Friday 30 October 2009

Gimme Five

Hi guys,

I’m sorry this is just a quick update this week but it should prove to be an interesting one.

Below are five more characters that have made it into the extension.

1. Typhoid Mary
2. Triton
3. Batroc
4. Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers)
5. Klaw

That leaves seven more to be confirmed by us at Eaglemoss, then we’ll have the superherofigurineforum.com choose three and I’ll sort out the comp for one collector to choose a character.

And a super-quick figurine preview, below is the near-final paint for Sunfire.



Tune in next week when I promise I'll reveal the final seven, we're still debating one or two in the office.

Friday 23 October 2009

Hi guys,

Sorry for the lack of an update last week but hopefully I can make up for it today.

First I wanted to answer a few questions from the comment section.

Q): Are we going to get more double packs?
A): Yes, I’m pretty sure that the double packs have been successful enough to warrant more being included in the collection. When and who’s in them I don’t know. We’ve started planning the specials for next year and so far Fin Fang Foom will be first, most likely followed by Cloak and Dagger. After these two I’m unsure if we’ll do Blob or have a double pack next.

Q): Are we going to see team-packs with more than 2 characters in?
A): Not at the moment. While the prospect of getting more characters into the collection is certainly an attractive one, team-packs are not on the agenda at the moment. We have discussed making these but feel that the price for packs of four or more characters would make it difficult for everyone to continue their collections. We wouldn’t want to make this collection too expensive.

Q): Are civilians going to be included in the collection?
A): At this point I have no plans to put civilians in the collection. Certainly if we were extended to 200+ issues then we would consider having them in. The reason that we’ve not had them in so far is that civilian figures can look a little generic or boring. While I personally would rather have Tiger Shark or the Beetle in the collection before Mary Jane and Jarvis, I do see the argument for some characters such as Thunderbolt Ross and J. Jonah Jameson. These civilians have been in hundreds of issues and are actually integral to a lot of Marvel’s storylines. So they’re not in at the moment but don’t be surprised if JJJ or Ross get in if we reach issue 200.

Q): What’s going on with the competition to choose a figurine?
A): I’ve almost finalized the extension list (the ones that have been chosen by Eaglemoss), after this I will speak to the chaps at the superherofigurineforum.com and have them choose three figures. Once all of this has happened, we’ll sort out the competition so that whoever wins can choose a character knowing full-well which ones have already made it in. As for the details of the comp, I’ve not yet decided.

Right so hopefully that has answered some questions and I can now announce that the next two figurines in the extension are:

Destiny (well I did say she was a strong contender last time)
Silver Sable

I’ve chosen Silver Sable as I believe she’ll not only make a great looking figurine but also because she boosts our Spidey allies and females sections of the collection. Although not a ‘classic’ Marvel character in terms of her age (she made her debut in 1985), Silver Sable managed to hold her own title for 35 issues and has appeared throughout Spidey’s history.

And lastly this week, I present our nearly finished sculpt of Gorgon. Hope you enjoy.

Thursday 8 October 2009

And next up is...

A slightly earlier update than usual this week.

First I just want to say that I’m glad the news of the extension has gone down so well, with your support I’d like to think we can go even further but, as they say, only time will tell.

Anyway, I haven’t quite decided on the competition I’ll be running to choose a figure yet but I do promise it will be something that virtually everyone can take part in; definitely no custom sculpt comps.

And while we’re on the subject of the extension I thought I’d announce the next figure that is definitely getting in:

Ares.

Though by no means a new character in the Marvel Universe, Ares hasn’t really had much prominence in the (Marvel) comic world until recently. However, I think that there’s enough history to make a great magazine and an even better figurine.
We’ve not chosen all our characters for the extension yet so don’t think I’m just drip feeding you guys the list. At the moment it’s still all up for debate and believe me we’re still arguing in the office.

I’ve also heard some of the complaints about our regular website (not being updated regularly enough) and I will pass these on to the Internet designers. Unfortunately, I’m not in charge of their updating schedule but I will give them a little nudge.

And here’s this weeks figurine preview: Sunfire.



As you can see we’ve gone for the classic costume, not the modern (very similar to AoA) look. The pose for this figure was chosen to be a little more muted than some of the recent figures. We hoped to get the proud, stubborn and impatient attitude the character has into the pose, while making sure he fit nicely among the other X-Men sculpts.

Friday 2 October 2009

What do you want first...

Right, this week I have good news and I have bad news.

First up the bad. I’m sorry to say that the Cloak and Dagger Special will be postponed until next year. I’m not sure when next year it will be out but it will definitely be after the Fin Fang Foom Special.

There are a couple of reasons that we’ve had to delay this figure. First is that Marvel have asked us to change the paint scheme of the figurine. We’ve been asked to paint Cloak as he was originally shown in the comics. So rather than being a dark colour with shading, we’ve had to go for the blue and black stripes look.

The second reason is that we’ve had a number of problems with the final production of the figurine. We’ve not been happy with some of the samples we’ve had in, which have had Dagger looking out of place and fragile as well as Cloak’s cloak looking a little disjointed.

Unfortunately the combination of these problems has meant we can’t produce a fully approved figure (that is up to our standards) in time for its release.

So with that aside I have some good news: we have indeed been given the green light for another 20-figure extension. The series will now run to 160!

This time round the extension is going to mostly be chosen be myself and the guys at Eaglemoss, however, I will be looking closely at all the wants lists on here and on the forums. I will also be talking to the chaps on superherofigurine.com and letting people vote on a few figurine choices via that website. I also hope to run a competition to let one collector choose a character and be involved in as much of the creation process as I can.

Obviously we’ve only just got the news of the extension so all of the above will take a little bit of time but I’d like to start the ball rolling (as well as a little controversy) by confirming the first figure chosen for the new extension as:
Radioactive Man.

And while technically not an official figurine update, I thought I’d show off our latest staff member to become a Marvel villain.

Behold Danim Zola (Art Editor).