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It's Wednesday and you know what that means... ToyFarce review! This week, we're having a look at Plunderlings! And Hatchlings! On the heels of their second Kickstarter campaign reaching its goal, with over 23 days to go (more on that later), I felt that it was a perfect time to revisit the Plunderlings, since I got a few more since the first review (which can be found here), but I also got Hatchlings! So What are 'Plunderlings', you ask? Lone Coconut's website says "A little bit goblin, a little bit pirate, united with infectious charm. These greedy adorable pirates travel from island to island looking for treasure and mischief". In a nutshell, they're super fun little goblin-like figures that took the toy collecting world by storm last year, after a first successful Kickstarter campaign. Full disclosure, I really love them. They were at the top of my 'Top 10' list for 2021, along with 'Lone Coconut' as the 'brand of the year' for me. What makes them great? Let's check it out. First, the packaging is really fun. They are little crates, with windows in the front and at the top. There are 2 levels of clamshell for the extra heads and accessories behind the figure, and they even have cardboard ears to add to the box, for fun. When was the last time the packaging of a toy was this fun? Lone Coconut has a great concept with those figures, because they technically all use most of the same sculpts, but it's the colors and accessories that give each character their personality. Some have no pants, some have trunks and some have more clothes (pants, vests, capes...). They all come with 2 extra heads (smiling and mouth open), and extra hands. I added Zombone and Captain Ash to my Plunderlings crew: Zombone is all white, with trunks, has a bone mask and a bone club; Captain Ash has a vest and pants, a top hat, a sword and a scope. The various accessories for the head use a magnet to stay in place. But what to do with all those extra accessories? Well, Lone Coconut also has struck gold with the concept of Hatchlings: Smaller bodies, with less articulations (only the arms), on which you can put the extra heads and hands, so that you can display everything that was in the box. Isn't that ingenious? There you go! The second Kickstarter campaign by Lone Coconut will add Plunderlongs (taller, leaner, angrier version of the Plunderlings), and Plunderstrongs (big, muscular version) to the crew. The campaign reached its $100,000 goal a couple of days ago, but there are still plenty more to unlock! For more info or if you want to get some Plunderlongs or Plunderstrongs, check the Kickstarter page here! Some of the Plunderlings from the first wave can still be found on BigBadToyStore. More news at 11:00... Yo ho, yo ho, a Plunderling's life for me!

McFarlane Toys has released official details and images for their The Original SPAWN Action Figure Kickstarter which launches later today. The figure will be 7" and have double the articulation as the original figure released back in the 90's, and will include a folding cape. Read on for full details and images below: 0588906abbe192fcdff19a1312c15517_h264_high.mp4

According to Todd, Medieval Spawn is likely the next version of Spawn to get the Kickstarter Treatment. In this new video he talks about how it is the one he wants to do next. He does leave the door open that it could be something else by saying he hasn't totally made up his mind. He thinks it would make a "badass" action figure because it would come with tons of cool accessories like a giant shield, big ax, sword, mace with spikes and chain and more. He also wants to make some of the weapons out of actual metal. He also would give it multiple heads with 4-5 different masks. Some of the masks would have hinges so you could lift them up to reveal the skull head inside. On top of that he also showed off his first Kickstarter Spawn at the beginning of the video giving us or most recent look at the progress that figure has made since it was fully funded earlier this year. See Todd's entire video below. No images of an actual new Medieval Spawn have been shown since right now this just seems to be an idea in Todd's head. Do you want to see Medieval Spawn and do you think it should be offered through the crowdsourcing route, let us know in the COMMENTS SECTION below.

If you are a fan of Todd McFarlane's Spawn character, then you probably know about the recent Kickstarter he held for a new 7" Remastered Original Spawn action figure based on the original 5" one released back in 1995. The Kickstater which had an original funding goal of $100,000 ended up with 23,761 backers and a total pledged amount of $3,447,390. All-in-all a fairly huge success for the comic book artist. Of course that first Spawn figure wasn't the only one released back in 1995. It was one of 6 figures released in the first wave that Todd used to help launch his toy company McFarlane Toys. When Todd first announced the plans for his Kickstarter during Toy Fair in February, he said that if it was successful he would look to do something similar for the other 5 figures from that first 1995 wave. Besides the original Spawn figure the wave also included figures of Violator, Overtkill, Tremor, Clown and Medieval Spawn. Since it seems pretty clear the first Kickstarter was a success, I can only assume that another one for another wave 1 figure will eventually be launched. However which figure will get the modern treatment remains unkown. I've decided to rank the remaining 5 figures from that first 1995 wave in order of least to most I would like see get the modern figure treatment. Of course feel free to leave your own thoughts in the COMMENT SECTION of which figure you want to see next. 5) Medieval Spawn Being we just got a Spawn figure, I would rather see this variant version of the lead character held back for a later release. It's a cool looking figure, but probably my least favorite of the original 6. 4) Tremor Only being a casual Spawn fan, I would say Tremor is probably the least known character to me from series 1. Despite looking cool, that lack of familiarity has me putting him at number 4. 3) Violator I almost feel like Violator and Clown should be released as a two-pack, but if I had to pick one over the other, I would rather see the Clown version done as a modern figure before Violator. 2) Clown Being Spawn's most notable nemesis, I can see Clown coming in at number 1 for a lot of people. I definitely would love to see a highly detailed and fairly well articulated 7" Clown figure produced by McFarlane, but from a personal standpoint he is not my favorite character. Because of that I have Clown coming in at number 2. 1) Overtkill My number 1 pick, and my favorite character from the first wave of 1995 Spawn figures is Overtkill, or as I know him better as, Over Kill. You see my first exposure for this guy doesn't actually come from the Spawn comic books, it comes from an old VHS video series called "The Comic Book Greats". As a kid I always wanted to draw, unfortunately I was never really talented enough to do it well. Still I enjoyed watching tutorials from great comic book artists. Back in 1991 the great Stan Lee launched a new series on VHS called "The Comic Book Greats" where he would interview well known artists and writers of the time. The first episode featured Todd McFarlane who of course had become an artist sensation at Marvel. During that episode the two sat down and mapped out from scratch the creation of a brand new never-before-seen character they called Over Kill. I still have that VHS tape somewhere. Later on Todd would rename that character Overtkill and insert him into his new Spawn universe at Image Comics. Because of that Stan Lee video series, Overtkill has always been a favorite of mine and I would love to see a modern articulated 7" figure of him created. If they do him I will definitely be buying one.

Did Todd McFarlane just prove that the big box retailer is now obsolete when it comes to the world of action figures? Todd McFarlane is largely attributed as the person who created the action figure collecting demographic in this country in the early 90’s, when he launched his little toy company now known as McFarlane Toys. A toy company that gained notoriety, not by making cheap toys for young kids, but by delivering highly detailed pieces of art in the form of an action figure. Something that would attract consumers both young and old. He proved that there was profit to be had for toys other than just catering to the now shrinking demographic of young kids and the parents who buy them. Even the larger toy corporations like Hasbro and Mattel eventually started to follow his lead to make stuff that was geared more towards the adult action figure collector. Back then, there were a lot more options for these toy companies to sell their products. No longer was the selling of action figures just confined to the likes of Toys R’ Us and other toy-specific shops. Now you could find toys at various music and video retail stores, even in comic and specialty shops which were a growing and thriving business in the early 90’s. Since those early days, the retail landscape has changed drastically. Most music and video stores are all but extinct, as are most toy-specific stores. Even video game stores seem to be on their last legs these days. Comic shops also have taken huge hits over the years, calling into question their chances of long-term survival. Beyond a few smaller etailers, that really only leaves the big-box retailers like Walmart, Target and a few others to sell these things — meaning they dictate what gets made, how it gets made and what doesn’t get made at all. These big-box retailers, and the demands they appear to place on the toy manufacturers, contribute to the biggest complaints most collectors have when it comes to collecting action figures. Cheap quality to keep the price down, the same big-name characters rehashed over and over, hard to find store exclusives, and limited availability of the things people actually want. To me it comes down to this. Because the manufacturers have so few options where they can sell their products these days, they have no choice but to abide by the demands that the big box retailers place on them. Perhaps that is about to change though, and the path to that change may be led by the same man who helped create the action figure collecting market all those years ago. Yesterday, Todd McFarlane launched his very first crowd-sourcing Kickstarter campaign for a newly designed Spawn figure. A figure that pays tribute to the very first Spawn figure he did in the 90s. The Kickstarter has a funding goal of $100,000 over the course of 30 days. In just under 12 minutes of the Kickstarter going live yesterday, the figure surpassed that $100,000 goal. As I type this, the Kickstarter, which has been live for less than 24 hours, has obtained $716,034 in funding. Now McFarlane isn’t the first person to look to something like Kickstarter to sell an action figure. He isn’t even the first major toy company to do it. In recent years, Hasbro launched their own crowdfunding website and sold several large and expensive type items straight to the consumer through it. Mattel tried their own variation of this concept for Masters of the Universe through their MattyCollector website, which lasted a number of years. Had Mattel put more emphasis on the customer service end of that operation, it probably would have been even more successful than it was. Still when it comes to the world of action figures, I don’t think I have seen anyone have quite as much success with a crowdsourcing campaign as McFarlane seems to be having with his first. It really makes me wonder what this could mean for the future of how action figures targeted to the adult collector are sold. McFarlane himself has already touted if this first campaign was successful, it would allow him to get more of what collectors want into their hands by circumventing the big box stores. Of course, until the final product is actually delivered into the hands of the consumer, it is hard to say how successful this will really be, but it definitely gives me some hope for the future of the hobby.

Todd McFarlane, owner of McFarlane Toys announced a brand new Kickstarter campaign during this year's Toy Fair. McFarlane explains how the company started out as a Kickstarter and shows off from 1995, the original line of Spawn toys with the original Todd Toys logo. He wants to start with the first Spawn figure and release the figure with the modern sensibilities and techniques of what has made McFarlane Toys what they are today. If the first Kickstarter figure is a success then McFarlane will do the next figure or even the whole line. The buy-in for the Kickstarter will be on different levels and will be under the MasterWorks title. No word on when the Kickstarter will launch. "BIG SPAWN KICKSTARTER NEWS!!! Head HERE to get all the info: https://facebook.com/liketoddmcfarlane/videos/191714708717989/?vh=e&d=n #spawn #mcfarlane #mcfarlanetoys #toyfair"

Hey all! I wanted to share a new project I have been working on: the Modular Armored Range Vehicle. The MARV is a brand new, military-themed vehicle designed for your favorite 1:18 scale action figure lines (3.75"-4"). A Kickstarter campaign is currently underway to get the MARV into production. Please check out the project for full details, and spread the word if you like what you see! Modular Armored Range Vehicle - LIVE NOW on Kickstarter!

Thought those that aren't in the GI Joe loop, might like to see these, I personally can't wait... Who doesn't want some 4" Old West figures?!?!?!? Please check out the info in the post in our Joe's section: http://forums.toynewsi.com/topic/2098694-gi-joe-compatible-dime-novel-legends/ One of our own is working on this, so if you're able to, please consider supporting him.