Is it just me, or did NYCC seem like a particularly toy-heavy show this year? NECA had a ton of stuff in their booth, Jada had some new things, McFarlane’s panel was packed with stuff and Nacelle showed off four new Star Trek figures and named four more. All that before mentioning the 10-ten gorilla of toys, Hasbro!
Hasbro kicked of NYCC with their new Ghostbuster’s Haslab and it’s a doozy. The base model costs $324 and comes with new Slimer and Library Ghost figures along with a gurney for the packs. The vehicle has copious lights and sounds and looks like a fantastic presentation all together. I was bracing myself for this cost, I figured it would have to be in the Engine of Vengeance territory, so I wasn’t too shocked.
For $75 more you can get the deluxe model with all of that plus four new Ghostbusters figures in their Gray gear from that movie, 4 packs, 2 slime blowers, blast effects, as well as parts to mod the Ecto-1 into the Ghostbusters II version with more stuff on the roof rack.
The price tag is pretty hefty and the vehicle itself looks insanely massive at 22.5 inches long. I think I have a shelf for it and it would make a great display centerpiece for all the Plasma Collection figures I bought. It’s weird saying this for a $400 dollar item, but the upgrade from base to deluxe seems like relatively a good deal for $75. I think some of the cost of that deluxe has already factored into the base model cost.
I’m still not decided. I’m having the same qualms I had about the Engine of Vengeance cost and I’m also concerned about the decals. They mention that if you get the deluxe, you get two sets of decals. I’d love the ability to switch between the Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II versions, but the decals sound permanent to me. They do mention that the decals on the lit sign on the Ecto-1a are removeable, but don’t mention that for the decal sheet, so I’m not sure. Typically, for something this pricey, I’d prefer a permanent Tampo. There is also an early bird figure, Tulley in the Ghostbuster gear, if fully backed within two weeks. They are half way there already after a few days, so I think there’s hope there.
The G.I. Joe Panel kicked off with some bad news, saying that the 2025 Joe figures would be delayed. There wasn’t a lot of details, but they mentioned that they are going to strive to make sure to give us realistic due dates on pre-orders.
I had forgotten that Footloose got a name only reveal. He’s looking good, though he’s never been one of my favorites, I’m glad to see he got a new rocket launcher and they didn’t re-use Bazooka’s weapon. I also like that they have done the leafy netting from the original figure but spruced it up a bit with headphones and a mic.
In much better news, they showed off the first part of what was teased at SDCC and Pulse Con, the first Hunt for the M.A.S.S. device figure. Throughout 2025 there will be three items that will contain the M.A.S.S. device catalyst elements to assemble. This is an awesome classified take on the Sunbow Snake Eyes and I am 100% here for that even before we get to that amazing looking polar bear. Emily mentioned that there is a removeable piece of fur that can be swapped on to show the bear being hit with arrows. She also mentioned there is something under there that we won’t see until the actual figure reveal. I cannot wait to see what the other Sunbow goodness we’ll be getting. I’m hoping/betting on the Joe Divers in Yellow and Cobra Divers in red at the very least. Maybe this would be how they release a Sunbow styled Wild Bill!
The firefighter looks fantastic and is a reference to some 12 inch figures. I could see this guy slotting into a lot of displays for sure. He looks to me like he reuses a bunch of Mole Rat parts. Or is that Snow Job? I mix those up. I think he needs some more axes though. Three is amateur hour. You gotta bump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.
The Cobra Bunker and Trench Viper were surprising reveals and I’m glad to see them getting into environmental stuff. This looks stackable and I’m thinking you could make a wall with a few of them. The repainted Alley Viper is a cool paint scheme, so I wouldn’t mind getting a few of this guy. I do have to admit that at first glance the bunker itself reminded me of one of my backyard toolsheds in shape.
For figure reveals, they had the previously announced Retro Rock N Roll, Mindbender, and Viper. The Mindbender figure has a slightly new cape with the silver Cobra sigil, but seems otherwise fairly close to his original release. I don’t need this one, but I know a lot of people missed this figure initially, so I think it’s a smart release.
I have grown to really like the original Rock N Roll figure, but this is what I originally wanted. That said, I kinda miss the tattoos now. Still, this will 100% be my figure on the shelf. I love that they got the bullet belt in gold this time. Rocky was my first Joe figure, so this one hits those perfect nostalgia notes for me.
This one brings me joy and annoys me at the same time. With the short sleeves and open gauntlets the Viper looks so much cooler to me. I also think we are going to get way more mobility out of this figure since the belt is now seperate from the flack jacket overlay. Looks like he uses Cobra Commander hands, so he’s got more posing options there too. What annoys me is how many of the original Viper I bought. I wish I could replace them all with this for free! Like a rebate program of some kind.
The name only reveals were cool. Darklon we kinda knew was coming since we’ve seen his weapon leak from a factory, but Crystal Ball was surprising. They did say that they didn’t go super classic with Crystal Ball, so I’m curious to see what this “amazing direction” is. Could it be the more Rasputin style from the Cobra miniseries? Snake Eyes V4 is also coming. I’ve never been a huge fan of this look, but I’m sure they’ll make it cool in Classified.
Finally there was a teaser for a new vehicle. I’m assuming AWE Striker, but I’ve seen a lot of people guess Thunder Machine. Lenny did tease the idea of re-designing the Thunder Machine when I talked to him about it two years ago, but this would be quite a departure.
The Star Wars section was all about Skeleton Crew, my favorite reveal being this Shistavanen pirate captain named Brutus. I love seeing new takes on classic Cantina Aliens and I’m optimistic about the show’s Amblin style kid’s adventure.
Jude Law looks to me like he got a bit Oscar Isaac’d (handsome actor looking weird in figure form) here with the portrait and the hobo beard. I’m almost getting Phil Collins vibes from the face. I’m missing the black lining on his shirt collar since we’ve seen that’s basically a cloud city Lando shirt he’s wearing.
Neel is probably the cutest thing this side of baby Yoda and I love all his storable gear and pack. The colors really pop here too. Modern Star Wars figures can be fairly drab in lots of black, white and brown tones, but the blue, red and orange here sing.
The rest of the kids aren’t as interesting to me outside of my general interest in Star Wars designs. It’s kind of interesting to see what kids wear in the Star Wars universe and how it’s sourced from our world. Like I think Fern has weed-pulling knee-pads on and KB’s backpack looks like a regular thing you’d buy at Target. I was kind of hoping one of these kids would come with the Fuzzball we saw in the trailer.
Cody is interesting because I like the retro packaging for Revenge of the Sith and felt like he could use a removeable helmet, but I don’t think this head works for me as ROTS Cody. As I recall he had a scar over his left eye and a Jango Fett head would be more appropriate. I like the little order 66 holo though.
Finally, the Legends team showed off their new X-Men ’97 Sentinels. These guys are 22 inches tall and very classically styled, so I’m thinking they would work well with some Classic X-Men figures too. They also mentioned that more X-Men ’97 figures are on the way to go with this. Priced to go at $175, I’m glad to see they are revisiting Sentinels at a more attainable price point after the Haslab figure. This made to order thing could net us a lot of cool stuff. The price felt a little high to me (is he seven figures worth of plastic?) at first, but the comparison to the original Sentinel and Giant Man by Hard Return on Twitter does make me feel a bit better about it. I love the shots with multiples of this thing, but damn that’s a lot of space and moolah, especially if I’m going to get an Ecto-1. Hasbro is releasing so much good stuff that I think they cannibalize the customers from themselves sometimes. The Sentinel is up now and is scheduled to ship in October of 2025.
Wow, that was a lot and I didn’t even cover the Transformers and TVC because I don’t care about those! What are you after from these reveals? Let me know below or on our forums!
Source: The Fwoosh
