With San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest gathering of geekdom in the world, fast approaching, fanboys and girls prepare for one of their favorite parts of any big convention: the exclusives. Action figures, variant covers, statues, t-shirts, keychains and all other random swag branded with fan’s favorite comic, movie and tv show characters can be found in the halls of the massive San Diego Convention Center.
With San Diego Comic-Con also being the premier event for new product and franchise announcements, information and promotion, it’s only fitting that every year, their exclusives keep getting better and better.
Here are just some of the ones we here at The Flickcast are looking forward to this year:
DC Direct Blackest Night Action Figures
Limited to 1500 pieces each, except for the Green Lantern version which will have 3000 units produced, and priced at $20 each, Blackest Night is kicked off in to full effect with Hal Jordan getting the color treatment from five of the eight Lantern Corps. After having seen Hal already don a blue ring in the build to blackest night, is it possible that this is a preview of what may come for our hero?
Did the vision Hal had where Sinestro said he needs Hal’s help mean this Sinestro Corp uniform could be in Hal’s future? Regardless, DC Direct puts out high quality figures that are fantastically sculpted and these look to be no exception.
Marvel Minimates
They are two inches tall, have fourteen points of articulation and they are more addictive than any drug to a true Marvel fan. These four packs will be retailing for $16 each and will feature some brand new characters never before produced in minimate form such as Norman Osborn, Penance and Ares.
The three sets are all team specific featuring the Champions (Angel, Hercules, Black Widow and Ghost Rider), The Thunderbolts (Venom, Norman Osborn, Radioactive Man and Penance) and The Dark Avengers (Ares, Sentry, Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye). Watch out though, these little guys can quickly take over your desk.
You start with one or two packs and quickly you aren’t able to find your keyboard anymore as it is swamped by tons of these miniature heroes and villains.
Mighty Muggs – Wolverine & Optimus Prime
As much as their summer blockbusters left something to be desired in terms of overall quality, it’s hard not to still love Logan and Optimus. It’s even a little easier without having an adimantium bullet or miniature Shia LaBeouf being packed in respectively.
And the fact that it is the classic Optimus (who never should have a mouth) alone makes the $14.99 price tag worth it for these exclusive Muggs which tower over any Minimate on the book shelf.
Transformers: 25th Anniversary Soundwave Special Edition
Speaking of Transformers, anyone over the age of twenty should remember Soundwave. He was the one that was a cassette player with four little cassette shaped mini Decepticons (Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Ratbat and Ravage) that he used to use as his cannon fodder during a battle.
Now a lot of the younger readers of the site may not remember this but years ago, before MP3 players and CD’s existed, people used to play their music using these things called cassettes that you couldn’t skip from track to track with a single button press and the tape would often get caught in the player and you’d have to fix it with a twirling a pencil. This Decepticon is a double throwback to the cartoon series that we all knew and loved growing up as well as the music technology that made our lives harder.
Exclusive Covers – Utopia #1 Sketch Variant, Dark X-Men Beginning #1 Sketch Variant, Absolution #0
Everyone likes to be able to show off to their friends the comics they were able to procure that no one else has and these Dark X-Men tie-in covers sure fit that bill. Limited to only 7,500 of each produced, these exclusive covers to Marvel’s biggest event of the summer are sure to go quick.
The same goes for Christos Gage’s upcoming Avatar release of Absolution. Issue #0’s are always great when building interest in a new series and a limited edition San Diego Comic Con Variant never hurts either.
These are just a few examples of the great exclusives that will be available this year at the San Diego Comic Con that we here at the Flickcast will be spending our money on. For a full list, check out the Comic-Con website.
San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 23 – 26. Be sure to check back right here at The Flickcast for all your Comic-Con news and informaton.
