Breaking: 6 inch ThunderCats Stactions on the Way!

And, we're one step closer to actual figures!

Press Release:

Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) announced today a partnership with leading collectibles manufacturer, Icon Heroes, to create products inspired by the classic animated series, Thundercats. This all-new line features prominent characters and environments from the beloved 1980’s animated television hit.

Under the terms of the new agreement, Icon Heroes will manufacture 6-inch and under scale statues, vehicle replicas, environments and dioramas all inspired by Thundercats. The statues will be branded as “Staction Figures” (Static Action Figures) and will be non-articulated standing atop a highly detailed environment base.

Each Staction Figure is scaled such that they can be displayed individually or alongside other 6-inch action figures and statues. The first Staction Figures scheduled for release are Lion-O, Jackal Man, and Jaga. Other products to be released include the Thunderclaw, Cat’s Lair, and many more.

“Thundercats is a classic cartoon property and Icon Heroes is the ideal partner to deliver an array of offerings befitting of these beloved characters,” said Karen McTier, Executive Vice President of Domestic Licensing and Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “Fans of the series will be thrilled to see not only the products available, but the painstaking detail with which they are created.”

“Icon Heroes is all about bringing popular characters to life and we very excited to be recreating some of our favorite 1980’s animated heroes,” added Patrick Wang, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Icon Heroes. “It is wonderful to be able to work with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and we can’t wait to offer fans our exciting and vast collection of Thundercats product lines.”

Icon Heroes’ products can soon be purchased directly through their store at www.iconheroes.com. More information can be found by visiting the Icon Heroes blog at blog.iconheroes.com.

Great news! It looks like with Thundercats is all or nothing! who would expect that after a dry spell of 25 years, now we have in less than a YEAR 3 different companies producing new items for our favourite cartoon! Can't wait to see as soon as possible the first pics coming out!:thumbsup:

It has my attention!! Can't wait for more info.

Manny, the link on the front page is wrong.

Just saw the TCL twitter update.. fantastic news Manny.

Now there are all types of collectibles for everyone :).

I am now trying to find some previous product photos from this company, nothing so far.

Just found out that they will have a SDCC exclusive Lion-O! Hell yeah!!! Will post this news on the front page and also fix the links as soon as I get home!

Chris here...

I'm stunned to find yet another company that WB have granted a license to - on the one hand it shows confidence in the salability of their brand, on the other hand I can't help but wonder if the collectibles market is suddenly becoming over-flooded with ThunderCats stuff. Not that this is a bad thing speaking as a fan, but just thinking about it with my "business hat" on. Still, I guess we'll find out! :)

Take care... :)

VERY interesting! I'm looking forward to how these will turn out, especially the vehicles and Cats Lair!!!

I'll be interested to see what these turn out like. Cost will definitely play a big factor in my decision to collect them, but for now, I'm optimistic!

Chris, you are very right to worry about the saturation, and Spideristic, I hate to really cut into what you said, but there still aren't collectibles for everybody. There's still NO action figures. Does this baffle anyone else besides me? By this I mean, WB granting the license to now a 3rd line of statues? Three statue lines. That is absolutely over-saturating the market. While this news is better than no news, and perhaps this will lead to an eventual figure line, I can't help but ask two questions on this

1.) Why a 3rd statue line? I mean call it a staction if you want, its still has no articulation, and thus is still a statue. I mean if the goal here is to get closer to a figure line, didn't we already take that step with Hard Heroes?

2.) Why on earth Icon Heroes? I checked their webpage and either they don't have their web presence setup yet, or they are a brand new company. I've never heard of them so maybe someone else can shed some light, but until that happens I'm assuming they are a brand new company.

I know Grizzlor has said in the past that the rights to the line are expensive, but that myth has to be busted here. Absolutely no way a startup company could afford the rights if it is as expensive as the rumors say.

On the positive side, it looks like on their website we have a verified WB contact that we can e-mail our desire to see an action figure line eventually come out of this:

Rita Cooper
Director, Worldwide Public Relations

Warner Bros. Consumer Products

(818) 954-3821
[email]rita.cooper@warnerbros.com[/email]

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to see WB finally coming out of the shell in regards to this property. Maybe this will lead to even more license grants (one of those I can only hope is to Shout! Factory for the DVD set that should have been), however its time WB quits with the baby steps and reveals a full fledged action figure line. Kudos to all of you statue/staction collectors though as this is great news for you.

I'm still holding out hope that an action figure SDCC reveal is still behind the curtains this year for the 25th anniversary of the line. Common sense would dictate that WB has to know they could capitalize big time on this.

Certainly we are starting to get overflowed with Thundercats! I thing there is a reason and purpose behind each of these newly products. WB is trying to run the gamut covering every fan's appetite out there.

HH's statues aim for the wider audience which is into pop culture and demands a good and honourable handling for Thundercats paying homage to their beloved 80's cartoon. The worldwide Thundercats fanbase leans toward this rendition.

PopCultureShock's massive statues due to the size and price predominately will be strictly limited to few hardcore fans who are willing to pay top dollars for top notch collectibles. This category is an exception and referes to a small number.

Icon's Heroes is an unknown company, probabbly debuting with Thundercats something which sounds risky but on the other hand it has many positive points for an ambitious fresh business wanting to establish itself in the antagonistic market. Keep in mind that these small sized staction figures will be most likely plastic or lower-quality statue sculptures and their price will be much less than HH.
An average fan who would like to own a memorabilia reminiscing his favourite show of his childhood, most likely will opt for a cheap and not so big item, Icon Heroe's Thundercats will be an ideal choice and that's why they will sell very well.

Grune_The_Destroyer said:

There's still NO action figures.

True, they are not action figures, but they are still accessible collectibles for those not willing to spend on statues costing nearly $200. The best part is they are not just doing non-articulated figures, but vehicle replicas, environments and dioramas.

Grune_The_Destroyer said:

I know Grizzlor has said in the past that the rights to the line are expensive, but that myth has to be busted here. Absolutely no way a startup company could afford the rights if it is as expensive as the rumors say.

You're kinda right about this, but maybe the statue license is more expensive than for plastic figures which will have mass production. Jerry from Pop Culture Shock has mentioned (on more than one occasion) that it was a expensive license to acquire.

"Lordore, post: 27080" said:

Keep in mind that these small sized staction figures will be most likely plastic or lower-quality statue sculptures and their price will be much less than HH. An average fan who would like to own a memorabilia reminiscing his favourite show of his childhood, most likely will opt for a cheap and not so big item, Icon Heroe's Thundercats will be an ideal choice and that's why they will sell very well.

Totally agree. And fans worried about action figures just need to wait a little longer, I am sure another better known company will get the license for that. But the market being saturated is definitely something WB should be thinking about and grant the license accordingly.

This is fantastic news!! I'm psyched! Finally an affordable (at least I'm assuming) figures for the 'Cats!

The statues are ridiculously priced. As much as I would love to have them I'm surprised the first outing in years was a $200 statue. Having these six inch stactions would better reflect how six inches action figures would do IMO.

There's a SDCC exclusive!? Man, I wish I was going! It looks like evil-bay will have it's way with me again. (getting the Orko and Adam will be rough too)

"Spideristic, post: 27084" said:

You're kinda right about this, but maybe the statue license is more expensive than for plastic figures which will have mass production. Jerry from Pop Culture Shock has mentioned (on more than one occasion) that it was a expensive license to acquire.

"Expensive" is relative though. A $40 filet mignon is going to be considered expensive to someone on a 5 figure salary. That same steak is not going to be considered expensive to a multimillionaire.

Similarly, what would be expensive to a small company like PCS, isn't going to be considered expensive to a toy giant like Mattel. So by putting the "expensive" myth to rest, I mean by all of these much much smaller (and in Icon Heroes case, almost completely unknown if not brand new) companies being able to afford the rights to it means that companies like Mattel would have no problem from a financial standpoint acquiring it if all other variables hold true. Basically, for an action figure standpoint, the argument of it being too expensive for these companies really doesn't hold any water now is what I'm getting at, so we can hopefully throw that out from coming up on these or any other boards as a reason for why it hasn't happened yet.

"Manny, post: 27075" said:

Just found out that they will have a SDCC exclusive Lion-O! Hell yeah!!! Will post this news on the front page and also fix the links as soon as I get home!

Manny can you be more specific? I'm guessing you mean they will have an SDCC exclusive prototype for display, not one for sale. Given that this news has just broke and we have seen no prototypes, I highly doubt they'll have anything available for sale at SDCC. At least w/ the Hard Hero reveal last year they only had the prototype at SDCC, nothing for sale if I recall correctly, so I'm assuming this to be the case here.

I think it sounds like they'll have a product to purchase for SDCC attendees, thats how I took it anyways.

Aw come on, can't we just be happy something is happening with the line. Everytime some news comes our way about something new that may be produced we criticize and critique and say what we brilliant thundercats fans think 'should' be happening instead.

And then the news is retracted and what was going to happen is shut down.

I, as many others I assume, am happy for this news and am eager to buy my $40 steak.

Manny can you be more specific? I'm guessing you mean they will have an SDCC exclusive prototype for display, not one for sale. Given that this news has just broke and we have seen no prototypes, I highly doubt they'll have anything available for sale at SDCC. At least w/ the Hard Hero reveal last year they only had the prototype at SDCC, nothing for sale if I recall correctly, so I'm assuming this to be the case here.

They will have an exclusive Lion-O staction on sale at SDCC. It does seem a bit quick to have something out in two months, but I'm not complaining :thumbsup:

Does anyone know if these rumors of Bandai obtaining the ThunderCats action figure license are true? (or updates?)

http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17150&start=15
Merged Post:

"Manny, post: 27097" said:

They will have an exclusive Lion-O staction on sale at SDCC. It does seem a bit quick to have something out in two months, but I'm not complaining :thumbsup:

Here's a bit more info:

http://youbentmywookie.com/news/ybmw-exclusive-thundercats-sdcc-exclusive-from-icon-heroes-8963

Wow i go away for a few weeks and now this, holy cow...what is this world coming to. Im excited!!!!

I am searching through the internet to find out and catch a glimpse of how these staction figures will finally look like, i wasn't aware until now of the NECA MOTU recent line. I think they measure a little bit taller reaching 7 inches and they come each one equipped with a different base and weapon accessories. They were released in 3 series covering the majority of the main characters, yet i can't say for sure if their aesthetic quality is great and does justice to the He-Man legacy, i don't know if anyone from this site owns some and can help us out passing judgement more accurately because it seems Thundercats will follow in their footsteps in style, height and appearance..

Some questions were raised, like why these so called mini-statues or stactions figures are being produced instead of the usual action figures since there are already two other popular companies making statues right now for Thundercats.Additionally, at first sight they resemble a lot to the normal action figures we are all used to with the only difference of having no or limited articulation points, at least for the motu NECA series..Thundercats might be much better.

The crucial question is what the near future has in store and how these brand-new merchandise pave the way for something larger we all crave for, of course i am talking about a new cartoon show.

Last but not least, taking into account the undisputed success of the 1985 toyline lasting even to this day we shouldn't forget and still pay respect by putting under the microscope whatever new Thundercats figures come out and the inevitable comparison between the original-legendary LJN line and new products is pretty reasonable. I wouldn't accept anything less in overall quality inferior than the first Thundercats products.I am saying this because nowadays there are many toys and figures which honestly pale in comparison with the old ones.. Statues belong to another category and have different standards as well as target groups.

One thing is certain 2010 is definitely the Thundercats year! Holy Jaga

http://www.necaonline.com/fh/

http://www.necaonline.com/licenses/detail/56

I don't own any of the NECA MOTU statues, but I like the design for some of those statues especially Trapjaw.

2010 being the 25th Anniversary of ThunderCats is starting out to be a great year for fans and collectors.