This Week’s Toys Are Full of Stars, Robots, and Giant Dinosaurs
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular round up of the latest cool toys on the internet. This week: Buzz gets the toys that Andy dreamed of for Lightyear, Jurassic World conjures up the mother of all T-Rex toys, and Hot Toys gets shocking for a new Spider-Man: No Way Home figure. Check it out!
Tamashii Nations S.H. Figuarts Lightyear Buzz Lightyear and Chogokin XL-15 Space Ship
Pixar’s Lightyear promises to bring more depth and backstory to one of the company’s most popular characters. For collectors looking to add a new and improved Buzz Lightyear figure to their collections with more detail than what you’ll find on toy store shelves now, Tamashii Nations is bringing exactly that to its S.H. Figuarts line, with a Buzz figure that includes swappable head sculpts, alternate arms, a blaster, a laser sword, and a jetpack that can even be upgraded with wings. The figure will be joined by an almost 10-inch long die-cast version of Lightyear’s XL-15 spaceship with functional retractable landing gear, a gorgeous paint job, and matching scale figures of Buzz and Zerg. Pricing and availability TBA.
Mattel Jurassic World Hammond Collection Tyrannosaurus Rex Figure
Sure, it will be fun to see Sam Neill’s Alan Grant and Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler in a Jurassic film once again, but most of us will be buying our tickets to see the dinos, including the real star of the franchise, the T-Rex from the original film, who’s hopefully back in action once again. If not, this new addition to Mattel’s detailed Hammond Collection of figures is an excellent consolation prize. For $50 the 24-inch long figure doesn’t include any human characters from the movies, but makes up for it with 14 points of articulation that include a posable tongue and jaw tendons that stretch when it opens its mouth. Target had it momentarily available for pre-order, although a specific shipping date isn’t known yet.
Hot Toys Spider-Man: No Way Home 1/6 Scale Electro Action Figure
Hot Toys slowly but surely works its way through the villains of the latest Spider-Man movie with a new take on Jamie Foxx’s Electro. The 1:6 toy comes with all the usual assorted hands for posing, and of course, befitting Electro, a metric butt-ton of bright yellow lightning effects to pose all over his hands and chest—the latter of which includes a light-up effect on his torso armor to help add to the electrical effect. Coolest bit of all though? The star-shaped piece of electricity you can attach to Electro’s face, evoking the villain’s classic comics costume. Electro will cost around $285, and it set for release in late 2023. [Hot Toys]
Hasbro Transformers Generations Selects Voyager Cyclonus and Nightstick
As much as Starscream was a fan favorite amongst the Decepticons, he was also a bit of a loose cannon with an itchy trigger finger and an even stronger itch to usurp Megatron. As second-in-commands go, Cyclonus (first introduced in The Transformers: The Movie as a Unicron creation) was stronger, smarter, and more loyal to Galvatron, and even transformed into a slightly cooler space jet. Hasbro’s Transformers Generations Selects Voyager Cyclonus figure goes from robot to space jet mode in 33 steps, and includes a Nightstick figure which transforms into a blaster, as well as a sheet of foil stickers to apply. It won’t officially be available until August 1, but you can pre-order it on the Hasbro Pulse site now for $39.
Prime Time Toys Dart Zone Jurassic World Blasters
One-upping Nerf with a line of dinosaur-themed blasters actually tied to the Jurassic World franchise, Prime Time Toys has revealed three new dart blasters for kids who love dinosaurs as much as they love pretending to shoot at them. The tamest of the bunch is the $10 Adventure Force Jurassic World Dominion: Blue Blaster thats like a velociraptor spitting foam darts (that may not be scientifically accurate) followed by the $30 Adventure Force Jurassic World Dominion: Pyroraptor featuring a 10-shot dart cartridge and an 80-foot range.
For the adults, the $65 Adventure Force Tactical Strike Jurassic Pro Ultimate Dart Blaster will hurl darts at over 125 feet per second; it features a modular design with a removable taser muzzle brake and a detachable stock that appears to include a giant mosquito trapped in amber. All three blasters will be Walmart exclusives but while the Tactical Strike should be available now, the other two will arrive closer to August.
Hasbro Connect 4 Marvel Spider-Man Edition
As both Monopoly and UNO have resoundingly proven, there’s a lot of money to be made by churning out themed versions of board games that people already own. Not to be left out of the fun, Hasbro has apparently now started making themed versions of Connect 4 starting with a $20 Marvel Spider-Man Edition, whose only theming appears to be discs featuring either Peter Parker or Miles Morales designs. Gameplay is exactly the same, get four in a row to win, but couldn’t they have at least thrown a web or two on there?
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