Just for fun - what other 3 3/4 inch lines do you want to grow your Zica Universe?

[Hedji]

Absolutely! I was just going to post this.

Mattel goofed up by making them 6 inch in the first place. 6 inch figures, which got popular in the '90s, are appealing to the generation that grew up without Adam West as Batman. 6 inch just seems wrong for this aesthetic.

3 3/4 would be perfect, and would lend itself to vehicles, bikes, and playsets much more than 6 inch.

[bgiles73]

I did an IMDB search for Kolchak The Nightstalker and saw that a movie is in the works with Johnny Depp starring and Edgar Wright directing. Maybe now might be the time to get a classics line going. That's some BS about the Batman Classics line. Mattel just like all the other big toy companies deserve to lose ground to the little guy.

[Scousebadger]

I'd love to see the recent BSG in Kenner format. While the 7" figures were OK, I felt a bit cheated that there were no "fun" toys released.

Imagine 3.75" figures of Adama, Apollo, Starbuck and the rest along with vipers and a command centre playset. Not to mention "human" Cylons plus centurions and raiders, plus a basestar playset.

I'd sell some major organs to get my mitts on those.

[jp1977]

Getting back to 66 Batman, they didn't even do a companion Joker for the Batman figure with the surf board! I know that some characters like Aunt Harriett, Ma Barker, Lord Ffogg and Chief O'Hara may be a tough sell. But four villians from that rogues gallery, you have got to be kidding me. First off Mr. Freeze is a top tier villian and The Clock King and The Mad Hatter are second tier villians. Vincent Price is an icon in Horror/Suspense and Egg Head would have sold. While the late Victor Buono died over 30 years ago his rogue, King Tut was in at least three episodes. The Archer, Bookworm, The Minstrel, Shame, Fingers and the other variations of Catwoman based on Lee Meriwether and Eartha Kitt could have been made. In addition some multipacks featuring some generic henchmen of The Riddler, Joker and Penguin could have been made. Not to mention the Batcycle, Batcoper and Bat Boat!

[Aricosaur]

I'd love to see the recent BSG in Kenner format. While the 7" figures were OK, I felt a bit cheated that there were no "fun" toys released.

Imagine 3.75" figures of Adama, Apollo, Starbuck and the rest along with vipers and a command centre playset. Not to mention "human" Cylons plus centurions and raiders, plus a basestar playset.

I'd sell some major organs to get my mitts on those.

New BSG is too depressing for "fun" toys.

[Scousebadger]

New BSG is too depressing for "fun" toys.

Nah! Imagine them in a Kenner style

[Aricosaur]

Nah! Imagine them in a Kenner style

I love the ship designs and character designs and the new cylons on new BSG but, man, I couldn't watch that show. I watched the whole initial mini-series but I couldn't watch more than five minutes of the regular series at a time. Too oppressive for me. I have real life to make me depressed.

If you could do New BSG as an extension of a Classic BSG line I could get into that. But, for me, the New stuff would 'live' in the Classic world.

[Scousebadger]

LOL I loved the new BSG. I was happy it was more than just the classic series redone with different actors.

I do think that both series have great play value, but the classic series has been done, and Craig has stated he's not willing to redo what has been done before (like Mego's Buck Rogers line), so the modern incarnation seems to stand more of a chance than the classic series.

[brannon86]

Doc Savage

Sgt Fury

Sgt Rock

KISS

[jp1977]

Over at Figures.com Super 7 announced they have partnered with Funko and announced some of their future Reaction lines are The Terminator, Aliens, Billd & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Goonies, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Escape from NY, Predator and Firefly. Hope this wasn't one of your dream licenses, Craig. I really think you are right that if this retro trend catches on and I believe it will, eventually the big boys will do something like Hasbro releasing some additional vintage figures for Star Wars or some Movie GI Joes in 1980's style. BTW doing some work on the main page?

[ZICA]

Over at Figures.com Super 7 announced they have partnered with Funko and announced some of their future Reaction lines are The Terminator, Aliens, Billd & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Goonies, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Escape from NY, Predator and Firefly. Hope this wasn't one of your dream licenses, Craig. I really think you are right that if this retro trend catches on and I believe it will, eventually the big boys will do something like Hasbro releasing some additional vintage figures for Star Wars or some Movie GI Joes in 1980's style. BTW doing some work on the main page?

I actually shared this info on the ZICA Facebook page when I found out about it because it's proof positive that the format is getting popular. Luckily, none of the properties are one of my dream licenses so I'm safe for now. I just hope Super 7/Funko aren't spreading themselves too thin with trying to do so many properties at once because the quality and attention to detail could suffer from it. Also, I think one of the key factors in assuring that this format stays popular is to offer vehicles and playsets. These are what made the format popular back in the 70's and 80's. Sales of the Kenner Star Wars figures were off the charts, but I doubt it would have been like that if there were no ships or playsets to go with them.

Yes, my webpage is pretty much a mess right now. I thought it would be a good idea to let someone else take care of it and so far it's not working out very well.

[Aricosaur]

...Also, I think one of the key factors in assuring that this format stays popular is to offer vehicles and playsets...

Agree 100 percent. The original marketing plan for 3 3/4 figures was that the vehicles are the 'razors' and the figures are the 'razor blades.' They work together.

People say that vehicles and playsets don't sell any more but they haven't been designing them right. The vehicles and playsets weren't made to work with the figures in the same line. There were some Star Wars vehicles in the early 2000's that the figures released at the same time wouldn't even fit in! Or look at the big vehicle released for the Captain America: the First Avenger line. It holds three figures?! And it doesn't do anything interesting with them.

For a current playset that is designed correctly and selling well look at the new ninja turtles sewer playset. They just set up a new display of them at my Wal-Mart (which means I still have hope of getting one for myself ).

[bgiles73]

I have to agree about play sets. Hasbro hasn't got a clue anymore. Collectors and kids alike would be all over a Death Star, Ewok Village, and Jabba's Sail Barge and Palace! The executives of these big toy companies have just lost the edge that toy companies of the 70s and 80s had. Kids love playsets be they physical (Castle Grayskull,GI Joe Headquaters) or virtual( Skylanders and Disney Infinity playsets). A whole bunch of action figures with no interactivity to fire the imagination are just going to gather dust! This news of Super7/Funko announcement really has me hopeful for two lines I really want to see- Star Trek and X-Files!

[Bionicfanboy66]

Over at Figures.com Super 7 announced they have partnered with Funko and announced some of their future Reaction lines are The Terminator, Aliens, Billd & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Goonies, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Escape from NY, Predator and Firefly. Hope this wasn't one of your dream licenses, Craig. I really think you are right that if this retro trend catches on and I believe it will, eventually the big boys will do something like Hasbro releasing some additional vintage figures for Star Wars or some Movie GI Joes in 1980's style. BTW doing some work on the main page?

Would like to see a decent sized Serenity playset to go along with a line of 3.75" Firefly figures. That would make any browncoat's day.

[LordMudd]

I have said it before and I will keep on saying it, you need Playsets. 3 3/4 inch is the only scale for action figures because it is the only scale that allows playsets that are cost effective to make and sell. To me as a collector they are a background to display the figures in. My favorite example of a total bomb is Playmates Star Trek TNG line. They may consider it a success because they sold more figures than all other lines before it combine, but I consider it a failure because the playsets were a total failure. The Bridge set was the same size as the Kenner Death Star, but with about a fifth of the play value. Who wants to pay $50 for that? The only playset that would have worked for that line at that scale would have been the only one they did not even try to do, the Holodeck. The nice thing about the Holodeck is that it becomes many different worlds in just one playset. You don't get a more perfect opportunity than that, and when you drop that ball, someone NEEDS to be replaced with someone who is actually qualified to do that job.

CCC.