Back to attempt to finish the ToyFair coverage after a weekend in distant Allegany, in which I had the opportunity to throw a dishwasher off a ledge into a pile of other metallic garbage and thereby release the crashing sounds of robot demons waging war on each other. It was exhilarating.

Where was I? Well, let's take a quick look at the Master Replicas stuff before these week-old memories cloud in my brain. Walking around the tall, glass showcases of Master Replicas left me feeling a bit out of place, like a hobo at a wine tasting party, or a pet show, or anyplace besides sealed subway cars singing off-key songs to a captive audience in hopes of donated quarters. I felt as if All Nerd Review didn't belong around anything that was worth more than the combined value of our internal organs, so we didn't try to strike up a conversation. Still, the allure of Star Wars drew us in, and we snapped a few photos of the mighty AT-AT.

Then, we came to Stikfas, which are an old ANR favorite, as they were featured in one of our earlier reviews. Since those nascent days, Stikfas have taken on a large variety of ever-more-customizable forms, from ninjas to dragons, robots to spacemen, phantoms to horses... AND the prices have dropped from the universal 10 dollar package to smaller, blister carded varieties. The beautifully solid, high-grade plastic parts can be solidly combined into just about any character, with more recent releases seeming to have a non-discussed leaning towards making LOTR armies. The Stikfas booth had a handful of beautiful customs, painted and sculpted, which showcased exactly what these were made for - the possibility of creation. Skeleton army of crazy whacked-out death to start a successful non-ethnic pasta restaurant, here I come!

Displayed alongside the Stikfas were the Spacethings, vinyl-type figures with simplistic designs and a storyline. For some mysterious reason, their online shop is currently closed, but these neat little things are being test marketed at the moment and have not yet been released en masse. An accessory to them, if they see daylight, will be a large, inflatable spaceship, which is a pretty genuis way of making kitschy, clever, cheaply produced, supersized items for the vinyl scene. And the milk carton packaging? Totally, ridiculously hot stuff. From outer space.

Next came the Teddy Scares, which we'd seen last year, and who are always handy with a free t-shirt that wouldn't be appropriate to wear to work. The Teddy Scares are the Living Dead Dolls of the cuddly, plush world, feeding into that subculture which glorifies gore, celebrates death, and looks at you funny when you walk into Hot Topic for not having a pierced clavula. Their initial line of bears has achieved a cult following in the year since we'd last met them, and future plans include an expansion onto the original set, as well as re-releases of some of the bears in miniature, more affordable sizes. The Scares run the gamut from cyclops to axe murderer, with a fair share of exposed bone-and-muscle in between, and look out, there's even the dreaded Insomniac! That might not sound immediately scary to most of you, but most of you have never dated one.

First 4 Figures Ltd. / Puzzle Productions had a presence at the Fair also, and they had their beautiful Magic : The Gathering statues on display. We noted that these statues are not necessarily in their final forms, and still subject to approval and alterations, though they look very impressive as they are. Taking the same philosophy as NECA's Marvel Collectors Club, these statues will be produced at a very affordable price point, somewhere in the 40 dollar range. For the detail in these statues, much like some of the NECA statues, there's no question about if they're worth it or not. For a company that is just emerging into the mainstream, First 4 Figures chose some very challenging, dangerous images to bring into three dimensions, and judging by these, has flawlessly succeeded. I've not played M:TG in many years, not since I realized that among the only local kids who still played it, one had a very apparent third nipple and the others wrestled with each other a bit too much. These statues, though, confirm why I continued to collect select cards even years after letting the game go and trading some off for HeroClix - the art that Wizards of the Coast uses is beyond the top of the line when it comes to fantasy art.

Crossing paths with Diamond Comics, who have no interest in talking to you if you're not a distributor, we tried getting the address for the DC Direct / Diamond showroom. We'd been asking around for this info, since the girl at the info desk didn't know, and two different location directories in the toy buildings pointed to two different abandoned showrooms. We'd scoured the buildings for any sign of them, and finally finding where their satellite location was, we thought we had the answer. As it turns out, not even the Diamond rep was able to give up clear directions on how to locate the Diamond showroom with any success, so we were out of luck for the remainder of the con, and sadly, unable to capture the yearly DC freebies and images of the impressive lines of artist-based DC Direct lines which will be coming out this year. We DID manage to snap a few pictures of ToyBiz items that were supposed to have been totally under wraps until Wednesday. Of course, our advance photos make little difference one week later, but a one-man army can only advance so quickly.

I'll show the photos, but we didn't really get any info on these items whatsoever. I'd be intereted in knowing what these blister carded JLU mini-bust looking things are. Banks? Busts? Edible statuary in three delicious flavors?

Diamond had the first PVC figures from the much anticipated Mirrormask movie. Anyone who knows me knows that I have an extensive Dave McKean fetish - rare prints and first editions, about 12 copies of his signature on various items, and even the album on which he sings, so I was thrilled and dubious that they could make anything so dynamic and dreamlike as his artwork into a three dimension figural thing. The results, shown in the last two photos above, are fair, but I suppose that I'll have to wait and see the movie to make a comparison between the real thing and these relatively clumsy figures.

Next, the Shockinis, from Shocker Toys. After suffering ridicule and a long, difficult and amazingly tenacious climb to legitimacy, Shocker Toys has made good on their Shockini. Thankfully, the Shoulder Action Figure / punch-in-the-kidney-magnet idea that launched the company seems to have dissolved into the waves of distant memory. Geoff Beckett's ideas of contributing another customizable mini-figure, a la Stikfas, into the mainstream have been met with success, as many well-known customizers and personalities have lent their hand to the Shocker Toys display. I have a fistful of these lying around, begging for customization.