Any serious toy collector knows that it’s not Toys R Us that has the top quality new toys you need to display on your shelf. It’s the low production run collectibles that are sold at the comic book retailers that come from Diamond Select that you need to watch out for and snatch up the section they hit the rack. This past week at Toy Fair, Diamond revealed their upcoming slate of Marvel licensed products. This year’s line focuses on the Avengers movie, the Amazing Spider-Man film and a new lineup of Minimates.

Both the Avengers movie versions of the Hulk and Hawkeye are getting their first Marvel Direct treatment since the Hulk model will be updated from previous films and Hawkeye never his from his brief cameo in Thor.

In addition, the Amazing Spider-Man will be getting figures and busts made in the likeness of bother Spider-Man and the Lizard. These are the first images allowing people a true full unshadowed view of the Lizard who was disguised by shadow and fleeting high speed motion in the recent trailer.

Though Spider-Man purists may be able to get past the redesign of the Spider-Man costume, it is going to be a challenge for some to get over the look of the Lizard who somewhat resembles the look of the Goombas from the early 90s Super Mario Bros feature film. The duo will also be getting a Minimate treatment as well.

The Minimate line will also be giving other characters the treatment for the first time with new Minimates such as the new Ultimate Spider-Man and Dazzler. Take a look at the full gallery below and make sure to let us know what you think about all the upcoming Marvel characters from Diamond Select.

Later this year, Nickelodeon will be reinventing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon much in the way that IDW Publishing reinvented the TMNT comic line. While the core characteristics of the Turtles will remain intact, the creative teams behind these versions have gone in two very different directions. While IDW has gone for a more gritty and realistic (well as realistic as mutant turtles can be) version of the shelled foursome, Nickelodeon is going the other direction with a more kid friendly version much in the way the comics and cartoon series diverged over twenty years ago.

At Toy Fair, the Flickcast got to see some of these latest Turtles designs up close and personal. The first thing people will notice actually isn’t the turtles at all but the redesigns on Shredder, Splinter and April. Shredder’s redesign looks like it has some drastic anime inspired influences behind him. He has been beefed up in terms of muscles and has more exaggerated spikes on his armor than ever before. The same goes for the Foot Soldier’s who now have incredibly creepy white with red polka dotted eyes.

The Flickcast returned to Toy Fair on Monday to check out the newest figures, games and collectibles coming out in the next year. (Just in case you didn’t see last year’s gallery, check it out here)

Like the announcement last year of a new Thundercats reboot, this year was graced with a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line which we will talk more about in the coming days. We also got to take a look at the newest assortment of Skylanders coming out for this year’s Skylanders Giants. We also had the privilege to talk to the master scribe and artist Todd McFarlane about the latest lines he has coming out this year for Halo and the Walking Dead. Stay tuned for that later this week too.

There was tons of licensing going on this year, see the Dark Knight Returns Mr. Potato Head if you don’t believe us. LEGO also expanded on their licensing of the DC and Marvel franchises with life sized Hulk, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman pieces as well as further expansion of their Star Wars line.

Surprisingly, Portal 2 had a huge presence on the show floor as well with Companion Cubes, Portal Gun replicas and even Cave Johnson Portraits.

Take a peek below at all this plus way more with our look at the show floor of Toy Fair 2012.

At Toy Fair, Senario gave us a look at their latest line of the Zibits, a series of unique, collectible, miniature RC robots. Unlike most action figures from Toy Fair, the Zibits stood out to us at the Flickcast because they make a perfect little desktop toy.

They are cost effective ($10), small and geek friendly. What geek doesn’t want their own little robot servant?

Now while the Zibits are too tiny to do any real damage, they can definitely be a conversation piece or a time killer in any office. And that makes them perfect as a giveaway for the Flickcast.

How would you win such an awesome prize? Well, it’s simple! Just keep an eye on our Twitter account next week, and we’ll give you some classic robot trivia for you to answer. Get it right, and you can win!

In the meantime, take a look at another one of these cool RC Robots that you can win after the jump.

At Toy Fair, we were lucky enough to get the chance to see one of the newest undertakings by Activision called Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure. Under developer Toys For Bob, Activision is combining the much loved Spyro video game series with a brand new toy line.

But this isn’t just a tie in with action figures modeled off characters from the game. Instead, players will take these figures and place them on an attachment for their Nintendo Wii to load any of the 32 characters in to the game. Young players will be given the opportunity to do something they never have before, watch their toys come to life in front of them on a video game screen.

Seeing these toys in person, they look as if they were all beautifully hand sculpted. Spyro even has a little bit of a badass feel to him instead of the super fluffy dragon he started out as. What you don’t immediately see is the technology hidden underneath that gives these toys the read/write ability to load information in to the Wii using the Portal of Power and then take the experience and treasure that player has found with them to their next destination.

Okay, here’s my official take on the Academy Award show this year. The entertainment world is abuzz today with reports of how horrible James Franco and Anne Hathaway were as hosts of the show. I think that they are being unfairly maligned. I found Hathaway charming, beautiful, and eager to please.

On the other hand, Franco seemed like he didn’t give a crap about the show or his performance. He was obviously stoned out of his mind, and I am not one to judge, but that is flat out disrespectful. Do that stuff on your own time, not when you are in front of a billion people. Anne Hathaway didn’t stand a chance when she was saddled with the stoner from hell. I genuinely felt bad for her.

Franco has had an amazing year. I used to dismiss him as a joke, until I saw his performance in 127 Hours. He was astounding. Shortly after I saw the film, I spoke at a public event, and swore that I would never sell him short again. Until now.

Franco has squandered all the good will he has earned in one catastrophic hosting gig. Back in the penalty box you go, Mr. Franco. This time it won’t be so easy to earn your way out. For a very funny take on Franco’s questionable frame of mind, check out this Gawker.com article.

To be fair, I truly didn’t feel that the two were given much to do. Outside of a great film montage at the beginning of the show, they were barely present. Perhaps that was a blessing. Still, Hathaway deserves props.

Franco’s quick little appearance in drag was bizarre, jarring and random. I felt like I was watching an SNL skit.

As it is every week, this week’s episode of The Flickcast is brimming with fun, entertainment, knowledge and all sorts of humor and insightful commentary. Well, it’s sorta funny at least.

Anyway, this week Chris and Matt are joined by Chief Gaming Guru John Carle to talk all things DCU Online, Sony PS2, PSP2, Activision and Toy Fair. In addition, they discuss new trailers for X-Men: First Class and I Am Number Four, Smallville‘s series finale featuring Lex Luthor and a whole lot more.

Chris, Matt and John also make some new picks this week to help guide you and highlight movies, TV shows, games and more that you may not have heard of. What were the picks? Well, you’ll just have to listen to the show to find out. We can’t always give everything away.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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It’s that time of year again when we all gather together to see our loved ones… that’s right. The Con season has begun. Whether it’s SXSW, Toy Fair, C2E2 or Comic Con in San Diego, if you are a reader (or writer) of the Flickcast, it’s likely you are going to end up at least one, if not all, of the Cons this season. Our first one up on the east coast is Toy Fair. Now while Toy Fair isn’t open to the general public, we made sure to get in and get a peek at some of the hottest new toys of the season.

We got to take a peek at the new models for the Walking Dead action figures alongside our friends from MTV Splashpage as the legendary Todd McFarlane himself explained how the zombie bodies will literally explode in the customer’s hands. We can’t wait to see the final versions in action.

There was a plethora of Green Lantern merchandise that we were unfortunately unable to snag pictures of as well as the brand new Thundercats line which is coming out soon. We were able to sneak a few pictures though of some of the Mezco Green Lantern products though.

The video game world was represented strong with Sonic The Hedgehog, Halo, Deus Ex, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy and Little Big Planet. Activision also announced to the world Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure for the Wii where toys and video games come together in a very interesting new way. Check back later this week for a full post including video of the product in action.

Check out all of our pics from Toy Fair below and keep checking back this week for more from the show (including an appearance on this week’s podcast discussing it with Matt and Chris)!

Yesterday, we showed you some of the cool new movie toys from this year’s Toy Fair at New York City’s Jacob Javits Center. Diamond came in with lots of new and exciting movie properties, but some of their coolest new toys were for their existing DC and Marvel lines.

Among the new toys we got to see were some cool new Marvel MiniMates for the upcoming Iron Man 2 film, including a neat Whiplash, Justin Hammer, and Stark Drones. Marvel Selects announced a gigantic new Abomination figure, as well as The Thing and others, each heavy enough to be used as a murder weapon.

From DC and Diamond, we got to see some cool new statues from the DC Dynamics line, the first ever line of Vertigo busts, and some great statues form the upcoming Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths film. Also from DC, we got to see some great new “then and now” style figures, including the original Superman vs his current incarnation.

Check out the full gallery after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for more upcoming news and features from the wonderful world of toys!