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Super7 have shared the proposed packaging design for their Thundercat line of 7 inch action figures. The "Display-Matic" box features a sleek black outer sleeve with the Thundercats logo. This slides off to reveal a red themed window box containing the figure. Checkout the first wave here with pre-orders open now via Super7 for a Spring 2020 release.

The first Star Wars Black Series Palpatine release was in 2015 as part of wave 8 of the line in its 2nd phase blue packaging. In 2019 this figure was given a makeover and boosted into a deluxe release as Emperor Palpatine was now packed with alternative, hands and heads - and most importantly with his throne. Packaging 4/5 The packaging for Palpatine uses the same design principles as the other phase 3 packaging with a slightly glossy black box, grey lined Gregory Titus illustration and a glossy red side spine. The front of the box has the usual window through which the figure is visible, but it also has two smaller cut out windows to the side of this with the alternative head sculpts displayed. The red spine carries no number as this is an exclusive release and not part of the newer deluxe line, although the box dimensions are similar to the wider and deeper boxes used by Moloch and Grievous. The back of the pack carries a small text background for the Emperor as well as a larger version of the artwork used on the box front. "Scheming, powerful, and evil to the core, Darth Sidious restored the Sith and destroyed the Jedi Order. He slowly manipulated the political system of the Galactic Republic until he was named Supreme Chancellor -- and eventually Emperor -- ruling the galaxy through fear and tyranny." Paint & Sculpt 4/5 Out of the box the figure is seated in his throne, so he needs to be teased out carefully and the various robes releases. I will start with the robes which are soft goods and are evidently a much better material than the original release and hang much more naturally. The issue with the hood has been resolved somewhat too with some stitching round the back to hold the hood flatter to the head and neck, sadly ours still rode up on one side and despite wetting it and trying to shape it - it refuses to conform. Next plan is to use a small pin to keep it in place. Under the outer robe is the same sculpted body as previous, although of course we have now lost the rubber skirt and have a soft goods version to allow Palpatine to sit in his chair. The head sculpt too is a big improvement on 2015, mainly down to the new face print technology that allows a more subtle shading to the various lines and wrinkles of Palpatine's face, and also allows those distinctive eyes to be realised fully. Palpatine also gets two other head options. The first (top row of the collage below) is an angry Palpatine with teeth bared and eyes intense with a furrowed brow. The second is a smiling, more sadistic Palpatine. Both are just as well executed as the base head and of course allow you to tweak your display to whichever of Palpatine's "moods" you wish to employ. For anyone thinking they can upgrade the 2015 figure with one of the heads from this pack will be disappointed as Hasbro seem to have amended the neck peg and head socket, so the newer head sits far too high on the older figures neck. Accessories 4/5 Like the 2015 release, Palpatine has his cane which is a gnarled piece of wood cast in a glossy black plastic. It does its job and fits into the Emperor's right hand well enough. It is a touch too short and even when Palpatine is stooped over the cane doesn't meet the floor. The new accessories for the set are of course the Force Lightning hands. These are one complete piece with the rubbery translucent force lighting coming out of the sculpted fingers of the hands. These swap in and out easily and with some teasing of the arm articulation and then posing the cloak around this you can get some good Force Lightning poses, and it works really well with the angry or smiling head options. Like the head, the hands can't directly be swapped to the older figure as the 2015 version had a secured ridge piece in the hands, making them difficult to remove from the old figure. The other accessory is the big one, the Emperor's Throne. This is a cast piece, and it feels hollow. The shape of the throne is good and crisp and it is cast in a glossy plastic with a shaped base. The chair sits fine on the base, flat to any flat surface, but the base does not rotate. The rear of the chair is painted a purple, perhaps a bit too bright in colour than what we see on screen and certainly a lot brighter than the original promotional images. There are controls built into the chair's arm-rests and these are painted in reds and yellows. The chair is a touch undersized once you get Palpatine sat into it. His head touches the top of the chair when his body is in the seated position, it should ideally be a few mm's higher. Articulation 4/5 Palpatine has 18 points of articulation, two more than a current figure of the line - benefitting from the re-use of the older body and therefore coming with double jointed elbows and a bicep swivel rather than the more recent single rotating elbow. Head : ball jointed pivot neck Body : ball joint waist Arms : ball joint shoulder, bicep swivel, double jointed elbow, wrist pivot Legs : ball jointed hip, thigh swivel, double jointed knee, ankle rocker These joints are sufficient for Palpatine's needs as they allow him to do the poses we want from the Emperor. Firstly we have the stooped upright position, supported by his walking stick if needed, while he inspects the troops on his arrival at the Death Star. We then have the Force Lightning poses to attack Luke, although this does need some careful balancing as it does make Palpatine front heavy and prone to overbalancing. The third is the seated position, which out of the three is the most impressive. The Emperor and Thorne really come into their own when you start to build up a diorama around the Throne as a centrepiece. Multiple Imperial Royal Guards are of course a must. You can also start to think about recreating any one of the Throne Room scenes from Return of the Jedi, and Palpatine can even balance nicely on an outstretched Darth Vader's arms ready to be throne into the Death Star's core. Summary The improvements over the 2015 release of Palpatine is immense on this figure, from the head and hand options to the face print technology. The robes are still not perfect and can ride up around the hood which is a frustration, but of course soft goods are the key to this figure and getting him to sit in that impressive Throne. Palpatine is the first of what we hope are more diorama type figure releases to help build our 6 inch Star Wars world, and we score it an impressive 4 out of 5. See More Star Wars Black Series figures

It seems both Tesco and Smyths here in the UK are selling some cool repacked Marvel Legends figures. The figure are sold not in the usual box, but on a slimmer blister card. There is no BAF part and accessories are included, but slimmed back in some cases. Priced at £15 they are MCU based with six figures identified so far. It may be coincidence that these have shown up (2nd September 2019) as the Avengers Endgame UK DVD/Bluray release? Iron-man Mk50 (Infinity War) Captain America, Quantum Suit (Edgame) Black Panther (Black Panther) Captain Marvel (Captain Marvel) Stealth "Night Monkey" Suit (Spider-Man Far from Home) Spider-Man, black & red Suit (Spider-Man Far from Home) Photos of stock found at Tesco has so far been shared by Brandon M, and Ryan B on Marvel Legends UK Facebook group. Similar images are also being shared from Smyths stores .I have checked out my local store today to verify, and while they had no stock they did have the price ticket out. With these seemingly being a general release and not exclusives it may indicate a new direction for Marvel Legends and similar figures at big box retailers.

2018 saw Hasbro release a number of new MCU box-sets to celebrate the First Ten Years of Marvel's Cinematic Universe. The first of these sets went back to the film that started the MCU back in 2008, Iron-Man, and finally brought us a mass release Tony Stark as well as the first Iron-Man suit, the Mark 1. Packaging 5/5 The First Ten Years sets move away from the usual scooped sided Legends packaging and go with a sleek black squared off box with a window trimmed in red. The character name sit within this red trim and above the window is a pronounced Marvel Studios First Ten years log, with a smaller Legends logo to the side. A stylised Iron-Man head sits in a circular panel at the base of the window and the Iron-Man movie log below this to the right. The right hand spine carries part of a larger illustration. By lining up all 10 box sets from 2018 a wider montage of MCU images is revealed. The left hand spine is designed more like a fact file in deep red with a breakdown of the setup for Iron-Man 2008. "DURING A BUSINESS TRIP GONE WRONG, TONY STARK IS KIDNAPPED AND FORCED TO CREATE A MEGA-MISSILE FOR A GROUP OF RADICALS. MUCH TO THE SURPRISE OF HIS CAPTORS, STARK INSTEAD CREATES A SUPER-SUIT POWERED BY AN ARC REACTOR CHEST-PIECE, NOW WEAPONIZED. HE ESCAPED IN WHAT BECOMES KNOW AS THE MARK I ARMOR OF THE TECH-POWERED HERO, IRON-MAN" Around the back of the box we have more references to the movie on which this set was based with a recreation of the movie poster. Next to this are two circular head shot images of Tony Stark and the Mk1, under these sits some character specific info. "Tony Stark - The heir of Stark Industries, Tony Stark does not realize the impact of his weapons of war until he is kidnapped and forced to build one or die." The figures sit in an inner plastic tray (no ties) which sits into a cardboard inner sleeve. Like the montage on the side of the box, this inner tray includes a set of images from the MCU in a neat grey scale finish. Paint & Sculpt 3/5 This is not a new figure, with all parts re-used from earlier in the MCU Legends line. The head is the one packed with the 2016 Civil War 2-pack, and would be used again for the 2018 Marvel Unlimited US subscription. The difference in this set is that this new release of the Stark sculpt is now realised using the face print technology. The likeness to RDJ is pretty great, the figure sadly does not photograph well and is a bit too glossy leading to a lot of reflection. Trust me that you won't be disappointed with it in hand. The head also pops off nicely and fits on a lot of the existing Iron-Man figures with varying success, see our Figure Hacks at the end of the review for more info. The whole suit is a re-release of the original Coulson figure and has also been used in other releases like The Purple Man, Bruce Banner from Age of Ultron and Chameleon. Colouring is essentially the base colour of the plastic in which each part is cast, this means it is all neat and bright but not much else other than the shoes and belt. The tie is a separate flexible plastic and comes out of the pack with a bit of a mind of its own. The sole issue with the look of this figure is that it isn't quite right for Tony's look in Iron-Man. The figure is obviously based on the early scenes before his capture. The suit he wears there is pin-stripped, this is not. The tie is patterned, and this is not. And it is not quite as well fitting as Tony's tailored suit. I appear this may sound nit-picking, but bear in mind this is a set without any new sculpted parts - and as you will see next, no accessories, so I struggle to see why the figure could not have been more accurate and where the value is compared to say the Ant-Man or Civil War 2-packs. Accessories N/A Tony comes with no accessories in the box. This is disappointing as the Mk1 comes with a very poor flame effect piece and nothing else. When we consider what we got in other MCU 10 Year 2-packs like Civil War, Dark World or Ant-Man, this one seems to be falling short. While I do not need Tony to have a wealth of accessories, I would have been happy with a second head sculpt in his glasses and a spare part of hands in the open palm pose he has when he demonstrates his new missiles and the mountainside behind him explodes. Articulation 5/5 With the body being an older design, it still weighs in with an impressive 19 points of articulation. Head : ball joint pivot neck Body : ball joint torso, waist swivel Arms : ball joint shoulder, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrist pivot Legs : ball jointed hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees, ankle rocker Posing is a pleasure with this one, plenty of scope to give Tony some more dynamic poses or ore character in the stance rather than a neutral position. All the joints are tight and the figure stands perfectly on its own. Summary As a single figure, this is a solid suited Tony Stark release. It has good articulation and the head sculpt is a good one enhanced by the, albeit glossy, face print technology. The issue is more one of value for money in a set retailing around the £50 mark originally. Tony is a full re-use of older figures, as is the MK1. And with no accessories and not even an accurate paint job to the scenes this is trying to recreate then there is a small level of disappointment. Throw in an additional head with glasses, tweak the suit and tie pattern and this would have been a much more palatable re-release. I score the First Ten Years MCU Tony Stark figure a 3 out of 5. See More Marvel Legends MCU Figures Checkout the Iron-Man Mk 1 Figure from this 2-pack Figure Hacks While there is no spare head to employ on other figures, some of you may use this Stark Head to enhance an Iron-Man figure rather than leaving it on a suited body. I don't have all the IM releases to date but the head fits on all the ones I have access too and as these are variations of other suits I don't have then the head should fit on every IM variant including the Mk42 and Mk46 that are not shown - the head was originally designed for the Mk46 Civil War suit. Sadly the head is a little small for some of them and looks quite odd on the Mk7 and Mk50. The War Machine sculpt - used on Hot Rod and Disco - has the neck peg set too high so this also looks a little odd. The best look is for the Mk43 and the Mk47

2018 saw Hasbro release a number of new MCU box-sets to celebrate the First Ten Years of Marvel's Cinematic Universe. The first of these sets went back to the film that started the MCU back in 2008, Iron-Man, and finally brought us a mass release Tony Stark as well as the first Iron-Man suit, the Mark 1. Packaging 5/5 The First Ten Years sets move away from the usual scooped sided Legends packaging and go with a sleek black squared off box with a window trimmed in red. The character name sit within this red trim and above the window is a pronounced Marvel Studios First Ten years log, with a smaller Legends logo to the side. A stylised Iron-Man head sits in a circular panel at the base of the window and the Iron-Man movie log below this to the right. The right hand spine carries part of a larger illustration. By lining up all 10 box sets from 2018 a wider montage of MCU images is revealed. The left hand spine is designed more like a fact file in deep red with a breakdown of the setup for Iron-Man 2008. "DURING A BUSINESS TRIP GONE WRONG, TONY STARK IS KIDNAPPED AND FORCED TO CREATE A MEGA-MISSILE FOR A GROUP OF RADICALS. MUCH TO THE SURPRISE OF HIS CAPTORS, STARK INSTEAD CREATES A SUPER-SUIT POWERED BY AN ARC REACTOR CHEST-PIECE, NOW WEAPONIZED. HE ESCAPED IN WHAT BECOMES KNOW AS THE MARK I ARMOR OF THE TECH-POWERED HERO, IRON-MAN" Around the back of the box we have more references to the movie on which this set was based with a recreation of the movie poster. Next to this are two circular head shot images of Tony Stark and the Mk1, under these sits some character specific info. "Iron Man Mark I - Tony Stark creates a suit out of weapons materials and escapes from confinement in a clunking suit of metal later known as Mark I." The figures sit in an inner plastic tray (no ties) which sits into a cardboard inner sleeve. Like the montage on the side of the box, this inner tray includes a set of images from the MCU in a neat grey scale finish. Paint & Sculpt 3/5 The first thing to clarify is that this is the same figure as was released in 2008 at the time the movie was released. At that point they were not fully under the Legends banner and were sold as a Walmart US exclusive. Hasbro's only change for the 11 year old sculpt is a hugely improved paint job giving it a more rusted, weathered metallic look with patches of colour and some nice decals. The sculpt itself, even with its age, is good but the figure is sadly undersized against the modern Legends line. Considering that this comes with a Tony Stark figure who is meant to be inside this suit - the head on the Stark figure is bigger than the helmet and the whole suit is around an inch too short. The other issue is that Hasbro have even left on the missile firing mechanism from the 2008 release and this looks and feels odd stuck out from Iron-Man's left arm. Accessories 1/5 The Mk1 comes with a single accessory. The same missile that came with the 2008 figure and that is designed to "fire" out of the box type device on the left arm. This is cast in a translucent orange and has an attempt at a fire effect at the end. This slots into the firing piece, but doesn't lock into place as the idea back in 2008 is for you to push it in and let go to see it fire. Considering this is a more collector focused release I would have liked to have seen Hasbro have at least amended the FX piece even if they left the figure unchanged. Had this been a more dynamic flame thrower piece that slotted into the firing box - then that would have added a little more value. Throwing in the same piece as 2008 feels a let down. Articulation 2/5 The 2008 figure has already scored quite low for being undersized and with a poor acessory choice. It is therefore no surprise that articulation also disappoints. It clocks in with just 12 points of articulation. Head : ball joint Torso : waist swivel Arms : two way rotating joint, single joint elbow Legs : two way rotating joint, single joint knee, ankle rocker Everything about the joints is basic and there are some missing joints vs more modern releases such as the hands which are part of the arm sculpt. Even in 2008 the Mk1 articulation was limited, and your posing will be limited to some wider arm poses - until the shoulder armour blocks the movement - and some wider stances. Summary As a standalone figure, the Mk1 is a good looker. But put it alongside the Tony Stark it is packed with - or any other modern Legends figure - and it looks sadly undersized. With limited articulation and a poor choice of accessory the value for money for this set are under question. When you consider this comes in a 2 pack with a Tony Stark figure that is also a re-release and that figure too has no discernible accessories then you do feel like the set offers very low value for money - especially when you compare the contents of this one vs others in the same series such as the Ant-Man, Dark World or Civil War sets. I score the Iron-Man Mk1 a disappointing 2 out of 5. See More Marvel Legends MCU Figures Checkout the Tony Stark Figure from this 2-pack

A number of general release (non exclusive) Sith Troopers in the Black Series 6 inch line have been found in the US ahead of their street date. Images have been shared on social media and also via eBay where sellers are already listing the figure. The figure is numbered 92 in the phase 3 packaging. The figure is identical to the SDCC 2019 release, but the weapons included has been stripped back to a rifle and a blaster. The back text, while still vague, may be considered spoilery for The Rise of Skywalker.

Images of the new Star Wars Black Series 6 inch Second Sister have been shared on chinese blogging site Weibo by user @R1Valos. The images show the Second Sister, who will appear in the upcoming EA Fallen Jedi video game, both boxed and loose. The box appears to be the phase 3 packaging but it has a circular cut in half way up the window - this looks like a sticker initially, but zoom in and you can see its part of the box. The insert has some text that reads Graphite in multi-languages. As yet we have no idea what this means. Like other video game linked figures for Battlefront and Battlefront II, the video game logo sits at the bottom of the box. The Second Sister Inquisitor comes with double bladed lightsaber with removable blades. Her cloak is also removable and is a plastic material and not soft goods. As far as is being reported by sites like Yakface.com, this is not the exclusive figure packed with the US pre-order of the game, but will be sold in the first Rise of Skywalker wave come Triple Force Friday - along with figures from Episode 9 and The Mandalorian.

Soldier : 76 is presented in his golden armour, but is a repaint from an existing sculpt used in a two pack in 2019 with Ana. The figure features swap out hands, his weapon and a firing FX piece. If you are a fan of the Overwatch video game, this Ultimate Series Soldier: 76 is a must-have for your collection. He has several points of articulation and comes with four game-inspired accessories. Product Features 6 inches (15.24 cm) Ages 4+ Inspired by the Overwatch video game Golden skin version Box Contents Soldier: 76 figure Alternate hands Weapon Weapon effect Checkout our blog page for more action figure news, reviews and store reports action figure, news, toys, reviews, action, figure, blog, checklist, collectors,

Promotional images and pre-orders have now been released for the McFarlane 7 inch Fortnite Inferno figure, as revealed originally at SDCC 2019. Inferno is on Amazon US now for pre-order with a release date of September 27th 2019. For shipping to UK with customs settled it will set you back around £33. Hyper-articulated featuring 22 Moving parts Comes complete with the Catalyst's back bling Ready for battle with dual pistols accessories Harvest your materials with the inferno harvesting tool Showcased in premium glossy Fortnite themed window box packaging

It seems the 11 inch Ice King figure from McFarlane is going to be in his Golden Armour, and not the blue one as originally thought - and as originally illustrated on the Amazon link. The Golden Armour Ice King joins Raven in the 11 inch line and is down for a September 13th 2019 release. He can be pre-ordered now at Amazon US, with shipping and customs sorted into UK - with you paying around £52 all in. Hyper-articulated featuring 22 Moving parts Figures stands majestically at 11" Tall Ready for battle with the infinity blade accessory Includes disk base Showcased in premium glossy Fortnite themed window box packaging

Happy #SatTOYday And welcome to Issue 101 where we break down the Action Figure News that has caught our eye over the past couple of weeks. We are using a new PDF viewer on the site, which means you go to the SatTOYday news page and then click on the issue you want to read. Older issues, as per usual, are in the SatTOYday archive and are PDF's direct from Google Drive.

While Hasbro are going down the casual look for Thor from Avengers Endgame, it seems SH Figuarts are going to be releasing the God of Thunder in all his glory from that epic final battle with Thanos and his forces. The SH Figuarts Final Battle Thor will include a soft goods cape as well as Mjolnir and Stormbreaker. Thor will be released in January 2020 and is a Tamashii Webstore Exclusive.