Toy Fair 2019: When the World is Falling Down, You Go Look at Awesome Action Figures

Here’s roughly 0.008% of the neat stuff I saw at Toy Fair New York 2019, which wrapped up yesterday in Manhattan. Note, some pictured items are still in prototype stage or are works-in-progress… usually indicated by a “PENDING APPROVAL” sign. Much love and appreciation to all the toymakers, their booth representatives, and the Javits Center staff who all contributed to making the convention a huge success.

Okoye looking fierce at the Diamond Select booth.

DC / Chinese Imperial Palace mashup by Pop Life. Pardons for cutting off Green Lantern on the side, but hey, he’s a Green Lantern, he can handle my poor photography skills.

OK, pause a sec, this one exploded my brain. I’m not sure what Pop Life is titling this line, but it is a mashup of DC characters with the Chinese Imperial Palace. Yes, THE Imperial Palace. Students of China’s history may recall that the Qin Dynasty (arguably) invented mass-produced collectible action figures. They are so serious about this that they are making ceramic versions for a special exhibit in China, while vinyl versions will be available commercially in the U.S. More on this one in a bit, let’s go look at all the Bruce Lee collectibles, shall we?

Basically all the Bruce Lee things at the DST booth.

“Be water, my friend.”

Bruce Lee prototype by Diamond Select.

Oh wait, there’s one more prototype! To me, that looks like a well-trained dragon.

So much cool. SNACK BREAK.

Feeling a bit peckish. Who wants some T.I.E. Toast?

Mmm… Texas T.I.E., it’s the best, amirite? Okay, back to the Diamond booth:

Batwoman, the first openly gay Bat-Person, lurking in a cool corner of the DST booth.

Several versions of John Wick: apparently each one comes with both a large gun and a dog.

OKAY, WAY TOO REAL, DUDE. #TheyLive

Moving on to the Bandai / Tamashii Nations booth… I loved their “Movie Realization” line, fusing Star Wars and Marvel characters with classic Japanese film archetypes.

The 47 Avengers? (There have to be at least 47 Avengers to fill out this line, right? Counting Ronin as like 3 of ‘em!)

So, not to belabor the East Asian history thing again, but this begs the obvious question: WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIGHT BETWEEN CHINESE IMPERIAL DEATHSTROKE AND JAPANESE DEADPOOL/SAMURAI? (#Joking! Plz don’t think too hard on an answer, I believe actual IRL land wars have happened in East Asia over less.)

(…but I’m pretty sure Imperial Chinese Deathstroke would win.) Speaking of questionable jokes, let’s go back to that Justice League of the Imperial Palace display for close-ups, shall we?

Joker, looking his usual pleasant self.

John Stewart / Green Lantern, looking boss.

Batman. One wonders if Gene Luen Yang has seen these yet…?

Hard (well, non-existent) segue now to the Super 7 booth, for the sports fans:

I did want to ask the rep about articulation points in the hands considering they’re a PITCHER and a CATCHER, but realized I would sound like a huge jerk. (Both of these, unpainted prototypes. GO GIANTS.)

Figures from the film *Breakin’*!?!? Incredibly good idea. Again, restrained self from asking about articulation points, but you do gotta wonder, right? They’re BREAKDANCERS.

How about some plushes from Uncanny Brands?

Natural rivals. Warrior vs. Rocket. Dubs up, obviously.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Punisher in background. LOLOLOLOL.

Iron Fist and Luke Cage, two plushy ol’ pals. Makes you wanna just hug it all out.

Well, that was nice and squishy. ROBOT TIME!

I’ll bet you $5 even the designers couldn’t figure out how all those Voltron II ships are supposed to fit together. “There’s too many of ‘em…!”

“One shall stand. One shall fall due to an imbalanced stand base.” #ActionFigureJoke

And finally, what pop-culture con trip would be complete without some Funko?

Mr. Negative, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man. Can I just say I saw a version of basically every Spider-Person except Silk? What’s up with that?

Rick James, Mariah Carey, Biggie. All else aside, the song would’ve been super-hot.

Wonder Woman Funko Cereal? I’m a.) not sure this is an actual item, and b.) may have just hallucinated it.

I’ll have deeper dives into some of these in the near future, but for now I’ll close out and say thanks again for the sensory overload within the sensory overload that is already New York City! #ToyFairNewYork2019 #TFNY #BuyMeTheSpiderManOneIfYoureGonnaBuyMeAnything