Dodging the Toy Fair Bullet

It’s the final day of Toy Fair 2007, although for we non-attendees, the news dried up on February 11 (Day One) and started on February 9 (Day -1). I don’t get you, Toy Fair, but you don’t get yourself, do you? You’re a show for industry, where stores decide what product from a manufacturer they’re going to carry on their shelves. But you’re so overwhelmed with press that companies can’t display anything that doesn’t get carried without some egg on their faces. So the actual buyer/manufacturer congress takes place at Pre-Toy Fair, and things are finalized by February so the Internet can give us a good picture of what we’re getting on Toy Fair weekend.

But this evolution isn’t complete… Toy Fair isn’t open to the public, and in name, at least, it’s still for industry only. So companies like Hasbro can withhold product and still fit the premise of the event. Why didn’t we see Marvel Legends? Hasbro says they’ll be at a comics convention on the 24th of February, which is a pretty great way to reach fans. But it’s still delayed… and doesn’t really leave anything for Toy Fair to do. I think I’ll see the 2007 Marvel Legends lineup in the month of February, so slight harm, no foul.

Anyway, a traditional, no-omission, Toy Fair is an important event for the customizer. A project could be scrapped if the character will be done professionally. Worse, one’s labor might be proven obsolete if a company puts out the perfect base. At the end of the year I usually evaluate my projects with a mind towards the likelihood of Hasbro/Mattel/Marvel Toys putting the character out.

But that’s less of a concern for the Marvel Legends customizer than it used to be. Toy Biz made a huge chunk of the Marvel Universe in plastic, and customizers either tend to improve on professional work (lessening the relevance of a new figure) or involve themselves with obscure characters that will never be made. Prove me wrong, Hasbro, make some Thunderbolts!

So I had no projects affected by Toy Fair. The only thing I was worried about was the First Appearance Storm that some people reported seeing at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. But Storm wasn’t on any of the leaked lists I’ve seen so far. And anyway, I just completed a Storm in her Avengers Adventures costume (pretty iconic, I think), so there probably won’t be overlap regardless. The Legendary Comic Heroes line, aka the Indie Comics line by Marvel Toys, is about the only thing of interest for the 6-inch customizer. These all seem like great figures, but very few of them fall into to traditional “human physique covered in spandex” model that Marvel and DC characters define. Why buy a Witchblade and carve her down to a basic female, when she looks like a Psylocke with Witch-junk added? Conan would be a decent start at a Namor, but Hasbro is supposed to be doing a Namor For Real this year in Marvel Legends.


My Avengers Adventures Storm, a work in progress. You had the perfect chance to screw me, Hasbro. Toy Biz would have done it.