This Week’s Toy News Features Visitors from Several Galaxies Far, Far Away

This Week’s Toy News Features Visitors from Several Galaxies Far, Far Away
Contributor: Andrew Liszewski and James Whitbrook

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, Gizmodo’s regular roundup of all things good and plastic on the internet lately. This week, Alf’s back, not in Pog form! Plus, Star Wars returns to the classic Droids cartoon for new figures, and the New Batman Adventures era of Joker gets a haunting new action figure. Check it out!

Image: Hasbro
Image: Hasbro

Hasbro Star Wars: The Vintage Collection Droids Figures

Disney continues to squeeze every last drop of merchandising from every last Star Wars property, and now that the animated Droids series is on Disney+ and presumably enjoying a new fan base, Hasbro is resurrecting the classic 3.75-inch figures from the series. This time around they are far more detailed and articulated, although it looks like the vintage paint jobs are being preserved. Available exclusively from Target, Artoo, Threepio, and Boba Fett will each set you back $22 for each, while a new Black Series six-inch Boba Fett figure will also be available, sporting the same vintage colour scheme but with a $37 price tag.

Image: Medicom
Image: Medicom

Medicom MAFEX Symbiote Suit Spider-Man Figure

Peter Parker’s most iconic alternative outfit (sorry to Bag-Man fans) is the latest Spidey to hit Medicom’s MAFEX line. Recreating the legendary Secret Wars-era suit that gave rise to Venom after Peter was done celebrating that Black Was In, the new figure comes with a host of webbing accessories, including a nifty web-backpack for Peter to keep all his stuff in mid-swing. On top of alternate hands to pose the figure, there’s also three different heads: two masked, one with wider suit eyes and one with narrowed lenses, and a third unmasked option that gives Pete a symbiote-influenced glower, and has an alternate neck piece to replicate the gooey edges of the suit clasped around Peter’s throat. He’ll set you back around $115 when he releases in Japan in July 2022. [Toyark]

Image: NECA
Image: NECA

NECA Ultimate ALF Figure

Of all the ‘80s TV series being revived by the various streaming services, it’s a crime against syndication that no one has brought ALF back to the airwaves. The NBC sitcom brought alien life forms into our living rooms long before The Mandalorian did, but with the addition of a soul-soothing laugh track. But at least someone is respecting the memory of ALF. NECA is packing the furry alien full of excellent articulation and accessories based on his primetime adventures, including his favourite treat: the Tanners’ pet cat. There’s no pricing or pre-order details yet, but it’s expected to be released sometime in the spring of 2022.

Image: Hot Toys
Image: Hot Toys

Hot Toys Marvel What If…? The Hydra Stomper and Steve Rogers Sixth-Scale Figure Set

Be honest, the first thing that came to your mind when the Hydra Stomper was introduced in Marvel’s What If…? was that you hoped Hot Toys would produce yet another-the-top toy version of a Stark mech, right? This sixth-scale figure set not only includes an 11-inch version of the animated Steve Rogers (minus the character’s Captain America powers) with 30+ points of articulation, but also a 22-inch version of the Hydra Stomper mech with eight points of articulation, glowing LED eyes and arc reactor, and an opening hatch that reveals more than enough room inside for Rogers to climb aboard. Pricing details aren’t known yet, but the set will probably cost well north of $690, and you’re going to have to wait until the first or second quarter of 2023 for it to arrive.

Image: Topps
Image: Topps

2021 Topps x Mego Borg Queen Figure

Topps’ latest week-long exclusive drop with Star Trek Megos gives us two iconic blasts from the TNG era: not seen up top is a TNG-era Worf, complete with his yellow security uniform and his Klingon baldric, worthy of any son of House Mogh, but joining the honorable officer in this week’s offerings is a… very hippy Borg Queen.

Based on her appearance in First Contact, the retro toy vibes are certainly an interesting mishmash with the Borg aesthetic, taking away the techno-organic greebling of the Queen’s body and replacing it with an all-over body suit. The headsculpt’s pretty cool though — and if you’re interested in either figure, you’ve only got a few more days before the limited-time pre-order window closes, ahead of an actual release in approximately three months from now. [Toyark]

Image: Medicom
Image: Medicom

Medicom The New Batman Adventures MAFEX Joker figure

Can you ever have too many figure versions of one of the best comic book bad guys of all time from his appearance in one of the better animated series of all time? Do you even need to ask? Despite standing just 6.3-inches tall, Medicom’s MAFEX Joker figure, based on his appearance in The New Batman Adventures, one of the follow-ups to the beloved Batman: The Animated Series, will come with a hefty $145 price tag when officially available in July of next year. The figure isn’t made of gold, but it does include two head sculpts, swappable hands, accessories that include a paper aeroplane made of folded money, and lots of articulation, including a clever knee joint that keeps the Joker’s pant creases looking nice and stiff.

Image: Build-A-Bear Workshop
Image: Build-A-Bear Workshop

Build-A-Bear Workshop Beetlejuice Bear

D’awww. If you prefer your Halloween festivities to be on the adorable side, the Build-a-Bear workshop has given Beetlejuice a teddy bear makeover with a fluffy head of green hair, a black and white striped suit, and a built-in sound chip that plays six Michael Keaton quotes directly from the movie. Don’t bother hitting up your local mall to build your own, however; Beetlejuice is a $75 online exclusive, and arrives pre-stuffed.


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