September 21, 2008

Not widely known among collectors and Hot Toys fans, JC Hong – a talented Korean painter in the collectible market, who has passed his unique painting technique on to various sculptors and painters in Korea. We can say JC Hong is a mentor to most of the Korean collectables’ artists in the market today. He is also the Chief Paint Art Director of Hot Toys Ltd., besides painting prototype head-sculptures, his main mission is to ensure the paint ops on the final product are accurate with the prototype.

From the time JC became a key member of Hot Toys, with the dense workloads, he seldom has a chance to present his absolutely outstanding painting dkilld on a figure. Today, JC would like to demonstrate a very different version of THE JOKER figure, and share his great paint job with all of our fans!

This demonstration perfectly illustrates JC’s superb technique, especially the original Joker head which has been transformed into an entirely new expression after having been touched by his magic hands! When you focus on The Joker’s eyes, they seem to follow you!

Some collectors may ask, “Why don’t Hot Toys use this higher-quality sculpt and paint as the promotional picture?” As a responsible collectible manufacturer, we wanted to present a product photograph which will be 100% accurate to the final product we solicit, and NOT give a false impression.
Hot Toys and JC understand that this complicated and intricate of a paint job is impossible to apply to the final product due to technical reasons. We also didn’t want to disappoint our collectors by showing a custom painted figure and not the actual product!

Nevertheless, Hot Toys is ready to take this challenge with improved techniques and aims to bring you as close J C Hong masterpiece product in the near future.

Lastly, JC has promised to release his personal paint job on his blog (http://blog.naver.com/tiger231) sometime, so please stay tuned at http://HotToys.com.hk as we’ll bring you more news very soon!

September 08, 2008

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5" Radio Controlled Davros

The Doctor’s ultimate enemy in the Series 4 finale, this 5" Radio Control Davros has full movement control and phrases such as “You will suffer for this". Davros requires 3xAAA not included. Controller requires 3xAAA not included.

12" Radio Controlled Davros

The Doctor’s ultimate enemy in the Series 4 finale, this 12" Radio Control Davros has full movement control and phrases such as “Welcome to my new empire, Doctor". Davros requires 4x AA included. Controller requires 1x9V not included.

August 17, 2008

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Theater! Import Theater has become something of a pet project as of late, with all of the cool Super Hero toys being release weekly, Captain Collector has taken up the bulk of my time. But no more! Today, we're gonna take a look at some really cool toys that are, shall we say, "off the beaten track." Today, we're taking a closer look at some offerings from smaller companies, with much smaller production runs than we've come to expect from Marvel Legends or DCUC.

Let's start with a company known for their DC and He-Man offerings, the Four Horsemen. The Horsemen are among the most prolithic and tantented production houses out there. Some of you may not know this, but htey also produce their own line of toys. The line we're going to be reviewing today came out last year, but slipped under many a radar. The Horsemen encountered some production problems, but persevered, and ended up releasing some of the coolest toys ever. I'm taking about the Anitherian Nine.

The Anitherian Nine (well, there's actually ten, but more on that later) are a group of heroic Pachyderms, their allies, and a couple of hideous evil Mutants. The hero of this world is the Captain of the Gaurd, Ramathorr, the Elephant swordsman, and my personal favorite of the bunch. This set is not for the faint of wallet or shelfspace! These are large, bulky figures that will gobble up a good chunk of change as well as their fair share of real estate in your toy display! Limited to only 300 sets, most were available as exclusives online at various online stores and websites. You can get all 9, however, through the Four Horsemen's site, Storehorsemen.com. Also available is a tenth, Pink Elephant. The irony of the Pink Elephant may be lost on you, but don't worry, just ask Toygodd to explain, I'm sure he's seen his fair share of Pink Elephants in his time.

These figures, in case you haven't figured it out yet, are all very cleverly executed repaints of each other with one body mold, multiple accessories and dressings, and mostly unique heads. They are painted so well and highly artu=iculated to the point where it really doesn't matter, their just very cool toys. It was not easy to pry these off the gigantic blisters, as each was signed by all Four Horsemen. They are some of the most talented guys out there, and as an artist I really respect their work. But at the end of the day, it's all about the toys, so cooler heads prevailed, and I tore each one off the cardboard and freed them like the wild animals they are!

Card Art & Ramathorr

The Hammer of Gholl

The Shield of Draumm

The Gaunlet of Vaskkh

The Helm of Xaanm

The Mace of Brohggah

The Club of Thraugnn

The Chalice of Guudenuph

Mutant Ssejjhhor and Mutant Ggruxx

Megahouse 1962 Godzilla

You all know I love the Big G. This large PVC statue of the 1962 (King Kong Vs. Godzilla) Godzilla was released earlier this year, and has become VERY scarce. With a production run of a few hundred pieces, expect to pay around $300 to $350 for this bad boy. Due to the immense size (he's over 20" tall!) and weight of the PVC used, also expect to pay $80-$100 in shipping alone. The last one I saw was at Comicon for $450.

Neca ALIEN 8" scale and 18" scale

Neca, another smaller company who release really cool toys, has released their long-awaited version of the original 1979 Ridley Scott Alien that started it all. The 8" version is actually more like 9", and features seom really great detailing, including an opening jaw and extendable mandibles. The 18" scale version is just that - scaled to 18" figures, meaning he's more like 22" tall!!! It's so big, he comes partially assembled in the box! The larger version also weighs like a metric ton. The 8" version will run you around $17.00, but the super-sized one can be had for as little as $30 to $40, and is a steal at this price. No Alien collection can be considered complete without these. The 8" scale version is shot on the blue background, while I shot the 18" scale version against grey, so that they would be easier to tell apart.

July 12, 2008

Organic Hobby, Inc in conjunction with Kaiyodo proudly introduces its two new products for the U.S. market, “Fuka Ayase (Swimsuit Version) & Ena Ayase.”

"Fuka & Ena Ayase," are fictional characters from the ongoing manga series "Yotsuba&!," as well as the one-shot manga Try! Try! Try!, both by Kiyohiko Azuma. Fuka is the middle Ayase sister. She is a 16-year-old student at a local high school and she is the most responsible of the three sisters. According to Yotsuba, she is "the unpretty one." "Fuka Ayase" introduced in her "swimsuit version" is 7" tall, has a custom base for display and comes in a window box. Ena The youngest Ayase sister, is a few years older than Yotsuba and her most frequent playmate. "Ena Ayase" is being introduced in her removable outfit. She is 5 ½" tall and comes equipped with a towel, a teddy bear and custom base for display.

- “Fuka Ayase (Swimsuit Version)” with a SRP of $35.00 & Ena Ayase with a SRP of $30.00 will be released in September.

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