Everyone loves Deadpool these days (except me, but what do I know).  It’s obvious from all of his appearances in virtually every mainstream Marvel comic that is being published.  That means everyone wants to have their very own Deadpool figure, right?  And what could possibly be better than a Deadpool action figure?  A really BIG Deadpool action figure.  Welcome to the world of Ultimate Quarter Scale Marvel.  Yes, the 19″ scale we used for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, and Terminator 2 is now being applied to Marvel Comics.  Kicking off the new branch is the Merc with a Mouth, Wade Wilson.  I included a little pre-prototype collage for you but the eye-catcher is the fully-assembled prototype.  And, for those of you who want more, you’ll just have to wait and see additional details later (like the painted unmasked head and the weapons).  Now, giving credit where it is due, let me thank the team that made this possible - Bill Mancuso (heads), Kathy Grilli (outfit), Rudy Garcia (hands, boots, belt), Gentle Giant (weapons), Adam Smith and Irish Joe (castings), and Eddie Wires (paint).

“New Retro”?  Did I really just say that?  Yes I did.  You’ve been seeing a lot in the news lately about the fantastic things that EMCE Toys is doing with the Mego-style figures.  This has prompted people to wonder if perhaps there was some kind of parting of the ways between DST and EMCE since there haven’t been any new announcements from our camp.  Well, fear not gentle reader, DST and EMCE are just as close as ever and we’ve got exciting things coming up for you.  These images are VERY rough, so no comments and no reposting, but I wanted you to see what we’re up to.  In development we have 4 Trek (Captain Pike, Vina, Nurse Chapel, and the M-113 Salt Vampire) as well as 4 Universal Monsters (Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, and Mummy).  More details will be revealed as they are available (and I can already tell you that at least one of these is getting a complete overhaul and another has a variant in the works).  Enjoy the super early look at the future…

About 6 years ago, DSTChuck wanted to design a house brand focusing on the popularity of ‘goth’ products.  The plan was to take some of the public domain fairy tale characters and give them a more modern look and feel.  A lot of people spent a lot of time at DST working on proposals for buyers, package concepts, category options, and marketing strategies.  Unfortunately, unavoidable circumstances caused the project to go to the backburner.  Now that the Femme Fatales line has taken off, DSTChuck is looking to reinvent some of the reinventions and use them in this PVC line.  Kicking things off is the new Little Red Riding Hood (Li’l Red, for short).  The images I’ve included show you how we went from the original concept sketch to Sam Greenwell’s sculpt and finished with Kat Sapene’s paint.

Afraid of a Covenant invasion?  Concerned about the Flood taking over your local financial institution?  Well worry no more, the Spartan Mark VI bust bank is here to solve your problems.  This iconic character from the Halo video game series was digitally sculpted by Oluf Hartvigson and painted by Ed Wires.  The best part is, with the entire multi-player spectrum at our fingertips, there will be no problem creating enough color variations over the next couple of years to help build a UNSC bank army.

It’s been a long time since anyone released really good and affordable action figures based on the classic Universal Monsters.  So, with that in mind, I give to you the first assortment in the line.  Coming soon to a Toys R Us near you.  We’ve got the star of the Best Movie EVER, Creature From the  Black Lagoon;  we’ve got Imhotep the Mummy; and we’ve got the Wolfman.  Creature and Mummy were sculpted by Rudy Garcia and painted by Eddie Wires.  Wolfman was sculpted and painted by Jean St. Jean.  The Creature is going to stand about 7.5″ tall, so that should give you an idea of the scale for the rest of the line.  Be on the lookout for info regarding the deluxe specialty-market exclusives and early hints about Series 2.

Really, it explains everything about this newest addition to the Marvel Select line.  Why does he look like he’s about to destroy everyone? Why is he standing over the wreckage of the X-Mansion?  Why does he have such an angry look?  Why is his back turned when clearly someone is trapped in the rubble?  The answer to all of these questions is “Because he’s EVIL”  Well, truth be told, the whole arm-of-Colossus thing on the base is because yours truly is a little whcked in the head and felt like having some sick fun with the fans (I guess this means I’ll have to do a Colossus Select figure as a future make-good, huh?).  The Master of Magnetism is sculpted by Gabriel Marquez and painted by Ed Wires.

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bank has been such a huge success that I decided to look into two variants.  One will remain secret (for now), but the other one is here.  He’s a glow-in-the-dark blue variant (similar to the Minimate we did for San Diego Comic Con).  The head in the picture is the wrong one (the production piece will have the “happy” face), but the material prototype turned out so well that I had to share with you all.

Meh, it sounded funnier in my head, but let’s go with it.  The point is, the time has come at last for our bust bank line to branch out into the wonderful world of Clones and the almost limitless possibilities for variants.  The lead-off release is, obviously, the basic Clone Trooper.  Much like the R2 bank, the Clone is based on digital scan data and was painted by Ed Wires.  Look for him at the start of 2010.

Sometimes even the best of us guess wrong.  In this case, we were caught off guard at how phenomenally well the Battlestar Galactica figures were selling in Toys R Us.  Those poor stores are running out of figures at an alarming rate and the next assortment isn’t scheduled for another few months.  What’s a boy to do?  (more…)

Once he put his pod racing behind him, Anakin Skywalker got himself some fancy new threads and a swanky Imperial job.  Here he is as he looked in A New Hope, just after vaporizing Obi-Wan.  Sure, he was a friend and mentor, but you can’t expect a Sith Lord to ever forgive being called Little Annie.