB flash drives left in bathroom stalls containing new songs from the album. Some of these drives contain files of static that when analyzed through a spectrogram reveal images or phone numbers leading to clips of more songs or bizarre 911 calls. Its a good thing NIN fans are so willing to dissect every bit of info they get because I doubt other artists would live up to this scrutiny.

Year Zero has been described by NIN Mastermind Trent Reznor as a concept album and a “soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist” about anything from the future, politics, to the end of the world. Naturally, Reznor mentions Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad production as an influence. Those less educated with Public Enemy’s work might think Nine Inch Nails is making a rap record, but he’s actually referring to the mechanical and static nature of loops and samples. The first single, “Survivalism” is already being played on many radio stations and will be added to many more today. Dial up your local rock station and request it.

This is perhaps the best movie poster we’ll see all year. Reminiscent of the work of Drew Struzan, it’s got a classic quality and fully conveys how ridiculous this movie will be. Do note that all credits at the bottom say “BLAH BLAH BLAH.” Thats not placeholder text, thats the real deal.

Our favorite animated extra value meal will also appear on Playstation 2 with… a combat golf game. It’ll be written by series creators Matt Mallerio and David Willis, Midway will publish. Apparently Frylock has been admitted to a country club to play golf, but Shake and various villains from the show ruin your game with traps and boss attacks. If games based on comedy series in the past are any indication, this has the makings of a terrible game. Of course, it couldn’t be any worse than Home Improvement, and with the talent behind the show actually writing it, it may at least be funny if not fun to play.