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After teasing the item at New York Comic Con, NECA have now shared this image of the Predator Bone Throne. The NYCC display thrown was, buy their own admission, a kit bashed version. This has now been re-worked and looks glorious. There are no more details as yet. First #prednesday of the new year! We present the almighty Throne!! Behold in all it's glory, the Bone Throne paintmaster. More at Toy Fair!

Review : Aughra The Dark Crystal Wave/Series : Funko Re:Action Released : November 2016 Price : £9.99 (prices will vary) When they were first unleashed on the world, the Re:Action 3.75" figures from Funko were a broad ranging set of figures from numerous cult licences - but presented as a retro 1980's limited POA figure. This meant Funko could pump out generic figures for big licences like Alien, Predator, Back to the Future without worrying too much about the Actor licence. It was a similar principle to their highly successful Pop! range. Despite the volume and variety, the figures didn't do as well as perhaps hoped and soon found their way to being deep discounted and sold off on clearance In 2016 the line reinvented itself. Still under the Re:Action logo, the new figures stuck to the 3.75" scale and limited articulation - but lost the stylised 80's look to a more realistic style. The first licence to be distributed in this style was Game of Thrones - replacing the 6" Legacy figures. And then Funko went and did something particularly awesome by picking up the Dark Crystal licence. The Dark Crystal movie, from 1982, was directed by Jim Henson and his creature company provided all the main characters. There was a range of figures initially planned in the 80's, but they didn't see the light of day. Some 34 years later Funko have finally brought these figures to light - releasing a group of figures based on the early sculpts for the 80's range. Sadly, the availability of the Re:Action figures in the UK hasn't been great. With Underground Toys now distributing in the UK it is harder to ship these direct from the UK, and when imported in officially they are coming through at a premium price. The other issue that hasn't set the line off all that well is the exclusives, with some key figures and creatures consigned to SDCC 2016 and NYCC 2016 attendees only. Beside all these issues I have done my best to pursue this line (at a reasonable price) and I finally got hold of my first Re:Action Dark Crystal figure via Amazon. So may I present my review of Aughra. Aughra arrives on a retro blister card-back. The card-back is nicely designed with a gold trim, purple movie logo and striking image of the hero Jen atop the titular Dark Crystal. The blister is crisp and clear, but sadly was already detached by the time Aughra reached my door - not enough adhesion and this will frustrate mint on card collectors. Round the back of the card is the run down of all the figures in the line. This is a pictorial checklist of the 5 figures in the general release wave. It also rubs some salt in the wound by showing the Garthim and Landstrider sets - the aforementioned Convention exclusives that collectors will have to pay a significant secondary market price to capture for their collection. Out of the pack and in hand Aughra is actually weightier than I expected, she certainly feels hefty - even if she isn't quite a solid piece with the lower section being obviously hollow. The sculpt captures the look of the wise hermit really well, and remember this is a toy capturing a puppet - so it's a good job on behalf of Funko to get that looking right. Her head, as in the film, is oversized and heavily wrinkled. Her left eye is sculpted and painted, while the right is missing - lost in the first Great Conjunction. Her wild hair tumbles either side of her head - with the ram like horns curling out on either side of her head. While the head sculpt is really nice, the paint is missing a final finish. The basics are there - including the facial hair, the eye and the horns - but it is all lacking a wash to add the depth that deep wrinkled head and voluminous hair is crying out for. Without a wash the other issue is the missing eye actually looks unpainted, with my son actually commenting they'd forgotten to paint it. The great sculpting carries down into the detail of her tattered but ornate red dress. The front is textured and runs down to a netted section at the hem. Round the back is even more detail with a contrasting back cobwebbed wrap over the dress. Once again this is one wash away from being awesome, with some detailing lost on first look that would have stood out with some contrasting wash to make them pop. The dress detail continues down each arm finishing in her gnarled grey hands - again one tone grey, as are the feet which stick out from the base of the dress. The articulation on the standard Dark Crystal figures is 5 POA, on Aughra it is only 3, and the 3rd is questionable. Each arm is joined with a simple (1980's style) swivel at the shoulder. Each arm, on arrival, is down by her side. You can then rotate these upwards to about 90 degrees out from the body, at which point the hair stops them being raised any further. The 3rd point of articulation is the head. Again its a simple swivel joint, which is clearly visible, but it doesn't really work as the hair has locked the head firmly in a front facing position. In fact the joint acts more as a tiny bobble head with the head having a tendency to wobble when you move the figure. Aughra comes with her triangular device that represents the Great Conjunction. This is crisp and holds a decent amount of detail considering the scale. It is painted a glossy gold colour and to continue the consistency, there is no wash here either. The other pack in is a build-a-part of the Dark Crystal itself. Buy all 5 of the figures and you will assemble your own purple crystal on base. I only have the one piece so far, so can't yet comment on the finished article - but the piece I do have is angular in a nice translucent purple plastic. You wonder what the finished crystal will look like if it was lit. When it comes to scoring this figure I need to make it clear that the score I give this figure is based on the assumption you can get it for what I believe to be a realistic UK RRP of £10 or less. These figures are sold at $9.99 in the US (same as a Pop!) and logic states we should simply be swapping out the $ for £ and paying £9.99 in the UK (same as a Pop!). If you got Aughra for £10, then even with the limited articulation and one paint finish less than she perhaps deserves, then the sculpt and card art alone deserve a 3 out of 5 score. Pay any more, and the value for money element comes into play - there is no way this item should be priced closer to the 6" super articulated lines like Marvel or Star Wars. Buy from Amazon UK Buy from Amazon US

Rebels Series 3 is about to return from it's mid-season break, and this trailer is going to get a lot of fans very excited for the 2nd half of the current season - not least in terms of how Rebels is now starting to knit into Rogue One. As always let's look at the figure potential from the trailer, and although I would love to have a lot of these in 6" scale - the liklihood is that these will most likely only make it as far as the 3.75" 5POA range - Saw Gerrara (assuming Hasbro will do a younger version) - Obi Wan Kenobi (see above) - Mon Mothma - Mandalorians - Death Troopers - Thrawn (yes I know he is coming in 3.75", please can we have a 6" Black Series) - The EU inspired "Dark Trooper" Droids - Destroyer & Battle Droids (well overdue a 6" release) Let us know who you would want to see in figure form....

It's Part 2 of our look back at 2016... Diamond Select Toys are one of the smaller Toy companies, but 2016 has seen them put out some fantastic product. Of course their Marvel Select output is their bread and butter, but 2016 saw them expand their Gotham series with two more waves - and launch their brand new Ghostbuster 7" figures. Gotham now has 9 figures in total, with wave 4 due in 2017. While many would argue the Gotham line is a lot of men in suits, it is a nice change from the spandex laden Marvel collections and DST are doing a decent job of capturing the likeness of the key Gotham characters like Alfred, Gordon and Bullock. The criticism of the range has to be the character choice for Wave 3 which we will be reviewing soon - we still have no Fish Mooney or Butch, whilst we are getting not so regular henchman Victor Zsasz Ghostbusters is one of my favourite licences, and whatever you think about the 2016 reboot it has done fans of the original movies a big favour in terms of new licencees for the franchise - including the 7" Select figures from Diamond. Originally planned as a 12 figure run across 4 waves, there are now 15 figures announced. Diamond also went the extra mile with their build-a-diorama pack in which by the time wave 5 hits in 2017 will see us able to build the Rooftop Diorama. The Select figures aren't the greatest in terms of likeness, but Diamond certainly pack in a hell of a lot of value to each release while keeping them around the £20 price point. They have also done an awesome job with the Ghostbuster characters with plenty of detail on the Proton Packs and with swap out hands and accessories. And it is from this new range that I chose one of two Diamond figures for my top 10 of 2016. While Winston and Ray were first to hit shelves, my pick is the series 2 Egon Spengler release - a childhood dream, brought to reality after 30years. So to Marvel, and any collector will tell you that the collecting of Marvel Select figures is both awesome and frustrating. While Hasbro can pump out huge volumes of releases in a year, Diamond are restricted to a small number each year across both Comic book and Movie releases. Whilst the detail and sculpt on most DST figures, in my opinion, is better than the Hasbro offering they do lack in articulation and depth of character releases often leaving collectors frustrated at getting one main character in a movie and not the others. This is definitely true of the big release of 2016, the figures associated with Captain America Civil War. DST went with three releases from the movie - Captain America, Iron-Man and The Winter Soldier. While the Bucky figure was a welcome addition, some fans saw the release of Cap and Iron-man a waste when other characters like Vision and Scarlet Witch are yet to get a Select figure. I liked Bucky, although he did come with incredibly small hands. The Iron-Man was however a disappointment - being much too small and looking out of scale alongside the other human figures and the previous Iron-Man armours. My other pick of figure of 2016 is this aforementioned Captain America figure. This is arguably the best Marvel Select Movie release to date in terms of sculpt and paint job - at least level with the 2013 Wolverine. He also comes with a brilliant diorama piece to build a back wall of the Avengers facility, however this wasn't handled particularly well by DST and the four pieces planned were reduced to three, and to finish your diorama with a 4th piece you will need to double-dip on the Captain America figure which is now coming packed with the "not very good" Winter Soldier unmasked head sculpt as a Disney Store Exclusive. That all being said, if you want a 1/10 scale Cap in your collection - then this is the best of the three released and holds its own against other 1/10 figures like NECA and McFarlane. Before I finish, I will talk about a few of the comic releases put out by Diamond in 2016. I am not a collector of these as such, but even I couldn't resist the Avenging Captain America and the Black Panther that went into Disney stores in Spring. It is the innovative new figures like these that are really pushing the Select range to a new level and I look forward to what will hit Comic Book shelves in 2017. Part 3 coming soon, where we look at NECA

NECA have shared this prototype image of the Demon Spawn from series 2 of the Ash vs Evil Dead TV show. This will be a 7" release, but other than this there are no more details at this stage as to how or when this figure will be available.

Singapore high end collectable company Comicave Studios have been pumping out Iron-Man 1/12 diecast collectable figures for some time now, at least in terms of tempting collectors at trade shows, and have a following of collectors in the Far East as well as in the US and UK. Collectors who were hoping to add the Mark 7 and Midas (Mk21) suits to their 1/12 collection were left disappointed today by this post on the Comicave Facebook page which confirms they are stopping any further development of these two figures quoting "development cost inefficiency". This follows the cancellation of the Starbust armour, meaning 3 planned figures have now been pulled. This has left fans fuming and puts the whole line at risk if they can't get two of the more popular Iron-Man arms to stores. After the issues with the previous licencees, Play Imaginative, it is a sad turn of events.

One of the most sought after Marvel Select figures of recent years is the Disney Store Exclusive Flash Thompson as Agent Venom. Originally released in 2013, it has gone on to one of the more expensive figures int he range on the secondary market. It is therefore going to be great news to collectors that Disney Stores are re-releasing the figure in 2017. The figure will have 16 points of articulation and will be packed with two hand guns, working holsters and a diorama base. Already listed on the US site at $24.95 we expect this to go up on the UK site very soon (all other exclusives have crossed the Atlantic to date) Flash Thompson as symbiote Venom puts the bite on collectors with this exclusive Marvel Select action figure featuring full articulation and fine detailing, plus a dramatic environmental display base. Special Collector's Edition Action Figure Highly detailed sculpturing Poseable with multiple points of articulation 2 weapon accessories Includes dramatic display base See all our Marvel Select action figures, each sold separately Disney Store Exclusive

US site Yakface.com have shared this image from one of their site readers of a 3.75" Black Series AT-ST and Driver found in a Walmart store. The price was listed as $60. There are no more official details at this stage. We can assume this is still under Walmart exclusivity as per the 3.75" Black Series figures, which should mean this at least has the potential to make it's way to UK Asda stores. Additional images have been shared, via a listing on eBay, which do confirm that this is not a specific release but a general AT-ST (we did assume with the weathering this might be a Jedha themed release). The AT-ST driver will come with removable helmet. Both appear to be re-releases from the Black Series Endor pack from a couple of years back that was a US Toys R Us exclusive.

While 2016 hasn't been a particularly good year for many reasons, it has been a good year for Action Figure collectors. In this review of 2016 I will be looking back at the releases we've had from the key TV and Movie licences and picking a few of my favourites. For anyone new to the site, we cover Action Figure News across the world - predominantly in small to mid-scale (3.75" up to 7"). My reviews are based on figures I collect myself, and in the main my overall theme is mid-scale figures in 5" to 7" scale, that puts me firmly as a regular customer of Hasbro's Star Wars Black Series, Diamond's Select Series and the various 7" lines by NECA. This end of year review therefore is a few of my favourite figures from these three main properties. Star Wars Black Series We start, as of course did 2016 itself, with Star Wars. The Force Awakens was taking cinema's by storm, and collectors were clamoring for merchandise - sadly Hasbro weren't quite keeping up, leaving some figures highly sought after initially. Early waves of Asty and Hux didn;t even reach UK shores, and were limited in the US. There was also an initial rush on the early releases of the Flametrooper, Episode 7 Han and Jango Fett - and yet just a few months later these were shelf warming and being reduced by up to 50%. As the year progressed we moved from Force Awakens into that lovely summer period where prequel and original trilogy fans were getting giddy and picking up Jango Fett and Luke Tattooine. Rebel fans also got their hand on Kanan and Ahsoka. As the autumn drew in, the focus switched to Rogue One and Hasbro really stepped up their game in terms of quality control and distribution. 2016 has actually been the biggest year to date for the Black Series 6" range with 36 releases including exclusives. It is therefore difficult to pick my favourites. While figures like Ahsoka and Jango were particularly impressive, it is the latest Rogue One figures that really consistently hit the mark. My first Star Wars choice therefore goes to the Hover Tank Pilot from Rogue One. Although it is an exclusive, it is at least a worldwide release. It is also a brilliant sculpt and design, whilst also having a paint job to match - something the similar Scarif Trooper failed to manage. He may get just a couple of scenes in the movie, but the Hovertank Pilot is a worthy addition to your Black Series display. Sticking with Rogue One for choice two, and I have selected Director Krennic. What? I hear you shout, not K-2SO, not the Scarif Trooper? As much as I love most of the Rogue One output so far, I have found the human characters quite softly sculpted. Krennic, as a figure, defies this with a particularly decent sculpt at the 1/12 scale and price point of the Black Series. Krennic symbolises the ability for Hasbro to produce good looking Human figures, and also opens the door for future Imperial officers. He is one of my personal favourites and deserves a slot as one of the top Black Series figures of 2016. Choice three goes to a very brave figure decision by Hasbro in that he really only exists in an animated series. I am of course talking about Kanan Jarrus who was taken from the Rebels series and brought to life in the Hasbro 6" realistic style. Not only did the figure work really well, it is also one of the better human sculpts to come out of the Black Series line. He also comes with a brilliantly designed light-saber which assembles like it does in the show, and when not in use it hangs neatly on Kanan's belt. The success of Kanan, and the subsequent Ahsoka has led to Hera Syndula making her way to the release schedule for 2017 - and we would hope Chopper, Ezra and Zeb aren't too far behind. My final choice from the Black Series is controversial in more than one sense. I have picked the US Walgreens Exclusive C-3PO. I wanted to spread my picks across the new films and the Original Trilogy, but 2016 has not been brilliant in terms of Original Trilogy releases and at the time of writing this we haven't had our wave 9 figures who I am sure would have made a big impact on the results of this review. So why 3PO, and why a figure that I didn't really give a brilliant review to first time round? Well since reviewing both 3PO figures I have seen them every day, front and centre of my display. In this environment they do stand out and under lighting the slightly duller finish actually works better than the glossy version that Bandai gave us for example. C-3PO also represents the passion, in some degree, from Hasbro's Black Series team. He had been rumored and "promised" for over 2 years before he hit stores and in that time you feel that the Black Series development team have worked to give us the best version they can in the budget. It would have been so easy for the Walgreens version just to have a swapped out arm and lower leg, but the attention to detail to adjust the tummy wiring and even the box art is testament to the love that you feel goes into this range - even if we don't always love everything that hits shelves. Now the exclusivity is a frustration, but I don't think anyone has struggled to find this figure in the US or in the UK via import, with the stinger being a slightly elevated price. So there are my Black Series picks for 2016, remember that all our Black Series reviews and galleries can be found HERE at our new Black Series landing page. Part two, looking at the Diamond Select output for 2016, will be along later this week.... keep a close eye on our news page or our social channels www.facebook.com/mephitsu www.twitter.com/mephitsu

The Funko Legacy 6" line is not quite dead and buried, with two new figures based on the popular League of Legends online game arriving in stores January 2017. First is Fiora who will be packed along with her sword. The other figure is Zed, who is packed with his wrist blades The new 6" figures will boast 20 points of articulation and will come on the blister cards we saw for the Evolve figures, not the boxed packaging used on the Legacy Game of Thrones and Magic the Gathering figures. US RRP is $19.99, so expect to pay £20 her in UK once these make their way to specialist stores.

Happy Sat-TOY-Day everyone! CLICK HERE for this week's issue. It's our last issue of 2016 and a chance, via our cover, to say goodbye to a someone very dear to our hearts. Inside we take a look at the Action Figure news that has broken over the festive period - including new Guardians of the Galaxy product, another Scarif Stormtrooper (this time from MAFEX), new Walking Dead items in both 7" and 5" scale and some sneaky peeks of NECA Alien & Predator product due in 2017. Thank you for your support and for reading our little newsletter in 2016, have a BRILLIANT New Year, and see you in 2017 for our end of year Review and Issue 45 www.facebook.com/mephitsu www.twitter.com/mephitsu www.issuu.com/mephitsu

The long awaited release of the Diamond Select Doctor Strange has taken a step closer. Diamond have released these packaged shots of the figure and confirmation that the figure is not on its way to comic book stores, in the US at least. If previous Select releases are anything to go by then UK collectors will have to wait a bit longer. It is interesting that these images are not the usual polished pictures we expect from Diamond.