The search for Indiana Jones treasures leads to Disney!

Click this link to check-out the Disney Indiana Jones Collection

Since the last Indiana Jones movie was released in 2008 (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), tracking down new items has proved as difficult as finding a Sankara Stone for Indy fans and collectors.

All that changed on June 24th, when Disney announced they would begin selling exclusive Indiana Jones merchandise on their Shop Disney site. These items can only be found on the website and of course, at the various Disney parks.
These Items will all be made available on June 27th, at 7:00 AM PST.

Offered items include replicas of the more famous Indiana Jones props from the movies:

Click this link to check-out the Disney Indiana Jones Collection

As well as a couple of clothing items:

Click this link to check-out the Disney Indiana Jones Collection

Disney has advertised that additional items will be offered later, and don’t forget that several other Indiana Jones related items can always be found at the parks, including pins, clothing items and various kid’s toys.

A throwback to the good old days!

When it comes to toy brands, everyone knows the big boys such as Hasbro, Mattel and maybe even Playmates, but you are sorely missing out if you aren’t familiar with Super 7.

The Super 7 Company was founded in 2001 by Brian Flynn out of San Francisco. It started out as a magazine about vintage Japanese toys, which was published until 2007. Flynn, who was a designer by trade, also happened to be a rabid collector of vintage toys. So he began designing toy lines based on the popular brands from his youth. Super 7 now is the home of many fun and creative toy lines, but the one we are focusing on is my personal favorite, the ReAction line of figures.

Super 7 began the ReAction series in 2013 with the classic style of the vintage 3.75” Kenner figures from the 1980’s. The figures basically created vintage style action figures of movies and brands that we grew up with, but never actually had an action figure line of their own during that era. The figures feature some pretty basic sculpting, but that’s what makes these figures so unique and charming.

When the ReAction line first began in 2013, Super 7 partnered with Funko to give them the licenses and distribution channels they needed. A few years later, in 2016, Super 7 announced they had resumed control of the line solely, and would began producing figures of their own without Funko. The ReAction figure line has been going strong ever since, with an ever growing lineup of brands and licenses.

If you were to create a comprehensive checklist for all of the ReAction figures since 2013, it would be quite the long list. The line actually began with one franchise, and that was the classic 1979 movie, Alien. An action figure line was initially planned for the movie by Kenner, but never made it to release at the time, due to the mature theme of the movie. The figures were famously displayed in catalogs but were never actually releases to retail stores. ReAction launched an Alien line of figures in 2013 to mirror the figures that were originally produced by Kenner. The line launched at San Diego Comic Con that year, and turned into a huge hit.

The following year in 2014, ReAction went into full production mode with lines based on all kinds of franchises, such as Back to the Future, Goonies, Escape From New York, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Predator, Pulp Fiction and the Universal Monsters. The next year, 2015, saw the launch of Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Jaws, Terminator, Big Trouble in Little China, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Flash, and several modern horror brands such as Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.

Super 7 definitely had the reputation of making action figures from just about anything they could get their hands on, and that has only grown over the years. Nowadays, Super 7 produces ReAction figures based on everything from sports figures (MLB, NBA) to music entertainers (Grateful Dead, Brittney Spears, Johnny Cash), and from established franchises (Transformers, GI Joe, TMNT) to famous Disney brands (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear). Super 7’s ReAction line truly does it all, and then some.

In fact, more than 100 different brands or licenses have been turned into 3.75″ action figures, thanks to Super 7. The good news for collectors is there are no signs of slowing down anytime soon, as new waves continue to get cranked out each month. Much like Funko’s Pop bobble head figures, if you can’t find a ReAction figure that speaks to you, then you really aren’t even trying.

Mega Con 2022 Review

Mega Con is an annual event that’s held in Orlando each year, and is one of the biggest shows in North America. It began back in 1993, and has seen massive growth ever since. The show now attracts well over a hundred thousand visitors from all over the world. This year’s Mega Con was held from May 19 – 22, at the Orange County Convention Center. Since fans come in all shapes and sizes, Mega Con is the perfect gathering spot for those who enjoy just about every aspect of fandom. There is truly something for everybody, and this year’s Mega Con was bigger and better than ever before. The show was held at the North/South concourse of the Convention Center, which is their largest area. That means LOTS of room for shopping, cosplay, exhibits, photo-ops, celebrity autographs, panels, or just soaking in the atmosphere.

Mega Con 2022 boasted 400,000 square feet of fan goodness this year, with an incredibly massive area for shopping and sight seeing. This area included hundreds of exhibitors, retailers, and artists. If you can’t find anything to buy at Mega Con, then you’re probably at the wrong place. There are toys, clothing, comic books, masks, artwork, cosplay accessories, and more Funko Pops than you can possibly imagine. In addition, there are fan panels and displays set up on both, the north and south concourses. This allows for twice the amount of panels with just about every aspect of fan culture that you can think of. Each celebrity attending the show had a panel of their own, with the bigger ones being ticketed events throughout the weekend for the Hobbits, Frank Miller, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. Many other panels were also held for collecting, cosplay, podcasts, design, paranormal interests, art, gaming, and much more than I can list. Let it suffice to say, that there was a panel or display for everyone.

Another huge reason to go to any convention are the celebrities, and Mega Con always comes through with some of the biggest names in the business. This year was no different, as Mega Con featured the hottest names from the big and small screens. Attending the event were all four Hobbits from Lord of the Rings (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan), Cobra Kai stars (Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Martin Kove, Mary Mouser and Tanner Buchanan), Brent Spiner and Levar Burton from Star Trek, the crew from Clerks (Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, and the gang), Nathan Fillion, Gina Carano, Brendan Fraser, and so many more. For animated fans, there was the legendary Kevin Conroy, and Billy West, James Arnold Taylor, Ashley Eckstein and Matt Lanter from Star Wars, Paige O’Hara, Chris Sarandon and many more. Wrestling fans got to enjoy Alexa Bliss, Ric Flair, Jerry Lawler, the Bella Twins, Kevin Owens and even the UNDERTAKER!

One of the biggest parts of any convention nowadays are the absolutely amazing cosplayers! Since Mega Con has such a broad spectrum of fans, every single corner of pop culture was well represented. There were plenty of tributes to iconic franchises such as, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, and more. The comic book world was certainly well represented with cosplayers from every part of the Marvel and DC universes. Disney was everywhere with their large selection of princesses and characters. The Anime world was also out in full force with Cosplayers from Dragon Ball Z, My Hero Academia, Full Metal Alchemist and more. The most commonly seen costume for men this year, would have to be Spiderman, with the Mandalorian finishing a close second. Most popular costume for the women goes to Marvel’s Scarlett Witch/Wanda, with a strong presence of female Batman villains for runner-up.

Mega Con in Orlando is a four day event, and even that isn’t enough to see everything. One of the most amazing aspects about this show, is that you could walk around for all four days, and still see things on day four that you had not come across. Mega Con has grown into one of the premier fandom cons in the country, and will only continue to grow as pop culture fans flock to the event each year. The company, Fan Expo, does an amazing job of putting this show together, and has come up with a winning formula in Orlando. Overall, Mega Con is a large show with something for everybody, and a complete sense of awe from the moment you walk in the door. Despite being such a large show, Mega Con maintains a tremendous sense of of organization with very few issues along the way. Even though it may get a bit tight on Saturday’s, it’s always a pleasant experience to get around. This show is definitely one that I circle on the calendar each year, and truly can’t wait to see what next year brings.

Summary of Transformers Announcements

Hasbro held their now annual Pulse-Con from October 22-23 of this year, and it was packed full of new product announcements. For those not familiar with Pulse-Con, it is a two day virtual event that was started by Hasbro to build excitement for all of their upcoming releases. The event covers all Hasbro brands, but we will cover Hasbro’s Transformers announcements for now. Check my other posts to see what is happening with other Hasbro brands.

Hasbro revealed their upcoming Transformers releases on the first day of the event, October 22nd. The reveals featured characters from both G1 and G2, as well as a brand new Deluxe Legacy series.

First up are the beautiful figures from the brand new series called Transformers: Generations Legacy. This new line will feature characters from multi generations, with the first wave featuring Skids, Dragstrip (Stunticons), Prime Arcee, Kickback (Insecticons), Voyager Prime Bulkhead and G2 Leader Optimus Prime

These new figures will be given a brand new packaging to match the beautiful sculpting for each character. The new packaging will be more cardboard heavy, as Hasbro is scaling back the use of plastics with their green initiative.

Last but not least, we will see a new Galvatron & Unicron Companion Pack. This new set will feature a re-sculpted Leader Class Galvatron figure from Transformers: The Movie and Unicron, along with mini-figures and warships. This is going to be an epic set that every Transformers fan will want, but it will be a Hasbro Pulse Exclusive.

All announced items should be available at various times before the end of the year and next, so keep checking the Hasbro Pulse page for further updates.

Summary of GI Joe Announcements

Hasbro held their now annual Pulse-Con from October 22-23 of this year, and it was packed full of new product announcements. For those not familiar with Pulse-Con, it is a two day virtual event that was started by Hasbro to build excitement for all of their upcoming releases. The event covers all Hasbro brands, but we will cover Hasbro’s GI Joe announcements for now. Check my other posts to see what is happening with other Hasbro brands.

Hasbro revealed their upcoming GI Joe releases on the second day of the event, October 23rd. The reveals were from the absolutely stunning GI Joe: Classified series, as well as a new Retro Set, but the first big announcement came from HasLab, as the new Skystriker Jet was made official! The HasLab Skystriker campaign will run from October 23 through December 7.

First up is the newest 6 Inch Classified wave that included brand new sculpts of Spirit, Croc Master, Tiger Force Outback, Python Patrol Viper, Python Patrol B.A.T and our favorite ninja, Storm Shadow.

Each figure will come in the newly designed GI Joe: Classified packaging with all new accessories.

Finally, Hasbro also announced a wonderfully done retro two-pack featuring Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, with the vintage 1980’s packaging.

All announced items should be available at various times before the end of the year and next, so keep checking back with the Hasbro Pulse site to get your specific dates.

Summary of Marvel Announcements

Hasbro held their now annual Pulse-Con from October 22-23 of this year, and it was packed full of new product announcements. For those not familiar with Pulse-Con, it is a two day virtual event that was started by Hasbro to build excitement for all of their upcoming releases. The event covers all Hasbro brands, but we will cover Hasbro’s Marvel announcements for now. Check my other posts to see what is happening with other Hasbro brands.

Hasbro revealed their upcoming Marvel Legends releases on the second day of the event, October 23rd. The reveals were from the Marvel Legends series of both the 6 Inch and 3.75 Inch series. The first big announcement was concerning the upcoming 6 Inch figures. We will be seeing a new Winter Soldier figure, as well as a Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson two-pack.

Two more 6 Inch “Retro” figures will be released in the form of Scarlet Witch and Vision from their West Coast Avengers appearances. Shopdisney will host two exclusive figures based on the classic X-Men Animated Series of the 90’s, with Jubilee and Wolverine.

A new wave of 3.75 Inch Retro Legends figures will hit the market next year, that will include Dark Phoenix, Falcon, Venom, Mr. Fantastic, and Wolverine.

Finally, Hasbro will be releasing two new 16 Inch figures and what better characters to start off with, than Captain America and Iron Man.

All announced items should be available at various times before the end of the year, with the 3.75 Inch figures made available in 2022.

Summary of Star Wars Announcements

Hasbro held their now annual Pulse-Con from October 22-23 of this year, and it was packed full of new product announcements. For those not familiar with Pulse-Con, it is a two day virtual event that was started by Hasbro to build excitement for all of their upcoming releases. The event covers all Hasbro brands, but we will cover Hasbro’s Star Wars announcements for now. Check my other posts to see what is happening with other Hasbro brands.

Hasbro revealed their upcoming Star Wars releases on the first day of the event, October 22nd. The reveals were from the Vintage Collection series, as well as the 6 Inch Black Series line, but the first big announcement came from HasLab, as the new 6 Inch scale Black Series Rancor Monster was made official! The HasLab Rancor campaign will run from October 22 through December 6, with a target shipping date of Spring of 2023.

Next up was the newest 6 Inch Black Series wave that included a brand new Mandalorian/Grogu Deluxe set featuring the pair from Maldo Kreis. Also included was a deluxe Cobb Vanth, Boba Fett (Tython), and Migs Mayfeld.

Three new multipacks (Droid Depot, Galactic Creatures and First Order) were also announced, and will be Disney park exclusives.

Finally, Hasbro made several announcements concerning their Vintage Collection line concerning The Mandalorian and Prequel Trilogy movies. From the Mandalorian, we will be seeing a new Ahsoka figure, as well as a Deluxe figure set with Mano and Grogu from Maldo Kreis. The most exciting announcement was about a new playset featuring the Nevarro Cantina from Mandalorian Season 2.

On the Prequel Side, we get brand new sculpts of young Anakin Skywalker, a bearded Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Mace Windu. A new boxed set containing four different Rebel Trooper figures will be a Hasbro Pulse exclusive item online.

All announced items should be available at various times before the end of the year

Official Release Date: March/April 2022

Now that the new Spider Man: No Way Home movie has already hit the theaters, everyone now knows about the Multiverse, and how darn fun it could be to start mixing all these different Marvel worlds together. The next slated Marvel movie just happens to be Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, being released on May 6, 2022, and that means new Marvel Toys!!

Hasbro will be releasing a brand new Marvel Legends wave of action figures sometime in late March or early April of 2022. The wave will consist of seven different figures, with five of them being from the actual new Doctor Strange movie and the other two being related to Doctor Strange from Marvel’s comic book world. Each figure comes with a body part, which all come together to form a large sized Rintrah (a magical minotaur creature).

The basic wave of figures from the movie will consist of Doctor Strange, Wong, America Chavez, Master Mordo and Doctor Strange in his Astral form. The two non-movie figures will be Sleepwalker and D’Spayre.

Photo Courtesy of Hasbro

In addition to the standard wave of figures, another version of Doctor Strange called “Defender Strange” will be a Target Exclusive

Official Release Date: December 13, 2021

Target is beginning to roll out their newest Star Wars exclusive figures, which are based on the classic Star Wars Droids animated series.

The original line was released in 1985 by Kenner, in conjunction with the popular animated series. Sadly, the series lasted only one year before coming to an end. Now, thanks to Hasbro and Target, the Droids action figure line is back!

New 3.75 Inch Vintage Collection figures based on the animated versions of C-3PO, R2-D2 and Boba Fett are being released in Target retail stores across the nation, and these figures are going fast. For good measure, a new animated version of Boba Fett is also being released in 6 Inch form for the Black Series. As with all Vintage Collection figures, the packaging beautifully mirrors the classic vintage look made famous by Kenner Toys back in 1985. The 50th Anniversary logo for Lucasfilm is also stamped on each figure card.

We all remember what it was like when we got a new toy as a kid. We would rip open the box and immediately begin playing with it. If it was a vehicle or playset, we’d throw it together as fast we could, slap the stickers on (no instructions needed) and toss the packaging aside. When we got tired of the toy, it ended up in the closet, under the bed or the dreaded toy box. When I was a kid, I honestly didn’t know anyone who “collected” toys as a hobby. It was all about Sports Cards, Stamps, Coins and to a smaller extent, Comic Books. Those days are in the past now and things have definitely changed.

Nowadays, the “Adult Collectors” rule the toy aisles and I assure you, that not many boxes are being torn open or thrown away anymore. Even the kids who purchase these modern toys are well aware of the potential value that a certain toy may have. Take the modern day Star Wars action figure lines as an example. The most popular lines now are the 6 inch Black Series figures that retail for $19.99 each, and the Vintage Collection line, which is all about the beautiful packaging and retail for $12.99 each. Both of those lines are most certainly catered to adult collectors and Hasbro is banking on it. There are certainly still kid friendly toy lines available for the very young Star Wars fans, with more cartoony versions of our favorite characters from far, far away. These lines have a very limited character selection, and to be totally honest, kind of boring. The fabulous playsets and vehicles that we all played with as kids are not entirely gone now, but have been replaced by high priced exclusives and collector’s editions that typically run between $60 – $150. No child is going to convince their parents to drop that much money on a single toy that is meant for “collecting” and not actual playing with.

The modern day toy market is definitely a different place than it used to be, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Take a look at the incredible quality of these new action figures and accessories that are coming out. The attention to detail and features are through the roof! The figures look eerily like the actual characters or actors, and their accessories are crazy fun. Another great trend that has been popular of late, are that many original toys from the 1970’s and 1980’s are coming back as re-releases for a whole new generation of collectors. Walking down the local Walmart toy aisle now can bring you back to your childhood with the all the old brands once again lining the shelves. There are Transformers, Ghostbusters, Masters of the Universe, and Star Wars toys all made to look like the real deal that came out many years ago. Some people will argue this is a lack of creativity on the toy companies part or the re-releases of these classic toys are bringing down the market for the originals. I like to think this is just validation of how amazing and fun the toys were when I was a kid, and that other kids nowadays still want to play with them or other collectors still want to buy them.

At the end of the day, whether you feel the toy market is better or worse than it was when you were a kid is left to personal opinion, but one thing is for sure….collectors, hobbyists and big kids like us have definitely changed it forever. As an adult collector now, I love the accessibility of the internet to find and purchase new and vintage toys. If I want to find a particular new action figure, I simply go to one of a hundred different sites to buy one. If I am missing a specific vintage item for my collection, I go to eBay or Mercari or one of the many amazing toy collector sites to search for it. yeah, sure, going to the toy section of a store may not be as fun as it used to be, and “toy runs” don’t usually work out with successful finds anymore, but the online accessibility is through the roof. How amazing is it that if you are looking for a mint in box Wampa from 1980, you can find several different options. How about a Cobra H.I.S.S Tank from 1982? No problem, they got that too. All you need, is an internet connection……..and of course, the money to go shopping with.

Yes my friends, this is a new era for collectors like us. It may not be the same experience as it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not good. Toy’s R Us, Kay-Bee Toys, Lionel Play World and FAO Schwartz may be gone now, but the toys they sold are still here. The kids that bought those toys are still here (just a bit older now). As long as we allow ourselves to still be kids every now and then, collecting toys and action figures can still be an amazing and fun experience. How we get the toys may have changed, but the excitement and feeling of finding that elusive piece of your collection you’ve been searching for is pure bliss. All the great memories and stories a toy brings back to us is priceless, and THAT is why we fill up our homes with these amazing finds, and THAT is why we are truly in a new golden age of toy collecting.