Canceled Action Figure Cavalcade: House of the Dead & Resident Evil

In 2000 the now defunct Palisades Marketing released a wave of action figures based on the zombie light gun game, The House of the Dead. The figures seemed to be specifically based on The House of the Dead 2, whose Sega Dreamcast port I can personally vouch as being a pretty awesome game. I liked the figures when they came out, but I passed on them. Like so many other collector focused lines in the early Aughts, they were just too dang expensive for younger me. That sounds like a pretty silly excuse when you take into consideration the prices we pay for toys today.

I suppose too many other people passed on Palisades figures, because a second wave never made it to shelves. The second series would have includes Zeal and Kuarl who together are the first boss in HotD2. Also in the wave was zombie Bob who looked like he had a removable stomach feature, Magician who was the game's fifth boss, who I didn't recognize because I never got that far in the game, and lastly is Chariot who is actually a boss from the first House of the Dead game.

I have to admit I'm surprised there were any House of the Dead action figures as it's a somewhat obscure game series. Especially compared to Resident Evil which Palisades had more success with, releasing three waves of figures based on the survival horror games. The first wave was to include Jill Valentine based on Resident Evil 3 but she was bumped for Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 2. Palisades' reasoning? They were doing RE3 Jill as a vinyl statue and didn't want to do too much Jill too soon. (That didn't stop them from releasing Nemesis as a figure and a statue back to back.) They never did get back around to Jill, only revealing concept art for the figure.

Toy Fair 2012 Part Three

Here's some more Toy Fair highlights and lowlights. Check out Action Figure Insider and Cool Toy Review for images and coverage.

"Sexy Braniac" is a phrase I should never have had reason to type.

Bandai's Thundercats display didn't have anything new to see which has led some fans online to cluck like the sky is falling, but I don't see any need to panic just yet. What Bandai did have on display was stuff that began hitting shelves at the beginning of the year. Technically these are "new" products. I only saw the Armor of Omens in person for the first time this weekend. I still haven't seen the Storm Charger. Some collectors seem to have a "what have you done for me lately" outlook, but the primary purpose of Toy Fair is not in fact to show collectors things they haven't seen before. I bet in a couple of months they'll be a bunch of new toys that trickle out, without any advance warning. For comparison, none of the recent Power Rangers Samurai toys that are now out in stores were at Toy Fair 2011. That's just how Bandai works.

NECA will be putting out new items for Terminator, Aliens, Predator, Gremlins Robocop A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and they're starting new lines for Rambo, Rocky, and E.T. (pictured above). I'm not sure any of these films really needed new toys but they're all big names that people recognize, plus they have dedicated fans who grew up with them and probably have some disposable income to toss around. NECA knows what they're doing.

And NECA is not just trying to mine the pockets of the children of the '80s. They're also trying to milk the fans of the video games of Valve. Now I haven't played much of any of these games myself, but even I'll tell you a Gordon Freeman action figure is long overdue. Some of the other stuff they have in the works are a replica of the gun from Portal, a Boomer and a Smoker from Left 4 Dead and action figures and plushes of the Team Fortress crews. Valve NECA

I'm a little concerned that NECA is acquiring licenses they don't plan do all that much with. For Resident Evil: Raccoon City Chronicles they're doing an action figure of Vector, and only Vector. For Bioshock Infinite they showed off an amazing Columbia statue and a replica of the game's skyhook. Maybe I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth but I'd hope they have more than that planned for the upcoming game.

If I have to single out one specific toy as most disappointing it would have to be the Star Wars Vintage Collection Gran Moff Tarkin. This is a figure I've been looking forward to for a long time. It just looks off, from the likeness of Peter Cushing to the shade of green used for his uniform. I'd also call the skirt piece one of the less than well executed uses of soft goods in Star Wars figures.

Also coming in the Vintage Collection are figures from Star Wars The Old Republic, based on a video game I haven't played. So while I don't have any attachment to Darth Malgus, Shae Vizla and the pictured Jace Malcolm, the designs are so cool I'm tempted to pick them up.

The Star Wars San Diego Comic-Con exclusive is a big improvement over last year's Death Star set mainly because it features seven new figures in contrast to the Revenge of the Jedi repacks. The set includes Jar-Jar Binks, a Clone Trooper Lieutenant, a Shock Trooper, a Sandtrooper, Princess Leia in Bespin gown, and Darth Vader as he's being electrocuted by the Emperor. The figures will come on a cardback design considered but unused for the original line in the '70s. Those carded figures are packaged in a box shaped like the Carbon freezing chamber. Emerging from the top of the package is a Jar Jar frozen in Carbonite which is available exclusively in this set. The other six figures will later be available at retail on standard Vintage Collection cards.

I've spotted a good deal of Hasbro's Avengers toys already for sale at Toys R Us. (The electronic Hulk is more amusing than it should be.) So far it feels too much like a retread of the previous Iron Man, Thor and Captain America toylines. It doesn't help that new characters like Hawkeye and Black Widow won't be out until a later wave. Absent from Toy Fair were the six inch Avengers shown at last year's New York Comic Con. Since Toy Fair is aimed at retailers it suggests those six inch figures aren't intended for general release. They're possibly exclusives which doesn't bode well for my chances of finding them in stores.

The first wave of Habro's relaunched Marvel Legends have been trickling into stores, with series two appearing overseas. At Toy Fair Hasbro displayed U.S. Agent and Blade, pictured above, from the third wave. Announced but not revealed was Mystique. Those are the only three figures confirmed so far for series 3. The fact that the rest of the wave is still under wraps doesn't bother me, but I am bothered by the implication that the third wave is still a long way from being released.

A pleasant surprise was Hasbro's G.I. Joe Retaliation line. It helps that the designs for the movie sequel are a big step up from the first movie. And there's the cast. Fans are understandably excited to get action figures of Bruce Willis as Joe Colton and The Rock as Roadblock, but the one I'm most looking forward to is a figure of RZA as Blind Master.

Tim Diesel

Tim Drake as Robin will be a downloadable playable character in Batman: Arkham City if you pre-order the game at Best Buy. Robin will only be playable in "challenge mode" which is not as cool as Catwoman being fully playable in the main game, but you take what you can get. Compared to the Joker's Carnival Challenge Map available at Gamestop, I think Best Buy has the more interesting pre-order bonus.


The promo image of Tim Drake shows him in bulky armor similar to Batman's in the game. He also has a buzz cut I don't think he's ever been depicted with before. As you can surmise by the title of this post, the haircut has captured my imagination.

The download will come with an alternate skin for Tim's Red Robin costume. I assume it will be based on the original Red Robin costume, that first appeared in Kingdom Come worn by Dick Grayson, and not the version Tim will be wearing in the upcoming reboot of the DC Universe. He looks like a poor man's version of Marvel's Falcon in that.

E3, Wii U and the Avengers

• The latest Electronic Entertainment Expo has wrapped up. The internet is brimming over twith E3 coverage but I personally reccomend this first hand account of the sometimes harsh conditions that come with waiting in line to play a game demo.


• The big news from E3 is Nintendo's announcement Wii U. The touch pad control is more than I was expecting. I think the ability to switch back and forth from playing on the TV to the handheld is neat, and it has the potential to revolutionize the way HUDs are implemented in games. Still it seems like a half-step. The ability to play the same third party games that the PS3 and 360 can play is important but that's really something Nintendo should have thought about back in 2006. I feel the Wii U is going to seem quaint once Sony and Microsoft unroll their new consoles. Of course there's no word when that wll happen.


• At the 2011 Licensing Expo a promotional image of the Avengers gave us our first look at what the team will look like. Hulk, Thor and Black Widow look much the same. Iron Man seems to have a slightly different suit go armor. Cap's costume is modernized but still not that different from the first movie costume. And we get our first look at Hawkeye. It's not a great first look mind you. He's not wearing a mask, which isn't surprising.


• NECA has announced they have the license to produce products based on Valve games. I thought I read Valve wasn't interested in licensing their properties but, according to the press release, it was Valve that approached NECA. Valve's games include Half-Life, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and Portal, which all have big fan followings. I'm curious which of these NECA will tackle first.


• All titles of DC Comic's September relaunch of their comics line have been solicited. Maybe I'm naive but when DC first announced this I honestly expected it to be an attempt to make the DC Universe better than it was before. Rebooting the universe is a waste of time if Damian Wayne will still be existing. And the costume re-designs range from bland to terrible. The re-designs created forDC Universe Online were better than any of these.
  
  I'm disappointed Barbara Gordon is Batgirl again. There's no mention of Cassandra Cain or Stephanie Brown, which is particularly upsetting as they've seemed to bend over background to include every male former Robin. Jason Todd on a team with Arsenal and Starfire? Does this mean Jason was never killed in this continuity? DC cannot think Jason's magical resurrection caused by a Superboy from a different dimension punching a wall is fitting for a simpler, more reader friendly universe.


• Mattel and Classic Media are teaming up to promote the 30th Anniversary of Masters of the Universe in 2012. We'll be seeing MOTU themed clothing, accesories, Halloween costumes and a 30th Anniversary DVD set. Classic Media are the current rights holder to the Filmation library which includes the original Masters of the Universe cartoon. Now that they have a working relationship with Mattel, it leads to speculation that we'll be seeing characters from the cartoon integrated into the Masters of the Universe Classics toyline. I can only think of a few Filmation characters I'd want as figures, but I still want to see it happen.

Cold, Pointy & Logical

• Shockwave from Transformers: Dark of the Moon was officially revealed at Yahoo movies. I'm not a fan of the movie Transformers that don't have Earth-based altmodes, but at least this is recognizably Shockwave. Underneath all that scraped metal, he is purple.


• As part of Christopher Nolan's continuing goal of working with as limited a pool of actors as possible, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have been cast in The Dark Knight Rises. And once again all the geek fueled speculation was for naught, as they won't be playing anyone from the Batman mythos. Cotillard will playing a Wayne Enterprises board member and Gordon-Levitt a Gotham City cop. Okay Cotillard might still end up actually being an incognito Talia Al Ghul.


• I barely keep on top of video game news, so I learned of the existence of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City when I saw it featured on the cover of a magazine I saw for sale in a grocery store. As you can figure out by the title the game is a return to the setting of Resident Evil 2 and 3. RE:ORC (ever the acronym is long) is a squad based third-person shooter in which you play Umbrella soldiers carrying out missions that include killing Raccoon City's favorite son, Leon Kennedy. I look forward to its release and me not being able to play it.


• Yet another anime that I never expected to get a continuation but is supposedly getting a continuation is Rurouni Kenshin. Just what the nature of this new Kenshin anime will be has yet to be announced. It seems to be part of a Kenshin 15th anniversary celebration in Japan which among other things include Blu-ray releases of the movie and OAV series. Fingers crossed that those eventually make it to North America.


• Did anyone else watch The Office? Deangelo Vickers is the Scranton Strangler. I'm calling it now and if I end up being wrong I will eat this blog.

Of Samuai Rangers and Things In 3D

• The Star Wars movies are being converted to 3D. The first to be released will be The Phantom Menace in 2012. No specific dates have been set beyond that. We've been hearing about 3D versions of Star Wars since way before people actually cared about 3D. In that time span I went from not really caring to not really caring. I'll probably go anyways. It's still Star Wars on the big screen.


• Here's everything you wanted to know about the Nintendo 3DS. In addition to the new 3DS games it can play original DS games and downloaded games. It has WiFi functionality, three cameras, a new telescoping stylus, and a SD card port. It will launch in Japan on February 26th and in the U.S. in March. No word on North American pricing but if it's close to the Japanese price it'll be $300.


• Here's an article on the design process for the cover art of the Criterion edition of The Night of the Hunter. I found it fascinating and would be willing to read similar articles for every Criterion release.


• The new season of Power Rangers has an official name and it's Power Rangers Samurai. It was rumored to be called Power Rangers Samurai Strike which isn't a great title, but simply calling it Power Rangers Samurai sounds a bit off. The official site has cast photos, character bios, and a general plot description. We still don't know when it's premiering except that it's sometime in early 2011.


• The Hub, the new cable station that's a collaboration between Hasbro and the Discovery Channel, is set to debut October 10th. New shows G.I. Joe Renegades and Transformers Prime aren't scheduled yet but the classic '80s G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoons will air on weeknights. The Hub will also be airing Batman Beyond and Men In Black: The Series for those of us nostalgic for late '90s era Kids' WB.


• Would you like to have an innuendo filled song from a children's cartoon stuck in your head all day? No? Too Bad.

The September Slow Down

• So here we are in September. The year goes by way too quickly. On the plus side I'm slowly seeing Halloween stuff trickle out to stores. Ever since I graduated elementary school September has become not a whole lot more than something I have to endure to get to my favorite holiday.


• Here's something cool, an art print of business cards for fictional companies. I recognize all but two. Well technically three, but it doesn't take a starfighter engineer to figure out where Seinar Fleet Systems is from.


• One of the greatest video games of all time is being re-released. Well technically it's a collection of four games, most of them great. Super Mario Bros All Stars is coming to the Nintendo Wii, but only in Japan. It contains the first three Super Mario Bros. games originally released on the NES. It also includes Japan's version of the second game, The Lost Levels which is an exercise in masochism. The re-release is in celebration of the Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary and comes with a book and CD that spans the entire series. I had the original for the Super Nintendo and I hope this Wii version gets a U.S. release.


• There's still no word of a North American release of Inception on DVD and Blu-ray but it's already being solicited internationally. The Digital Bits has news of a limited edition briefcase set which includes cards, a booklet, and a spinning top. I think it's a pretty cool set and I liked it see it get released over here, maybe as a store exclusive.


• [adult swim] is airing new episodes of Bleach. Having avoided any spoilers I was a little disappointed to see the new episodes start with a filler arc. I was okay with seeing a side story dealing with the Soul Reapers, but in last Saturday's episode with Ichigo dealing with his wacky new neighbors it dawned on me that this storyarc is a complete break from the ongoing Arrancar arc. I've watched a lot of anime with a lot of filler in my time, but I've never seen one that stopped in the middle of a story to tell a completely different story. Where does this new arc take place then? Immediately before the Arranacar arc? Does it even fit into continuity at all? I'll keep watching but this is pretty weird.


• SyFy began airing the final episodes of Naoki Urusawa's Monster. That wouldn't be news except that SyFy stopped airing the series with only a handful of episodes left to go. The last two episodes air on their Ani-Monday block September 13th. I'm looking forward to the finale. I hope it wraps everything up in a satisfying way. The show has really kicked into high gear as it's gotten closer to the end.


• Pictures of a stunt double filming in costume for the Captain America movie have appeared online. The costume does seem to be based on the design revealed earlier. It's not looking too hot as a physical outfit but what we're looking at is likely a specialized stunt outfit for motorcycling. The Nazi bikers are looking cool though.


• I've never written anything on the blog about X-Men: First Class (somewhat intentionally) but check out this pic of January Jones as Emma Frost. The costume looks awesome and I'm all for retconning the version of Emma seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. January Jones is most famous for playing the world's worst mother on Mad Men.

Canceled Action Figure Cavalcade: Earthworm Jim

I was a big fan of Earthworm Jim. I played the video games, watched the short-lived animated series, and for awhile there I even co-opted "Groovy" as my catchphrase. And I had nearly everything released in the Earthworm Jim toyline produced by Playmates Toys. All I was missing were the Jim variants. Considering my short attention span then (and now) it was rare for me to have that much from a single line. I question if I would have been able to keep up had Playmates released the second series of Earthworm Jim toys. I just wish I had gotten the chance to try.

One of the figures Playmates planned to make was Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Puss Filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt. There was a time when I could recite her entire name from memory. That time has long since passed but I still want the Queen's action figure. I'm guessing she would have been way underscaled compared to the rest of the line but I wouldn't have minded one bit.


Equally as desirable of a figure as the Queen is Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. The Professor looks like he would have used as much plastic for two figures. It looks amazing and I want one now.

Rounding out the new characters is The Hamstinator, a character created for the animated series. I think if there had to be a character from the series I would have preferred Evil Jim. And if they had to include a hamster I would have preferred a giant hamster vehicle for Jim to ride on like in the video game level "Tube Race".


Of course the second series was going to include Jim variants. They're not bad but I like these less than the variants that were released, so I probably wouldn't have bought these either. This Jim is in samurai armor, which looks like it could be slightly mecha influenced. It'd be cool if those were removable katanna on his back.


This Jim looks like a repaint of the main Jim from the first series with a new torso wearing a harness. Perhaps it's meant to be a bungee jumping Jim inspired by the "Snot A Problem" level from the first game?


The Crazed Cycle would have been the second vehicle in the line. While I loved Playmate's Pocket Rocket, (Please don't take that quote out of context) it wasn't accurate to the Pocket Rocket as it was seen in the game or the cartoon. The Crazed Cycle on the other hand comes straight from the toon and looks spot on. Even though I generally prefer the video game based stuff, I quite like the Cycle. It's a motorcycle that shoots eyeballs. I'd have to be pretty joyless not to appreciate that.

Comic Con 2010 -Day After

• This video for DC Universe Online has been making the rounds on the Internet. My guess is it's the opening cutscene and what Luthor does at the end is meant to explain why there's a whole MMORPG of super powered people. Even though I don't have any real interest in the game I think the footage is fantastic. It makes me wonder why they don't make we an entire movie like this.


• Today Warner Bros. put up some teaser images for Green Lantern on their Twitter feed. Each of the four pictures feature a close up of an actor's face and a line from the Green Lantern oath. The ones for Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan and Blake Lively as Carol Ferris aren't too interesting, but the others give us a peak at Peter Sarasgaard as Hector Hammond and Mark Strong as Sinestro. I believe this is our first look at Sinestro and it's certainly the most exciting of the four teasers.


• At the panel for Batman: Under the Red Hood the next two DC Universe straight to video animated features were announced. They will be Batman: Year One, based on the classic graphic novel by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, and All Star Superman, based on the relatively recent but highly acclaimed mini-series by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. While I'm interested in Batman: Year One I would rather see something other than an origin story get the animated treatment.


• Hasbro had sneak peeks of their upcoming animated series for The Hub, G.I. Joe Renegades and Transformers Prime. The clips are so brief they do little other than give us a basic feel for what the series will look like. Prime is a CG show that seems to be influenced by the live action movies. Renegades, as the name implies, features the Joe team on the run à la The A-Team.


• Marvel had two more movie props to reveal at their booth before Comic-Con ended. One was Captain America's shield. The other and completely unexpected one was the Infinity Gauntlet. How does it fit in with Captain America and Thor? I don't know if it's meant to. Perhaps it's for The Avengers? Could Thanos be the villain of that film?


• At the Marvel Studios panel Kevin Feige announced the film rights to The Punisher have reverted from Lionsgate back to Marvel. The Punisher has already had three separate film adaptations. Could the fourth time be a charm? The article speculates a TV show could be possible. For that to work it'd need to air on a premium cable channel with no restrictions with what they can get away with.

Random Points

• San Diego Comic-Con begins tonight with preview night. There's usually some ineresting bits revealed during preview night and of course I'll be on the internet looking for those bits. The first full day of the con is tomorrow.


• Chun Li, Trish from Devil May Cry, Doctor Doom and the Super Skrull have been confirmed as playable characters in Marvel vs Capcom 3. There's a MvC3 panel at Comic-Con on Friday where one hopes they reveal more new characters for the game.


• In case you missed it I updated the post about Iron Man 2on DVD and Blu-ray with the coverart for the two disc DVD set and Target exclusive Blu-ray. It's unknown what type of packaging the Target exclusive uses, but it's not a steelbook. If you want an Iron Man 2 Blu-ray steelbook you'll have to head to Future Shop in Canada.


• Fox officially announced the Alien Anthology for release on October 26th. The packaging differs from the concept art I posted in April but I think the finalized version looks even better. The set contains Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. It's loaded with new extras as well as material from the previous Alien Legacy and Alien Quadrilogy have been ported over. There's even the complete version of "Wreckage and Rage: Making Alien 3", the documentary that was edited for the previous release. It show the difficulty director David Fincher had with Fox over that film that led to Fincher effectively disowning it.


• I saw Inception the other day. I thought it was quite good, but considering the way it's stuck with me, it's even more effective than I gave it credit for.


• I've caught up with all the shows I've been saving on my DVR except Naruto Shippuden which I'm far too behind in. I did marathon the rest of Bleach including Ichigo's fight with Grimmjow Jaggerjaques. (What an awesome name.) I tell you it's shameful how emotionally involved I can get with Bleach. I can't wait for the new episodes to premiere on [adult swim] on August 28th.


• Another series I want to see back on the air is Naoki Urasawa's Monster. Syfy pulled the series with four episodes left to go of this 74 episode series. I've watched it from the beginning and I'll be ticked if it never concludes its run.


• The fifth series finale of Doctor Who air on BBC America on Saturday. I dug last week's episode. I sensed the secret of the Pandorica coming but I didn't quite get the details correct. The actual reveal was fantastic. I can't wait to see how it pans out.
  

Mickey's Wiimote of Choice

PDP will be releasing specialized game controllers themed to the upcoming games Epic Mickey and Tron Evolution. The Epic Mickey Wii nunchuck is modeled on the paintbrush Mickey uses in the game itself. The companion Wiimote's charging station is even cooler. It's a diorama of Mickey facing the game's villainous Blot. The Tron cotrollers are a little more conventional but they do look appropriately Tron-ified.

Arkham Asylum Action Figures

DC Direct is releasing a line of figures based on the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. Lately I've been impressed with DC Direct's forward thinking when it comes to what to base figures off of, such as Blackest Night but I think DC Direct was late to the party with these. They should have been out around the same time as the game which wouldn't have been too hard considering the delays the game had. I guess they waited until after the game was a success and now the figures won't be out until January of next year. I hope DC Direct is working on the figures for the sequel now so they can be released in tandem with the game.

The figures themselves are nice. I think Joker and Scarface are the stand outs of the group. This version of the Scarecrow isn't terribly exciting but I guess it was more cost effective than making a Killer Croc or Bane figure. Harley looks good but to me purple feels "wrong" for her. I'd love to see this outfit in her traditional red and black color scheme. Lastly there's Batman, who is blue. There's nothing wrong with a blue Batman. Batman is often blue. But in Arkham Asylum Batman wears black. At least DC Direct has plenty of time to fix it.

The New New Age of Fighting

Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is coming to the PS3 and X-Box 360 in 2011. Check out the trailer on YouTube.

I didn't think it would ever happen, but a brand new Marvel Vs Capcom game is actually coming. The style of this new sequel seems to borrow too much from Street Fighter IV for my tastes but that's hardly a deal breaker. So far the only confirmed fighters are Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Ryu, Morrigan and the first new character to this series, Chris Redfield. There are however silhouettes of other characters in the teaser image. I can make out Captain America, Felicia, Chun Li and what I think are Super Skrull and Deadpool. I'm hoping I'm right about that last one.

Some Post C2E2 News

• At C2E2 this weekend Stephen Sansweet has said work is underway on the Star Wars films on Blu-ray. He also says to expect them in the near future. I'm guessing they'll be released sometime next year.
• Wolverine and the X-Men has been officially canceled according to Joe Quesada at a panel at C2E2. He also says the fate of Spectacular Spider-Man is up to Sony, but I think there's been little doubt what the outcome of that will be. On the other hand the update about Wolverine and the X-Men came out of left field. Last I heard a second season had been confirmed. As much of fan I was of Spectacular Spider-Man, I liked Wolverine and the X-Men even more.
• Classic SNES game Earthworm Jim is being released in high definition on the X-Box Live Arcade this May. You can watch the trailer on YouTube but after some brief footage of the game it devolves into an unfunny skit.

Cancelled Action Figure Cavalcade: The Legend of Zelda

Toysite had a third Nintendo line on display at Toy Fair 2000, one based on The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. There were to be figures of adult Link, Princess Zelda, Ganondorf, Darunia the Goron, a Staflos warrior, Shiek with the hookshot, a set of Ganondorf on his horse, and young Link with a Skulltula. Ocarina of Time actually got a couple of figures from different companies, but none had the character selection that Toysite's line did.

So what happened? I can only speculate. Maybe Toysite felt they were taking on more than they could handle? Maybe it was more than the market could handle? Video game action figures were very popular at the turn of the Millennium but things quicky cooled off. You would think retailers could see the value of the Nintendo characters over the countless other video game lines that were on the shelves. Did Toysite have difficulty dealing with Nintendo? It's not unheard of for a licensor to put the kibosh on the licensee's plans. There's actually another aspect to the story of Toysite's withdrawal that has nothing to do with Nintendo or video games, and we'll take a look at that another day.

Cancelled Action Figure Cavalcade: Donkey Kong

Here's part two on a look at Toysite and their unreleased Nintendo action figures from ten years ago.

It's not as though Toysite was some fly by night company, incapable of releasing product. Before 2000 they released a line of toys based on the Donkey Kong Country games. It included figures of Donkey, Funky, Diddy, Cranky and Kiddy Kong. A second assortment was to follow based on Donkey Kong 64 with new characters Tiny, Lanky and Chunky Kong. There was also to be a Kremling villain and Donkey Kong in a mine cart. Series 2 along with the rest of Toysite's Nintendo planned figures were cancelled, but the first series of Donkey Kong stands as an example of what could have been.

As much as I like Donkey Kong he wouldn't have been my first choice of Nintendo characters to receive a dedicated toyline. I would have loved an extensive Star Fox line complete with Arwing and Landmaster vehicles. I guess that would've been too much to ask for considering Toysite didn't even release the one Fox McCloud figure in the "Mario's World" line.

Cancelled Action Figure Cavalcade: Mario's World

Today's entry of Cancelled Action Figure Calvacade hits particularly close to home. As a kid there wasn't very much I wanted more than action figures based on my favorite Nintendo characters.

Back in 2000 little known toy company Toysite was previewing an extensive collection of figures based on Nintendo characters at Toy Fair and E3. They were never officially released. One of the series Toysite had planned was "Mario's World", a loose collection of Nintendo characters mostly focusing on those from the Mario Bros. games.

Mario and Luigi came with "plumber weapons" which amusingly enough is something they have in common with the Mario and Luigi figures from the Ertl toyline based on the live action movie. Toysite did have an eye for game accurate details. The Metal Mario had an action feature that allowed it to sink in water.

Of particular note is the Banjo and Kazooie figure. Because of the falling out between Nintendo and Rare, there's no way a Banjo figure would be included in a Nintendo line today.

Cancelled Action Figure Cavalcade: Twisted Metal

InToyz planned to release a pair of figures based on video game Twisted Metal Black. The line was to include a very hefty looking Sweet Tooth and the motorcycle riding Grimm, because he's the second most visually interesting character from the game. It seems odd to just produce toys of the characters and not of the vehicles they use. Twisted Metal is about a deadly demolition derby and most people remember the souped-up cars and not the riders. InToyz's figures were never released so we'll never know if they would have been successful. DC Direct has recently announced their own new Sweet Tooth figure. We'll see how that one fares especially now that it's been some time since there's been a new Twisted Metal.