Shocker Toys

[Ran]

I was clicking around the internet looking for Toy Fair info and I stumbled upon Shocker Toys. They are making some interesting figures. The Tick and The Maxx caught my eye. I forgot all about The Maxx, but the videos are actually online.

Indie Spotlight Comic Book Heroes, which was released in 2009 and hit mass retail in 2010, is an ever-growing comic book universe action figure series from Shocker Toys. Presenting independent comic book characters in hyper-posable 6” scale for collectors to fit in with their other favorite lines, the line features collector friendly packaging and accessories.

Series 1 features: Jim Valentino’s ShadowHawk and ShadowHawk black costume variant, Rob Schrab’s 'SCUD, The Disposable Assassin' and variant 'SOL', Terry Moore's Katchoo of "Strangers in Paradise", David Mack’s Kabuki, and MTV’s The Maxx (an 8 inch mega figure). Each figure in Series 1 or, "The Maxx Series" also includes an Isz, a small monster from the Maxx's world, with each figure. As an added bonus. upon collecting all of Series 1 and mailing in the UPC's the customer can get a FREE mail away figure (Mr. Gone) from the Maxx's comic world.

Series 2 features: Dick Tracy and Dick Tracy with Tommy gun and overcoat, King Zombie (from "Deadworld") and a King Zombie variant, Jack Staff, Ignacia (from "Wildguard") and The Tick. Each figure in Series 2 or, "The Tick Series" also includes an accessory from the Tick's world. As an added bonus the Series 2 free mail away figure will be Arthur from the Tick's comic world.

Series 3 features: (The Phantom, Zorro, Grendel, Fist of Justice and Nira-X)

Indie Spotlight Golden Age Series 1 features: (Dan Garret's Blue Beetle, The Arrow, Black Terror, Daredevil and The Heap)

Indie Spotlight Two Packs: Two Packs Series 1 (Captain Action and Zen), Two Packs Series 2 (Lazerman and Classic Madman)

[vynsane]

hahaha, oh man... there's a LOOOOONG history of this guy sucking. he came to the robert kirkman board to promote his stuff and implied (falsely) that he was in talks with kirkman to make figures based on his properties. when kirkman called him out, he got all indignant. the thread is useless, as the prick then edited all his posts to be the 'question-mark smiley', but you can piece it together by the people who quoted him. here's the main burn though:

Though I'd love to see a line of Invincible action figures, Shocker Toys is not the company I'd like to see produce them. From the figures I've seen, they just don't make quality action figures.

I think Invincible would be a great fit for Mezco, NECA or even McFarlane (IF they make action figures...not statuettes).

Ideally...this may sound odd, but I think Bandai would be the perfect fit, especially if there is ultimately a fully animated cartoon. Though an odder choice, they've been making great figures recently; starting with Teen Titans and now with the mega success Ben 10. The Ben 10 figures keep getting nicer and nicer.

-Peter

Hey Pete I'd save that talk till after SDCC.
Also Marvel toys didnt fail with the line Marvel (Yes they were still run by Marvel) put the quits on it to concentrate on Marvel stuff. He would not have stole the idea from us if he didn't think it would make money.
Oh and as to the so called funny review you posted who cares it was already explained that they were resin figures for Dethklok fans made in 20 days hand painted 1k pcs. They weren't perfect but good representations of the guys and we strived to do better and did. I guess you didn't see this years version Pete did ya?

And to go against the review you had here is a link calling the 07 dethklok figs the best of Comic Con:
http://www.superdeluxeblog.com/2007/08/ ... comic-con/

I could be mistaken (and if I am, I apologize for being so blunt) but you seem to be implying that there will be some kind of Shocker Toys/Invincible announcment at Comic-Con this year... so I feel compelled to state that is very much NOT the case--and I can say that it will probably NEVER be the case.

I'm sure you're a nice guy, and I wish you the best of luck, but the fact is, your toys are ugly. They just are. I'm sure you mean well, and like I say, I wish you the best of luck, but if my choice was no toys or shocker toys... I'd choose no toys.

Luckily... I seem to have a few more options than that.

-Robert

the entire thread is here:

http://imagecomics.com/messageboard/vie ... sc&start=0

but like i said, the prick deleted all the contents of his posts. but the responses by the board members (including yours truly) are pretty funny.

anyway, he's been working to get these figures out for like, 7 years now - and i'd be happy for him going for his dream if he wasn't such a dick about it along the way.

[Diabolical]

I always did want the Maxx figure McFarlane did years and years sgo.

[Ran]

I didn't know McFarlane did one, but I found a picture. It was made way back in 1996 and looks a lot more detailed. The Shocker Toys website is selling the figures. Tick is $24 and Maxx is $26.
http://www.spawn.com/toys/product.aspx?product=1808

[vynsane]

Tick is $24 and Maxx is $26.

wow! half the quality for twice the money as other leading toy manufacturers! sign me up!

seriously, how can he think that's a good price? although with 3 3/4" marvel legends banging up for like $8, i guess using three times that much plastic makes those prices nearly right. just another reason why i'm glad i don't buy too many figures anymore.

[anarky]

I was actually sorta excited about Dick Tracy, until I saw pics. That looks nothing like Dick Tracy, either the comic version or the Warren Beatty version. And how do you make just Dick? He's like Batman; you've got to give him some villains. At the very least, Flat-Top, who may not be the major villain, but is certainly the most iconic. Fuck, Kane and Finger pretty much ripped off Chester Gould when they decided to give Batman a Rogue's Gallery of absurd villains, and they've said as much.

The idea of mailing away for a figure makes a little more sense than the build-a-figure concept, until you realize that it's closer to the build-a-droid; instead of making something bigger, you're actually making something the same size. Packing in a Maxx or Tick mini-figure or accessory with Shadowhawk or Dick Tracy seems a bit absurd, and don't they reckon people might be pissed at buying "who the fuck?" figures to get someone likely more popular like Arthur? The "who the fuck?" angle was what killed the Marvel Toys line. The figures weren't even assorted in any scheme that made sense; most people wanted one or two, which must really have sucked if one of those was the BAF. This line has even more "who the fucks?" At least I'd heard of the majority of Marvel's toys in passing. Some of these, I have no fucking clue.

Zorro and the Phantom are just wrong for an "indie comic" line, seeing as how they were pulp heroes. (Zorro might even pre-date the pulps; I'm not sure.) For that matter, Dick Tracy is never what I would've called "indie." The actual books might've been published by numerous companies over the years, but I believe the company that owns him owns such other obscure characters as Popeye.

The dude being kinda dickish, implying a possible deal with someone he'd never spoken with on the dudes' own forum, and charging $24 each, that's the true killer. Hasbro might charge $8 for figures, but other, smaller companies charge just twice that for figures that are twice as big, twice as detailed, and twice as articulated... with no distribution to speak of. They also don't re-use parts and issue paint variants ad nauseum* like Hasbro does with their lines. Fact is, no matter how fucking scared the SW sites are of asking about it, SW figures are overpriced, as are Marvel and Joe figures. TF's might actually be close to the mark, given the number of parts they've got.

*--Yeah, I know other companies have paint variants. There's a difference between issuing a chase figure, or two equally-distributed variants at the same time, vs issuing a Clonetrooper, slapping some blue paint on him a few months later and calling him a 501st Trooper, slapping red paint on him a bit further down and calling him a Shocktrooper, etc. There's also things like, "We don't care that the Hard Master wore a kimono. Put a new head on a Snake Eyes body, then paint a Storm Shadow in gray to be Snake Eyes in training, give them some ninja weapons from the Valor vs Venom line, and charge $12 for that almost totally reissued comic pack."

[vynsane]

also, here's his reply to kirkman's burn:

Wow you are a prick go join the ranks of liefeld
With that said I will not be picking up any more of your books and telling my fans to do the same. No one said anything about announcing you in our line at SDCC. We stated to save the crap talk till they see what we have to show within the toy line itself (Not any of your properties). We came here to invite you to stop by and see what we had but now you can rot for beign such a prick!

Thanks for turning me off to your books!

what a dickhole.

the difference between this and the 'legendary comic book heroes' line is that in the LCBH lineup they had at least two figures from each title, unless it didn't make sense. savage dragon went with star, ripclaw with stryker, witchblade/the darkness, o'brien/monkeyman (the second series' BAF), and judge dredd/judge death. the only ones that didn't have a partner were madman,which made sense, and marv from sin city.

[anarky]

Dude... that is so unprofessional, if he got the rights to GIJoe and the first wave was going to be Kwinn, Unmasked Snake Eyes (scarred and post-op versions), the Blind Master, Billy, comic book Sgt Slaughter (who looked less over-the-top), Bongo the Balloon Bear, and an accurate Skelton SAW-Viper, and they were the best fucking 3.75" figures ever, and came with parts for a build-a-figure of the Cobra infiltration robot from GIJoe #3, and were only $5, I still wouldn't buy them because that was a really dickish response.

Kirkman was blunt, but within reason; he apologized for being blunt, seemed to be trying to be as nice as possible, and only was as blunt as he was because the dude was flat-out lying about his licenses. This guy, wow, you just don't talk like that in a professional setting. Really. If you're the editor-in-chief of the biggest comic company on Earth, and someone asked why you wouldn't hire Rob Liefeld, I don't care how much you personally don't like the guy, you're obligated to be civil and never use the word "suck." People should not assume that smack-talk from WWE is standard professional workplace behavior.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I was going to buy a Hunter Rose Grendel (because my loathing for Shocker is outweighed by my love for some Grendel on my shelf) only to find they had only produced 500 figures.

Shocker Epic Fails again.