If you’ve been shopping in the toy aisle in Toys R Us or Target lately with your kids — or, if you’re like me, looking for neat-o things for yourself! — you’ve probably encountered the latest line of Hasbro toys for the movie Thor, in theaters May 6 and starring Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins. They’re hard to miss: Large foam swords, little face guards to put on your head, a large hammer with lightning sounds to bug fellow customers, a smaller Nerf hammer to bug your dog and your spouse, and loads of cool action figures. But why just tell you about them when we can show them to you! Before I sat down and jawed with the guy playing the god of thunder, I stopped by the Hasbro Toy Fair showroom and got a look at all the Thor awesomeness up close and personal with the help of an enthusiastic Hasbro employee. Check it out in the video below, and keep your eyes peeled for more clips on the blog soon.
Toy Fair is in full force now in New York City with the hottest action figures and play sets on display. Of course, Disney is there, too, and they’re rolling out a new Lightning McQueen, the lovable star of the Pixar flick Cars and its upcoming sequel this summer. There have been lots of Cars toys in stores, especially Lightning, for boys and girls. but this one’s a little bit different: The Lightning McQueen Alive toy by Mattel drives forward and backward, pulls off 360s, moves his big eyes, comically shrugs his shoulders, and spouts signature lines (voiced by Owen Wilson) from his moving mouth. (Check out the video below to see Lightning in action.) He’ll retail for about $60 and will be available in October — although you can preorder him starting today. Mattel will be releasing several other Cars 2 toys by the time the movie comes out June 24. In addition, Hasbro will be releasing a special Cars 2 Monopoly game and LEGO is putting out its first line of 20 sets from the film, including three featuring Lightning. To get a glimpse of what’s coming up in his animated life, check out this trailer for Cars 2, featuring Lightning and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) on their global adventure.
We began the week with an exclusive reveal from Toy Fair, and we’re ending the week the same way — but with two new action figures from the upcoming Green Lantern movie. While we’ve seen images of Mattel’s version of star Ryan Reynolds in his emerald get-up and power ring, here are two cool new alien Green Lanterns revealed for the first time in plastic form: the bird-like Tomar-Re from Xudar (at left, whom you can see in passing in the first Green Lantern trailer below) and fishy NautKeLoi from the planet Aeros. Both have been seen before in DC Comics over the years, but they’ve been tweaked for the film and for their appearance in the Green Lantern Movie Masters series, sculpted using digital files from the movie for crazy good accuracy and detail. There are 12 characters in all in the series, including Reynolds’ Hal Jordan, and they each include a Collect & Connect piece. That way, you can get them all and build a giant-sized figure of the movie’s big bad, Parallax. Each of the Movie Masters figures will be around 15 bucks and are scheduled for release in April — before Green Lantern hits theaters June 17. Other Green Lantern toys from Mattel will also be on display at Toy Fair in New York City, including Battle Shifters figures, a neat Ring Blast Green Lantern and a Colossal Cannon Blaster kids can put their hands in and play as a member of the Green Lantern Corps with their friends — all of which make my inner 10-year-old kid geek out a bit.
Good news for those who’ve been missing giant transforming robots lately: The new trailer for this summer’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon premiered last night during the Super Bowl, and the very cool new Transformers Prime cartoon returns to The Hub starting this Friday afternoon. Like any good Transformers property, Prime has a whole slew of toys connected to it, and we have an exclusive reveal of one of them, the Autobots’ female robot warrior Arcee. She is one of several Deluxe Class Transformers Prime toys — along with other longtime favorites such as Bumblebee and Starscream — that will be unveiled by Hasbro this weekend in New York City at Toy Fair. While Transformers toys have been a staple in boys’ toy boxes since the 1980s, Arcee is cool for geek girls of all ages because she’s been the most prominent of all female Transformers over the years — she first appeared in the animated Transformers movie that hit theaters in 1986, and also popped up on the big screen again — albeit briefly — in Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen in 2009. But Arcee has found renewed popularity among fans on the Prime series, and her toy looks fittingly neat, in both robot form as well as in her sleek motorcycle mode. Arcee and the rest of the Prime toys will be available on Oct. 1 and retail for about 12 bucks. Also, check out Arcee and her fellow robots in disguise in this promo for the season premiere of Transformers Prime on Friday.
Gotta confess, I’ve been a bad geek this week. I totally forgot that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the best Star Wars flick of them all, The Empire Strikes Back (otherwise known as “Episode V,” “The Dark One,” “The I Am Your Father One,” etc.), until a nice guy at the Hasbro showroom reminded me. There are all kinds of toy awesomeness coming out in celebration of the occasion, from a Boba Fett helmet that talks (I know what prop I’m using for Halloween this year!) to action figures that come on a nostalgic card reminiscent of the old Kenner toys. There are nods to other movies, too — the Cad Bane Galactic Heroes toy, the General Grievous lightsaber — but the coup de grace is the ginormous AT-AT vehicle, a smaller version of the Imperial walkers that raised quite a ruckus on planet Hoth back in the day. (There is a cute little baby AT-AT that’s part of the Galactic Heroes line, too.) For a sneak peek at what I’d be bugging my parents for if I was 5 years old again, check out the video below.
During Toy Fair this week, Hasbro had a big showroom at the Times Center in New York to tout their newest and hottest toys. Fresh off last summer’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie, the G.I. Joe toy line has moved to a new theme, Pursuit of Cobra, with an all-new H.I.S.S. Tank (an update of the classic 1980s vehicle), state-of-the-art action figures such as Cobra Commander (pictured on the right), two seven-packs of characters from the popular G.I. Joe: Resolute cartoon, and neat “mech” suits for your favorite figures. And with a G.I. Joe sequel on the way — being penned by the writers of Zombieland — this is just a start for what’s to come with the Real American Hero. For a sneak peek of what’s coming, check out the video below of some of these toys in action.
My mom always kept me well-stocked in the toy department growing up — and my wife puts up with the vintage G.I. Joe figures littering our place — but my 8-year-old self would have seriously freaked out if he had ever gone to Toy Fair. Held annually in New York City, the American International Toy Fair invites toymakers big and small from all over the world to showcase their wares for buyers, inventors, storeowners and members of the media. Thus how I was able to get in to witness the best and brightest of this year’s toy fare today, the first day of the four-day event. Here’s one good thing for parents watching their money: The price points on toys are down this year for the most part, according to many companies. The only bad thing: There was so much cool stuff, and none of it I could buy! (This Star Wars Lego set, pictured at right, featuring a brick Wampa is soooo going to be mine one day.) I’ll have more info and video from Toy Fair later, but read below for some highlights of today.
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If you’ve been shopping in the toy aisle in Toys R Us or Target lately with your kids — or, if you’re like me, looking for neat-o things for yourself! — you’ve probably encountered the latest line of Hasbro toys for the movie Thor, in theaters May 6 and starring Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins. They’re hard to miss: Large foam swords, little face guards to put on your head, a large hammer with lightning sounds to bug fellow customers, a smaller Nerf hammer to bug your dog and your spouse, and loads of cool action figures. But why just tell you about them when we can show them to you! Before I sat down and jawed with the guy playing the god of thunder, I stopped by the Hasbro Toy Fair showroom and got a look at all the Thor awesomeness up close and personal with the help of an enthusiastic Hasbro employee. Check it out in the video below, and keep your eyes peeled for more clips on the blog soon.
Gotta confess, I’ve been a bad geek this week. I totally forgot that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the best Star Wars flick of them all, The Empire Strikes Back (otherwise known as “Episode V,” “The Dark One,” “The I Am Your Father One,” etc.), until a nice guy at the Hasbro showroom reminded me. There are all kinds of toy awesomeness coming out in celebration of the occasion, from a Boba Fett helmet that talks (I know what prop I’m using for Halloween this year!) to action figures that come on a nostalgic card reminiscent of the old Kenner toys. There are nods to other movies, too — the Cad Bane Galactic Heroes toy, the General Grievous lightsaber — but the coup de grace is the ginormous AT-AT vehicle, a smaller version of the Imperial walkers that raised quite a ruckus on planet Hoth back in the day. (There is a cute little baby AT-AT that’s part of the Galactic Heroes line, too.) For a sneak peek at what I’d be bugging my parents for if I was 5 years old again, check out the video below.
During 
My mom always kept me well-stocked in the toy department growing up — and my wife puts up with the vintage G.I. Joe figures littering our place — but my 8-year-old self would have seriously freaked out if he had ever gone to