The Famous Starstore Blog » Hellboy

Here comes the 2009 San Diego Comic Con!!!

starboy — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:34:46 +0000

It’s that time of year again- Time for millions of geeks the world over to be seething with jealousy at the lucky people going along to the legendary San Diego Comic Con. This year looks set to be just as cool as the 2008 extravaganza, and we’re keeping ‘em peeled for the coolest movie collectibles and film, TV, books and comic announcements and product news from the event.

We’ll be covering as much of the San Diego Comic Con news as we can across our many blogs, so stick with the Starstore blogs for a unique British perspective on the latest developments from SDCC 2009!

We swear one day we’ll make it there and report to you live from the event itself, but until then, we’ll be scouring the net for the best news and announcements so that you don’t have to!

This year’s event runs from the 23rd to the 26th of July, with a preview night on the 22nd before the shenanigans commence for real. There are some suitably awesome panels, previews and product unveilings going on this year, and we’ll cover as many of the big ones as we can.

There are some fantastic workshops and signings right across the event, but the big ones for many fans will be the TV previews, movie previews and merchandise previews. We’re personally really looking forward to finding out what Sideshow Collectibles have on offer this year in the way of new products.

Other panels and stuff of note throughout the SDCC weekend? Summit’s Astro Boy preview, the reveal of details on the next Tetsuo movie, a preview of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, a look at the groundbreaking new James Cameron science fiction epic Avatar, the next developments in the Halo franchise, a presentation of material from Terry Gilliam’s Imaginarium of Dr Parnassuss, a Doctor Who panel with Russell T Davies and David Tennant, a panel on the Kick Ass movie, a talk with fantasy legend Terry Brooks, the premier of the animated Green Lantern movie, The Guild, Farscape’s 10th Anniversary, a look at the new version of The Prisoner, Star Wars Day, Sideshow Collectibles‘ panel, Dr. Horrible The Totally Rad Show Live, Ray Bradbury… gah, so much!!!

We’ll be covering as much as we can right here! It may not be as cool as actually being there, but we’ll be bringing you as much of the AWESOME as we can.

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Have a look and see some sneak previews of the greatest movie collectibles from Sideshow - Visit now!

What have been 2008’s most wanted Action Figures?

starboy — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:19:31 +0000

That time of year where we take a look back at the big names is here again. It has been quite a year on the action figures and memorabilia front, with all manner of media tie in items coming onto the market from movies, comics, TV shows and games. The area that has seen by far the most interest in licensed action figures this year is undoubtedly the ranges of merchandise based on console/video games titles. With the continued (and somewhat meteoric) growth in the influence of the gaming world over popular culture, it stands to reason that related merchandise would be in demand, and it certainly has been in 2008.

The big two names I’m talking about here are the Gears of War and Halo franchises. While the Halo range has grown with another two sets of articulated figures this year, the makers have also branched out into statues, large format figures (the rather awesome ‘Legend’ series of figures), headknockers, posters, calendars and various apparel for the discerning Halo fan. The success of the Halo merchandise has been dwarfed slightly by the sheer demand for official merchandise based on the Gears of War franchise.

With a huge sequel to the first game now doing the rounds, the demand for the Gears Of War items has been steadily growing throughout the year. Thankfully NECA have created some incredible items to keep the fans at boiling point, with some of the best action figures that have been on the market in years. The Gears of war figures are a larger format to most games figures and feature a much higher level of detail as well as better accessories and packaging. The box sets have been hot sellers as well, each of the three released so far featuring four separate figures. The first box set is now no longer available, but the second and third are being snapped up by fans left right and center.

Other games that have featured on the action figure hooks in 2008 include Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Brothers and more, proving that older titles still carry some clout with games fans, and let’s face it, there’s plenty of them around. Lara Croft also made a comeback with the excellent figure of her from the latest Tomb Raider game, Underworld.

Star Wars has been present again this year thanks to tie-in merchandise from the new Clone Wars movie and TV series, despite the lukewarm reception to the film version. One surprising thing in this year’s run of film and TV related merchandise has been the demand for the ‘Classics’ range of Doctor Who action figures, which surpassed all expectations and have been snapped up by eager Whovians everywhere. The first series of TORCHWOOD figures finally saw the light of day in december, way past the original September release date.

Movie merchandise has seen something of a resurgence too, and a particularly popular item of late has been the 12 inch SAW puppet on Tricycle box set, depicting the infamous Billy doll from the horror franchise, which, of course, had its fifth installment released in the latter part of the year. Other official horror based items have included a superb 12 inch version of Jason Voorhees and more, just going to show that the fans still want blood. Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight have all had their parts to play this year too, and some fantastic merchandise has been available.

Those who are into their rock music action figures this year were treated to new figures of Joey Ramone, Lemmy from Motorhead, two new Elvis Presley figures and two new Elvis headknockers. While the number of new items in the music ranges has been pretty thin on the ground, the demand is certainly there for more, and we’re eager to see who comes next. Personally I think we need to get some Dimebag figures.

The market for licensed memorabilia from all corners of popular culture has seen a definite upturn in 2008 despite the economic troubles the world is facing, and these collectibles make perfect Christmas gifts. The merchandise industry is now even more a part of popular culture and the media it is based on that ever, even going so far as being integral to the continued life of the entertainment industry itself to a certain extent. While DVD sales are keeping cinema alive and box office takings slowly raising, the future is looking rather solid for the action figure world, and there are many, many more to be collected in 2009. The winners this year must be the video games ranges, and in particular Gears of War, which does appear to have won the battle of 2008.

Onto 2009, and the joys of merchandise from WATCHMEN!

Thanks for a great 2008 you guys, it’s been a blast.

COMING SOON: The STARSTORE ROUNDUP OF 2008.

HELLBOY 2 COLLECTIBLES NOW IN STOCK!

starboy — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:17:40 +0000

The first items from the brand new HELLBOY movie, Hellboy II: The Golden Army have started to arrive! Now in stock are the first two Roto Busts, one of Hellboy himself and one of the right hand of DOOM as well as the first wave of Hellboy 2 figures. The Roto Busts are up on our site now, and the figures will follow soon, although you can already get them instore! This is really looking like one of the big geek events of 2008, judging by the reviews. The era of awesome comic book movies continues! The first wave of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army action figures consists of Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Johann Krauss, Liz Sherman, Prince Nuada and Wink! Each comes with film specific accessories and looks fantastic.

STARSTORE NEWS ROUNDUP: DOCTOR WHO FIGURES, HELLBOY REPLICA, SHERLOCK HOLMES

starboy — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:05:44 +0000

DOCTOR WHO: SAN-DIEGO COMIC-CON FIGURES
Two new Doctor Who items are to be made available at this year’s San Diego Comic-con. The two items are a ‘Time Crash’ double pack featuring figures of the Tenth and Fifth Doctors, and a special variant figure of the Ninth. No word on UK availability yet, if at all, but we will be keeping our eyes peeled.

GUY RITCHIE’S SHERLOCK HOLMES IS…
Robert Downey Jr! It has been announced that the Iron Man star is to play the titular detective in Guy Ritchie’s big screen adaptation. This is great news, and actually adds some interest to a project that seemed, until now, to be a train wreck waiting to happen. Hopefully the rest of the movie will live up to this stellar bit of casting.

HELLBOY- BIG BABY REPLICA COMING FROM SIDESHOW
Sideshow collectibles are to produce a high quality replica of the ‘Big baby’ weapon as seen in the new Hellboy movie HELLBOY “: THE GOLDEN ARMY. The thing looks superb, and a full write-up will be available shortly on our dedicated Sideshow Collectibles Blog.

NEW ACTION FIGURES : ALIEN VS PREDATOR, HALO 3, HELLBOY AND MCFARLANE DRAGONS FIGURES IN STOCK NOW!

starboy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:29:38 +0000

There’s been some fantastic new action figures released recently, which we’ve been trying to get in fast enough to keep up with demand. Halo 3, Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem, Hellboy and McFarlane Dragons are some of the best of the recent releases to hit our hallowed shelves, hooks and website!

HALO 3 FIGURES- SERIES ONE

Yeah, they arrived at long last, and have flown off the shelves in suitably heroic fashion. These figures, while smaller than those made for previous Halo games, are fantastically detailed and a marvellous addition to your Spartan army. Naturally, the Master Chief figure has been the biggest hit (don’t forget there’s a 12 inch version on the way later this year), and the whole range of Halo 3 action figures is attracting a lot of attention from gamers and action figure fans alike. Supplied in clamshell packaging and with all the relevant accessories, these are a long-awaited must have series.

ALIENS VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM- THE PREDATOR FIGURES ARE HERE!

Something we’ve had to answer literally hundreds of questions about is the range of Predator figures from NECA’s selection of AVP:R movie figures. Released on the 4th of February in the US, they took their sweet time getting over to these shores, but now they’re here they are being snapped up almost as fast as we can get them in. There’s masked and unmasked versions of the AVPR Predator figures available, in the same clamshell packaging as the Alien Warrior and Predalien Hybrid figures that came out around last Christmas. These figures are superbly made, even if their facial features show a slightly different colour palette to any Predators onscreen, or indeed any previous figures.

HELLBOY ANIMATED FIGURES

A curious addition to our recent stock has been this trio of Hellboy figures- two of which are in a fantastic animated style in keeping with his recent DVD adventures. The third depicts Hellboy as he was portrayed in the feature film (and forthcoming sequel) by Ron Perlman. Both
Hellboy figures and the Abe Sapein figure are supplied in individual clamshell packages and look fantastic.

McFARLANE DRAGONS: THE EIGHTH WONDER OF ACTION FIGURES

The long awaited eighth set of the phenomenonally popular McFarlane’s Dragons action figures are here, and they are carrying on the range in fine style. Again they are on a smaller scale to the earlier monstrosities (however they do still stretch to 8 inches tall once assembled and out of the packaging), but they are every bit as impressive. This is apparently to be the final set of Dragons from the company, so fans are urged to complete their collections quickly. This set carries the title McFarlanes Dragons: The Rise of Man, and follows the era between the time of the Dragons and their descent into myth. A fitting climax to a superb range.