Author Topic: Avatar toys by Mattel  (Read 11072 times)

Offline efranks

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Avatar toys by Mattel
« on: September 28, 2009, 05:46 PM »
I thought I'd start up a topic on these as they were just mentioned in the Star Trek thread and should be released pretty soon.  

I guess I missed the debut at Comic-Con this year, I hadn't paid any attention to anything but Star Wars and GI Joe, really.  

Anyway, it was mentioned in the ST thread that these were not compatible with GI Joe figures?  I asked about the scale over there but then found an article on Figures.com that said the basic figures and toys are 3.75."  So, any word on these, are they really not compatible with other 3.75" figures for some reason?

I guess I could see them not working with some of the newer Joe figures as they've crept up to 4", but what about O-ring Joes, Star Wars and other lines of that nature?  The Scorpion Gunship looks excellent and the ATV isn't bad.

Edit -> I found a post over on HissTank.com where some guys have these in hand.  They're saying the figures are more in scale with the DC Infinite Heroes figures which are smaller than the SW and Joe stuff (even O-ring).  Apparently the Scorpion Gunship cockpit doesn't fit any of the 3.75" figures we have.  That pretty much sucks.  The Scorpion Gunship is almost a no-brainer, but not if none of my other toys will work with it.

   E...
« Last Edit: September 28, 2009, 05:54 PM by efranks »
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Offline Brian

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2009, 01:13 PM »
I could definitely be wrong, but I just have a feeling that this movie isn't going to be nearly as huge as all the hype is saying it could be.  I mean, it looks kind of cool, and the movie itself has quite a backstory behind it with being worked on for such a long time - but I just don't know if it will be as revolutionary and "huge" as they think.  We'll see.  As far as the toy line, I just don't see it.  We've been discussing it elsewhere in this forum, but the movie lines just don't seem to work these days.  We've seen Joe, Star Trek, and Indy pretty much fail (although we may like the figures), and even TF struggled more this year.  The superhero/comic movie lines are really hit and miss, and aside from some good years of LOTR, Star Wars seems to be the only one that has the fanbase and staying power as far as movie-based lines go.  I don't see Avatar as any different.

Offline efranks

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2009, 01:37 PM »
I don't buy all the hype behind Avatar either.  Just from the few articles I've read about it, the plot seems well-worn and may not really cover any new ground.  The wow factor on this film is going to be the technolgy that Cameron helped design. 

The technology only gets you so far.

I'm interested in seeing the toys in person.  The aliens look fine.  The Marines wouldn't be bad if they were in scale with Joe figures but if they're smaller, that's kind of a waste. Plus the rumored price on these is even worse than the Joe and SW figures, and they apparently have little to no accessories.  The articulation looks good, though.  Mattel looks to have scaled down their 6" articulation to the 3.75" line.

I'm still sitting on a Sigma 6 Dragonhawk that I bought on deep discount.  I've always intended to follow some of the online posts to hack it into a 3.75" compatible ship but haven't yet.  So there's a good chance I'll end up buying this new Scorpion Gunship as well, especially if it's close to Joe size and only needs a few mods to make it work.

   E...
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Offline efranks

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2009, 07:58 PM »
The Avatar toys are out.  I've seen them at two TRU stores and one other store but I forget now if it was Target or WM (it was out of town).  The blue aliens look kind of cool, they're big enough you could probably make some SW aliens out of them if you wanted.

I did see some of the human characters but just glanced at them and forgot to go back and compare the size to SW or GI Joe, but they did seem smaller.

I've also seen several of the vehicles and creatures between two or three stores.  I'm not sure how well this line will do but they look well made.  The vehicles must all require assembly because the boxes are relatively large and oddly shaped, but thin.  Definitely not deep enough to have an assembled Scorpion Gunship in it, for example.  I'll have to go looking again for some in-hand photos of these.

   E...
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Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2009, 10:15 AM »
I've seen 'em at Target. No desire to pick them up, but someone better hope the kids will want to in a few months.
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Offline Jayson

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2009, 10:50 AM »
The Avatar figures remind me of the Nelvaanians from the 2-D Clone Wars Series.

« Last Edit: October 14, 2009, 10:50 AM by Jayson »
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Offline Jeff

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2009, 11:24 AM »
someone better hope the kids will want to in a few months.

Pfft.  If they are $9/$10 at TRU like I've heard, then they'll be rotting on the shelves until next April/May at least.

The Avatar figures remind me of the Nelvaanians from the 2-D Clone Wars Series.

Good call.  I wonder if the LFL legal crew have noticed that...  :D
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2009, 11:40 AM »
These have been at the TRU stores around here for about a week... well, the 6-7" scale has, along with vehicles.  They haven't put the 4" ones out yet.

Offline JediJman

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2009, 01:07 PM »
I saw these out on a store run last night.  Pretty lame looking figures.   :P  They might work okay for custom mixing with Star Wars, but not much value outside of that.
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Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2009, 10:37 AM »
They might work okay for custom mixing with Star Wars,

Good call. I'll have to look to see about head compatibility, then wait for clearance.
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2009, 04:05 PM »
After seeing these at Target, I think they look pretty good actually, seems like Mattel put more effort into these than Playmates did with the Trek and Terminator line.  Most of them look better than Joe figures too in fact, at least in my opinion.  The price tag is insane though.

Offline JediJman

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2009, 01:01 PM »
I saw the beasts, vehicles, and 6-inch line today and was more impreseed with all of those.  The Beasts would be an okay fit with SW if you wanted animal background fodder.  I am really digging the exo-suit as well - it's not that bad of a vehicle for $20.  The 6-inch line just had 4 of the blue guy and 2 of one soldier, so not much variety there.  They look like great matches for the Marvel Legends scale though.
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Offline JohnH

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2009, 12:36 AM »
These look really nice, but I just can't see a lot of people paying $9 a head for them.  Depending on how good the movie is I might pick some up if they get put on clearance or if there are some *really* good sales.  Otherwise I'll probably pass.

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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #13 on: October 17, 2009, 01:04 AM »
That's pretty much how I feel - great looking figures at a really high price.  But the vehicles and beasts seem to be at a great price... go figure. 

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Avatar toys by Mattel
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2009, 02:25 AM »
I'd kind of like the mech suit to do some kind of industrial suit/walker for Star Wars, via the Aliens movie mech suit thingie.
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