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AIC NEWS: Week of May 19th, 2025
225 Plays1 month ago
Welcome to AICNN (Adventures in Collecting News Network) where toy news matters! This is your AIC NEWS brief. Give us a few minutes, and we'll give you the goods.
This week the AICNN anchors highlight what you need to know for the week of May 19th, 2025!
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
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Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to AIC News and Toy Updates
00:00:03
Speaker
AICNN, where toy news matters. i cnn where toy
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to AIC News. Give us a few minutes and we'll give you the goods. Let's get you caught up on all the toy news you need to know as we head into a fresh week. First up from our friends at Hasbro, they revealed the digital render of the upcoming Marvel Legends Shanna the She-Devil.
00:00:30
Speaker
No pre-order or availability window has been made at this time, but based on the render, I think everyone will be really happy with this much needed refresh of a long requested character.
New Toy Releases and Pre-orders
00:00:42
Speaker
and another one we can mark off of the uh marvel legends march madness list for next year switching over to medicom toy their moff x star wars celebration chrome mandalorian and han and luke and stormtrooper disguise are up for pre-order on big bad toy store these come along with re-releases of the batman and superman from the dark knight returns Moving over to Funko, the first wave of Fantastic Four First Steps Funko Pops are also up for pre-order at Big Bad Toy Store.
00:01:14
Speaker
This includes Galactus, Silver Surfer, and the first family themselves, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and The Thing. This gives us our first official look at Galactus as well.
00:01:28
Speaker
The costume looks to be fairly comic book accurate. So again, something I think a lot of people will be happy about. Headed over to the world of McFarlane toys, they dropped two new releases for pre-order, both of which we saw back at New York Toy Fair and can confirm in person they look amazing.
00:01:45
Speaker
It is the elite Doom Slayer and ah from Spawn the Dark Ages, Blood Axe with the horse. Two highlights from the booth tour, to be honest, and and like I said, both figures look incredible.
00:01:58
Speaker
They are both available for pre-order over on Amazon, Big Bad Toy Store, Entertainment Earth, or wherever you find your McFarlane pre-orders. Headed over to the world of wrestling, Figures Toy Company made their modern ref wearing a ah a a very familiar looking gray and black referee shirt, as well as their fan figures available.
00:02:22
Speaker
So these fan figures are perfect for your world building, for your display, for your photography. ah They fit into the stands in your in your displays and and photography and include a bunch of different looks, figures with face paint, children, men, women, a little bit of everything.
00:02:41
Speaker
ah These are all available through Figures Toy Company or their Amazon store.
00:02:48
Speaker
NECA's Mask of the Red Death Phantom of the Opera is up for pre-order at Big Bad Toy Store for $40. This ah iconic alternate look of the the Universal Monsters Phantom of the Opera ah ships in September, and again, ah iconic from the original Universal Monsters film.
00:03:09
Speaker
Sticking with NECA, last week was the final Hall-a-thon drop featuring Sesame Street's The Count, Dark Leo, and the Foot Elite Assassin.
00:03:21
Speaker
Those are available exclusively at Target, of course, and you can find them through the collector's spot or keep an eye out for them at your ah local Target.
Toy Industry Updates and Challenges
00:03:32
Speaker
If you're outside of the U.S., s of course, visit Hall-a-thon.com to secure your order. and Now, if if I could, just a ah quick word on ah the recent shakeups and layoffs happening around the toy industry.
00:03:45
Speaker
While some of these are directly related to the ongoing tariff situation here in the United States, i those, of course, being Super 7, and then the others being Diamond Select toys and you know their acquisition, i it's just it's sad to see.
00:04:04
Speaker
um It's never easy to watch your friends and and people that... you know mean something to you, lose their jobs. mean, that's just facts. It's ah it' ah it's a black and white thing. It's it's never never easy to watch that.
00:04:17
Speaker
um Our thoughts are with all of those individuals, artists, designers, sculptors, marketers um that have found themselves on the outside looking in.
00:04:28
Speaker
Our message to them is ah stay strong. You're all super talented. You're all extremely, extremely talented individuals. And we know that you will land on your feet.
00:04:43
Speaker
and um that your talents will speak for themselves and and you will you will be designing and and moving forward i hopefully sooner rather than later. And and wherever you do end up, will be we'll be lucky to have you.
Support and Conclusion
00:04:59
Speaker
So on behalf of myself and Dave and the rest of the community to which you have ah served and you've made these amazing products for, um chin up and we cannot wait to see what you do next.
00:05:12
Speaker
For all of the pre-orders listed today, please visit AICpodcast.com forward slash links. And you can find links to all of the things that we just mentioned. And ah until next time, this has been your AIC News Update.
00:05:42
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablaui. This program and many others like it on the Non-Productive Network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.