A Special NYCC Announcement

NECA Unveils a New York Comic Con Exclusive

03/07/2008

NECA's 2008 convention season kicks off with the 3rd annual New York Comic Con April 18 – 20th 2008! This year, NECA has a very special exclusive, and a very special guest. Peter Laird, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, will be appearing at the NECA booth on Saturday, April 19th, from 1PM-3PM, signing a New York Comic Con Exclusive Edition Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Box Set. This set contains all four Ninja Turtle action figures, plus additional accessories and diorama bases. This exclusive, limited to just 500 pieces, will be the only version of the box set to contain all the additional accessories from the single-carded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series 1 - in stores this May. The Exclusive Edition box set will cost $50 and is limited to one per guest. Purchase details will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Check NECAonline for the images on Monday

3:36 PM - 10 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

Q&A closed for now

The Leap Year Q&A blog is closed with almost 200 responses in the past week.
Thanks for participating and we'll do it again in late April.

We're gearing up for NYCC right now and putting final touches on some CC7 figures (accessories, bases, Regan's stairs, etc) along with some of CC8
I will get some "first look" images up here next week - good stuff.

We also started 3 new video game based figures this past week and some more work on Superbeasto. A lot going on and a lot more to come in 2008 beyond what we showed at Toy Fair last month.

New images next week

Thanks
Randy
NECA
Reel Toys

3:31 PM - 6 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Leap Year Q&A

In honor of a very successful Toy Fair and this extra day in February we're going to do another Q&A session. If you're not familiar with how it works you get to post your top 3 NECA-related questions - no more then 3 - and I will answer them over the next week or so. Please read through other users posts to help minimize repeated questions.

Looking forward to reading your comments and answering your questions...

Randy
NECA
Reel Toys

1:11 PM - 199 Comments - 102 Kudos - Add Comment

Thank You

Thanks for all the support and kind words on our Toy Fair showing.
Most of you probably know there is a lot more to come as Toy Fair only covers part of 2008 for us. We will be debuting more new figures in April at the NYCC and of course in July at SDCC. We have one more day of Toy Fair and then back to the normal grind and getting some new lines ready for production. TMNT and Gears will be shipping from China in March and April so it won't be too much longer before you can have them on your shelves. Since there seems to be some confusion on where/how the CC figures will be released here is the tentative plan from Toy Fair 2008:

CC: HOF Collection 3
Spaulding (clown suit)
Michael Myers (ghost)
Crow (guitar and flame base)

CC Presents
Alien (original 7" scale)
Jareth & Hoggle 2 Pack

CC 7
Beetlejuice (white & black suit)
Regan (spiderwalk)
Stuntman Mike

CC 8
Beetlejuice (red wedding tux)
Machete
Chamberlain

CC Boxed Set
Possessed Regan in Bed (w/ sound and motorized action)

Some things we have in the pipeline that are not scheduled yet...
Beetlejuice w/ roll-out arms and carousel head
Assorted Goblins from Labyrinth

Time for some rest and a decent meal. We'll do a Toy Fair wrap-up by next week along with a Toy Fair Q&A so you can find out about your favorite licenses or figures that we're working on...

Thanks
Randy
NECA
Reel Toys

5:48 PM - 34 Comments - 55 Kudos - Add Comment

CC Hall of Fame Zombie Ed

I know many of you have been wondering about the fate of this figure and he is still coming. Those of you who follow the inner workings of the action figure biz in detail will recall a message from the Four Horsemen around December about some issues they had with manufacturing and tooling and how we helped facilitate the return of their tools from a manufacturing disaster. Well we had a few of our projects caught up in this same mess and one of them was Zombie Ed. We have spent about 8 months trying to get a good sample of this figure. We have had 3 different NECA employees in China trying to correct the issues or move the job elsewhere. The saga continues and until we get the figure and the production to a suitable level we will not produce him. This figure is awesome and is probably the coolest HOF figure we have done because it is so different then the original release and is not just a re-pack.

At any rate we're not giving up and at some point this year he will see release. Also just you so you're aware of the logistics on the 2007 HOF figures: the 2 SAW figures were made at one factory, the prequel Leatherface at a second vendor, and then poor old Zombie Ed at a third. 2 out of 3 came through and the third was and still is a major disaster. I will keep you posted once we make some real progress worth talking about.

On a side note for those of you who are really into the action figure market and wonder about what goes on behind the scenes do some quick google searches on toy manufacturing in China and check out an article CNN posted last week on this subject.
If you look around at the action figure business as a whole you will see some disturbing trends. Costs are higher then ever and the past year has been the most difficult to manufacture collector quality products at an affordable price. We have set a standard and we're always striving to do better and to raise the bar. We don't want to start cutting corners and making our figures smaller or reducing the amount of paint applications and deco. In this business you always need to move forward not backwards and we're still working hard to make the most kick ass figures out there. Those of you who purchased the Alien or the Hybrid can attest to that and the Predator is just as amazing and while some of you may not like that there will be 4 different versions of the Predator figures you have to realize it is a matter of economics and you only need to buy the one(s) you like best or none at all if it's not your thing. Seriously the Predator is the single most expensive carded figure we have ever produced because of the size, amount of deco, amount of articulation, accessories, separate pcs, etc. Compare him to any other Predator figure in the same scale and retail price point and you'll see the difference. At retail the Predator figure will still cost you the same as other NECA figures no matter how much he cost us to make. We are fighting as hard as we can to keep the products at or above anything we have before and re-using parts, pcs and tooling helps the cause. CC: HOF was born to serve that purpose and in general we need to be more resourceful while we plan and sculpt our lines to create a better final product and provide quality and value for you.

Thanks
Randy
NECA
Reel Toys

8:15 PM - 14 Comments - 15 Kudos - Add Comment

Toy Fair Preview

In a few short hours you should start to see some of the NECA coverage from Toy Fair. We finished setting up our booth today and 2008 is looking pretty good.
To help get you through the wait for news and images here are some teasers...

All of Gears of War Series 1 and most of Series 2 are on display plus there are many variants and exclusives yet to be revealed

For the Cult Classics fans there is good news and bad news. The bad news is when we release a "series" we are scaling back to 3 characters per series instead of 4. The good news is you will get Series 7 and Series 8 this year along with a few Cult Classics Presents figures/sets and the previously announced Hall of Fame Collection 3. So it's really semantics because you will get just as many CC figures this year, possibly more.
Series 7 is on display in almost final form and the tentative lineup for Series 8 will be announced with a look at one of the figures.

You will see the first of many CONAN figures to come and it is a thing of beauty and something I have wanted since I was about 8 years old

A new figure from TMNT is on display

The classic ALIEN is on display and will be released in the 18" scale and the 7" scale this year. (The 18" stands almost 22" and the 7" stands almost 9" tall!!)

Sam from Trick 'R Treat is making his public debut

There are 5 new Harry Potter figures on display and a lot more to come since we are not showing anything from Half Blood Prince yet...

We are working on El Superbeasto with Rob Zombie

More news, details at Toy Fair

Thanks
Randy
NECA
Reel Toys

10:27 PM - 53 Comments - 47 Kudos - Add Comment

Yes, Finally an Update!!!!

Hey - it's been crazy as you can well imagine with developing lots of new projects and figures that we want to debut for Toy Fair. I probably wont have another chance to get on here until after Toy Fair but we'll catch up and do another Q&A thing post TF. In the meantime here are some highlights

Gears of War
It looks like some of the teasers have hit for Gears of War and the response has been great. I'm a huge fan of the game and we're going deep with it - we've got a minimum of 10-12 figures on tap with more to follow. We will give you a full Delta Squad, a horde of Locusts, Therons, and then some....

Cult Classics
A fan favorite and I think you'll see more of a focus on the "Classics" this year as last year we had 4 current major movie licenses that had to be on shelves and on schedule. This year we aren't as strapped with new projects so we have more time to focus on the retro before we ship Harry Potter: Half Blood Prince for the Fall.
You've seen the next Hall of Fame and since then we've been working on brand new "Classics" As I have teased before there will be some action figure debuts under the CC banner this year including some VERY requested fan favorites.

TMNT
People really seem to dig what we have shown so far and working with Peter Laird and Mirage has been a pleasure. We're working on some cool surprises now and with any luck we'll have a few new figures on display come Toy Fair.

Conan
Putting the final touches on a few of these figures over the next couple weeks, with any luck we'll show you the first figure by the end of the month. The line will focus on the Arnold version of Conan: The Barbarian and you can expect several different figures along with some cool variations/exclusives for this series.

Princess Bride
We have Pirate Roberts completed and pending final approval and we're about to start Montoya. Expect more news and details on this line come Toy Fair of course.

Harry Potter
The 3rd OOP Series with Malfoy, Bellatrix, and Harry will ship soon and we have 5 more figures completed. We're about to begin work on Half Blood Prince sculpts soon.

There is a lot more on tap for '08 so keep checking back and visiting www.necaonline.com
Thanks for your patience in between updates and for your continued support.

Randy
NECA
Reel Toys

2:29 PM - 58 Comments - 56 Kudos - Add Comment

Back and Q&A time again

Sorry the updates have been few and far between but we have been working on completing some great new figures from AvP, CC, Potter, and etc before we dive into Gears of War and then Conan: The Barbarian. It's going to be a very busy Fall/Winter here as we have a lot of great new licenses and figures to work on. Here are some highlights and teasers for you and since it has been so long since I have updated I will do another Q&A session. Please limit yourself to a maximum of 3 questions and I will answer throughout the next week.

We have completed our work on AvP and are planning to have the Alien Warrior and Predalien Hybrid out in time for the release of the film. The Predator will follow shortly after in the new year.

Also watch for an AvP cover story and feature in the next issue of ToyFare magazine (Issue 124 I think) Wait until you see the Predator!!!

Harry Potter OOP Series 3 is completed and will contain 3 figures
Malfoy, Bellatrix, and Harry (casual clothes)
All 3 are brand new sculpts and look amazing.

We're also close to completing the next Harry Potter series that will contain characters from the various Potter films. Expect to see Mad Eye Moody and a Richard Harris version of Dumbledore amongst others in early 2008

Machete from the infamous Grind House trailer is almost complete. This figure totally rocks and it's about time we got a Danny Trejo figure no?

We have 3 of the 4 figures for the next CC HOF ready to go. We have made some significant changes or modifictions to them from their originally releases. Here are some hints to keep you guessing:
One figure has never been under the "Cult Classics" banner before
One figure has never received a single carded release before (from us)
One figure has appeared in "Cult Classics" and in "Cult Classics: Hall of Fame" before
*No hints for the 4th figure yet because we have not decided who it will be at this time.
**Since HOF has been successful and it keeps some of the bigger name characters at retail we may offer 2 HOF collections next year along with CC7

Re: CC Assortments
I have seen a lot of questions or comments on the case assortments for this line
We changed it up this year for a few good reasons. Some retailers dont want all the figures offered in what would be the "assortment" or in some cases certain retailers want a lot more of The Lost Boys vs. Krishna Zombie or Ash so we allowed orders to be placed for individual figures in solid case packs. The Lost Boys are packed assorted since they are from the same film and go together but the case packs are weighted heavier with David as you can imagine.
Basically we tailor made the case assortments so stores can order as much or as little of any of the figures from this set.
We did the same with HOF this year as well. The SAW figures are sold in an assortment and then Leatherface and Zombie Ed are sold in their own solid case packs. It also helped us that we have the figures and tools at many different factories so we can keep the production schedules effecient and constantly have new figures shipping each week. Believe it or not the figures in CC6 and CC HOF are being manufactured at 3 different factories yet they are all hitting stores around the same time and all have the same packaging style and format. It's the first time we have attempted this and if the retail response continues to be this strong we will probably continue this method for the CC line at least.

We have just started work on Gears of War and this line is going to be amazing. We are sculpting Series 1 and 2 at the same time so we can stay in the zone and also have less time in between when series 1 and 2 arrive in stores next year.

After Gears we are onto Conan: The Barbarian. That's right Arnold's Conan and we can't wait to sink out teeth into this one as well.

So fire away with the questions and as always thanks for the interest and support.

Randy
NECA
Reel Toys

8:33 AM - 235 Comments - 145 Kudos - Add Comment

Re:Posting of Images and HTML

For the time being this has been disabled from the comments area for a few reasons.

1) The constant spamming and BS ads that people fill the section with

2) Posting images of customs or fan-made figures that people mistake for actual NECA products.

Unfortunately the internet is always ripe with rumors and mis-information and having people post images of custom Ghostbusters for example sends out a misleading message to people visiting our myspace page. Things like that are too easily mistaken for something they're not especially when they are on a company page.

Thanks for your understanding on this matter

NECA

12:51 AM - 7 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Comic-Con Exclusives are Up

For those of you who could not make it to San Diego and are looking for some of our exclusives we have online now here http://www.necaclub.com/index.html

Thanks
NECA
Reel Toys

12:51 AM - 35 Comments - 33 Kudos - Add Comment