A few years back DC Direct produced two series of Justice League International action figures based on designs by Kevin Maguire, the original JLI artist. At the time the blueprints for these were printed in Action Figure Insider (AFI) where they would have languished if they had not been discovered and posted to the internet by Jeff Nocomski of Poytress of Solitude. Those designs have now acquired a second lease of life after they were reposted by the Comics Alliance. I’ve reposted them below and have grouped them into their separate waves.

Series 1 (2008)

The first series comprised Batman, G’Nort, Ice, and Black Canary.

Face Details

Batman/Canary

G'Nort

Ice

Turnarounds

Batman

Black Canary

G'Nort

Ice

Series 2 (2009)

The second series comprised the Martian Manhunter, Fire, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold.

Face Details

Beetle/Booster

Fire

Martian Manhunter

Turnarounds

Blue Beetle

Booster Gold

Fire

Martian Manhunter

Series 3 (unmade)

The blueprints show designs for Guy Gardner, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Fate. A drawn Rocket Red was shown on the figure card.

Face Details

Doctor Fate

Guy Gardner

Turnarounds

Captain Marvel

Doctor Fate

Guy Gardner

[Via: Comics Alliance]

4.25″ Twin Packs

6″ Separates

Picture Credit: Action Figure Pictures

News and photographs are filtering out of last weekend’s New York Toy Fair. The first announcement was the sad news that the 10-year old Justice League Unlimited line was being retired in favour of the new Young Justice line. Retailers are getting excited about Young Justice and unfortunately the JLU line just isn’t doing enough numbers for  Mattel any more. the Mattel’s own comments can be found on their Matte Collector website.

As bummed as we are that JLU is ending, we’re really excited about the premiere of the Young Justice™ line. You told us you liked the animated TV series and we know you’re gonna love the new figures based on the series! We premiered 4 new 4.25” figures, bringing the total shown to 8 out of the 12 you’ll need to build the awesome Collect & Connect™ diorama, The Hall of Justice™. We also revealed 4 more two-packs that include A-list characters and 3 of the all-new 6” figures sculpted by the Four Horseman. These figures come with incredible display stands and tons of accessories for unlimited display options.

The list of figures revealed at the New York Toy Fair from the Matte Collector site is shown below. Included in the prototypes are several figures that could be considered spoilers for future episodes.

DCU Young Justice™

DCU Young Justice™ Basic Figure Assortment

• Black Canary™
• Captain Atom™
• Superboy™
• Vandal Savage™

DCU Young Justice™ 2-Pack Assortment

• Aquaman™ & Aqualad™
• Batman™ & Robin™
• The Flash & Kid Flash™
• Ra’s Al Ghul™ & Cheshire™

DCU Young Justice 6″ Figure Assortment

• Aqualad™
• Artemis™
• Robin™

The inclusion of Ra’s Al Ghul and Vandal Savage would suggest that they are part of the mysterious Light. Not included in that list, but already announced are 4.25″ figures of Speedy and Icicle Jr . As previously announced there will be 12 4.25″ separates in the first year which will each containing a fragment of the Hall of Justice. So we now know 8 of the 12. The first wave will be Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, and Icicle Jr. Toy Fair has just announced Black Canary, Captain Atom, Superboy, and Vandal Savage which could make a second wave.

Photograph galleries of the Mattel display can be found at sites including Action Figure Pictures and  Toy New International. During AFi’s long (30 min) interview about JLU with Mattel’s Scott Neitlich it was mentioned that the very first Young Justice toy will be a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive (July) with the rest of the line launching in the fall – plenty of time for Christmas, but still quite a while off.

Unfortunately the first wave of Young Justice action figures weren’t released in time for this year’s Christmas. However, details of the 2011 line have been released.

• These are being produced by Mattel who has the license to do all non-DC Direct DC Comics action figures. This means that they have the opportunity to sync the figure scale with that of the earlier, and still produced, Justice League Unlimited (now Justice League Universe) toyline at 4.25″and the DC Universe line at 6″.
• There will be 12-figures in the first-year 4.25″ line. Each figure in the 4.25″ figures will include a piece of the Hall of Justice. This is part of something Mattel call “Collect-and-Connect” and creates a unified diorama to display your collection.
• The 6″ line will be hyper-articulated and will be sculpted by the Four Hoursmen to closely match the animation style of the cartoon show.
• The first wave will consist of Robin and Kid Flash plus Speedy and Icicle Jnr (characters from the opening movie). There will also be four twin-packs showing the sidekicks with their mentors (Batman and Robin, Aquaman and Aqualad, Flash and Kid Flash plus another to-be-announced pair). The 6″ line will include Robin, Aqualad, and Artemis.

[Via: Rumour Buster & AFI Forums]

I’m not normally interested in merchandise and action figures – ergo their usual absence from this blog – but that Starro set is really rather cool. Not only does the contents look fabulous, but there is also a special narration button that triggers short descriptions of the characters recorded by Batman: the Animated Series‘s Kevin Conroy.

Mattel is also rolling out products inspired by Young Justice, which will premiere on Cartoon Network during the 2010-2011 season. This all-new series is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and is based on characters from DC Comics. Featuring a team of teenage heroes, the show brings the popular comic to the small screen with favorites including Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis. Product offerings from Mattel include figures, playsets and other show-inspired lines.

There is a long tradition of producing exclusive comics or action figures for sale just at conventions. Mattel have just released details of their exclusive products for San Diego 2010 and there are a couple of Justice League related figures in there. The biggest one is an exclusive Starro figure – complete with Kevin Conroy recording. However, they’ve are also giving away free 6″ figure scale Starro face huggers that can be attached to your other DCU figures (an oddly inspired concept).

What is possibly surprising is that there are no SDCC exclusives for the old Justice League Unlimited line.

[Via: The Speed Force]

These are pictures of the DC Universe: Infinite Heroes – The Heart of Crisis variant of the Earth-One Supergirl. More specifically they’re of the dead Earth-One Supergirl from the cover of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #7.

Notice that even the blister pack has Superman holding Supergirl. Maybe they’ll do a Green Lantern variant that comes with a refrigerator.

Go see Toyotter’s blog post for a gallery of different views.