Monday, April 29, 2013

Jazwares Stuff For 2013

Havn't heard from Jazwares in a while, have you?
When they were nearly a no-show (or showed very little/or made 0 news at all) at a toyfair in a couple of places, people had started to wonder if they were getting out of Sonic stuff.

Well this week's update is here to show that's not true!
They've got some interesting stuff on the table, so the blog is here to break it down and see what's going on & what we can expect. The photos are all official stuff, like some kind of ad pages JW itself made, they're meant for distributors/stores and not the public. So, what did we see?

Old stuff being repacked & called 'new'
This includes things like the chaotix 3pack with charmy & super hedgehogs with corrected emeralds & the better joints. Also more All Stars Cars/Figures coming out again.

Why is this bad?
It's not actually new.
Why is it good?
Toys R Us's around the country had/have/are becoming spotty on carrying enough Sonic stuff. Some states NEVER get a thing (as in, Florida never got figures/accessories) while others get so few, chances are you don't have it. So re-releasing these popular things will give the fans another chance. Also, corrected emeralds are also good.

Rouge the Bat is back on the table...
For now. There had been rumors that she was never going to get made, they were ditching her, "Nobody Likes Rouge" (oh yeah and everybody likes Big? And grass is always purple? How about no. Every character has fans, don't just lie) For whatever reason she's just taking a billion years to turn up.
No one knows what the excuse is anymore either, they're obviously using Sega models from the games to make parts/all of many of the figures, why can't they just get a Rouge polygon and be done with it.
So she's once again going to attempt to be in a comic 2-pak with Shadow. But she's (of course) only stock art as of now.

Allstars Racers Transformed-
Everyone was kind of wondering where this merchandising was. Tees are showing up in stores, so where are the toys? Planned and actually made, because they had real photos for these. Sega (as you know) kind of dictates a little of what JW does, and they really want to peddle Transformed, so expect loads of vehicles. Pullback n' Go is nice & the big hovercraft/ship transformed cars for Sonic & Shadow look nice too. Hopefully we see EVERYbody Sonic related in the pullback n' go...with their alternate form vehicles.
Prediction: it'll do fine if they avoid flooding the market with vehicles

Real exciting stuff!
MORE of the Black Knight figures! They did a fantastic job with Sonic & Shadow, so their track record is great going into more of them. But where's Blaze the Cat? Will she fall victim to the "girls curse" and never get made? I mean come on...they're making Blacksmith Tails who didn't have a super mega huge part...
Prediction: These will be a hit almost nomatter what.
The Sonic Shadow ones can't stay on shelves and the detail is amazing.

5 inch Silver! 5 Inch Shadow! More!
The 'light up emeralds' are nice, but of course, having a non-3.5 good JW sculpt of everybody is much cooler than the gimmick of the line. Customizes will love the bigger size, little kids will love the gimmick, which actually looks nice & not cheezy so collectors can like it too.
Prediction: these will be a hit if they can keep the price nice.
Hope: They add more characters so you can get all 7 emeralds as light-ups. (let's get 5 inch Amy!)

Reversible Plushes:
The gimmick is good...2 dolls in one is nice IF IF IF IF they can pull it off. JW track record with dolls hasn't been the best. They've actually made mutants, as well as some mediocre dolls. Their best were merely "good", without anything totally amazing or super cute. The gimmick angle will make the dolls actually MORE difficult to look 'right' or on model than it would if they were just making normal dolls. I'm actually really surprised to see them attempting something so difficult after messing up their previous efforts.
Prediction: Depends totally on how nice the ones on the shelf look. Dolls can be 'dressed up' for official shots to make them look nicer than the production ones.

As a figure fan, I'm excited to see JW on the scene again, making news.

Sonic & Megaman crossover has commenced, (but just started) all early books should still be on shelves, so if you're getting this thing, NOW is the time to do it.

Nike ID Shoe Fan item - VERY good use of an official customizing tool to make something Sonic-like. It's creative and likely results in a quality shoe. Too bad the options aren't more robust so you can't get the stripe all the way across the front of the shoe. It still looks good though.

Next week:
Hopefully a batch of old mail. Things are doing really well with the site! Nothing's over-loading, but solid updates each week without overwhelm or ignoring people (which I hate to appear to do) So, next week could see some old & interesting things.