Mcfarlane Toys seems to be taking an interesting approach to the selection of action figures (or parts of action figures) that they will be releasing early in 2009. In addition to their typical action figure releases, Mcfarlane seems to be leveraging their manufacturing to create more product releases with less. Here's what I mean. In my previous blog post, I told you about the new series of Halo 3 action figures. That's nothing new. The Halo figures have been amazingly successful for Mcfarlane Toys. What is interesting is that Mcfarlane is also releasing a line of Halo helmets. The McFarlane Halo helmets are small helmets that are about an inch tall. They are made to fit any twelve inch Mcfarlane Halo action figure. You can check out a few of the helmets in my Mcfarlane Halo helmets photo gallery.

In addition to the Halo helmets, Mcfarlane has also just announced the upcoming release of a huge number of Guitar Hero guitars. The first season of Mcfarlane Guitar Hero action figures based on the video games are expected to start shipping from retailers at the end of the month. The Mcfarlane guitars are 4 inch action figure accessories for the Guitar Hero figures. The guitars be customized with a number of stickers that come with each guitar.

This is an interesting move for Mcfarlane, but it seems like it could be great news for action figure customizers. Being able to purchase quality action figure accessories at a fairly low price is a great benifit for collectors who enjoy making custom action figures. As far as I know, none of the other major action figure companies have released action figure accessories for individual sale. Are there others? Leave a comment to let us know.

Image Copyright Mcfarlane Toys

Halo action figures from Mcfarlane Toys continue to be some of the most popular action figures ever produced by Mcfarlane. The action figures based on the video game series are highly detailed figures that stay true to the video games.

I just finished reviewing the new third series of Halo 3 action figures. While I was looking at some photos of the Halo 3 figures something dawned on me that I have never thought about before. It's well known in the action figure industry that some manufacturers, including Mcfarlane, use 3-D scanning technology to guide their sculptors when making a new figure. For Mcfarlane SportsPicks figures, Mcfarlane scans the athelete in a number of different poses then this data is put into a computer program to create a virtual 3-D model of the figure to help guide the action figure sculptors. Obviously, for a video game action figure like the Halo 3 action figures, this isn't possible. It really points to the talented Mcfarlane Toys sculptors that they are able to keep their Halo 3 action figures line so true to the video game.

About a month ago, I told you about some upcoming Mezco Toys The Spirit action figures in this blog post. Well, it looks like Mezco isn't the only action figure company with The Spirit. Recently, Diamond Select Toys announced that they will be producing their representations of the movie characters as a set of The Spirit Minimates.

If you're not familiar with them, Minimates are small two inch tall block-like figures made by Diamond Select Toys. Some collectors are more familiar with Medicom Kubricks. Minimates are essentially the same type of figures that are about as tall as the 100% Kubricks.

Recently, the hype around The Spirit movie has been growing in the action figure industry with the announcements of these new action figure releases. As hype like this grows before a movie is even released, it always makes me wonder what happens if the movie bombs. As for The Spirit action figures, I guess it probably won't matter for some collectors. From what I can tell of The Spirit action figures... at least the Mezco figures, they seem to be cool enough to garner some attention from collectors even if the movie isn't great. Do you have any favorite action figures that were great, but that were based on a horrible movie? Leave a comment below or hit up our action figure forums to let us know.

Image copyright Diamond Select Toys

The Cult Classics series of action figures by NECA is composed of some of the best horror movie action figures on the market today. Recently, NECA added to their Cult Classics line with a new figure based on the 1970’s horror movie, The Exorcist.

The fact that NECA added the Exorcist action figure to their Cult Classics line isn’t surprising. It fits well with other figures from the series based on movies like Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Beatlejuice and The Lost Boys. What is surprising is the amazing creativity that the designers at NECA put into the Exorcist figure. Getting an action figure to stand up is a challenge in itself for action figure sculptors, but NECA did something pretty amazing with their Exorcist action figure. They added a staircase diorama that is sold with the figure. The action figure is made to be balanced in a pose on 2 different steps to recreate the freaky “spider walk” scene from the movie. By utilizing the hair from the Exorcist figure as a point of contact to balance the action figure, they were able to create a unique mirage that the figure is actually in midair. That’s just plain awesome. Check out my NECA Exorcist action figure review for a picture. You'll see what I mean.

Also, I would love to hear your comments on your favorite action figures that were creatively sculpted like this one for a specific display pose. What’s your favorite?