SDCC 2013: Recap Wrap-Up!

The NECA booth was pretty impressive, though some of their lines were a bit underwhelming. Looking at those in particular, Gears of War and Lone Ranger, while their attention to detail is, again, amazing, the figures themselves and their articulation seem to be lacking. At least the Lone Ranger toys don’t have the weird hip joint that the GoW figures do, and might be somewhat salvageable if the line doesn’t tank due to the lack of success in the movie. Most of their stuff is simply too large, and it’s a shame that so much of what they have that’s actually good wouldn’t fit in our collections, but it’s nice to see something that obviously has a lot of care taken to get things right. I know I have many complaints about their 3.75″ lines, but their larger figures are just outstanding.

You can find the main gallery HERE, and the Gears of War/Lone Ranger gallery HERE!

The Hobbit line by The Bridge Direct didn’t get as much attention as it probably should. The figures are pretty nice all in all. I’ve always thought it was a terrible shame that the figures always seemed to be on clearance. Again, it shows that our culture has grown away from physical toys, because these should have appealed to kids. It had us wondering if they would risk continuing the line with the rest of the movies. Thankfully, it seems as if they intend to keep things going with wave 2, and stated they have a lot of love for the 1:18th scale, which is good for us!

NSA spoke to Joel Alicea, who confirmed they were moving forward with Wave 2. You can find some more information and some pictures HERE!

I don’t know enough about Godzilla to comment other than they look a lot like what I remember from the movies, and look good doing it. If that’s what they were going for, then they accomplished their goal. We’ve got more pictures HERE!

NSA dropped by the Previews booth and took some pictures of what they had. Some Marvel Universe, and some new DC Injustice figures were on display. They also had the Godzilla figures, but we’ve already talked about them! All in all, I like the DC figures. They have a bit more of a gritty realism to them, which comparing them to much of what we’ve seen with DC characters in retail, says a lot. The selection I’ve always seen has been a bit more cartoony, so I’m happy with these.

Check out the gallery of pictures from the Previews booth HERE!

Another big surprise was tucked away into the Capcom corner of the convention. But what they had on display was nothing short of awesome. The Lost Planet 3 toys that company Toy Notch is bringing to the table was, by far, outstanding. Especially in comparison to what we were given in other booths during the con. Only prototypes, these seem packed with a ton of detail. I don’t know how much their designs are based on the game as I’ve never played it myself, but these look like awesome toys. We’ll be keeping our eyes on these. Read more about Lost Planet 3 HERE and HERE, and about Toy Notch HERE!

NSA got some great pictures of these figures and vehicles HERE!

Mandingo Rex spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday picking up Exclusives and taking lots of pictures. You can find them HERE, HERE, and HERE!

Obviously, the big news of the night was the Merit booth and the appearance and assembly of the AV-8B Harrier. At first, assembly came to a close with the nose being upside down, but board Founder K-Tiger noticed something wasn’t right, which got things fixed. NSA spoke to Tony for a good while during assembly and got a lot of great information. The best of which is that we might see the Harrier as early as Christmas, but probably not till 2014. We also got an idea of the price tag, which is running into the realm of $250 to $300 dollars. With panels and electronics and other extras, I can understand the cost. And judging from what we’ve seen so far, I’m already putting money aside for one!

NSA put together a quick Q&A for other tidbits of infomation, and you can find some of them in our AV-8 thread on our forums HERE!

You can find more information and pictures HERE!

Like I said in my Day 4 article, the convention certainly didn’t come out on top as far as surprises and good news. In fact, there was some pretty bad news in some instances, especially considering what was shown and said. No new GI Joe till 2014(minus what we’ve already seen), big changes to the Marvel Universe line(which may or may not be good), poor choices for Star Wars figures, and of course, the usual boredom due to the uninspired offerings by some companies that are usually “better than that”. However, the rumored news of the 50th anniversary GI Joe line next year, the arrival of Merit’s Harrier, the Lost Planet 3 line, and Wave 2 from The Hobbit, these are certainly bright lights in an otherwise dark hobby.

And besides, there’s always next year! You can bet we’ll be there for SDCC again, to bring you all that we can!

Don’t forget to stop by our forum and our SDCC Catchall Thread to join in on the discussion on all this and more!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not of the Fighting 1:18th.