Raving Toy Maniac

February 12, 2015 - Listed below are the toy (and child-related) recalls from this week; these links go to the official announcements on the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site.

- SRAM Recalls Zipp 88 Bicycle Wheel Hubs Due to Crash and Injury Hazards

- Marin Mountain Bikes Recalls Children's Bicycles Due to Fall Hazard; Handlebars Can Loosen

- Mima Recalls Moon 3-In-1 High Chairs Due to Fall and Impact Hazard

- Airplane and Butterfly Push Toys Recalled by LS Import Due to Choking Hazard

LEGO Systems Built Tenth Consecutive Year of Growth in U.S. Toy Market

NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2015 -- AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL TOY FAIR – LEGO Systems, Inc., the North American division of the world-renowned construction toy brand, achieved U.S. consumer sales growth for the tenth consecutive year in 2014. The company increased its overall U.S. toy market share to end 2014 in its strongest position ever in U.S. toys.

LEGO Systems' 2014 U.S. Year-End Highlights (Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service)

• LEGO® U.S. consumer sales grew +14% over 2013
• LEGO share of total U.S. toy market increased by almost a full point to 8.5%
• Increased LEGO sales in 4+ segment of U.S. Building Sets by +16%
• Grew LEGO sales in Junior segment of U.S. Building Sets +5% over 2013
• Continued robust double-digit growth in U.S. Girls Building Sets, with LEGO sales up +28% over 2013

As a privately-held company, LEGO Systems does not disclose internal market performance data and offers third-party data for directional purposes.

Highly-Anticipated LEGO® Minecraft Building Sets Bring All the Creativity and Adventure of Digital Gaming to Physical Play

Demand surges for six building sets based on the world's most popular game

NEW YORK, AMERICAN INTERNATIONALTOY FAIR (February 12, 2015) - Since its January 1, 2015 launch, a collection of six LEGO® Minecraft sets have been driving traffic into toy aisles at a time of year when toy sales are not as common. Demand is strong for the new building sets, which give physical form to the digital creative building opportunities of one of the most popular gaming franchises ever to capture the imagination and time of today's children, enabling digital landscapes to come to life in physical form. Each set creates a custom biome with role play opportunity, or can be combined with the others to create ongoing Minecraft adventures.

New LEGO Elves Building Sets Introduce Fantasy Adventure

NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2015 -- AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL TOY FAIR – LEGO Systems, Inc. today announced LEGO® Elves, a new play theme featuring a rich story-driven fantasy universe and intricate models that offers yet another build-and-play experience, particularly for older children interested in exploring fantasy worlds. The collection consists of eight building sets that begin to launch in March 2015.

LEGO Elves introduces builders to Emily, a girl who is unexpectedly transported to a fantasy world called Elvendale, where she encounters four magical elves who possess the power of the elements – fire, wind, air and earth. Only by working together can they find the four keys to unlock the portal so that Emily can return home. Digital content and publications will be released throughout the year to accompany the play theme to help builders become more immersed in the fantastic storyline and inspire hours of building and role play fun.

MYTHIC LEGIONS KICKSTARTER HITS 50% FUNDED!!

February 2015 - WOW!! THANK YOU!! We are absolutely STUNNED!! In just under 66 hours and with only 300 amazing backers, you guys have already pushed our Mythic Legions Kickstarter campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fourhorsemen/mythic-legions-action-...) past the 50% funded mark!! Our initial goal is $140,000.00 in pledges and at just before 2:30pm today we hit $70,000.00! We appreciate it SO much and we can't begin to thank all of you enough for the support. We're absolutely humbled by this. So do us a favor, and pat yourselves on the back, and come by to introduce yourselves if you see us at any of the upcoming conventions so you can get a big sweaty hug from Cornboy and a face to face thank you from the rest of us. We're still a long way from being fully funded but with your help we're going to do this thing and the legion hordes are going to assault toy shelves worldwide! THANKS AGAIN!!

-Jim, Eric & Cornboy-

February 11, 2015 - (Sponsor Announcement) - Online retailer BigBadToyStore.com has several items of interest to collectors:

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NEW PRE-ORDERS
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AVENGERS AGE OF ULTRON ARTFX STATUES
Kotobukiya's ArtFx+ Marvel Universe line up continues with Avengers Age of Ultron Hulkbuster Iron Man for $179.99 and Hulk for $64.99. These two statues come with special interlocking bases to create an exciting battle diorama!
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=age%20of%20ultron%...

FT-12 AND FT12T GRENADIER
The first of three exciting robots that turn into insects! The FT-12T Grenadier has a purple chest and the FT-12 has a gray chest; and both stand about 5.6" tall. Both figures feature a variety of die cast metal parts, two different chest covers, and two sets of legs/feet and are Early Bird Special priced at $74.99 through March 31st.
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search.aspx?search=grenadier

MYTHIC LEGIONS ARE STORMING THE CASTLE!!

February 2015 - The Four Horsemen's highly anticipated Mythic Legions Kickstarter campaign is LIVE and running right now! Just march your armies over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fourhorsemen/mythic-legions-action-... right now to check out the various pledge levels and all of the add-ons and please help spread the word!

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It's been almost a year to the date since we first debuted our Mythic Legions line at our 2014 Toypocalypse show, and a lot has changed in that year. The characters have changed, the number of characters sculpted has almost doubled, and after a year of debate amongst fans (and amongst us here at the studio too!) so has the line's scale. After a lot of thought, analysis, and consideration we are proud to officially announce that Mythic Legions is officially a 6" scaled line!

We know that there are going to be a lot of questions about the decision, so we wanted to touch on some of the reasons that we ultimately went in this direction:

POWER LORDS IN 2015!!

February 2015 - Big things are coming for Power Lords in 2015! Fans have been asking many questions about the status of Power Lords over recents month, and we wanted to answer questions and give a status report on where the line stands and what the future holds.

After a hugely successful first year of releases with Power Lords, we decided to take a breath and examine what fans have loved about the line, what could be improved upon, and how to do it in a way that works well with our business. Power Lords fans have been very passionate and supportive of the line, but the way that we've currently structured the line, we haven't been able to sustain their appetite for newly tooled figures. We want to complete this line as much as anybody, so we want to ensure that it's going to happen!

Here are some of the answers to the biggest questions:

The Power Lords Fan Club

FANtastic Exclusive is BACK!!

February 2015 - Four Horsemen Studios is thrilled to announce the return of FANtastic Exclusive! FANtasic Exclusive which ran from 2006-2009 was a process that put the critical decision making regarding action figure production into the fans' hands. Fans voted on everything from character to scale to articulation points. We had a great run with FANtastic Exclusive, but it became harder and harder to make the system work when production costs were skyrocketing. We've talked about bringing it back for years, and that time has finally come!

With our upcoming Mythic Legions Kickstarter, FANtastic Exclusive will make its official return, but in an all new incarnation. We've designed this round to specifically work with the Kickstarter format, and to move quickly in order to have a final character chosen before the end of the Kickstarter campaign!

The Fantastic Exclusive voting will all take place on the Sourcehorsemen.com forums, and it will launch alongside the Mythic Legions Kickstarter campaign.

Bif Bang Pow! Abides Again

Bif Bang Pow! and Universal Partnerships & Licensing
Give The Big Lebowski Fans Something New In Collectibles

LOS ANGELES, CA: February 10, 2015 - Bif Bang Pow! today announced it has renewed its agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing to produce an exciting new line of toys and collectibles inspired by The Big Lebowski.

The license provides for all-new 6 to 24-inch action figures, car accessories (license plate frames, sun shades, car flags), talking key chains, journals, tin totes, tin windup figures, and wooden nesting and kokeshi-style dolls.

The Dude's many fans can preview some of these all-new The Big Lebowski collectibles at the Bif Bang Pow! Toy Fair booth #4945 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, February 14-17, 2015. They will be available for purchase later in the year from Entertainment Earth - www.entertainmentearth.com.