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In today's world of monster toy collectibles, it seems like nothing is too obscure for the action figure treatment. Distinctive Dummies (DD for short) has been releasing 8-inch Mego-style action figures for years now, focusing on characters from horror films between the silent era and the 1980s. I've never bought any of DD's products but from what I've seen, they do a limited run of a set of figures before moving on to do another limited run of a new set of figures, and so on. The latest film freak DD has added to its collectibles roster is the titular character from The Incredible Melting Man , a z-grade creature feature from 1977. This figure is part of DD's new "Science Gone Wrong!" set, which will also include figures based on characters from The Manster (1959), Monster on the Campus (1958) and The Wasp Woman (1959). The only thing that anyone can honestly recommend about the Melting Man movie are the makeup effects that were done be Rick Baker, an...

To paraphrase an old adage, some toys never die ... they just get re-released with new coloring, sculpts and packaging. Case in point: Kenner's classic 18-inch Alien figure from 1979. Even though it didn't sell well when it was originally released as part of Kenner's poorly planned Alien toy line, it has gone on to have an impressive after-shelf-life. It became a prized item among toy collectors, and some companies in recent years have re-released the original sculpt with various degrees of changes ( larger sizes , all silver coloring , all gold coloring , etc.). Now, Super 7 plans to re-release this figure yet again, but this time with sculpt changes to match the Xenomorph's appearance from the first sequel Aliens . From what I've been able to gather from the prototype pics that I found around the 'net, Super 7's new Xenmorph figure will be ready for this month's San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) . The figure will come with exclusive SDCC prototype packaging...

This week marks Universal's release of the three Jaws sequels ( Jaws 2 , Jaws 3D and Jaws: The Revenge ) on Blu-ray, meaning that die-hard sharksploitation fans can finally have a complete set of mechanical shark flicks--not CGI shark flicks--in high definition. Yet with most things Jaws-related, Universal is still late to its own party because Shark City Ozark started accepting pre-orders last March for latest and last entry in its "Ultimate Bruce" series : a 25-inch long maquette of the mechanical shark used in Revenge . As with the previous releases in this series, SCO's replica of the Revenge shark captures just about every detail of the fake fish used for the fourth and last Jaws movie. For those of you who know the history of this particular movie prop, the SCO maquette also includes details of when it wound up on display at the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida, complete with an unstitched belly and rusting blue steel display stand. Best of al...

It's no secret that Lego bricks have become the go-to medium for many geeks who want to build detailed replicas of characters, vehicles and environments from their favorite fantasy and sci-fi franchises. However, few geeks use Lego to build replicas of franchise toys that were planned by toy companies but never made it past the prototype stage. On the other hand, there's BaronSat (a.k.a. Eric Duron), who designs Lego kits for franchises that are both licensed and not licensed by Lego. For Star Wars, he has already provided instructions for Lego-scale replicas of toys that were made by Kenner during the original trilogy, toys such as the Imperial Troop Transporter , the Imperial Attack Base , and the Death Star World sets from Kenner's short-lived Micro Collection line. His latest kit is based on the unreleased part of the Death Star World: the Emperor's Throne Room from Return of the Jedi . The story behind this toy is that after Kenner released its initial wave of Mi...

If you're a transforming robot toy fan who thinks that the Machine Robo line gets overlooked way too often, you're in luck. Action Toys is taking pre-orders for the first two action figures it is producing for its new Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos line. As the toy line's name suggests, the new designs bring these figures closer to how they appeared in the Revenge of Cronos anime series. The first two figures are re-designs of MR-01 Bike Robo (a.k.a. "Cy-Kill", as it was renamed for Tonka's Gobots line) and MR-17 Drill Robo (a.k.a. "Screw Head"). The second two figures will be re-designs of MR-02 Battle Robo (a.k.a. "Tank") and MR-25 Eagle Robo (a.k.a. "Leader-1"). Like the original Machine Robo MR-600 series line in the '80s, each figure features die-cast metal parts. However, even though the new figures are slightly larger than their original counterparts--measuring between 4.5" to 5" in height--the price is ...

Watching horror and sci-fi films is easy, but collecting screen-accurate merchandise based on those films is hard. In this post, I'll be taking a look at the Alien Queen figure that was produced by McFarlane Toys in 2003 as part of its Movie Maniacs line. At the time of its release, this figure was one of the few Alien Queen replicas that could be bought for a reasonable price. The film collectibles market has changed considerably since then, and this figure represents are pivotal moment in how the market had changed from expensive statues, busts and model kits of the '80s and '90s to the much more affordable items that are available today. Read on ... Before McFarlane Toys' release of its version of the Alien Queen, screen-accurate versions of this creature were very hard to find. Most of them were difficult and expensive model kits, which ruled out fans who wouldn't--or couldn't--buy and assemble models. When Kenner had the toy license for Aliens in the '...

Oh, NECA ... you just keep getting cooler. Between its ongoing Predator action figure line and its expanding line of Alien action figures, I'm in nerd heaven. Yet it appears that someone at NECA thinks that figures aren't enough for fans and collectors, so it's releasing a series of six-inch, die-cast replicas of vehicles from sci-fi movies in its new Cinemachines line. The initial Cinemachines items will be four vehicles from Alien and four from Aliens (see above). In addition to the Colonial Marine vehicles from Aliens , the line will also include a Daihotai Tractor, a vehicle that only appeared in the director's cut of the sequel. (Fun trivia fact: Micro Machines also planned on releasing a Daihotai Tractor as part of its Aliens Action Fleet line back in the '90s, but only a prototype was made.) Upcoming releases will include an Aerial Hunter-Killer (HK) and HK Tank from The Terminator , as well as the space ship that was briefly seen in the first few minutes...

As part of this year's annual release of Christmas ornaments, Hallmark has included an ornament based on the titular monster from the 1987 creature feature Predator . I just picked up one for my own holiday season geek tree, and here are some thoughts I have about Hallmark's attempt at turning an interplanetary big game hunter into a Yuletide decoration. Read on ... For its size, the ornament is a decent sculpt of the creature. Hallmark chose the unmasked version of the Predator in a pose that he normally assumes when issuing a victory or challenge roar. The sculpt provides a good representation of the Predator's mandibles, which are probably the most challenging aspects of any Predator replica. The mandibles sculpt isn't as impressive as those on NECA's Predator figures , but they're much better than the sculpts for Kenner's line of Predator action figures back in the '90s. This Predator also doesn't come with any trophies--no skulls, spines, or ski...

I don't collect Transformers merchandise, but I see articles and advertisements about it when I browse through Japanese robot toy sites. From what I can gather, one of the latest product lines for Transformers is called "Combiner Wars" , a line that consists of five or six transforming robot toys that combine into one bigger robot. Combiner robot toys have been around for a long time, and Transformers had quite a few of them even back in the '80s. Yet of the many combiner robot toys I've seen over the years, the ones that have consistently impressed me were the ones released by Bandai under the Machine Robo line. Whereas other robot toy lines are stuck in the novelty of combining smaller toys into a bigger toy, Machine Robo has used the concept of combination to promote creative play. Read on for a review of how Machine Robo has built upon its combiner toys throughout the years. Even though combining robots have been around in Japanese pop culture since the '7...