KOTOBUKIYA
Amongst all of their great products, Japanese toy distributor Kotobukiya had these three beauties present: the intimidating Cloud City Darth Vader ARTFX+ statue (a May 2011 release), the sleek Wonder Woman statue from the "DC Comics X Bishoujo"" series (June 2011) and a beautiful Colossus Statue from their "X-Men Danger Room Session" series (July 2011). The craftsmanship and sheer size of the Colossus statue makes it the most impressive three-dimensional representation I've ever seen of the metallic X-Man. Kotobukiya are also the folks releasing the upcoming R2-D2 and Han Solo (in carbonite) ice trays.
GENTLE GIANT
Within the Diamond Direct booth, I finally saw several of the super-sized "Star Wars" 12" action figures -- and they're spectacular! Gentle Giant has gone to great lengths to accurately produce the look and feel of the original 1977 wave of Kenner "Star Wars" figures in beautiful foot-tall specimens. If you were a Generation X kid that cherished the vintage 3¾" incarnations, this new wave is guaranteed to give you a sensational bliss of seventies awesomeness. Several figures have already been released; the essential Luke Skywalker 12" comes out this summer at a store near you.
MIMOCO
Mimoco formally premiered their Batman series of Mimobot designer USB flash drives at Toy Fair. This cool-looking set includes Batman, Robin, Joker, Catwoman and a nifty1939-era Batman limited edition version. The USB flash drives are sold in 2 GB to 16 GB memory capacities and come preloaded with Batman-related Mimobot wallpapers, screensavers and avatars. Now you can entrust all your important files to the Caped Crusader
TONNER
I bumped into a glamorous 22" Wonder Woman standing tall beside her DC 13" and 17" female contemporaries at the fanciful Tonner Doll Company booth. These collectible dolls command a lot of attention due to their trademark detailed costuming and expressive faces. Tonner has produced the following DC character dolls: Artemis of Bana Mighdall, Black Canary, Supergirl, Wonder Woman (13" and 22" editions), Catwoman, Dove, Raven and Starfire.
MONOGRAM INTERNATIONAL INC.
Monogram produces the type of items that I used to be crazy about as a kid: Marvel superhero stationary! I've seen their products everywhere. The company also makes a remarkable array of Marvel-licensed products, including bobble heads, banks, desk collections, drinkware, figurines, key rings, magnets, light-up jewelry, paperweights and bust banks. Their upcoming Thor bank, series of Marvel Superheroes erasers, and a sweet-looking "Tron" Light Cycle stapler commanded my attention.
BLUE FIN DISTRIBUTION
Blue Fin will be unleashing a very impressive, hyper-articulated Mega Man X figure from Bandai's Collectibles division, "Tamashii Nations." This colorful X comes out later in the year for around fifty dollars. The popular video game character has never looked more cunning and regal.
COMIC IMAGES
The New Jersey-based company named Comic Images has been around for over twenty years -- they were well known for making trading cards and T-shirts based on comic book characters before it became trendy and fashionable in the early 1990s. At Toy Fair, the company showed off their product line and previewed upcoming merchandise for 2011 that features characters from "Star Wars," the Marvel Universe and the classic Universal Movie Monsters line-up. I'm keen on impressing folks with those Darth Vader and Chewbacca slippers coming out later this year.