Never say never in the toy industry these days. With action figure prices going up and sales going down, rivals are cooperating to an unprecedented degree to create the kinds of crossovers fans once only dreamed of. Creators, too — Todd McFarlane first came to fame in comics with his Spider-Man artwork, and he’s always wanted to sculpt a Spider-Man toy. Now he’ll get that wish to come true.
McFarlane Toys holds the main toy license for DC Comics characters as well, so it’s a bit of a crossover, but the rights to action figures in all his usual scales are off the table — Hasbro owns the 6-inch scale and below, while Diamond Select controls 7-inch. But non-poseable statues are available, and McFarlane will be doing them in both the 7-inch and 12-inch scales. In both cases, they will be artist-specific, based not just on McFarlane artwork, but also that of his friends like Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita, Jr. Characters depicted in the first wave will include Deadpool, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. (You can probably guess which character matches which artist.
Spawning Marvels
The 12-inch statues will depict Spider-Man and Captain America, based on McFarlane-drawn covers. The company didn’t send images in their press release, but we found this:
Looks like comics will be included with the big guys. Now let’s see if anyone involved has the sense of humor to make that Rob Liefeld Captain America cover — you know the one.
McFarlane himself offered the following quote via press release, which sounds better if you hear it in your head as his voice:
“For literally decades, thousands of Marvel fans and fans of my McFarlane Toys have deluged me with requests of wanting to see a Marvel and McFarlane Toys collaboration. Thanks to the invaluable support and collaboration from Marvel in making these new products a reality, I will now get this wonderful opportunity to not only be able to produce statue-like figures based upon my own artwork (who wouldn’t jump at the chance to turn their own 2-D drawings into 3-D reality?), but I will also have the great pleasure of being able to create products based upon some of the amazingly talented peers in our wonderful comic book industry. As fun as it will be to play with some of my own artwork, I am really looking forward to developing figures based upon the finest creators in comics. Get ready, everyone!”
Expect the first releases this summer.
