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These images from the Shizouka Hobby Show reveal that Bandai will be releasing Battle Droids in their 1/12 Model Figure range. This will include a STAP and what looks to be a 2 pack from Attack of the Clones with 3PO head on Battle Droid body and vice versa. You can also see the new Clone Trooper with Phase 2 helmet in the image, and at his feet the phase 1 helmet which will be included in the box - and what looks like a helmet scope similar to Cody's which means the kit may include more interchangeable parts to build a number of Clone Trooper variants

NECA's Twitter feed have just revealed the following 4 images of the boxed series 1 figures in their 40th Anniversary Rocky range. Series 1 will be based on Rocky 3, with two versions of Clubber Lang and two versions of Rocky - including the black shorts Rocky with Championship belt. The Rocky figures are due to ship in Summer and the UK RRP will be around £23.99 You can pre-order from our affiliate partner Forbidden Planet now for £20.87 per figure CLICK HERE

Twelfth Doctor’s Second Sonic Screwdriver Blasts into Character Options’ Collection After months of speculation it is now official, the Twelfth Doctor’s Second Sonic Screwdriver is to be part of the Character Options’ toy collection. The first images have been released with confirmation that the eagerly awaited Sonic will be on sale within weeks! This new toy version is a faithful recreation of the current Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver which debuted in the Series 9 Episode ‘Hell Bent’. This is the first Sonic to have 4 light modes and four sound FX. The model has been designed as a replica from the Series 9 Prop. As all fans would know, the Doctor has carried many Sonic Screwdrivers of various designs throughout his lifetimes, ranging from a simple silver coloured tube to more complex illuminated and articulated versions. This second Sonic for the Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, was ‘gifted' to him by the TARDIS itself after his previous version was lost. Although we are yet to discover all of the new Sonic’s abilities, like the Doctor himself, it has become ever more complex and mysterious. This multipurpose tool features numerous settings and can open most locks, detect all manner of deadly rays, read bio-signs and generate Sonic waves of great power. Alasdair Dewar, Head of Product Development at Character Options commented: “Since this Twelfth Doctor’s Second Sonic Screwdriver appeared at the end of series 9, we have been inundated by fan requests to produce a toy replica as part of our toy range. We are therefore very proud to finally be able to reveal it. The Sonic Screwdriver has historically been one of the most sought after toys for fans and collectors alike and we hope they will be as delighted with it as we are.” The Character Options’ Twelfth Doctor’s Second Sonic Screwdriver costs just SRP £14.99 and is available from for pre-sale orders from Doctor Who merchandise retailers from today.

Captain America movie Facebook page have announced, via a live unboxing, a brand new Marvel Legend 6 inch set coming from Hasbro based on Captain America Civil War. Update : Promotional images have now been released and added to the gallery The set contains a Civil War Captain America who is an identical sculpt to the current wave release, but does have some battle damage deco. He also comes with unmasked Steve Rogers head. There is then a damaged Mark 46 Iron-man, the damage looking to be exclusive to this set and a swap-out Tony Stark head is included. Also included to go with the Iron-Man are some repulsor blast effects. The final pack-in is Spider-man, but sadly not quite the new suit. it is however what looks like a new sculpt, and potentially may well be based on early designs for Spidey's Civil War suit. Spider-man does come holding Cap's shield - which is also weathered and damaged. The set is due for general release on the 1st August 2016 but there "may be opportunities to get this earlier". One potential opportunity may be that this set could be on early sale at SDCC 2016 - but we will have to wait and see. Hasbro Toy store will stock this in the US. So far for UK customers, Entertainment Earth has the item up for pre-order at $62.99 but shipping to UK is a whopping $50, that's £79 in total + custom charges.

NECA revealed their next SDCC 2016 exclusive today, and as it is #Prednesday it could be nothing other than a Predator figure. "SDCC Exclusive revealed for #prednesday Cloaked Scar w Temple Hologram!" The cloaked Scar predator from AvP uses the existing sculpt, but is cast in a clear plastic to represent him cloaked. He comes with a temple hologram, it being also cast in clear plastic - this time red. The figure will carry an SDCC 2016 exclusive sticker as opposed to "convention" exclusive which have been used in the past UK fans should not be disheartened as a follow up Tweet from NECA New Product Director Randy Falk confirmed that "there will be a way, working on something" for overseas fans.

Review : Johann Krauss Hellboy II (Mezco) Wave/Series : Series 1 Released : 2008 Price : N/A Any of you who have followed our site for a while will know the love I have for the Mezco range of Hellboy figures from 2004-2008, and will know of my personal quest to track down an affordable set of figures to represent the two movies. My latest addition is Johann Krauss who is from the first series of figures released in 2008 for the sequel, Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army. My figure was picked up loose so is missing a couple of bits, and therefore any packaging shots we use in the review are stock images. Johann arrives in a full blister pack with red card-back depicting Red's face. The front of the blister uses a stick on insert with the HB2 logo and the character name. The card-back continues the red theme with the top sector dedicated to a plot overview for the film, and the rest of the card a pictorial set of images depicting the other figures in the series. If you are buying carded then watch out for the front insert falling off as it is glued on the outside of the packaging. The blisters can also suffer from yellowing and the card back piece is quite often rippled and creased. Out of the box and Johann is a particularly heavy and chunky figure, a feature in most of the Mezco figures in this range. He stands 7 1/4 inches from diving boots up to the clear dome. This is one of a very small amount of figures where I won't talk about head sculpt as of course there isn't one. The head is made up of a neck piece and onto this sits a clear dome, which can be unclipped and swapped out with a cracked version (missing on ours). The body is a very impressive sculpt considering it is 8 years old. It is essentially a diving suit and there are various panels, piping and valves making up the chest area and round into the back. The belt, with its BRPD logo, is a separate piece round the waist and the figure then moves down to a thick set of legs, metal cast knees - complete with rivets - and diving boots. The figure is coloured in a contrasting beige and dark brown colour scheme which alternates panel. Either of these are not left as a flat colour, and have both a wash and then some dry-brushing to bring out the cloth folds and also act to weather/dirty the suit up. The mechanical parts are bronze and metallic in colour, and again dry-brushed for detail. The two gloves clip off at the wrist and can be swapped out for "ectoplasmic mist" versions where the smoke effect of Johann leaving his armour are sculpted coming out of his fingers. These type of effects rarely work, but Mezco seem to have done a particularly good job on this one and the smoke is both realistic in terms of how it is rolling out of his fingers - and also done in an opaque plastic that means light can pass through it. Overall, Johann is a good sculpt and a decent paint job. He certainly isn't as striking as say Prince Nuada, but is a solid looking support figure rather than a head turner. Articulation is really good, considering this is a bulky figure in a diving suit and is 8 years old. The whole head is on a giant ball joint that means you can rotate the thing fully round and also look up and down. Shoulders are ball jointed and whilst they cant move to a full 90 degrees, they do get most of the way. The elbows are simple joint, with no swivel. The hands by the nature of being plug in and out do rotate a full 360 degrees. There is no torso or waist movement, so the lower half starts with ball jointed hips - which are a tad loose and may be a problem going forward. They do allow for Johann to sit down and do the splits if you really want him to. Like the elbows, the knees are simple one direction joint and the same joint is repeated on the ankles to allow you to pose Johann as though he is striding forward. Johann Kraus is certainly not the star of the Hellboy range, even eclipsed by some of the original figures which are 4 years older than he is. But even at 8 years old, he looks the part vs any similar figures today. The articulation is enough, and is where the figure is clearly dated - but how much articulation do you want for a ghost in a Divers Suit. Johann is not the easiest figure to find at a reasonable price, and if you are buying loose checkout what is included and if there are any issues with the hips being loose. Comparing Johann to the other Mezco figures we have reviewed to date, and considering his age, I am going to award a strong 3 out of 5

NECA have revealed details of their Quarter Scale 20 inch City Hunter Predator, including some "not final" shots of the figure itself. It is due to ship in August. UK fans would expect to be paying circa £100 on release - expect pre-orders to go up shortly. "Based on the 1990 film Predator 2, this massive action figure marks the triumphant return of the#CityHunter to our 1/4 scale line! The action-packed sequel to the original movie moved the hunt to Los Angeles, where even on the streets, the #Predator stalks his prey with deadly precision. Long out of production, the City Hunter 1/4 scale has been updated to include #LED lights in the mask’s targeting system and a new left forearm gauntlet that flips open. The figure stands an impressive 20″ tall and is entirely accurate to the movie design, with over 25 points of articulation and mesh body suit netting. Comes with interchangeable hands, throwing disc and collapsed spear accessories. Uses button cell batteries, included. Starts shipping out to retailers in August 2016!" Source : NECA, Facebook page

NECA are releasing a Thermal Vision Xenomorph with a "glow in the dark" feature. The Xeno will use the recent AvP mould. Announcements broke today thanks to "one of our international partners jumped the gun" and released the image early. NECA soon confirmed the figure via their Twitter feed. In the US it will be a Toys R Us exclusive, whilst the rest of the world will be open to whomever picked it up when it was offered for retail and we would expect pre-orders to go up soon.

Review : Detective Bullock Gotham Select (Diamond Select Toys) Wave/Series : Series 2 Released : March 2016 £19.99 - £22.99 Diamond's range of Gotham Select 7 inch scale figures has reached series 2, with series 3 confirmed and a 4th series in the works for late 2016 early 2017. This 2nd wave brings us Ed Nygma (who we reviewed a couple of weeks back), Alfred and the figure we are going to review here - Detective Harvey Bullock. The oversized, part wrapped, Select blister packaging is a familiar sight now in our Archives. Bullock continues the darker theme that we have seen to date on the Gotham releases with a full art panel on the left hand side of the actor, Donal Logue. Round the back is a full size image of the figure itself overlaid with a character blurb. A pictorial check-list of the other figures in the series adorn the bottom of the card. Out of the box and you find Bullock strapped into the large perspex tray, behind which is a 2-piece diorama scene - we will get to this a bit later. Once released from his twisty ties Bullock stands an impressive 7 1/2 inches high - one of the tallest figures to date, and making him stand slightly awkwardly taller than his partner, Jim Gordon. This is a shame as actors Logue and Ben McKenzie (Gordon) are both around the 1.75m mark and should be similar in height. Sculpt wise, and Bullock looks a bit off to start with. I've decided this is predominantly due to him being packed without his hat - a feature I didn't expect to get. Without the hat and the sculpt is a good likeness to Logue, although I can also look at him sans hat and think he looks more like Triple H from the WWE. The hat works really well considering how most "removable" hats and helmets turn out in Action Figure land. Once on, then the figure is unmistakeably Bullock/Logue and is certainly a step on in head sculpts for Diamond who have been a bit off in the past when you look at figures like the Scott Lang Ant-Man or the Avengers Loki. The facial paint apps are particularly good with some colouring and shading on the basic skin tone. Hair and beard are painted in brown, and then dry-brushed in a lighter grey and this is selective as well rather than all over with the grey flashing the side of the head rather than being applied fully - a nice touch. The Gotham figures are, driven by their design and appearance in the show, quite drab. Bullock is no different. He starts with a basic sculpted off-white shirt, with a striped tie sculpted in rubber and positioned on top. I believe that the shirt/torso sculpt may be the same as used on Gordon - if not it is very similar - and that isn't a bad thing as part sharing will reduce costs and allow DST to give us some more figures in the range. On top of the shirt and tie is a plain brown rubber overcoat. The sculpt on the coat is a tad soft but there is clear definition on the buttons and pockets. The colouring of the coat continues into the arms and the only niggle is the joint which rubs off to easily leaving exposed black plastic instead of brown paint when the arm is moved. Bullock comes packed holding his service revolver in his right hand - this is a decent looking gun, but perhaps a little small. it is cast in black with a brown handle painted. Trousers are plain brown, with no paint applications, and the whole outfit is finished in the dull brown lace-up shoes which are finished in a black sole. Articulation has come on a long way for Select figures. Bullock sports a ball jointed head which can rotate fully and cock from side to side. The shoulders are ball jointed so the arms can be moved out to Bullock's side or above his head - perfect for firing that revolver. The elbows are a single joint, but do rotate, and are very stiff - so much so, and as mentioned above, the paint rubs straight off when you move these. Both hands are sat on pegs and rotate as well as bending back and forth. There is a joint in the chest which allows a small degree of movement forward, backward and to either side. The waist is also jointed and can rotate and from this the hips are on a two way ball joint and at this stage these hips feel quite solid (DST figures have previously suffered with loose hips). The legs then have a thigh swivel which many of you know is a joint I don't feel adds much value and detracts from the figures look. The knees are double jointed and this means Bullock can sit down, kneel or pose on one knee. The leg articulation ends in a rotating joint for the ankles which allows the feet to rock and sit flat to the floor regardless of the pose. As a niggle these ankle joints dont feel ratcheted and are quite loose and I suspect will be a weak point for display and will see figure falling forward after some time. Bullock is packed with quite a standard background which comes in two parts. There has been a bit of bait and switch here with the diorama - with promotional images for Bullock - INCLUDING those on the card-back on Nygma & Alfred - showed the diorama to include a dumpster (skip). The actual release done not include this. There is a pavement as a base and onto this clips a half brick wall which reaches up to Bullock's waste. Unlike say Gordon who came with trash cans, without that dumpster the Bullock base is very plain with just an oil stain breaking the grey paint job. The base itself is also missing any pegs, so doesn't aid in posing the figure in any way. Bullocks' diorama is therefore not the best we have had and certainly not as promised, but it does add some character to a display if you have the room to use them.. As it is wide enough the Bullock base does allow two characters to be displayed - so for me I have moved Gordon onto this one to stand with Bullock which leaves the balcony display for Selina Kyle as we know the balcony sits too low to stand any one underneath. Like Nygma, Bullock is a good step on for the Gotham series. He is a good looking figure, with neat but simple paint apps, and articulation that does enough without being spectacular. He also comes in beautiful packaging AND with a diorama piece, and in most stores for a £20 price tag. The flaky paint on the elbows is a niggle, and the gun is a little small, so he is not perfect - but does enough to score a 4 out of 5. Buy from AMAZON UK Buy from AMAZON US Buy from Forbidden Planet

Happy Sat-TOY-Day, and hope you all had a brilliant #StarWarsDay CLICK HERE for this week's issue. For Star Wars fans this week we have some sneaky pictures of two new Disney Elite diecast figures. While Marvel fans can take a look at Spider-mans first official Marvel Cinematic Universe release and also drool over what SH Figuarts has in store. We also have Ghostbusters, Terminator, Aliens to name but a few. And we lead with our cover story of the latest announcements from McFarlane in their brand new 7 inch Color Top range of figures. www.facebook.com/mephitsu www.twitter.com/mephitsu www.issuu.com/mephitsu

Fan sites, including ourselves, have been lined up for an announcement this coming week on the 12th May from the Dr Who figure licencee Character Options. Come back after 3pm on the 12th where all will be revealed directly on our Website News as well as on our social channels Who's excited?

The following display images are coming out of the Far East from a recent Trade show and are a nice round-up of what Tamashii Nations have in store for Marvel fans in their 1/12 SH Figuarts range. Starting with Iron-Man 3 they showed their Tony Stark (Mechanic) figure, a piece we saw teased at the back end of last year that they said was planned to come with some form of Hall of Armor from Tony's basement. Pictured alongside Tony is the Iron-Man Mark 42 in that classic super hero landing. Onto Avengers Age of Ultron, and it's a bit of a recap shot with figures of Hulk, Captain America, Iron-Man Mk43, Thor, Black Widow, War Machine and Ultron himself. Fans will hope the omission of the previously teased Hawkeye in this line up is nothing sinister. A 3rd display concentrates on Iron-Man, but outside of any film constraints, with displays of what looks like the Mark 6, Mark 42 again, The Hulkbuster, War Machine and then the Iron Patriot. Finally we get to Civil War where we see Ant-man and Black Panther, but also an unmasked Civil War Cap going up against that Mark 46 Iron-Man armour. Some of these are already at pre-order stage - most recently the Black Panther who is a Bandai Webstore exclusive. Others we eagerly await more details on - particularly how that Tony Stark will pan out with or without the originally planned diorama.