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NECA have teased this image of them putting the final touches to the packaging design for their 30th Anniversary Evil Dead two pack of Hero Ash and Deadite Ed Getley. The set was due to ship this month, May, but NECA appear to have been having delays with their production partners in China and a lot of release dates are being pushed back. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the iconic movie, Neca presents a special two-pack containing Hero Ash and Deadite Ed Getley action figures! Hero Ash features the likeness of inimitable actor Bruce Campbell and comes with an opening Necronomicon book, 2 alternate head sculpts, bone dagger, sawed off shotgun, and possessed deer head. Deadite Ed Getley comes with interchangeable heads, one of which comes apart to simulate his gruesome defeat by Ash's chainsaw! Each 7-inch scale action figure is highly detailed and fully poseable. This set comes in a deluxe 30th anniversary window box with an opening flap.

NECA have revealed the packaging for their upcoming 1/4 scale Wonder Woman figure. She will be released at the end of May. Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. In the Wonder Woman movie, the world will watch as Diana of Themyscira becomes the legendary Wonder Woman. This detailed 1/4 scale action figure is based on Wonder Woman's look in the new movie and has 30 points of articulation for heroic poses. She stands 18" tall and features the likeness of Gal Godot. Includes sword, shield and lasso accessories, and alternate sets of interchangeable hands! Window box packaging.

This new Star Wars Black Series 6" exclusive kind of caught most people out as it was revealed and immediately put up for pre-order. The figure seems to be somewhat of a hybrid of the Centerpiece Collection and a standard figure. The sculpt is that of a standard Stormtrooper, but with added blaster damage decor. He also he comes with blast FX pieces. There are two large explosion pieces, similar in design to the ones on the Centrepiece line, and a smaller clip on piece that looks to attach to the Blaster. There is also a stand included, which looks very similar to the design packed a few years back with the 3.75" line. A few of the UK retailers have this up for June delivery at circa £33

Mezco have released full details of their One:12 Punisher figure. Frank Castle will arrive at some point between Nov 2018 and Jan 2019. He will be the usual mix of soft goods and sculpted detail. His clothing is tailored, including a leather effect jacket - which can be removed to show his sculpted flak vest. This means you can display Frank as seen in Daredevil Season 2, or in his own series. Accessories include a standard, and bloodied head option. There are a multitude of hand options, which can be swapped out to hold the various weapons. Weapons include the Mini-Gun from the end of Daredevil Season 2 as well as handguns and knife with sheath. There are also FX pieces to clip onto your weapons. The figure, like all Mezco One:12 figures, comes with a logo base and stand. Pricing is $80 in US with a $20 non refundable deposit when ordering from Mezco. UK pre-orders have started, including our friends at Toys in the Attic with a £65.99 price tag. The One:12 Collective Punisher includes two head portraits capturing Frank Castle’s intimidating demeanor as portrayed by Jon Bernthal. Outfitted in a leather-like overcoat and armored vest with skull insignia, he comes complete with an arsenal of weapons, true to the Punisher’s menacing reputation. After exacting revenge on those responsible for the death of his wife and children, Frank Castle uncovers a conspiracy that runs deeper than New York’s criminal underworld. Now known throughout the city as The Punisher, he must discover the truth about injustices that affect more than his family alone.

Pros : Wonderful head sculpt and paint print technology. Packed with three substantial accessories. Good articulation Cons : The soft good cloak doesn't quite sit right once it comes out of the box. Is a few patches of weathering away from perfection By my reckoning the 2018 release of Rey in her Island Journey gear is the 4th version of Rey released since her appearance in The Force Awakens and that isn't counting the variants like the Crait version or the original version repacked with Luke's lightsaber. Island Journey Rey is number 58 in the Black Series phase 3 packaging with a brand new Gregory Titus illustration. The rear of the packaging carries a more specific overview of the character than we are perhaps used to, talking about Rey's awakening force power and how she travels to the hidden world of Ahch-To to seek out Luke Skywalker. She is clipped into the inner tray with her cloak, which is folded up behind her and looks quite neat and small in this state. To one side is her blaster and lightsaber, to the other her trusty staff. Wave 15 is the first Black Series wave to use the face print technology and this is clearly evident when you get Rey in hand as her features are much closer to that of Daisy Ridley with more natural shaded lips, more realistic eye detail and some very subtle skin tone. She does look a little startled from some angles, but all in all a very good looking head sculpt. You can begin to see the improvement on the head sculpt when you line Rey up against her previous versions from 2015 (Force Awakens) and 2017 (Last Jedi). This one image shows the game changer that the Face Printing Technology can and will bring to the Star Wars Black Series line this year and beyond. Out of the box and the cloak is a lot larger than it first looks, with a large amount of it having been bunched up behind the figure in the insert. While it is a relatively soft flowing material, it doesn't fold too well and sits like a triangular poncho and doesn't look particularly fetching. The cloak has a hood built in, but like previous hoods on Palpatine and Obi-Wan it does not sit neatly on the head and floats above the top of the head by some distance. The cloak is fully removable and once off the real beauty of the figure is revealed with Rey's alternative outfit from the end of The Force Awakens and through the start of The Last Jedi. The outfit is made up of a grey inner robe over which is a darker beige sleeveless jacket. She retains her arm wrappings and the left hand ends in a darker leather wrap at the wrist. The inner tunic is tied with a belt, which is sculpted as part of this piece of clothing, and from this extends a holsters which is designed to look attached to her thigh. Her trousers are a green tone and cut off at the shin. The legs end with the ankle boots. Each piece is a single tone colouring with the exception of the arm bandages which are washed to add depth. The skin, where exposed, is perhaps a tad too pink and in the v-neck of the top there is some bleeding between the skin and the beige of the tunic. Rey comes with three accessories, the first being the blaster than Han gives her at Maz's palace in The Force Awakens. This is the same gun that came with the 2017 Jedi Training Rey. It is a silver colour with black grip and some neat sculptural details like the notches on the barrel. The blaster fits into either hand, but it is only the right hand on Rey that has a trigger finger to slot into the blasters trigger. When Rey is not wielding the blaster it can be slotted away in the holster on her thigh. The fit is snug and the blaster holds well in place. The arm articulation even allows a blaster drawing pose. The second accessory is that much used staff that dates back to Rey's Black Series debut in 2015. It has come with most Rey releases to date, including her speeder bike and Jedi Training releases from 2017. As with its other appearances, the staff is detailed down its length with grooved wood and wrapped grips. The one issue remains that strap which is a soft plastic piece that is cast in that shape. That makes it difficult to sling on her back, and also creates issues with certain poses as the strap is not hanging naturally and appears to defy gravity. While I appreciate the inclusion of the staff, an update to the design would have been welcomed. Rey can swing her staff from left, right and both hands, giving you a wealth of poses to choose from. And yet the final accessory will no doubt relegate the staff to the spares box. Rey comes with Luke's blue bladed lightsaber. This is packed assembled out of the box, but like all Black Series sabers the blade can be clicked off the hilt. The saber is again a re-use from the 2017 Rey, being the smaller hilt sculpt rather than a direct repack of a Luke's saber. It is coloured silver and has black around the fins on the grip and some red and gold to accentuate the controls. The saber fits in either hand, and the arm articulation allows a two handed pose. This articulation starts with a ball jointed shoulder followed by a single rotating elbow joint tha tends sufficiently into this two handed pose for the saber as well as action poses for the staff. The wrists rotate and pivot to 90 degrees so can be posed for force pushes and the like. Rey's lower leg articulatio is made up of a ball jointed hips, a thigh swivel, double jointed knees and ankle rockers. While Rey will kneel and sit and crouch, it is the action stances that make the figure. The ankle rockers are tight and stiff, but something about the foot shape and the position of the ratchets make Rey tough to stand. This is easily resolved by dropping her onto a Vintage Protech stand or similar. The final articulation is in the truck of the body with a ball joint in the waist hidden by the cut of that belt. This allows the upper torso to lean forward or backward as well as rotate independently of the legs. The final joint is the improved neck joint which is now a ball joint and a pivot so the movement is improved hugely from a simple rotation to up and down looks, with Rey even able to put her chin on her chest. Wave 15 is a game changer for the Black Series and the bar has been significantly raised. Rey is streets ahead of any other release to date, and yet she isn't perfect when you consider the cloak doesn't quite work and we are still missing a level of weathering on the outfit which is a real disparity when you look at the head sculpt. I may be nit picking here, and so when we consider that Rey comes with three accessories, a good level of articulation and this new head technology then it is very clear this figure deserves a very strong 4 out of 5.

The next McFarlane 7" Stranger Things figure has been revealed, via Entertainment Weekly, as Barbara Holland. Barb will be an October 2018 release and looks to be exclusive to Entertainment Earth. She will have the limited 12 points of articulation and will come with the circular Stranger Things display stand. Her single accessory will be a Trapper Keeper 80's binder. Barb has a US RRP of $19.99 and in the UK that will probably translate to £20 as stores in the UK will most likely have to order from Entertainment Earth.

Pros : First use of Facial Printing, and it works a treat. Weathering on the coat and hat are well executed Cons : The grey T-shirt has slightly different coloring between top and bottom halves. Boots are too shiny Wave 15 was the first wave released in 2018 and the the fourth and final wave that was themed around The Last Jedi. It was made up of Rey and DJ from The Last Jedi alongside the promised release in the standard packaging of Captain Rex. The rest of the wave was made up of repacks including Phasma, First Order Trooper, Lando, Poe and the Imperial Guard. 2018 see's the Black Series continue with the Phase 3 packaging with the red trim. DJ is number 57 in the 3rd phase and the character name for the release is specifically listed as DJ with Canto Bight as a bracket sub-title. Could this mean an alternative DJ is planned, most likely his First Order disguise? The rear of the pack talks about DJ as a thief with tattered and threadbear clothes. It gives little away about his affiliation in The Last Jedi, only that he sees no difference in which side he works for. DJ comes packed to the left hand side of the inner packaging, with his two blasters packed to the right. Wave 15 is the first wave to use the digital face printing technology, something the Marvel Legends line has been employing for about a year. The intention with the process is that the face sculpts are much crisper and realistic and paint errors are significantly reduced, giving collectors confidence in ordering online. The likeness on DJ is good, but not brilliant in capturing Benicio Del Toro. From certain angles it looks awesome, from others it looks bizarre. The eyes are a little too bulging and the cheeks sunken and this is exaggerated by the paint. You can however see the benefit the face print technology brings such as the more gradual beard / facial hair and the more natural eyes. The best look for me on the figure is when you adjust the head so DJ is looking down, this mimics more of what we see Del Toro do in the movie. DJ's costume is quite understated, but look closely and Hasbro have weaved in some nice areas of detail. The hat, which isn't initially obvious is painted to look like worn leather and has athe silver Aurebesh text panel down one side. The jacket is also weathered and worn with a neat golden geometric design around the collar. The final points to mention are on the left hand with black strapping around the palm, and with two rings - one silver, one bronze. Under the coat is a plain grey T-shirt and plain darker grey / green trousers. The costume finishes with a gunslingers belt and holster and a pair of very glossy black boots - probably too glossy compared to the rest of the outfit. Accessory number one with DJ is a small blaster pistol. This is a resistance blaster and has been used previously on the Captain Poe Dameron figure. This release is cast in a darker plastic and not silver and has some gunmetal silver applied to the barrel. The weapon can be wielded in either hand with each hand having a flexible trigger finger which can be squeezed into the weapons trigger. When not in use the blaster can be slotted into the holster. This opens by means of a top flap and once the blaster is stowed away it can be sealed by clipping the trim back across the top. The coat does cover the holster, but with some tweaked posing you can have the coat being swung out to the side to allow DJ to be going for his gun. The second weapon is a longer barreled blaster that appears to be the one used by the Canto Bight Police. It again is cast in a dark grey with some metallic finish over the top. It also fits in either hand but being larger the trigger finger is harder to position. DJ comes with standard 16 points of articulation and this starts with a ball jointed pivoted head which allows both rotational movement, but with the ratcheted pivot also within the neck, DJ can look up and down by quite a way. The main body has a torso ball joint but this fails to add much forward and backward motion, just rotational. It is also noticeable when you start looking at this joint that the paint finish between top and bottom sections are slightly different. The arms are ball jointed shoulders followed by a single rotating elbow. Each wrist is then pivoted and can bend to about 90 degrees. The legs start with ball jointed hips and we then have a thigh swivel to allow the legs to be turned in and out. The knees are double jointed and can bend fully and the figure ends with ankle rockers with DJ standing perfectly well in a number of poses. The coat does stop some poses, including kneeling, but the holster and belt move with the legs and do not restrict the movement a tall. While DJ's role in The Last Jedi, and indeed Del Toro's portrayal, is much debated - the figure is a fantastic realisation of the character in 6" scale. While the head is not 100% perfect, it looks awesome when you get the right angle and the costume is weathered and dirty and not some of the clean finishes we;ve seen recently. There is bags of subtle detail as well including hat golden patterning on the coat, the rings on his left hand and the text on his cap. The two blasters are a nice addition and in actual fact Hasbro could have given us one and dropped the working holster, and this would have been a great figure. 2018 see's the bar raised on The Black Series and I am taking this opportunity to set the bar on our review scores for this year. DJ is very good, but he is not perfect and I would have liked to see consistent colouring on that T-shirt and some weathering on those extremely shiny shoes. I am therefore awarding DJ a 4 out of 5.

Hasbro's big Star Wars May the 4th reveal came in the shape of this brand new 6" figure of Admiral Piett. The figure will be released in June and is a shared exclusive so will be carried by a number of retailers. He is supplied in his grey pressed Imperial uniform complete with removable cap and a blaster. Early pre-orders in the UK have gone up at Star Action Figures and ID Toys

To celebrate May the 4th, you can use the code FORCE20 at Disney Store UK to save 15% when you spend over £50, and this goes up to 20% if you spend over £65. Spending over £50 also gets you free standard shipping. The offer is valid until 8th May Currently in stock are Han, Lando and Rangetrooper Black Series from the Solo movie. They also have most of the Marvel Legend Infinity War wave 1. These are £19.99, but drop to £15.99 if you take this all the way to the 20% level with free shipping. The offer does not apply to already reduced items like the Elite Series figures. Fine print as follows 1) Save 15% off £50 or 20% when you spend £65 on selected items found on www.disneystore.co.uk. All products subject to availability. 2) Selected exclusions apply: Already promoted items (found on www.disneystore.co.uk/special-offers), Books (found on www.disneystore.co.uk/departments/home-entertainment/books), Limited Edition Products (found on www.disneystore.co.uk/limited-edition), Selected Brands (Danielle Nicole, Couture Kingdom, Steiff, Neff, Stance, Aden & Anais, Lego, Sphero, Little Bits), Mickey Mouse Memories Collection (found on www.disneystore.co.uk/departments/collections/mickeys-memories), Disney Shows and Theme Park Tickets (found on www.disneystore.co.uk/disney-tickets) , Disney Parks Product (www.disneystore.co.uk/disney-parks-products), Disney Partner Products (found on www.disneystore.co.uk/disney-partner-product), and Delivery Charges. 3) The Offer is available Online on www.disneystore.co.uk (the Website) from 4/05/2018 to 8/05/2018 (the Dates). 4) The Offer does not apply to purchases made before or after the dates. 5) Discount promo code “FORCE20” to be entered at checkout to apply. 6) The Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotional codes. 7) Free delivery eligibility for purchase online will be calculated following application of all promotional discounts. 8) No purchase voucher can be given for this Offer nor cash value given. 9) We reserve the right to terminate this Offer at any time if these terms and conditions are not fulfilled. 10) Your participation in The Offer confirms you have read and agreed with these terms and conditions of the Offer; these terms and conditions are subject to English law.

As we hit May the 4th, Disney Store have released the full details of their new Return of the Jedi 35th Anniversary Elite Series Darth Vader figure. Using die-cast parts and standing 7" high, this Vader is as he is seen at the end of the Original Trilogy and this includes a removable two part helmet to reveal the old Anakin Skywalker beneath. He also has his trademark lightsaber, sculpted PVC cloak and display stand. The figure went for sale in UK on morninng of 4th May and sold out by 9am. Stocks should be going into stores also. Part of the Star Wars Elite Series, this Darth Vader action figure features a removable helmet, showing Anakin Skywalker as he appears at the end of Return of the Jedi. This figure celebrates the 35th anniversary of the iconic film.

UK Disney Stores have slashed prices on a large amount of Star Wars merchandise - potentially as a clearance ahead of the arrival of Solo product. Most of the Star Wars Toy Box 5" articulated figures are down by 50% to just £5 with Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Stormtrooper and Rey available. Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker are not part of this discount and neither are the other Toy Box figures from Marvel and Toy Story. Star Wars Elite 6.5" figures are down to £16.49 each. There is also a number of reductions on role-play and dress up items starting from £10. These prices also apply online and you can order now for home delivery. If you do buy in store there seems to be a 20% off voucher for all purchases valid from 13th May.

NECA are re-releasing a number of popular figures from their back catalogue this year. The first of these is Doctor Gordon Freeman from Half Life 2. It has now been revealed that the figures packaging will be updated from the original clamshell to this new window box design. Dr Freeman is due Summer 2018 and you can pre-order now at a number of specialist stores.