Tuesday, April 13, 2010

2nd part of update...go!

Finally, a second update where one was promised.
This one has the Super Poser Knuckles review as it's highlight item. Fortunately, it showed up here faster than anywhere else, saving everyone from sending in photos. I'm happy enough with the figure (on a personal note, that doesn't get into the actual review) but the arms to me are a big pest, because I want to be able to use these guys to do more "shows" (a'la Sonic Gear Commercial) and floppy figures just won't work.

Also, 3in Metal Sonic's head simply plopping off the minute I got him out of the package is rather discouraging. Yes you can CRAM on it to get it to go back but it never does really 'stay' well. Hedgehog help anyone who tries to play with him. Hopefully, I just got a dud. But then again, why me--the WORST person to get a failing figure in their hands? It's like if a car company gives a car to the NBC news station to test and all 4 wheels drop off--who are they going to tell? Everybody. Do that for some random Joe in Ohio, and the town'll find out but...is it some kind of bad karma for this good-sculpting company?

More detail on Impact Int vs. Eggman:
They basically say they never got the lic. for plush or beanies and so will never do them. Yeah ok, that's fine, but then why did they put him on their tags of all the other figures? Did it fail at the last minute? I can't think of any other logical scenario. And why WOULD it? It's not like they were doing a horrible job on the others.

May be a 3rd update for the week, depending how things go.
It's mostly prepared, so if new shenannigins (now it wants all photos uploaded twice, to get them to stay!) don't wreck it, it may just appear with more stuff.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

License & Exlusivity Loss (good & bad)

This week brings another regular-style update.
Hopefully, it's the first of 2 or more for the week, to finally catch the site up. The news for the update though, is the loss of exclusivity, and the loss of a license for you to read about. First:

Odd/Sad news:
Impact International makers of the 'classic line' Sonic plushes found in the GAME stores of the UK, apparently lost their license in 2010. What this means: well obviously, no more classic plushes from them, and also that classic Eggman is never going to get made. For some reason, they didn't produce him along with the 3 others, and because of this delay, he'll never come out. Their dolls were pretty good, (certainly better than toynetwork etc) so why this sudden end, is unknown. It's too bad Eggman was a casualty of it, as he's rare (merch wise) to begin with.

The Exclusivity loss is the good news:
TRU losing their JW exclusive will likely only benefit the fans. So far, figures have been spotted at WalMart (yes, the only place with a worse attitude toward customers than TRU, the 'biggest big box retailer' there is) and also Hot Topic (which will no doubt raise their price for them, unless mandated to keep it the same as what TRU charges) as HT is known for charging the most out of retail groups. You can likely expect to see more places soon, and hopefully ones with actual international shipping: EVERYONE would like some of these figures.

Jazwares Subtly Improving:
Since it was mostly an info update, some may have missed it. But this is important!

LOOK at the BACK of your 3in Figures boxes.
If you have one that shows all the other 3in figs they made, you've got a recent one which will include a base (YES even for the base-less earlier figures, like Knuckles & etc) and it's also a guarentee that the Tails in there will have rotating Tails/glove details corrected. So now you finally have a way to ensure buying a GOOD Tails, so this is a major development for people with a broken/wrong one. (Like me) The base will be hidden behind the front-label, but it is the different box-back that's the give-away.

This is also a very good move, in my opinion because it's worlds better than having generic art everyone's already seen, and is the best "ad" for the rest of the line. Nothing inspires people to collect (ESPECIALLY non-internet ones) like a pic of everything else they don't own.

Actual update/details bit blog post to follow this one.