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With the recent wealth of Aliens figures from NECA, fans have been clamouring for a re-release of the very early Hicks & Hudson Marines figures - and NECA have answered. Hicks and Hudson will be blister packed in a special 30th Anniversary 2-pack. They will be a straight re-release of the original figures but will be packed with the standard heads AND the helmeted figures that originally came packed in with an Alien Warrior. NECA have said they "may" use their newer "injected flesh tone plastic" for the figures. Both Marines will come with all their original accessories including Pulse Rifles, Motion Detectors, Lamps, Welding torches and for Hicks his Shotgun and holster. Continuing the Aliens 30th anniversary celebration, #NECA presents a special edition action figure 2-pack that includes two iconic #ColonialMarines! Long out of production, #Hicks and #Hudson are collected here with all the pieces that appeared in their individual and 2-pack releases. For more product info and additional photos, visit: http://neca.io/2cEdHnq Each figure stands approximately 7” tall and comes with an interchangeable head with a helmeted “combat” sculpt. The set comes packed with signature weapons and other accessories: pulse rifles, motion detectors, shoulder lamps, welding torches, shotgun and shotgun carrier. Both feature the authorized likeness of their actors (Bill Paxton and Michael Biehn) and have over 30 points of articulation for dramatic poses. If you missed out on the original releases, now is the time to complete your #Aliens collection! Starts shipping out to retailers in January 2017!

As teased at SDCC, although originally thought to be part of the Kenner homage line, NECA have confirmed the pink coloured Alien Warrior is actually a Video Game release based on the 1990's Arcade classic. This figure, which uses the existing sculpt, will hit stores in January 2017. It will be packed in the standard video game box with opening front cover, and will come with it's own Facehugger, Chestburster and Egg accessories. Introducing the newest addition to #NECA’s line of classic video game tribute figures: The Aliens #Xenomorph Warrior (Arcade Appearance) 7" Scale Action Figure! For additional product info and new gallery of photos, please visit: http://neca.io/2cNS5U3 The #Warrior is based on its appearance in the #Aliens arcade game, a side-scrolling adventure that began devouring quarters in 1990. The figure comes with #Facehugger, #Chestburster and #Egg accessories, and all feature special paint deco that reproduces their in-game appearance. The Warrior stands over 9" tall and has a bendable tail and nearly 30 points of articulation. Comes in gorgeous, display-friendly 5th panel window box packaging that recreates the look of the actual #arcade cabinet! Starts shipping out to retailers in January 2017!

It looks like yet another Disney Elite Series Star Wars figure has turned up for sale, this time found in a UK Disney Store. Like the others that are currently showing up, like the 5 pack of First Order characters, this is a simple tweak of an existing sculpt to create the First Order Commander with orange shoulder pauldron. Look out for it now in Disney Stores, RRP is expected to be the usual £18.95 Image credit to eggmanstudios via Twitter

Diamond Select have confirmed details of their booth at NYCC and within the announcement have confirmed that they will be showing off the as yet unseen Taxi Driver Ghost in their 7" Ghostbusters line. This is likely the final figure of the range and will be hitting in the 5th series at some point in 2017

After last years exclusive Imperial Troop set, Entertainment Earth are teasing this years exclusive using the multi coloured image as we see below. The safe money is on a Phase 2 Clone Trooper 4-pack, and this was practically confirmed with the other image we see below which gives us a glimpse of the corner of the packaging. What we are yet to find out is the exact contents, but if we take the colouring from the teasers as a clue then we would expect the set to include a 501st Trooper, Shock Trooper, 212th Trooper and a 442nd (or something close to that).

Review : Death Trooper (Rogue One) Star Wars Black Series (Hasbro) Wave/Series : Rogue One Wave 1 Released : September 2016 Price : £21.99 The Star Wars Black Series welcomes the Rogue One figures into it's midst this September, with the launch of the first wave based on Rogue One. Hasbro have made the decision to keep the red & black packaging that launched with The Force Awakens, and therefore the numbering for the Rogue One figures is consecutive to the Saga and Force Awakens figures that have come before. #25, The Death Trooper, has been the Poster Character for Rogue One for quite a while now and is arguably the most anticipated figure of this first wave. He will also appeal to Army Builders who will want a squad of these black clad troopers. Like all phase 3 figures to date, the black box is trimmed with the bright red side spine onto which is printed the number of the figure and the character name. The front is decorated in a grey lined drawing of the trooper and this is replicated round the back where you will also find a multi-lingual bio of the trooper. Out of the pack the figure is packed with two weapons, a small hand blaster and a larger rifle. We will look at these in a little while. The Death Trooper stands an impressive 6 1/4 inches high, making him the tallest Black Series Imperial Trooper to date and a replication of the tall and sleek stature we will see in the movie. Like the long line of Trooper figures before him, the Death Trooper is a lovely looking thing and well executed all round by Hasbro. The new helmet is more angular at the front and this is perfectly captured and then is really well coloured. The paint see's neatly applied silver to the front breathers and up the face plate to the eyes, and here the eyes do have a green tint to match the prop. The armour on the Death Trooper, once you get up close to it, is not as bulky as the standard Storm Trooper but does carry through the same characteristics. The shoulder straps are there, although are more defined and with an actual strap that is picked out neatly again in a brushed metal finish. Round the back is the iconic Storm Trooper back plate and further down on the rear is the circular tube on the belt. All the armour is a high gloss black, and then beneath this there is a greyer under-suit which is also sculpted to include a ribbed finish. This all meas what looks at first glance to be a shiny black figure does turn out to include a lot more depth than you would first think. The arms are very similar to the standard troopers and again are high gloss and the same applies to the legs, although here the knee pads are not included and you can see that ribbed under-suit again between the upper and lower panels. Round the waist is the aforementioned utility belt, and unlike the Storm Trooper there are some varying pouches here and a flexible rubberised strap which is the holster for the smaller blaster. The two guns included are cast in a plain grey plastic and for me don't quite live up to the quality of the figure. The smaller blaster on mine came out with a bent scope and the plastic here is a bit too soft. The larger blaster does carry a bit more detail with a red indicator panel round one side, and with it being thicker and bulkier it shouldn't bend or mishape easily. Articulation is brilliant on the Death Trooper, particularly as the expectations for me were quite low when you consider the Clone and Storm Troopers we have seen to date and how they are restricted by the armour. As the Death Trooper is sleeker and more stream lined this translates to much more movement. This all starts with the usual ball jointed head which can rotate fully and is then hinged to be able to look down as far as getting the mouth piece of the helmet to touch the chest armour. The arms are ball jointed and rather than the shoulder panel withdrawing into the armour, on this figure the shoulder panels have a level of flex which see's them smoothly transition over the shoulder and bend to match the contours as the arms are raised. This means the arms go up a full 90 degrees to the body and can then rotate. Add in a rotating elbow joint which bends past 90 degrees, and a two handed weapon pose is a piece of cake. The torso is also jointed, hidden nicely under the chest plate. What this means is the Torso can lean forward and back and also rotates right round, adding more action poses and scope on displaying the trooper. The hips are ball jointed, and with the belt being a similar flexible plastic like the shoulders, Death Trooper can sit down and comes close to doing the splits. The knees remain double jointed and because of the wider hip movement you can easily have the Death Trooper kneeling on one or two knees and again opening him up to some dynamic action poses. The final joints are the usual ankle rockers, and these are nice and stiff and that means the Trooper is dead easy to stand up and stay that way. I have a feeling the Death Trooper will be the chase figure from this first wave, so grab him when you can - although he is coming back apparently in the 2nd wave later into the Autumn. As a figure he has very few faults, and we award him a 5 out of 5 score with the benefit of the doubt given on those ugly grey plastic guns. Buy from Amazon UK Buy from Amazon US Buy from Forbidden Planet

Review : K-2SO (Rogue One) Star Wars Black Series (Hasbro) Wave/Series : Rogue One Wave 1 Released : September 2016 Price : £21.99 The Star Wars Black Series welcomes the Rogue One figures into it's midst this September, with the launch of the first wave based on Rogue One. Hasbro have made the decision to keep the red & black packaging that launched with The Force Awakens, and therefore the numbering for the Rogue One figures is consecutive to the Saga and Force Awakens figures that have come before. #24 in the series is K-2SO, the new Imperial Security Droid who is in fact serving the Rebellion in the story. Like all the other phase 3 figures before him, K-2SO arrives in the Black packaging with stark red banding down the right hand spine. The grey scale art work remains, as does the multi language bio of the figure on the back. Out of the box, K-2SO is an impressively sized figure - standing a clear 7 and 1/4 inches high, almost as high as Chewbacca. The first thing that strikes you is that although this is essentially an all black figure, there is a very impressive and clean sculpt hidden by the muted dark paint job. Starting with the skeletal head, there are some crisp panel lines and then smaller grills and lights around the mouth area. This is painted in a glossier black at the back of the head, where as the front is a slightly duller matt finish. On top of this there is some intricate and very neat paining of K-2SO's silver/white eyes, some tiny silver grills around his mouth area and with a tiny red indicator light to one side. It's not all perfect though as there has been an attempt to weather/distress the head with some silver paint applications to replicate scratched paint. The smaller ones here work, but a larger "splodgy" one looks too cartoonish for me. The two tone black extends into the body, and as with the head the sculpt is crisp and very mechanical with clean lines and plenty of overlapping panels. The shoulders in particular have 8 varying panels rotating round the shoulder, and then there is the chest panel which again is sculpted with switches and panels. Round the back is the back panel of an Imperial Storm Trooper with the circular port and the two lines, above this sits two small antenna. Further down the back is more paneling and grills. Like the Protocol Droids, the Security Droid have a thinner mid section that extends out of the bulky torso to connect to the hips. Like Protocol droids, such as C-3PO, this mid section contains further sculpt detail albeit in K-2SO's case more uniform and regular vs the "tummy wires" on C-3PO. The height of K-2SO is driven by his long legs which extend out of the hips, down through the knees and to the feet. The arms are of a similar design to the legs, with big rounded joints at the elbows and wrists. The arms are also elongated like the legs, giving the whole figure a lanky and awkward look. All of the body is painted in the same two tone of black, with very neatly painted silver highlights as well as some muted colours - particularly some orange trim around the shoulder and hip sections. This orange paint is not crisp and neat, but quite rough and I think this is to reflect the prop itself rather than being a poor job in the factory. The same weathering and scratching from the head is continued on the body - looking fine in most places, although where there is a larger section - such as the left shoulder - it does start to look like a paint splodge as opposed to some scratching to the droids paint job. The figure's decor is finished with some Imperial logo decals on either shoulder. Articulation on K-2SO is very well engineered, and is a similar approach to the one taken with IG88 - although K-2SO's articulation is much more refined and operates a lot better. The head is on a very thin stalk of a neck, and the head can rotate fully on this neck and thanks to a ball joint can also tilt quite a bit to either side. This neck is then rather beautifully a double ended ball joint with the second end that plugs into the body also being able to move and tilt. This allows the head even wider movement so much so that K-2SO can look almost straight down at his feet if you feel the need. The torso is jointed at the natural joint between upper chest section and the inner mid-drift. This allows the entire torso to be rotated independently to the legs which adds some nice sideways positioning when posing your droid. Arms are ball jointed at the shoulder and can raise out to around 70 degrees to the body and can then rotate around the axis. The elbow joint is really neat as its a circular piece which can be rotated itself as it has a ball joint that plugs into the upper arm and then the lower arm. This joint bends to a full 90 degrees and then the joint rotates also and thanks to the double ended joint you can also rotate the lower arm to your hearts content. The arms finish in a rotating wrist which also bends well past 90 degrees either way, the one gripe is that on my figure one of these joints is quite loose and I suspect it is a weak spot for the figure. There are no accessories supplied with K-2SO although his hands are capable of holding some of the Black Series weapons / accessories. The legs are tackled in exactly the same way as the arms with a ball jointed hip, and then one of these circular double ended joints for the knees. The knee bends a full 90 degrees and then rotates in two places, this means K-2SO can kneel quite easily. The legs end with another circular joint at the ankle, and here it rather strangely allows the foot to be bent 90 degrees front and back if you so wish. The benefit of this joint, and the well engineered feet is that, unlike his 3.75" counter-part, K-2SO is initially a very stable figure and stands really well in a number of poses. (edit Nov 2016) Unfortunately after just a short period of display, the knee and ankle joints loose the tightness they had coming out of the packaging, and unless you put him onto a stand of some kind you will find K-2SO enjoys nothing more than some serious shelf diving. K-2SO is a really solid start to the Rogue One Black Series figures, and when you consider some of the complaints leveled at the first Force Awakens wave it seems Hasbro have worked hard to make sure this figure is well sculpted, well engineered and then presented as best he can with a good paint job out of the factory. (edit Nov 2016) We gave K-2SO an initial rating of 5 out of 5, but I have since found that the leg joints are particularly week after just a few short weeks on display. That makes K-2SO very hard to stand up for periods of time, and with his height and upper bulk he is prone to shelf diving and will take out any other figures nearby. This is frustrating for a figure sold in a collectors range, and sadly there is no real stand options out there for a figure of his statue. I am amending K-2SO to a 4 out of 5 score on the back of these stability issues. Buy from Amazon UK Buy from Amazon US Buy from Forbidden Planet

September 30th, Rogue Friday, will see the SH Figuarts Rogue One product all go up for pre-order and also on offer will be the long awaited Han Solo from A New Hope. Also available, if you can get one, will be the pre-order for the unmasked Kylo Ren - although this one is a Tamashii Nations Web Shop exclusive. The following larger promotional images have now been released for this father and son. Both figures will be released in February 2017 with an RRP of 6264 Yen (£48 / $63).

September 30th, Rogue Friday, will see the SH Figuarts Rogue One product all go up for pre-order. The following larger promotional images have now been released for the fantastic five Rogue One figures in the 1/12 Figuarts line. K-2S0, The Death Trooper and the Scariff (Shore) Trooper will all ship in December 2016. The Hover Tank Pilot and the updated Rogue One Storm Trooper will ship in January 2017. All the figures have an RRP in Japan of 5616 Yen (£43 / $56) except K-2SO who is a touch cheaper at 5400 Yen (£41 / $54). Also going up for pre-order are the Han Solo and Kylo Ren figures, check out the detail on these two HERE

Star Wars Go Rogue | Chapter 4 is now live on Youtube. This final episode is entirely done using the Lego Rogue One product, and wraps up the story nicely ahead of Rogue Friday on the 30th September

Thanks to a local Asda breaking the 30th September 2016 street date I laid my hands on one of the first wave of Rogue One 3.75" figures from Hasbro, K-2SO. 3.75" scale figures are not my usual bag, but they are something Mini-Meph collects and plays. He will be adding his thoughts to this review after introducing K-2SO to the rest of the gang and playing with him for a couple of days. In the meantime, here are my top line views on K-2SO. In terms of the positives, then K-2SO is a very imposing figure, standing almost 4 1/2 inches high, therefore towering over most other 3.75" figures. The sculpt is really nice and the articulation is pretty innovative for a 5POA figure. The head for example is on a double ball joint which means the head moves fully round, and then a joint lower down allows the head to move up or down towards or away from the chest. These same ball joints are in place on the shoulders and hips and give some more movement than normal 5POA figures. There is also a good amount of paint decal with a scratched imperial logo on the shoulder and some more strategic silver detailing, some of which is panel edging where as others are deliberate to make the black paint look worn and scratched. The figure still comes with one of those "imagined" pack in pieces, but at least this one has been thought about and instead of building something over a number of figures, it acts as a weapon for K-2SO. It clips to his arm and the hand then grips the silver grip. The weapon then has a pull out grapple hook which is on a spring that pulls the cord back in when released - reminds me of a piece that came with a Naboo accessory pack back in 1999. The downside on the figure is stability, an issue I hope doesn't translate to the Black Series version. K-2SO by design is top heavy, with a bulky chest sitting on very splindly legs. This means he cannot stand, no matter how hard you try. The nearest I got was bending him over considerably which of course then looks odd. Some wider feet would have helped, as would positioning the feet a bit squarer to the legs or even adding an ankle joint. To allow for free-standing play / display you will have to put K-2SO onto a stand of some kind. So considering the new RRP on these is somewhere between £8 and £9 then you have to say that this is a fairly positive first release, but we will reserve scoring until Mini-Meph has given his view (check back soon)

Medicom have confirmed Harley Quinn will be released in their MAFEX series early next year, dressed in her iconic shorts and top and as seen in Suicide Squad. And it has now been confirmed a 2nd version is on the cards, this time it is the Nightclub version wearing the gold mini-dress and with the hair re-sculpted from the original version. Originally leaked via a press cutting, the official images soon followed. In both the press release and the following promo images there is a picture of Batman in his diving gear from Suicide Squad. This doesn't appear to be a new release, but we think this Diving Gear head will be packed in with Harley Quinn and then you can swap it with the existing Mafex Batman to make the Suicide Squad version.