Holiday Gift Guide 2019: Toys & Collectibles, Part 1!
Welcome to the final installment of the 2019 Holiday Gift Guide. It’s been a long road to this point, filled with hundreds of geeky necessities from all edges of the world, of all shapes and sizes and dollar amounts.
Let’s take a look at the past installments before we begin this final category, shall we?
Now to the matter at hand. When I began this Gift Guide 15-ish years ago I was way more into toys. I don’t know if I toys have just become lamer (and overly expensive) or I’ve grown up a teensy tiny bit, but I’m not as interested in the average action figure style toy much these days.
As such this section tends to focus more on the higher end collectibles. Keep in mind that more than any other section this one will lean towards pre-orders because Hot Toys and the like have a habit of selling out half a year in advance. I’ve done my best to find as much that you can order in time for Christmas as humanly possible, just be aware you’ll be seeing a lot of pre-order items in both parts of this section.
Alright, ramblers, let’s get rambling!
Cheap ($24.99 and Under)
There are walls of Funko Pops everywhere. Target, Wal-Mart, every other store at the local mall, etc. There are so many to choose from that I could have done a section of the Guide just dedicated to these little plastic balls of nerdiness. That wasn’t in the cards, so I handpicked a few of my favorites. 2019 was when Funko finally put out their Jaws series. Pictured above is Bruce, the shark, but there’s also the three main characters: Quint ($8.72), Brody ($5.66) and Hooper ($8.66). If you’re really hardcore then you can also get the Convention exclusive Jaws Funko, which captures Quint’s demise, on the secondary market ($53.04). But most people just want the shark. I get that. For Bruce by himself, you get the head, the tail, the whole damned thing.
It’s appropriate that Funko decided to make their Zoltar Pop… well, Big. This 6” Pop gives us the most iconic bit of carnival weirdness to come out of the movie Big. It will never cease to make me smile when I see a Zoltar machine out in the wild. I’m old, so I guess if I was going to use it I’d try to make myself small and revisit the glory days of my childhood. Although that opens up some Monkey’s Paw/Honey, I Shrunk The Kids nonsense, doesn’t it?
You know those immaculately recreated vintage toy cars? I’m not a car guy so I never really gave a shit about them, but then they had to go ahead and make this beautiful 1957 Cadillac figure the way I know it best: as the car Freddy uses to capture the remaining Elm Street kids in the shock ending of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. They gave it the Freddy sweater top and included a little mini-Krueger to boot. How thoughtful.
McFarlane has a line of Game of Thrones dragons (because of course they do) and this one is Viserion. It’s a pretty massive toy, for this price. It comes with a stand so it looks like he’s flying, the fire breath and is very poseable. Wingspan measures 16.5 inches and it’s 9 inches long.
In order to keep everybody’s precious baby boy (?) a secret they held back on official merchandise. It’s not as easy as just saying “let’s do it” and then the next day there’s a plush or Funko Pop or what have you. There’s many levels of designing and sign-offs and partners to make it. So, we were all blindsided by The Child and the price is we have to wait a little bit for the good merch. Pre-orders are up for this 11” plush Baby Yoda, which could very well be 1:1 scale now that I think about it. It’s a better sculpt than the Funko figure, if I may be so bold. You got a little bit of a wait, but you can guarantee this little guy will be yours by pre-ordering now.
Pre-order, May 2020. $24.99
If you’ve even dabbled in the Star Wars toy market in recent years you know The Black Series is the top end of Star Wars toys. They typically have better sculpts and cooler, deeper cut characters. There’s a ton on the market, but what’s interesting about this one to me is that you can get it cheaper than at the store for some reason. The Jawas got some time in the sun in Episode 2 of The Mandalorian and as such get to have their own corner of the Black Series, which is pretty neat.
Moderate ($25.00-$70.99)
A little more expensive is this Mandalorian Black Series figure. Looks like Episode 1 Mando judging by his armor load out. You get his big ol’ disintegrator stick. No Baby Yoda, though. I’m sure that little sumbitch will be in the next wave, though.
Pre-order, shipping December 17th. $29.99
I can speak from personal experience that these Star Wars Lego advent calendars are a big hit with kids. I got one for my nephews a couple years back and they went apeshit over it. Each day there’s a new little Lego Star Wars thing to get. They’re small and sometimes super random, but kids love ‘em and they’re unique to this release. These things have a tendency to sell out. In fact between organizing the links for this entry to the Guide and writing this section it did sell out at Amazon. Target still has them for cheaper than the Amazon secondary market, so that’s the link below.
I told you at the very beginning of this thing that there’s a little something for everybody. Case in point, this James T. Kirk as a cat statue. It’s a real thing!
Pre-order, Q1 2020. $59.99
Also real is this Spock as a Cat statue. I like how this one has his paw up in the Vulcan salute. It would be illogical not to gift this to the nerdy cat lady co-worker.
Pre-order, Q1 2020. $39.99
Neca’s Evil Dead 2 double pack is really neat. I always though the Evil Ed deadite design was one of the coolest things in any of the Evil Dead movies. This twofer gets you Ash and Evil Ed as well as a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, like a Necronomicon, the laughing possessed deer head and the Kandarian dagger.
It’s a wonderful day in geekdom when we get to a point where we can get action figures of random yuppie aliens from John Carpenter’s They Live. You must obey the marketing and consume these rad Neca creations.
There was no cooler thing in this world to preteen Eric Vespe than the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It was just dark and gritty enough to feel adult compared to the cartoon and just silly and fun enough to give me everything I wanted from a Ninja Turtles movie. So of course this mutagen canister prop replica jumped out at me. Young me even loved the sequel, The Secret of the Ooze, so this is like a double whammy for me.
The Haunted Mansion is a keystone piece of pop culture for me, personally. I’ve been obsessed with the attraction since I was a very young man and make a point to visit it every time I’m at either Disneyland or Disneyworld. The ride celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and this is one of the coolest pieces of Park Merchandise you can get. Coming in a fancy box, each jar is said to hold the spirit of a specific Haunted Mansion ghost. The linked one here is for the Hatbox Ghost. It looks cool as is, but it also lights up and shows the outline of the Hatbox ghost at the press of a button. It’s very cool and for some reason it’s still half-off its usual price in the Disney store.
What’s creepier than a regular Jack-in-the-box? Well, one that has an evil clown inside it waiting to pop up at you like an asshole. This is an official It movie branded creation and they did a great job with it. Probably too good of a job. I’ve seen Poltergeist. I know it’s tempting fate to have any kind of clown toy in my house.
Expensive ($71.00-$249.99)
It’s hard to tell in a single picture, but this Necronomicon replica goes all out. Not only is there a painstakingly detailed cover they also filled the pages with the Kandarian incantations and illustrations that you see in the movie. Click the link and you’ll see what I mean. Just don’t recite the summoning incantations while chilling in the basement of your log cabin and you’ll be good.
Pre-order, shipping February 2020. $99.99
This is Iron Studios’ take on Jason Voorhees. It’s a 1/10th scale hand-painted statue, standing about 8” tall. It’s not the biggest item in this section, but should Toy Story be right the last thing you want is a large Jason Voorhees toy coming to life when you leave the room.
This should grab the attention of you John Wick fans. Chronicle has a set of John Wick metal coins. You get four Continental coins and one larger Blood Oath. And it really works, too. Once you make a blood oath with someone it’s binding. Better than a written contract, even. I read it on the internet, so you should be good to go.
The first of many Hot Toys in this section. It’s kind of a miracle that John Wick has become a franchise. That first film was so down and dirty and niche and now it’s a huge action franchise. That’s the power of Keanu Reeves. If you want a little bit of that power on your shelf you can get his visage there protecting you, your family and especially your dog.
I’m so-so on Rogue One. I know a lot of people love it and I’m very happy for them, but the reason this Hot Toys Director Krennic sixth-scale figure made it onto the list is because I think it would be cool as can be to have a Ben Mendelsohn figure. I love it when character actors do that one big genre role that means I can get toys of them. I remember once they put out Enter the Dragon toys and I pushed past Bruce Lee and grabbed the John Saxon toy. That’s just how I roll.
Pre-Order, December 2019. $235.00
Did I pick this Luke from The Last Jedi Hot Toys figure because I’m firmly in the “love it” camp for the movie? Yes, indeed. Did I pick it because it’s a hell of a sculpt? Absolutely. Did I pick it because I knew the Last Jedi hate squad who might peruse this would get an involuntary eye-twitch when they got to this part of the Guide? (Nods) That, too. Like with most Hot Toys you get some cool accessories with this one, including Han’s dice and a Crait base.
I’m old enough to remember the frenzy surrounding the release of the 1989 Batman. It was everywhere. It was a legitimate phenomenon and to this day any imagery from the Tim Burton Batman movie still takes me back to that time. That heavy black rubber look still screams Batman to me in a way that none of the more realistic takes on the suit have in the movies since. This is Iron Studio’s 1/10th scale take on the Michael Keaton Batman. Limited edition, hand-painted and all that jazz.
DC fans get mad at me a lot on Twitter, which is funny to me because I adore the early DC movies. The ‘78 Superman is still one of my favorite comic book movies ever made and still to this day is the gold standard take on the character. This beauty of a statue is limited, hand-painted, like the other Iron Studios offerings in the guide this year.
One of the coolest things in this section, this Diorama featuring the two runaway stars of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse: Spider-Ham and Noir Spider-Man. Now that’s a team up movie I want to see. Make it happen, Hollywood!
Pre-order, April-June 2020. $125.00
Can’t totally ignore modern DC flicks here. Wonder Woman was a refreshing entry to the DCEU and we can all agree that Gal Gadot has done a great job as the character. Even in the messy Justice League her portrayal of Wonder Woman stood out as quality. This Hot Toys Deluxe version of Wonder Woman has a lot of customization. You can have her with her sword or her lasso of truth, in her robe or in her battle outfit, etc.
This Lego Voltron is pretty legit. You don’t just build one big piece, you build five Voltron Lions that connect together to create the super robot. The finished Lego set stands over 15” high.
This Bradford Exchange Nostromo piece is really neat, although it’s not the full ship, right? This looks to me like it’s the escape ship Ripley takes at the end. But maybe I’m crazy. Either way, this is rad. It lights up green, too. And it has a little xenomorph at the base!
Another Bradford Exchange Alien piece, this one a Xenomorph specimen floating in a futurist jar. LED lights inside the jar light up the alien within. Stands 8” tall.
Thus ends Part 1 of the Toys & Collectibles section. Click here to visit Part 2!