Toy Fair 2019

Toy Fair 2019 kicked off in New York this past Saturday and runs through tomorrow though I think all of the big announcements have been made (actually I'm updating this article a little on the 19th as I missed a few video game related things). This is just a summary of some of the announcements made since I'm not actually in attendance. There are over 200 exhibitors at the show and I don't have time to research all of them so I'm going to primarily stick to Hasbro, Mattel, LEGO, Playmates Toys, and McFarlane Toys. Even then I still can't include everything as there is way too much! I'll provide images for some only if they are available on official company or press sites.

Hasbro continues to roll out new Transformers in a variety of lines, such as the War for Cybertron: Siege, Studio Series, and Cyberverse. The biggest Toy Fair reveal for kids of the '80s has to be Ectotron, an Autobot that tranforms into the Ghostbusters' Ecto-1 vehicle. Ectotron will be exclusive to Hasbro's online store and GameStop in the U.S. for $49.99. Another GameStop exclusive from Hasbro is a Power Rangers Lightning Goldar figure. Shadow Ranger was shown as well, a Power Rangers toy that's not exclusive to any specific store. There is plenty of Star Wars stuff that I will link to at StarWars.com which has a lot of images (might take a while to load that page). Other items coming from Hasbro include Fortnite-branded Nerf Blasters and Super Soakers, Overwatch action figures, L.O.L. Surprise Monopoly, The Lie Detector Game, Play-Doh Tootie the Ice Cream Maker, and My Little Pony Rainbow Tail Surprise Collection.

I'm having a harder time with Mattel as it doesn't have its announcements as well sorted as Hasbro. It has a bunch of photos on Facebook with no descriptions so I can say it will, of course, release new Barbies and Hot Wheels, plus toys based on Shazam, WWE, Detective Pikachu, and Harry Potter. There is also a relaunch of the Fisher-Price Rescue Heroes and a crossover with WWE Hot Wheels Monster Trucks.

LEGO will have a number of new toys based on its own properties in 2019, such as The LEGO Movie 2 and Ninjago. A new series will be LEGO Speed Champions which allows builders to create replicas of popular cars. Another new LEGO theme is called LEGO Hidden Side that will blend eight "haunted" building sets with augmented reality. This year will also see sets based on Spider-Man, Disney Junior Mickey & Minnie, Toy Story 4, Batman, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, Overwatch, and Minecraft, among others.

Playmates Toys announced a bunch of new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) items: Babble Heads (they talk), Deluxe Ninja Spin Turtles, and Giant Battle Shell Turtles (over 10"). Disney Aladdin Genie interactive figure, Super G Wingsuit figures, more Ben 10 action figures, and Pop Tops are coming from Playmates too. Pop Tops are some sort of transforming figures with licensed characters, such as TMNT, Marvel, and DC. I cannot locate any images for Playmates Toys, sorry! Instead here is a photo from Jakks Pacific; it signed a multi-year deal with Sega of America to make Sonic the Hedgehog products.

McFarlane Toys has quite a few figures based on video games upcoming, some brand new licenses it acquired and some continuations of its previous series': Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Fortnite, Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Cuphead, Five Nights at Freddy's, and Hello Neighbor. Other figures include those based on the film Labyrinth and popular anime, like My Hero Academia, Naruto, and One Punch Man.

Lastly, here are the 2018 award winners that were announced at Toy Fair:

• Action Figure of the Year: Mattel Jurassic World™ Dinosaur Action Figures by Mattel, Inc. 

• Collectible of the Year: LEGO® Harry Potter™ and Fantastic Beasts™ Minifigure Series by LEGO Systems, Inc. 

• Construction Toy of the Year: LEGO® Harry Potter™ Great Hall™ by LEGO Systems, Inc. 

• Creative Toy of the Year: Cool Maker KumiKreator by Spin Master 

• Doll of the Year: L.O.L. Surprise! Eye Spy Under Wraps by MGA Entertainment 

• Game of the Year: Disney Villainous™ Game by Wonder Forge by Ravensburger 

• Infant/Toddler Toy of the Year: Fisher-Price® Laugh & Learn® Smart Learning Home™ by Mattel, Inc. 

• Innovative Toy of the Year: Botley™ the Coding Robot Activity Set by Learning Resources 

• License of the Year: L.O.L. Surprise! by MGA Entertainment 

• Outdoor Toy of the Year: Glove-A-Bubbles by Zing 

• Playset Toy of the Year (tie): LEGO® Creator Expert Roller Coaster by LEGO Systems, Inc. and L.O.L. Surprise! House by MGA Entertainment

• Plush of the Year (tie): Scruff-A-Luvs by Moose Toys and Star Wars Ultimate Co-Pilot Chewie by Hasbro, Inc.

• Preschool Toy of the Year: Fisher-Price® Think & Learn Rocktopus™ by Mattel, Inc. 

• Rookie of the Year: Ollyball - The Ultimate Indoor Play Ball! by VICTURY Sports 

• Specialty Toy of the Year: LEGO® Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ Castle by LEGO Systems, Inc. 

• Tech Toy of the Year: Arcade1Up by Tastemakers LLC 

• Vehicle of the Year: PAW Patrol Ultimate Rescue Fire Truck by Spin Master & Nickelodeon 

[YouTube] WWF: LJN's Toys & Other Stuff

The World Wrestling Federation was a Saturday afternoon staple when I was a kid in the mid-'80s. If I recall correctly, wrestling came on the TV around 11 AM, maybe noon, after the morning cartoons came to an end. It was 60 minutes of wrestling mayhem featuring some larger than life characters, with good guys vs. bad guys (sometimes gals too!). It was a lot of fun during a time when nobody cared about being politically correct; the personas many of the wrestlers had tended to be rather colorful and over-the-top, which made them appealing to children of the '80s.

https://youtu.be/Sl0xKbY9bP4

LJN capitalized on the WWF's popularity with a line of toys beginning in 1984 and released six series, one each year, with the last one reaching Canadian stores only in 1989. The toys have some heft to them and aren't poseable at all so they aren't exactly action figures. On average I'd say they are around seven inches tall and weigh 10 ounces. They aren't the most exciting toys but they do make great display pieces. A wrestling ring playset was sold as well that had a cage match add-on sold separately. LJN also sold thumb wrestling toys in two-packs; each kid puts a thumb wrestler on, locks their fingers together with another kid, and has the toys battle each other.

 

Hulk Hogan rose to the top and became the face of the league during the height of the WWF's popularity. In 1985 Hogan had his own cartoon called Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling that featured many other wrestlers as well. That only lasted two seasons and used professional voice actors rather than the wrestlers themselves. Many wrestlers did get acting gigs though, some of those highlights include: Hulk Hogan was in Rocky III and his own TV show called Thunder in Paradise; Rowdy Roddy Piper starred in John Carpenter's They Live with Keith David; Andre the Giant is in The Princess Bride; Jesse "The Body" Ventura appears with Arnold Schwarzenegger in both Predator and The Running Man; and Captain Lou Albano was Nintendo's Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.

https://youtu.be/0b2_MwZa55M

I photographed and/or scanned the items in the video but not too many pages of the books aside from the postcards. For Hulkamania I did scan one of the pages where it appears Hogan is signing at a Toys "R" Us location and a couple pages from his team up with Mr. T that has Muhammad Ali as a referee.

 

Here is the postcard book where I did scan every page in order.

 

 

 

 

 

The last group includes a sticker album based on the aforementioned cartoon, 1986 calendar, Razor Ramon autograph, and The Wrestling Album.

Although I stopped following wrestling on TV around the late '80s, I did still play some of the wrestling video games in the '90s. I've not posted LJN's ads yet but you can see some WWF video game ads on the blog's Flickr account in these albums: Acclaim Entertainment and Acclaim (Multiple Brands). Here's a preview of LJN which should be posted in June:

By the way, you do need to turn up the volume for the videos (after the intro). I'm sorry about that as I didn't realize until after I had filmed both videos that the input for the recording device was lower than usual (forgot I decreased it for the 2-XL video). 

UPDATE June 14, 2021: I've been going through jigsaw puzzle this week and found two WWF puzzles so I'm adding them to this post in addition to a new post about puzzles. The Captain Lou puzzle is still sealed and while I built the other, it's missing a piece. I'm also posting the advertisement that was in the box that highlights a WWF board game and has some small pictures of two other puzzles.